A German court is to hear a case from 79 Afghan families seeking damages for the deaths of dozens of civilians killed in a 2009 air strike.
The families represent victims who died when a German commander ordered the attack on two fuel tankers stolen by insurgents.
The families are seeking 3.3m euros (£2.8m; $4.3m) from the German government.
In 2010, the German defence ministry paid out $430,000 to victims' families.
At the time, German authorities labelled the payment as humanitarian aid and said it did not constitute an acceptance of legal responsibility.
The attack on the tankers happened near the northern Afghan town of Kunduz.
At least 90 people were killed, though a lawyer for the Afghan families contends that 137 people were killed. Many of the victims were women and children trying to siphon fuel as the tankers had been abandoned.
The incident triggered a major political controversy in Germany, leading o the resignation of the then-Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung and the dismissal of army chief Wolfgang Schneiderhan.
Germany's parliament described it as "one of the most serious incidents involving the German army since the Second World War".
#3
This whole lawsuit and the German reaction to it is a travesty.
The Taliban stole these 2 tanker trucks and was handing out the oil to civilians for free. The German commander ordered the trucks destroyed as SOP when equipment falls into enemy hands.
If you don't want to be killed, don't stand around stolen ISAF equipment.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/20/2013 10:25 Comments ||
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#4
I hope they intend to dismiss ALL claims, you attack a Ship, and die, gee tough.
My wife would have known about this thru the facebook thingy. Other than that, pretty much true. You attack a Ship and you've also attacked a Lee and a Mixon amongst other things.
U.S. official General Joseph Dunford announced Wednesday that departing troops in Wardak will be replaced with Afghan army and police officers.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered the expulsion of U.S. troops from the province after villagers alleged the troops were responsible for torturing and killing civilians -- an allegation strongly denied by the United States.
The U.S. has been reluctant to pull troops from the area because of fears that an abrupt exit could allow insurgents to strengthen their presence in the area and use it as a base to attack Kabul, only 25 kilometers away.
[An Nahar] The United States and United Nations on Tuesday warned Afghanistan that ensuring a credible presidential election next year would be "critical" to maintaining international support after 2014.
U.N. leader Ban Ki-Moon also said he was "deeply disturbed" at the lack of action taken by Afghan authorities over growing numbers of killings of women.
The warnings came amid growing tensions between President Hamid Karzai and the United States and the NATO-led international force which is due to leave Afghanistan next year.
"An inclusive and credible presidential election in 2014 is critical for the country's future and to sustaining international assistance to the people of Afghanistan," U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice said.
"The results of this election must produce an outcome that is legitimately accepted by the Afghan people," Rice told a council meeting on Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Charges by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai of US collusion with the Taliban are "absolutely ridiculous," Nato head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday.
Asked about Karzai's outburst last week, Rasmussen said he was concerned and hoped Kabul would instead acknowledge the effort made by Nato allies in blood and money to "bring progress to Afghanistan."
"I reject the idea ... there is so-called collusion between Nato forces ...and the Taliban. It is an absolutely ridiculous idea," he said, noting that Karzai had later modified some of his comments.
"We respect Afghan sovereignty but we want acknowledgement that we have invested blood and treasure in helping President Karzai's country to move forward," he told a press conference.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
So what was NATO's first clue?
Kinda obvious isn't it.
No wait!! This is the ME where every law of nature, except gravity takes leave and logic is left at the border.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/20/2013 10:26 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Afghanistan's presidential spokesman on Tuesday described the NATO-led military operation in the country as "aimless and unwise", in the latest government broadside against the coalition.
Aimal Faizi, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, hit out after NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected Karzai's recent allegations that it was working in collusion with Taliban militants.
"The people of Afghanistan ask NATO to define the purpose and aim of the so-called war on terror... (They) consider this war as aimless and unwise to continue," Faizi said in a statement.
