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Tripoli Denies Rebel Capture of Western Port Town
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Army Ranger SSG Commits Suicide, Facing 9th Deployment
JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCHORD, Wash. - A soldier's widow says his fellow Army Rangers wouldn't do anything to help him before he took his own life - after eight deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army found Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann's body at a training area of Joint Base Lewis McChord a few weeks ago.

A spokesman for the base tells KOMO News that the nature of the death is still undetermined. But Staff Sgt. Hagemann's widow says her husband took his own life - and it didn't need to happen.

"It was just horrible. And he would just cry," says Ashley Hagemann.

Ashley says her husband Jared tried to come to grips with what he'd seen and done on his eight deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"And there's no way that any God would forgive him - that he was going to hell," says Ashley. "He couldn't live with that any more."

Ashley says her Army Ranger husband wanted out of the military.

"He just wanted to know what it felt like to be normal again," she says.

Staff Sgt. Hagemann had orders to return to Afghanistan this month for a ninth tour of duty.

Instead, on June 28, Ashley says her husband took a gun and shot himself in the head on base. She claims the Rangers never took his pleas for help seriously.

"There's no way that they should not have been able to pick up on it," Ashley says. "When he's telling them, he's reaching out ...."

And on Friday she found out she's not alone in wanting to speak out.

Mary Corkhill Kirkland lost her son Derrick to suicide more than a year ago.

She says doctors at Madigan Army Hospital considered him a low risk for suicide despite three earlier attempts. They sent him back to his unit - where he hanged himself.

Mary says she thinks the Army basically killed her son.

"My son did not want to die. He wanted help. He was crying out for help," she says.

Now Mary Kirkland is reaching out to Ashley Hagemann in her grief.

"You're in good hands, you're not alone here," Mary tells her.

"It's so nice to meet somebody else who understands," says Ashley. "Thank you so much."

KOMO News has contacted the 75th Ranger Regiment about Hagemann, but there is no comment as yet.

The two women are joining forces with several veterans and active-duty soldiers to speak out about what happened with Sgt. Kirkland - and what's being done to prevent further soldier suicides.
Fort Lewis has a severe problem, several scandals deep, with mistreatment of soldiers. This sort of situation is unacceptable.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/14/2011 21:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ft. Lewis I Corps commander General Charles H. Jacoby, Jr. is likely to blame for a whole chain of disastrous scandals at the post, and he has just been replaced by Lieutenant General Curtis Michael "Mike" Scaparrotti, who had better kick some serious rear ends, and soon.

A lot of America's best soldiers need serious help right now, and Madigan Hospital has been slacking off at best, and committing malpractice at worst, and soldiers are dying because of it.

To make matters worse, Jacoby is now in charge of NORTHCOM and NORAD, and will likely FUBAR them with all due speed as well.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/14/2011 21:28 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Taliban kill eight policemen in Afghan checkpoint attack

Though my heart goes out to the killed policemen and their families, something else caught my attention.

"Obama's announcement [of the first phase of a promised draw-down] comes amid growing calls from an anxious Congress for an endgame in Afghanistan and appeals from the military not to tie its hands against a Taliban-led insurgency."

BTW, what is the end game? Asking a bunch of illiterate thugs to leave us alone or else? In that case, perhaps a B-2 demonstration team should show them what the "or else" looks like.
Mike, I assume the text above is your comment, since it doesn't come from the linked article. Our convention here at Rantburg is that personal comments are highlighted unless you are submitting an Op-Ed, in which case you put your name as the byline and submit the article under Opinion.

tw at 1:15 p.m. EDT
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 08/14/2011 11:44 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Somalia wants humanitarian force to guard food convoys
MOGADISHU: Somalia on Saturday called for the creation of a special humanitarian force to protect food aid convoys and camps in the famine-hit Horn of Africa country.

The government and a 9,000-strong African peacekeeping force admit they do not control all of the capital even after the terrorist rebel withdrawal, placing thousands of Somali refugees who are streaming into Mogadishu searching for food in danger.

