[An Nahar] International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... judges will on Monday decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moammar Qadaffy for crimes against humanity, the court said on its website.
Call off the civil war, Carla del Ponte is on the case!
The ICC prosecution has requested three arrest warrants for Qadaffy, his son Seif al-Islam and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, the court said. A public hearing will be held on Monday at 1100 GMT.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... said on Thursday that time is running out for Qadaffy, after the strongman said he had his "back to the wall" but vowed to battle "to the beyond."
"Time is on our side, time is not on the side of Colonel Qadaffy who's losing his leading military commanders," Cameron told news hounds in Prague.
"The sands of time are running out for him, and so we need to be patient and persistent," he added.
Cameron insisted this week that Britannia can maintain the current level of operations in Libya -- a campaign the defense ministry in London said will cost around £260 million -- despite concerns raised by senior military figures.
Britannia deployed Apache attack helicopters over Libya this month in an attempt to use their formidable firepower to break the stalemate in the fight between rebels and Qadaffy's forces.
"We will resist and the battle will continue to the beyond, until you're wiped out. But we will not be finished," Qadaffy said in an audio message broadcast on Libyan television late on Wednesday.
"There's no longer any agreement after you killed our children and our grandchildren ... We have our backs to the wall. You (the West) can move back," Qadaffy said in homage to his comrade Khuwildi Hemidi, several members of whose family were killed on Monday in reported NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... raids on his residence.
NATO, meanwhile, insisted there would be no let-up in its air war despite Italian calls for "an immediate humanitarian suspension of hostilities" in Libya in order "to create effective humanitarian corridors."
NATO has acknowledged its warplanes early on Monday hit Sorman west of Tripoli but insisted that the target was military, a precision air strike against a "high-level" command and control node.
Libyan government front man Moussa Ibrahim said 15 people, including three children, were killed in the attack, which he slammed as a "cowardly terrorist act which cannot be justified."
NATO on Wednesday pledged to carry on bombing military targets in Libya, saying more civilians would die if operations were not maintained under a U.N. mandate to protect Libyans from the exactions of Qadaffy's regime.
"NATO will continue this mission because if we stop, countless more civilians could lose their lives," NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a video statement on the military alliance's website.
The secretary general did not directly refer to Italia, whose Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday called for "an immediate humanitarian suspension of hostilities" in Libya.
"We have seen the effects of the crisis and therefore also of NATO action not only in eastern and southwestern regions but also in Tripoli," Frattini told a parliamentary committee in Rome.
"I believe an immediate humanitarian suspension of hostilities is required in order to create effective humanitarian corridors," while negotiations should also continue on a more formal ceasefire and peace talks, he said.
The commander of the NATO operation, Canada's Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, said a ceasefire risked becoming "just an opportunity for both sides to reload and to engage in further violence down the road."
"We must continue to stay engaged to prevent that rearming," Bouchard said.
Frattini's comments had drawn a swift rebuff from NATO ally La Belle France which has played a leading role in the military intervention in Libya.
"The coalition and the countries that met as the Abu Dhabi contact group two weeks ago were unanimous on the strategy -- we must intensify the pressure on Qadaffy," foreign ministry front man Bernard Valero told news hounds.
The rebels fighting to end Qadaffy's four-decade rule were also dismissive of the Italian ceasefire proposal.
"Even if NATO halts operations, we will fight tooth and nail, we will fight until our country is freed, we don't fear (a NATO cessation)," rebel front man Mahmoud Shamam said.
The Libyan people have tasted freedom and will not accept anything less ... they will fight to the end, until victory."
In its latest operational update on Thursday, NATO said its warplanes struck, among other targets, a radar facility and a command and control node in the Tripoli area and two radar towers near the rebel-held city of Misrata.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2011 19:13 ||
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CAIRO - Egypts army rulers rejected the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Yehia el-Gamal, who had cited health problems, the government said on Wednesday.
Gamal was appointed in February shortly after a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak, who was replaced by a military council until elections can be held. A law professor, Gamal was a leader of an opposition coalition called the National Association for Change, founded by Egyptian activist and presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei.
