(Sh. M. Network)-Residents say calm situation has returned to Afmadow town of southern Somalia, a day after Somali and Kenyan troops have peacefully taken over the town from the Al Qaeda-aligned snuffies of Al shabab.
General Abdimahdi Abdisalan, one of Somali military commanders, told Shabelle Media that the seizure of Afmadow will enable TFG soldiers along with their allied Kenyan army to wipe Al shabab elements out of Jubba regions almost immediately.
Security analysts say this is the second major blow to the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... in less than a week when forces from Somali government backed by those of the AU had wrested control of Afgoye, 30 KM away north-west of Mogadishu.
Strategically, Afmadow locates about 100 kilometers northwest of the port town of Kismayo, the quiet provincial capital of Lower Juba region, which is the biggest and the most critical stronghold of Al-Shabaab snuffies in southern Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Key learning objective: Seize and hold key terrain, "wipe out" enemy, and the bullshit stops peace results.
(Sh.M.Network) Pirates accused of kidnapping a British couple off Somalia could be hauled to the UKto stand trial.
Paul and Rachel Chandler were seized from their yacht and held inAfricafor a year before being freed after a ransom of up to £620,000 was reportedly paid.
Now Government lawyers here are working with Interpol to arrest and extradite the Somali gang, who are in jug in neighbouringKenya.
It would be highly unusual for suspects to be extradited back to the UK for a crime committed overseas.
But both the Home and Foreign Office are keen to take a firm stance on pirates running amok off east Africa.
A source close to Paul, 61, and Rachel, 57, of Tunbridge Wells,Kent, said: "The family have been told that officials are keen the kidnappers do not go unpunished.
"Paul and Rachel have doubts about whether the gang would ever be brought to justice if a trial went ahead inAfrica."
The men accused of being the armed bandidos who boarded the Chandlers' boat near the Seychellesin 2009 are being tried inKenya for an attack on a French ship.
Paul has told MPs: "I'd like to see them prosecuted by theUKauthorities."
A Parliamentary report has said Britannia's failure to prosecute any Somali pirates due to lack of evidence "beggars belief".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The front man for radical Islamist group Al-Shabaab ... the successor to the Islamic Courts... Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Raghe alias Sheikh Ali Dhere, stated on Thursday that a coalition of forces, backed by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... , is involved in a military campaign against the bad turbans.
Sheikh Dhere read a long list of governments and organizations taking part in the latest campaign against the fanatical Islamists, mentioning Uganda, Æthiopia, Kenya, Burundi, and Djibouti as being allies of the Transitional Federal Government.
He added that NATO is supporting "the hostile operation".
"NATO, which is a military pact and made of the strongest nations on earth has joined the war," announced the Al-Shabaab front man.
He added that the coalition was meant to defeat a small fraction of the Somali society.
"Al-Shabaab is made of less than 5 per cent of the Somali society," stated Sheikh Ali Dhere.
Speaking through al-Andalus, a broadcaster run by the bad turban group, he wondered why all those forces were united to fight Death Eaters from a small proportion of the Somali society.
"We urge the Mohammedan Somali people to help us defeat this invasion from 'non-Mohammedans," he said.
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06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Kenya is mobilizing for the final push to capture Kismayu, the capital of the terrorist Somali group Al-Shabaab. ... the personification of Somali state failure... The new military stance was the centerpiece of President Kibaki's Madaraka Day speech on Friday in which he warned faceless myrmidons that Kenyans would never surrender to them.
The President's warning followed the most direct reference to the impending offensive by the Chief of Kenya Defence Force, Gen Julius Karangi.
Gen Karangi said Kismayu, a major source of financing for Al-Shabaab, would be taken before the mandate of the weak African-backed transitional federal government (TFG) ends on August 20.
"We continue to exert pressure on Al-Shabaab," said Gen Karangi, whose troops fighting in southern Somalia have joined the 11,000-strong African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... force in Somalia (Amisom).
"Kismayu... this target will happen before August when the TFG mandate expires," he added.
Kenyan forces this week took the Al-Shabaab stronghold of Afmadow to the South of Somalia while Ugandan and Burundian troops captured Afgoye to follow on their success in Mogadishu.
Addressing the public at Nairobi's Nyayo National Stadium during the 49th Madaraka Day celebrations, the Head of State said the government will hunt down and deal firmly with those threatening the country's national security.
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06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak has been found guilty of complicity in the death of protesters.
The deposed Egyptian president was wheeled into court on Saturday to hear the verdict in the case against him on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters last year.
His two sons, Gamal and Alaa, who are standing trial on corruption charges, also arrived in the court, where they stood alongside their father in the cage reserved for defendants. The charges were dropped against both his sons.
Mubarak's former interior minister, Habib el-Adli, also charged over the deaths of protesters, was also among the defendants in the cage. He too was given a life sentence over his role in supressing the January uprising.
Scuffles broke out inside the courtroom as presiding judge Ahmed Refaat handed down the sentences.
