[The Peninsula] The Taliban yesterday vowed to target Afghanistan's presidential election, urging fighters to attack polling staff, voters and security forces before the April 5 vote to choose a successor to Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... .
Previous Afghan elections have been badly-marred by violence, with at least 31 civilians and 26 soldiers and police potted on polling day alone in 2009, as the Islamist gunnies displayed their opposition to the US-backed polls.
Another blood-stained election would damage claims by international donors that the expensive military and civilian intervention in Afghanistan since 2001 has made progress in establishing a functioning state system.
NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... combat troops are withdrawing from the country after 13 years of fighting a fierce Islamist insurgency, which erupted when the Taliban were ousted from power after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
"We have given orders to all our mujahideen to use all force at their disposal to disrupt these upcoming sham elections -- to target all workers, activists, callers, security apparatus and offices," the Taliban said in an emailed statement.
"It is the religious obligation of every Afghan to fulfil their duty by foiling the latest plot of the invaders that is guised in the garb of elections."
Billions of dollars have been spent on military operations and development in Afghanistan, but the country remains crippled by poverty and violence, with weak government structures and a fragile economy dependent on aid money.
The next president will face a testing new era as the Afghan army and police fight the Taliban without NATO assistance and international funding declines.
Efforts to open peace talks with the Taliban have so far failed. Negotiations look set for another push by the incoming government as it tries to bring stability to areas in the south and east where gunnies hold sway.
The Taliban's statement yesterday is the first explicit threat against this year's vote.
The group has targeted every election since 2004. Among the front-runners are Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... , who came second in 2009, former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul ... former foreign minister and a very close confidant of Hamid Karzai. Before serving as foreign minister Rassoul also spent seven years laboring as a national security adviser to the president. An ethnic Pashtun born in Kabul, Rassoul was the valedictorian of his class at the illustrious Franco-American school in Kabul, Lycee Istiqal. He has an MD from the Paris Medical School in France..... and former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:18 ||
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They plan to stand between the genocidaires and their victims, arms akimbo, shouting, "Stop!" because everyone obeys U.N. investigators.
[An Nahar] U.N. Sherlocks left for the Central African Republic Monday to launch a probe into human right violations in the conflict-ravaged country amid fears of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
The three international Sherlocks will spend two weeks traveling the country, in the throes of bloody Mohammedan-Christian festivities, speaking to victims, witnesses, and the main actors in the conflict.
They expect to draw up a list of suspected perpetrators that could be used for possible future prosecution, possibly by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... , which is conducting a parallel probe.
"We have to put an end to the impunity," said Bernard Acho Muna, head of an international commission of inquiry appointed by U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... in January.
Speaking to news hounds in Geneva before leaving for Bangui, the Cameroon Supreme Court lawyer and former deputy chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said he hoped his mission could help ward off a feared genocide.
"We are hoping that our presence and the investigations we are doing will be a signal (that will prevent) the people who are making this hate propaganda (from moving) to action," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:39 ||
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Top|| File under: Seleka
[An Nahar] Qatar defended its independent foreign policy Monday after Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and two other Gulf countries recalled their envoys from Doha accusing it of meddling in their internal affairs.
"Our policy is based on openness towards all, and we do not want to exclude anyone," Foreign Minister Khalid al-Attiya said during a visit to Gay Paree, in remarks aired by Doha-based Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... television.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors last week in a move widely seen as signaling their anger at Qatar's support for the Moslem Brüderbund of deposed Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... .
Saudi Arabia and other conservative Gulf countries welcomed the military's overthrow of Morsi last July and pledged billions of dollars in aid while Qatar, which had strongly supported him, has seen its influence in Cairo evaporate.
Doha said it "regretted" the decision to recall the envoys, which it said was based on differences concerning regional issues.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies have long been hostile towards Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund and its affiliates across the region, fearing that its brand of grass-roots activism and political Islam could undermine their authority.
The Brotherhood is widely banned in the Gulf, and the UAE has sentenced scores of alleged members to jail, while Qatar has served as a refuge for Brotherhood sympathizers from other countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:43 ||
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Durango state Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) or attorney general Sonia Yadira de la Garza Fragoso told the press Monday that the number of lawyers missing in Durango was only 10, not 100 to 120, according to news reports.
A news report which appeared in Milenio news daily said that de la Garza Fragoso admitted to the press that while 120 incidents or reports have been received concerning missing lawyers, some of them are minor incidents such as accident investigations, and that the number of actual cases of missing lawyers is 10.
Fiscalia de la Garza Fragoso's denied a report by Durango state Barra de Abogados or bar association president Martha Alicia Gurrola of the number of missing lawyers was as many as 120.
