Morsi wins Egypt's presidential election
Muslim Brotherhood candidate declared the official winner with 13.2 million votes.
The Moslem Brüderbund's Mohammed Morsi has officially won Egypt's presidential election and will be the country's next president, the electoral commission has announced.
Morsi picked up 13.2 million votes out of just over 26 million, giving him about 51 per cent of the vote. His competitor, Ahmed Shafiq, the final prime minister under Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , received 12.3 million. More than 800,000 ballots were invalidated.
Farouq Sultan, the head of the election commission, delivered a long speech before announcing the results in which he defended the body's "independence and integrity" amidst what he called meddling by unnamed political factions.
The final results
Turnout: 26,420,763 (51 per cent)
Invalidated votes: 843,252
Morsi: 13,230,131 votes (51.7 per cent of valid votes)
Shafiq: 12,347,380 votes
The two candidates filed 456 complaints about the electoral process, Sultan said, most of them allegations of either forgery or Christian voters being blocked from polling stations in Upper Egypt. The vast majority of those complaints were dismissed.
Tahrir Square erupted into celebration after Morsi's victory was announced. Tens of thousands of his supporters waved Egyptian flags and chanted "God is great" and "down with military rule."
Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's military ruler, congratulated Morsi on his victory, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported. Reactions also trickled in from around the region: The governments of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the Paleostinian Authority congratulated the winner.
There was no immediate reaction from Shafiq's campaign.
Gehad el-Haddad, Morsi's campaign front man, said in an interview shortly after the results were announced that Morsi would work to be a "president for all Egyptians."
The president-elect is expected to take his oath of office later this month in front of the country's supreme court.
POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY AHEAD
Morsi's victory caps off more than a week of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Brotherhood and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). He claimed victory just hours after last week's runoff election, based on unofficial numbers tallied by the Brotherhood, but the commission delayed its official announcement until Sunday.
In the intervening days, Khairat al-Shater, the Brotherhood's political boss, met generals from SCAF at least once. Sources say they were negotiating exactly what powers the president will have.
Despite Morsi's victory, many of those questions about his power remain unanswered.
"This is not the end of the game, it's a start of a huge responsibility," el-Haddad told Al Jizz. "It comes with more challenges, turning from being the largest opposition group in Egypt to leading the country with its national front."
Shortly before the polls closed last week, the generals issued a decree sharply limiting the powers of the new president. It permitted him to declare war, for example, only with the approval of the military council.
SCAF will also keep control of legislative power, and the budget, until a new parliament is elected. Egyptians went to the polls in November to elect a legislature, which was dominated by the Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party, but it was dissolved earlier this month after a high court ruling found parts of the electoral law unconstitutional.
Saad el-Katatni, the speaker of the now-dissolved parliament, also met with officials from SCAF, and told them that the Brotherhood would not accept the court ruling or the election-night decree. But it's unclear whether the Brotherhood ultimately accepted those decisions in exchange for the presidency.
Either way, the military council - which has promised to hand over power to a civilian government on June 30, in a "grand ceremony" - will remain a powerful force in Egyptian politics, despite the election of a civilian president.
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06/24/2012 12:01 ||
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#1
finally, an Egyptian leader Obama will be proud to bow to
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/24/2012 12:48 Comments ||
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#2
"An Egyptian plumber in Alexandria beat his pregnant wife to death upon learning that she had not voted for Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi, reported the Egyptian daily al-Wafd on Sunday."
#8
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Head of Egypt Military Council Field Marshal Hussein ---] TANTAWI: EGYPT READY TO DO BATTLE.
ARTIC > TANTAWI = "PEACE IS NOT ASSURED" AGZ ISRAEL, ESEPC AS PER "EGYPTIAN INTERESTS", NOR FOR ANYONE WHOM CHALLENGES OR OPPOSES EGYPT'S ARMED FORCES.
[Al Ahram] Egypt's interim premier, Kamal El-Ganzouri, admonished journalists at a presser Saturday for "circulating rumours," strenuously denying recent media reports that prominent businessmen and governmental officials had fled Egypt out of fear the Moslem Brüderbund's presidential candidate, Mohamed Mursi, would assume power.
Some media reports said that former vice president and spy chief Omar Suleiman ... Now former Vice president of Egypt. From 1993 until his appointment to that office in 2011 he was Minister without Portfolio and Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID)... had travelled to the United Arab Emirates with his family closely following him. Many conjectured that Suleiman, who has always been at loggerheads with the Brotherhood and other Islamist forces, decided to leave the country in case Mursi assumed power. The same suspicions were raised relative to unnamed businessmen.
When asked by a news hound to comment on these reports, El-Ganzouri described them as "lies," and called on journalists no to report unconfirmed news. "As citizens you should not repeat allegations that could harm the country," he stated in an angry tone.