The prime ministers media adviser Ahmed el-Seman told reporters that the military council had rejected Gamals resignation. He gave no explanation for the decision.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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JEDDAH: The Organization of the Islamic Conference said Wednesday it has sent a delegation to Libya to pave the way for mediation by the group to resolve the crisis in the North African state.
There now, that should do it.
Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu "dispatched a high-level political delegation to Libya to get to know the reality on the ground and developments taking place," a statement by the organization said.
The mission, led by the head of the OIC's political department, Mahdi Fathalla, will hold "consultations with the concerned parties in Libya and discuss some ideas on the Libyan issue which the OIC secretary-general had already discussed with the Europeans during his recent European tour," it said. The delegation will meet officials in Tripoli and members of the National Transitional Council in Benghazi.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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SANAA - The youngest widow of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden will return home to Yemen from Pakistan in the coming days, her brother said on Wednesday.
Amal Abdulfattahs family was informed by the foreign ministries of Yemen and Pakistan of plans concerning the return of Amal and her five children to Yemen in the coming days, Zakariya Abdulfattah told AFP.
There have been diplomatic arrangements between the Yemeni and the Pakistani parties to secure her return to her country and we have received promises that it will take place soon, he said.
Her family had demanded last month that she and her children be repatriated from Pakistan where she is being detained. Her brother had said that he has received assurances from the Yemeni ambassador in Islamabad that she is in good health despite sustaining a gunshot wound to the leg during the US commando raid that killed bin Laden.
Twenty-nine year old Amal was married to bin Laden in 1999 through a local matchmaker, the brother said, adding that she travelled to Afghanistan to join her husband.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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#2
He had threes wives with him in Abbotabad, Slomoter Weatch9268: two well-educated Saudi women and that little Yemeni girl of the tribes. See more here.
[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sought British cooperation for curbing militancy and terrorism in Bangladesh.
She made the call when Alan Duncan, UK minister of state for international development, met her at her office yesterday morning.
Hasina said that her government will show zero tolerance against terrorism and militancy.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, PM's Deputy Press Secretary Md Nazrul Islam said Hasina informed the British minister that her government is working for a stable democracy to give it a strong footing.
Appreciating the government's efforts for women empowerment and its social safety net programmes, Duncan said that the UK would provide one billion US dollars as development assistance to Bangladesh in next two years.
To address the electricity problem, the premier sought more foreign investment in this sector, saying that her government is creating a congenial investment atmosphere in the country.
She said that her government has formulated a new national education policy putting emphasis on science and technology-based education.
The government, Hasina said, is determined to achieve cent percent literacy in the country by 2014 and introduced school feeding system to prevent dropout and increase enrolment, which is yielding positive result. She also sought British cooperation in this regard.
She mentioned that the present government is channelling more fund for improving the lifestyle of rural people.
The fund will be given for enhancing school enrolment, ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation as well as for capacity building of police and election commission, she added.
Thanking the premier for her all out support in establishing Asian University for Women in Chittagong, Duncan requested her to provide a piece of land to the Acid Survivors Foundation for building a world class hospital with joint collaboration of the foundation and the British government.
British High Commissioner in Dhaka Stephan Evans, Ambassador at-Large M Ziauddin and Secretary to the PM's Office Molla Waheeduzzaman, among others, were present.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
It sounds like Bangladesh is doing all the things Pakistan has eschewed in favour of buying bigger weapons and funding a bigger, cooler army.
Not all that it seems: see the Debka report below this one from Haaretz.
At least 40 people were killed when a Tupolev-134 plane broke up and caught fire on landing in northern Russia, an Emergency Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
The plane, carrying 43 passengers and five crew, crashed about 1 km (0.6 miles) from the runway at the airport outside the northern Russian city of Petrozavodsk at about 11.40 p.m. local time (1940 GMT) on Monday. The plane was traveling from Moscow.
"Preliminary information is that about forty are dead. The other eight are in hospital," the spokesman said by telephone. He gave no further details.
Russian nuclear scientists who planned, designed, built and put into operation Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr this year, died Tuesday night, June 20, when a Rusaero flight from Moscow to Petrozavodsk in northwest Russia crashed.