According to a separate news account in Milenio, Señora Alicia Gurrola said that them number of dead or missing was rumored to be as many as 120, but also said that the numbers she had were unclear.
Many of the 10 missing are those who went missing over the previous four years, well before de la Garza Fragoso's term which began in mid 2011. Her term began as the mass graves in Durango, most of them in Durango city began to be uncovered. The final toll of the exhumations was 330. Many of those dead were in other places in Durango state as well as far away at the Durango side of La Laguna, and some of the dead were reported missing as far back as 2007, when Felipe Calderon began his war on the drug cartels..
The news report said that most of the 10 missing lawyers could be amongst the 330 found in Durango in 2011-2012.
Señora Alicia Gurrola lamented in a third Milenio article which was published last Saturday that de la Garza Fragoso had not met with the Barra de Abogados in six months to provide help in security.
The most famous case of a lawyer disappearing in Durango took place in late 2011, when de la Garza Fragoso's predecessor, Ramiro Ortiz Aguirre was kidnapped and murdered in Durango city in March of 2012. At a presentation with the Durango state Chamber of Deputies at the time, de la Garza Fragoso admitted pulling state paid Ortiz Aguirre's security detail only hours before the murder.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
There are "serious concerns" among some North Korean officials that North Korea could turn into a vassal state of China amid growing economic dependence on its sole ally, a defector said Monday.
Kim Chong-song, who under his real name used to be a senior member of the Workers Party, is the highest-ranking North Korean defector living in the South and spoke to media here for the first time.
"Without Chinese capital and goods, it would be impossible for the North Korean government to operate, and ordinary people would not be able to carry on with their daily lives," Kim said. "North Korea grew so dependent on China in the 20 years of Kim Jong-il's rule that it's now impossible to construct buildings, grow farm produce, or sustain the regime without imports of Chinese materials, fertilizer and pesticides."
Demonstrates most clearly that North Korea is indeed China's lap dog, and that the Norks do little of consequence without China knowing and approving of it.
Kim said North Korean officials are aware of problems like mounting trade deficits and loss of capital, but there is no alternative. The North is handing over mining rights and licenses to develop special economic zones to China, but at the same time the regime "doesn't trust China.
Sucks to be a failed state...
Kim recalled that nation founder Kim Il-sung, who signed a friendship treaty with China in 1961, warned North Koreans not to trust the Chinese. "This is why North Korea is unwilling to give up its nuclear weapons despite pressure from China."
North Koreans living in the border regions are so difficult to control that Kim Jong-il once asked whether they were part of North Korea at all. "If the central government issues orders, officials in the provinces just file false reports to maintain their privileges, which has become a chronic problem," Kim said. "Kim Jong-un basically just rules over Pyongyang, and even the Norths second city of Hamhung is a different world."
Kim said high-ranking officials live in constant fear of being purged. "Once in power, North Korean officials try to stash away as much wealth as possible and then resign quietly citing family matters or health problems," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Yuuuppp.
Lest we fergit, the topic or subject of China formally annexing NOKOR was brought up for discussion in recent CPC annual plenums.
Luckily for "Pudgy", Beijing's focii remains rapprochement wid the US-Allies includ SOKOR + JAPAN, national econ modernization, + above all China's formal + permament reunification wid Taiwan.
I will say again that China is unlikely to agree to any inter-Korean Reunification unless it de fact gets back sovereign control of Taiwan, I.E. ITS VERSION OF "PEARL HARBOR NB/HAWAII" FOR PLA STRATEGIC ACCESS INTO WESTPAC, SOPAC + ULTIMATELY EASTPAC - EVEN IFF IT DOES, CHINA WILL LIKELY DEMAND CERTAIN PRO-CHINA SECURITY "CONDITIONS/
GUARANTEES" BE MET FIRST BY SOKOR + US-ALLIES.
Pudgy's troubles vee keeping Beijing at bay runs parallel to anything else going on in East Asia ala China-vs-JAPAN andor China-vs-PHIL, VIETNAM, INDIA, etc.
Iff Pudgy ever believes that Beijing will formally takeover NOKOR, HE MAY DO EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO UNILATER INITIATE A MAJOR US-CHINA WAR(S), INCLUDING NUCLEAR, IN NE + EAST ASIA.
[DAWN] Federal Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said the media coverage of the turban forces should be proportionate to their following in the country and such elements should be downplayed.
Speaking at a marketing moot here on Monday, he said: "As turban forces have only one per cent representation in the country, the media should give them only one per cent from their total airtime and allocate the rest of time for highlighting positive image of the country."