The pullout by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab terrorists insurgents has raised hopes that humanitarian groups will be able to step up aid deliveries after years of obstruction by the militant group.

Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali held a joint news conference with Valerie Amos, UN emergency relief coordinator, visiting the capital.

“We met today with Valerie Amos ... we have discussed the current humanitarian situation in Somalia and the best way that we can assist with humanitarian aid to the people,” said Ali. “We have also raised the issue of creating a special humanitarian force, which has dual purposes. First to secure and protect the food aid convoy, and to protect the camps and stabilize the city and fight banditry and looting.”

Ali did not say who would make up such a force.
Won't be Uncle Sugar.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Moslems are starving and killing one another ? How did that happen?

They need a "peacekeeping" force of about Divisional size?
Yeah? I wonder why, that would imply that the "government" didnt somehow have the capability to enforce their own sovereign writ in their own country. Must have something to do with the Moslem values and the consistency of Arab efficiency matched with the capacity to organize something larger than a shahid clusterfook.

But somehow starving Arabs out in the heat blazing away at one another and tearing into the women and starving children while they do it...well, what did you EXPECT from people with turbans on their heads?

OH, look there's one with a distended belly and LOTS of ribs visible coming out of the Mosque even as we speak. Its all Bush's fault. Ask anyone.
Posted by: de Medici || 08/14/2011 6:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds... um.... familiar.
Posted by: newc || 08/14/2011 13:29 Comments || Top||

#3  No thanks, we been there and done that. It wasn't appreciated the first time.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2011 16:00 Comments || Top||

#4  How about a resounding no.
Posted by: SPoD || 08/14/2011 19:47 Comments || Top||

#5  A humanitarian force. Will they have rainbow helmets, ride unicorns, and have super soakers for weapons?
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2011 19:52 Comments || Top||


WFP expands food aid distribution in Somalia
NAIROBI: The World Food Program said Saturday that it is expanding food distribution efforts in famine-ravaged Somalia, where the UN has estimated that only 20 percent of people needing aid are able to receive it because an Al-Qaeda-linked group controls large portions of the country.
What's the cut for al-Shabab?
Al-Shabab terrorists militants withdrew from most areas of the capital last week, a move that will significantly improve aid relief efforts, said Stanlake Samkange, the WFP regional director in East and Central Africa.

“We are expanding our activities in Mogadishu and we are looking to dramatically increase those activities over the coming days and weeks as the security situation in the city permits,” Samkange said.

On Saturday, the UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos visited the Somali capital, where she toured a hospital and met with people who had survived a long journey to Mogadishu to escape starvation. Amos said she could not imagine the plight of Somali parents trying to save their emaciated children.

“It is absolutely distressing,” she said. “We really have to do what we can. I know security is difficult but we have to do all we can to make sure that we help people who are absolutely desperate.”

The terrorists militants control most of central and southern Somalia, and have killed people who tried to flee starvation.

Aid is only reaching about 20 percent of the 2.6 million Somalis who need it, Mark Bowden, the UNÂ’s top humanitarian official for Somalia, said on a visit to Mogadishu last week. However, Samkange said WFP also was making significant progress in distributing food in other areas across southern Somalia, much of which could not be accessed only a month ago.

“The access situation is changing in southern Somalia because of the pressure and the serious condition there and we are responding to that very actively and very aggressively,” Samkange said.

He said there are still security challenges in Mogadishu. A World Food Program handout of corn rations turned deadly after government troops opened fire, killing at least seven people more than a week ago.

