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Three Americans gunned down in Kabul hospital attack
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Afghan election result delayed due to fraud probe
[DAWN] Afghanistan's preliminary presidential election result has been delayed by two days due to fraud investigations and will now be released on Saturday, officials said Wednesday as they vowed to sift out fake votes.

Partial results from the April 5 election to succeed President 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...
have already been released, with former foreign minister 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...
ahead of his main rival Ashraf Ghani after half of the ballots were counted.

Hundreds of serious fraud allegations are being probed in an attempt to ensure a cleaner election than in 2009, when Karzai retained power in a vote marred by rampant cheating.

"The IEC is conducting thorough investigations of all irregularities," the Independent Election Commission said in a blurb.

"While these investigations have delayed the process slightly, they are critical to the accuracy and integrity of final results."

The latest partial results put Abdullah in the lead with 44.4 per cent followed by former World Bank economist Ghani on 33.2 per cent.

If no candidate gains more than 50 per cent, a second-round election between the two leading names is tentatively scheduled for May 28.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Tunisian premier vows terror crackdown
[MAGHAREBIA] Interim Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa on Monday (April 21st) pledged to eliminate the terrorist groups that threaten the country.

"We are going after terrorism before it comes to us," Jomaa said. The premier spoke after a meeting of the National Security Council that covered counter-terror efforts, particularly the fight against snuffies in Jebel Chaambi, TAP reported.

According to Jomaa, the security situation in Tunisia has improved "and the operations represent a qualitative leap in addressing the issue of terrorism. There is no place for terrorism in Tunisia and that is the approach clearly envisaged by various teams of military and security forces in our country".

Defence ministry front man Colonel Major Taoufik Rahmouni on Monday told Mosaique FM that festivities had taken place between bully boyz and the Tunisian army in Jebel Chaambi.

Rahmouni did not deny reports that three bad boyz were potted during the festivities.

On April 17, the defence ministry front man announced during a presser that the reasons for declaring Jebel Chaambi and adjacent mountains a zone of military operations was "the growing movement of terrorist groups and the growing activity of organised crime networks in the trade of weapons and ammunition and the smuggling of hazardous materials across these areas".

Last Friday a Tunisian soldier was killed and another maimed when a landmine detonated in the Jebel Chaambi area near the Algerian border. TAP reported that the kaboom occurred when a military vehicle passed a terrorist camp inside the closed military zone, killing the driver and wounding another.

"The battles taking place in the Chaambi area now between the Tunisian army and bully boyz are the final decisive battle, especially since accessing information about the concentration of terrorist groups will greatly help to eliminate them," predicted retired Brigadier General Mokhtar Ben Nasr.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar al-Sharia


Witnesses Say Hamas, Hizbullah Helped Morsi Flee Prison
[An Nahar] Prosecution witnesses in the jailbreak trial of Egypt's ousted 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...
on Wednesday accused members of Paleostinian Islamist movement Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Leb's 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...
of attacking Egyptian prisons during the 2011 uprising.

The trial, one of three against Morsi, is part of a government crackdown that has targeted him and his Moslem Brüderbund movement since his ouster by the army in July.

In the jailbreak case, Morsi and 130 other defendants including Paleostinian and Lebanese bully boyz are charged with organizing attempts to spring prisoners from jails and attacking cop shoppes during the uprising that ousted longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
The prosecution presented three witnesses in Wednesday's hearing, two of whom described how jails were attacked during the uprising, before the trial was postponed until April 30.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  "Mursi sent us"?


/Benghazi
Posted by: Pappy || 04/24/2014 14:43 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
ACF demands probe to uncover Boko Haram funding, sponsors
[DAILYPOST.NG] The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF,) on Monday reacted to the outburst by Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa state on the Federal Government.

Nyako is accusing the Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
's administration for waging war against the north.

The ACF in a press statement issued by their national publicity secretary, Alhaji Muhammadu Ibrahim, insisted that the Federal Government must probe into the governor's allegations to discover the sources of Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
's funding, logistics and also their sponsors.

