Lots of photos at link. Intro here
A few years ago, a British officer said to me they want to get as far left of bang as possible. The farther left of bang, the better. Right of bang is a crater and a memorial service.
A main goal in staying left of bang is to disrupt enemy bomb-making cells. In the early days of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, if a bomb blew up our people, we would be apt to arrest every male in the village old enough to sport pubic hair. We paid for that with more blood and may or may not have gotten the right guys. It was as if we were dealing with a thousand mysterious unabombers. In America, if a bomb hit the local National Guard headquarters and the Guard responded by flooding out and arresting the entire neighborhood, the Guard could be assured that any positive or neutral feelings would be toxified to the point where previously friendly eyes would become enemy spies. The formula is simple and works every time.
Fourteen former Afghan Taliban leaders have been removed from an international blacklist by the UN Security Council.
President Hamid Karzai's government had asked the UN sanctions committee to drop the names from the list.
They include four members of the High Peace Council set up last year to pave the way for talks with the Taliban.
The Security Council said the delisting of the names sent out a strong signal of support for the Afghan government's reconciliation efforts.
The sanctions were imposed in 1999, when the Taliban were in power, and were expanded after the 9/11 attacks on the US.
"The international community recognises efforts made by members of the High Peace Council to work toward peace, stability and reconciliation," Germany's UN ambassador Peter Wittig, who chairs the sanctions committee, said in a statement.
"All Afghans are encouraged to join these efforts. The message is clear: Engaging for peace pays off," he said.
But according to the Associated Press news agency, the Afghan government had wanted 50 names dropped from the blacklist.
It had provided extensive documentation to show they had reintegrated into society, but the committee refused to remove them from the list, the agency says.
Following Friday's decision, 123 names remain on the Taliban sanctions list that imposes travel bans and asset freezes.
Analysts say the US and Nato acknowledge that they cannot withdraw successfully from Afghanistan, or effect a transition to Afghan forces by 2014, without an end to the war and some kind of political settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
h/t Gates of Vienna
Libyan rebels are responsible for arson, pillaging and abusing civilian populations during their march toward Tripoli in June. Some of these violations occurred, according to Human Rights Watch, cited by 'Al Quds Al Arabi' newspaper, last week when the rebels headed toward the Jabal Naffousa area, south of Tripoli.
According to HRW, in the last month the rebels and their supporters caused significant material damage, lit homes on fire, pillaged hospitals, shops and homes in four cities in Jabal Naffousa.
The newspaper claims these violations damage the image of the rebels, who wanted to be viewed as human rights champions.
Said violations can raise embarrassing questions for NATO members who, on a UN resolution, support the rebels militarily to protects Libyan civilians.
#1
Translation: Berber "rebels" are acting as Berber tribal levies have acted since there *were* Berbers. They're behaving in exactly the same fashion as their grandfathers and great-grandfathers did in Italy during WWII, and probably every other war which saw Berber light cavalry set loose in the proximity of anything not nailed down.
I'm just surprised HRW's not mentioning the rape. Give them time, I guess.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/16/2011 8:12 Comments ||
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#6
"In other news, Carmelite Nuns have been accused by HRW of 'Ongoing Rights Violations®' for telling young people at their many youth homes to "eat your peas".
Film at 11 (10 Central)."
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/16/2011 17:04 Comments ||
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In Jabal Naffousa (aka the Nafusa Mountains, central western Libya? I don't think so, grom, not unless all of the basic ethnographic data on the region available online is horseshit.
I don't know, maybe it is. I'm just a low-sloping forehead hick following along with the digital equivalent of a Baedekers and Google Map.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/16/2011 18:29 Comments ||
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On intra-rebel ethnic tensions, this is interesting. There are separate Berber and Arab levies organized from distinct Arab and Berber towns - Zintan fielding an Arab militia, Yefren, Jadu and other Berber towns fielding their own units/mobs/whatever you want to call them.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/16/2011 18:43 Comments ||
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LONDON: Libya is not ready to start pumping oil from fields held by rebels in the east of the country, a spokesman for rebel-held oil firm Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) told Reuters, dampening hopes for a quick resumption of exports.
