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Today: 86 articles and 175 comments as of 10:01.
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'Missiles fired at' Russian plane with 159 passengers onboard flying over Syria
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Afghan president confirms receiving CIA cash
[Pak Daily Times] Afghanistan's Caped President 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...
confirmed on Monday that his office has received money from the US Central Intelligence Agency over the past decade, with wads of cash reportedly handed over in suitcases and backpacks.

Karzai thanked the US spy agency for what he said was money well spent just hours after The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported that Karzai's office received tens of millions of dollars in cash in a CIA effort to win influence.

"Yes, the NSC of Afghanistan has received money from CIA in the past 10 years. The amount was not big, rather it was small," Karzai said in a statement, referring to the National Security Council which is part of his office.

Karzai said the money had been used for good causes in Afghanistan, where endemic corruption has undermined efforts to establish a stable state, more than 11 years after the US-led invasion to dislodge the Taliban. "The money was spent for different reasons: operation objectives, helping maimed and sick (people) and for house rents and others objectives," the president said, without giving further details. "These assistances were very productive and we thank them." The statement relayed comments that Karzai made at a presser in Finland in response to The New York Times article.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The money was spent for different reasons: operation objectives, helping maimed and sick (people) and for house rents and others objectives," the president said,

....and some of course went for political purposes, such as vote buying and regime sustainment, same as here in the US.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 3:45 Comments || Top||


Africa North
An Egyptian court reverses order to stop the popular 'Tahrir Imam,' Mazhar Shahin from leading prayers deemed anti-Brotherhood
[Al Ahram] Egypt's administrative Disciplinary Court halts an order to suspend Sheikh Mazhar Shahin, who is well-known for leading prayers in Cairo's Tahrir Square during and after Egypt's 18-day uprising in 2011.

Earlier in April, Shahin was suspended as imam (Islamic leader) of Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir by Egypt's ministry of endowments (also known as awqaf, a body responsible for overseeing imams).

The charges against him included criticising President Mohamed Morsi and the Moslem Brüderbund.

The 34-year-old imam revealed that the complaint against him reads that he acted like "a TV station or opposition paper" during his Friday sermons.

Shahin had been warning of the Brotherhood's monopoly of state institutions before the order to suspend him.

Despite the order, Shahin defiantly led the Friday prayers in his mosque on 12 April declaring that he "will continue to speak the truth and will not become a hypocrite in order to satisfy a minister, ruler or group."

The Disciplinary Court's cancellation of the endowment ministry's order, however, annuls any consequences of the suspension, even including any salary withheld.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  IIUC this means that any Egyptian imam that preaches violent Jihad and Jew hatred and all their other charming precepts is doing so with government approval.

Gee, where are all those moderate muzzies I keep hearing about?
Posted by: AlanC || 04/30/2013 7:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Gee, where are all those moderate muzzies I keep hearing about? Posted by AlanC

They stay in the rear of the shop, counting the money that we send. :-(
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 7:32 Comments || Top||

#3  I've been looking for a moderate muslim for a long time (figuring some museum will pay a pretty penny for one) AC --- no luck yet.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/30/2013 14:50 Comments || Top||


Egypt's Moussa says Brotherhood out for revenge
[Al Ahram] Egypt's ruling Moslem Brüderbund is trying to exact Dire Revenge™ on the judiciary for years of imprisonment and political exclusion, but is attacking the wrong target, opposition leader Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ...
said on Monday.

The elder statesman told Rooters that Egypt faced an exceptional "to-be-or-not-to-be crisis" worse than after its 1967 defeat by Israel, and Islamist President Mohamed Mursi would do better to pursue national unity rather than division.

Mursi appeared to back down when he agreed with senior judges on Sunday to seek a compromise on judicial reform instead of acting on proposals by his Islamist supporters to force more than 3,000 judges into retirement.

Moussa, 76, a former Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
secretary-general and Egyptian foreign minister, said the assault on judicial independence should never have happened in the first place.

"This is not a concession. This is what should have been done from the start," he said in an interview in his liberal opposition Congress Party's office, saying Mursi's climbdown came after strong public disapproval.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Britain
Race war fear after Islamic terrorists target EDL
Violent extremists may focus atrocities on anti-Islamic groups to not only cause death and carnage but fuel religious hatred, experts said.

The warning came as six al-Qaeda inspired terrorists admitted plotting to attack an English Defence League rally with homemade bombs, guns and knives.

The outrage was only narrowly averted by sheer luck and the Birmingham gang's own incompetence, even though one of the men was under watch by MI5 and the police.

The planned attack was also timed last year to wreck the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.

It was the first time Islamic terrorists have targeted a specific group in the UK and experts fear it is the start of a new threat for community cohesion.
It was the first time Islamic terrorists have targeted a specific group in the UK and experts fear it is the start of a new threat for community cohesion.

The Government is concerned over growing tensions between Muslim and far right extremists while MI5 accept the EDL could become a target for jihadists.

Tommy Robinson, the EDL leader, last night warned should there be another 7/7 outrage "this whole country is going to go up."

Raffaello Pantucci, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said: "It is a real and live concern and one I know the Government has been worrying about, particularly in light of this case.

"You are talking about a spectrum here. At one end you have inflammatory events like we have seen (at protests) and at the other you have groups like this who are actually planning to carry out an atrocity.

"You are going to get more of this"

Dr Matthew Feldman, an expert in extremism from Teesside University, warned of "tit for tat extremism" that could make non-violent members of society "be made to feel that have to choose sides".

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "I am appalled by this new development, with a terrorist group targeting a specific group for their views.

"Such activities could lead to reprisals, and disorder between different groups."

MI5 fear the EDL could now become a target for Islamic extremists especially as they grow in profile, the Daily Telegraph understands

They were concerned by the fact a specific group had been targeted rather than the public in general and accept there is tension in some towns.

However, there is no evidence of a coordinated plan to target them.

Mr Robinson warned a successful UK terror attack would result in "a defining moment" and produce a reaction.

"God forbid it happening," he said.

"But I think we have our fingers on the pulse and if something like 7/7 happens this whole country is going to go up."
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 18:20 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Note the labeling of the EDL as extremists and the terrorists merely as Muslims.

PC moral relativism and self-hatred is alive and well in the UK.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/30/2013 19:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Once again, how is the Royal Navy going to save France + EU from the Hard Boyz iff there is no longer any viable Royal Navy + Other to speak of, + the UK devols into Britanistan/
Londinistan - by definition, "Jihad in France" infers an ineffective NATO-EU, + that either Germany + Russia have fallen or else are not able to intervene???

just sayin.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/30/2013 21:57 Comments || Top||


How plot to slaughter English Defence League supporters failed
Radical Islamists' gang turned up late for rally

A murderous plot by radical Islamists to launch a gun and bomb attack on hundreds of people attending an extreme right-wing rally failed to trigger a sectarian war because the gang turned up too late, it can be revealed today.
Um. Wow. A bit too much inbreeding in that bloodline...
The plot was uncovered by luck after an online insurance form was filled out wrongly and resulted in their car and weapons being impounded during a random motorway police check as they returned home after the aborted operation.
Um. Wow squared. So technically the entire gang is genetically the same person, just born to different parents?
Guns, machetes, swords and a home-made nail bomb were found in the car's boot two days after it was seized sparking a huge security operation that netted the six militants. Declarations of war were also found in the boot addressed to the "kaffir (non-believer) female and self-proclaimed Queen Elizabeth" and David Cameron.
Yep, that genetic tree is a barber pole... and somebody broke it.
The find was the first indication of any plan to attack the English Defence League (EDL) rally in Dewsbury even though one of the plotters had been under "low-level" surveillance operation by police and security services five days earlier.
They've been taking meetings with the FBI instead of the New York City police department?
Jewel Uddin, who was being watched because he had been spotted collecting cash on the street for another terrorist plot, had been seen by undercover police officers walking into a shop where he is believed to have bought a set of knives that were to be used in the attack. Uddin, 27, was among six people who pleaded guilty today to plotting the attack on the rally in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, on 30 June last year.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 07:59 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Concerns over gym associated with terrorists
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 8:39 Comments || Top||

#2  A murderous plot by radical Islamists to launch a gun and bomb attack on hundreds of people attending an extreme right-wing

A free association is called extreme. Terrorism is called radical...