The organization says it is yet to comprehend how the Boko Haram sect is able to carry out their continuous attacks successfully, despite claims by the military of capturing the myrmidons, and confiscating over 700 of their vehicles.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  Start with Saudi or Iran.
Posted by: Paul D || 04/24/2014 7:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Been reading my suggestions.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/24/2014 8:25 Comments || Top||

#3  The genesis of the Ikhwan/Islamist movement in Nigeria is found in the creation of the Jamaat Nasril al-Islam (Association for the Victory of Islam) in 1962. I was a Pan-Nigerian Islamist movement founded by Abubakar Gumi. Later renamed the Yan Izala (short form for the Eradication of Evil Innovation and the Establishment of the Sunnah) in 1978, Gumi was a student of the Ikhwan movement and throughout Nigeria made use of the mass media to transform society using Salafist arguments From the Yan Izala there emerged in the nineteen nineties in Northern Nigeria the Islamic Movement, the precursor of Boko Haram. Led by Shaykh Ibrahim Zak Zaky it was an Islamist organization that openly proclaimed its relationship with the international Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamic Movement, was Sunni, but received some education and training in Iran. It was in constant conflict with the government. Zaky was jailed for two years in 1997, after which the very radical offshoot of the Ikhwan, the Ja'amutu Tajidmul Islami (Movement of Islamic Revival), emerged in the late nineteen nineties. The Boko Haram is only the latest (and the bloodiest) of the Islamist movements founded in the north.
Posted by: Thrusotch and Tenille7340 || 04/24/2014 10:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Left out: indigenenous support by Nigerian politicians and senior military.

See also: Chad.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/24/2014 14:45 Comments || Top||


Political Elites Sponsor Boko Haram To Protect Personal Interest - Security Expert
[CHANNELSTV] A Security Consultant, Chigozie Ubani, on Wednesday gave a different perspective to the funding system of the dreaded Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
terrorist group, stating that influential businessmen who have businesses in the affected region and members of the political elite may be funding the group by buying protection from them.

Ubani, who was a guest on Channels Television's breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, said that although he believed the government was making efforts tracing the source of the group's funds, the government was not employing all avenues possible, to tackle the situation.

"I've refused to say they are not doing anything, but there are certain things I expect this government to do (or to have done), and that is the issue of funding," he said, citing the strategy used by the United States of America, after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

According to him, the U.S government crippled the late Osama bin Laden
... who has left the building...
's financial capacity, which helped in limiting his power before he was killed.

"I am very sure that our people are tracing these funds but why is it so difficult, he asked, also noting that the contributions being made by the political elite come to play in the whole situation.

Politicians and some Nigerians have accused some governors and members of the political class of funding the terrorist group, however Ubani explained that the funds given by these people may not be to promote their activities but to protect their own interests and buy "their own bullet vests."

He stated that those funding the group were doing so in trying to protect themselves and "in trying to be seen as not being against them".

"These things happened in the days of kidnapping in the South/East when influential people were unknowingly funding kidnapping in the South/East...in trying to buy safety for themselves, they fund criminality."

Mr Ubani further called for an investigation into the activities of influential businessmen and politicians who may be behind such funding.

"There are big institutions and businesses in the north...these institutions are running. No one is attacking them. There owners should be looked upon, and see what relationship they have with these criminals."
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Qatar Says Dispute with Gulf Neighbors 'over'
[An Nahar] Qatar's dispute with three fellow Gulf states, which withdrew their envoys from Doha last month, is "over", the Qatari foreign minister said Wednesday, while insisting his country had made no concessions.
"The science is settled; we won, get over it; the debate is ended; 'Shut up,' he explained." In other words, the argument is so weak the opposition can only be shouted down.
"The statement issued in Riyadh on April 17 was clear ... For the brothers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) the dispute is over," Khaled Al-Attiyah told a presser in Kuwait after a meeting with his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah.

GCC foreign ministers met last week and announced an end to months of unprecedented tensions between Qatar and 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...
, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The three countries recalled their ambassadors from Doha after accusing Qatar of meddling in their internal affairs and supporting the banned Moslem Brüderbund.

Attiyah's statement was the first Qatari comment on the special ministerial meeting held in Saudi Arabia.

"Brothers in the GCC states arrived at understandings which are not considered to be concessions by any party," the Qatari minister said.

Attiyah said it is now "left for the brothers in the GCC states to send their ambassadors back" to Doha.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Most likely the Saudis got the assurances that they wanted and wisely let the Qataris save face in public by not having to admit any changes in policy. More bad news for the Brothers.
Posted by: Odysseus || 04/24/2014 15:32 Comments || Top||


Bahrain Expels Envoy of Shiite Ayatollah Sistani
[An Nahar] Authorities in Sunni-ruled Bahrain on Wednesday expelled the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in the latest manifestation of tension with the kingdom's Shiite majority.

Sheikh Hussein al-Najati was among 31 Bahrainis who had their citizenship revoked in November 2012 over accusations that they had undermined state security, more than a year after authorities crushed a Shiite uprising in March 2011.

Najati "practiced unclear activities, without coordinating with authorities which discovered afterwards that he was Sistani's representative," the interior ministry said.