The minister believed if the media boycotted the turbans, people would witness a visibly good change in the country in the next six months.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:55 ||
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[DAWN] The Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) on Monday agreed to partake in the dialogue being held between the government and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and has named Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... MNA Gulzar Khan as its representative in the government committee, DawnNews reported.
The government had virtually dissolved a committee formed last month when its members recommended the formation of a fully empowered team comprising the interior minister, officials of the army and ISI and the governor and chief minister of KP for direct talks with TTP.
PTI chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... has been a staunch supporter of dialogue and has consistently said that a military operation against Taliban is not a solution to the problem.
The PML-N had reportedly been approaching PTI to agree to the inclusion of KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in the government committee for holding direct talks with the Taliban leadership.
Well-informed sources had told Dawn on Sunday that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had been in constant touch with Khan and had met him several times in recent days at the Parliament House and at his Islamabad residence.
A source in the PTI had also confirmed the meetings and said the interior minister had requested Khan to let Khattak join the government committee.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:53 ||
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[DAWN] Taliban and al Qaeda snuffies have planned an liquidation attempt on former president Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... , the Interior Ministry said in a letter Monday, prompting media speculation that the former military ruler may not appear in court on Tuesday.
In the letter sent to the Home Secretary Punjab, the Islamabad police chief, the chief commissioner and other officials, the Interior Ministry warns that snuffies affiliated with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and Al Qaeda have planned to target General (R) Pervez Musharaf in the near future.
According to the letter, a copy of which is available with DawnNews, the ministry warns that the attackers have planned to assassinate Musharraf inside or outside the court. The ministry advises extreme vigilance and fool-proof security measures be taken to avoid any untoward incident.
Media reports on Monday quoted Musharraf's lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri as saying that his client would not appear before the special court on Tuesday until he is provided fool-proof security.
The former military's chief's lawyers have previously warned the court that snuffies have been planning to kill judges and Musharraf's lawyers
"I have received some information that snuffies are planning to assassinate the honourable judges (of the Special Court), two defence lawyers and a prosecutor," Musharraf's lawyer Rana Ijaz told the court last week.
The special court set up to try the retired military general for treason has summoned him on March 11 for indictment. The court has previously rejected a request by Musharraf's lawyers to postpone the hearing.
The interior ministry's letter comes less than a week after a bloody gun and kaboom on the district courts in Islamabad left 11 people, including a district and sessions judge, dead and 29 injured.
The attack last Tuesday was the first time a judge was killed in a terrorist rampage inside a Pak courtroom.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:52 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
fool-proof security measures
yeah. In Pakland. About that.....bye, Perv
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2014 12:48 Comments ||
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[The Peninsula] ISLAMABAD: The federal government of Pakistain is quietly pushing for peace deals with individual Death Eater groups after some members of its peace committee have concluded that reaching an 'all inclusive agreement' with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) may not be possible.
At least two members of the committee, who wished not to be named, said that they expect the government to reach an understanding only with parts of TTP.
"Realistically speaking, it is not possible to strike a peace deal with all groups working under the TTP umbrella," said a member.
He pointed out that the government was in the process of identifying groups which are willing to reconcile.
"The government is using backdoor channels to contact such groups," said another member.
Efforts to reach out to 'reconcilable elements' within the TTP stem from the realisation on the part of the government that the Death Eater group does not exercise full control on all its affiliated outfits.
"Recent terrorist incidents clearly indicate that TTP may only have loose control on these groups," said the committee member. "Had all the groups been listening to TTP these terrorist attacks would have never have taken place after the ceasefire," he added. There is also growing concern within the country's security establishment that the TTP is only 'buying time' and may not be interested in a peace deal.
A senior military official insisted that the Taliban should have condemned attacks in Islamabad's district courts complex and Khyber Agency instead of merely denying its involvement in its statement.
That is why the army is reluctant about joining the peace committee," he added. Top military commanders on Friday decided not to become part of the government's new proposed committee to hold direct talks with the TTP and its affiliates.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... the committee member maintained that the army might take part in the process if it realised that a deal could be reached with certain groups.
At the same time, he did not rule out the possibility of a full-scale military offensive against elements which might not enter into the peace deal. Analysts, meanwhile, say time is running out for the government to take a final decision.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:18 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... on Monday slammed as "aggressive and irresponsible" accusations by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party.... that the kingdom was supporting global terrorism.
"The kingdom condemns the aggressive and irresponsible statements made by the Iraqi prime minister," an unidentified official told the SPA state news agency.
In an interview aired on Saturday, Maliki charged that Saudi Arabia and neighboring Qatar were supporting bully boy groups in Iraq and across the Middle East as well as terrorism worldwide.