We are not producing. Everything is under repair. I cant tell you a date to restart, Agoco information manager Abdeljalil Mayouf said.
The official was speaking in response to a report in trade publication Petroleum Economist that repairs at the Sarir and Misla oil fields had been completed and oil production was imminent.
Before the war, Libya was Africas third-largest producer, pumping 1.6 million barrels per day, but production has since fallen to virtually zero because of infrastructure damage and international sanctions.
Mayouf declined to comment on the extent of damage to oil fields.
Oil traders said they thought it was considerable and were not expecting a resumption of exports from the North African country in the near future. A Reuters poll of analysts and industry officials on Friday showed they expected Libyan oil production to bounce back to 1 million barrels per day in a matter of months if leader Muammar Qaddafi steps down. But it will struggle to return to pre-war output in the foreseeable future, they said.
That means spare production capacity for Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers will get eroded very quickly, Barclays analyst Helima Croft said.
In that event, the pressure on prices will be substantial as supplies tighten.
Oil prices rose nearly two percent Friday as analysts and investors again focused on the prospect of tighter supplies.
Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery rose $1.60 to $97.29 per barrel in afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude gained $1.14 at $117.40 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Despite sluggish economic growth in the US and Europe, experts say that oil demand from China and other emerging nations will drive global oil consumption for years to come.
Oil had its ups and downs this week, ranging from about $94 a barrel to nearly $100. Some of the volatility was caused by Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernankes comments about the possibility of another round of stimulus spending. But no matter what the Fed does, analysts say, it wont solve the expected supply issues that have been boosting oil futures this year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/16/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Look out winter. USA, England, and Europe will see some of the highest prices yet. China will be right in there paying for coal and oil like never before.
Russia, Norway, Brazil and some Arab producers will be in good shape (if Arabs can keep their people in order). Gee; I just remembered Germany is doing away with Nuclear, what a mess.
[An Nahar] Tunisian police fired teargas Friday to break up an anti-government protest in the capital, witnesses said.
After Friday prayers, hundreds of protestors joined a sit-in near the seat of government in the Kasbah neighborhood to demand the resignation of the interior and justice ministers.
The demonstrators were clamoring for the judiciary's full independence and the prosecution of those responsible for the deadly repression of Tunisia's democratic uprising earlier this year.
"We came here to stage a peaceful demonstration, we have nothing against you," Ziad, a young teacher who traveled some 120 kilometers from Kelibia for the protest, shouted at police.
"Our demands are simple: the sacking of the interior and justice ministers, sanctions against the criminal masterminds of killings and redress for the victims," he said.
An unprecedented popular uprising led to the January ouster of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, one of the world's most entrenched dictators, but youth groups have been critical of the new administration's performance since.
Armored vehicles formed a tight cordon around the ministries, locked in a tense standoff with swarms of young protestors wearing bandanas and t-shirts bearing pro-democracy slogans.
"We do not want the fall of the government but it has to stop bringing Ben Ali cronies back into the fold," Ziad shouted from an improvised stage.
"No-one can take the people's revolution away," a veiled young woman said.
Meanwhile in Ben Guerdane, a southern coastal town near the Libyan border, a group of young unemployed graduates who have been demonstrating for weeks staged a symbolic "general strike", union leader Houssine Betaieb told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The demonstrators claimed a "right to employment" and complained that the government has failed to deliver.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2011 00:00 ||
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TAIZ/SANAA - Yemens wounded President Ali Abdullah Saleh will stay in Saudi Arabia until doctors declare him fit, a Yemeni official said on Friday, denying reports that Saleh could come back in time for this weekends 33rd anniversary of his ascent to power.
Takes a while to heal from respiratory failure, thoracic surgery, lung resection, third-degree burns, and a trach.
Speculation about Salehs health and the likelihood of his return to Yemen have been rife since he flew to neighbouring Saudi Arabia for medical treatment last month following an assassination attempt.
Yemen ruling party spokesman Tarek al-Shami denied media speculation that Saleh could come back by July 17. That talk is not true. It is up to the doctors to decide on the date of the presidents return, he said.