The verbal onslaught is set to worsen relations between Afghanistan and the international coalition that has been fighting for 11 years against Islamist militants who are trying to overthrow Karzai's government.
In recent weeks Karzai has been staking out increasingly nationalist ground as he prepares for his final year in office before he steps down when presidential elections are held in April 2014.
Next year will also see the withdrawal of all NATO combat troops from Afghanistan, leaving poorly-trained and inexperienced local security forces to take on the insurgents alone.
Rasmussen, at a press conference earlier Tuesday in Brussels, said that instead of alleging collusion with the Taliban, Afghanistan should acknowledge NATO efforts to bring progress to the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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Tunisian high school student Amina, 19, has joined the Femen credo of protest through nudity, and a Muslim cleric has issued a fatwa calling for her to be flogged then stoned to death.
Amina posted a topless picture of herself with the words ''my body is mine and no one else's'' written on her skin on the Tunisian Facebook fanpage of Femen, a social movement and provocative women's movement founded in 2008 in the Ukraine. The page got 3,700 supporters and also a lot of insults and protests against what some deem is mere exhibitionism.
Fatwas are rulings on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority, and are sometimes not justified based on the Koran. But the fatwa against Amina could be risky for the student in contemporary Tunisia, where religious fundamentalism often exploded into violence
[Libya Herald] Several civilian and military detainees accused of being members of Qadaffy brigades were released yesterday, Monday. They had supposedly served in the former regime's forces in several Libyan towns and cities.
A joint statement from a number of Libyan civil society organizations and Libyan revolutionaries' leaders said that the move was a result of a initiative between them to pardon these individuals following their interrogation and the finding of no evidence to suggest their involvement in any killings or any other criminal offences.
Omar Jeddi, a political activist and head of the Libyan Organization of Studies, said yesterday that all those who had been released had been pardoned and had been returned to their families. No numbers were given but he added that the cases of 120 others were being reviewed with a view to releasing them as well.
Those released had been held in prisons in Zawia, Zintan and elsewhere in the Jebel Nafusa as well as in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... . Those held outside the capital were brought to Tripoli for their release.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Esquimeau village Jack was learning how to rub noses with Nootka's wife...... it has been announced the judicial police under the Ministry of Justice has taken control of two more prisons, in this case which were under the control of Zawia revolutionaries. A number of prisons are still beyond the control of the state and the Ministry is working to end the situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[FRANCE24] Jihadist groups were driven from the northern Malian city of Gao six weeks ago, but the civil servants have yet to come back. FRANCE 24 reports on the daily life in an administration-free town.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Egyptian police arrested on Tuesday Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, a cousin of Moammar Gadhafi, who is wanted in Libya for his role in the regime of the slain Libyan strongman, Egyptian state media reported.
Qaddaf al-Dam, reached on his cell phone, however sought to play down the arrest and said he would file a complaint with the Egyptian public prosecutor and Libyan authorities.
"I am on my way now, in the company of lawyers," he said.
A security official and state television said Qaddaf al-Dam surrendered to police after they besieged his home. The official MENA news agency reported he will be handed over to Libyan authorities, who want to put him on trial.
Police outside his apartment in the upscale Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek said Qaddaf al-Dam surrendered without a struggle after police sent up the Libyan consul to persuade him.
An official at the Libyan embassy told AFP that authorities had also arrested two other figures, former Libyan ambassador Ali Maria and Mohammed Ibrahim, the brother of senior Gadhafi-era Libyan official Ahmed Ibrahim.
"This is part of a plan by the Libyan authorities in coordination with Egyptian authorities to arrest wanted Libyans living in Egypt," Abdel Hamid al-Safi said.
Shortly after the start of the uprising that toppled Kadhafi, Qaddaf al-Dam had announced he had resigned from all official functions.
Until then, Qaddaf al-Dam, who had permanent residence in Cairo, oversaw Libya's relations with Egypt.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu yesterday reiterated that laws were being examined regarding banning 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... for its resorting violence and acts of sabotage in the country.
