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Today: 70 articles and 169 comments as of 6:51.
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Syria troops, Hizbullah advancing on Qusayr
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
6 23:55 Redneck Jim [4]
Afghanistan
Pashtun Leader in Pakistan Urges Better Relations Between Kabul, Islamabad
[TOLONEWS] Prominent member of National People Party Afrasiab Khattak, who is a Pashtun leader beyond the border, in an exclusive interview with TOLOnews on Wednesday urged better relations between Kabul and Islamabad, a comment made after recent border festivities between Afghan and Pak forces.

Urging better relations between Kabul and Islamabad, Mr Khattak said that border the tension between the two countries is a matter of concern and to settle the tensions a sustainable solution must be found. On the other hand, Mr Khattak emphasises that Death Eaters are in Afghanistan and they are considered as threats for the people of both sides of the border.

His concern comes after recent tensions caused by Pak military build-up in Goshta district of Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province.

He added that Afghanistan is Pakistain's neighbour country and both countries must work together on counter insurgency.

"The incidents which took place in recent days would not take place because I have already said that we are neighbouring and brotherly countries and here are a lots of commons between us and all of efforts must be concentrated on our commons not pressurising on disagreements," Afrasiab Khattak told TOLOnews.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Afghan police demand weapons amid simmering tension with Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] Afghan border police, enraged by recent festivities with their Pak counterparts, are pleading for more weapons to take on their neighbours, escalating the tension between the two sides.

The fighting, in which an Afghan border policeman was killed last week, has caused a sharp deterioration in relations between the important US allies, coming days before the Pak general election.

Pakistain is seen as vital in bringing stability to Afghanistan as most Western forces prepare to withdraw by the end of next year.

The commander of border police in Goshta district in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province, Bakht Jamal Eshaaqzai, said his 250-strong forces were armed with mortars and machine guns, but that it would be difficult to match Pakistain's heavy artillery and tanks, visible on the other side of the border.

Eshaaqzai says Pakistain had 12 manned outposts in Goshta, while Afghanistan had three.

"We are under threat from their superior equipment. We urge the government to send us more as soon as possible," he told news hounds and members of Kabul-based think tank Afghan Analysis Awareness, who drove from the capital to Goshta on Wednesday.

Shahzada, who only goes by one name, is one of hundreds of border police who have taken up positions over the last two days in Goshta.

"We have high morale, but what we really need is heavy artillery," he said. Sporting a long beard and resting his hand on a machine gun, he added: "We're ready to eliminate our enemies."

Pakistain artillery has destroyed several Afghan outposts over the last week in Goshta, where the remains of sandbag and concrete forts stand crumbling under the baking sun.

The cross-border festivities on Monday and last week sparked large protests across Afghanistan, drawing thousands of men to the centre of the capital, Kabul, where they chanted 'Death to Pakistain'.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Nangarhar University Students Declare Jihad Against Pakistan
[TOLONEWS] Hundreds of the students of the eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province early Wednesday have launched an anti-Pakistain protest, condemning Pakistain's military forwarding, rocket shelling and "declared Jihad."

The protest began today in Jalalabad the capital of Nangaharhar province and ended peacefully.

"We are the students of Islamic University of Nangarhar and we are ready to resist against Pakistain's aggression and declare Jihad against it. We condemn all Pakistain's past activities and its rocket shelling," said a student of the University.

The students rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against Pakistain government and Pakistain's intelligence service.

The Afghan cops were also in the area to control the protest, according to local officials.

The protests come after the Pakistain military force started building military check-posts in Goshta district of Nangarhar province. The Afghan cops reacted over the move of the Pak military and started festivities.

An Afghan border police was killed in the festivities and several Pak military border soldiers were also killed or injured, according to Afghan officials.

Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie ducked another tomato...
hundreds of residents and students in southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province launched anti --Pakistain protests and asked the government to take "serious action about the Durand Line."

The residents of Helmand said that "if the government provides them weapons, they are ready to defend their homeland."

"Down with Pakistain, we are ready to fight against Pakistain. If the government doesn't have armaments, we are ready to fight against Pakistain with stones and sticks even with empty hands," said a resident of Helmand.

It comes as, yesterday thousands Afghans also launched anti-Pakistain protests in Nangarhar and southern Kandahar province.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood rallies against Israel
Keep out of our fight kuffar
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is staging an anti-Israel rally in Cairo to protest Israeli airstrikes in Syria and the detention of a Muslim cleric.

Chants of “the people want destruction of Israel” rang out Friday inside Al-Azhar mosque, the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning.

The rally is the first such protest by the Brotherhood, from which Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi hails, since it gained prominence after 2011 uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Group officials say they are protesting the Israeli detention of top Palestinian Muslim cleric in the Holy Land in a rare crackdown on a leading religious figure that drew fierce condemnation from Palestinians. The demonstrators also were denouncing Israeli airstrikes in Syria that targeted alleged shipments of advanced Iranian missiles thought to be bound for Hezbollah.
Posted by: tipper || 05/10/2013 10:13 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  By the way, how is Egypt doing nowadays?
Posted by: Pappy || 05/10/2013 10:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Rumor has it that the next edition of the CIA World Factbook makes reference to "the country formerly known as Egypt".

My guess is they end up selling it on eBay for food and fuel.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2013 10:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Probably China will buy the canal from them, that should keep them going for a little longer.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/10/2013 11:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Probably China will buy the canal from them, that should keep them going for a little longer.

Actually, see the second paragraph.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/10/2013 15:09 Comments || Top||


Homeless Egyptian stabs an American near US embassy in Cairo
[Al Ahram] A homeless Egyptian man stabbed an American citizen in the neck with a knife near the American embassy in Cairo's Garden City district Thursday, according to Al-Ahram Arabic language news website.

Local residents in the neighbourhood helped the embassy's security personnel arrest the man as he was trying to escape. Cairo's security chief referred the suspect to the general prosecution for investigation.

Embassy doctors provided aid to the American citizen and facilitated his transfer to a hospital. The motives of the attack remain unclear.
Mental illness or sudden jihadi syndrome?
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Mental illness or sudden jihadi syndrome?