Any ideas why newspaper sales are down??
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/30/2013 9:52 Comments || Top||

#3  I love how the EDL is made out to be such a threat, while the thugs who target them are just Misguided Yutes.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 04/30/2013 10:04 Comments || Top||

#4  BBC article, same subject.
Posted by: Deadeye Glegum9451 || 04/30/2013 11:12 Comments || Top||

#5  West Midlands Police, same subject.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 11:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Failed because "Islamic Radicals" failed to coordinate the attack in advance with authorities?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/30/2013 13:41 Comments || Top||


Perfidious Albion: Red Ken blames U.S. for Boston Bombings.
Speaking on his usual outlet, Iran PressTV, because he needs the attention. Be advised, you washed up old bugger, that absolutely no one cares.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 04:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The rot in England generally lies in the upper set of nobility and in the growing lower classes. No better citizens, no more upright or moral can be found in that which remains of the English middle-class. Livingstone is a textbook example of the rot.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 10:14 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Britons shall never be slaves--unless the international community demands it, in which case it is unforgivable white supremacism not to welcome your chains.
Posted by: Korora || 04/30/2013 11:25 Comments || Top||

#3  "Back in Chains" I tell you, CHAINS ! Race card down new record time. Congratulations are in order.

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 11:36 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea holds back seven South Koreans at industrial zone
[Al Ahram] North Korea held back seven of 50 remaining South Koreans at the suspended jointly run factory zone north of the heavily armed border on Monday, citing last-minute checks on taxes and wages.

The North withdrew its 53,000 workers from the complex this month amid spiralling tension between the two Koreas. The North had prevented South Korean workers and supplies from getting in to the zone since April 3.

The two Koreas remain technically at war under a mere truce that ended hostilities in their 1950-53 conflict and North Korea, angry at U.N. sanctions and joint South Korean-U.S. military drills, had in recent weeks threatened both countries with nuclear attack.

South Korean officials said the seven were not at risk. But the delay was another complication in what had been a decade of experiment merging the affluent South's capital and the North's cheap labour as a trial on commercial cooperation.

"As the North has said in their statements about ensuring the safety of the people who will be returning, we do not consider them at risk but we will be closely watching until all of them are back," a South Korean government official said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  never would have guesses they would take hostages!
Posted by: chris || 04/30/2013 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  A little extortion for dessert. I hope SKor learns their lesson this time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/30/2013 1:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Checks didn't clear.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/30/2013 8:24 Comments || Top||


Can N.Korea Take Over the Kaesong Industrial Complex?
Can North Korea run the Kaesong Industrial Complex on its own now that South Korean firms have evacuated their staff from the inter-Korean industrial park? Experts believe it is nearly impossible because the impoverished country will not be able to overcome the power shortage.

The electricity used in Kaesong Industrial Complex is completely supplied from South Korea. A substation in Munsan, Gyeonggi Province, sends electricity to the 100,000 kW Pyeonghwa substation in Kaesong built by South Korea, which then redistributes the power to the businesses.
Simple as throwing a switch...
North Korea suffers chronic power shortages. According to the Bank of Korea, North Korea has a generation capacity of 6.97 million kW, and generates 23 billion kW/h -- just 9 and 5 percent of South Korea.

The power supply is prioritized to the elite and munitions factories in Pyongyang. The Kaesong complex is not on priority list.

Cho Bong-hyun of the IBK Economic Research Institute said, "It would cost North Korea hundreds of billions of won to build a separate power plant for the complex, and even if it tries to redirect power supply from stations nearby, it would still cost tens of billions because it will have to build power transmission facilities."

The North would also need a new water supply and drainage system for the complex, which would cost several billions of won to build.

It would have difficulties maintaining machinery. Cho said, "South Korean technicians have been in charge of maintaining and repairing high-tech machinery. North Korea simply lacks the ability to deal with that."

Some suggest that Chinese companies could step in, but Prof. Yun Duk-min of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy said, "That would require transporting manufactured goods overland to China, and the logistics costs would just be too great. It's also very unlikely that China will risk diplomatic conflict with South Korea."
If China has to do all that why not just take the country over completely?
Securing raw materials is equally problematic. They could be brought in from China, but securing materials of consistent quality could pose a headache.

Last but not the least, even if the North does manage to operate the complex, it would have a hard time finding markets for the products.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  SKor needs to cut off the power. Norks are like Paleos. Kaesong was a bad idea and it is time for SKor to cut their losses. If Kimmie wants to do something useful, make a request to Big Daddy China.

The sooner the Norks fall, the sooner the North Korean people can be rescued from Hell.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/30/2013 1:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Sure they can take it over. Running it is another matter.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/30/2013 14:17 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm sure the Useless Nitwitts will step in and charge the South Koreans of being Big Meanies(tm) if they cut the power.

Or perhaps this is why the NORKS have taken hostages....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/30/2013 17:02 Comments || Top||

#4  "South Korean technicians have been in charge of maintaining and repairing high-tech machinery. North Korea simply lacks the ability to deal with that."

North Korea has a history of abducting South Koreans and Japanese citizens not as hostages but as skilled slaves.

They do have the ability to 'deal with that.'
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 04/30/2013 18:02 Comments || Top||


Pudgy Makes 1st Public Appearance in 40 Days
North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un made his first public appearance in 40 days on Saturday by visiting a shopping mall in Pyongyang. The North's state-run KCNA news agency reported that Suet Face Kim was accompanied by his wife Ri Sol-ju at the opening of the Haedanghwa mall.

Ri’s last public appearance was in late February when she watched a basketball game with former NBA star Dennis Rodman as he visited Pyongyang.

According to KCNA, the six-story building contains stores, restaurants, a swimming pool, bath house, barber shop and beauty parlor, as well as facilities to play ping pong and pool. It also has a library and coffee shop.

The Rodong Sinmun daily on its front page on Sunday showed a photo of the couple visiting a restaurant in the complex, accompanied by key officials and military heavyweights all dressed in civilian clothes. After touring the shopping center, Kim was quoted by KCNA as saying that it was the "firm resolve" of the Workers Party to prevent the North Korean people from starving again and to ensure that they can "reap the wealth and honor of socialism."