And notice, they aren't talking...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/16/2011 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2011 11:45 ||
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This is a good thing. He is out of sight and mind. We and his neighbors should have fewer problems. The wealth or what's left should do some changes. The youth should spearhead as they have had the most to lose. The political family of Chavez will resort to many things to control the population and opposition. I don't look for him to do well. He wants to live his way. He shall have what he wants to eat of drink. He will go back to his old ways so the outcome isn't good.
#2
He will go back to his old ways so the outcome isn't good.
Or Chavez will come back so enamored with 'healthy lifestyle' that his decrees for how Venezuelans will live will make Mayor Bloomberg look like a piker.
Mexican security froces seized a total of 959.94 kilograms of marijuana, 100 kilograms of opium gum, MP $126,850.00 (USD $10,797.66) in cash, 16.7 kilograms of ephedrine and 2 kilograms of marijuana seed nationwide since July 7th.
A unit of the Mexican 13th Military Zone seized an opium processing lab in Nayarit state July 7th. Seized materials included 100 kilograms of opium gum. Chemicals used in processing the opium included 80 liters of an unknown liquid, 100 liters of acetone, 10 kilograms of sodium carbonate, five liters of ammonium hydroxide, 35 kilograms of lime, 10 kilograms of ammonium chloride and various containers.
A detachment of the Mexican II Military Region seized an amount of marijuana and other drugs in a raid in Tijuana, Baja California July 7th. The unit was dispatched via a citizen's complaint to Anexa Roma colony in the Zona Centro delegation where soldiers arrested three individuals and seized 600.5 kilograms of marijuana and a small amount of crystal methamphetimine. Six vehicles were also seized in the raid.
A detachment of the 22nd Motorized Cavalry Regiment, 45th Military Zone conducted a raid on a warehouse in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora July 8th. The warehouse was located at the intersection of the Tamaulipas alley between calles 15th and 16th, where soldiers seized 39.2 kilograms of marijuana in 39 packages. Weapons seized included three rifles, one handgun, three grenade launcher attachments, 133 weapons magazines, 40 rounds of ammunition. A vehicle was also seized in the operation.
A unit of the Mexican 5th Military Zone conducted a search of a railway car in Samalayuca, Chihuahua and found 111.54 kilograms of marijuana hidden inside a false bottom of the car. The train the car was hooked up to was bound for Juarez.
A unit of the Mexican 13th Military Zone seized an amount of marijuana and weapons at a checkpoint on Mexican Federal Highway 15 in Nayarit state July 8th. The checkpoint was set up near Ruiz, where soldiers seized 8.7 kilograms of marijuana, a rifle and a vehicle. One individual was arrested.
A detachment of the Mexican 15th Military Zone seized weapons and arrested three individuals in Jalisco state July 8th. The raid took place at El Rancho El Tecolote in San Juan de los Lagos municipality where a number of weapons and munitions were seized. Included in the raid were nine rifles, one handgun, nine fragmentation grenades, 33 weapons magazines, 878 rounds of ammunition, three scopes for rifles, MP $25,040.00 (USD $2,131.44) in cash and other contraband and documents. Two vehicles were seized as well.
A unit of the Mexican 35th Military Zone arrested four individuals and seized a quantity of drugs, cash and equipment in Puebla state July 8th. The unit was in pursuit of a vehicle in Juarez municipality with four suspects who attempted to elude the unit. Soldiers stopped the vehicle and found small quantities of marijuana, glass methamphetimine, MP $82900.00 (USD $7056.58) in cash and radio equipment inside the vehicle. The four suspects were arrested and the vehicle and its contents seized.
A detachment of the Mexican 15th Military Zone with Mexican customs officials seized 50,100 ephedrine pills at the Guadalajara International Airport July 9th. The pills weighed a total of 16.7 kilograms.
A unit of the Mexican 24 Military Zone located a bag with marijuana seeds in Morelos state July 8th. The seeds were found near a toll booth on the Alpuyeca-Xoxocotla highway in Puente de Ixtla municipality. The seeds weighed a total of .2 kilograms.