"Nouri al-Maliki knows very well, more than anyone else, the clear and categoric position of the kingdom against terrorism... and is aware of the kingdom's efforts to combat this phenomenon locally and globally," the official said.
"Instead of making haphazard accusations, the Iraqi prime minister should take measures to end the chaos and violence that swamp Iraq."
The Saudi official accused Maliki's Shiite-led government of sectarian policies towards sections of the Iraqi population, an apparent reference to the disgruntled Sunni Arab minority.
The official said the violence convulsing Iraq was taking place "clearly with the blessing and support of the sectarian and exclusionary policies of his government."
"It is clear that those statements are aimed at turning the facts on their head, and blaming others for the domestic failures of the Iraqi prime minister."
In an apparent allusion to Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia's Shiite rival Iran, the official said that Maliki's failings had "subordinated Iraq to regional parties who have contributed to sectarian violence unprecedented in Iraq's history."
Maliki's alleged failings have also "endangered Iraq's territorial and national unity," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:36 ||
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Saudi Arabia has rejected accusations by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Riyadh are funding Sunni fighters his troops are battling in Iraq's western Anbar province, Aljazeera reported.
"The kingdom condemns the aggressive and irresponsible statements made by the Iraqi prime minister," an unidentified official told the Saudi Press Agency on Monday.
I mean, whoever heard of Saudi nationals going to other countries to commit acts of murder and terrorism?
In an interview aired on Saturday, al-Maliki charged Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Qatar were supporting armed groups not only in Iraq but across the Middle East as well as terrorism worldwide.
"Nouri al-Maliki knows very well, more than anyone else, the clear and categorical position of the kingdom against terrorism... and is aware of the kingdom's efforts to combat this phenomenon locally and globally," AFP news agency quoted the official as saying.
Iraqi forces have been battling fighters of the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Anbar's two main cities since January 1. ISIL overran Falluja and parts of Ramadi after a tribal revolt provoked by the arrest of a Sunni legislator and the clearing of an anti-government protest camp.
The official said the violence convulsing Iraq was taking place "clearly with the blessing and support of the sectarian and exclusionary policies of his government."
"It is clear that the purpose of these remarks is to try and twist the facts and place the blame on others to cover up the Iraqi prime minister's shortcomings internally that have put Iraq at the service of regional factions who have stoked the fire of sectarian strife," the Saudi source told SPA.
Could be that both sides are right on this one...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[Jihad Watch] Baghdad (AFP) -- Saudi Arabia and Qatar are supporting militant groups in Iraq and have effectively declared war on the country, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said as nationwide violence left 15 dead Saturday.
The rare direct attack on the Sunni Gulf powers, with Maliki also accusing Riyadh of supporting global terrorism, comes with Iraq embroiled in its worst prolonged period of bloodshed since 2008, with more than 1,800 people killed already this year, ahead of parliamentary elections due next month.
The bloodletting in Iraq, which shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, has been driven principally by widespread discontent among the country's Sunni Arab minority and by the civil war in neighbouring Syria. No mention made of Iranian disturbers.
Maliki, a Shiite, has in the past blamed unnamed regional countries and neighbours for destabilising Iraq.
But in an interview with France 24 broadcast on Saturday, the Iraqi premier said allegations he was marginalising Sunnis were being pushed by "sectarians with ties to foreign agendas, with Saudi and Qatari incitement".
Referring to the two countries, he said: "They are attacking Iraq, through Syria and in a direct way, and they announced war on Iraq, as they announced it on Syria, and unfortunately it is on a sectarian and political basis." Yet another war without end.
[An Nahar] The Gazoo Strip's two principal krazed killer groups, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , have already shown they are able to strike Israeli population centers as far away as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Ashkelon. anyway. But what's a little geography between friends?
But their capabilities could have been extended significantly, Israel claims, had it not intercepted a ship carrying weapons it says were on their way from Iran to Gazoo.
The M-302 rockets found aboard the Klos-C have a range of up to 160 kilometers (100 miles), according to Israel's military, and could therefore have struck anywhere in the Jewish state when fired from Gazoo.
During the last major war in November 2012 between Israel and Hamas, which governs the besieged Paleostinian territory, the Islamist movement fired M75 rockets, which have a range of 75 kilometers, that hit the areas around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Islamic Jihad at the same time fired Iranian Fajr-5 rockets, which have a similar range.
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, Mohammad Ali Jafari, has denied that Iran sent Fajr-5 rockets directly to the Strip, saying instead that Hamas and Islamic Jihad possessed the expertise to manufacture them inside Gazoo.