"Kim Jong-un has used visits to recreational facilities for propaganda before," said Kim Tae-woo, a former researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification. "This can't be viewed as a shift in strategy."
Posted by: Steve White || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


N.Korea Demolishes Border Villages to Stem Defections
North Korea is demolishing villages near the border with China along the Duman River and forcing residents to move south in order to prevent defections. A government source here said on Friday, "North Korea has been forcibly relocating villagers along the Duman River to places further from the border." The source added soldiers have been mobilized to demolish homes in some of the villages.

In one village in Onsong, North Hamgyong Province, around a hundred homes were reportedly demolished. The Duman narrows as it passes Onsong, making the area a popular spot for defectors to cross into China.

Activists in South Korea who help North Korean defectors said one Onsong resident was executed by firing squad recently after being captured in the attempt to defect. "The regime believes that stemming defections is an effective method of staying in power," the government source said

The North has stepped up border patrols and installed high-tech surveillance equipment, including devices that track the sources of cell phone signals.

In some parts of North Korea, rice from military storage is being doled out to local residents to combat food shortages. "Every soldier has been ordered to donate several kilograms of rice and send it to local food distribution centers," the source said.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As said before, the DPRK may no longer have the ability to wait many years + decades for de facto reunification wid the ROK - IT NEEDS REUNIFICATION ASAP LEST CHINA TAKE IT OVER JUST BY SIMPLE NON-WAR ECONOMIC ATTRITION = ECON-LED STATE COLLAPSE. WHAT MORE CHINESE TAKEOVER DUE TO WAR-LED COLLAPSE?

However, the DPRK is caught in the parallel larger, more dangerous issue of China's demand for strategic MilPol access for the PLA in various Asian mainland + maritime regions.

CAN NORTH KOREA + INTER-KOREAN REUNIFICATION SURVIVE CHINA'S "MANIFEST DESTINY"?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/30/2013 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmm, looks like a lot of farmland along the Yalu border. Are they sending the peasantry back under guard during the day to work the fields, or are they abandoning the farmland, too?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 04/30/2013 9:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, wait, Tuman River, not Yalu. Also plenty of farmland, but the other side of the watershed. Apparently the Yalu will drown your ass if you try to cross it in the dead of night?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 04/30/2013 9:32 Comments || Top||

#4  "The regime believes that stemming defections is an effective method of staying in power," the government source said.

While enslaving and starving the rest? Seems pretty dumb to me. Power requires living people over whom power is wielded. Not gonna be many of those left at this rate.
Posted by: RandomJD || 04/30/2013 15:58 Comments || Top||

#5  FWIW, I thought they already had banned any settlements within about 25 km of the border anyways...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/30/2013 19:21 Comments || Top||


Europe
Italian police arrest four suspected Islamist militants
Italian police on Tuesday arrested four of six men they suspect are members of an Islamist militant cell which was planning attacks in the United States, Israel and Italy, though no specific targets were named by police.

The men aimed to train militants and send them abroad, para-military police said, and are suspected of conspiracy to commit international terrorism and inciting racial hatred.

They were arrested in Andria in the southern Italian region of Puglia, where police say the group was based, and in Milan, Brussels and Catania, Sicily, and include a Tunisian who was the former imam at a mosque in Andria, police said.

Italian police are still looking for two other Tunisian men who they believe have returned to their home country. No international arrest warrant has been issued for them.

Investigators believe the six men tried to recruit among illegal immigrants in Italy, who then went on to training camps in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and Yemen.

In some cases the new recruits carried out attacks in Iraq.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 16:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Great White North
Ottawa can’t account for $3.1-billion in anti-terror funding: auditor-genera
Federal departments and agencies are spending only a part of the money allocated by the government to combat terrorism, the Auditor-General has found.

In his spring report released Tuesday morning, Auditor-General Robert Ferguson said the government had set aside about $12.9-billion to 35 departments and agencies between 2001 and 2009 to pay for activities related to public security and anti-terrorism.+

But only $9.8-billion of that money was spent – about $3.1-billion less than the government had intended. And the auditor could not find any explanation for the difference between what was allocated and what was used.

The money, which was allocated after the terrorist attacks in 2001, was intended to pay for measures that would enhance the security of Canadians. Specifically, it was intended to keep terrorists out of Canada, to prosecute and remove terrorists, to support international initiatives and to protect Canada’s infrastructure.

The auditor says the departments and agencies were required to report to the treasury board Secretariat about how the money had been spent. But, when the auditor’s officials asked to see those reports, they were told they had not been prepared.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 11:12 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Check the BQ checking account...
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 04/30/2013 13:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Did Michelle go shopping again?
Posted by: European Conservative || 04/30/2013 20:32 Comments || Top||

#3  You are hot tonight, EC. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 04/30/2013 21:50 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Obama: Staff is reviewing Boston intelligence
President Obama said Tuesday his staff is reviewing intelligence gathering prior to the Boston Marathon bombings to see if anything was missed that could have thwarted the attack.

"When an event like this happens, we want to go back and we want to review every step that was taken," Obama said at a White House news conference.

Obama also pushed back on claims by a prominent Republican -- Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- that Boston and last year's Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya show that U.S. intelligence is going backwards.

"No, Mr. Graham is not right on this issue, although I'm sure it generated some headlines," Obama said.

The president said the Boston review led by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is standard operating procedure in the wake of the April 15 attack that killed three and injured hundreds more.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 13:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I feel so much better now, don't you?
Posted by: Raj || 04/30/2013 14:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Staff reviewing Boston Intelligence.

Law Enforcement criminologists, and/or military intelligence analysts are they?

Interesting, and all this time I thought they were little more than Chicago thugs.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 17:39 Comments || Top||

#3  We have top men working on it right now. Top men
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/30/2013 19:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe if the White House reviews enough intelligence, they'll find out what it looks like.

God knows they have no idea now. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 04/30/2013 21:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Barbara is wielding her little scalpel again, I see. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2013 23:37 Comments || Top||

#6  So if aliens land on Pennsylvania 1600 they'll leave disappointed?
Posted by: European Conservative || 04/30/2013 23:56 Comments || Top||


Obama administration officials threatened whistle-blowers on Benghazi, lawyer says
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/30/2013 13:30 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Obama: Guantanamo must close
President Obama said Tuesday he doesn't want suspected terrorists on a hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay to die, and he vowed to redouble his efforts to close the detention center in Cuba.

"I don't want these individuals to die," Mr. Obama said at a press conference at the White House. "Obviously, the Pentagon is trying to manage the situation as best as they can. All of us should reflect on why exactly are we doing this. Why are we doing this?"

He decried the U.S. policy of holding the suspects without trial "in a no-man's land" in perpetuity.

"That is contrary to who we are, it is contrary to our interests, and it needs to stop," the president said.
Aren't you the man to stop it? Didn't you say you would?
Many of the more than 100 detainees at Guantanamo have been refusing food for weeks, protesting conditions there and their prolonged detention. Mr. Obama campaigned on a pledge in 2008 to close the facility, but Congress has resisted his efforts, with many lawmakers uneasy about bringing the suspects to be tried and imprisoned in the mainland United States.

"I continue to believe that we've got to close Guantanamo," Mr. Obama said. "Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe, it is expensive, it is inefficient, it hurts us in terms of our international standing. It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed."