During the presser, El-Ganzouri, whose previous tenure as premier was under Mubarak, reiterated that his government will be relieved of its duties 30 June as the new president, set to be announced Sunday, will form a new cabinet.
El-Ganzouri was appointed by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in December 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Mursi (MB( just won the Presidency. Great job, Champ
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/24/2012 10:47 Comments ||
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[Yemen Post] President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... has held the Central Military Region responsible for protecting the power transmission lines and oil pipelines in the central province of Marib where most sabotage attacks take place against the public services.
In his meeting with the governor of Marib on Saturday, Hadi said the Elite Republican Guards, the Central Security Region and the leadership in Marib must work hand in hand in order to make sure that the attacks targeting the power supply lines stop, the official Saba news agency reported.
Hadi warned that he would take decisive actions if he felt that there is any sort of slackness or negligence on the part of the aforementioned government sides.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... a military campaign has headed towards Marib on Saturday with the aim of arresting the saboteurs responsible for the recent sabotage attacks that sent the Gas-run Marib power station out of commission with all of its capacity.
Local sources said that they expect the campaign to be a success this time and to carry out what it came for, arguing that the tribal chiefs of Jadan showed support and solidarity with the campaign intended to put an end to the sabotage attacks that have been targeting the public utilities since March of last year.
Sahwa mobile service said that at least 2 soldiers were killed and other three maimed in the ongoing festivities with the saboteurs in al-Jadan area of Marib. It said the military campaign which included heavy vehicles such as tanks was intercepted by saboteurs, igniting festivities between the two sides.
For its part, the ministry of interior circulated around three saboteurs' names in all security units, ordering the police forces to arrest saboteurs wherever they are seen.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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Serfs, indentured servants or slaves? Or does it matter much what we call them?
China has decided to allow 20,000 North Koreans to work in the Dandong area of Liaoning Province along the Apnok River separating it from North Korea. Earlier, China permitted another 20,000 North Koreans to work in the border cities of Tumen and Huchun in Jilin Province along the Duman River.
The 40,000 include many factory workers who lost their jobs when South Korea halted trade with North Korea in 2010 after the North's sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan.
A source in Dandong said the Liaoning government and North Korea's Committee of Investment and Joint Venture signed an agreement in April authorizing the dispatch of of 20,000 North Koreans to Dandong.
Under the agreement China will issue industrial training visas to 20,000 North Korean workers a year and pay them 1,300-1,700 yuan (W240,000-310,000) a month depending on the line of work.
Of which Pudgy will take 80%...
They will work in factories that manufacture clothes, food and IT products, or in mines.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Will this be the Chinese govt response as native Chinese labor becomes more expensive?
The White House congratulated Egypt's president-elect Mohamed Morsi on his victory in that country's presidential election, calling it a "milestone"...
The rest of the first sentence says something about Democracy, which is another White House lie. Islam and Democracy is like trying to compare apples to oranges.
Posted by: Glomoque Floluth8718 ||
06/24/2012 18:34 ||
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#1
I never thought I would see that headline in my life. How wrong I was.
Calling it "Obama's Surge" is actually misdirected.
Excerpted from Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan
The day after he arrived in Kabul in June 2009, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, then the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, gathered his senior officers to discuss the state of the war. The metrics were grim, the conclusion obvious: The Americans and their NATO allies were losing.
The part of the country that concerned McChrystal most was the city of Kandahar and the eponymous province that encompasses it. Founded by Alexander the Great in 330 B.C., Kandahar city has long been the symbolic homeland of ethnic Pashtuns. In the 1990s, just as every other band of conquerors had done for the past thousand years, the Taliban used it as a springboard from which they captured Kabul and much of the rest of the nation. If the Americans were going to retake Afghanistan, they needed to start with Kandahar. The author's conclusion. But why couldn't Kandahar be the last province retaken?
But the Pentagon had not sent most of the new U.S. forces that had arrived in Afghanistan to Kandahar. The first wave -- a Marine brigade comprising more than half of the 17,000 additional troops President Obama authorized in February 2009 -- had been dispatched to neighboring Helmand province, which McChrystal and his top advisers considered of far lower strategic significance. "Can someone tell me why the Marines were sent to Helmand?" the incredulous McChrystal asked his officers. Because that was a better place to start?
The answer -- not fully known at the time to McChrystal and his officers -- would reveal the dysfunction of the U.S. war effort: a reliance on understaffed NATO partners for crucial intelligence, a misjudgment of Helmand's importance to Afghanistan's security, and tribal politics within the Pentagon that led the Marines to insist on confining themselves to a far less important patch of desert.
As Obama battles for reelection, White House aides have sought to depict the president as an engaged and decisive leader on national security matters. But the Helmand deployment also exposes the limits of his understanding of Afghanistan -- and his unwillingness to confront the military -- early in his presidency.