"The update about it is laws are still being examined," Inu told news hounds at Bangladesh Secretariat.
On March 10, he said the government was considering taking action against Jamaat under the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 as the party had emerged as a "terrorist organization". Even, he said, a tribunal could be formed under the law for speedy trial of a terrorist party.
Under the anti-terrorism law, the government can ban an organization for terrorist and myrmidon activities.
Inu repeatedly spoke about assessment of laws since Jamaat started countrywide violence and anarchy protesting the death sentence of Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi ...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami... for crimes against humanity in 1971.
He did not say how much time they would take to examine the laws but he said the government was following a go-slow policy.
About taking steps against the media involved in instigation, propaganda and rumour, the information minister said they would surely take some measures.
Inu said a high-level committee had been formed to scrutinise newspapers, electronic media, blogs and websites. "We will take administrative measures as per recommendations of the committee."
Asked about BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... 's provocative statements, he said, "We are examining whether she and any of her party activists are involved in it. We will take administrative actions through investigation."
He said "information terrorism", falsification, violence and rumour had become an art due to BNP-Jamaat.
Inu termed Khaleda Zia's claim that they would try real war criminals if voted to power as "untrue and confusing publicity".
"The reality is General Zia, Khaleda herself, and their party BNP have always patronised war criminals. They insulted the Liberation War and freedom fighters by making the war criminals ministers," he added, urging Khaleda to prepare a list of real war criminals and the atheists.
Regarding Khaleda's statement that the present government would be tried for killing people, Inu asked the opposition leader to get ready to face cases and trial for killings of people in Kansat and Bangabandhu Avenue during the last BNP-Jamaat tenure.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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An engineering graduate who applied to work at the Olympics has been jailed for nine months for a terror offence.
Norman Idris Faridi, 32, was turned down after applying to work last summer at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, where some football matches for the London 2012 Games were held.
The Kenyan national was later found to have a "terrorist's manual", 39 Ways To Serve And Proceed In Jihad, on his external hard drive and in a deleted file.
Faridi, of Pen-y-Wain, Cathays, Cardiff, was also found to have downloaded a video of extremist preacher Abu Hamza on to his mobile phone.
Sentencing him at the Old Bailey, Judge Gerald Gordon said: "Nothing I can see suggests that the item had been stored in some special way or special file. Nor is there in fact anything to suggest that you or anyone else had actually made use of it during the time it was in your possession.
"On the other hand, Parliament has determined that such is the need to protect the public from acts of terrorism that possessing material that may help those contemplating terrorism should be against the law and it should be punished in particular to deter others."
The judge also ordered that Faridi, who is married with a young child, should be deported after serving his sentence. He had been found guilty at trial of possessing records likely to be useful to someone preparing or committing an act of terrorism.
A similar charge of having al Qaida's Inspire magazine was ordered to lie on file after the jury could not reach a verdict. Faridi was cleared of a third charge of having a guide to fighting techniques for a similar purpose.
The court heard of the Kenyan's bid to work at the Olympics during a bail hearing last year.
The former Glamorgan University aeronautics engineering student, who graduated in 2010, renewed his visa and stayed on in Britain with his wife. He was working in a bakery when police raided his home and took away computer equipment in April last year.
THE son of Abu Hamza has given hate sermons at a British mosque just like his hook-handed father.
Uthman Mustafa Kamal backed holy war and an al-Qaida terrorist who attempted to murder troops in Afghanistan. He is the second youngest son of radical preacher Hamza, who was jailed for seven years in 2006 for inciting murder at Finsbury Park Mosque, north London.
Abu Hamza, 54, was finally deported to the US last year to face terror charges after an eight year legal wrangle.
Kamal has built up his own following at the An-Noor Mosque in Acton, west London, with videos showing him praying for holy warriors. He calls on followers to help "destroy their enemies" and "fight in the cause of Allah" on the mosque's YouTube channel.