Residents of MogadishuÂ’s largest famine refugee camp accused government soldiers of starting chaos by trying to steal some of the 290 tons of dry rations that aid workers were trying to distribute there.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Would-be Mubarak assassin arrested in Cairo airport
Hussein Ahmed Shemit, who is accused of attempting to assassinate ousted president Hosni Mubarak in 1995, returned to Cairo on Sunday. His arrival was disclosed by airport security officials, who say he came from Iran via Turkey, together with his Algerian wife and five children.
Hiding out in Iran, was he? Wotta coincidence...
Shemit was arrested at the airport for a five-year prison sentence he was given years earlier, but his family was allowed to enter Egypt. Shemit will appeal the accusations of attempting to assassinate Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995.
I'm told Egyptians hold grudges for a long, long time...
This article starring:
Hussein Ahmed Shemit
Posted by: ryuge || 08/14/2011 12:04 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Bahrain by-poll to go ahead despite opposition boycott
MANAMA - Bahrain has confirmed that the planned by-election will take place on time next month despite the decision of some political groups to boycott it.

Al Wefaq National Islamic Society, the largest political group, announced on Friday to boycott the election. The group had won 18 out of 40 seats in 2010 election. Al Wefaq bloc resigned during unrest in protest over the deaths of protesters. Another opposition group, National Action Democratic Society (Waad) also announced that it will not participate in the election.

Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa told the Press on Friday that political groups that decided to boycott election have to deal with the results of such a decision. Participating in the election provides progress to political societies and promotes development, while those who decided to boycott previous elections have been sidelined in terms of the power of decision-making, he said.

The minister revealed that certain procedures would be adopted to prevent misuse of places of worship during the election, warning that the violators would face action. He said this election held would be as usual under judicial supervision to ensure its transparency.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
'Al-Qaeda chief' is freed after claiming he's had a 'change of heart' on terrorism
A SUSPECTED al-Qaeda chief detained in Britain has been freed on bail after penning a hand-written statement to show he has had a "change of heart" on terrorism.

The man, said by MI5 to have had links to Osama Bin Laden and a senior role in an Afghan terror training camp, has been let out to live with a pal.
"Go and sin ye no more!"
One MP last night branded the decision "insane" while a terror expert called it "worrying".

The Algerian, who can be identified only as "U", was detained in 2001 after arriving in Britain from Afghanistan in 1999. He has been behind bars or under house arrest since.
And why, exactly, must he be known only by an initial?
"U" has been officially classified as an "active terrorist head of a group of individuals in the UK with an international reach".

MI5 believe he had direct links to recently shot former al-Qaeda chief Bin Laden AND terrorists plotting to bomb Strasbourg Cathedral in France and Los Angeles Airport.

Britain wants to deport him to Algeria, where he could be jailed, over fears he is a danger here.
Certainly sounds dangerous. Certainly doesn't sound 'British'. Brits ought to deport him. If they can't send him to Algeria, send him to Gitmo. Or Ice Station Zebra.
He is appealing to the Supreme Court against the move. His lawyers applied for his release on bail to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.

Mr Justice Mitting, the judge in his case, said "U" had produced a written statement in which he "signalled a change of heart".
Does he also have prostate cancer? Only three months to live?
He said: "I am conscious, of course, that it may all be for show. But if it is for show, it has been the work of a highly-skilled actor.

"What he says in his statement is that he wished to have the chance to show 'how I and my world views have changed. I have seen the chaos and suffering caused by war and violence and want to see another way'."

Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: "This insane decision shows our courts have turned to mush."

Terrorism expert Neil Doyle added: "It is very worrying." The Home Office said: "We continue to seek the deportation of this individual."
Posted by: tipper || 08/14/2011 06:11 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Electronic ankle bracelet? Bug on his cell phone? Thoroughly bugged the pal's flat, and the pal's cell phone and the pal's computer?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2011 10:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Exile to the Isle of Lucy
Posted by: Frank G on the road || 08/14/2011 10:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Personally, for the hard cases, I think it would be best to put them on some of those barren islands off Scotland, with all the oatmeal and seagulls they can eat. They can live in rock huts, and have some goats to use for milk and wool.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/14/2011 13:30 Comments || Top||

#4  "and have some goats to use for milk and wool and entertainment"

FTFY, 'moose.
Posted by: Barbara || 08/14/2011 13:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Probably happened like this...
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2011 14:19 Comments || Top||


Former NYCPD chief to advise Britain on gangs
Former New York and Los Angeles police chief Bill Bratton will advise the British government on tackling the street gangs blamed for the violence that raged nationwide this week. Bratton, who had private talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday, said there are lessons from the United States that were relevant to the situation in England. Bratton, who since 2009 has worked for private security consultancy Altegrity and its subsidiary Kroll, is seen as having taken bold steps to cut crime rates in New York and Los Angeles.