He said he is "going to go back at this" issue with Congress. The president said the U.S. has tried and convicted other terrorism suspects on U.S. soil without incident, and they are serving long terms in federal prisons.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 13:13 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's been 5 years , what political panic causes this to be Broadcast NOW?
Obama CAN'T be re-elected, Again.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/30/2013 13:23 Comments || Top||

#2  SQUIRREL!!!!!
Posted by: AlanC || 04/30/2013 14:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Hang them all and close it down. Blame it on the sequestor.
Posted by: airandee || 04/30/2013 14:33 Comments || Top||

#4  I hear there are some hungry sharks in the waters off Cuba. Just sayin'....
Posted by: Barbara || 04/30/2013 14:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Combine airandee and Barbara.

Release them all in a small leaky boat with only a gallon of gas. Hey, can't pay for maintenance or gas with the sequester in place.


Chumming the water? ;^)
Posted by: AlanC || 04/30/2013 15:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Boston shows that America is safe to close the AlQ POW camp.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/30/2013 15:41 Comments || Top||

#7  And where will the inmates go? A lot of them face certain death if they return to their own countries. Maybe Obama could give them refuge in the US, say Boston.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 16:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Chumming the water? ;^)

Heck I bet a lot of sports fishermen would be willing to go out and chum the waters around the leaky boat for free - won't cost a dime of Taxpayer money.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/30/2013 17:05 Comments || Top||

#9  "And where will the inmates go? A lot of them face certain death if they return to their own countries."

What's the downside, tipper?
Posted by: Barbara || 04/30/2013 18:43 Comments || Top||

#10  No one truly wants to see Baby Assad deposed, no one truly wants to see Gitmo closed, everyone knows the outcvome or solution to same is potens mucho worse than the original problem, THUS OF COURSE WE hve have Have HaVe HAVE H-A-V-E
HHHAAAAAVVVVEEEEEE, D **** YOU, TO DO IT!

WHUT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/30/2013 19:20 Comments || Top||

#11  What's the downside, tipper?
Barbara, the downside is that Obama will go all "humanitarian and compassionate" and allow them to settle in the US instead perhaps becoming your new neighbor.
Just think of the fun it will be playing "dodge the bomb" and kill the kuffar with them.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 19:24 Comments || Top||

#12  tipper, I believe this dilemma is why Obozo's initial attempts to close Gitmo during his first term fizzled out. Nowhere else to put them. Home countries don't want them back, but relocating them to US soil would cause a political/PR shitstorm. Apparently the feds were pretty close to buying a vacant prison in rural Illinois, but that fell through. Locals were very relieved.

Obozo is using the passive voice here, like he is still a senator or some outside advocate or agitator, and not the man in charge. He does that when he's just pandering to his base. They'll still worship him for his empty words and meaningless gestures, but he's stuck. He may not have to run for re-election, but congressional Democrats do. Nothing will change.
Posted by: RandomJD || 04/30/2013 20:02 Comments || Top||

#13  tipper, I meant what was the downside of these clowns facing certain death if they returned to their home countries. I say give 'em a free ride.
Posted by: Barbara || 04/30/2013 21:45 Comments || Top||

#14  Suggesting a parachute drop (we're human) in the Rub al Khali. The prophet will guide them to Mecca from there.
Posted by: European Conservative || 04/30/2013 22:04 Comments || Top||

#15  Obozo is using the passive voice here, like he is still a senator or some outside advocate or agitator, and not the man in charge. He does that when he's just pandering to his base.

A useful insight, RandomJD. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2013 23:44 Comments || Top||


NJ men appeal sentence; argue taint by MA attack
Two New Jersey men are appealing their prison sentences on terrorism-related charges, arguing federal prosecutors were influenced by the Boston Marathon bombings.

Mohamed Alessa and Carlos Almonte were sentenced April 15, around the time of the bombings.

The two were arrested in 2010 and pleaded guilty to conspiring to join an armed Islamic group in Somalia with ties to al-Qaida.

Defense attorneys filed a joint motion Monday asking to have Alessa's 22-year sentence, and Almonte's 20-year sentence, reconsidered.

The judge denied an earlier defense claim that he had received a note about the bombings during the proceedings. The judge said the note related to his wife.

Federal prosecutors reiterated the judge's claim that the sentence had nothing to do with the Boston bombings.
This article starring:
Carlos Almonte
Mohamed Alessa
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 13:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Katherine Russell Under Scrutiny After Female DNA Found on Boston Bomb
The article does note the curious case of one Katherine Russell. She's still wearing islamic garb as of yesterday.

But the article also has (and this is worth the read) an account of the bombing in Makhachkala, Dagestan last May. The parallels are very interesting, especially as Tamerlan was there at the time.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 05:50 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She could have purchased the cookers at BB & Beyond, still would not prove anything. I'm doubtful about the DNA angle. It was a very contaminated blast site, and as well can recall, OJ had victim DNA in his own vehicle and he still got off.

She did immediately change her name, lawyer up, and move into daddies basement. If they can use the DNA thing to get her to talk [about money and contacts]...go for it !
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 7:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Media MAKING NEWS...if one can call this media.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/30/2013 7:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Is "sleeping with the enemy" equivalent to "guilt by association?"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/30/2013 7:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Agreed Skid.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 04/30/2013 8:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Fugger. She knew he was violent and dangerous and kept spreading for him. She supported his life of welfare fraud and petty crime, probably helped with it.

And the odds she didn't know what he was up to? Too slim to give a rip about.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 04/30/2013 10:06 Comments || Top||

#6  "Female DNA"....sounds icky.....

Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/30/2013 12:51 Comments || Top||


Boston's Jihadist Past
BP: Added text here as site was not readable using my browser

The location was once home to an international support network that raised funds
and recruited fighters for a jihadist insurgency against Russian rule over
Chechnya, a region and a conflict that few of the runners had likely ever given
any serious thought.


One mile farther, life in Boston was transformed in an act of horror that killed three and injured
scores. And one week later, everyone in Boston and around the United States is
thinking and talking and asking about Chechnya.


The investigation into alleged marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is
still in its infancy, but a press release issued by the FBI late Friday suggested that at
least one of the brothers may have had some kind of connection to Chechen
Islamist militant networks, a suspicion heightened by the fact that elder
brother Tamerlan spent about six months in Russia in 2012. (The most important
Chechen jihadist group has disavowed the attack, but has not unequivocally ruled
out the possibility of some kind of contact with Tamerlan.)


It will take time to discover whether there was a militant connection and, if there
was, to what extent it is pertinent to the Tsarnaevs' decision to bomb the
marathon.


But if the lead pans out, it won't be Boston's first brush with that faraway war. During the 1980s and into the
1990s, Islamist foreign fighters operated robust recruiting and financing
networks that supported Chechen jihadists from the United States, and Boston
was home to one of the most significant centers: a branch of the Al Kifah
Center based in Brooklyn, which would later be rechristened CARE International.


Al Kifah sprang from the military jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Through the end of the occupation, a network of centers in the United States
helped support the efforts of Afghan and Arab mujahedeen, soliciting donations
and recruiting fighters, including at least four from Boston who died in action
(one of them a former Dunkin Donuts employee). When the war ended, those
networks did not disappear; they refocused on other activities.


In Brooklyn, that network turned against the United States. The center's leaders
and many of its members helped facilitate the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,
and they actively planned and attempted to execute a subsequent plot that
summer to blow up the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels in New York, which would have
killed thousands.