A detachment of the Mexican 24th Military Zone at Playa del Carmen in the municipality of Solidaridad municipality in Quintana Roo state arrested a man and a woman after a citizen complaint about retail drug sales in the area July 9th. Soldiers found small amounts of cocaine and crack cocaine and MP $18,910.00 (USD $1,609.64) in cash.
A unit of the Mexican 43rd Military Zone located and destroyed a hidden drug laboratory in Coahuayana,Michoacan July 9th.
A detachment of the Mexican 4th Military Zone acting on a citizen's complaint located a building with a number of weapons inside in Hermosillo, Sonora July 9th. In the building in Bachoco colony soldiers seized 21 rifles, 81 weapons magazines, 19,000 rounds of ammunition, 60 tactical vests and two vehicles, one of them stolen.
A unit of the Mexican 5th Military Zone seized weapons and rugs at an address in Juarez, Chihuahua July 9th. The location was in the Minerva coliony and included two rifles, one weapons magazine, six rounds of ammunition, 300 grams of cocaine, three stolen trucks and tactical gear.
A detachment of the Mexican 7th Military Zone located several packages of drugs in Santa Catarina, Nuevo Leon July 8th. The raid took place in Prado de Santa Catarina and included 24 packages containing 200 kilograms of marijuana inside two vehicles.
On Saturday, China advised the United States to cancel a planned meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama, saying such a meeting would be harmful to US-China relations.
"We firmly oppose any senior foreign government officials meeting with the Dalai Lama in any way," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei in a statement on the ministry's website.
Hong said China wanted the United States to "cancel the decision for Obama to meet the Dalai Lama as soon as possible, and not do anything that could interfere with China's internal affairs or harm China-US relations."
h/t Gates of Vienna
Israeli public transport company Egged has won the public tender to operate a regional bus service in the region of Waterland just north of Amsterdam from the end of this year.
...The Dutch action group 'Working Together for Palestine says Egged clearly supports Israels controversial settlements policy. One of the activists says in Trouw that Egged makes money from trampling on the rights of Palestinians.
The action group would prefer to call for a boycott against Eggeds bus service in the Netherlands, but will refrain from such a move because there is no alternative bus service in Waterland. A principled attitude.
[Dawn] The Foreign Office said on Friday that the United States cut of $500 million in aid to Pakistain was in response to the cutback in the number of US trainers in Pakistain, DawnNews reported.
The Senate's Standing Committee on Foreign Relations has ordered an investigation into the matter.
The committee meeting was chaired by Senator Salim Saifullah in which the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar briefed the committee.
"The $500 million cut in US aid to Pakistain is due to the drop in US trainers in Pakistain," said Ms Khar.
She further said that the US also withheld $300 million from the Coalition Support Fund.
According to the Foreign Office, the Standing Committee has proposed immediate suspension of all operations from the Shamsi air base.
Saifullah said there should be a formal understanding with the United States over the US-led war against terror and the visa policy.
He further said that the authority to grant visas to foreigners should only rest with the foreign office.
Moreover, the committee has asked for details of all US trainers entering Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Jamaat-i-Islami has opposed military operations in any part of the country, including Bloody Karachi.
Speaking at a meeting of party workers here on Thursday, party chief Syed Munawar Hasan said those indulging in arson and damaging public property must be dealt with an iron hand.
He said the MQM should be proceeded against in accordance with the law after the charges against it were proved in courts, adding that neither the government nor the opposition had the right to take the law in their own hand.
He said those killing innocent people in tribal areas to establish the writ of the government were finding themselves helpless in Bloody Karachi.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Sources revealed that Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, the commander of Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI), Founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Aktar. The Bangla branch was established in 1992 with assistance from Osama bin Laden. Recruits come mostly from Deobandi madrassahs. HuJI and Fazlur Rehman Khalil are signators of bin Laden's declaration of war on the west. who was reportedly killed in a dronezap in South Wazoo last month, is still alive, DawnNews reported.
Sources said that security officials of the United States and Pakistain failed to confirm the death of the HuJI commander.
He is still active in the border areas of Pakistain and Afghanistan, sources added.