Bratton said he believed the British government could overcome the problem, adding: "I support their resolve to seize upon this difficult situation as an opportunity to address the issues of gangs and gang violence and the resulting fear and disorder head-on." Meanwhile, Cameron has angered some senior police officers by saying he thought that initially there were "simply far too few police deployed onto the streets" in London, and that "the tactics they were using weren't working."

"Police chiefs have been frank with me about why this happened," he said Thursday. "Initially, the police treated the situation too much as a public order issue rather than essentially one of crime."
As was noted at Instapundit, the British are policing everything except crime...
Posted by: Pappy || 08/14/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bratton got his start here in Boston. My father in law and my wife knew him. Said he'd never be satisfied until he was named Police Commissioner of the Universe.
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2011 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  maybe he should have beaten the gang problem in LA an New York before giving advice!
Posted by: chris || 08/14/2011 1:01 Comments || Top||

#3  The PukeK has so many problems internals, why is it that they had the absurd ability to listen to Michael Savage and make a determination that he was a threat to their country and put him on their watch list? How come no enterprising journalist doesn't ask the Whore Secretary, how much time and resources where expended that came up with such a conclusion?
Posted by: Jack Salami || 08/14/2011 10:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Someone, please send for Colour Sergeant Frank Edward Bourne; B Coy, 2nd/24th Foot immedately. He'll know what to do!
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2011 11:27 Comments || Top||

#5  What is he going to do? Teach them how to hand the Police a bataan and a stun gun?
Posted by: newc || 08/14/2011 13:37 Comments || Top||

#6  No one can solve the gang problem in LA. NY's doing pretty well. And, after all, the NYPD is pretty much the only city police force in the world with a foreign policy. Look at Judith Miller's articles at City Journal for details.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 08/14/2011 14:18 Comments || Top||

#7  No one can solve the gang problem in LA.


Why do say that, Eric?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2011 15:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Or even, do you, which makes ever so much more sense. PIMF!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2011 15:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Because of the racial politics in LA and illegal aliens flooding into the city. Until you can get the racial politics sidelined and everyone to agree to use what force is necessary to break the gangs, they will rule sections of LA. Remember, regardless of what Hollywood likes to pretend, most gangs in LA are racially exclusive.
And the illegals just fill up the foot soldier sections of the gangs in LA, and get their training and their contacts in place during their time in LA. Several of the most dangerous gangs in Central America use LA as their training base, and so when they are deported, they already have a criminal skill set that they can use back home.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 08/14/2011 16:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Thank you for explaining, Shieldwolf. I've learnt so much since I found this place!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2011 23:39 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Kerry Kennedy goes to Guerrero: Encounter at El Charco
By Chris Covert

The Mexican government's war against indigent insurgencies cannot be explained without referring to the Chiapas conflict in 1994.

On January 1st, 1994, about 3,000 armed guerillas with the leftist Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) took over several towns in eastern Chiapas and torched several police and military buildings. The date is significant because it is the date the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. EZLN's sentiment was the NAFTA would further "marginalize" indigent Indians in the sierras of southern Mexico.

The war, at least the direct combat phase, was short lived. On January 12th a ceasefire was negotiated through Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruiz, of diocese in San Cristobal de las Casasa, a well known adherent of Liberation Theology which aided numerous communist armed movements in Latin America. The conflict then entered into a negotiation stage until 1995, when a Mexican Army unit overran rebel positions and surrounded them. The guerillas then retreated into the jungle. Their strategy charged to propaganda operations.

It can be said without contradiction that the Zapatistas probably rekindled a revolutionary spirit in indigent Indians throughout southern Mexico having lain dormant since the end of the Mexcan Dirty War around 1982. Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas had all three been the center of leftist organizing and violence during that time, and all three had felt the response of the Mexican national government in the 1970s.

But Guerrero became the focus of leftist conflict, especially on June 28th, 1995 in Atoyac de Alvarez municipality when 17 individuals were massacred allegedly by Guerrero state police while on a protest march near Aguas Blancas. The march was organized by the Organizacion Campesina de la Sierra Sur to protest the disappearance of a popular campesino leader, Gilberto Romero Vazquez, an individual who has never resurfaced. A video shot by an individual sympathetic to the state police can be seen here.

A year later, the Maoist Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (EPR) was formed on the first anniversary of the assault.

According to Wikipedia, the EPR has planned and carried out several attacks in Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas including six within the first three months of its announced formation, killing a total of 65 individuals most of whom are soldiers in the Mexican Army. Although Wikipedia claims EPR had no nexus with EZLN, both groups' operations territory often overlapped, although EZLN had moved into a presumably non-armed propaganda phase by 1995.

EZLN did not support the EPR, but the EPR did voice support for the EZLN. Both groups released statements this summer in support of Mexican poet Javier Sicilia's Movement for Peace and Dignity. Sicilia has long time ties with the Mexican Catholic Church Liberation Theology movement which was eventually dismantled.

Encounter at El Charco, Ayutla de los Libres

The Mexican Army in its military district system of internal security already had forces available to deal with this new threat posed by the EPR. It also had one of best educated, most experienced counterinsurgency commanders, Brigadier General Juan Alfredo Oropeza Garnica, commander of the Mexican 27th Military Zone, headquartered in Acapulco. Brigadier General Alfredo Oropeza was by all accounts a dynamic front line commander who vigorously took on the EPR starting with his posting in 1997.

Oropeza Garnica began his army career in 1962 and was American trained in counterinsurency doctrine in Panama. He also served at SEDENA's head of military intelligence in 1988. He served as assistant secretary of defense under General Antonio Riviello Bazana from 1988 to 1994.

Oropeza Garnica's forces encountered EPR forces in at least three separate firefights starting in 1997 and 1998.

The first in May, 1997 was at Guanabano in Atoyac de Alvarez municipality, which has been for decades a flashpoint of hostile leftist activity in Guerrero as well as home to the EPR. Oropeza Garnica himself was wounded in the ambush. According to Wikipedia, there were two engagements between Oropeza Garnica's command and the EGR in 1997 resulting in five soldiers and four guerillas dead. It has been suggested the next year's operation in June, 1998 was payback for the encounters in 1997.

Kennedy in her Huffington post release referred to the battle at El Charco in June 2nd 1998 in which 11 individuals were killed and five more were wounded. By some accounts offered by human rights and leftist groups in Mexico as well as by Kennedy, the peasants at the attack were simply unarmed individuals who were gathered to discuss "production issues" within the community. One witness statement said that individuals sympathetic to both the EZLN and EPR were at El Charco that morning.

Reports say that a unit of Guatemalan kaibiles, Guatemalan special forces, and elements of the Mexican 28th Infantry Battalion, part of the 27th Military Zone, totalling as many as 1,000 took part in or supported the early Sunday morning raid.

However, contradictory versions of the firefight state that the attack was on defenseless peasants who were conducting agricultural business, while one version, by El Charco municipal commissioner Panfilo Santiago Hernandez, says armed fighters were at the village, but were killed. The report also said that none of the wounded were armed and that the death toll of armed guerilla elements was four while the other seven were unarmed.

A subsequent 2004 joint investigation by both Mexican National Commission on Human Rights and an ad hoc group with the Guerrero attorney general's office said that the hands of all 11 dead tested positive for handling firearms. The investigation also ruled out that the attacking force used hand grenades, an issue human rights group keep hammering on in reports posted online. Ballistic reports on the raid also discounted close range gunfire, or coup de grace shots of the 11 dead, which is an another unsupported charge by human rights groups.