It is unclear what type and how many rockets Gazoo-based groups currently possess.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have also manufactured other 200mm rockets, which have a range of 80 kilometers.
The more crude Qassam rocket that some bully boyz in the Strip possess has a range of four to 15 kilometers.
None of the rockets have a guidance system, making accurate strikes difficult.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:35 ||
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#1
Break out the Juice's Can of Whoop-Ass!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2014 12:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Firing" and "Hitting" are two different things.
They can "Fire", all they want.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2014 16:22 Comments ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Several of the missing Malaysian plane passengers' mobile phones were connecting when called by their relatives but the calls were not picked up, family members claimed.
The sister of one of the Chinese passengers among the 239 people on board the vanished flight rang his phone live on TV, the Mirror reports.
"This morning, around 11:40am, I called my older brother's number twice, and I got the ringing tone," said Bian Liangwei, sister of one of the passengers.
At 2pm, Bian called again and heard it ringing once more.
"If I could get through, the police could locate the position, and there's a chance he could still be alive."
She has passed on the number to Malaysia Airlines and the Chinese police.
A man from Beijing also called his missing brother on the plane, and reported to the airlines that the phone connected three times and rang before appearing to hang up, according to Shanghai Daily.
Media reports claim that the brother had called the number in the presence of news hounds before informing the airline.
The Strait Times reported that many of the family members told MAS commercial director Hugh Dunleavy that the commuters' mobile phones were ringing but they were not picked up.
To this, Dunleavy replied that MAS was calling the mobile phones of the crew members as well, which were ringing, and that he had given the numbers to Chinese Sherlocks.
Relatives of the passengers are urging the authorities to search for the location of phones that rang using the Global Positioning System.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... at a presser in Beijing, MAS front man Ignatius Ong said one of the numbers that had been passed on to the airline's command office in Kuala Lumpur failed to get through.
"I myself have called the number five times while the airline's command centre also called the number. We got no answering tone," said Ong.
A phone company in Singapore that was investigating this number said the number was out of credit.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:26 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
A ring-tone could [could] be possible if the crash took place over land. Over the water.... not so much.
#3
I call my wifes cell phone daily. When she has it switched off I get a ringing indication followed by the voice response ... "please enjoy the music while your party is reached" ... followed by a request to leave a message.
#4
If the phones are really ringing you can locate them from the Call Detail Logs of the telco to within a few feet.
Even without GPS it means the phones are still doing registration. To do that they sample the power/signal/strength of the various Base stations and choose to tell the best one they are there. When they do this they give the power/signal/strength of a large number of base stations and carriers to the selected base station. If it is to busy it will select one of the other stations from their list and tell the phone to listen to that one.
From the PS measurements alone on the base station and the known locations of the other base stations you can triangulate to the cell phone.
However, I expect they are not live and it's just the last known location of the phones being rung.
That said .. when 911 happened some co-workers (friends) put together some modified base stations as back packs and got a special flight to NYNY to look for survivors. They found lots of working phones but no people.
[The Peninsula] With huge numbers of visitors and patchy law enforcement, Thailand has a booming black market for fake identity documents, and it was here that two passengers on a missing Malaysia Airlines jet were apparently able to get hold of stolen passports.
Thai authorities struggle to track thousands of lost or stolen passports each year. Some are known to be sold on through syndicates to narcos. Others are suspected to have ended up in the hands of Islamist Death Eaters.
"Fake passports and identity fraud in general is a massive problem in Thailand," police commander and Thailand's Interpol director Apichart Suriboonya said. Sometimes documents are sold by their owners to cover travel costs, Apichart said.
They are passed on to middlemen, Thai or foreign, who work with criminal networks, he said. The passports may be altered, for example with a new photograph, but sometimes the fraudulent user hopes to pass as the real owner.
The passenger manifest issued by Malaysia Airlines included the names of two Europeans -- Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi -- who were not on the plane. Both had passports stolen on the Thai holiday island of Phuket. The passports were used to buy tickets from travel agents in the resort town of Pattaya, to Beijing and on to Europe. Thai and foreign Sherlocks were questioning staff at one travel agent yesterday.
Thailand's fake document business has been flourishing for years. In 2010, Thai and Spanish authorities enjugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! suspected members of an international ring providing forged passports to Death Eaters. Thai authorities say the ring may have passed fake documents to those behind the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
Pockets of Bangkok are notorious counterfeit goods emporiums with fake drivers' licences, press cards and airline cabin crew identity cards on display. The Thai capital also boasts experts in forging visas. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said more than 60,000 passports -- both Thai and foreign -- were reported missing or stolen in Thailand between January 2012 and June 2013.