DEBKAfile's sources reveal that they were among the 44 passengers who were killed. Their loss is a severe blow to Russia's atomic reactor industry as well as its nuclear program as a whole, since the three, Sergey Ryzhov, Gennady Banuyk and Nikolay Trunov, specialized in running installations in tandem and synchronizing various systems.
The Russian company OKB Gidropress, Moscow, which employed them as chief planners of nuclear plants, is proud of having sold reactors to five countries including Iran.
The authorities have ordered an investigation to find out why all three senior nuclear scientists were aboard the same airliner in violation of Russian security regulations which prohibit more than one high-ranking politician, military figure or executive of a sensitive industry taking the same flight.
The cause of the Tu-134's crash is also being probed - although it has a notoriously high accident rate and should not have been used by the three scientists. The eight passengers who survived, who are in critical condition, are to be quizzed to find out what happened aboard the plane before it crashed.
The first assumption was that the disaster occurred due to human error. The three pilots missed the runway while landing at Petrozavodsk's Nikolay Trunov airport because of heavy fog. It caught fire next to a highway.
This was the worst Russian aviation disaster since April 10, 2010, when a plane carrying the Polish president, his wife and many other Polish dignitaries crashed in similar circumstances near the city of Smolensk killing 97 people.
Our sources report that Iran chose to buy its first reactor from OKB Gidropress because the Russian firm bills itself as designers, builders, planners and operators of nuclear plants, specializing in adapting them to existing nuclear systems. For Tehran this capability was critical because the Bushehr reactor is composed of systems made in different countries, particularly Germany, and experts were needed for synchronizing them into a smoothly functioning plant.
DEBKAfile's intelligence sources quote Iranian and Western intelligence officials as offering the opinion that the Bushehr reactor's mixed components made it vulnerable to the Stuxnet malworm's invasion of its control system two years ago.
The three Russian scientists spent February and March 2011 at Bushehr after the Russian Nuclear Energy Commission insisted that the nuclear fuel rods be removed until they were sure the plant would not explode. The rods have since been reloaded and the reactor went online last month.
Wednesday, June 22, the OKB Gidropress Company Web site ran a black-bordered obituary mourning the deaths of Sergey Ryzhov, 52, Director General designer at OKB Gidropress, Gennady Banuyk, 65, Deputy Director and Chief Designer and Nikolay Trunov, 52, Chief Designer-Head of Division.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2011 11:11 ||
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The trial of ten members of the outlawed Hizb ut-Tahrir is over in the Tashkent region of Uzbekistan.
A police source said, "The group leaders - Bakhtiyar Makhamatov and Nematilla Sakhibov - were sentenced to seven years in prison. Six group members were sentenced to six years, and the two youngest members of the group were sentenced to correctional labor."
Makhamatov, 30, was an imam. "He used his position to create an informal extremist religious group," according to the source. He said Makhamatov "gathered his supporters to advocate ideas of Hizb ut-Tahrir and Wahhabism. In fact, he called for overthrowing the existent constitutional system and recruited new members to the illegal group."
The group distributed extremist books and DVDS and called for joining the jihad for a caliphate.
Chief Chechen Ramzan Kadyrov criticized judges in the southern Russian republic for being soft on "terrorists and murderers."
At a meeting with judges in Grozny, Kadyrov said, "At the moment, we have a few criminal cases that are not being carried through to their logical conclusion. Bandits, terrorists and murderers are being released from court rooms because of the unscrupulousness of our investigators and judges."
Referring to the recent case of the Magomadov brothers accused of killing four policemen, Kadyrov questioned why the men, previously aquitted by a jury, were not being charged with terrorism.
Kadyrov said, "There is proof of their crime, but they were set free. It is necessary to arrest them again and review the case taking into consideration every piece of evidence available."
Kadyrov also demanded that the judges "change their attitude to work."
He said, "I bear responsibility for the security of every Chechen, and those who fail to prosecute terrorists and bandits violate the law themselves. It is unacceptable when selfish interests influence the decisions made by judges."
Populist anti-immigration politician was charged for comments against Muslims in case testing freedom of speech in the Netherlands. A Dutch court on Thursday acquitted populist politician Geert Wilders of charges of inciting hatred against Muslims, in a case that tested freedom of speech in the traditionally liberal country.