Previous charges by human rights groups in the area, now discredited say that military helicopters were used in the raid.

Human rights reports protest that following the battle a total of 22 individuals were arrested and transported to Acapulco for questioning which is in violation of current Mexican law. Human rights groups say at least one of the detainees were tortured for two days before being released. The 2004 report dismissed those charges based on medical examinations.

By 1999, three individuals who were arrested in El Charco following the firefight were convicted of firearms and sedition charges, and sentenced in a Guerrero state court. Four others are still detained in Acapulco on unspecified charges.

The encounter at El Charco, going by the existing descriptions was a classic early dawn ambush of an enemy at rest by a combined force of Guatemalan special forces and Mexican Army regulars, not quite the horrific slaughter of unarmed innocents human rights groups and Kennedy would have the world believe.

Even so, eight years after the fact, now Major General Oropeza Garnica, promoted by Vicente Fox in 2004, led the armed forces parade in 2006, a ceremony which usually precedes appointment to the head of the army. Instead, Oropeza Garnica went on to head the agency developing the Mexican version of the G-36 5.56mm assault rifle, the FX-05 Xiuhcoatl.

General Guillermo Galvan Galvan became Secretaria de Defensa Nacional. Oropeza Garnica retired in 2008.

Then snub of Oropeza Garnica in 2006 has been described as the price he paid for the encounter at El Charco. It is far more likely the Oropeza Garnica snub was part of the deal that calmed PRD presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his followers following his razor thin defeat by Felipe Calderon Hinojosa in 2006.

Kennedy's charges that indigent Indians suffered gross human rights violations at the hands of the Mexican Army at El Charco simply do not stand up to the available evidence. Indeed,it appears her charges are part of a Maoist group's information operation which she conducts to this day, albeit from the relative safety of Massachusetts.
Posted by: badanov || 08/14/2011 00:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran's first nuclear power station will be connected in weeks
Iran's first nuclear power plant, built by Russia, will be connected to the national grid in late August, atomic chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani told the Arabic-language network Al-Alam on Sunday.
Posted by: tipper || 08/14/2011 17:17 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But Iran was just whining that Russia wasn't fulfilling it's obligations in terms of getting the thing up and running. Who to believe?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2011 20:12 Comments || Top||

#2  will be connected to the national grid in late August

Yeah, but for how long?
Posted by: SteveS || 08/14/2011 21:29 Comments || Top||


Obama, Saudi king: Syria violence 'must end' now
[Dawn] US President Barack B.O. Obama and King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands #65;bdullah
... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old...
demanded Saturday that the Syrian regime "immediately" halt its brutal crackdown on protesters, the White House said.

Speaking by telephone, Obama and his key Arab ally in the region "expressed their shared, deep concerns about the Syrian government's use of violence against its citizens," the White House said in a statement.

"They agreed that the Syrian regime's brutal campaign of violence against the Syrian people must end immediately, and to continue close consultations about the situation in the days ahead."

The call came after Soddy Arabia, which had remained silent on the five-month revolt, added the Sunni Mohammedan regional heavyweight's voice to a chorus of criticism against Syrian 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 regime and recalled its ambassador from 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...
.Kuwait and Bahrain followed suit this week, while the Gulf Cooperation Council and 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...
condemned the violence that has left more than 2,150 people dead, including more than 400 members of the security forces, according to rights activists.

Turkey, which shares a border with Syria and has a large Sunni population, has also expressed growing impatience with Assad's scorched earth policy, as has Russia.

Washington has steadily ratcheted up the pressure on Damascus, imposing new sanctions and saying Assad has lost all legitimacy, but the US government has so far stopped short of openly calling for Assad to step down.

Assad's security forces have engaged in a weeks-long campaign of violence, using automatic gunfire on civilians protesting against the regime.

Soldiers and police have been trying to crush dissent city by city and town by town since pro-democracy protests erupted into a full-scale uprising in mid-March.

Rights activists say the latest casualties included at least three people killed as Syrian troops pounded Latakia and raided other towns.

Military vehicles, including tanks and armoured personnel carriers, converged on Ramleh during a "large demonstration calling for the fall of Assad's regime," according to the watchdog. It said the troop deployment triggered an exodus of residents, especially women and kiddies.

An activist in the Homs region of central Syria said troops backed by two tanks also entered the village of Jussiyeh which borders Leb, triggering a stampede across the frontier and to neighbouring areas.

Military vehicles, meanwhile, swooped on the town of Qusayr, also in Homs province, where security and intelligence services carried out arrests and killed one person, the Observatory said.

At least 20 people were killed Friday when security forces opened fire on thousands of protesters who rallied in flashpoint cities after weekly Mohammedan prayers.

Organization of Islamic Cooperation chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu meanwhile urged Syrian leaders to "exercise utmost restraint through immediate cessation of the use of force to suppress people's demonstrations," an OIC statement said.

The UN Security Council is due to hold a special meeting next Thursday to discuss human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
and the humanitarian emergency in Syria.
Posted by: Fred || 08/14/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  now that the "ONE' himself BO has spoken it must be done
Posted by: chris || 08/14/2011 1:00 Comments || Top||

#2  '' the violence has left more than 2,150 people dead, including more than 400 members of the security forces."

Interesting numbers. It is probable that this is a recorded number and that there are a bit more on both sides. Still, as wars go the numbers are actually rather modest. For people who are "unarmed citizens" killing a battalion size number of "security forces" is quite an achievement.

And the "protesters" have lost a single regiment of numbers. About what you would expect from a civilian force going up against professionals in uniform with a unified chain of command. For a whole country the numbers are almost trite, a mini Civil War.

But taken from another perspective they are ALL moslems and they are all dead moslems. I am sorry but that just puts French Vanilla Cream in my coffee. And you say where is my yearning for hearts longing to be "free."? Its looking at Syrians ( we are talking about Syrians) who want to drive the dirty Juice into the sea. A whole country of them. Syrians are not exactly YOUR friends are they? The ENTIRE greaseball country ( all of it) isnt my friend either. Its sole interest to me is that its a Moslem country packed to the walls with Death to Amereeka pig cursing a jew haters, pure and simple.( I mean these people are no exactly suburban good morning, now are they ?) And they are killing one another while I sip my coffee. And when they stop killing one another they will go back to thinking about killing kaffirs and Jews.
I dont have to be happy about Moslems killing Moslems, but I dont have to feel any sympathy either. Its what Moslems do to ONE ANOTHER a LOT of the time. It has something to do with their friendly religion of peace values. From one end of the Middle East to the other Moslems are whacking EACH OTHER. There is just something about being a Moslem across borders, it doesnt matter its wherever Moslems are, that they tend to gangbang and butcher the guy on their elbow. Its built in to wherever Allah has his backside.
It has nothing to do with "freedom" or a "better life" or improving the world" for the children". It has more to do with yelling Ya Allah and kill the Jew and the Kufr down the long hall of their rather large Abdrool noses.

Let's watch.
Posted by: de Medici || 08/14/2011 5:40 Comments || Top||

#3  de medici, I don't think they like you/
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 08/14/2011 17:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Heard from the top stealth fleet to be down for at least 6 more months, chip problems and something to do with the solar cycle really heating up and unforeseen consequences. Hope France has good biplanes left.
Posted by: Harcourt Thesing5501 || 08/14/2011 18:17 Comments || Top||

#5  "Heard from the top stealth fleet to be down for at least 6 more months"

yep; F-22s down for electronic and airframe problems, the F-35 hasn't made it to production yet ( if ever).. parking the -117s now seems kind of premature doesn't it?
looks like any airborne assets now need the Prowlers and Growlers to blind the radar of the bad guys.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 08/14/2011 20:00 Comments || Top||

#6  "de medici, I don't think they like you"

What was your first clue, RJ? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 08/14/2011 20:33 Comments || Top||



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Sun 2011-08-14
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Sat 2011-08-13
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