When the FBI thwarted the tunnels plot, the Brooklyn Al Kifah office and most of the
other satellite locations were shuttered. But in Boston, the work continued
under a new name and with a new focus: supporting foreign-fighter efforts in
Bosnia and Chechnya.


The following narrative is derived from interviews and thousands of pages of court
exhibits, including correspondence, Al Kifah and CARE International
publications, and telephone intercepts developed over a years-long series of
FBI investigations into the charity that were made public as part of multiple terrorism-related prosecutions.


Established in the early 1990s, the Boston branch had emerged from the World Trade Center investigation
relatively unscathed. Little more than two weeks after the bombing, the head of
the Boston office, Emad Muntasser, changed his operation's name from Al Kifah
to CARE International (not to be confused with the legitimate charity of the same name).

Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 05:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Full of virus.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/30/2013 7:37 Comments || Top||


Tsarnaev family received $100G in benefits
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No chance any of these funds could have found their way into the late Tsarnaev's mosque [or mosque pals] for the funding of international terror ?

No, of course not. In fact, in ten years, we've never even given it a thought or examined potential linkages.

[sarc off]
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 3:25 Comments || Top||


#3  Someone has to explain to me why immigrants can get state welfare benefits.

I don't mind some medical coverage (I want the typhoid Mary's treated, TYVM), and I don't mind some food assistance to anyone, anyone who is starving. But giving immigrants general welfare assistance is insane. You come to America, you come to live and work. You can't do that, go back to your country of origin.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/30/2013 7:47 Comments || Top||

#4  There are the makers, the takers and the bomb makers. Not surprised. Nobody in homeland security ever wonders how someone on public assistance can afford to travel to and from Russia?
Posted by: Airandee || 04/30/2013 11:31 Comments || Top||

#5  And, of course: "Exclusive–-Sessions: Immigration Bill Gives Amnestied Residents 'Immediate' Access to Welfare"

HT: Drudge
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/30/2013 12:59 Comments || Top||

#6  $100Gis a mere pittance. Here in Australia there is a coddled select group of people known as "refugees" who enrich our multiculture with exotic foods so they expect between 500g and a million spent on them each year and have an army of NGO's hanging off them encouraging more to be spent. After all most of them suffer mental and physical trauma after living in a Muslim country and therefore cannot work or so they say.
An example of the enrichment they bring:
Juice bar owner suspected of backing Assad 'forced to sell'


.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 15:23 Comments || Top||


Obama administration officials threatened whistle-blowers on Benghazi
At least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have retained lawyers or are in the process of doing so, as they prepare to provide sensitive information about the Benghazi attacks to Congress, Fox News has learned.

Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistle-blowers, have been threatened by unnamed Obama administration officials.

“I'm not talking generally, I'm talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.”

Toensing declined to name her client. She also refused to say whether the individual was on the ground in Benghazi on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorist attacks on two U.S. installations in the Libyan city killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

However, Toensing disclosed that her client has pertinent information on all three time periods investigators consider relevant to the attacks: the months that led up to the attack, when pleas by the ambassador and his staff for enhanced security in Benghazi were mostly rejected by senior officers at the State Department; the eight-hour time frame in which the attacks unfolded, and the eight-day period that followed the attacks, when Obama administration officials incorrectly described them as the result of a spontaneous protest over a video.

“It's frightening, and they're doing some very despicable threats to people,” she said. “Not ‘we're going to kill you,’ or not ‘we're going to prosecute you tomorrow,’ but they're taking career people and making them well aware that their careers will be over [if they cooperate with congressional investigators].”
Hard to get a job on the outside if you're fired from your inside job and lose your security clearance...
Federal law provides explicit protections for federal government employees who are identified as “whistle-blowers.” The laws aim to ensure these individuals will not face repercussions from their superiors, or from other quarters, in retaliation for their provision of information about corruption or other forms of wrongdoing to Congress, or to an agency’s inspector-general.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican from California who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday to complain that the department has not provided a process by which attorneys like Toensing can receive the security clearances necessary for them to review classified documents and other key evidence.

“It is unavoidable that Department employees identifying themselves as witnesses in the Committee’s investigation will apply for a security clearance to allow their personal attorneys to handle sensitive or classified material,” Issa wrote. “The Department’s unwillingness to make the process for clearing an attorney more transparent appears to be an effort to interfere with the rights of employees to furnish information to Congress.”

The Obama administration maintains that it has been more than forthcoming on Benghazi and that it is time for the State Department to move on. At a recent hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Kerry noted that administration officials have testified at eight hearings on Benghazi, provided 20 briefings on the subject and turned over to Congress some 25,000 documents related to the killings.

“So if you have additional questions or you think there's some document that somehow you need, I'll work with you to try to get it and see if we can provide that to you,” Kerry told committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., on April 17. But Kerry added: “I do not want to spend the next year coming up here talking about Benghazi.”
So provide all the information and pull the band-aid off quickly...
Asked about Issa’s complaints about attorneys not receiving security clearances, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell on Monday indicated that – far from threatening anyone – the administration hasn’t been presented with any such cases.

“I'm not aware of private counsel seeking security clearances or -- or anything to that regard,” Ventrell told reporters. “I'm not aware of whistle-blowers one way or another.”

Ventrell cited the work of the FBI – whose probe of the attacks continues almost eight months later and without any known instances of perpetrators being brought to justice – and the Whitewash Accountability Review Board. The board was an internal State Department review panel led by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen.
Both made members of the nomenklatura...
An unclassified version of the board’s final report that was released to the public contained no conclusions that suggested administration officials had willfully endangered their colleagues in Benghazi or had misled the public or Congress.

“And that should be enough,” Ventrell said at Monday’s press briefing. “Congress has its own prerogatives, but we've had a very thorough, independent investigation, which we completed and [which was] transparent and shared. And there are many folks who are, in a political manner, trying to sort of use this for their own political means, or ends.”
Posted by: Steve White || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hard to get a job on the outside if you're fired from your inside job and lose your security clearance...Federal law provides explicit protections for federal government employees who are identified as “whistle-blowers.”

Key phrase: "Federal Gov't employees" ....sans contractors.

No actual "firing" necessary, if maintaining a TS Clearance is a...."condition of employment" which is pretty much the standard. You fail to meet the "conditions of employment"....sorry Willard, we no longer have work for you.

Ok everyone, please retain employee copy of your non-disclosure statement. We will forward the original to the Special Security Officer (SSO). Have a wonderful day.

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 3:41 Comments || Top||


Boston bombing suspect had links to slain Islamists
[Al Ahram] One of the brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings had made links with two figures in the Islamist anti-Kremlin insurgency in the Northern Caucasus, both of whom were killed by Russian security forces, a security source said Monday.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was himself killed during his capture by US authorities, was known to have been in contact with a Dagestan
...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
turban named Makhmud Nidal and also a turban of Canadian origin named William Plotnikov, a Russian security source in the Northern Caucasus told AFP.

Plotnikov took part, like Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in boxing competitions in both Canada and the United States and the two men also had contacts on social networks, said the source.

Plotnikov was among seven gunnies killed in a shootout with Russian security forces in July 2012. It was not clear if they ever met on the territory of Dagestan itself.