#4
No ally of the people of the United States may deliberately kill hundreds of people mostly peacefully petitioning government for redress of their grievances.
No prior service can excuse or forgive such an act, and anyone who does so, must know that the people of the United States will push them away from the public arena.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Tuareg rebels in northern Mali have rejected a deal with beturbanned fascisti to form a breakaway state there because of their insistence on implementing sharia law, the Tuaregs said.
The Islamist Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) have refused to back off from their demand for an Islamic state, which some members of the rebel National Liberation Movement of Azawad (MNLA) had already said was unacceptable.
"The MNLA's politicianship, faced with Ansar Dine's intransigence on applying sharia law in Azawad, and to remain faithful to its resolutely secular position, rejects the deal dated May 26, 2012 made with this group and declares everything pertaining to it null and void," said a statement.
The document, dated Thursday and signed by senior MNLA member Hamma Ag Mahmoud in Azawad's capital Gao, was the first official confirmation of the rebels' rejection of the accord.
From Timbuktu, an ally of Ansar Dine leader Iyad Ag Ghaly confirmed the breakdown in the deal, but also suggested that different factions of the MNLA were sending out different messages.
"We told the MNLA on Thursday that for us, the discussions are over. There is no going back," said Walil Ag Cherif.
He added however that representatives of the MNLA in La Belle France were not saying the same thing as those based in Gao in northern Mali.
And Cherif's comments appeared to be supported by those of a Mauritanian specialist on the gangs in northern Mali, who said the rejection of the merger by the Tuareg desert nomads was a sign of a split within the MNLA.
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06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
To once again paraph Antonio Bandaras - "AH YES, THE SECULAR-COMMIE-SOCIALIST-VS-ISLAMO/ THEOSOCIALIST, ... BFFS, ... SHOW".
Mali's neighbors still are all nervousy + twitchy, though.
* TOPIX > CALLS RISE FOR US INTERVENTION IN MALI.
* SAME > US TO SEND SPECIAL FORCES TO UGANDA [ + Kenya], as ostensib due to strategic MALI threat.
[Al Ahram] Officials in Tunisia's interior ministry said Friday they had banned a demonstration against Salafist extremism planned for this weekend, raising the prospect of fresh festivities on the streets.
Activists using the Internet had called for the protest for Saturday on the city's main thoroughfare, avenue Habib Bourguiba.
But in a statement published on its Facebook page, the interior ministry said it was illegal because nobody had asked for authorisation.
The ministry "reserved the right to react," the statement added.
On April 9, a demonstration on the same avenue went ahead despite having been banned but was violently broken up by the security forces, provoking widespread anger.
At least 15 civilians and eight coppers were hurt, Interior Minister Ali Larayedh was summoned before parliament to explain what had happened and President Moncef Marzouki denounced the "unacceptable violence".
One group of activists insisted that they had filed a request for this latest demonstration on time.
Activists called for Saturday's "day of anger" protest in response to violence last weekend in the northeast of the country, when radical Salafist groups attacked several cop shoppes.
The ultra-conservative Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... , some armed with clubs and swords, also burned down the shops of alcohol vendors who refused to close. They have been intensifying their attacks over the last 11 days.
On Thursday, responding to the attacks on the cop shoppes, Larayedh warned that the police were authorised to use live rounds.
"Those who think that sovereign institutions such as police barracks can be attacked with impunity should know that in such cases the law authorises the use of live rounds," the interior minister told news hounds.
"The state of emergency is still in force and we will take all necessary steps to restore security in the country," he added.
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06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Going forward, the pair will study how to authenticate chips and parts using scanning techniques that will distinguish between counterfeit and real components.
Bull. They're all counterfeit. Next time, buy domestic.
#2
No sense quietly informing Mr. Obama and the Yanks of their "back door." We'll just publish it for all the entire world to know. I think a news release by Sergei Skorobogatov would have a nice ring to it.
On an entirely different subject, how are things coming along for them with that nasty bombs on aeroplanes issue coming out of Yemen?
#4
This sort of thing had been predicted a long time ago, and its detection was just a matter of time.
How hard is it to replace a chip?
What other chips (non-military) could be carrying this kind of code? Immense potential to cause disruptions in many other aspects of life, e.g, chips controlling implanted pacemakers.
#5
From the source article: The
PA3 is heavily marketed to the military and industry and resides in some very
sensitive and critical products. From Google searches alone we have found that the
PA3 is used in military products such as weapons, guidance, flight control,
networking and communications. In industry it is used in nuclear power plants,
power distribution, aerospace, aviation, public transport and automotive products.
This permits a new and disturbing possibility of a large scale Stuxnet-type attack
via a network or the Internet on the silicon itself.
#6
in a related report, a similar back door was discovered in the chips used in the 787's computers. think of the possibilities; a terrorist could hijack the Screamliner from the comfort of his own cave and crash it into a building; once he gained control of the computer, the only solution to prevent it from hitting the WHite House, Pentagon, or other high value target would be a shoot down. the resulting PR nightmare would be a win for the bad guys. these revelations are frihtening.