Police in Phuket said Maraldi reported his passport stolen in June last year, while Kozel's passport was reported stolen in March 2012. Police said they get reports of up to 10 lost passports a month in the province.
Phuket police officer Angkarn Yasanop said foreigners can earn $200 to sell their passport and then report it stolen. Many lost or stolen passports end up with Thais and other Southeast Asians trying to migrate for work, he said.
Interpol's stolen and lost travel documents database contains 40 million records from 167 countries but its secretary general, Ronald Noble, says not enough countries are using it.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:16 ||
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#1
In the mid 70s, I was in Tangier (don't ask) and was in the Suq with a lady friend when one of the shopkeepers offered me $1,500 for my Official passport and $500 for my Tourist passport (How he knew I had an Official passport has bothered me for years).
He went on to say it was a thriving business in Tangier as many American students looking for good Hashish could sell their passports for more drug money and get a new one reporting the old one stolen. I reported this all to my superiors and got the "Sea Bee salute" in return for my discomfort with the market in US passports and the security threat it presented (this was during the Red Army Faction/Baader Meinhoff/Carlos days and it still bothers me...
I bet half the lost passports in Europe are either stolen or sold.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/11/2014 15:19 Comments ||
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#2
I lost my passport in Germany in the 1970's. Interesting that I noticed the old American guy next to me at the consulate counter being catered too (poor guy! we understand how you can lose a passport) while I got the 3rd degree; it was obvious they thought I'd sold it (undoubtedly because of my age).
I wouldn't even know where to sell a passport, and have never been greedy enough to try it if I could have found out.
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/11/2014 16:19 Comments ||
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#2
I doubt it. I don't think China or Russia proper are vulnerable to "let's you and him fight" strategies. China's too focused on the conflicts it wants to mess around with the conflicts it doesn't.
#3
For example: look at how little they'ce reacted towards the killings of Chinese citizens in Pakistan. And compare it to how they reacted when some Chinese tourists were killed in Manila a couple years back.
#7
There are some oddities and no debris found within the flight plan supposedly taken. Another possibility should be considered--the U-turn that was made & transponders turned off with a light passenger load and lots of fuel. Going low under radar, the flight may have landed somewhere as cell phones are still ringing but not answered. If a highjacking like 9-11 took place, there is no high-profile target to crash into...but who were the passengers on board? Could they be held hostage for their expertise and so no claim of responsibility or ransom would be made.
#8
I just tried to post to p. 1... CNN is reporting that the plane's transponder stopped and then it flew in the other direction, to the other side of the Malay Penninsula, before military radar (real radar, not transponder) lost contact over the Straits of Malacca.
[An Nahar] Arrest warrants were issued on Monday against Naim Abbas, a top official in the al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades ... Leb's current al-Qaeda affiliate, named after a guy whose car the current head of al-Qaeda had boomed... , and a female suspect on terrorism charges.
Military Examining Magistrate Judge Sawan issued arrest warrants against Abbas and Joumana Hmayyed for belonging to an armed terrorist group for the purpose of carrying out terrorist attacks.
They were also charged with preparing and transporting booby-trapped vehicles from Syria to Leb to detonate them in residential areas.
Hmayyed is the driver of the booby-trapped Kia vehicle that the army intercepted on February 12 on the Arsal-al-Labweh road.
Abbas is a Paleostinian described as Abdullah Azzam Brigades' number two man in Leb.
He was previously charged with belonging to an armed terrorist network.
He was also charged with involvement in two bombings that have rocked the Haret Hreik district of Beirut's southern suburbs.
He was jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by the Lebanese army in the Beirut neighborhood of Corniche al-Mazraa on February 12.
Several of the latest bombings in Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa valley have been claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades whose leader, Majed al-Majed, was captured by Lebanese authorities in December and died in jug later.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:44 ||
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The number of Syrian refugees taking shelter in Turkey is nearly 900,000, a UN official said Monday. Ayman A. Abulaban, a representative of the Unicef for Turkey, told reporters in Ankara that 700,000 of the Syrian refugees are living outside of camps, reported Xinhua.
There are 21 camps for Syrian refugees near Turkish cities close to the Syrian border.
So most of the ones left in Syria are gunnies for one side or another, or their camp followers. Gonna be even more difficult for me to care whether they eat or not...
In collaboration with the Turkish government, Unicef has helped build schools and provide training for Syrian teachers both inside the refugee camps and outside.
So in three generations they can be like the Paleostinians are today, with their own UN relief organization...