According to the Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which also published details of Plotnikov's links to Tsarnaev, he was a 21-year-old ethnic Russian who had converted to Islam in Canada.

It said that Tsarnaev's name first became known to the Russian security forces when Plotnikov was incarcerated
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
in 2010 in the Dagestan town of Izberbash. He was later released.

Makhmud Nidal meanwhile was a known turban with whom Tamleran Tsarnaev was seen when he made a trip back to Dagestan from the United States in 2012, the security source told AFP.

They were seen together four times, on each occasion at a mosque known for its Salafist tendencies in the Dagestani capital Makhachkala.

During his visits to the mosque he became the subject of some interest among fellow worshippers owing to an unusual interest in the study of Islam.

Nidal was killed in May 2012 in a "counterterrorist" operation in Makhachkala. After his death, Tsarnaev disappeared from the view of the Russian security services.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Emirate of Caucasus

#1  So.... young Tamerlan Tsarnaev pretty much traveled freely within the US and Russia, conducted extensive use of the internets....but occasionally those he met and communicated with later turned up dead ?

Surely nothing more than a coincidence.



Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 3:51 Comments || Top||


Extra medics in Guantanamo Bay for hunger strike
Late evening post carried over to Tuesday.
The US has reinforced medical staff at Guantanamo Bay to try to handle a spreading hunger strike by prisoners at the detention facility.

About 40 nurses and other specialists arrived at the weekend, camp spokesman Lt Col Samuel House said.

He said that 100 of 166 detainees were now on hunger strike, with 21 of them being force-fed through a tube. The inmates are protesting against their indefinite detention. Most are being held without charge.

The hunger strike started at the US facility in Cuba in February and has grown rapidly in recent weeks. Although such actions are frequent at Guantanamo, the current protest is one of the longest and most widespread.

Guantanamo officials deny claims that the strike began after copies of the Koran were mishandled during searches of prisoners' cells.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 20:17 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ihf they were serious they would go on a water strike
Posted by: chris || 04/30/2013 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Better yet any Oxygen strike!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/30/2013 0:34 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd fire up the BBQ grills around the site and let the fragrance dive them mad.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/30/2013 10:35 Comments || Top||

#4  The ongoing sequester may impact GITMO air conditioning. Just saying.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 10:44 Comments || Top||

#5  It is their choice to eat or not.
Posted by: irishrageboy || 04/30/2013 15:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't worry, our Prez is gonna close Gitmo - again. No word what to do with 'em, but it's wrong to keep 'em there. Without trial and all. We're not like that.

The man has a huge capacity for distraction, and legions to support his efforts.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/30/2013 18:09 Comments || Top||


State Dept. blocks Benghazi whistleblowers’ attorneys
The U.S. State Department is refusing to grant attorneys representing the Benghazi whistleblowers the security clearances needed to interview their clients about classified information, Former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Joe diGenova told WMAL DC radio Monday (relevant segment at the 3:07 mark).

DiGenova’s wife and law partner, Victoria Toensing, was recently retained by one of the State Department whistleblowers who will testify before Congress soon, but she and other attorneys have been blocked from the needed clearances in what is an attempt to prevent testimony, he said. Making this all the more unbelievable, diGenova said, is that Toensing currently holds a top-secret security clearance to represent another client in a separate case, but is now being refused clearance to represent a State Department whistleblower who wants to talk about Benghazi.

Posted by: Pappy || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Making this all the more unbelievable, diGenova said, is that Toensing currently holds a top-secret security clearance to represent another client in a separate case, but is now being refused clearance to represent a State Department whistleblower who wants to talk about Benghazi.

The gov't [State Dept or CIA] may have issued caveats for Top Secret Clearance on Benghazi beyond those provided for the other client; all of which begs the question why ?

I suspect DiGenova and Toesning are going to hand someone's ass to them over this bullshi* before it's all over.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 2:47 Comments || Top||

#2  At the we'll know what? That Tyrant Obama is a worthless subhuman traitor and did nothing? We already know and we know what will happen: NOTHING
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division || 04/30/2013 4:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Eh, not so fast Silentbrick. The reason the alleged US State Department whistleblower wants to blow his whistle is to... "testify before Congress soon".

No testimony, no book deal, no book deal.... no MONEY. When dealing with upright primates, always follow the money.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 6:52 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: junkiron || 04/30/2013 7:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Does the Sixth Amendment cover preparation for testimony before Congress? I'm not a lawyer.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 04/30/2013 9:25 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan Court Bans Musharraf From Public Office
A court in Pakistan has banned Pervez Musharraf from seeking public office, in the latest blow to the former president and army chief since he returned from exile with plans for a political comeback.

The ban, issued Tuesday in the northwestern city of Peshawar, comes just weeks after Mr. Musharraf came back from nearly four years of self-imposed exile with plans to run for a seat in parliament in May 11 elections.

Since his return, the former president's fortunes have gone from bad to worse. A court on April 20 placed Mr. Musharraf under house arrest in connection with charges that he ordered the illegal detention of judges in 2007. Days later, a judge rejected bail for Mr. Musharraf, who also is the target of a probe into the December 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a political rival.

Anti-terrorism authorities are probing claims that the then-president failed to provide adequate security to Ms. Bhutto, who was gunned down at a political rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 16:48 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Karachi is part of Pakistani Taliban plan to bring war to urban centers
A spate of Pakistani Taliban bomb attacks on candidates campaigning for Pakistan’s May 11 general election in the coastal city of Karachi has signaled what people close to al Qaida say is a strategic shift by the country’s militant insurgency from areas bordering Afghanistan to major urban centers.

Karachi, a chaotic mega-city of 18 million people, is the militants’ prime target, these people say.

"The migration of TTP fighters to Karachi has been ongoing, in fits and starts, for several years, but over the last 11 months, the trickle has turned into a steady flow of men, weapons and explosives," an al Qaida operative code-named Okasha said, referring to the Pakistani Taliban by the initials of their formal name, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

“Their plan is to establish a headquarters in Karachi, and spread their network to adjacent cities from there," said the operative, who’s based in Karachi and declined to divulge his real name.

The attacks in Karachi over three consecutive days last week, Thursday through Saturday, targeted candidates of two secular political parties: the United National Movement and the Awami National Party. The bombings killed 26 and wounded dozens, though the targeted election candidates survived.

Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 07:47 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Musharraf ready to face treason charges, but not alone, SC told
[Pak Daily Times] Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
's counsel told the Supreme Court on Monday that the former president was ready to face treason charges, but the guns should not be pointed at him alone.

During the hearing of five identical petitions against Musharraf for subverting and holding the constitution in abeyance, his counsel Advocate Ibrahim Satti contended that the role judiciary played by validating successive martial laws in the past is also not something to be proud of and treason charges should also involve all those who never objected or collaborated, abetted and conspired since 1956.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja directed the caretaker government to facilitate all the three counsel representing Musharraf to meet their client after they complained that they had not seen him for the last four days. "We all are sailing in the same boat since 1956," the counsel argued. "And this boat full of people should be sunk!" retorted Justice Khawaja.

The court also observed that it would ensure no injustice is done to anybody, as everyone is equal before it. Tracing the history of previous martial laws in the country, Satti argued that the world had never accepted validation of martial laws either by parliament or by the judiciary in the past. Therefore, if any action by way of treason charges has to be taken then his client should not be discriminated against rather the charge should implicate all those who aided and abetted such acts in the past.