Aid workers vulnerable as threats, abductions and killings increase in Hazara
On May 4, Maulana Abdul Haleem, a former parliamentarian elected from Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... district, warned women working in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) against entering his district, and said violators would be forcibly married to locals.
"If women working in NGOs enter Kohistan, we won't spare them and solemnise their nikah (marriage) with local men," he said.
Haleem, who was elected on a Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) ticket in 2002, also opposes what he calls secular education for women and says Islam does not allow women to work outside of home.
"We have taken the warning very seriously," said an NGO official, who asked not to be named. "A number of international and national NGOs carrying out their aid projects in earthquake-hit areas of Hazara division have been targeted several times before."
Attacks on NGO offices in Hazara:
Kohistan and other districts of Hazara division were amongst the worst hit in the devastating earthquake in 2005. National and international humanitarian groups responded to the crisis and began rehabilitation and development projects in the area. Most of these projects still continue.
A senior police official said hundreds of men and women work in over a dozen humanitarian organizations in various parts of Hazara, especially in Mansehra ...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south... and Kohistan. Local Talibs have carried out a number of attacks on the offices of such NGOs and killed their staff, he said.
On March 9, 2010, six people including two women were killed when the bully boyz attacked the office of World Vision, an international aid organization in Oghi tehsil in Mansehra. The dead were Pak employees of the organization.
On April 6, 2009, four people including three female staffers of a USAID-funded project Rise International were brutally killed by bully boyz in Shinkiari area of the district.
Unidentified bully boyz attacked an office of Plan International, a British NGO, in Mansehra on February 25, 2008, killing four members of its staff.
In March this year, Jandul Hifza, or Hifza Brigade, has threatened to attack NGOs, co-educational schools, cyber cafes, CD shops, and cable TV operators in Mansehra.
"A number of NGOs working in the region have received threatening letters from myrmidon outfits," said a security adviser working for an international NGO. "In such an environment, irresponsible statements like the one issued by Haleem create security problems for NGOs and their staff."
"There are several reasons behind these threats," says Bushra Gohar, a parliamentarian from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... . "The NGOs that challenged the status quo were threatened and intimidated. Clerics and groups misinterpret religion to threaten peaceful citizens, mainly women and kiddies," she said. "This is not a new phenomenon in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. Law enforcement agencies have failed to deal with real and perceived threats and their failure has encouraged such elements."
Rights activists who worked on sensitizing and educating men and women of Kohistan about politics and voting rights were also threatened. In the by-polls held on November 24, women in Kohistan district were now allowed to cast votes.
"I have asked provincial authorities and my party, the ANP, to take these threats seriously and take appropriate action," Bushra Gohar said.
Pakistain Humanitarian Forum (PHF), an alliance of about 50 aid organizations working in Pakistain, says there has been an increase in targeted attacks against national and international humanitarian organizations and their staff across Pakistain in the last four years. PHF says 19 aid workers have been murdered in the country since 2009 and at least 23 have been kidnapped. Five aid workers have been kidnapped and another three killed in separate instances in the first two months of 2012 alone.
Militancy in Hazara:
Hazara division had been comparatively peaceful until the military operation in Malakand, after which bully boyz fled to the neighboring tribal area of Kala Dhaka (now district Torghar) where local bully boyz led by Momin Khan and Maulana Dost Muhammad were already making inroads.
Soon they began subversive activities in the neighbouring districts of Hazara division, especially in Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan, attacking the offices of international aid organizations and cop shoppes.
Kala Dhaka was converted from a semi tribal area to a settled area in January 27, 2011 and renamed Torghar, in an attempt to safeguard other parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, especially the strategically located Hazara division.
Although the local administration and police deny the presence of Taliban in Hazara, journalists and tribal elders say bully boyz are operating in Kala Dhaka and Mansehra districts. Several Kashmiri jihadi group ran eight training camps in Batrassi forests and hills of Paka valley of Mansehra long before the events of 9/11. These camps were eventually closed down.
On February 20, 2010, bully boyz attacked Mansehra and Balakot cop shoppes killing a station house officer (SHO) and injuring nine other coppers. Eight people were killed in an attack on a public rally led by Amir Muqam, a central leader of Pakistain Moslem League, on July 11, 2011 in Battagram.
16 Shia passengers were rubbed out in a sectarian attack on a bus in Harban Nala in Kohistan on February 28. Outlawed myrmidon outfit Jundallah claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Locals say the attacks were carried out either by Lashkar-e-Ababeel, a myrmidon outfit headed by Mujahid Mohiyuddin, or the Momin Khan-led myrmidon group operating in Torghar. A local journalist, asking for anonymity, told TFT that Mohiyuddin was also named in the February 25, 2008 attack on the office of Plan International. The bully boyz do not have a strong organizational setup in the area like they had in Swat, and carry out hit-and-run raids, the journalist said.