About 3.5 million people have fled Syria, Abulaban said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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The World Food Programme said Monday insecurity in Syria was cutting off half a million people from the food aid they need, while a lack of funds has also forced the UN food agency to slash rations.
I confess that I'm less sympathetic than I should be as a good Christian. But neither side seems to be one that I care to support, and the folks caught in the middle just need to get to Turkey or Jordan.
Three years into Syrias bloody civil war, the WFP said in recent weeks it had reached a number of areas in the governorates of Damascus, Homs, Raqqa and Daraa that had long remained inaccessible.
But while providing food to some 71,500 people who had not received assistance in months, widespread insecurity had prevented deliveries to another 500,000 people in desperate need, the WFP said in a report.
On-off convoys into besieged areas can provide temporary relief but WFP still needs proper and sustained access to people to provide life-saving assistance and also to assess the scale of the needs, said WFP deputy chief Amir Abdulla.
The agency aims to reach some 4.25 million people inside Syria each month but in February it said it managed to get food rations to just 3.7 million, as well as to 1.5 million refugees in neighbouring countries.
Lacking funding was also a major challenge, WFP said, explaining that it was forced to cut the size of this months food basket for vulnerable families inside Syria by 20 percent.
As a result, families are receiving fewer nutrients than they require to stay healthy, the food agency said in a statement.
Each person was now receiving a daily ration of 1,530 calories, compared with the 1,920 calories the agency had originally planned, and well below the 2,100-calorie intake recommended by doctors.
It would be tragic to secure more access in Syria but to then find ourselves in a situation where we do not have the required funds to assist hungry people who have long been under siege, WFP regional coordinator for the Syria crisis Muhannad Hadi said in the statement.
Lots of hunger around the world; almost all of it in various hellholes and civil wars.
The agency has appealed for $2.0 billion to feed some seven million Syrians displaced in their country or who have fled to neighbouring countries. The WFP said it spends $40 million a week on its aid operation in Syria and urgently needs $309 million to cover the food needs of vulnerable Syrians until the end of May.
Abdullah told reporters he was hopeful that a March 18 conference following up on a donors meeting in Kuwait in January would help provide additional funds to WFP and other humanitarian agencies working in Syria.
But if WFP does not receive the required funds, it could be forced to reduce rations by up to 50 percent in April and May, he cautioned.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
There would be more money for Syrian sufferers had not the Palestinians sucked it all up.
[GOOGLE] A group of nuns held by Salafist tough guys in Syria were freed Monday in a prisoner swap with Damascus that brought a rare ray of hope to the country's beleaguered Christians.
Scores of faithful packed the ancient Church of the Cross in the heart of the capital to welcome the nuns as they joined a mass to celebrate their freedom after more than three months of captivity.
The 13 nuns and three maids, who had been seized by Al-Qaeda gunnies on December 3, were released in exchange for some 150 female detainees held in Syrian government jails in a swap brokered by authorities in neighbouring Leb.
They arrived in Damascus at the end of an arduous overland journey lasting many hours that saw them driven from the rebel-held town of Yabrud into Leb and then back into Syria via the official crossing.
"We want to thank God, who made it possible for us to be here now," one of the Greek Orthodox nuns told news hounds as she arrived in Syrian government-held territory.
She thanked Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... and Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, a leading supporter of the opposition, as well as Leb's General Security agency director Abbas Ibrahim, who mediated the exchange.
She said their kidnappers from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front had treated them well.
"No one bothered us," she said, denying rumours the kidnappers had forced the Syrian and Lebanese nuns to remove their crosses.
The 16 women had been seized from a convent in the Christian village of Maalula, where residents still speak a version of the Aramaic language of Jesus Christ, before being held captive in Yabrud, now the target of a major regime offensive.
Video posted online by activists showed the women being escorted to a transfer point by opposition fighters.
One nun was carried to a van by a fighter whose face was wrapped in a black scarf. The van and other vehicles in the convoy flew the black flag used by jihadists.
At the transfer point, the nuns moved forward as government security forces handed over a first woman prisoner and her children.
Their release came as pro-government forces put the rebels under mounting pressure in Yabrud, their last stronghold in the Qalamun mountains between Damascus and the Lebanese border.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A British terror convict has told a New York trial he met the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now among the dear departed, though not among the dearest... up to 50 times and was recruited by Al Qaeda to blow up a passenger jet.
Saajid Badat was sentenced in 2005 to 13 years in jail as a co-conspirator in the notorious shoe bombing plot in December 2001, a time of worldwide concern over air travel after the September 11 attacks in the United States.
The 34-year-old has been dubbed a "supergrass," slang for informant, by the British media for agreeing to testify against a slew of former associates.