Even number or a number divisible by two?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/10/2013 9:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe he wants to be tried in an American courtroom. (airfare, meals and lodging provided by Uncle Sugar)
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/10/2013 12:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Not blaming the victim or anything, but WHAT THE HELL WAS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN DOING IN EGYPT? Is he suicidal?
Posted by: Barbara || 05/10/2013 14:49 Comments || Top||

#4  What difference does it make?
Posted by: Hillary || 05/10/2013 15:46 Comments || Top||

#5  What is an American doing in Egypt? About what any half-informed Rantburger could have guessed, simply from the context. I found the following on a blog, apparently posted by someone who knew the victim before he got in the news:
"I woke up in my first day in Germany to the disgusting news that comrade, Chris Stone, the American academic, was stabbed in Cairo. Chris is a wonderful human being and an excellent scholar and a great friend of the Palestinian people. "
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/10/2013 17:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Found the following on the NYTImes site, from 2009:
To the Editor:

If Israel feels threatened these days, imagine how the Palestinians feel (“Why Israel Feels Threatened,” by Benny Morris, Op-Ed, Dec. 30).

Gaza is a virtual prison, and the West Bank is on its way to being chopped up into apartheid-like cantons. Palestinians inside of Israel do not enjoy full citizenship and are sitting ducks for attacks by Israelis that go unprosecuted.

For years, the concern in the media has always been existential threats to Israel. In the meantime, what kind of existence is left or possible for Palestinians both in and outside of Israel?

Mr. Morris says the Iranian president’s denial of the existence of homosexuality in Iran “underscore[s] his irrationality.” State denial of facts was not invented by Iran. Does not Israel’s denial of its own state terrorism underscore its irrationality?

Christopher Stone
New York, Dec. 30, 2008

The writer is an associate professor of Arabic at Hunter College
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/10/2013 17:42 Comments || Top||

#7  So, the stabbing was red-on-red?
Posted by: Barbara || 05/10/2013 19:22 Comments || Top||


Abu-Ismail to be questioned over 'offensive' comments on Egypt military
[Al Ahram] Egyptian Prosecutor-General Talaat Abdullah has referred a number of complaints concerning certain political figures -- including prominent Salafist preacher Hazem Abu-Ismail -- to military prosecutors, an Egyptian judicial source stated Thursday.

The source clarified that several political figures would be questioned over remarks they made deemed "offensive" to Egypt's armed forces. The complaints were lodged by a number of lawyers and retired military officials, Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website reported.

Abu-Ismail, head of the Salafist Raya Party, is one of those who will face questioning over comments he made last week in reference to Egypt's military.

On 1 May, on his television programme Malafat Abu-Ismail, the Salafist preacher referred to Egyptian Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi as a "sensational actor." His comments came in response to a speech given by El-Sisi in commemoration of Egypt's Sinai Liberation Day on 25 April.

Abu-Ismail has been a staunch critic of Egypt's armed forces. In March, he criticised opposition figures who called for the military to reassume control of the nation's affairs.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa Subsaharan
Bama attackers were Nigeriens, Cameroonians
[Nigerian Tribune] RESIDENTS of Bama town in Bama Local Government Area of Borno State, where 55 persons were killed, including 22 coppers and 14 prison officials, have said most of the gunnies they saw were Nigeriens and Cameroonians, while local almajiris showed them the places they attacked.

A resident, Mallam Kolomi Bama, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune in Maiduguri, the state capital, said the gunnies burnt down police barracks where a newly married woman and three children were burnt.

Also burnt were several cars and cycle of violences, domestic animals.

Four blocks in the Bama mobile police unit were razed, while at least 10 people, seven coppers and three Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
members were also killed.

According to him, the gunnies also attempted to attack the military barracks in Bama, but met a brick wall, as the soldiers reportedly repelled the attackers, killing 10 of the gunnies who dressed in military uniforms and recovered several AK-47 rifles, bomb making devices, assorted ammunition and gallons of concoctions said to have contained intoxicating substances.

Another eyewitness, a student of the University of Maiduguri, Amina Usman, told the Nigerian Tribune that the gunnies came in their hundreds, in buses and about 16 Hilux vehicles with guns mounted on some of the vehicles, while they attacked various formations of security operatives and government buildings.

She said the gunnies opened fire on the mobile police base, as they were trapped by the curfew imposed on the town, stressing that the gunnies were mostly foreign nationals guided by the those who understood the terrain.

Speaking to newsmen at the JTF headquarters, shortly after inspecting the affected areas, the JTF front man, Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa, said the gunnies usually wear military uniforms during their operations, a reason, he said, civilians always blame soldiers for any attack.

When he visited the scene of the incident on Wednesday, the Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, expressed sadness with the level of destruction.

He thanked the security operatives for ensuring the return of normality in the town, while he charged the people of the state to guard against violence and wanton deatruction of lives and properties.

Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Bangladesh
Jamaat calls hartal Sunday
[Bangla Daily Star] 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...
yesterday called a countrywide daylong hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
for Sunday, nearly an hour after Hefajat-e Islam withdrew its hartal declared earlier for the same day.

A key component in the BNP-led 18-party alliance, Jamaat called the hartal in protest at the verdict that sentenced its leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman to death for involvement in war crimes.

Jamaat announced the hartal in a statement at 6:30pm, rejecting the verdict delivered by an international crimes tribunal.

Ashraf Ali Nizampuri, Hefajat's literature and cultural affairs secretary, told The Daily Star at about 5:30pm that they had withdrawn the hartal on the instructions of its chief Shah Ahmed Shafi.

About the reason for the withdrawal, the Hefajat leader said the hartal would disadvantage many of their men who had suffered injuries in festivities with police and were undergoing treatment at different hospitals.

He noted that they would also be trying to find out "the activists who were made to disappear" during the festivities.

Asked the number of their casualties during a police drive at Motijheel on May 5 and 6, he said their district-level chiefs would prepare a list of the "martyred" and the maimed activists.

Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called the chief of staff and complained that the artillery was keeping him awake...
the two-day countrywide hartal called by the 18-party alliance ended last evening without occasioning much violence.

However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
at a presser at its Nayapaltan head office, the BNP last night claimed that three of its activists were killed during the hartal, one each in Chapainawabganj, Feni and Comilla.

Our correspondents in the districts did not have any such information as of the filing of this report at 8:00pm.

Talking to The Daily Star, many people -- especially day labourers and roadside vendors -- aired their grievances about the BNP-called general strike.

"In the last two-day hartal, I could not earn even one-fourth of what I normally do," said a vendor who sells burgers near the BNP central office.

Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

#1  "We can out-Hartal those wussies!"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/10/2013 14:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Hartal?

Why can't these clowns speak English? :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 05/10/2013 15:52 Comments || Top||


Khaleda responsible for Hefajat mayhem: PM
[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums..
has warned that opposition leader Khaleda Zia
Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
would be implicated in Sunday's violence by Hefajat-e Islam as "an instigator".

The premier said Khaleda will be held responsible for the mayhem. "People have been killed and the copies of holy Koran burnt at her directives. She will be accused of giving orders."

She was speaking at a views-exchange meeting with her party's Feni district unit leaders at Gono Bhaban on Thursday.

Each and everyone involved in this notorious act will be found out by scanning video footage and brought to book, she warned.

Hasina, who heads the governing Awami League, alleged the BNP chairperson wanted to overthrow the government banking on the Hefajat and for this reason Khaleda gave a 48-hour ultimatum and asked the radical Islamist group to stay in Dhaka.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
China Probes N.Korea's Bank Accounts
Chinese authorities have identified most of the accounts of North Korean companies and individuals in major Chinese banks, a diplomatic source in Beijing said Wednesday. Three or four North Korean banks in Dandong, the biggest trading hub between North Korea and China, have reportedly closed down.

According to the source, Chinese authorities have combed through all North Korea-related accounts in major Chinese banks in an effort to implement sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council in the wake of the North's latest nuclear test. In the process, North Korea apparently tried to dodge detection by opening new bank accounts under borrowed or false names, but Chinese authorities traced these accounts too.

If the accounts prove to be linked to illegal activities like nuclear weapons and missile development, Beijing apparently plans to impose sanctions on each individual North Korean bank, just as it did when the Bank of China cut ties with the Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea on Tuesday.

Another source in China said, "It seems the U.S. provided China with indisputable evidence of illegal activities by the Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea."

In principle, North Korean banks in China are barred from remittance and currency exchange business and are nominally mere liaison offices. But in fact Beijing used to look the other way when they carried out such transactions for North Korean agencies and firms. Now Chinese authorities are taking a tougher line.

North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un's own money and cash for the North Korean military crosses the border in diplomatic pouches to avoid customs inspections, a North Korean source said.

A North Korean businessman said, "More than 20,000 Korean Chinese live in Dandong, and we've been dealing with many Chinese for more than a decade. There are lots of ways to remit money to the North."
Posted by: Steve White || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I, for one, would like to find out how much scarce State $$$ KJU's late Big Daddy Jong-il spent on importing McDonald's, etc. solely for himself + select Pyongyang Boyz???

Ya know, as opposed to Farm Tractors + seeds for food crops, Perts, etc.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/10/2013 2:42 Comments || Top||


Rodman Urges N.Korea to 'Cut Loose' Detained American
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman on Wednesday called for the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean American who has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea, journal Politico reported.

Rodman tweeted, "I'm calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea or as I call him Pudgy 'Kim,' to do me a solid and cut Kenneth Bae loose."
You tell him, you lovable weirdo you...
Back in February, the eccentric ex-basketballer went to Pyongyang, where he spent some time watching a game and having dinner with Kim. Returning to the U.S., Rodman called Kim an "awesome guy" and a "friend."

In April, he said he would like to visit Pyongyang again in August, adding that he and Kim "have no plans really, as far as what we're going to do over there, but we'll just hang and have some fun."

Politico commented Rodman is acting as if he were an unofficial diplomat.
Worse yet, he's showing up John Kerry...
Bae, a North Korea tour operator with a business near the Chinese-North Korea border, was arrested in November after entering the North via Rajin-Songbong Port with a group of foreign tourists. He was arrested and sentenced for unspecified crimes against the repressive state.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  National Security Advisor Dennis Rodman. He'll fit right in.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2013 6:48 Comments || Top||

#2  The new Jessie Jackson?
Posted by: Thrusong Clunk7505 || 05/10/2013 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  My cat caught a bird, which shows up Jawn Carrie and his scented underpants.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2013 9:00 Comments || Top||

#4  MIB (Men in Black) 1997 -

Elle: Hey, Jay! Zed called. The high consulate from Solaxiant 9 wants floor seats for the next Bulls game.

Jay: All right, let's put in a call to Dennis Rodman. He's from that planet.

Elle: Rodman? You're kidding.

Jay: Nope.

Elle: Not much of a disguise.

Posted by: Ebbutle Spereque4724 || 05/10/2013 10:25 Comments || Top||


Europe
Gibraltar deports Turkish Al-Qaeda suspect: officials
Police in Gibraltar deported to Spain Friday a Turkish suspected Al-Qaeda member accused of plotting bombing attacks, who entered the British territory illegally, an official said.

Cengiz Yalcin had been arrested in August in Spain along with two Chechen suspects who the Spanish interior ministry said were Al-Qaeda members plotting an attack in Europe.

The three were released on bail by a judge in Madrid in March pending terrorism charges. Yalcin was arrested in Gibraltar Wednesday, authorities said.

Spanish media at the time cited police sources saying the three were suspected of plotting to drop explosives on a shopping mall in Gibraltar during the 2012 London Olympics.

The governor's office in Gibraltar, a British-ruled enclave on the southern tip of Spain, said in a statement that Yalcin was arrested on Wednesday as a "prohibited immigrant".

A police spokesman who asked not to be named told AFP that Yalcin was deported to Spain Friday as an undocumented immigrant - not due to any arrest warrant.

"He's got no documentation which allows him to be in Gibraltar," the spokesman said.

After the three suspects were arrested in August, the Spanish interior ministry released a video found in Yalcin's home which they said showed a trial bomb attack using a model aircraft.

Posted by: tipper || 05/10/2013 16:04 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Great White North
Third Via Rail suspect was denied entry into Canada: Kenney
A third Via Rail terror plot suspect arrested in the United States last month did not enter that country from Canada, the Harper government says.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney made this known Friday to beat back suggestions in the United States that he entered the U.S. via Canada – a sensitive topic because U.S. politicians and commentators frequently paint their northern neighbour as a risky source of terrorists.

Mr. Kenney, speaking at a policy announcement in Mississauga, Ont., confirmed in response to a media question that Mr. Abassi – a one-time student in Canada – had returned to Tunisia and been denied a visa to return to Canada.

The Tunisian national had travelled to the U.S. in mid-March and was arrested on April 22.

Prosecutors in New York unsealed a criminal case Thursday and announced Mr. Abassi had been charged with attempting to get false work documents so he could live in the United States and kill Americans.

“Ahmed Abassi had an evil purpose for seeking to remain in the United States – to commit acts of terror and develop a network of terrorists here,” U.S. attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement Thursday.
Posted by: tipper || 05/10/2013 13:07 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
FBI Detains Pressure Cooker Found in Man’s Luggage Because We Refuse to Profile (Man Set Free)
Posted by: tipper || 05/10/2013 16:46 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Speedbump Is Buried In Virginia
That didn't take long, did it?
BOSTON -- Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried in a cemetery in Virginia with the help of a faith coalition, his uncle said Friday.

The secret burial this week ended a frustrating search for a community willing to take the body, which had been kept at a funeral parlor in Worcester, Mass., as cemeteries in Massachusetts and several other states refused to accept the remains.

The Tsarnaevs' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, took responsibility for arranging the burial after Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell-Tsarnaev, said she wanted the body released to her in-laws.
Is she going to visit the cemetery? Flowers?
Tsarni said Tsarnaev was buried in a cemetery in Doswell, Va., near Richmond, though he would not say more about the faith coalition that helped.
Posted by: Raj || 05/10/2013 12:39 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I was thinking 'desert outside of Las Vegas'.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/10/2013 13:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Population of DOSWELL is 1,819 Central Virginia's All Muslim Cemetery (by Dawah) ... corporation, has established Al-Barzakh Islamic Cemetery located on Route 725 in Doswell
Posted by: Chock Ebburt4695 || 05/10/2013 13:56 Comments || Top||

#3  "we're moving the outhouse and can use the backfill"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/10/2013 14:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Al-Barzakh Islamic Cemetery

More than 12 Muslims are currently buried at Al Barzakh Cemetary.


Does that mean Tamerlan Tsarnaev is number 13 ?
Posted by: Chock Ebburt4695 || 05/10/2013 14:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Here's his alleged burial plot. Love the tarp!
Posted by: Raj || 05/10/2013 15:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Oh, Jeezus on a pogo stick! That's fairly near me - I sure hope there aren't any festivities that clog the roads. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 05/10/2013 15:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Barbara, I'm just about as close as you are. Maybe we should set up surveillance to see who shows up to honor Speedbump.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/10/2013 16:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Just 10 minutes up route 95 for me. Maybe I can pay my respects in my own special way.
Posted by: Airandee || 05/10/2013 16:06 Comments || Top||

#9  Airandee, maybe all Virginia R'burgers could get together to have a party.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/10/2013 16:10 Comments || Top||

#10  It would be an environmentally sound moment to add nitrogenous waste water to the topsoil? Who could argue with that?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 05/10/2013 16:18 Comments || Top||

#11  According to a Boston.com story, Caroline County officials are looking to see if any laws were broken in the burial. (Caroline County is where Speedbump got planted.)
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/10/2013 16:19 Comments || Top||

#12  The Sheriff of CC was just on the news, Rambler, and it's obvious he's not happy.

The reporter also went around the neighborhood and asked the residents about it - they were pissed off to say the least.

Funny - I can't find an address for the cemetery (which is private). I know it must be available somewhere. Their website is "under construction."

I still think they should have sent this worthless POS back to his own country (and the people in Caroline County agreed). If he wanted to act like a jihadi, he should be buried with the jihadis.

We don't want that sorry scum.
Posted by: Barbara || 05/10/2013 17:19 Comments || Top||

#13  So they finally caught up to that bump that stranded the beast and turned it into a play ground toy! Hats off to them pay raises across the board all the less pavement out there for people to bash little kids heads in with!
Posted by: Marilyn Lover of the Hatfields1778 || 05/10/2013 17:43 Comments || Top||

#14  From this website:
A statement from Islamic Funeral Services said Tsarnaev was buried in a donated plot at Al-Barzakh Cemetery in Doswell, Va.
While reporters initially were allowed to approach the cemetery, a Caroline County sheriff's deputy ordered reporters off the property, explaining that it is private. A deputy's car blocked the gravel road, from which King’s Dominion’s rollercoasters can be seen.
According to the Islamic Funeral Services statement, the interfaith group was organized by a resident of Richmond, Martha Mullen, who reached out to her United Methodist church, plus local Muslim, Jewish and Hindu communities Tuesday.
"Jesus tells us, 'Love your enemies,'" Mullen -- a graduate of United Theological Seminary -- told her pastor, the statement said. "Not to hate them even after they are dead."
Al-Barzakh Cemetery is the first all-Muslim cemetery in central Virginia, according to its website. Doswell is located about 30 minutes north of Richmond.
Cemetery administrators coordinated the transfer of Tsarnaev's body with Worcester, Mass., funeral director Peter Stefan, the Worcester police and Tsarni.


It's past time to give this topic a long rest.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/10/2013 17:57 Comments || Top||

#15  Dollars to halal donuts sez that this will not be he end of Tamerlan's journey....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/10/2013 20:39 Comments || Top||

#16  Airandee, maybe all Virginia R'burgers could get together to have a party.

Yeah. Let's have a kegger at Al Barzakh Cemetary. ;-)
Posted by: Dopey Craimp8068 || 05/10/2013 23:48 Comments || Top||


Muslim, Christian groups clash in NY libel suit
Muslim and Christian groups are squaring off in a New York federal court in a defamation lawsuit over a book on terrorism.

Muslims of America Inc. says the Christian Action Network is telling deliberate and damaging lies by alleging that terrorist training is happening in the Muslim group's U.S. enclaves. The Christian group refuses to back down, challenging the Muslims to prove them wrong in an upstate New York court.

The Muslim group has a community outside Binghamton, N.Y., and others around the U.S. Its attorney Tahirah Amatul-Wadud (tuh-HEER'-ruh ah-mah-TOOL' wha-DOOD') says the group is seeking retractions and $18 million in damages. It also wants to halt publication of network founder Martin Mawyer's book "Twilight in America: the Untold Story of Terrorist Training Camps in America."

The Christian group's attorney Michael Grygiel says they'll "vigorously defend" their right to free speech.
Posted by: tipper || 05/10/2013 10:41 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Foreigners seem to misunderstand American libel law. Libel doesn't mean people writing mean things about you and truth is a defense to the charge.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2013 10:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Heh. The idiots have to prove a negative. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/10/2013 12:56 Comments || Top||


FBI Says Data About Probe Of Bombing Suspect Was Shared
Posted by: tipper || 05/10/2013 09:31 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ....each task force member has access to Guardian, a web-based counterterrorism incident management application that was launched in July 2004.

Difficult to conduct effective query searches without a topical starting point, but that's ok, you cans till blame the computer or the analyst.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2013 9:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Meanwhile, since it's us that runs the Task Force and puters, all intelligence leads and sources are property of us. Boston and NYCPD.... take a hike. NYCPD take an extra long hike.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2013 9:57 Comments || Top||

#3  So basically, if the Boston PD was looking at the guy, they could find him in the database - if they could spell his name correctly. A bit chicken & eggy, no?
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2013 10:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes Steve, with the aid of watchful citizens identifying the fotos, it would have been an amazing [and much needed] Bureau success story.
The university police officer shooting and aggressive Boston PD follow-up spoiled everything.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2013 10:36 Comments || Top||


Activists Guilty Of Intent To Injure National Security At Nuclear Complex
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- An 83-year-old Catholic nun and two of her fellow peace activists were found guilty Wednesday of intending to harm national security when they intruded in July onto the Y-12 National Security Complex, a nuclear-weapons production facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

After hearing two days of testimony and arguments, and then deliberating for nearly 21 / 2 hours, the jury of nine men and three women also found the defendants guilty of damaging more than $1,000 in government property at the Y-12 site -- where they cut through four chain-link fences and spray-painted biblical messages of nonviolence on a building that warehouses an estimated 400 tons of highly enriched uranium, the radioactive material used to fuel nuclear weaponry.
I'm pleased to see them get what they deserve, but I'm waiting for the senior security officials at the facility and at DoE get theirs. Somehow I don't think that's happening any time soon...
During the trial, dozens of fools rubes idiots rustics muttonheads spectators filled two courtrooms to support Sister Megan Rice and 64-year-old Vietnam War veteran Michael Walli, both of whom live in the District, and Greg Boertje-Obed, a 57-year-old house painter who lives in Duluth, Minn. In the predawn hours of July 28 last year, the three activists hiked over a wooded ridge and were able to enter the site unimpeded because of a series of deficient security measures, including inoperable surveillance cameras and a monitoring system that was compromised by routine false alarms.

Judge Amul Thapar ordered the trio into custody but scheduled a hearing for Thursday on the merits of their detention. After the verdict, the judge and lawyers could not agree on whether harming the national defense -- which falls under the "sabotage" chapter of the U.S. code -- is a "crime of violence" and therefore requires immediate remanding. The activists have been free and compliant with the terms of their release since their initial arrest and incarceration.
They're going to prison anyways so they might as well get going. And the 83 year old nun might as well get a start on the rest of her life...
"Pretty obscene but not terribly surprising," said Baltimore resident Ellen Barfield, a supporter of the activists who spoke about the verdict to the news media outside the courthouse. "Did they have to slam them into jail?"
Yes.
In its closing arguments, the defense contended that the activists intruded into Y-12 as a symbolic act in support of the peaceful transformation of nuclear-weapons programs to nonviolent initiatives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Theodore argued that the activists' intent was to target and disrupt operations at Y-12 -- which closed for two weeks after the break-in to beef up security -- and that such a disruption hindered national-defense preparedness and the credibility of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.

"Y-12 makes nuclear weapons for the national defense," Theodore told the jury. "When you interfere with Y-12, you interfere with the national defense of the United States. . . . Do you excuse what a burglar did because the homeowner was a little lax with security?"
Do you excuse a burglar because he was breaking into the headquarters of a political party? Try that argument at your next cocktail party and watch the progressives choke on their wieners and shrimp cocktail...
"Three senior citizens showing up with backpacks is a threat to the United States of America?" defense attorney William Quigley asked rhetorically. "That threatens us? I don't think so. . . . Opposing [nuclear weapons] is not something that opposes the national defense of the United States."

Earlier Wednesday on Capitol Hill, at a Senate subcommittee hearing on strategic forces programs, the acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration called the Y-12 intrusion "completely unacceptable" and an "important wake-up call." The security administration is a semiautonomous agency within the Energy Department that is tasked with securing and managing the country's nuclear weapons and material.

"The severity of the failure of leadership at Y-12 has demanded swift, strong and decisive action by the department," said acting administrator Neile Miller, according to the Associated Press. "Since the Y-12 incursion, major actions have taken place to improve security immediately, and for the long term."
Like what, exactly? Who was beheaded?
Sentencing for Rice, Walli and Boertje-Obed is expected within four months. Together, the two felonies carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Defense attorneys have filed a motion for acquittal on the "sabotage" charge because they think the government did not provide sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction.
Thanks for doing your jobs, counselors, now let's get your clients into the hoosegow...
Posted by: Steve White || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Seems like the 17 AF nuke dudes that lost their juice was just a start.
Where's DHS been guarding the national infrastructure the last 5 years?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2013 4:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Things seem to have gotten very lax since I worked there back in the 90's.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/10/2013 7:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Earlier memos were written detailing the security problems, but the DOS had the 'talking points' 'revised' to prevent discredit upon them or Congress. (sarc)
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 05/10/2013 9:16 Comments || Top||


Kerry Vows 'to Leave No Stone Unturned' on Benghazi
[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...
on Thursday vowed to "leave no stone unturned" to find out what happened during an attack on a U.S. mission in Libya last year in which four diplomatic staff were killed.

But he refused to wade into the issue more fully during a trip to Rome, after U.S. diplomats testified on Wednesday that the State Department could have done more to safeguard the Benghazi diplomatic outpost.

Pleading that on his whirlwind overseas tour he had only seen "the most cursory headlines", Kerry said he was "really not in a position to start making judgments" about the revelations at a congressional hearing.

"The State Department will leave no stone unturned," Kerry vowed though, adding his chief of staff, David Wade, was responsible for liaising with U.S. politicians on the attack.

Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the September 11 assault, when hordes of heavily-armed forces of Evil stormed the compound and a nearby annex.

Gregory Hicks, the deputy head of the mission and the first U.S. official who was on the ground to speak publicly about what happened, testified that he and many others knew from the start that it was a deliberate act of terror.

He told Wednesday's hearing of the House Oversight and Government Committee that he was shocked when the U.S. administration publicly argued otherwise.

The testimony by "whistleblowers," as the committee's Republican chairman Darrell Issa called them, is the latest in a months-long series of hearings to put the attacks and the U.S. response under a microscope.

The attack happened during the tenure of Kerry's predecessor, Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry L. Stimson ...
, but the new chief U.S. diplomat said: "I'm absolutely determined that this issue will be answered, will be put to bed."

"If there's any culpability in any area that is appropriate to be handled in some way with some discipline, it will be appropriately handled."
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He will leave no stone unturned building a wall for Champ to hide behind
Posted by: Shusorong tse Tung5840 || 05/10/2013 1:20 Comments || Top||

#2  If the issues were not so serious, his statement might almost be laughable.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2013 7:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Kinda' like OJ Simpson leaving no stone unturned - on any golf course - until he tracked down his wife's killer.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 05/10/2013 8:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Director CIA's General Petreaus' concerns for modifications to the Agency talking points now surfacing. Appears he kept his concerns pretty much to himself, exiting the back door with full pension and benefits following his zipper scandal. What an amazing coincidence.

As a senior officer with decades of time in uniform, I wonder how many Article-15/32 investigations he has signed off on which resulted in UCMJ action, career ending discharges, or imprisonment ?

Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2013 9:15 Comments || Top||

#5  ...probably far fewer than our uniformed lawyers signing off on ROEs that violated Art 99 para.(8)(9)of the UCMJ in the last five or six years.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/10/2013 9:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Yes P2K, nothing like a junior MAJ Staff Judge Advocate from division sitting in on a Brigade level operations briefing, siting ROEs and providing unsolicited legal opinions and trumps to the Bde S-3 operations order. Been there, watched it happen in total disbelief.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2013 9:27 Comments || Top||

#7  To include the stones in his skull?
Posted by: no mo uro || 05/10/2013 9:48 Comments || Top||

#8  "leave no stone unturned"

Looking for rocks to hide under, I'll wager.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2013 10:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Leave No Stone Unturned

This expression alludes to an ancient Greek legend about a general who buried a large treasure in his tent when he was defeated in battle. Those seeking the treasure consulted the Oracle of Delphi, who advised them to move every stone. The present form dates from the mid-1500s. The actual man who wrote "Leave no stone unturned" was Euripides, an ancient Greek playwright.

Headline should read:

Kerry consulted the Oracle of Delphi on Benghazi
Posted by: Ebbutle Spereque4724 || 05/10/2013 10:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Starting with the stones in Montana that may be hiding those Teabagger malitia types that were really behind it.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/10/2013 10:59 Comments || Top||

#11  Trying to find another Obama?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/10/2013 11:02 Comments || Top||

#12  Allowing others to turn the stones for weeks awaiting for the area to become secure.

Lone Ranger yes loved the OJ reference
Posted by: Jan || 05/10/2013 11:10 Comments || Top||

#13  Turn the stones, means Bury them as deep as needed.

Obama CAN'T have any evidence against His Holyness surface.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/10/2013 15:35 Comments || Top||

#14  Perhaps Kerry and Plugs Biden have considered their future prospects when the Hildabeast is Prez, and decided to let the truth out on her part in this debacle to improve their chances?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 05/10/2013 16:15 Comments || Top||

#15  The ongoing Benghazi cover up is leaving no turd unstoned. The majority of the US electorate doesn't care, they've already proven that.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/10/2013 16:39 Comments || Top||

#16  If the American public does not care, there will be more hits like Boston, until the public decides to wise up and see that govt policy is enabling Bostons to happen.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/10/2013 22:52 Comments || Top||

#17  And Benghazis......
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/10/2013 22:54 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
PHC orders shooting down of drones
[Pak Daily Times] The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
High Court has ordered that drones entering Pak airspace be shot down.

In its detailed verdict about drone attacks, the court has said they constitute a violation of international law and the basic human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
and also violate the territorial illusory sovereignty of Pakistain. The court directed the government to stop drone strikes and contact the International War Crimes Tribunal (IWCT) over the issue. A two-member bench of the PHC headed by Chief Justice Dost Muhammad heard the case against the CIA-led drone strikes in Pakistain. Justice Dost Muhammad said drone attacks should be declared a war crime.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Taliban threaten polling day suicide attacks
[Pak Daily Times] The Taliban have sent jacket wallahs to mount election-day attacks on Pakistain's historic polls, a myrmidon commander said on Thursday, following a bloody campaign which has claimed more than 100 lives.

"We don't accept the system of infidels which is called democracy," Mehsud said
Saturday's vote will be a democratic milestone in a country ruled for half its history by the military but the Pak Taliban have condemned it as un-Islamic.

They have directly threatened the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and its main partners in the outgoing government, seriously restricting their ability to campaign, and staged a series of attacks during the campaign.

The Death Eaters' leader Hakimullah Mehsud had personally ordered suicide kabooms on polling day, said a Taliban capo in the northwest.

"The Taliban has dispatched several of fedayeen (suicide bombers) to carry attacks on election across Pakistain," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

AFP saw a copy of a letter apparently sent from Mehsud to Taliban front man Ehsanullah Ehsan, mapping out the plan for bombings.

"You take care of attacks in Punjab and Sindh. I will take care of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
," it said in reference to Pakistain's four provinces.

"We don't accept the system of infidels which is called democracy," Mehsud said in the letter, dated May 1, and obtained by Rooters on Thursday.

Attacks on politicians and political parties, most of them claimed by the Taliban, have already killed 113 people since mid-April, according to an AFP tally.

Pakistain has said it will deploy more than 600,000 security personnel on polling day.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Dynastic politix in Pakistain
[Dawn]
597 families that collectively account for approximately 3300 of the 7600-plus seats in the National Assembly
[Dawn] Approximately 44 per cent of all seats in the outgoing National and provincial assemblies were occupied by individuals who had relatives serving in previous assemblies, according to research carried out by the monthly Herald.Taking 1970, the year of the first one man-one vote polls in the country, as its starting point, the Herald has identified 597 families that collectively account for approximately 3300 of the 7600-plus seats in the National Assembly, four provincial assemblies and the Senate that have been up for grabs over the course of nine general elections.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Pak elections campaign finishes, 117 dead so far
[Dawn] Pakistain's bloodiest election campaign spanning over three tumultuous weeks came to an end on midnight of Thursday and Friday.Following the end of a five year democratic term, the upcoming polls are seen as another step that will carry forward the democratic process in Pakistain.Saturday's vote will be a democratic milestone in Pakistain which has been ruled for half its history by the military.However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
the road to democracy has not been an easy one. Election campaigns across the country were marred by terror threats and Taliban attacks which claimed the lives of at least 117 people including candidates.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Qaradawi against ceding 'any of Palestine'
[Al Ahram] During his visit to the besieged Gaza Strip, prominent Muslim scholar Yusuf Qaradawi warns nobody is allowed to cede any part of the 'Arab and Muslim' Palestine
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Israel asks Russians to not sell advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria
As I said yesterday, to the IAF the S-300 is just another couple lines of code...
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Like that is going to happen. Field test equipment. Proven successful worldwide sales.
Posted by: Dale || 05/10/2013 10:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, yes. It's not like you can demonstrate them at the Paris Air Show.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/10/2013 10:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Failure conducive to sales?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/10/2013 10:59 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian militants al-Nusra Front to be added to UN sanctions list
The UN Security Council will add the Al-Qaeda-linked Syrian militants al-Nusra Front to its sanctions blacklist next week, diplomats said May 10.

Following a move by France and Britain, the Islamist group, which has become one of the most feared fighting forces in Syria's two-year-old conflict, will be subject to a global asset freeze from Tuesday, the diplomats told AFP.

A pledge of allegiance by Al-Nusra's chief Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has caused divisions among the rebel groups battling President Bashar al-Assad.

The Assad government asked last month for the UN Security Council to blacklist Al-Nusra, but this was blocked by Britain and France, which do not recognize the Damascus government.

Britain and France made a separate application to the council's Al-Qaeda sanctions committee, which should become valid on May 7.
Posted by: tipper || 05/10/2013 15:53 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


U.N.: Brahimi to Stay on as Syria Envoy
[An Nahar] Lakhdar Brahimi has withdrawn a threat to resign as U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy on the Syria conflict after Russia and the United States launched a joint political initiative, officials said Thursday.

U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
"has asked the joint special envoy to stay on and he has accepted to stay on," U.N. Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson told news hounds, praising the U.S.-Russia effort to organize a conference on the two-year-old conflict.

Brahimi had told the U.N. leadership he planned to tender his resignation this month out of growing frustration at the major powers' failure to back a negotiated end the conflict, diplomats said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Hezbollah chief: Syria will supply 'game-changing' weapons
[Washington Post] Syria will supply "game-changing" weapons to Hezbollah, the chief of the Lebanese militia said Thursday, just days after Israeli Arclight airstrikes on Damascus targeted what Israel said were shipments of advanced Iranian weapons possibly bound for the group.

Any attempts to ship advanced Iranian missiles across Syria to Hezbollah in Leb would likely draw a new Israeli response, and Thursday's warning by Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, if more than rhetoric, could signal a further escalation.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Want to go for 600 dead in the next strike, Hizb'Allah?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/10/2013 22:58 Comments || Top||


Iran says it has built new drone
[Al Ahram] Iran's defense minister says Iran has built a new, radar-evading drone that can do surveillance and fire on enemy targets.

The semi-official Fars news agency on Thursday quoted Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as saying that the new aircraft -- dubbed Epic, or Hemaseh in Farsi -- can fly at high altitudes.

He did not elaborate on its capabilities.

In recent years, Iran has been pursuing a drone program alongside its military program, which has aimed to produce missiles, jet fighters, destroyers, light submarines and torpedoes.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Gen. Ahmad Vahidi says Iran has built a new, radar-evading drone that can do surveillance and fire on enemy targets.


Posted by: Ebbutle Spereque4724 || 05/10/2013 11:49 Comments || Top||

#2  I dunno, do kit-built quadcopters show up on radar?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 05/10/2013 12:38 Comments || Top||


Hezbollah leader Nasrallah pledges to stand with Syria, offers support to liberate Israeli-occupied Golan Heights
[Al Ahram] Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday his forces would support any Syrian effort to recapture the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, days after the Jewish state launched raids in Syria believed to have targeted weapons destined for the Lebanese militant group.

"We announce that we stand with the Syrian popular resistance and offer material and spiritual support as well as coordination in order to liberate the Syrian Golan," he said in a televised speech.

In the days following Israeli strikes last Friday and Sunday, Syrian state news programmes quoted unnamed sources saying that Damascus had given the green light to carry out operations against Israel from the Golan Heights after decades of calm on the border.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  IIRC See also TOPIX > [Various] SYRIA + HEZBOLLAH THREATEN TO TURN GOLAN HEIGHTS INTO NEW FRONT OF [Anti-Israel] RESISTANCE.

and

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [AlManar] ASSAD:WE WILL BECOME RESISTING COUNTRY SIMILAR TO HEZBOLLAH.

Baby Assad threatens to turn Syria into "LEBANON II" iff he has to.

VERSUS

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > BEHIND THE SCENE: 3,500 MILITANTS PROPOSE SURRENDERING TO SYRIAN ARMY.

* SAME > RUSSIA THREATENS ISRAEL WID MILITARY ACTION - INFOWARS.

* SAME > US SANCTIONS LOSINGEFFECT AGZ IRAN, US CONGRESS RESEARCH ARM | [Iran] PRESSTV: SANCTIONS LOSING EFFECT ON IRAN, US CONGRESS REASEARCHG ARM CRS QUESTIONS EFFECTS OF IRAN SANCTIONS.

* DRUDGEREPORT, TOPIX > RUSSIA WILL KEEP SELLING MISSLES TO SYRIA.

Personally, my guts or instincts are telling me that Hezbollah + Iran proper are indirectly + covertly trying to contain Assadian Syria + forcibly prevent it from unilaterally leaving the Iran-Syria-Lebanon Alliance = "Axis/Nexus of Evil"???

Iff I am correct per the above, then IMO the sooner Israel + IDF attack Lebanon + Hezbollah the better for Assad + traditionally pro-isolationist Syria.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/10/2013 22:51 Comments || Top||


France seeks to name Syria's Nusra a 'terrorist' group
[Al Ahram] French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has proposed classing Syria's powerful jihadist group Al-Nusra Front a terrorist organization, while boosting support for the moderate opposition.
Al-Nusra will someday (relatively soon) be remembered as the factor that turned a legitimate Syrian uprising into a victory for Pencilneck.
"We are going to increase our support to the moderate opposition, the National Syrian Coalition," Fabius said in Friday's edition of Le Monde newspaper.

"To avoid ambiguity we propose classing the Al-Nusra Front -- opposed to (President) Bashir al-Assad but a branch of Al-Qaeda -- as a terrorist organization as defined by the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
" he said.

"We have begun a procedure with Britannia to submit a classification request to the UN sanctions committee," a diplomatic source told AFP.

Washington already deems Al-Nusra a terrorist organization.

Al-Nusra Front, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in Syria, is among the most prominent organizations involved in the conflict which has left more than 70,000 dead since March 2011, according to the United Nations.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  BAD SERVER FARM!
Posted by: Marilyn Lover of the Hatfields1778 || 05/10/2013 17:45 Comments || Top||


Kerry Says Assad Cannot be Part of Syria's New Government
[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...
insisted Thursday Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
will have to step down as part of any political solution in Syria, as he held a third day of talks on the bloody conflict.

Speaking as he met Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, Kerry said all sides were working to "effect a transition government by mutual consent of both sides, which clearly means that in our judgment President Assad will not be a component of that transitional government."

Kerry also officially unveiled $100 million (76 million euros) in additional U.S. humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees, almost half of which will go to help Jordan struggling to cope with a tide of people fleeing the 26-month war.

Some 2,000 people are flooding across the border into Jordan every day, and the country now hosts some 525,000 refugees, Judeh said at the start of the talks in Rome.

"We have 10 percent of our population today, in the form of Syrian refugees. It is expected to rise to about 20 to 25 percent given the current rates by the end of this year, and possibly to about 40 percent by the middle of 2014," he said.

"No country can cope with the numbers as huge as the numbers I've just described," he warned, adding Jordan was very grateful for the help of the international community.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  He thought of that while sitting in Putin's waiting room?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/10/2013 9:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Had Kerry been waiting for Vlad any longer he might have qualified for a second Silver Star.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2013 9:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe Vlad thought he was a Jehovah's Witness and hit behind the couch.

Posted by: Shipman || 05/10/2013 13:14 Comments || Top||

#4  As long as Mama Russia, China, + Iran provide $$$ + Arms to Baby Assad, there is little or nothing SecState Jaaawhn + POTUS Bammer = USA can do.

OTOH ...

* HBARAT RAKSHAK > [Reuters] PUTIN: RUSSIA NEEDS STRONGER DEFENSES AGZ AFGHAN THREATS.

Militant, Militant ...

Unless something changes drastically in Syria vee Baby Assad + Regime, the Hard Boyz + Global Jihad may have to de facto destabilize Russia + China etc. first before they can truly see the end of Baby Assad.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/10/2013 23:01 Comments || Top||


Assad says Hezbollah a model for Syria
[Pak Daily Times] Syria will "give Hezbollah everything" in recognition of its support and will follow the myrmidon group's model of "resistance" against Israel, a Lebanese newspaper on Thursday quoted Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
as saying. His comments, published by Al-Akhbar, reportedly came during meetings with Lebanese visitors in Damascus and appeared intended to refute any suggestion that Israeli raids on Syrian targets would halt assistance to the Shiite group Hezbollah in Leb. The newspaper said visitors quoted Assad as expressing "confidence, satisfaction and great gratitude towards Hezbollah." The organization is a long-time ally of the Syrian regime and has sent fighters to battle alongside Assad's troops, particularly in the Qusayr district of the central province of Homs. Damascus has long served as a supply conduit for Iran-backed Hezbollah, and Assad said they would reward the group for their loyalty. "We have decided to give them everything," the newspaper quoted him as saying, without elaborating. "For the first time we feel that we and they are living in the same situation and they are not just an ally we help with resistance," he said. "We have decided that we must move forward towards them and turn into a nation of resistance like Hezbollah, for the sake of Syria and future generations." Assad was quoted as saying Syria could "easily" respond to Israeli air strikes by "firing a few rockets at Israel." "But we want strategic Dire Revenge™, by opening the door of resistance and turning all of Syria into a country of resistance."
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



Who's in the News
39[untagged]
8Govt of Pakistan
5Govt of Syria
3Hezbollah
3Arab Spring
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2al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Boko Haram
1Hamas
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
1Govt of Iran
1al-Nusra

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2013-05-10
  Syria troops, Hizbullah advancing on Qusayr
Thu 2013-05-09
  Nigerian cult ambush kills 46 policemen
Wed 2013-05-08
  Lashkar-i-Jhangvi's Karachi chief arrested
Tue 2013-05-07
  22 dead as police clash with Bangladesh Islamists
Mon 2013-05-06
  Tanzania police: 4 Saudis arrested after blast
Sun 2013-05-05
  Explosions shake Damascus, Syria blames Israel
Sat 2013-05-04
  Egypt: Mob lynches son of Muslim Brotherhood leader
Fri 2013-05-03
  Sarabjit Singh dies in Pak Jail
Thu 2013-05-02
  Brahimi to quit as Syria peace envoy: Diplomats
Wed 2013-05-01
  Three people arrested in Marathon bombings
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


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