The audio clip is teamed with footage of fanatics training in Iraq, Kosovo, Palestine, Lebanon, Bosnia and Algeria.
He is also shown at a protest outside the US Embassy praying for Dr Aafia Siddiqui, 41, jailed for 86 years after shooting at US security forces in Afghanistan. In the video Kamal yells: "Oh, God, unbind Aafia's chains of imprisonment," adding: "Plot on her behalf, dignify her, safeguard her and her children."
She was named as an associate by the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 49.
Tory MP Patrick Mercer, 56, said: "If Mr Kamal is outside the law, he needs to be dealt with swiftly and effectively." But he won't, will he?
An-Noor Mosque head Farouq Malik insisted the centre was not linked to extremism.
Kamal would not comment at the Hamza west London home yesterday.
[FRANCE24] Malala Yousafzai, the teenage girl from Pakistan who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year for campaigning for female education rights, on Tuesday started at her new school in Birmingham, UK.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Think the Brits will provide security?
Me either.
Or maybe they will until some imam says he's offended.
I give her two months, tops.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/20/2013 7:14 Comments ||
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#2
So they put her in a nest of Jihadi's??? Yhe Islamic colony of Egbaston?!?
The Daily NK contains two articles, based on reporting from contacts in North Korea, that describe the living and food availability conditions during the national mobilization exercises in progress.
They confirm that a partial mobilization of manpower has occurred since 11 March, unlike any in a long time. The only work teams still functioning are those devoted to goods for the armed forces. Production teams that make goods for civilians are participating in or are supporting the training.
Food allocations are based on production output by workers. Closure of a production line for military training terminates food allocations for the workers on that line. Mobilized workers are fed by the army but their families at home must fend for themselves or receive special allocations from the government or pilfered food from the army.
The contacts in North Korea report serious food shortages among the families of the mobilized workers, some of whom have threatened protests. In one major city on the China border, the government made a special allocation to avert a riot.
There are many hardships to living in North Korea, but food shortage is a category of hardship that has prompted public riots in the past that required troops to suppress. Government action to avert them by limited food allocations is an indication of the gravity of the internal situation. The leadership cannot afford to divert military resources to riot control when it is risking general war.
What the reports confirm is that the exercise is a high cost activity because no civilian trade goods are being produced and food is dedicated to the military first. The economic and social costs described in the articles indicate the exercise is more than just training. It is rehearsal and preparation for an action that risks a wider conflict.
#5
Issue isn't what Obama will do, it's what the SKors will do, and whether Obama will (or can) restrain them. The new ROK president simply cannot allow Northern aggression to stand; she's done otherwise.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2013 8:59 Comments ||
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#6
Norks may be bluffing themselves right into a shooting war. Pudge won't be able to back down if there's an exchange by an itchy-fingered Nork General
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2013 9:52 Comments ||
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#7
We may about to witness what happens when bureaucrats living in their own fantasy bubble suddenly do something really really stupid. BTW, that applies to multiple parties in this case.
#8
Norks may be bluffing themselves right into a shooting war.
It's more instigation than bluff. The NorK's objective appears to be to get South Korea (and to a lesser extent, the US) to shoot first or to back down and treat with them. Methinks the latter is the actual objective.
#9
I think that is indeed the objective. However, I think they're miscalculating with regard to Park -- she can't back down gracefully at the very start of her administration.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2013 12:44 Comments ||
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#10
IBID
P2K's comments set the context increasingly here at home, but I'm not so sure hte one-trick pony Norks know that. SO setting the new edge in their never-ending game of payola brinksmanship may actaully go too far and spark the South into an action that crescendo's into a major fracas.
When the Nork Generals sense that their game is threatened, either they do Pudgey in, or go for broke. While the Septegenarians in their ranks have a sense of the true limits of their military, young turks may actually buy their internal BS and think they can redo 50 since Champ really won't pull the trigger?