He was released early from prison in Britannia, where authorities have given him accommodation and financial help, and he gave evidence from some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location on Monday because he faces arrest in America.
Badat is the second US government witness to appear at the trial of Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of bin Laden and former Al Qaeda front man, who is on trial in Manhattan for conspiracy to kill Americans, conspiracy to provide support and providing material support to terrorists.
The prosecution showed the jury two videos of the defendant in October 2001 threatening Americans with a "storm of airplanes," which they say implicates him in the shoe bomb plot.
"The storm shall not lessen especially the storm of the airplanes," Abu Ghaith shouted in one of the propaganda clips.
But the defence says there is no evidence tying Abu Ghaith, 48, to the conspiracy and brands Badat, who looked worried and unhappy throughout more than two hours of testimony, the real terrorist.
Asked how many times he met bin Laden in Afghanistan, where he says he spent three years training and fraternising with top Al Qaeda leaders, Badat replied: "Around 20 times, maybe up to 50 times."
Fluent in English, Arabic, Urdu and Gujarat ...where rioting seems to be a traditional passtime... i, Badat said he smuggled explosives from Afghanistan to Britannia in late 2001 after being recruited by Al-Qaeda to blow up jetliners with bombs hidden in shoes.
Fellow British recruit Richard Reid, known as the shoe bomber, is serving a life sentence in the United States for trying to blow up a Gay Paree to Miami flight in December 2001. Badat, then 21, said he worked directly with Reid from October to December that year in Afghanistan, and testified that they were supposed to blow up different planes.
He said he "brainstormed for ideas" with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-declared 9/11 plotter, and planned with Mohammed's nephew in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... to bomb a US, transatlantic or intra-Europe flight.
The witness, who grew up in a pious Mohammedan family in the English town of Gloucester, said he was introduced to the idea of violent jihad in London in 1997.
In 1998 he went to Bosnia, where he met veterans of the Balkans war and was taught how to use weapons. In 1999, as a 19-year-old he traveled to Afghanistan, via Dubai and Pakistain, to train for jihad.
In the Afghan city of Kandahar he said he met senior Al Qaeda lieutenant Saif al-Adel ...holed up in Iran from 2002 until 2010, when he made bail and moved back to the Pak-Afghan border... and volunteered to arrange the training of future British recruits.
"If you want to take part in attacks against Jews in America, I could arrange that," Badat quoted Saif as telling him at the time.
In 1999, Badat said he underwent his first training, being taught how to fire weapons, abseil, use military-grade explosives and make explosives.
For a week he also dolled out explosives training at Derunta camp near the Afghan city of Jalalabad and spent six weeks on the frontline between the then ruling Taliban and opposition Northern Alliance.
Badat told the court he spent a total of six to nine months in Al Qaeda guest houses in Afghanistan, once working in a shop selling drinks and snacks, and as an English translator for a Taliban magazine.
In early 2001 received his first formal Al Qaeda military training at a camp near the southern city of Kandahar, and did three follow-up courses in security and intelligence, including tips on how to blend into Western society.
But none of his testimony related to Abu Ghaith. Badat said he never met or spoke to the defendant about any terror plot, and knew nothing about him speaking to anyone else or even knowing about the plot.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:52 ||
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#1
Pfffttt - big deal, I can claim the same iff nor more, + I could tell about the OBL before OBL.
A media-oriented group tied to whats left of Al Qaedas original core leaders says it will soon launch the terrorist networks first-ever English-language Internet magazine called Resurgence.
A promotional video for the new magazine was posted online over the weekend by as-Sahab, a group that has for years released messages from Ayman al-Zawahiri the terrorist believed believed to have taken control of Al Qaeda original core following the 2011 death of Osama bin Laden.
According to a report Sunday by NBC News, the slickly produced video uses audio from Malcom X, the late African American Muslim and human rights activist, who was assassinated in 1965 while promoting the U.S.-based Nation of Islam.
The video appears to combine audio from a 1965 Malcolm X speech justifying violence including the quote talk the language that they understand with images of U.S. soldiers, Islamic militants, a purported attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan and the Boston Marathon bombings, NBC reported.
It remains to be seen whether the new magazine will come to fruition on the Internet. If it does, it will likely be aligned with Inspire, an Arabic-language online magazine that analysts say is produced by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula a group that intelligence official described as an affiliate of al Qaedas original core.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Peninsula] The Taliban yesterday vowed to target Afghanistan's presidential election, urging fighters to attack polling staff, voters and security forces before the April 5 vote to choose a successor to 
[An Nahar] U.N. 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
Pervez 
Nouri al-Maliki
[An Nahar] The 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