The court case has attracted attention, not just because of Geert Wilders' controversial comments about Islam -- which he compared to Nazism -- but also because of the increasing influence of his political party, which supports the minority Dutch government on economic and other issues.
The Dutch court late last year approved a request from Wilders to have new judges for his trial on charges of inciting hatred against Muslims, forcing the court to start the case again.
Wilders' lawyer had asked the court to replace the current judges, raising concerns about bias after they did not immediately approve a request to hear an expert witness.
"This gives me a new chance of a new fair trial. I am confident that I can only be acquitted because I have broken no law, but spoken the truth," Wilders told Reuters at the time, arguing that his comments were covered by freedom of speech.
Unusually, the prosecution team have also asked for an acquittal, arguing that politicians have the right to comment on problem issues and that Wilders was not trying to foment violence or division. However, the judges have the power to convict regardless of the prosecution's stance.
Wilders was right. Some strands of Islam contain fascist political ideology just like Nazism
And freedom to criticise religion is the fundamental plank of freedom of speech, something we must never lose.
go check out YouTube and WIlders' film Fitnah - it shows why we must protect our societies internally from this religious dogma. And bring the troops home from overseas. Time to stop avoiding the issue. It's domestic. We need to tackle the limits of multiculturalism.
#2
This trial has actually been a godsend to Wilders and his party.
Though they are the junior member of the coalition in power, the majority party has to do a lot of what they say, but it doesn't get much press. This is risky, because they could fade from public view before the next election.
However, because of this blatantly unfair trial, Geert has been front and center in the news as the good guy while being attacked by ideologues more than willing to cheat to win. What luck!
In any event, his next move should be for his party to lean on the senior coalition member to just eviscerate this hate speech law. Once that is done, to *not* come out with both barrels against Muslim extremists.
He doesn't need to, because everyone knows what he is thinking. So he should get with his party, and plan a platform that will just smite the left and the fanatics, kicking a LOT of foreigners out of the country. IF they are elected to the majority.
#3
First step , the abandonment of that crazy multicultural policy. The Dutch government says it will abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.
[KUNA] (KUNA) -- The Senate unanimously approved here late Tuesday the nomination of CIA Director Leon Panetta ...current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... as the next Secretary of Defense.
Panetta, who was nominated by U.S. President Barack B.O. Obama in April to replace Robert Gates, is expected to assume his new post in July.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... General David Petraeus, who was nominated by Obama to succeed Panetta as the CIA chief, will testify before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Thursday for a confirmation hearing.
Obama will address the nation on Wednesday during which he will unveil his plan for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
For some reason I can't get excited about a unanimous confirmation for a political hack and Clinton vassal.
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/23/2011 6:33 Comments ||
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#2
For me, the worst part is this hack may actually be the best person in the administration.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/23/2011 7:42 Comments ||
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why not have Gen Petraeus as the Sec Def and keep Panetta as the CIA Director?
[KUNA] (KUNA) -- India has described as "regrettable" the description of its northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmire as an 'occupied territory' by the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference) OIC is an international organisation with a permanent delegation to the UN, with 57 member states. It represents all countries with substantial Moslem populations (as opposed to the Arab League, which excludes members not of the Master Race) except those which member countries block from joining. These include India, which has more Mohammedans than does Pakistain, whose membership is vetoed by Pakistain... Secretary General Ekmeleddin Thsanoglu.
In a letter (sent from Jeddah) written to Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Thsanoglu had described Kashmire as an occupied territory. During the past six decades, Kashmire has been a cause of three wars between India and Pakistain. Thsanoglu's assertion assumes significance even as it came ahead of the resumption of composite dialogue between the two sides later this week.
Thsanoglu's letter also carried an invitation to Mirwaiz to attend an OIC meeting in Kazakhstan. Mirwaiz is the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), a separatist organization.
Addressing media persons in New Delhi, a front man of India's External Affairs Ministry on Wednesday said "We have seen reports that the OIC has again chosen to refer to Jammu and Kashmire incorrectly. This is most regrettable".
He added "The state of Jammu and Kashmire is an integral part of India. We totally reject any reference or description to the contrary".