It is a wrong perception, the counsel recalled, that late General Ayub Khan clamped martial law on October 7, 1958 rather it was imposed by the then president Sikander Mirza, and which was validated by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the president was very much in the office and that it was in the interest of the state. After the verdict Gen Ayub become the president on October 27, 1958.

He said Ayub Khan himself violated the constitution and handed over the powers to Gen Yayha Khan, but the apex court protected all acts of Gen Yahya in the famous Asma Jillani case because there was an interim constitution of 1962 and that the National Assembly speaker was then performing as the acting president. Likewise, Satti said, the Supreme Court validated the 1977 martial law of Gen Zia ul Haq
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
in the Nusrat Bhutto case by invoking the doctrine of necessity because Chaudhry Fazal Ellahi was then functioning as the president.

He said that in the same fashion the Supreme Court legalised the October 12, 1999 martial law by Gen Musharraf because Rafiq Tarar was in the office of the president and all the courts were functioning smoothly. The hearing of the case has been adjourned until today (Tuesday).
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Bomb-hit political parties see conspiracy against 'moderates'
[Pak Daily Times] Three 'moderate' political parties of the country, Pakistain People's Party (PPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
(MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP) see conspiracy of 'national and international establishments' behind continued terrorist attacks against them.

The establishments are going to repeat the Afghan Jihad policy of 80s in view of the scheduled withdrawal of NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
forces in 2014.

The 'enlightened' parties of the country joined hands on Monday after facing a series of terrorist attacks on their election offices and public gatherings in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
and other parts of the country during the month of April.

Speaking at their first-ever joint presser at the Karachi Press Club, the leaders of the three parties said that beturbanned goons have targeted only the progressive parties during their electioneering. On other hand, they added, the right wing parties have been provided open ground to run their election campaign.

"A clear ideological line has been drawn," said senior PPP leader Taj Haider while addressing the joint presser. He said that progressive parties are at one side, which strive for the elimination of extremism and terrorism and hence are being attacked and restrained from their election campaign.

On other side, he added, some parties, whom the beturbanned goons believe to be their warrantors, have continued electioneering.

"The Afghanistan and Pakistain region had been burning for the last 30 years. Do Western powers want to hand it over to fundamental forces again, when they leave?" he asked. He stated that beturbanned goons attacking progressive parties are krazed killer wings of right-wing political parties.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Abbas: Palestinians who kill Jews cannot be punished
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, hailed the world over as a "moderate," again insisted last week that Palestinian Arabs who murder Israeli Jews cannot be punished for their crimes.

Abbas was hosting a two-day "Freedom and Dignity" conference in Ramallah to mark the 11th anniversary of Israel's arrest of Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of Abbas' own Fatah party who was convicted of directing numerous terrorist attacks against Israelis.

Polls show that a vast majority of Palestinians want to elect Barghouti as their president, if he is every freed by Israel.

At the event, Abbas declared that whether or not Israel frees the thousands of jailed Palestinian terrorists will determine its true commitment to peace.

Many of the Palestinians jailed by Israel took part in attacks that killed innocent Jewish men, women and children. And most of the rest were captured while trying to do so.

According to Abbas, these killers and would-be killers must not be held accountable for their crimes. After all, they were only trying to kill Jews.

Even more shocking than Abbas' position on this matter is the support it receives from America and Europe.

The Freedom and Dignity conference was graced by the presence of Isabelle Durant, vice president of the European Parliament, who Palestinian media reported is making "immense efforts" to win the freedom of the jailed terrorists.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 14:42 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's OK. We'll take care of it.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/30/2013 14:47 Comments || Top||

#2  You missed the best parts: According to the EU Parliment president and FORMER President Jimmy Carter it is ok to kill Jews:

Durant read a speech on behalf of the European Parliament president, Martin Schulz, who charged Israel with committing a human rights violation by imprisoning Palestinians who kill or try to kill Jews.

Former US President Jimmy Carter send a videotaped speech in which he stressed that setting the Palestinian terrorists free is a necessary condition for peace

Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/30/2013 17:11 Comments || Top||

#3  What is the Paleo plan to get EGYPT + JORDAN to give up forever their territorial claims to Gaza + West Bank???

The future Paleo State, WID OR WIDOUT any Israeli collapse scenario???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/30/2013 22:16 Comments || Top||


Israel launches new submarine
[Ynet] Defense Ministry and the IDF inaugurated Israel's fifth submarine, "Rahav," in the German city of Kiel.
I'm not sure, but I think they might all be from Germany -- and a number of them sold at very favourable terms.
All German, all Dolphin-class, and I think a couple have air-independent propulsion systems.
The ceremony was attended by Defense Ministry Director Udi Shani, Navy Commander Gen. Ram Rotenberg and other Israeli officials, along with their German counterparts.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2013 05:24 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is it Yellow?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/30/2013 7:38 Comments || Top||

#2  At last check, Israel was planning to convert a couple of selected hulls to US-style VLTS capable of firing SLBMS, as complement to already pre-existing SLCM capabilities.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/30/2013 22:06 Comments || Top||


Kerry to Meet Arab Ministers on Peace Process
[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
said on Monday he will host talks with Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
officials as part of a painstaking process aimed at revitalizing the Middle East grinding of the peace processor.

Kerry has already devoted time and energy to trying to find a way to bring all sides back to the negotiating table since taking office on February 1.

He has traveled three times to the region, meeting senior Israeli and Paleostinian officials as well as Egyptian, Saudi, Jordanian, and Qatari leaders, seeking to end the stalemate in the grinding of the peace processor which collapsed in late 2010.

The new top U.S. diplomat has suggested the Arab Peace Initiative, unveiled in 2002 by Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
under which 22 Arab countries would normalize ties with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands, could map out a way forward.

"We welcome the vaporous Arab League's eagerness to play a constructive role in the pursuit of a durable and lasting Middle East peace," deputy acting State Department front man Patrick Ventrell told journalists.

The talks -- to be held away from the cameras in Blair House, just a short walk from the White House, and not in the usual, more transparent State Department offices -- came after "a series of productive conversations by the secretary to explore how we can best move regional peace efforts forward."
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  "Let's see what this baby can do on puree!"
Posted by: mojo || 04/30/2013 0:03 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Thai rebels press for independence, set to scupper peace talks
[Al Ahram] Leaders of a Mohammedan rebel group in southern Thailand said they will press for an independent state and made other demands that are likely to scupper a second round of peace talks, which started in Malaysia on Monday.

Resistance to Bangkok's Buddhist rule has existed for decades but flared up violently in 2004 since when a campaign of bombings and roadside shootings has killed over 5,300 people, according to monitoring group Deep South Watch.

Thai security forces say the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN)is the main bad turban group behind the attacks, although they acknowledge that other gangs operate in the region.

The government made no comment on the BRN's message - aired on social networking website YouTube on Sunday - but officials, who dismiss any notion of independence or regional autonomy, are certain to reject the demands.

In the clip, Hassan Taib, one of the BRN leaders, said running "our own government in the fairest way" in the region was one of the group's objectives.

Another leader, Abdulkarim Khalib, demanded that Thailand drop all charges against alleged Mohammedan separatists and unconditionally release all detainees. The BRN statement pledged to continue its actions "until the demise of colonialism".

Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said the clip left unchanged the Thai government's stand that the rebels had broken the law.

"The faceless myrmidons are all Thai people and we won't accept them as anything else," told news hounds in Bangkok. "They are Thais who broke the nation's law and are answerable to that."
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You knew they would.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/30/2013 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  When have peace talks ever solved anything?
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 04/30/2013 15:30 Comments || Top||

#3  As of this AM, the Muslim insurgents demand has been formally rejected by the Thai Govt - unless something changes, the most likely outcome will be expanded insurgency wid intervention by foreign Radical Islamist MilTerr groups.

IMO its a given that the Muslim insurgency in Thailand will eventually linky-link to the Sabah Crisis in Malaysia near the Philippines.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/30/2013 22:12 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
A no-fly zone over Syria? Harder to do than in Libya, warns top US general (+video)
Some US lawmakers want the US to establish a no-fly zone over Syria. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, questioned Tuesday whether that would do much to reduce Syrian attacks on civilians, never mind that it won't be easy.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 17:56 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Hezbollah hints at possible Syria intervention
The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah says Syrian rebels will not be able to defeat President Bashar Assad's regime, strongly suggesting his Iranian-backed militant group could intervene on the government's side if the need arises.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah says Damascus "has real friends in the region and the world who will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of America or Israel."

Hezbollah and Iran are close allies of Assad.

Nasrallah said Tuesday that now there are now no Iranian forces in Syria but added: "What do you imagine would happen in the future if things deteriorate in a way that requires the intervention of the forces of resistance in this battle?"

Syria's opposition accuses Hezbollah of fighting alongside Syrian government troops trying to crush the 2-year-old Syrian uprising.
Posted by: tipper || 04/30/2013 16:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  C'mon jump in you know you want to. Kill each other.....in mass....just keep us the hell out of it.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/30/2013 19:28 Comments || Top||


UN calls for a 'credible and comprehensive inquiry' as to gather information on Syria's alleged chemical weapons
[Al Ahram] UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
said on Monday that Sherlocks have been gathering and analyzing available information on alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria, but access to the war-torn country is needed for a "credible and comprehensive inquiry."

The issue of possible chemical attacks by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
's government has become a crucial factor that could lead to the United States and other western powers stepping up their involvement in the Syrian civil war.

Ban created a UN inspection mission, led by Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, in mid-March to investigate several claims of chemical weapons attacks in Syria, where more than 70,000 people have been killed in a two-year-old war.

But Syria has blocked unconditional and unfettered access by the UN mission, which has an advance team in Cyprus ready to deploy to Syria within 24 to 48 hours, and it is unlikely it will gain that type of access any time soon.

"On-site activities are essential if the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
is to be able to establish the facts and clear all the doubts surrounding this issue," Ban told news hounds before meeting with Sellstrom at the United Nations in New York.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  But Syria has blocked unconditional and unfettered access by the UN mission, which has an advance team in Cyprus ready to deploy to Syria within 24 to 48 hours, and it is unlikely it will gain that type of access any time soon.

Same pattern used by Saddam. Ake Sellstrom can tell you all about it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2013 3:54 Comments || Top||


European Muslims Traveling To Syria To Fight 'holy War'
[BREITBART] With America battling the threat of Islamist terrorism from within, Europe is experiencing a dangerous phenomenon of its own: exporting of Islamism from Europe to the Middle East. According to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, European mayors are now attempting to limit the travel of their citizens to Syria to fight "holy war" against the Assad regime in Syria. The AP reports: "Through much of western Europe, scores of Islamic youths have heeded the call to take up arms for a cause that is only a few hours away by plane. The phenomenon has alarmed authorities amid signs that the insurgency is becoming increasingly radicalized, with strong infiltration by al-Qaeda."

The lack of integration of many young Mohammedans into Western countries has created the threat of domestic-based terrorism inside Europe. Now, that terrorism may be exported elsewhere. The United States has already dealt with American immigrants fighting on behalf of Al-Qaeda in Somalia. For years, the FBI has been trying to unlock the secrets of what ABC News describes as "a recruiting pipeline from the Twin Cities, which boast large Somali immigrant problems, to Somalia." Similar phenomena have been described with regard to Death Eaters originating in Western countries traveling to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well.

In order to prevent the same sorts of activity in Belgium, Belgian officials have participated in an anti-terror sweep designed to arrest potential Death Eaters wanting to travel to Syria. In Brussel, a mayor banned a Mohammedan soup kitchen he felt was recruiting angry young Mohammedans to Syria.

Just as importantly, Europol, the European police agency, says that fighters who return from foreign countries after participating in terrorism "have the potential to utilize their training, combat experience, knowledge and contacts for terrorist activities inside the EU." After America's experiences with the Chechnyan-visiting Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Europe is deeply concerned about something similar happening on its own soil.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  The EUroweenies are "deeply concerned"? All you have to do is make sure they never get BACK into YOUR country. Let them go to Syria...and cancel their ability to return. Investigate their family and friends and encourage them to go too. Tell them to take the French Poodle or the Brit Bulldog they now own as well. Bye.
Then ask yourself WHY you let them in in the first place. Do you LIKE being stupid or do you just really enjoy the smell of cooked goat?
They screwed up their own countries and left to get a free ride in yours. Oh, and they spit in your Poilly Fuisse.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 04/30/2013 6:45 Comments || Top||

#2  And Syrian Rebs wanna travel to Myanmar aka Burma to kill Buddhists - WHICH COUNTRY DOES THE BAMMER SEND US TROOPS TO, WHAT MILTERR GROUP DO THEY FIGHT???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/30/2013 19:28 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
54[untagged]
5TTP
5Arab Spring
5Govt of Syria
3Govt of Pakistan
1Salafists
1Boko Haram
1Commies
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Sudan
1al-Nusra
1Islamic Emirate of Caucasus
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Palestinian Authority
1Pirates
1al-Qaeda
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1al-Qaeda in Iraq

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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2013-04-30
  'Missiles fired at' Russian plane with 159 passengers onboard flying over Syria
Mon 2013-04-29
  Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi survives assassination bid
Sun 2013-04-28
  Blasts at election offices kill eight in Pakistan
Sat 2013-04-27
  Afghan bus crash kills 30, Taliban blamed
Fri 2013-04-26
  Terror plot: Leaders jailed for Birmingham bomb plan
Thu 2013-04-25
  Clashes between police and Uighurs in China leave 21 dead
Wed 2013-04-24
  Iraq: 35 dead in clashes, bombing as tensions rise
Tue 2013-04-23
  Two men arrested over 'al-Qaeda inspired' plan to attack a Via Rail train in Toronto area
Mon 2013-04-22
  Al Qaeda intelligence chief reported killed in drone strike
Sun 2013-04-21
  Egypt Police Arrest 39 in Cairo Clashes
Sat 2013-04-20
  Got him! Dzhokhar in custody
Fri 2013-04-19
  Boston: 1 suspect dead, 2nd on loose jugged
Thu 2013-04-18
  Pakistan's Musharraf flees court to avoid arrest
Wed 2013-04-17
  Boston Bombing Suspect Identified, Arrest Made
Tue 2013-04-16
  Feds seek suspects, motive in Boston bombings

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