[Egypt Independent] North Korea has produced another video showing the United States under attack, this time with the White House and the US Capitol literally in the crosshairs.
The four-minute video titled "Firestorms Will Rain on the Headquarters of War" was posted Monday on the YouTube channel of the North's official website Uriminzokkiri, which distributes news and propaganda from state media.
The first two minutes used still photos of US fighter jets, B-52 bombers and aircraft carriers to portray the United States as a "bullying nuclear power intent on bending Pyongyang to its will."
"Second by second, the fuse of a nuclear war is burning," a female narrator warned.
It then showed a sniper's crosshairs superimposed over the White House, before switching to animated footage of the dome of the US Capitol building exploding in a fireball.
"There is no limit to the range of our strategic rockets," the narrator said.
Angered by UN sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last month, North Korea has threatened the United States with a pre-emptive nuclear strike, as military tensions on the Korean peninsula escalated to their highest level for years.
Although experts say the North is years from being able to fire a nuclear-tipped ballistic mile as far as the US mainland, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel responded Friday with plans to boost West Coast missile defenses.
It was the latest in a line of similarly-themed videos posted to the Uriminzokkiri channel.
An offering early last month showed New York in flames after an apparent missile attack, and another two weeks later depicted US soldiers and President Barack Obama burning in the flames of a nuclear blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
The Russians aren't going to like Chinese-caused mushroom clouds oer Japan floating over their way per the Russian far east, etc. - IMO thats good news for JAPAN because it may mean that China = DPRK? will want to restrict its attacks agz Japan to either wholly Conventional, or at worse Limited [Tactical?]Nuclear.
China's focii will be on forcibly taking control of TAIWAN, and deterring or defeating any US Air, Sea intervening MilFors as far out O-T-H in WESTPAC [CENTPAC?] ASAP AFAP ALAP.
I believe that China intends for the DPRK to keep Japan + SDF + USFJ, USFK preoccupied while the PLA strikes from Taiwan all the way SOUTHWARD to the NORTHERN PHILIPPINES, SOUTH CHINA SEA, + POSSIBLY THE STRAITS OF MALACCAS. A PLA land campaign in the Himalayan States, + by extension SINO-INDIAN MIL CONFRONTATION [Indo-Pak], cannot be ruled out.
The Maha-Rushian questione' du jour pertains to the strategic or realistic consequences of debt-led "sequestration" on the USDOD's ability to intervene in NE Asia, + any potential role of Radical Islam + Hard Boyz in a such a conflict.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/20/2013 10:14 Comments ||
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#4
North Korean YouTube video shows Washington under attack
The Norks don't understand that there is a significant and growing segment of the population who'd quip a mild acknowledgement "OK" and then go back to their coffee, while another group may say "hope they don't mess up the Smithsonian" before returning to their daily rituals.
#5
P2K's comments set the context increasingly here at home, but I'm not so sure hte one-trick pony Norks know that. SO setting the new edge in their never-ending game of payola brinksmanship may actaully go too far and spark the South into an action that crescendo's into a major fracas.
When the Nork Generals sense that their game is threatened, either they do Pudgey in, or go for broke. While the Septegenarians in their ranks have a sense of the true limits of their military, young turks may actually buy their internal BS and think they can redo 50 since Champ really won't pull the trigger?
#6
"Any potential adversary should know that we will defend ourselves against the possibility of an attack by unconventional arms. And if such a strike does occur, as commander in chief I will respond with overwhelming and devastating force."
(dovish) candidate John Kerry in 2004
"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union."
President Kennedy in 1962
Perhaps now would be a good time to remind the North Koreans and others that the US has the capability and the intent to retaliate after a nuclear attack.
[An Nahar] A French jihadist arrested earlier this month in Mali returned to France on Tuesday and was immediately detained, judicial and informed sources said Tuesday. "Bon jour! Welcome home! Stick 'em up!"
The 37-year-old is among six men captured at the start of this month during fighting between French-led troops and Islamist rebels in the Ifoghas mountains in northern Mali.