"Working as an official representative of any party necessitates a letter of accreditation that specifies responsibilities and planned activities," it said.

Najati worked on "collecting funds and distributing them" in the name of the Iraq-based Sistani, one of the top Shiite spiritual guides, the ministry added.

Najati was born in 1960 to Iranian parents in Bahrain, it said.

He arrived on Wednesday in Leb, according to Bahrain's Shiite Al-Wefaq opposition association.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Home Front: WoT
Hook Hand Trial: Carloads Of Terrorists Turned Oregon Ranch Into Training Camp
[NYPost] An Oregon woman says she thought she was opening up her family's ranch to local Moslems to teach them how to grow and can veggies -- and that her husband was even expecting a tax write-off.

But US-born Moslem convert Eva Hatley testified in Manhattan federal court Tuesday that after the "carloads'' of fellow Moslems she met through her mosque arrived at the 160-acre ranch in Bly in 1999, the couple watched helplessly as their home was turned into an al Qaeda training camp.

"It wasn't anything like I envisioned for the property," insisted Hatley, testifying at the trial of one-eyed, hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri.

Hatley, a two-time witness-protection-program flunky who prefers going by her Moslem name, Ayat Hakimah, said other Moslems from London would soon arrive on al-Masri's orders.

According to al-Masri's lawyer last week, the camp was similar to being in the "Cub Scouts,'' with the men riding horses, tending to little lambs and telling campfire stories.

But Hatley said one of the arrivals, hard boy Oussama Kassir, boasted about previously running training camps in Afghanistan and being a "hit man" for the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now beyond all cares and woe...
"He said he was there to train men for jihad," she said. "He said that Abu Hamza sent him. He intended to train them to fight."

She added that some had CDs with information on how to make poisons to "kill people" and regularly "talked" about "robbing and killing truck drivers" on nearby roads.

Kassir, she recalled, claimed there were plans to eventually dig a hillside compound at the ranch for al-Masri to hide out in.

Besides setting up the training camp, al-Masri, 56, is accused of conspiring in a 1998 kidnapping in Yemen that resulted in the deaths of four tourists and committing other terror crimes. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede, was convicted in 2009 of plotting to help al Qaeda recruit by trying to set up a weapons training post at the ranch and distributing terrorist training manuals over the Internet.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Might it be possible that Ms. Hatley may be reconsidering her religious choice?
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/24/2014 21:47 Comments || Top||


Interfaith Panel Denounces a 9/11 Museum Exhibit's Portrayal of Islam
[NY Times] Past the towering tridents that survived the World Trade Center collapse, adjacent to a gallery with photographs of the 19 hijackers, a brief film at the soon-to-open National September 11 Memorial Museum will seek to explain to visitors the historical roots of the attacks.

The film, "The Rise of Al Qaeda," refers to the forces of Evil as Islamists who viewed their mission as a jihad. The NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who narrates the film, speaks over images of terrorist training camps and Qaeda attacks spanning decades. Interspersed with his voice are explanations of the ideology of the terrorists, rendered in foreign-accented English.

The documentary is not even seven minutes long, the exhibit just a small part of the museum. But it has suddenly become over the last few weeks a flash point in what has long been one of the most highly charged issues at the museum: how it should talk about Islam and Mohammedans.

With the museum opening on May 21, it has shown the film to several groups, including an interfaith advisory group of clergy members. Those on the panel overwhelmingly took strong exception to the film, believing some of the religious terminology in it casts aspersions on all Mohammedans, and requested changes. But the museum has declined. In March, the sole imam in the group resigned to make clear that he could not endorse its contents.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Islam doesn't like the world opinion of Islam? Yeah?

Wait a few years. Maybe things will pick up.

Pole the imammas if they would like an interfaith Mosque on the site of the big hole in the ground. They should really eat that up.
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 || 04/24/2014 6:56 Comments || Top||

#2  The truth becomes less popular each day.
Posted by: El Jefe || 04/24/2014 11:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Pole the imammas

I think you meant "poll". But "pole" will work, if you're channeling Vlad the Impaler.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/24/2014 14:49 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
SC rains on Ludhianvi's victory parade
[DAWN] The Supreme Court cut short on Tuesday Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi's victory celebrations as it suspended an election tribunal's decision notifying him as the successful National Assembly candidate from NA-89 Jhang.

The chief of the proscribed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat
...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi...
(ASWJ) had challenged the eligibility of Sheikh Mohammad Akram, who had won the seat in the 2013 general elections, before an election tribunal. The tribunal found against Akram on April 9 and on April 18, the Election Commission of Pakistain (ECP) declared Ludhianvi, the candidate with the second highest number of votes, successful without going for re-polling.