There is speculation that international NGOs may roll back their operations in the region because of the threats, and that has concerned the local community.
"The suspension of activities of NGOs that are doing good work would deprive local communities of the much needed social services and development initiatives," Bushra Gohar said.
Continued on Page 49
Defence and foreign relations experts discuss ties between US and Pakistain in a conference in Islamabad
As state institutions refuse to admit their roles in the recent foreign policy fiascos, the situation can only be explained with one word: chaos. Participants of a recent dialogue in Islamabad said the parliament's demand from the world super power to kneel before Pakistain is over-ambitious and unrealistic, and there are various shades of opinions and tactics in Pakistain that lack coherence and consistency.
"The blockade of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... supply routes for six months in reaction to the Salala attack is ridiculous," former foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar said last week, at a Jinnah Institute sponsored policy debate on "Re-evaluating Pak-US Relations". "Such foreign policy issues should not be dragged for too long," he said.
"The decision (of blocking NATO supplies) after the Salala incident was a bold but unsustainable step," said Tanvir Ahmed Khan, also a former foreign secretary. "The situation is likely to deteriorate," he said.
"The parliamentary recommendations on Pak-US relations are very harsh, ambitious and undoable," said defence expert Gen (r) Talat Masood, speaking at the same event.
The participants agreed that public sentiments must not impede the formulation and implementation of a dispassionate foreign policy, based on the national interests.
What Morgenthau taught, Jervis preached and Kissinger practiced, the neo-realism based American foreign policy allows little space for emotions and sentiments. Hans J Morgenthau says: "The rational requirements of good foreign policy cannot from the outset count on the support of a public opinion whose preferences are emotional rather than rational."
Ties between Pakistain and the US have worsened over the last year. After a spate of issues like the arrest and repatriation of Raymond Davis, drone attacks, Operation Geronimo, the Salala attack, conviction of CIA aide Dr Shakeel Afridi, and aid restrictions by the US politicians against Pakistain, mutual ties have reached their lowest ebb.
"The drone attacks are not stopping anytime soon. Our strangely rigid stance has created a very difficult situation for us," said Khokhar. He said the mistrust between the armed forces and intelligence agencies of the two countries was aggravating the situation.
Polls in the United States show a majority Americans do not approve of Pakistain, and vice versa. State institutions probably have similar feelings. In recent years, hawks in the CIA and Pentagon view every Pak move with suspicion. The pro-Pakistain State Department seems to have failed to resist the pressure they were exerting on Pakistain.
Khokhar says nations with begging bowl cannot dictate their terms. In Pakistain's case, we cannot force the United States to make an apology over the Salala attack. "It doesn't make sense to bring the relationship to a standstill. There is a need to move beyond seeking apology and aim to work for a new working relationship."
Tanvir Ahmed Khan was more apprehensive about Pakistain's diminishing role in so-called Afghanistan Endgame.
It was expected that Pakistain would not be invited to the conference in Chicago to decide the future of NATO in Afghanistan. The invitation was extended fairly late, but the harshness of tones did not subside throughout the conference.
"It's a mutually constrained game, wherein Pakistain has some big stakes," he said. He assumed the political government in Pakistain would have been comfortable dealing with the United States if there was no pressure from the military establishment to make an unreasonably firm stance.
Gen Masood said the two-year rollercoaster ride of Pak-US relationship was taking a nosedive. He claimed the United States wanted to build a new democratic Afghanistan and it seemed Pakistain was not prepared to offer the support required.
They've been undermining since the 1990s. That counts as negative support, right?
He sounded pragmatic in saying that it would not matter if Pakistain had long-term strategic or indefinite transactional relationships with the United States. "It doesn't matter at all when the choices are hard or limited."
He said the recommendations by Pak parliament, which in fact are a long list of demands from the United States, were not doable. But he also underlined foreign relations are a two-way street.
Responding to a question, Khokhar didn't rule out the possibility of the two countries working together after the Afghanistan endgame, if the United States was serious in containing China and Iran. Pakistain may become useful again.
Khan said both the civilian government and military establishment were reluctant to accept the responsibility of flaws in the country's India and Afghan policy. "As a result, the political government has bruised, while the army too has lost some of its say in such matters," he added.
The experts were uncertain who was in-charge of engaging with the United States. Traditionally, the GHQ had the final say in defining the mode and scope of engagement with the US. But not any more.
"It's a total chaos here. We don't know who is controlling the foreign policy (of Pakistain)," concluded Khokhar, who was a known hawk when heading the Foreign Office during Gen Musharraf's regime.
A recent issue between Pakistain and the US is the conviction in Pakistain of Dr Shakeel Afridi, who helped the CIA find the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer exists... . Dr Afridi has sympathisers in the US.
Recently, conservative Senator Paul Rand from the State of Kentucky who heads the Tea Party Movement vowed to move a bill in next Senate session seeking American citizenship for Dr Afridi.
It seems the Democratic Party is not alone in being unable to conceive of a truly self-organized, grassroots political movement. This is the second time in as many days I've seen Senator Paul accused of running the Tea Party. At least the savants at The Friday Times understand it is a movement rather than a party, which is a start.
Dr Afridi has been locked up in bad boy-infested Beautiful Downtown Peshawar Central Jail after a dubious trial under British-era Frontier Crimes Regulations. Most of the Islamic fascistihe shares the jail with are pro-Osama, and he is at a serious risk.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#2
More bad news for Iran [indirectly] today, + by extension ditto the anti-War, pro-Diplomacy POTUS Bammer, as per avoiding anti-NucProg ground war wid the US???
* FYI TOPIX > PAKISTAN DENIES RETURN OF US MILITARY TRAINERS.
Actually, we do. The problem is like military strategy, US long term foreign policy (as opposed to goals and pipe-dreams of the current State Dept. crop) is based on the last war; in this case, the Cold War.
For many in the US, Pakistan's sovereignty claims ring hollow
"Tonight I can tell you that we are fulfilling our commitments and we are meeting our goals," US President Barack Obama said in a speech after the Chicago conference on Afghanistan. The US president said 33,000 troops would leave Afghanistan by 2012, and the first batch of 5,000 troops would leave next month.
"My impression is that leaders at the summit haven't been overrun by the actual developments in Afghanistan," Carsten Michels, a German analyst who closely follows the Pakistani tribal areas. "Now they are struggling to make it look like everything is going by the plan. Everyone who gets a closer look might want to disagree on that. But that is politics. NATO has to look united and strong."
While NATO had met primarily to discuss Afghanistan, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was also invited to Chicago. "We expected Pakistan to at least consider the fact that over 4,000 of our soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, and stopping NATO supplies has helped strengthened the Taliban," said a senior NATO source. "We expected President Zardari to have restored the supplies, but he didn't."
Pakistan has declined to resume NATO supplies because it demands an apology from the US over the Salala incident, in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed last November. The US president and the NATO secretary general refused to meet President Zardari one-to-one "to show their anger", the NATO source said.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is in Washington to explain Pakistan's point of view, said the conference "went as expected".
"We have a common goal and a common enemy, and we must find common grounds to enhance cooperation" - Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari
"Pakistan had an unconditional invitation and that is how it was accepted," he said. "The idea was to have Pakistan included in a global alliance for stabilizing the region and Afghanistan."
He admitted ties between Pakistan and the US were passing through a difficult phase, but "we have a common goal and a common enemy, and we must find common grounds to enhance cooperation".
"There are serious complexities between the two nations, and the biggest problem is how Pakistan is seen as destabilizing Afghanistan and the overall ISAF/NATO mission in Afghanistan," US security analyst Brigadier (retd) Carl Adams said. "We are very upset about the fact that the Haqqanis and certain other groups who kill our boys and destroy Afghanistan find shelter in Pakistan."
US withdrawal from Afghanistan:
President Karzai has announced that another group of provinces will be given in Afghan control next month. He said the Afghan National Security Forces will take over the security of the entire country by mid-2013. The US and NATO will leave Afghanistan by 2014, and a post-2014 operation plan has already been made. Britain alone has pledged $100 million a year to fund the Afghan military, and billions of dollars have been promised by countries like Australia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Estonia and the Netherlands.
But the government has other concerns that it believes are more important. "Our government wants complete respect of Pakistan's sovereignty," Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters in Chicago.
President Karzai has asked the British to take over the training of his army from the Americans after 2014.
"The countries in the region, particularly Pakistan, have important roles in ensuring enduring peace, stability and security in Afghanistan and in facilitating the completion of the transition process," the declaration at the end of the conference said. "We stand ready to continue dialogue and practical cooperation with relevant regional actors in this regard. We welcome the progress on transit arrangements with our Central Asian partners and Russia. NATO continues to work with Pakistan to reopen the ground lines of communication as soon as possible."
NATO Supplies and Pakistan:
In Karachi, that supplies 80% of NATO provisions to Afghanistan, the mood had been ecstatic. Transporters, mostly Pashtun, have been waiting for the resumption of the supplies. "Between 10,000 and 15,000 people have been unemployed because of the suspension of NATO supplies," says Ahmed Mehsud, a contractor in Karachi. "We demand an immediate resumption of the supplies."
But the government has other concerns that it believes are more important. "Our government wants complete respect of Pakistan's sovereignty," Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters in Chicago. She appeared upbeat about the outcome of the conference, and said Pakistan had the highest stakes among the 60 countries that participated in the conference.
"The spillover effect of instability in Afghanistan is instantaneous in Pakistan, and if there is stability in Afghanistan, the effect of that in Pakistan too should be instantaneous. I will completely disagree with anyone at all who says that Pakistan should not participate in such a forum."
But American security analyst Lawrence Alan Levine says the US believes Pakistan's sovereignty claims "in the successful mission to rid the world of the mass murderer Bin Laden, ring hollow".
"Many understand that terrorists based in Pakistan commit atrocities in Afghanistan and India - an insult to their sovereignty," he said. "As we struggle with economic challenges, many wonder why we send aid to Pakistan when they do not tax their own wealthiest citizens. Americans wonder why a man who arguably helped rid the world of a terrorist is treated as a criminal in Pakistan."
#1
Again, NOT GOOD NEWS FOR IRAN AS PER AVOIDING POSSIBLE ANTI-NUCPROG WAR VEE THE US.
As per POLITICAL-GEOPOL DIALECTICISM, the Mullahs in Tehran may publicly support BFF Islamabad, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit iff they were covertly pressuring andor funding Pak Politicos, Street Protestors to demand that the NATO supply routes be open???
E.G. TOPIX > IRANIAN INFLUENCE IN SOUTH AZERBAIJAN RISING DUE TO POOR ECONOMY. Many poor Muslim Azeris or other travel to-n-fro the Iran-Azeri border for everything, esepc as per Iran.
Azerbaijan is part of the vital post-Pak NDN for the US-NATO into Afghanistan, while [neo-Persianist]IRAN = RIVAL TURKEY = SEES HEGEMONIC "GREATER IRAN" = "IRANIAN UNION" IN THE C.A.R. + CAUCASUS.
[Daily Caller] A pro-Nazi association now operates a Persian-language website in Iran, promoting anti-Semitism and memorializing Adolf Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days as a politician somebody doesn't like... , apparently with the approval of the Iranian government and its censors.
The site, Nazicenter.ir, features videos of Nazi leaders and pictures of Hitler, and praises the Third Reich for nearly conquering the Western world. It also includes a public forum whose members routinely discuss their hatred of the Jewish people.
The site's primary goal, its administrators write, is to confront the "story of the Holocaust, which without a doubt has been taken advantage of in contemporary history."
Iran's Islamic regime strictly regulates all forms of communication. Hundreds of websites have been banned, and Iranians' online access to the free world is severely restricted. But a Nazi propaganda website is consistent with the proclamations of Iran's military and politicians, who have both denied the existence of the Nazi Holocaust and called for the destruction of Israel.
The chief commander of the Iranian armed forces, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, announced the doctrine of the Islamic regime in a recent speech. "The Iranian nation is standing for its cause," he said, "and that is the full annihilation of Israel."
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has openly called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that should be cut out. And Iran's president, Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly denied the Holocaust occurred.
Nazicenter.ir is hosted on a Web server in Germany and administered by two individuals who also own the Internet domain "NaziClub.ir."
The website, according to Google ...contributed $814,540 to the 2008 Obama campaign... 's "FeedBurner" syndication service, has more than 1,200 subscribers. Its online forums serve nearly 1,700 members, including some with online avatars named "Klaus.barbie," "NEW Heil" and "Heinrich_Himmler."
A published set of ground rules prominently displayed for forum participants includes the warning that "All members must respect the current laws of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran." The also include requirements that members should promote "the expansion of Iran's nationalism" and "make known the true picture of Zionism."
"We as an Internet media outlet consider it a duty to show the ugly and oppressive face of Zionism," the text continues, "which rules the world's media who have hidden its true face."
While Nazicenter.ir includes historical reports about Hitler's messages to troops and the Nazi military's operations during World War II, it also features an article about "the issue of race and ability, and IQ differences between different races."
On April 20 the site offered "congratulations" to its readers "with Aryan blood" on the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth. On May 9 an unnamed author republished video of a 1938 speech in which Hitler warned about the dangers Allied powers posed to "occupied Paleostine."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012 18:24 ||
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Iran has warned the United States not to resort to military action against it, saying US bases in the region were vulnerable to the Islamic Republic's missiles, state media reported on Saturday.
Their missile bases likewise are vulnerable to us. If you can hit us, we can hit you...
The comments by a senior Iranian military commander were an apparent response to US officials who have said Washington was ready to use military force to stop what it suspects is Iran's goal to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
"The politicians and the military men of the United States are well aware of the fact that all of their bases (in the region) are within the range of Iran's missiles and in any case ... are highly vulnerable," Press TV reported Brigadier-General Yahya Rahim Safavi as saying.
Safavi is a military adviser to Iran's clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was until 2007 the commander in chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the force that protects Iran's Islamic system of governance.
He also warned that Iranian missiles could reach all parts of Israel but played down any possibility of military action against his country as "faint" because of the current economic condition of the United States.
#2
Again, IMO Iran desires to isolate any US or US-led Coalition NAVFORS = Nuclear CVNS, USMC Amphibs, Allied to the Sea of Oman + beyond AMAP ALAP AFAP where Iran can make maxi use of its LR Air, Missle, Nuke-WMDS? Firepower.
Iff it survives any Iran first or preemptive strike(s), the US Fifth Fleet at Bahrain will prob come under LT Siege ala 1942 BATAAN-CORREGIDOR.
Iran is finishing construction of a new space center that will allow it to soon launch more domestically made satellites into orbit, the country's defense minister said on Saturday.
The remarks by Gen. Ahmad Vahidi's were the first confirmation that Iran is building a new space facility amid the standoff with the West over Iran's controversial nuclear program. The West is concerned the program masks efforts to make atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it's only for peaceful purposes.
Iran's ambitious space plans have also raised concerns in the West because of their possible military applications — the same rocket technology used to send satellites into orbit can also be retooled to make intercontinental warheads.
Vahidi, in comments carried by the official IRNA news agency, said the first satellite to be launched from the new center will be the Tolo. It will be carried into orbit by the Iranian-made Simorgh light booster rocket, he said.
Vahidi didn't say where the new facility, which has been named after the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is located.
Iran already has a major satellite launch complex near Semnan, 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Tehran, and another space center — a satellite monitoring facility — outside Mahdasht, about 40 miles (70 kilometers) west of the Iranian capital.
"Some 80 percent of the actual construction of the new space center has been completed," Vahidi said, adding that the new facility will send "satellites from Iran, the regional countries and the world of Islam into orbit in the near future."
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called for armed Syrian rebels to release 11 Lebanese pilgrims that were kidnapped last month.
The men were taken while traveling back from a religious pilgrimage to Iran and on Thursday a group called the Revolutionary Council in Aleppo claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
Addressing the kidnappers – who released a video broadcast via Al Jazeera claiming that the abduction was not motivated by sectarianism – Nasrallah said the innocent should not be caught up in any political disagreements.
"You said yesterday that you have no problem with a religious sect so you must prove this – these people are pilgrims and they must return to their families," he said.
"If you have a problem with me there are many ways to solve this. If you want to solve it with war lets solve it with war, if you want to solve it with peace lets solve it with peace."
"Solve your problem with us but to take the innocent people hostages for this problem is a big injustice that you must put a stop to."
The kidnappers had demanded Nasrallah apologize for a previous speech in which he thanked Syrian President Bashar Assad for his efforts in trying to secure their release.
#1
To me, this seems to be a potential powderkeg. If the rebels decapitate his kinfolk that means war. And a stated religious sect war at that.
With what the UN commissioner said, Assad has nothing to lose. Neither does Nasrallah. Pencil Neck and Hassan can make a pact to first clear the rebels and then turn around and clear out Lebanon. The Turks won't go against their best interests.
The truth or cheap politicking.
US President Barack Obama was behind the Stuxnet cyber attack on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities last year. Obama accelerated the attacks - codenamed "Olympic Games" - that began during the Bush administration, even after the Stuxnet virus escaped the plant and caused cyber destruction around the world, the New York Times reported.
The Iranian plant was hit with a series of attacks and during the weeks that followed up to 1000 of the 5000 centrifuges Iran had been using to purify uranium were taken out. After it took out Iran's facilities, the virus leaked and wreaked havoc on hundreds of thousands of computers around the world, including Australia.
Obama asked whether the US should "shut this thing down" during a meeting with the CIA director, Leon E Panetta, and Vice President Joe Bidenm but despite the minimal damage to Iran's plants and the huge collateral damage elsewhere, it was decided the attacks should continue.
The attempt was reportedly the first time the US has used cyberweapons instead of military weapons to take out infrastructure that allows countries to wage war. Obama was only revealed to be the source of the virus after unnamed former US, Israeli and European officials involved in the program came forward. The cyber attacks remain highly classified.
Forensic investigators from businesses, including anti-virus companies Symantec, were involved in dissecting the virus which was 50 times the size of a typical "worm" computer virus. They were unable to determine the source.
#1
I heard B-HO actually wrote the code himself. In addition to knowing everything about Judaism, he is also an expert on SCADA systems. Is there anything he can't do?
#3
US President Barack Obama was behind the Stuxnet cyber attack on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities last year.
And he started racing Nascar at the age of three without any lessons. And would have won except Richard Petty sneaked around him at the last second because he couldn't see out his rear-view mirrors very well.
And at the age of four he went golfing for his first time ever and hit ten holes-in-one. On a 9-hole course.
And he taught Cheech and Chong how to make those huge reefers.
And he taught them how to smoke the whole thing in one big drag.
#10
Developing the software and logistics like Stuxnet involved many players and took years to develope. For Big Zero to claim credit only shows the world how big a self-centered ass of a politician he really is.
#13
I heard that it was Obama - not Al Gore - who invented the internet. He's also too smart to be President: it's not challenging enough.
A little fact checking on the article: after the Stuxnet virus escaped the plant and caused cyber destruction around the world, the New York Times reported.
Stuxnet would go into action only if the plant had a certain brand of centrifuges and were arranged a certain way. (Don't ask how they knew the precise set up the Iranians used)
There was no chance of "cyber destruction around the world."
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/02/2012 12:32 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Can't help but wonder if he isn't trying to start a war.
[Iran Press TV] Hezbollah's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has urged the speedy release of the Lebanese nationals kidnapped by anti-government gangs in Syria earlier this month.
In his televised speech on Friday, Nasrallah called for the release of the Lebanese captives, saying that the Lebanese government is responsible for the safety of the abductees.
Armed men kidnapped 13 Lebanese pilgrims in the city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... while they were returning to Leb from pilgrimage in Iran.
The bus carrying the abductees came under attack on the Syrian-Turkish border by gunnies who took the men away and released the women.
An unknown Syrian gang has grabbed credit for the abduction, and demanded Nasrallah to apologize for his support of the Syrian government before they release the Lebanese nationals.
"Having a problem with Hezbollah or the Amal Movement over political views of what is happening in Syria is one thing, but taking innocent people hostage is a great injustice," Nasrallah responded.
"If you have a problem with me, then there are several means and ways to resolve this problem," he said.
The Lebanese resistance leader also reiterated his support for the Syrian government and said that dialogue and reform were the only means to resolve crisis in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"If you have a problem with me, then there are several means and ways to resolve this problem," he said
I don't suppose that bullet-between-the-eyebrows is an option?
[Iran Press TV] Leader of Russia's Communist Party says the recent massacre in the Syrian village, Houla, which killed over 100 people, is an intelligence plot concocted by the Western politicians.
Gennady Zyuganov noted that some Western politicians and media outlets have created a hysteria on the massacre which took place in the western village of Houla on May 25.
The Russian politician strongly condemned what he considered as "a blatant provocation" in Syria and asked for an international probe into the crime, which he believed would sooner or later turn out to be related to the Western intelligence, like what happened in Yugoslavia, Libya, and Afghanistan.
The Communist leader also condemned the Western states for their quick accusation of the Syrian government, even before the results of the preliminary investigation into the massacre were disclosed, particularly that the reporters and international observers could not give any evidence
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Title makes it look like the commies are admitting responsibility.
[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian holy man says Western efforts to strengthen the Zionist regime by arming snuffies in Syria are futile as Israel's expiration date is overdue and it is doomed to extinction.
The six-point peace plan for Syria put forward by the UN-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... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... was making good headway until the Western world started arming terrorist groups in the country in a bid to support Israel, Tehran's interim Friday Prayers Leader Hojjatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi said.
Since the Mohammedan nations of the region are all enemies of the Zionist regime of Israel, they must unite against this cancerous tumor, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Did you doom Israel yourself? You have that power? oh wow!
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Germany and Russia agreed on the need for a political solution to end the bloodshed in Syria, their leaders said after talks here Friday, as Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... warned the country could be on the brink of civil war.
The Russian president said the situation in strife-wracked Syria was "extremely dangerous" but underlined his opposition to military intervention, after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... on the second leg of his first foreign tour since returning to the Kremlin.
Amid mounting pressure for Moscow to drop its resistance to tougher UN action on Syria, Putin, who was later due in Gay Paree, warned at a joint presser with Merkel: "You cannot do anything by force."
"Today we are seeing emerging elements of civil war," he said after arriving in Berlin from Belarus. "It is extremely dangerous."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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(Rooters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... said on Friday it was "counterproductive" to announce that the mission of U.N./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... envoy to Syria Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... had failed despite ongoing violence and he stuck to opposition to U.N. sanctions on Damascus. ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... Despite the fact that it's failed, it would be counterproductive to announce the fact. That's logic. Of a sort, anyway.
"Mr. Annan is a very experienced and respectable person, and we must do everything for his mission to succeed. I think it is counterproductive to announce his mission as a failure in advance," Putin told a news conference with his French counterpart Francois Hollande. ...the impending Socialist president of La Belle France... "On sanctions, such question needs to be discussed primarily by the UN Security Council ... Sanctions don't always work. The main thing we need to do is to prevent the situation from developing under the worst scenario and not let a civil war take place."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"Mr. Annan is a very experienced and respectable person
The Putin performance and personality analysis, where would we be without it?
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.
(Sh.M.Network) Pirates accused of kidnapping a British couple off Somalia could be hauled to the UKto stand trial.
Officials in Tunisia's interior ministry said Friday they had banned a demonstration against Salafist extremism planned for this weekend, raising the prospect of fresh 
Aid workers vulnerable as threats, abductions and killings increase in Hazara
a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south...
A pro-Nazi association now operates a Persian-language website in Iran, promoting anti-Semitism and memorializing 
Mahmoud 
[Iran Press TV] Hezbollah's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has urged the speedy release of the Lebanese nationals 
Leader of Russia's Communist Party says the recent massacre in the Syrian village, Houla, which killed over 100 people, is an intelligence plot concocted by the Western politicians.
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