Informed sources said the man was being held in a counter-espionage detention center near Paris and being probed for "associating with criminals and links to a terrorist organization."
Another Frenchman who was arrested in November but not among the fighters was sent back to France at the start of this month.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls recently said that a "handful" of French nationals or people living in France were presently in Mali fighting alongside the Islamists.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Iraq's cabinet decided on Tuesday to postpone provincial elections in two provinces that were scheduled for April 20 by up to six months over security concerns, the Iraqi premier's spokesman said.
Polls in Anbar province in west Iraq and Nineveh in the north have been delayed, Ali Mussawi told Agence France Presse, noting that candidates have been threatened and killed, while there were also requests for a delay from the two provinces.
The announcement came as 34 people were killed in more than 20 attacks in Iraq on Tuesday, according to security and medical officials.
Several provincial elections candidates have also been killed in attacks in recent weeks.
It appeared that elections in the 12 other provinces where they were set to be held on April 20 would go ahead as scheduled.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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Maybe Obama will learn something from this but probably he won't
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/20/2013 10:09 Comments ||
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#2
BUT they are supposed to like me!!!
I've got the name, I made the nifty speech in Cairo, and I've sucked up to all of the local islamic leaders, what else do I have to do to get the children of peace to love me???
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/20/2013 10:24 Comments ||
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#3
Stick your head in a bucket of water three times and pull it out twice.
As President Obama arrives in the Middle East today, Jordan's King Abdullah has a message for us: We're naïve about the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood, which now runs Egypt and is working for control in Syria and other parts of the region.
In an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, the king says too many Western leaders believe "the only way you can have democracy [in the Middle East] is through the Muslim Brotherhood."
The Brotherhood, he says, is run by "wolves in sheep's clothing." But "when you go to the State Department and talk about this, they're like, 'This is just the liberals talking, this is the monarch saying that the Muslim Brotherhood is deep-rooted and sinister.' "
Let's remember who's speaking here. This is not some neo-con. This is a leader of a modernizing and democratizing Muslim nation who claims direct descent from the Prophet Mohammed -- speaking more openly than any other leader before him.
(Perhaps too openly: Yesterday, the king's Facebook page called Goldberg's article "inaccurate and dishonest," although it didn't disavow any of his quotations.)
King Abdullah is also America's best friend in the Arab world. When he says we underestimate the menace of the Muslim Brotherhood, we do well to pay attention.
He's also a pretty good thug-boy himself; he can wield the baseball bat when he needs to. He's going to 'modernize' and 'democratize' Jordan so long as he gets to remain king and decide in the end what the basic rules are. I don't argue that he's as bad as the Brotherhood, and he may be as much as the region can do these days, but he's no saint.
King Abdullah II told The Associated Press in an interview that in his view, Syrian President Bashar Assad was beyond rehabilitation and it was only a matter of time before his authoritarian regime collapses.
The most worrying factors in the Syrian conflict are the issues of chemical weapons, the steady flow or sudden surge in refugees and a jihadist state emerging out of the conflict, the king said.
He warned that radicalization of Syria, together with the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, could ignite the entire region.
Another extremely dangerous scenario is the fragmentation of Syria, which would trigger sectarian conflicts across the region for generations to come, he said. And also the huge risk that Syria could become a regional base for extremist and terrorist groups, which we are already see establishing firm footholds in some areas, the king added.
All these are extremely dangerous threats. I have been warning against them all, especially the chemical weapons threat, since the beginning of the crisis, he said.
#5
given Arab history and mindset, he's about as modern and democratic as they're gonna get
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2013 9:56 Comments ||
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#6
I've spent some time in Jordan and it is a fine place.
The women wear western clothing, the country is prosperous.
There is a cop behind every tree and they park APC's and station troops at the front door of the Hyatt and the InterCon.