The OIC is an international organization with a permanent delegation to the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... , with 57 member states. It attempts to be the collective voice of the Mohammedan world (Ummah) and attempts to safeguard the interests and ensure the progress and well-being of Mohammedans.
This reference of Kashmire as an 'occupied territory' comes just a day after Mirwaiz demanded inclusion of genuine Kashmiri leadership in the dialogue process between Pakistain and India for bringing about a permanent settlement to the Kashmire dispute.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Pakistain has pledged to grant more than three dozen visas to CIA officers as part of confidence-building measures following the US raid that killed al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now among the dear departed, though not among the dearest... and humiliated Pakistain, officials from both countries said Wednesday, but the visas have not yet been issued.
The visas are part of an agreement to rebuild counterterrorism efforts by forming what Pak officials call a joint intelligence team, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... to discuss intelligence matters.
The agreement was reached after talks in Islamabad between Pak intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha and top CIA officials, including CIA director Leon Panetta, ...current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... the officials said.
The visas will help replenish CIA staff on the ground, as some staffers were forced to leave when their visas were not renewed in the aftermath of the controversy over CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who shot two Paks to death in the city of Lahore, the US official said.
He was released after it was arranged that the families of the dead men would receive compensation.
There will also be some additional officers allowed in to join the enhanced joint intelligence effort to hunt high value al-Qaeda targets, the official added.
Despite repeated promises and assurances from Pak officials, the visas have yet to be issued, officials from both sides said. The Paks say it's simply a matter of time but would not say when they would be given.
The covert US Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden last month in Abbottabad, an army town not far outside Islamabad, severely strained relations between the US and Pakistain.
Pakistain was outraged that the US carried out the raid without telling it first. US officials said they kept the raid secret because they were worried bin Laden would be tipped off.
US officials have also questioned how bin Laden was able to live in Abbottabad for at least five years without the Paks knowing, although they have found no evidence that senior military or government officials were aware of his presence.
US attempts to rebuild the relationship with Pakistain have been bumpy. American officials say they have shared intelligence on four bomb-making factories in Pakistain's tribal areas, but Death Eaters were intentionally or inadvertently tipped off before Pak forces them. Pak military officials have denied they tipped off the bully boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... on Tuesday called upon political forces to work for strengthening the country's institutions and refrain from inciting clash of institutions.
"There is no single country in the world which survived or achieved progress after its institutions, including the army, were damaged. Do not speak against institutions. Do not talk about breaking them," President Zardari said in a speech at a gathering of PPP workers on the occasion of the 58th birth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto.
The President was critical of some political forces for speaking against the national institutions, advising them to think of the nation instead of their personal interests.
"Some imprudent politicians want to divide the army's officers and Jawans. It will have dangerous consequences," he warned.
Mr Zardari said national institutions, including the Army, were fighting against the mindset which had so far killed thousands of people, including Benazir Bhutto.
President Zardari criticised PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... for questioning the role of institutions and trying to pit the government against the army.
"He (Nawaz) wants the politics of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq," he remarked, claiming that the "mindset which took the life of Benazir Bhutto is on the retreat".
The President said some "political actors" were also disturbed over the government''s policy of reconciliation as "we allied with MQM, PML-Q and others" to strengthen democracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Chief of the politburo of the Islamic Paleostinian movement, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Khaled Meshaal, has arrived in Turkey on a hitherto-unannounced mission, the Turkish television station, NTV, announced on Wednesday.
The NTV said his presence in the country coincided with the Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas's ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... visit to Turkey to hold talks with bigwigs on current Paleostinian issues.
Hamas has recently mended fences with the other mainstream Paleostinian movement, Fatah, of president Abbas, following bitter feuds.
Turkey has shown greater interest in regional affairs, namely the Paleostinian cause.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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#2
Kicking muslims out of Spain has not discouraged claims of reconquering Anatolia. Giving Muslims land in the West Bank and Gasa has not discouraged claims of taking Israel. Damned if you do, damned if you don't because the religion of peace will not stop with the violence either way.
#6
I have a relative that works for a company that does custom CNC milling work. They have received an order for some *items*, a lot of *items* from a three letter agency.
#12
IMO the US-NATO + UNSC can't wait five years, i.e. 2015 0r 2015-2020.