On Tuesday, after a preliminary hearing, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali suspended both the April 9 judgment of the election tribunal and the subsequent ECP notification. "We are inclined to issue notices to the respondents for a date to be fixed by the office within four weeks," the bench observed.

The court gave the interim order on a petition filed by Sheikh Muhammad Akram, who had won the seat on a PML-N ticket. He contested the polls because his son Sheikh Waqas Akram -- who was originally supposed to vie for the National Assembly seat -- was beset by legal challenges from his opponents.

In his complaint before the tribunal, Ludhianvi alleged that Sheikh Akram had been involved in electoral rigging and other illegal practices.

Appearing before the apex court on Tuesday, Akram's counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan argued that the tribunal had disqualified his client on two grounds: firstly that the CNIC number of the individuals who seconded Sheikh Akram's nomination was incorrect; and, secondly that he had failed to disclose in his nomination papers an FIR that was filed against him.

Both these grounds, the counsel argued, were based on a misreading of the record and the relevant legal provisions, adding that there had been no violation of election rules to justify the tribunal's decision to unseat Sheikh Muhammad Akram.

The NA-89 Jhang constituency has long been a hotbed of sectarian strife. Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain
...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts...
(SSP) founder Haq Nawaz Jhangvi won the seat in the 1998 general elections.

In 2002, Maulana Azam Tariq of the SSP successfully ran for election while he was incarcerated, beating Sheikh Waqas and Dr Tahirul Qadri in the polls.

Following Tariq's liquidation in 2003, Sheikh Waqas Akram took the seat in the ensuing by-elections, beating the slain SSP chief's brother Maulana Alam Tariq.

In the 2008 general elections, Ludhianvi campaigned as an independent against Sheikh Waqas Akram, who contested on a PML-Q ticket. Sheikh Waqas won the election with 51,976 votes while Ludhianvi came in second with 45,216 votes.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan


Pemra forms committee to review govt application against Geo TV
[DAWN] The Pakistain Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has constituted a three-member committee Wednesday to review the Ministry of Defence's application filed against Geo TV network for leveling allegations against an intelligence agency of Pakistain, DawnNews reported.

The committee, comprising Syed Ismail Shah, Pervez Rathore and Israr Abbasi, will review the application against GEO and apprise the Pemra Board of the facts surrounding the matter.

Pemra officials said the nature of charges against Geo news were serious hence the channel would be given a full opportunity for offering an explanation.

Earlier on April 22, the Ministry of Defence had moved Pemra to take action against Geo TV network.

According to an official source, the application had been moved following approval from Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif under the PEMRA Ordinance 2002, section 33 and 36 to take legal action against the channel management for framing allegations on the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and its Chief Lieutenant General Zaheerul Islam.

The defense ministry filed the complaint late Tuesday against Geo to the Pakistain Electronic Media Regulation Authority, front man Fakhruddin Mughal said.

The complaint accuses the station of "undermining the integrity and tarnishing the image of (a) state institution and its officers and falsely linking it with the terrorist outfits."

"The reporting made and the programs aired cannot be viewed as a single event," the complaint reads.

"Geo Network has a history of acting illegally in furtherance of the anti-Pakistain agenda."

The complaint asks the authority to revoke Geo's licenses.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Govt, Taliban negotiators reach consensus on ceasefire
[DAWN] Members of the government and the Pak Taliban negotiating committees on Wednesday reached a consensus regarding extending the ceasefire, the latter had ended last week, DawnNews reported.

The decision was taken at the meeting, which took place at Punjab House and had extension of the ceasefire, release of non-combatant Taliban prisoners and establishment of a peace zone high on the agenda.

It had been convened by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and was the first joint meeting of the committees after the TTP's announcement of ending the ceasefire.

Speaking to media representatives after the meeting, head of the TTP negotiators' committee, Maulana Samiul Haq
...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time...
said that an atmosphere of confidence and trust was prevailing on both the sides.

He said the two committees have agreed to form a new subcommittee to address reservations shown by both sides.

The chief of his own faction of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability...
(JUI-S), who is known as "Father of Taliban" in the West, said that his committee will try to arrange a meeting with the TTP Shura this week.

"We will ask the Taliban leadership for steps that can prove productive for restoration of peace in the country," he said.

An official had earlier told Dawn that the progress of the grinding of the peace processor would be reviewed during the meeting.