Just weeks after Obama took office in 2009, Adm. Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged him to approve the 17,000-troop increase before the new White House had finished a review of war strategy. Mullen said the additional forces were needed to secure the country in advance of Afghanistan's presidential elections that August. But White House officials never pressed the Pentagon for details about where the new troops -- the first major military deployment of Obama's presidency -- were heading. If they had received them, they would have learned that more than half of the forces were heading to a part of the country that was home to about 1 percent of its population. Maybe Champ was too busy figuring out how he could spin the surge.
When McChrystal presented his troop request to Obama's war cabinet -- he spoke via a secure video link from Kabul to participants in the White House Situation Room -- he displayed a map of Afghanistan dotted with blue bubbles that indicated where he intended to place the new forces. Several bubbles were in Helmand.
But in more than two hours of discussion, the 14-member war cabinet -- which included Vice President Biden, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- never asked McChrystal why he wanted so many more Marines in Helmand. The civilians didn't know enough about Afghanistan to focus on that issue. They were also concerned about micromanaging the war, of looking like President Lyndon B. Johnson picking bombing targets in North Vietnam. Besides, if the military fell flat on its face, Obama was not to blame, was he?
Nicholson insisted that the Marines could be used more effectively in Helmand for three other reasons: It was the epicenter of poppy production, the Taliban were conducting more attacks there, and Afghan officials had told commanders that foreign troops should stay out of Kandahar city, given its religious significance. But Exum thought the new troops should be closer to the largest population center in the south, not where violence was worst. The drug argument similarly made no sense to him, because Richard C. Holbrooke, the State Department's point man for Afghanistan, had just announced that to avoid antagonizing farmers, the United States would no longer participate in the eradication of poppy fields. A CIA study also claimed that the Taliban got most of its money from illegal taxation and contributions from Pakistan and Persian Gulf nations, not from drugs. More Monday-morning quarterbacking at the link. Remember, it's an except from a book.
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06/24/2012 13:03 ||
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[Dawn] The US-Pakistain relationship appeared to be heading towards a head-on collision as an American general blamed Friday's deadly attack on a Kabul hotel on Fata-based Death Eaters and the White House vowed to take the steps needed to mitigate this threat.
Earlier on Friday, the US media reported that Washington had considered launching retaliatory attacks at terrorist targets inside Fata but concerns about destabilising Pakistain prevented it from doing so.
"We'll take steps necessary to mitigate that threat," said a White House official, while commenting on AP report.
Asked if the White House could send US soldiers across the border to chase down those beturbanned goons, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said: "I won't preview the kinds of things that are being discussed, and frankly, whether or not they're even being discussed by the administration."
But, he said, he could share with the news hounds that "this threat is something that we have talked about quite extensively both publicly and privately."
The White House official pointed out that the US had raised this issue with the Paks and remained committed to finding ways to work with them to combat the threat that these groups posed both to US forces and innocent Pak civilians.
Earlier, the commander of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces in Afghanistan said that the deadly attack on the Kabul hotel bore the signature of the Haqqani group which he said continued to operate from Pakistain. ... as opposed to, for instance, Guatamala...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Ahmadinejad repor has re-iterated that warning that Pakistan's enemies are its enemies.
[Dawn] Pakistain's top judge has said that the Parliament cannot legislate any law repugnant to Constitution, injunctions of Islam and contrary to fundamental laws.
"If such law is promulgated, Supreme Court under its power of Judicial Review can review it. The underlying object of judicial review is to check abuse of power by public functionaries and ensuring just and fair treatment to citizens in accordance with law and constitutional norms."
Chief Justice of Pakistain Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry was speaking to a 50-member delegation of Youth Parliament on Saturday at the Supreme Court Building in Islamabad.
The CJ said: "The system in our country is parliamentary system. From 1973 onward there have been National Assemblies and Senate but on account of Constitutional turmoil time and again there had been intervention in Parliamentary System, therefore, the expectations of people attached with Parliament could not be fulfilled. Parliament is required to give laws in accordance with Constitution for betterment of public on the lam so that laws can be made applicable."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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PPP and establishment
Writing in Jang Irfan Siddiqi stated that it was not correct to say that IJI was formed in 1909s to prevent Benazir from getting into power. Major Amir who was once an ISI officer has become a political thinker (mudabbir) after taking part in the famous Midnight Jackals scam. He has said that while IJI was meant to stand against the PPP its target was to make Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi of the PPP the next prime minister in place of Benazir. After she was ousted from power in 1990 and Jatoi was promptly made caretaker prime minister to 'manage' the next general election in favour of the IJI. The establishment preferred Jatoi to Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... to avoid problems from Sindh.
General Kakar's secret link with Benazir
Columnist Irfan Siddiqi wrote in Jang that it may not be correct to say that the establishment is always hostile to PPP because in 1993 Benazir was secretly connected with Army Chief General Waheed Kakar. She was brought to Islamabad in a special plane and Nawaz Sharif was sent home by the general.