As time goes on, the US will have only more Islamist-dominated/controlled Arab-Muslim Govts = Islamist-dominated/controlled Civilian Nucprogs, etc. to contend with. IT WILL NO LONGER BE "JUST IRAN", OR EVEN PAKISTAN.
THE ECON-TROUBLED USA + ITS VOLUNTEER ARMY CAN'T ATTACK 'EM ALL, + IRAN + RADICAL ISLAM KNOW IT.
* DRUDGEREPORT > AHMADINEJAD: IRAN NOT AFRAID TO MAKE TO MAKE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.
Iran, etal. "Rogues" is unlikely to declare itself a de facto NucWeaps State UNLESS ITS NGOS = NON-STATE MILTERR PROXIES [e.g. Hezbollah] ALSO POSSESSESS A POTENT ABILITY TO CARRY OUT POTENT NUKE-WMDS INTERNATIONAL TERROR AT WILL, ESPEC AGZ THE US-WEST.
BEIRUT: Syrias foreign minister said Wednesday the Damascus government would soon present an unprecedented example of democracy in the troubled Middle East, an extraordinary promise in a country facing an uprising against an authoritarian system in place for decades.
Hey! You there! Stop snickering!
Speaking during a televised news conference, Foreign Minister Walid Muallems comments were the latest attempt by the regime to blunt three months of widespread street protests against President Bashar Assads autocratic rule, a movement that has persisted despite a bloody crackdown reportedly killing hundreds.
We will offer an example of democracy, Muallem said, when asked about his vision for Syria in three months. There will be social justice, equality before the law and accountability.
The statements by the longtime trusted Assad aide went beyond the vague promises of reform the president made in a Monday speech, and amounted to a rare official admission that Syria has ignored basic democratic principles.
Muallem called for regime opponents to enter into political talks, and urged Syrian exiles to return, pledging that even the harshest opponent of the regime will not be arrested.
The news conference appeared designed to present a picture of regime confidence at a time when Assad is coming under increased attack abroad and at home, where the protesters call for his ouster.
The foreign minister said the international community is mired in the scandals of its military intervention in Libya and wouldnt repeat the experience in Syria, adding that Arab countries without exception supported Damascus. The Arab League on Monday issued a statement of support for Syria and opposition to foreign intervention there.
Muallem lashed out at the governments critics, particularly Europe, which imposed sanctions on Assad and members of the leadership over its deadly crackdown on protesters. He said European Union sanctions targeted the livelihood of Syrian people and that amounts to (an act) of war. The opposition estimates more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained as Damascus unleashed military and other security forces to crush the protest movement, which sprang to life in March inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.
The US also has imposed sanctions, but the European move was a personal blow to Assad, who studied in Britain and made a high priority of efforts to bring Syria back into the global mainstream.
We will forget that Europe is on the map and we will look east, south and toward every hand that is extended to us, Muallem said. The world is not just made up of Europe. He criticized France, Syrias former colonial ruler, whose President Nicolas Sarkozy has been seen as generally supportive of Assad in recent years, visiting Syria twice in 2008 and 2009.
France must stop practicing its colonialist policies as it is doing under the slogan of human rights, Muallem said.
He said Syria would freeze its membership in the EuroMed partnership, a loose program of cooperation between the European Union and the nations on its southern rim, including Syria, that was set up in the mid-1990s.
Muallem also denied that Syrian allies Iran and Hezbollah are helping the regime put down unrest. The US has accused Iran of sending reinforcements and equipment to Syria.
There is Iranian and Hezbollah political support for Syria to transcend this crisis and support for the reforms announced by President Bashar Assad, he said. But there is absolutely no military support on the ground. Of Turkey, whose leaders have called the Syrian crackdown savagery, Muallem said Damascus wants to preserve its relations with Ankara. I hope that they will reconsider their position, he said.
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06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Walid al-Muallem, Syria's foreign minister, has said the European Union's reaction to President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... 's speech on Monday showed it wanted to "plant strife and chaos" in the country.
Addressing journalists in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... on Wednesday, Muallem said his country - which has seen three months of protests against Assad's rule - would not accept demands from "outside Syria".