Another official had said that the government expected the TTP not only to extend the ceasefire but also to reciprocate its goodwill gesture of releasing 19 non-combatant Taliban.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian Rivals Announce Unity Pact
[NY Times] The faltering Middle East grinding of the peace processor was thrown into further jeopardy on Wednesday, with Israel and the United States harshly condemning a new deal announced by feuding Paleostinian factions, including the murderous Moslem group Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, to repair their seven-year rift.

Israel canceled a negotiating session scheduled for Wednesday night shortly after leaders of the Paleostine Liberation Organization joined hands with their rivals from Hamas at a celebratory ceremony in the Gazoo Strip.

"Whoever chooses Hamas does not want peace," the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement, describing the group as "a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel."
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Palestinian Unity - there's a horse you can bet on.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/24/2014 1:10 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm shorting futures in orthopedic shoes for gunshot victims
Posted by: Frank G || 04/24/2014 11:53 Comments || Top||

#3  I've downgraded Mutual of Gaza to hold.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/24/2014 14:12 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
U.S. Releases Another $1 Billion to Iran
[FreeBeacon] Iran has received $2.55 billion since February

The United States has released $1 billion in cash assets to Iran in April alone under the interim nuclear deal aimed at ratcheting back Iran's nuclear program, according to the White House.

The B.O. regime unfroze Iranian assets totaling $550 million on April 10 and another $450 million on April 15. The United States has now released $2.55 billion to Iran since February, when the scheduled cash infusions first began.

The cash releases were contingent upon Iran halting some aspects of its nuclear program and scaling back its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon.

In return, Iran was promised these monthly cash infusions from Washington.

While the White House maintains that Iran will receive about $7 billion in economic relief under the interim accord, outside experts calculate that with oil revenues and other business deals Iran could pocket at least $20 billion over the next several months.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Worked so well in North Korea they thought they'd try the same approach with Iran. Blundering, bovine foreign policy ignorance and colossal failure at it's finest. A typical pay-off scheme and solution you'd find any Chicago south-side drug runner defaulting to.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/24/2014 7:21 Comments || Top||

#2  CNBC: Meanwhile India is set to release anothre $1.6B to Iran.
Posted by: mossomo || 04/24/2014 17:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Exactly WHERE did it come from.
Obama says "We're Broke", Of course he lies.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/24/2014 19:53 Comments || Top||


Syria Lawmaker Becomes First Presidential Challenger
[An Nahar] A communist MP has registered as the first challenger for the Syrian presidency in a June election expected to return incumbent Bashir al-Assad to power, the parliament speaker said Wednesday.

"We have received information from the higher constitutional court that member of parliament Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajjar has filed his candidacy for the post of president of the Syrian Arab Republic," Mohammad Lahham said, quoted on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
News of Hajjar's candidacy came two days after Lahham announced that Syria would hold a presidential election on June 3.

It also comes after the U.N., the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
, the Syrian opposition and the United States slammed the election announcement as a "farce", a "parody of democracy" and an obstacle to a grinding of the peace processor dubbed Geneva II aimed at ending Syria's three-year war.

A foreign ministry official on Monday lashed out at the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
and its peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for "obstructing" the Geneva II peace talks.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


U.N. Hears Calls for Syria Chlorine Gas Probe
[An Nahar] Members of the U.N. Security Council called Wednesday for an investigation into new claims of a chlorine gas attack on a rebel bastion in Syria, expressing concern over the reports.

The 15-member organization was briefed behind closed doors by Sigrid Kaag, who coordinates a mission in Syria to oversee the removal of its chemical weapons stockpile by June 30.

Members "expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
about alleged reports about the use of chlorine gas in some towns, which left people dead and injured, and called for an investigation of this incident," said the ambassador of Nigeria, which holds the rotating presidency.

When pressed by news hounds, Nigerian ambassador Joy Ogwu gave no further details on who or how such an inquiry might be conducted.

"We're still waiting to confirm the authenticity of the reports. Until we have the full facts we cannot take any decision on this matter," Ogwu said.

She said there was "no decision" on who should investigate. "We heard a briefing and we made comments on the briefing," she said.

La Belle France and the United States allege that Assad's forces may have unleashed industrial chemicals on a rebel-held village in central Hama province this month.

There have been conflicting accounts of the alleged chlorine attack on Kafr Zita, with the government and the opposition trading blame.

Activists have also reported other chlorine gas attacks, most recently in Idlib province, in the northwest, on Monday.

Syrian ambassador Bashar Jaafari categorically denied that government forces were using chlorine gas.

"The aim of this kind of allegations emanating from Washington or elsewhere is to overshadow the successful preparations for the presidential elections in Syria," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



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