Jordan is what the ME could be if someone had the balls to go in there and kick KSA in the ass about their support of radical Islam. Cut off the KSA money and most of these terrorist nutjob have nothing to work with.
Of course, you have to ask, if it wasn't for terrorism, what would all of these psychopaths in the ME do?
Terrorism is actually serial killings sanctioned by religion.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/20/2013 10:32 Comments ||
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#7
IIRC the King's family, lineage, has claim to run Mecca.
#10
The British didn't "give" Mecca to the Sauds. It was conquered in a war in '25. The British tried to give the Hejaz to the Hashemites, who managed to lose the region to the sandbillies from the Nejd. The Transjordan was a consolation prize for the schmuck who lost Mecca to the Sauds. At best, the British tolerated the change in ownership of Mecca
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/20/2013 16:21 Comments ||
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America and Europe have served as safe havens for a generation of Islamists looking to take over their own countries. Iranian Islamists like Khomeini hung out in Paris. Arab Islamists hung out in the United States.
If you loved Morsi, meet Ghassan Hitto, the choice of the rebels to be the Prime Minister of an imaginary government. Hitto was no doubt chosen for his American background and his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Just last year Ghassan Hitto was an IT executive in Dallas whose focus was probably lines of code or how to deliver a project on time. But today he was giving a speech in Istanbul in which he insisted his new priority was to utilise "all conceivable means" to topple President Bashar al-Assad and provide desperately-needed aid to the beleaguered people of Syria.
He was voted in by 35 of the 49 coalition members who cast ballots, but another 15 members were not present -- with several walking out in protest at Mr Hitto's perceived links to the Muslim Brotherhood and its backers in Qatar.
Alongside the legitimacy issues caused by the expatriate nature of the opposition, the coalition has also been beset by divisions between Islamists and liberal members, and Mr Hitto's election was no different. And despite being touted as a "consensus candidate" that could unite both sides, former Syrian National Council head Burhan Ghalioun and prominent dissidents Walid al Bunni and Kamal al-Labwani were among those who abstained from the vote.
Mr al-Labwani told The Independent that outnumbered liberals could do little to get their voices heard and said he planned to resign from the coalition.
So the next war in Syria, once Pencilneck is swinging from a lamppost, will be the 'liberals' against the Salafists and the Brotherhood. Works for me...
[An Nahar] Syrian rebels on Tuesday denied government claims that they had used chemical weapons, blaming President Bashar Assad's regime instead for the deadly rocket attack that caused "breathing problems."
"We understand the army targeted Khan al-Assal (in Aleppo province) using a long-range missile, and our initial information says it may have contained chemical weapons," mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army spokesman Louay Muqdad told Agence France Presse.
"There are many casualties and many injured have breathing problems," he said in Istanbul, where Syria's opposition has gathered to pick a rebel prime minister.
He denied claims made earlier Tuesday by Syria's state news agency SANA that "terrorists" -- the name the regime uses for rebels -- "fired rockets containing chemical materials on Khan al-Assal", killing 15 people.
"We have neither long-range missiles nor chemical weapons. And if we did, we wouldn't use them against a rebel target," said Muqdad.
Monitoring groups have frequently accused the army of using long-range missiles to target rebel enclaves in Syria that have slipped out of regime control.
Damascus has also warned it may use its chemical weapons if attacked by outsiders, although not against its own people.
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03/20/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
VOA gives a different report:British chemical warfare expert Hamish Bretton-Gordon said Tuesday he gives little credence to claims by either side of a chemical weapons attack. He said Syrian government television video of the alleged casualties did not correspond with what one would expect to see in such a situation.
In this particular case a rocket could have hit industrial toxic chemicals stored on the ground and caused their release, but none of the doctors treating patients in the hospitals are wearing any protective clothing, which is usually a good combat indicator. Without it they would be affected," said Bretton-Gordon, a former chemical warfare expert for the British defense ministry.