"None outside the Syrian family have the right to dictate or to ask. The Syrian affair is an internal affair and any intervention from outside is rejected," Muallem said.
Syria has come under increasing international pressure and sanctions over its brutal crackdown on a growing protest movement.
In his speech, in which he firmly backed Assad, Muallem said Syria regarded EU sanctions as a "war" against the country.
"We say to those in Europe who are criticising us that they should stop interfering in Syrian affairs and sowing trouble in order to apply plans contrary to Syrian national interests."
Muallem accused La Belle France of pursuing a "colonialist agenda under the guise of human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... " and said French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe had colonial "illusions."
La Belle France, which ruled Syria for several years under a League of Nations mandate after World War I, is spearheading attempts to get the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... to speak out against Damascus's crackdown.
'Best relations with Turkey'
Muallem also urged Turkey to reconsider its response to Assad's speech, which Turkish President Abdullah Gul indicated was not enough.
Muallem said his country wanted "best relations with Turkey".
"We don't want to wipe away years of efforts to establish privileged ties ...I wish [Turkey] would reconsider its position," he said.
The comments come as Ankara has distanced itself from Damascus and as thousands of refugees have decamped across the border into southern Turkey.
"There are very serious tensions between Turkey and Syria," Al Jizz's Rula Amin reported from Beirut in Leb. "They have been very crucial allies, serving each other's interests for a number of years".
Asked about his vision for Syria in three months. Muallem said: "We will offer an example of democracy ... There will be social justice, equality before the law and accountability.''
He called for regime opponents to enter into political talks, and urged Syrian exiles to return, pledging that "even the harshest opponent" of the regime will not be tossed in the slammer.
Opposition activists say more than 10,000 people have been tossed in the slammer since the uprising began and more than 1,300 civilians killed. They say 300 soldiers and police have also been killed in the unrest.
'Al-Qaeda involved'
Commenting on the violence, Muallem said that the killings of some security personnel in Syria indicated that al-Qaeda might be behind some of the violence in the country.
"I cannot hide the fact that some of the practices that we have seen in the killings of security personnel gives an indication that these acts were carried out by al-Qaeda," he said.
Syrian security forces rubbed out seven people on Tuesday after government supporters and opponents clashed in three cities, according to activists.
This came as tens of thousands of Syrians demonstrated in support of Assad in major cities, a day after he pledged further reforms in an address to the nation.
"Security forces opened fire when pro- and anti-government demonstrators came to blows," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said, citing witnesses.
"It is difficult to say who started first, but the army's armoured personnel carriers drove through the [anti-Assad] demonstration firing at people," a resident of Mayadeen said.
Two residents in Homs said security forces fired at protesters who had staged a demonstration to counter a pro-Assad rally backed by secret police and Assad loyalists.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Six heads of state, including those of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistain, are to attend a two-day "anti-terrorism conference" hosted by Iran, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday.
"The international conference on combating terrorism will commence on June 25, and will be attended by six heads of states and a number of prime ministers and foreign ministers," the official IRNA news agency quoted Salehi as saying.
The heads of state include Afghanistan's 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... Iraq's Jalal Talabani, Pakistain's Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari, ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... Sudan's Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president. Omar's peculiar talent lies in starting conflict. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its imminent secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. and Tajikistan's Emomali Rahmon, Iranian media reported.
"The West is the creator of terrorism and the East is blighted by it. We have high hopes for the results of this conference," Salehi said.
Sudan's Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over his government's scorched earth tactics in the eight-year-old conflict in Darfur.
Despite its blacklisting by Washington as an alleged state sponsor of terrorism, Iran has consistently maintained that it is the victim after attacks on its prime minister and president in the 1980s.
Iran also faces rebellions among its Kurdish and Baluchi minorities. On Tuesday, Iran said it had tossed in the slammer four suspected members of Sunni bad turban group Jundallah in Sistan-Baluchestan province in the southeast wearing "explosive vests."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
International Criminal Court
David Cameron
Chief Chechen Ramzan Kadyrov criticized judges in the southern Russian republic for being soft on "terrorists and murderers." 
Asif Ali 
Nawaz Sharif
President-for-Life Bashir 