Establishment against Nawaz Sharif
Revealing that establishment was anti-Nawaz Sharif columnist Irfan Siddiqi revealed in Jang that in 1993 before kicking out the Nawaz Sharif government President Ghulam Ishaq Khan had reached a secret understanding with the PPP. Before this President Ghulam Ishaq Khan had a special cell in the presidency collecting cases against Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... but the next cabinet under Prime Minister Balakh Sher Mazari featured Zardari as a minister.
Hindu girls as false brides
Daily Mashriq reported that parents of the Hindu girls who converted to Islam and then married Mohammedans men protested in front of the Supreme Court in Islamabad that their daughters were unfairly allowed to go with the Mohammedan husbands. They said that the girls while away from the Mohammedan husbands told them they did not want to be false brides because they were kidnapped by a PPP leader and MNA Mian Mithu.
Islam cannot be enforced because of sects
Quoted in Jinnah Ahle Hadith leader Hafiz Zubair Zaheer stated that Islam could not be enforced in Pakistain because of sectarian differences. He said rulers, politicians and civil military bureaucracy were not in favour of a pure Islamic system.
Pakistain helped US kill Osama!
Quoted in Jang Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar stated that Pakistain government and Army had a part in the death of the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing... . After that opponents of government may want to use Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... Commission to trap the government and unseat it but Allah will save! Jang also reported that in a TV discussion PPP and the PMLN both thought that the Abbottabad commission was nothing but a farce (topi drama).
Taliban victory will dangerous
Quoted in Mashriq General Khalid Rabbani of 11 corps on the Afghan-Pakistain border stated that a victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan will be dangerous for Pakistain because it will strengthen the Tehrik Taliban Pakistain and inflict more terrorism on Pak people. He also said that if the drones did not involve civilian casualties they could help in putting an end to terrorism.
Baloch ministers as criminals
President PPP Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Sadiq Imrani was quoted in Jang as saying that the ministers in the Balochistan cabinet were involved in crimes. When the bureaucracy did not give their share from the money made through corruption they got gangs to fire on their houses. He said there was no such thing as government in Balochistan.
Dr AQ Khan on Nawaz Sharif
Writing in Jang father of the Pak nuclear bomb Dr AQ Khan stated that right after Nawaz Sharif became the chief minister of Punjab his Ittefaq Foundry swelled into 30 big industrial establishments making steel, sugar, paper, textiles, etc, with an annual income of $400 million. Then the Motorway was made at the cost of Rs20 billion. Then at the cost of $700 million about 50,000 cars were imported in Yellow Cab Scheme by borrowing money from one bank and placing orders for cars at another bank. People linked to the party bravely ran away with cars including Mercedes cars causing a loss of $500 million to the banks but the Sharif family got $60 million from it according to revelations made by the next PPP government.
Rasheed on Nawaz Sharif
World famous columnist Haroon Rasheed write in Jang that during the Bhutto period the Sharif family came under attack of nationalisation and lost all its assets as industrialists during the decade of the 1970s. But today their assets are strewn all over the world and only in London they have invested millions of dollar and no law can convict them.
About Governor Syed Masud Kausar
Writing in Jang Saleem Safi stated that Khwaja Muhammad Khan Hoti (now in Tehrik Insaf) had once thrown a party for PPP friends while General Musharraf as president was also in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar. Present in the party was also the current governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Barrister Syed Masud Kausar (after whose appointment FATA is today subject to chaos or loot-maar) who said that Musharraf was just like a PPP jiyala in having a good time but was not responding to his overtures.
Azam Hoti and Nasim Wali's sacred sugar
Columnist Saleem Safi wrote in Jang that the father of the present chief minister and brother of Wali Khan's wife Nasim Wali Khan - Azam Hoti - fell foul of the brigadier in charge of Peshawar after the takeover of General Musharraf in 1999 and was hauled before a court. Azam Hoti's lawyers appealed to the court for mercy because of his ill health while Nasim Wali Khan was putting scared sugar (with special prayers breathed on it) in Azam Khan Hoti's mouth.
End this internal fight!
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang to tell General Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... that he should end the war against the Taliban as soon as possible because Pakistain's enemy is not internal but external and Pakistain has to unite against the external enemy. For that to happen all aspects of difference that cause internal festivities should be removed and the nation should stand up as one to face the enemy from without.
Kick out politicians, bring in technocrats!
Famous father of Pak bomb Dr AQ Khan wrote in Jang that politicians were destroying the country and now technocrats should be brought in to save it. He said he did not cry at the death of his father but cried at the separation of East Pakistain. Bhutto never called him, he offered his services to Bhutto. He told Pak Army that if you don't make the bomb you will be finished in ten years. He said India nearly died (jaan nikal gayee) after he successfully tested his Ghauri missile.
Osama fired from Al Qaeda in 2003
Talking to Mashriq Brig (Retd) Shaukat Qadir said that Osama was laid off by Al Qaeda in 2003 after which he was living as a retired gentleman. He came to Kohat in 2002 (the year he got a kidney implant) and then went to Shangla and Haripur in 2003 and to Abbottabad in 2005. He fathered four children in Haripur and Abbottabad. Daily Mashriq also reported from Abbottabad that like the people of Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... people there also did not believe that anything unusual had happened. They believed Osama's dead body was brought to Abbottabad and a drama was staged.
[An Nahar] A leader of the ruling Hamas said Saturday the militant group had agreed to try anew an Egypt-brokered ceasefire with Israel, after six days of bloodshed in and around the Gaza Strip.
Hamas and "the Palestinian resistance factions will respect the truce as long as the (forces) of the occupation do the same and that's what we told our Egyptian brothers who demanded that we cease fire," Ayman Taha told Agence France Presse.
"The Egyptians have demanded that the (forces) of the occupation stop their aggression and have informed us that they are prepared to do so," he added.
"We told them that we shall respond to calm with calm; if the occupier stops (its attacks) there will be no further retaliation by the resistance factions."
An official close to the group said the truce would take effect from midnight (21:00 GMT).
Earlier in the day Hamas threatened to call off a previous truce attempt announced on Wednesday which was unraveling, with Palestinian officials reporting three Palestinians killed and dozens wounded in seven Israeli air strikes Saturday.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said that by Saturday evening 24 rockets had slammed into southern Israel from Gaza, with another five brought down by its Iron Dome air defense system.
More were said to have fallen at sea or inside the Gaza Strip itself.
A man in the town of Sderot was injured in one attack during the morning, Israeli police said.
The current round of Israeli attacks and Palestinian retaliation began with air strikes Monday morning, just hours after gunmen from Sinai carried out an ambush along Israel's southern border with Egypt, killing an Israeli civilian.
Israel has said its sudden spike in Gaza operations was "in no way related" to the Sinai border incident, with the military saying the air force was targeting militants poised to attack the Jewish state.
Since Monday Palestinians have reported 15 dead in Gaza strikes, with dozens wounded. At least 150 rockets and mortar shells have hit Israel, wounding five people, among them four border police officers.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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In which our hero reveals that which disinterested observers realized long ago, plus a few more conventional bits of Palestinian boilerplate.
[Jerusalem Post] PA PM says Gazoo-based group avoiding elections because it is pessimistic about results; condemns Netanyahu over settlements.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has been avoiding elections because it is pessimistic about their outcome, Paleostinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad ...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either... said in an interview with The Washinton Post published Friday.
"It is a well-known fact borne out by various opinion polls that there has been a steady erosion in Hamas's standing, both in the West Bank and Gazoo," Fayyad said. "I believe that is why they have been dodging elections."
Why then, pray tell, has the PA avoided elections?
Fayyad said that it was unacceptable that elections have not been held recently in the Paleostinian Authority, calling a vote "overdue" and saying that it is "something I believe is going to happen, and I hope sooner rather than later." PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... was elected on January 15, 2005 for a four-year term, but remains in office due to the indefinite postponement of elections. The Paleostinian Legislative Council, which sits in Gazoo, was last elected to a four-year term on January 25, 2006, but also remains unable to renew its mandate.
During the interview, Fayyad spoke at length about his personal future in the Paleostinian political establishment. "I'm not going away," he said twice, adding that he "would not rule out" starting a party of his own in case a potential Fatah-Hamas reconciliation deal forces him out of the government.
A neat way to commit suicide in that part of the world, but feel free to try, my dear.
Tensions between PA President Abbas and Fayyad have continued to intensify, and calls are growing within Fatah to dismiss the sitting president and appoint a Fatah figure as head of a new government.
Turning to relations with Israel, Fayyad said he thought that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was not serious about making peace based on a two-state solution. "Going back to June 2009, Netanyahu signaled for the first time a willingness to accept a two-state solution concept. But in terms of projecting that into effective support for a two-state reality, there is a serious distance to be traveled."
And all of it must be travelled by the Palestinians.
Asked about the potential to renew unilateral action for statehood via recognition by various United Nations ...An organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... agencies, Fayyad respond that "I am for any initiative that brings us closer to the day when we are able to live as free people in a country of our own."
Fayyad added: "What is the alternative to the Paleostinian state as a solution to this conflict? There is no meaningful alternative."
That said, Fayyad was hesitant to promote diplomatic gimmicks that fail to really advance the Paleostinian cause. "I don't need another declaration of statehood," he said. "We already have one."
[Al Ahram] The powerful "Flame" computer virus is not only capable of espionage; it can also sabotage computer systems and was likely used to attack Iran in April, according to a leading security company, Symantec Corp.
Iran had previously blamed Flame for causing data loss on computers in the country's main oil export terminal and oil ministry. But prior to Symantec's discovery, cyber experts had only unearthed evidence that proved Flame could spy on conversations on the computers it infects and steal data.
Symantec researcher Vikram Thakur said Thursday that the company has now identified a component of Flame that allows operators to delete files from computers, which means it can cause critical programmes to fail or completely disable operating systems.
"These guys have the capability to delete everything on the computer," Thakur said. "This is not something that is theoretical. It is absolutely there."
Flame was deployed at least five years ago and is the most sophisticated cyber spying programme ever discovered. Researchers have been racing to better understand its capabilities ever since the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab uncovered Flame last month after the security firm was asked by a United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... agency to look for a virus that Iran said had sabotaged its computers, deleting valuable data.
Last week, researchers at Kaspersky Lab linked some of the software code in Flame to the Stuxnet cyber weapon, which was widely believed to have been used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear programme. Symantec later also said Stuxnet and Flame shared some code.
Current and former US and Western national security officials told Rooters this week that the United States played a role in creating Flame. The Washington Post reported that the US and Israel jointly developed Flame and used it to collect intelligence to help slow Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran complained about the threat of cyber attacks again Thursday, saying it had detected plans by the United States, Israel and Britannia to launch a "massive" strike after the breakdown of talks over Tehran's nuclear activities. It was not clear if the cyber attack referred to Flame or a new virus.
Symantec declined to comment on who the firm believes is behind Flame.
Infrastructure at risk
If Symantec's conclusions are validated, it means Flame could be used as a weapon to attack computers that run critical infrastructure systems, including dams, chemical plants and manufacturing facilities, security specialists said.
Boldizsar Bencsath, an expert on cyber warfare with Hungary's Laboratory of Cryptography and Systems Security, said there was at least a 70 per cent chance that Flame was used to attack Iran in April.
"Of course it can be used for sabotage," said Bencsath, who began investigating Flame several weeks before it was first reported to the public. "It may have been used to attack critical infrastructure and it may be used in the future."
Sean McGurk, a former Department of Homeland Security official who helped direct the US effort to protect critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, said that Flame was not the first piece of malicious software designed to sabotage systems by deleting data.
What makes it unique, he said, is that the data-wiping module works alongside a suite of other programmes including espionage tools that have previously been identified.
"It could render computing devices useless," said McGurk, who is now chief executive of a consulting firm NExt Generation Micro LLC.
That presents a threat, he said, because computers are used in all sorts of industrial control systems, affecting everything from critical processes at manufacturing plants to the pressure inside water networks. "Cyber elements can have catastrophic impacts," he said.
Neil Fisher, vice president for global security solutions at Unisys, said Symantec's findings -- if verified -- mean that Flame could be "highly dangerous."
"Many of our utilities have connected their operational management to the Internet to save costs," he said.
"Water, gas, electricity certainly constitute the critical national infrastructure," he added. "Dysfunction of those ... systems could have uncomfortable consequences for a large number of people."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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A spokeswoman says NATO's ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... governing body will meet Tuesday to discuss the Syrian downing of a Turkish plane.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday that a jet was downed in international airspace after it mistakenly entered Syria.
Oana Lungescu says the North Atlantic Council will meet in Brussels to hear Turkey's complaint. Turkish officials say the jet was on a training flight Friday when it strayed into Syrian airspace, but was in international airspace when it was shot down.
The consultations will focus on Article 4 of NATO's founding Washington Treaty.
Lungescu said Sunday that under the article, an ally can request consultations "whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 09:54 ||
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#1
we should give Turkey all the support they showed us for the Iraq campaign, and for the Gaza flotilla
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/24/2012 12:26 Comments ||
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#2
Turkey claims that, while its plane did momentarily violate Syrian airspace, it was unintentional + that it promptly left Syrian Air-Sea territory after receiving a formal warning from Syria.
SYRIA FOR SOME MYSTERIOUS REASON THEN PROCEEDED TO SHOOT IT DOWN ANYWAY, + WIDOUT ANY NEW WARNING(S) TO THE AIRCRAFT, AFTER THE LATTER HAD PROPERLY CROSSED BACK INTO INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE???
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari underlined his forces' ability to fully protect the country's security and interests not just in the regional waters, but thousands of miles away from the Iranian coasts. Yawn. Come back and look us up when you can send a battlegroup with air cover 15K miles away from home.
"We don't need foreign or trans-regional forces to establish security in the region," Sayyari said, addressing a ceremony to welcome back home the 19th fleet of warships after an 82-day mission in the high seas which would have lasted longer, but we couldn't find even one lousy liberty port where the goats weren't afflicted with STDs.
He reiterated that the Iranian Navy has proved that it can establish peace and tranquility in the region in cooperation with the regional states.
He lauded the Navy's performance in defending Iranian oil tankers and cargo ships 3,000km away from the Iranian coasts, and stated, "If necessary, we will take action 30,000 km away to defend and safeguard our dear homeland's interests and resources as well as the honor and dignity of the sacred Islamic Republic ruling system but seriously, we have a problem here. Can you send out a few fleet tugs from Norfolk?."
Iran's naval power has even been acknowledged by foes. In a Sep. 11, 2008 report, the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy also said that in the two decades since the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, the Islamic Republic has excelled in naval capabilities and is able to provide really excellent target practice wage unique asymmetric warfare against larger naval forces.
According to the report, Iran's Navy has been transformed into a highly motivated, well-equipped, and well-financed force and is suffering from serious delusions of grandeur requiring immediate professional help effectively in control of the world's oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"If necessary, we will take action 30,000 km away to defend and safeguard our dear homeland's interests and resources as well as the honor and dignity of the sacred Islamic Republic ruling system"
This I gotta see. Why not make it 300,000km and visit your moon god while you're at it?
I am soooo going to enjoy the day when our navies go head-to-kneecap toe-to-toe.
#2
Surely RADM. Sayyari + his Sailor Boyz + Mullahs must know their Navy is not that proficient yet, unless there is more to those VLCC international oil tankers Iran sent sailing around the globe than meets the eye???
#5
You know, JM raises an extremely interesting point: should it come to war, what exactly ARE those Iranian oil tankers going to do - and what's in them? For example, even if there isn't a nuclear weapon in one, could you blow it up in a harbor to make a huge mess?
#6
Seems to me there are all kinds of interesting things you could do with a platform that big. Seems to me the Japanese had an underwater aircraft carrier (albeit tiny). I'm sure someone could figure out how to make some kind of FAE bomb out of it, but testing it might be a bit of a problem. Missiles. Sink it in a shallow/narrow part of a stragegic channel. Mines. Whatever.
#7
"The Spy Who Loved Me" Bond movie. Where an oil tanker swallows an American nuclear sub. Ice burg would be a little too conspicuous. All sorts of mischief.
#8
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Iran RADM. Sayyari] IRAN NAVY TO PATROL BEYOND THE WATERS OF THE MEDITTERANEAN SEA.
and
* SAME > IRAN CAN LIMIT TANKER ACCESS [+ any Ship(s) wid Military-Commercial cargoes] TO STRAITS OF HORMUZ, KAYHAN SAYS - BUSINESS WEEK, espec iff-n-when the proposed EU Oil Embargo agz Iran occurs after 07/01st/2012.
US CVNS + Gator Boyz in the Sea of Oman + beyond, versus steady deterioration in US-PAK relations vee Salala incident + Drone Strikes.
#9
Iran in 2012 = 1990's, post-9-11 Rising China = desir to dev AYSMMETRIC = NON-TRADITIONAL TYPES OF COMBAT SYSTEMS OR ASSETS???
E.g. CHIN MILBLOGGERS = support for the PLAN to convert large, VLCC, or ULCC Merchant Ships, etc. into ARSENAL/FIRE SHIPS EQUIPPED WID VLS LRBMS [Surface -Launch] + OTHER MILSYS.
[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... is set to pay the salaries of the rebel Free Syrian Army to encourage mass defections from Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's The Scourge of Hama... forces, Britannia's Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.
The payments would be made in either U.S. dollars or euros -- which would mean a rise in salaries as the Syrian pound has fallen sharply in value since the revolt started 16 months ago, the broadsheet said.
The idea was first proposed to Saudi Arabia by Arab officials in May, the Guardian reported, citing sources in three Arab states and adding that the plan has also been discussed with U.S. officials.
The Guardian also claims that Turkey has allowed the establishment of a command center in Istanbul coordinating the supply of weapons to the rebel fighters in Syria, staffed by more than 20 mainly Syrian nationals.
The report comes amid a crisis between Turkey and Syria after Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... confirmed that it shot down a Turkish fighter jet that it said had violated Syrian airspace.
The Guardian said Turkey sees weapon supply lines as crucial to the defense of its border with its former close ally Syria, with Syrian forces edging closer in an attempt to stop guns crossing the border into the hands of rebel fighters.
The Guardian says its news hounds witnessed weapons being transferred across border from Turkey into Syria in early June.
On Friday, Ankara denied allegations in a New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... report, citing U.S. officials and Arab intelligence sources, that Turkey was among a number of countries shipping weapons to Syrian rebels over the border.
"Turkey does not ship weapons to any neighboring country, including Syria," foreign ministry front man Selcuk Unal said.
The neighbors' relations are already strained over outspoken condemnation by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Syria's bloody crackdown on protests against Assad's government.
Turkey is hosting more than 30,000 Syrian refugees living in camps near the border, according to foreign ministry figures, as well as army defectors including 12 generals.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The International Committee of the Red Thingy on Saturday condemned the killing of a Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy volunteer, in the fourth such incident in the country's deadly unrest.
Bashar al-Youssef, 23, was shot and fatally maimed on Friday in Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria, the two organizations said in a joint statement.
"The Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy and International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) strongly condemn the shooting" as "further evidence of an extremely disturbing disregard for life-saving medical services in Syria," they said.
"This comes at a time when the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy are virtually the only organizations able to work in areas affected by the violence in Syria," said Alexandre Equey, deputy head of the ICRC's delegation in the country.
Since the start of 2012, "the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy have assisted some 400,000 people in dire need of life-saving aid, in some of the most hard-hit areas in Syria," the statement reads.
"All their activities have been entirely impartial and neutral. This humanitarian work must be respected by everyone and at all times."
The organizations said Youssef was shot while on first-aid duty, although he was wearing a uniform clearly marked with the Red Islamic Thingy emblem, and died of his wounds a few hours later.
"This is the fourth killing of this kind since September 2011," it said.
The ICRC said "health-care personnel, particularly Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy volunteers, must be able to provide aid unhindered and in safety. The Red Thingy and Red Islamic Thingy emblems must be respected by all sides."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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On Friday's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO, panelists debated the relevance of the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal and the competence of Attorney General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder.
Maher assumed much of his audience was unaware of the details about the scandal, so he gave them a refresher before unloading his own opinion.
"[House oversight committee Chairman] Darrell Issa says this is a giant scandal," Maher said. "I've heard on Fox News this week it's worse than Watergate because 200 Mexicans have died. First of all, let me just say Republicans don't care about dead Mexicans, A. And B -- I think those 200 dead Mexicans would be dead even if we hadn't sold them guns. They would have gotten the guns somewhere else. So is it really a scandal?"
Later, Reason magazine's Nick Gillespie, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Maher debated that question, with Gillespie questioning Maddow's and Maher's reasoning behind their dismissal of the Fast and Furious congressional probe as a partisan event.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Barbara ||
06/24/2012 11:59 Comments ||
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#11
Self described libertarian who made a career attempting to be impartial yet edgy who, in reality, has dumped $1mil dollars into the Obama wedding registry likely because nobody really likes him they just prefer to not be involved in his high plane pondering of profanity and quite personal remarks.
This champion of the little person in the masses recently became a part owner of the NY Mets and so is not a major dissident of Bloomberg intrusionism, showing himself to be what he would call one of the damned 1%s but also weak in his own self described value system.
So in a very personal and shallow way, he is actually a very short, small man who made a career posing as a creepy year old with a pompador hairstyle in strange senior picture poses with his girlfriend, though only one person was in the photograph. He is the same now, only 55+.
To his credit, any doubts I had about the bulk of liberal theology he dispelled for me. I'm sure after hours of deep meditation, in a flurry of creation he had this line in the starting gate waiting upon the cue. So now he has had time to think about it, perhaps a couple of questions. 1: So Mexicans just kill themselves because they can't help it? 2: The sale of automatical weapons to drug dealers is ok?
#14
Did he (selectively) overlook the dead American, perhaps?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/24/2012 14:51 Comments ||
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#15
Brian Terry served in the military and joined the Border Patrol protecting our national security. I think if you did a Venn diagram between Maher and Terry you'd have to use separate sheets of paper
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/24/2012 15:24 Comments ||
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#16
Remember, the left are the guys who talk about the Rethuglican War on Women and then turn around and implement a foreign policy that amounts to "Bros Before Hos."
#18
It's because F&F has been ignored by the mainstream media. No liberals have heard of it.
I think that is part of the answer, I think the other part is attempting to frame the arguement. Their mistake is that will only work for those who have solely received their news from those network shows. Yes, there are those who only get their news from Daily Show (Stewarts bit was fairly accurate especially for that show), but there are those who overhear news broadcasts from such places as airports. Expect Tyme and Newspeak articles.
Media bias, what media bias? Well case in point, where was the uproar a la Limbough NFL Team for Mahar's purchase of a share of the NY Mets? Mahar is a well documented unabashed sexist, punctuated with the Palin attacks.
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.
The 
The US-Pakistain relationship appeared to be heading towards a head-on collision as an American general blamed Friday's deadly attack on a Kabul hotel on Fata-based 
Pakistain's top judge has said that the Parliament cannot legislate any law repugnant to Constitution, injunctions of Islam and contrary to fundamental laws.
PPP and establishment
Nawaz Sharif
Asif Ali 
[An Nahar] A leader of the ruling Hamas said Saturday the militant group had agreed to try anew an Egypt-brokered ceasefire with Israel, after six days of bloodshed in and around the Gaza Strip.
The powerful "Flame" computer virus is not only capable of espionage; it can also sabotage computer systems and was likely used to attack Iran in April, according to a leading security company, Symantec Corp.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The International Committee of the 