He added that the smell of chlorine was not a definitive indicator of chemical weapons use because, "you often get that in the vicinity of conventional explosions." He added that chlorine has not really been used as a chemical weapon since the First World War it is not very effective."
#4
I glanced at the TV this morning and saw some senator, maybe it was Graham, getting his panties all in a wad about this. But what do you expect? Assad has his back to the wall and his people are gonna get massacred if the rebels have their way. What would Graham do if he was in that situation? It's war, Senator. That's what happens. Maybe if we hadn't given those rebels guns it wouldn't be happening. And if you don't like Iran you should have bombed the crap out of them years ago.
[An Nahar] The daughter of Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was released Tuesday after serving a six-month sentence on charges of propaganda against the regime, her lawyer told the ISNA news agency.
Lawyer Sohrab Soleimani said Faezeh Hashemi, who was arrested in late September and taken to Tehran's notorious Evin prison, was released in the early hours of Tuesday, ISNA reported.
Hashemi was among thousands arrested for taking part in protests that erupted after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was given a second term in a 2009 election amid claims by the opposition that the vote was rigged.
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[An Nahar] Syria's opposition will not enter into dialogue with the regime of President Bashar Assad, the country's newly elected rebel prime minister said Tuesday in his inaugural speech.
"We confirm to the great Syrian people that there will be no dialogue with the Assad regime," Ghassan Hitto said.
Hitto was chosen early Tuesday by a majority of the main opposition National Coalition members, after hours of closed-door consultations.
The 50-year-old will be tasked with setting up an interim government which would be based in rebel-held territory in Syria.
The election comes some two months after Coalition chief Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib proposed talks with regime officials with conditions, including that some "160,000 detainees" be released.
Several Coalition members told Agence France Presse the election of an interim rebel premier and the establishment of a government cancelled out the possibility of talks with the regime.
"The regime ended that proposal (for talks), not the opposition. The idea behind the proposal was to relieve the Syrian people's pain," Coalition chief Khatib told AFP.
"The proposal for talks ended before we elected an interim prime minister," he added.
In a speech laying out the new government's priorities, Hitto called the regime "a gang" that "destroyed the country".
"The main priority we have before us is to make use of all tools at our disposal to bring down the Assad regime," said Hitto, while pledging to offer "all possible assistance" to residents living in areas free from army control.
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A federal grand jury in New York has indicted a Saudi native on charges of joining al-Qaida in fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan and conspiring to bomb U.S. diplomatic facilities in Nigeria.
Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, also known as "Spin Ghul," was extradited from Italy to the United States in October.
The six-count indictment accuses him of, among other things, joining al-Qaida after arriving in Afghanistan in 2001, fighting U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003, and traveling to Africa "with the intent to conduct attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Nigeria," according to the office of the U.S attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The indictment, made by a grand jury last month, was unsealed Wednesday. Harun was born in Saudi Arabia but claims citizenship in Niger, the Justice Department said.
"Vowing allegiance to al-Qaida and training to commit violent jihad are not the worst of Harun's alleged crimes," FBI spokesman J. Peter Donald said. "The allegations include actually attacking U.S. troops and plotting to use explosives to kill U.S. diplomats.
"As alleged, Harun not only intended to, but did, commit acts of terrorism against Americans. Now he is subject to the American justice system. We remain committed to protecting the safety of Americans and our national security," Donald said.
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.
Khaleda Zia
The Daily NK contains two articles, based on reporting from contacts in North Korea, that describe the living and food availability conditions during the national mobilization exercises in progress.
[Egypt Independent] North Korea has produced another video showing the United States under attack, this time with the White House and the US Capitol literally in the crosshairs.
[An Nahar] A French jihadist arrested earlier this month in Mali returned to France on Tuesday and was immediately detained, judicial and informed sources said Tuesday.
[An Nahar] Syrian rebels on Tuesday denied government claims that they had used chemical weapons, blaming President Bashar Assad's regime instead for the deadly rocket attack that caused "breathing problems."