Regional and anti-terrorism experts have long described Kashmiri as one of Al Qaeda's main operational commanders.
Kashmiri was held responsible for a number of attacks in Pakistain, including the May 22 siege on the Navy's air base in Bloody Karachi and in October 2009 on the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.
HuJI was believed by the United States to be behind the March 2006 suicide kaboom of the US consulate in Bloody Karachi which killed four people and maimed 48.
The US Department of State labelled Kashmiri a "specially designated global terrorist", adding him to a list of high-profile myrmidons.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Iraq will execute two of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers within a month along with three other former regime officials, an official said on Friday, a day after the five were handed over by the US military.
The group, transferred to Iraqi custody on Thursday morning, were among 206 high-value detainees still being held by American forces ahead of a US military pullout due by the end of the year.
"We received the final 206 Iraqi prisoners being held by US forces, including five bigwigs from the former regime," said justice ministry front man Haidar al-Saadi. "They (the five officials) will be executed within one month. They include Watban Ibrahim Hassan and Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti," two half-brothers of the late dictator.
Also among the group handed over and slated to be executed are former defence minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed and ex-generals Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti and Aziz Saleh Numan.
The five have been sentenced to death in different trials.
"Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari visited with the presidency council earlier this week and they agreed not to delay the ratification of their condemnation to death," he said.
"We believe that the council will sign the documents within days and they will be executed within one month."
Under Iraqi law, all death sentences must be formally approved by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, or by either of his two vice presidents.
The 206 prisoners transferred were being held by US forces at a detention facility on Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... 's outskirts, formerly known as Camp Cropper. Though the site was handed over to Iraq on July 15, 2010, American soldiers were charged with holding the group of high-value detainees.
Saadi said that of the larger group, the paperwork for 10 detainees had not yet been completed.
Saddam, who was deposed in a 2003 US-led invasion, himself spent three years in Camp Cropper until his execution on December 2006.
Watban Ibrahim Hassan, a former interior minister, was sentenced to death in March 2009 for his involvement in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants accused of food-price speculation.
He is the only senior Saddam-era official to have publicly apologised for wrongs committed by the dictator's Baath Party.
Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti, a former chief of Saddam's intelligence service, was condemned to death in the same trial.
Ahmed and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti were sentenced to death in June 2007 in connection with the repression of Iraq's Kurds in the 1987-88 Anfal campaign in which 180,000 died. Numan was handed down his death sentence last month over the violent suppression of an uprising of Shiite Mohammedans in south Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2011 00:00 ||
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A government official announced on Wednesday that so far 20,000 government employees have been transferred from Tehran to other cities.
So far, 20,000 people have been transferred from Tehran to other cities", the Vice President for Human Resources, Lotfollah Forouzandeh, told reporters after a cabinet meeting. The policy falls within the governments plan to decentralize Tehran. Those employees who are willing to go to other cities are given special privileges.
Forouzandeh said, Our assumption is that during the months of Tir (June 22-July 22) and Mordad (July 23-Augst 22) a number of other government employees will seek transfer to other provinces and this process will continue.
He also said changing the capital, establishing a single urban management system and a balanced development are under study by the government. Forouzandeh said job and education are the main reasons for immigration to Tehran.
We should prepare the ground for study and job in provinces to prevent immigration of people to Tehran.
The vice president said, We believe the path that we have chosen is correct and we must continue it. A decentralized government is also more protected from wartime attack.
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.
LONDON: Libya is not ready to start pumping oil from fields held by rebels in the east of the country, a spokesman for rebel-held oil firm Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) told Reuters, dampening hopes for a quick resumption of exports.
[An Nahar] Tunisian police fired teargas Friday to break up an anti-government protest in the capital, witnesses said.
TAIZ/SANAA - Yemens wounded President Ali Abdullah Saleh will stay in Saudi Arabia until doctors declare him fit, a Yemeni official said on Friday, denying reports that Saleh could come back in time for this weekends 33rd anniversary of his ascent to power.
[Dawn] The Jamaat-i-Islami has opposed military operations in any part of the country, including 
Sources revealed that Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, the commander of Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (
