The Taliban said Saturday that none of its men were involved or even aware of the beheading of a boy in southern Kandahar province this week.
Spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi rejected the blame laid on the Taliban for the beheading of the 12-year-old, adding that the group also condemned the attack.
"We reject and we condemn this incident. It's the doing of irresponsible people," Ahmadi told TOLOnews Saturday. "We asked all our fighters in Kandahar and none of them were aware of the incident."
"The boy was innocent," he added.
The 12-year-old boy was kidnapped on Wednesday and killed in the Panjwai district of Kandahar. He was later found with his severed head placed near his body.
The death was a warning by the Taliban to the boy's brother who worked with the Afghan Local Police in Kandahar's Zherai district, according to district governor of Zherai Fazil Mohammad.
The brother of the boy is a threat for the Taliban and was "preventing the Taliban's activities in the district," Mohammad said.
It comes as a 6-year-old girl was beheaded in eastern Kapisa province on Thursday.
A local official told TOLOnews that the body of the girl was found in a garden in the province but it remains unclear whether "she was beheaded by her family or the Taliban, but we know the Taliban control the area."
Kapisa police said that they have started investigating the incident.
No group including the Taliban has grabbed credit.
The beheadings follow the shooting and beheading of 17 civilians at a party in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province early this week, which was also blamed on the Taliban, but was denied by the group.
i(Sh.M.Network)-Kenya's enemies were behind the killing of a Moslemholy man that triggered riots and violence intended to create divisions between the country's Christians and Moslems, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said on Wednesday.
The killing of Aboud Rogo, accused by theUnited Statesof helping al Qaeda-linked Islamist cut-throats inSomalia, touched off two days of riots in which five people, including three coppers, were killed.
Rogo, who was shot in his car by unknown attackers inMombasaon Monday, was facing charges in a Kenyan court of possessing weapons.
"We suspect the hand of the enemies of our country in this, those who want to create religious animosity," Odinga told news hounds after addressing religious leaders in the city.
"It is an attempt to try create a division between Christians and Moslems in our country so that it appears it is a religious war," he said, adding that an underground organization may be behind the violence.
A blast in the port city and tourist hub on Wednesday evening injured four coppers riding in a police pickup vehicle.
The kaboom was followed by sustained gunfire, and further gunshot rounds rang out from different sections of the city.
The blast struck the police vehicle as it drove past theMombasaPentecostalChurchin a downtown area of the island city. A wooden bench in the vehicle was soaked in a pool of blood, and the overhead tarpaulin cover was wrecked.
Ambrose Munyasia, the region's top criminal investigation officer, said two boys had been walking near the vehicle before the kaboom and one of them "threw something at the officers".
Munyasia said one suspect had been placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! and was maimed. Spent cartridges were scattered on the tarmac.
Citizen TV said seven police officer had been maimed in the latest attack, three of them critically.
"We heard an kaboom and the vehicle began swerving. Two coppers jumped out and started shooting in the air as they ran in all directions," Charles Chai, a shoemaker, said.
On Tuesday, mobs of youths fired machineguns at police in Kisauni, a predominantly Moslem area, before throwing a grenade into a police truck. Two Kenyan coppers and a civilian were killed instantly.
One more police officer died earlier on Wednesday of wounds inflicted in the grenade blast. One person was killed when the riots broke out on Monday.
Rioters have set fire to at least six churches, stoking fears that the unrest may become more sectarian in a city where grenade attacks blamed on Somali cut-throats and their sympathisers have already strained Moslem-Christian relations.
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09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Magharebia] The capture last week of three senior al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) figures is more than just a counter-terrorism success for Algeria. The bigger story is what the AQIM officials were trying to do when ANP soldiers intercepted them in Ghardaia.
The big shots were headed to the desert on a mediation mission aimed at bridging the widening rift between the various arms and branches of the terrorist group.
At the top of the AQIM ladder, it was clear that the inequitable division of ransom cash, competition for leadership, and other issues were creating dangerous fissures within the organization.
The alleged forces of Evil caught during the August 15th operation included Necib Tayeb (aka Abderrahmane Abou Ishak Essoufi), AQIM's "Legal Affairs Committee" head and "Council of Elders" member. He had been sought since 1995.
The trio was intercepted at a checkpoint at the entrance to Berriane while en route to the Sahel for a meeting with al-Qaeda emirs Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and Nabil Abou Alqama.
AQIM chief Abdelmalik Droukdel ... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.... sent the high-level envoys to meet with the rival AQIM leaders in the Sahel "to put an end to the rebellion and mutiny of some of them against the organization's central leadership", Algerian state news agency APS quoted a security source as saying.
Abou Zeid (aka Mohamed Ghadir), the "Tariq Ibn Ziyad" katibat boss, and Belmokhtar (aka "Laaouar"), who runs the El Moulethemine battalion, have been vying for control of AQIM's Sahara emirate. Each has blamed the other for the failure of recent operations and the decline in ranks. Their rivalry grew worse after the promotion of Abou Alqama as the new head of the Sahara emirate.
Security officials are calling the capture of the three AQIM envoys a "major blow" to the terror organization.
With AQIM influence in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... weakening in favour of other groups, such as Ansar al-Din and MUJAO, the envoys hoped to resolve some internal problems that had arisen as a result of competition for leadership, RFI reported.
The capture shows that the group's move from desert outposts to northern Mali cities has led to a major intelligence failure, analyst al-Moukhtar al-Salem told Magharebia.
"The strategic shift, which includes recruitment of children without the necessary spiritual qualification and the use of physical violence against local African recruits who are not gunnies in their habits, are all factors that made the group liable to penetration because of information leaks," he said.
"The parent al-Qaeda used to send special envoys, such as Abu Yahya al-Libi, to solve problems," noted Said Ould Habib, director of the Millennium Centre for Media Studies and Research in Nouakchott.
Today, however, al-Qaeda central has been marginalised. The deaths of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is currently warming his feet by the fire with Hitler and Himmler... and al-Libi, a decline in al-Qaeda's financial resources and -- most of all -- the major independence of its branches, have accelerated this irreversible decline, Ould Habib said.
The push to break away from the central organization began long before the MUJAO emerged in Mali.
As far back as 2004, Mauritanian salafist Khadim Ould Semane beat feet from prison and tried to defect from AQIM and establish his own group, Ansar Allah al-Mourabitoun.
The aspiring "emir" planned to make his group deal with AQIM as an independent peer, rather than a mere affiliate branch.
"During the period I spent with Khadim Ould Semane and his group at the Central Prison in Nouakchott, he always claimed that he was the founder of Ansar Allah al-Mourabitoun in Mauritania, which was linked to al-Qaeda through an oath of allegiance, and had similar ideas to al-Qaeda," former salafist prisoner Abdellahi Ould Ebouh tells Magharebia.
"However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... after we engaged in many discussions with him, we found out that he has no oath of allegiance with AQIM, and that his only relation to al-Qaeda was restricted to his personal relation with Laaouar," the former prisoner adds.
Analyst Sid Ahmed Ould Tfeil notes that "Khadim Ould Semane's attempts to defect after he embraced al-Qaeda's ideology outraged Laaouar, with whom he had a special relation.
However, ars longa, vita brevis... he didn't want to show that for fear of rifts in the group."
Al-Qaeda was "observing the issue with much caution," he said, because this was the first time that a "non-Algerian recruit tried to unilaterally command a group."
"Khadim Ould Semane's behaviour made al-Qaeda fear that other ambitious young people would venture to do the same," Ould Tfeil adds.
Competition for money has been behind most disputes between AQIM leaders and their foot soldiers, but the issue never seemed enough to bring the dissolution of the terror group.
The birth of other groups that embrace the same ideology -- and in the same region -- consolidated al-Qaeda fears, however, and led the group to launch the mediation mission just interrupted in Berriane.
Recent moves to open a channel of communication with Iyad Ag Ghaly, the leader of al-Qaeda-ally Ansar al-Din, may further undermine the organization's capabilities.
"These are real fears," says Othmane Ag Weisi, a Touareg analyst in northern Mali.
"If Iyad Ag Ghaly decides to put an end to his ties with al-Qaeda in return for guarantees from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Algeria, many of his followers will quit al-Qaeda," Ag Weisi adds.
The other gang in northern Mali -- MUJAO -- was the first group to defect from al-Qaeda. It declared itself independent last year when it grabbed credit for kidnapping western aid workers from the Tindouf refugee camps.
But MUJAO may not have been motivated by pure ideology, analyst Abdelhamid al-Ansari suggests.
"The desire of its elements to co-exist with al-Qaeda and the other smuggling gangs in the Sahara forced them to engage in the chaos charter in the region," al-Ansari says.
In other words, in order to engage in their criminal pursuits, MUJAO "had to adopt the same slogans as al-Qaeda, such as raising the banner of jihad and Sharia".
This article starring:
Abdelhamid Abou Zeid
AQIM
Abdelmalek Droukdel
AQIM
Abu Yahya al-Libi
al-Qaeda
Khadim Ould Semane
AQIM
Mokhtar Belmokhtar
AQIM
Nabil Abou Alqama
AQIM
Necib Tayeb (aka Abderrahmane Abou Ishak Essoufi)
AQIM
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Magharebia] The suffering of northern Mali citizens is becoming worse under the domination of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)-allied Islamist groups.
On Thursday (August 30th), UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos sought to highlight the plight of children, calling for more resources to prevent severe malnutrition.
"Children's lives are being blighted by a nutritional crisis which we have the knowledge and capacity to address, but we lack the funds to do everything that is needed," Amos said after a visit to Mali.
Almost 150,000 children across Mali have been treated for acute malnutrition this year, according to AFP.
Civilians' hardships are further aggravated by dire poverty and lack of supplies in the three major cities -- Gao, Kidal, and Timbuktu. This is in addition to the lack of job opportunities for young people.
Abdelkalek Cissé, a journalist residing in Gao, described the humanitarian conditions of populations as catastrophic and told Magharebia that the people were in need of urgent aid.
He confirmed that aid provided by the Algerian Red Islamic Thingy was still limited in proportion to the enormity of disaster that has befallen the Azawad people since the beturbanned goon groups took control of the city.
Cissé called upon charity organizations to intervene as soon as possible to address the deteriorating conditions which are becoming increasingly worse with the lack of even the most basic necessities of life.
Mali Actualité published a plea for help by Kidal hospital manager Moussa Ag Mohamed calling for medicines on an urgent basis and confirming that the medicines that were brought by the Algerian humanitarian convoy would suffice for just two weeks.
International and regional relief organizations have considerably cut their aid because they are not sure that such aid would reach the targeted populations, Mohamed Ag Ahmedu, a field journalist, told Magharebia.
He added that "some pro-Islamic groups' people, especially traditional chiefs and some holy mans, are the only ones who receive quantities of this food aid while those who declare their rejection of jihad boy Islamic groups' control are denied such aid."
The position of relief organizations might have been the factor that made Sanad Ould Bouamama, official spokesperson of Ansar al-Din that controls Timbuktu and Kidal, describe the humanitarian situation as catastrophic and launch a strongly-worded attack against Islamic relief groups. "They are in dereliction about what Moslem brothers are suffering in Mali," he said.
The catastrophic conditions under which Malian refugees are living today, whether inside or outside Mali, have led to the spread of cholera in recent weeks, MaliWeb cited the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as saying August 10th.
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[Magharebia] Threats from radical Islamists prevented Tunisian Amazigh associations from holding a conference in the country's southern Matmata region.
Six Tunisian Amazigh groups planned their event, which aimed to unite the Tunisian Amazigh movement, to coincide with the 20th Tamezret Festival for Amazigh Culture on August 24th-25th.
But hard-line Islamists protested against the use of Tifinagh characters on the festival banners and demanded their removal, together with Amazigh flags.
They accused the Amazigh activists "of collaborating with foreign entities and of serving a Western, secular agenda hostile to the Islamic Arab identity of Tunisia".
"We preferred to calm down the situation rather than be dragged to any acts that may harm our image and mission," Nouri Nemri, a Tunisian Amazigh activist, told Magharebia. "In addition, we wanted to alleviate pressures on the organisers of the festival, which was a real success and attracted an audience that exceeded our expectations. Therefore, we decided to postpone the conference."
As to the most important issues for the Tunisian Amazigh movement, Nemri said activists were focused on protecting their culture.
"We demand the state bear its responsibility in protecting, preserving and maintaining the Amazigh heritage and culture. We also confirm that the entity we're seeking to create has a purely association, cultural nature," he said.
Nemri said that the Tunisian Amazigh movement was not currently seeking official recognition of Tamazight in the constitution, despite the desires of some activists.
"However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... let's be realistic: Tamazight-speaking populations in Tunisia represent only 5% of the population, although the percentage of populations of Amazigh origins is much higher," Nemri said. "We're seeing what's happening in neighbouring countries where there are many Tamazight-speaking people."
He added that Tunisia's Amazighs have been able to preserve their culture, habits, language and identity throughout history in spite of restrictions and hostility.
"We resisted the Ottomans, the French, the state of Bourguiba and the state of Ben Ali," he said. "Today, there are the radical Islamists and nationalists who fight against the Tunisian identity. In spite of all this, we've been able to protect and preserve our identity."
Prior to the revolution, Nemri said that "Amazigh culture had been restricted to tourist consumption. Other than that, it was banned."
The first attempts to form Amazigh cultural associations date back to the 1980s but were strongly opposed by the former regime, he said.
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09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Yemen Post] Al-Qaeda plans to use garbage trucks to carry out suicide kabooms in Yemen's port city of Aden, Alettejah website reported on Saturday, quoting a senior security source, coinciding with reports the authorities defused a car boom in Hadramout ...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard... province.
The local security authorities obtained information about the plan and in response they have drawn up a precautionary plan to face terrorist attacks after some snuffies infiltrated into Aden fleeing the continuous operations against them in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province, the source was quoted as saying.
The source urged the public to report to the police any suspicious acts in the city and officials to raise awareness among the sweepers that they should report to the police any threats they receive from bad turbans, the website added.
Yemen--and Aden in particular-- has been recently hit by a wave of violence and deadly bad turban attacks including those against intelligence and other public offices.
In response, the authorities have launched a massive hunt for Qaeda operatives arresting a number of them and terrorist cells in main cities including the capital Sanaa in recent weeks.
The massive hunt is continuing in large parts of the country for key Al-Qaeda operatives and the remaining snuffies who fled Abyan and Shabwa after the army drove Al-Qaeda out of its strongholds in the two provinces.
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[Yemen Post] Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi has said that the Yemeni government will talk to al-Qaeda if it renounced violence and abandon terrorist acts.
In an interview with Sky News, al-Qirbi said that the Yemeni government has not unmanned drones and it takes support from the United States' drones in combating terrorists.
He indicated that the Yemeni army could defeat al-Qaeda in some towns of Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... and Shabwah, affirming that al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiare still existed in some areas.
He affirmed that President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... and the interim government will continue the battle against al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiand that the government will deal with them as citizens in case they were persuaded to abandon violence.
After the Yemeni government announced its victory in early June, al-Qaeda carried out a suicide kaboom various governorates and killed the commander of Yemen's southern military region, Salem Qatan.
At least eight Islamic fascistiwere killed in an Arclight airstrike in Yemen's Hadramout ...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard... province amid a continuous, massive hunt for Al-Qaeda operatives across the republic, the defense ministry reported on Friday.
On Thursday, a Yemeni intelligence officer, Yahya Badi, was assassinated by an armed man riding a motor cycle in Sana'a.
Yemen's defense ministry claimed that the attacker is a member of al-Qaeda, pointing out that he could escape.
The shooting came the same day a security official said a U.S. drone attack killed at least four suspected Islamist Islamic fascistiin a car in a remote province of eastern Yemen.
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
Anywhere-but-Bradford-West MP George Galloway's latest extra-parliamentary gig is a fortnightly show for the Lebanese TV channel al-Mayadeen, allegedly funded by Syria and Iran.
According to the Register of Members' Interests, Galloway will earn £3,000 an episode -- or a yearly income of £78,000 -- on top of his MP's salary. The TV station will also cover the cost of regular trips to Lebanon to pre-record the programme. It would be most unfortunate if he had a sudden visa problem...
Galloway, who represents Bradford West in the Commons, also presents a weekly slot on the Iranian state-owned media corporation Press TV but the job is currently unpaid.
#2
"Our inquiry was limited to a determination of whether prosecutable offenses were committed and was not intended to, and does not resolve, broader questions regarding the propriety of the examined conduct," Holder said.
No legal connection between "conduct" and potential "offenses?" How very scholarly.
#3
They just don't want to draw attention to the fact that Gitmo is still up and running just before the election. It might enlighten the useful idiots remind the O supporters of past 'promises'.
What we did wrong
Writing in Jang Nazir Naji stated that Pakistain was disturbed about Indian presence in Afghanistan and told the US that it should not be increased beyond a certain level. But then after Salala, Pakistain took too long deciding new terms of engagement with the US. That allowed India to get a better deal in Afghanistan with the consent of the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... states, which saw Pakistain as being obstructive.
PPP and Army to blame
A leader of PMLN, Khurram Dastgir, told Express that the scandal of reopening the NATO supply route without proper conditions was the creation of both Pakistain Army and the PPP government. They ignored the parliamentary guidelines and allowed the Americans to drive a one-sided bargain.
India did it!
Quoted by Nawa-e-Waqt Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah stated that the Lahore killing of jail staff of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... could be the work of India. After the Taliban announcement that they had killed the jail staff because they had been cruel to Taliban prisoners, it is presumed that India had bribed the Taliban - together with the US - to get them to kill innocent Paks.
Justice Sharif's dues
Daily Nawa-e-Waqt reported that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was unfair when he wrote off the arrears of the house rent of ex-DG FIA Major Mushtaq, but did not do so in the case of former Lahore High Court chief justice Khwaja Sharif, who had overstayed in his official residence. He owed rent to the government and had received a notice asking him to pay up.
Betrayal after Salala
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that Pakistain Army and the PPP government had reopened the NATO supply route in a very mysterious and non-transparent way. After Salala, Indo-Pak tensions mounted. They were lessened by Pakistain by releasing Indian spy Surjeet Singh, but India responded by unleashing the scandal of Abu Jandal, an Indian Moslem who it said was involved in the Mumbai attack and had also met Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... in Faisalabad ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after... , thus implicating Hafiz Muhammad Saeed in terrorism.
Sheikh Rashid should join Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five...
Columnist Nusrat Javeed wrote in Express that Sheikh Rashid who had eaten 900 rats (Urdu idiom) should now join Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... of Imran Khan especially after Imran Khan had had a recent meeting with Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... chief Syed Munawwar Hasan, which could be the sign of a new direction for the Defence of Pakistain Council where Sheikh Rashid is always present.
Judiciary soft on the Sharifs
Firebrand Information Minister Sindh Sharjeel Memon told Express that the judiciary in Pakistain was favouring the PMLN and their leadership but the PPP was being supported by the 18 million people of Pakistain.
Shoaib Akhtar wants to wed Meera!
Quoted in Express, famous Pak filmstar Meera said that she was going to wed Captain Naveed but it was spoiled by ex-cricketer Shaoib Akhtar who was keen to marry her. She said she herself was keen on Shoaib Akhtar but he was responsible for obstructions in her plans to marry the US-based pilot.
AQ Khan and El Baradei
Famous columnist Abdul Qadir Hasan wrote in Express that famous Pak nuclear scientist and father of the bomb Dr AQ Khan had written that Egypt was thankfully rid of El Baradei who was an American agent hoping to become president of Egypt. El Baradei was head of the international nuclear authority IAEA that had raised objection to Dr Khan's project in Pakistain.
But he carefully did not raise those objections until it was too late for anything to be done, the darling man, and then only mutedly.
Egypt should learn that when the Americans were done with exploiting Musharraf they dumped him.
When the columnist burst into tears
Writing in Express, Abdul Qadir Hasan stated that he was lucky enough to see the mosque in Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... where Imam Ghazali wrote his famous book. He had seen all the world as a journalist but the joy he experienced in Central Asia he did not feel anywhere else. He visited the tomb of Imam Bukhari whose book of traditions was among the most beloved books in Islam. Hasan was so overcome that he burst into loud sobs (cheekhain nikal gaeen). He could not bear the greatness of the man who had compiled a book next only to the Koran.
But maulvis get scared!
Daily Express had columnist Abdul Qadir Hasan state that the state of Pakistain was great but lacked a great nation. These days a movement against America was launched by the holy mans of the country. They may be accused of anything but not of corruption. Corruption is a talent which also requires dishonesty. And the maulvis are free of those ills; yet they tend to get scared and draw back.
Wukla go berserk
Reported in Express, lawyers fell on the office bearers of Punjab Bar Council and broke the furniture of the room of the committee which had given a different verdict than they wanted in the case of insult to a lady lawyer. The wukla people were aroused to fury and shouted that the servants of the Bar had maltreated them as a result of which they had resorted to vandalism.
No words to describe insulted honour
World famous columnist Haroon Rashid wrote in Jang that Pakistain government was seeking comfort and was scared to struggle for truth and honour. Moslems had been complaining about this since the Mughal times. And now the reopening of NATO supply route had aroused the same feeling of hurt honour. This desire for comfort was forcing Moslems to lose their honour.
American kick in our face
Columnist Talat Husain wrote in Express that by saying sorry the way it did America had kicked Pakistain in the face. All observers of the region were agreed that America made an obscene gesture in the direction of Pakistain and then told it to get lost (apna rasta naapo). After this maltreatment the government with a parliamentary majority reopened the NATO supply route and did not even ask to be paid for the trucks passing through it. It is said that the Army was not happy with the way the apology was composed and made the Americans change its draft many times.
Causes of supply route opening
Columnist Saleem Safi wrote in Jang that the US wanted a deal with Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... but not on his terms. When Pakistain delayed its decision on the NATO route the Americans gave Karzai what he wanted after which Karzai made a long term defence deal with them, allowing the Americans to keep some troops in Afghanistan till 2224. Pakistain reopened the NATO route because the member states other than the US were in a hurry to get out of Afghanistan.
Imran Khan plays like Misbahul Haq
Writing in Express Talat Husain stated that Imran Khan should have reacted strongly to the reopening of the NATO route but he did not. He should have hit sixers but he actually played like Misbahul Haq. His bat is straight but the ball is not going more than a few yards. When he put his analysis to Tehrik-e-Insaf leaders they did not like it.
[Dawn] Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Saturday deplored the brutal killings of people belonging to Shia Moslem community, DawnNews reported.
He termed the gruesome bloodshed a wanton act of slaying the humanity itself.
Addressing a conference organised to promote harmony between different sects of Islam, the MQM chief said that enemies of the country will take advantage by creating rift between Sunnis and Shias.
Assailing the judicial system, he said that acquitting murderers over lack of evidence can not be justified for having 'free judiciary' in the country.
Hussain said that the innocent people belonging to the Hazara community in 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... were being subjected to genocide, and targeted for their association with Shia school of thought.
"MQM leaders and religious scholars believing in sectarian harmony and unity among Moslems had called for stopping these acts of savagery, which could not be done. Seven more innocent people were bumped off in Quetta after their identities were verified," he condemned.
Hussain said that every peace-loving citizen of the country besides members of the Hazara community is questioning the existence of government, and law-enforcing in stopping criminals prowling freely to target the specific community.
The MQM chief extended sympathies to the grieving families who lost their loved ones and expressed unity and solidarity with them.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] An anti-terrorism court here on Friday ordered psychiatric examination of a suspect nabbed in connection with the kidnapping of Islamia College University Vice-Chancellor Mohammad Ajmal Khan after he created scenes in the court and claimed that the judicial system was against Sharia.
Eyewitnesses told Dawn that the suspect, Yousaf alias Malangae, lied down on the floor and started reciting verses from Holy Koran. He stated that he did not want to appear before this court as it was not based on Islam and Sharia.
When the suspect continued with his assertions the presiding officer, Syed Asghar Ali Shah, directed to take him back to the prison and asked the prison authorities to conduct his psychiatric examination.
Witnesses said that the judge tried to convince him by putting forward different arguments but in vain. Quoting the judge, a witness said that he stated that the legal system was un-Islamic as under the Constitution no law could be enacted against the injunctions of Islam. He stated that although the laws were in English but that did not mean that these were un-Islamic.
Trial of the suspect, nabbed Please don't kill me! in 2010, is yet to be started and presently he has been in judicial custody. Normally, a prisoner in pre-trial stage is produced before the court concerned after a fortnight till such time when his or her trial starts.
It is learnt that during previous hearing the suspect had raised the same objections and had stated that he did not accept the judicial system of Lord Macaulay. He had added that he would never appear before the court in future.
The suspect was scheduled to be produced before the court on Friday on completion of his 14-day judicial remand, however, he could not be produced and the presiding officer was informed by the prison authorities that the prisoner was reluctant to go to the court. The judge ordered to produce him by force.
Later on, when he was brought to the court he started his outburst against the judicial system.
Ajmal Khan was kidnapped on Sept 7, 2010, in his official car along with his driver while on his way to the office from his residence here in Professors Colony. Later on, some of his video footages surfaced which showed that he was in jug of the forces of Evil who had put forward certain demands to the government for his release.
Initially, the present suspect was nabbed Please don't kill me! by the police. Later, they had nabbed Please don't kill me! a student of the University of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , Azhar Afzal, who was allegedly named by Yousaf as their accomplice. However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... Azhar was granted bail by the Peshawar High Court on Oct 7, 2011.
The local police believe that the two suspects had links with the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain and had played important role in the kidnapping of Ajmal Khan. The police claimed that Yousaf was nabbed Please don't kill me! from Khyber Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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NEW YORK: Sudan has withdrawn its candidacy for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council following strong criticism from human rights and pro-democracy groups.
Sudans UN Mission said in a letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press that it is no longer interested in taking up one of the vacancies available in the Human Rights Council.
Sudans President, Omar Bashir, is accused of genocide and war crimes in Darfur, and his government is accused of human rights violations elsewhere. But Sudan was virtually guaranteed a seat on the 47-member council as one of five African candidates for five African seats.
Sudans brief letter to Djibouti, which is the current coordinator for East African countries at the UN, gave no reason for pulling out of the November election in the UN General Assembly.
Philippe Bolopion, UN director for Human Rights Watch, welcomed the decision, saying The worst human rights offenders are slowly recognizing they are not welcome on the Human Rights Council.
Sudan joins notorious rights violators Syria, Iran, Belarus, Sri Lanka and Azerbaijan whose hypocritical aspirations to sit on the Council have properly led to embarrassing retreat, he said.
The Geneva-based council was created in March 2006 to replace the UNs widely discredited and highly politicized Human Rights Commission.
Worked well, didn't it...
But the Human Rights Council has also been widely criticized for failing to change many of the commissions practices, including putting much more emphasis on Israel than on any other country and electing candidates accused of serious human rights violations.
Much of the blame lies in the UN system where regional groups select candidates for seats on UN bodies, often based on which country is next in line, not on merit. In many instances, the blocs will try to ensure that the election is not contested, so for example, it will approve only three candidates if there are three vacant seats.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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[Kabar] An influential Mohammedanholy man said no party should commit violence in the name of religion, Republika Online reported.
"Violence in the name of anything is not allowed -- but especially in the name of religion," Amidhan, Chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), said in Jakarta on Wednesday (August 29th).
He was responding to unrest in Sampang stemming from violent attacks against the Shia community. Early this week, about 200 people were attacked in Shia neighbourhoods in Karanggayam Village.
"The problems in Sampang began as a family matter between a brother and sister who attended two different schools (Pesantrens) for learning Islam," he said.
Family issues then spread into a conflict. According to Amidhan, in communities where people have not matured, they are resistant to accepting differences.
"The challenge is now handed to the local government to determine how they will find a solution," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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[Kabar] The National Police and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) said Wednesday (August 29th) that attacks on police posts in Surakarta (Solo), Central Java, were aimed at spreading terror, local media reported.
National Police front man Boy Rafli Amar told The Jakarta Post that police identified several groups involved in the shooting and grenade-throwing incidents at police posts last week.
Another attack Thursday night left one officer maimed, according to Kompas.
"Some group members are being interrogated, while others are on our radar. We have yet to identify details of the groups, such as whether or not they are locals. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... so far we believe that the attacks were meant as terrorism," Boy Rafli said, according to The Post.
His comments came amid speculation that the violence was political in nature, and supposedly aimed at undermining Solo Mayor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who is running for governor of Jakarta. Officials are denying such a link.
Separately, BNPT Chairman Ansyaad Mbai said "It's ridiculous to relate the attacks to the upcoming Jakarta gubernatorial election. Our findings show that these events are most likely intended to terrorise."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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Jordan needs $700 million in international aid to cope with an influx of 240,000 refugees from the conflict across the border in Syria, its planning and international cooperation minister said yesterday.
"The cost for Jordan to continue to welcome our Syrian brothers ... is almost $700 million, to take in over 240,000 residents and refugees at Zaatari camp and outside," Jaafar Hassan told a joint news conference with the UN refugee agency. He said the Jordanian government would not be able to provide aid to the refugees without international assistance.
There are currently 177,000 Syrians in Jordan, with around 26,000 in the Zaatari refugee camp, north of Amman, that the UN opened five weeks ago, according to the minister.
Denmark will free up another two million euros to help provide aid to Syrian refugees and displaced people as a civil war rages in their homeland, Danish public television DR reported yesterday. Out of the 15 million kroner (two million euros), 13 million will go to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and two million to the Danish crisis agency, which sends personnel and equipment to Syrian refugees in Jordan.
"It is a very hard and frightening conflict," Christian Friis Bach, the country's development cooperation minister said on television. "The money will go toward the construction of a camp, sanitation and tents, food and administration, which are the most pressing needs."
The extra two million euros worth of aid takes Denmark's total contribution to the humanitarian effort in Syria to 10 million euros.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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The west needs to stop sending money abroad that had to be borrowed in the first place. If they (the Chinese) can lend it to us they can give it to these "poor" "woebegone" chumps.
TEHRAN: Irans sole operational nuclear power reactor has reached full capacity, a senior official said Saturday.
[cough] Stuxnet [cough]...
Irans deputy nuclear chief, Mohammad Ahmadian, said the reactor at the Bushehr power plant was brought to its full capacity of 1,000 megawatts Friday evening. The reactor went into operation for the first time last year at minimum capacity.
The Islamic Republic built the nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian port city with Russian help. The facility is a cornerstone of Irans drive to become a technological leader among Muslim nations, with efforts such as an ambitious space program and long-range missile development. Iran also runs smaller research reactors and is building another power reactor.
The Bushehr project dates back to 1974, when Irans US-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi contracted with the German company Siemens to build the reactor. The company withdrew from the project after the 1979 Islamic Revolution brought hard-line clerics to power. In 1992, Iran signed a $1 billion deal with Russia to complete the project and work began in 1995. Since then, the project has been beset by problems linked to construction and supply glitches. Under the contract, Bushehr was originally scheduled to come on stream in July 1999 but it was repeatedly postponed over technical glitches and financial disputes.
The reactor finally went into operation last summer operating with minimum capacity to undergo tests before full operation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"we are currently running at 100% of capacity speed...errr 105%...108%...120% oh shit!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2012 10:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
So it's a 1970's design with concrete layed as early as 1990's?
If I can get my boots off...that looks like the concrete may already be upwards of 20 years old.
The Israelis may not need to react, except to winds from the east.
[An Nahar] The U.N.'s new envoy to Syria said on Saturday that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Light of the Alawites... regime should realize that the need for change was both "urgent" and "necessary" and that it must meet the "legitimate" demands of the Syrian people.
Lakhdar Brahimi's comments in an interview with al-Arabiya television came as Syrian warplanes and ground forces pounded the country's largest city, 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... , with bombs and mortar rounds while soldiers clashed with rebels in the narrow streets of its old quarter, according to activists.
The latest violence shows that government troops are still struggling to regain full control of the city from the lightly-armed rebels nearly five weeks after they stormed their way into it in a surprise offensive. Activists said rebels also captured an air defense facility in the east of the country near the border with Iraq.
"The Syrian government realizes more than me the extent of the suffering endured by the Syrian people," Brahimi told al-Arabia on his first day as the new U.N. envoy in Syria, replacing 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... who quit after his six-point plan including an April 12 cease-fire failed to stop the bloodshed.
Speaking in New York, he said: "The need for change is urgent and necessary. The Syrian people must be satisfied and their legitimate demands are met." A former Algerian foreign minister and a seasoned international trouble shooter, Brahimi said he enjoyed the "full and clear" support of the U.N. Security Council.
He also called for an end to the violence but acknowledged that he does not have a set of preconceived ideas on how to resolve the Syrian conflict. "We will try to overcome the obstacles that Kofi Annan faced," he added.
The Syrian conflict has its roots in mostly peaceful street protests that started in March last year. It has since morphed into a civil war, with at least 20,000 people killed so far, according to rights activists.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2012 00:00 ||
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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.
Threats from radical Islamists prevented Tunisian Amazigh associations from holding a conference in the country's southern Matmata region.
[Yemen Post] Al-Qaeda plans to use garbage trucks to carry out 
Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi has said that the Yemeni government will talk to al-Qaeda if it renounced violence and abandon terrorist acts. 
What we did wrong
Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Saturday deplored the brutal killings of people belonging to Shia 
An anti-terrorism court here on Friday ordered psychiatric examination of a suspect nabbed in connection with the kidnapping of Islamia College University Vice-Chancellor Mohammad Ajmal Khan after he created scenes in the court and claimed that the judicial system was against Sharia.
Initially, the present suspect was 
An influential 
The National Police and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) said Wednesday (August 29th) that attacks on police posts in Surakarta (Solo), Central Java, were aimed at spreading terror, local media reported.
...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...
