[LATIMES] The reclusive leader of Afghanistan's Taliban said Tuesday that his krazed killer group was willing to begin peace negotiations, even as he urged stepped-up attacks on foreign troops to force them out of the country.
In a lengthy and wide-ranging email message, Mullah Mohammad Omar called on Afghans to boycott elections scheduled for early 2014 and urged Afghan police, soldiers and paramilitary personnel to turn their guns on foreign troops -- as well as Afghan government troops cooperating with U.S.-led coalition forces.
In a separate development, individual members of the Afghan High Peace Council -- a group appointed by 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... to negotiate with Taliban elements -- said Tuesday they've held secret talks with the Taliban to try to bring momentum to a grinding of the peace processor that's foundered since its inception.
Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid said the statements were a deliberate lie designed to upstage his group's important Eid message. "The High Peace Council wants to keep its office open and money flowing, which is why they are spouting such propaganda," Mujahid said. "We don't intend to talk with the puppet Kabul government. We don't have contact with them, not individual talks, not group talks."
The one-eyed Omar, who has a $10-million bounty on his head, has made a practice in recent years of distributing a message shortly before Eid al-Fitr, a three-day Islamic holiday celebrating the end of the holy month of Ramadan when devout Mohammedans pray and fast.
Omar said in the five-page letter that the Taliban recently set up an office in Doha, the capital of Qatar, to hasten the departure of foreign forces from Afghanistan and to form an inclusive government based on "Islamic principles."
"We do not think of monopolizing power," he wrote. "Those who truly love Islam and the country and have commitment to both ... this homeland is theirs."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2013 00:00 ||
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U.S. President Barack Obama has agreed to meet with Muslim Brotherhood representatives at the White House, sources told Egypt Independent. Obama would reportedly meet with Brotherhood officials to "hear their opinion" on developments in Egypt, in the presence of Turkish diplomats.
Champ will meet with thugs and terrorists. In the White House. With his pal Erdogan's help. Boggle.
It's not like he's never done that before.
Egypt Independent heard from sources inside the Muslim Brotherhood that Islamist-linked billionaire Hassen Malek requested a meeting through Obama's office manager.
The meeting with Turkish officials is expected to take place this month.
Turkish diplomats are expected to push for Mohamed Morsy's reinstatement as Egyptian president, sources said, if not that the Muslim Brotherhood would be assured of political survival following a month-long violent stand-off with the armed forces in the wake of Morsy's overthrow.
The U.S. has repeatedly supported the Muslim Brotherhood's ascendancy in Egypt, researcher Mohamed Hasanein Heikahl said. While a number of Brotherhood leaders have publicly criticized the U.S. stance, accusing the Obama administration of "playing a role in Morsy's overthrow," they are said to be hoping for a shift as tentative talks continue with Egypt's interim administration.
Meanwhile the people of Egypt know better -- they know who Champ has allied himself with from day one.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2013 00:00 ||
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#2
Making nice with Islamists only works if you are an Islamist, and then only sometimes. Lying down with dogs, fleas... that sort of thing. I am not hopeful.
[Ynet] Security officials say Sinai-based jihadists planned to attack convoys of senior figures behind Morsi's overthrow with grenades on first day of Eid al-Fitr holiday
Egyptian intelligence agencies exposed this past week three armed terror cells in the Sinai peninsula that were working together to carry out a plan to assassinate senior military and police figures, Kuwait newspaper Alrai reported, citing Egyptian officials.
Egyptian security services are currently seeking some 60 people who are suspected of being involved in the plot.
According to the report, the conspirers planned to kill Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim and Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and sometime Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. After the fall of Mubarak he ran for president. He lost. The officials said that as soon as the plot was exposed the suspects fled to the mountainous areas in Sinai. The suspects, who in the past have operated individually when they attacked sensitive facilities and army and police outposts, have now joined forces with the goal of assassinating those who were behind the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
Alrai further reported that a Paleostinian conspirer who was incarcerated Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in Sinai revealed that 12 of the suspects who fled belong to the Paleostinian Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement, while the rest are Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... The Egyptian officials said the Islamists planned to arrive in Cairo on the first day of Eid al-Fitr -- the holiday marking the end of Ramadan -- and carry out the attack on the senior figures' motorcades using grenades obtained from Libyan arms smugglers.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats grabbed his rosco... the Paleostinian news agency Ma'an reported that Egyptian police have arrested 12 Paleostinians from Gazoo as part of an operation in the city of El-Arish to track down infiltrators. The detainees were transferred to Cairo for further interrogation.
On Sunday, separate attacks by jihadists on army positions in Sinai resulted in the death of two soldiers.
Monday night saw unknown assailants, thought to belong to an bully boy religious group in North Sinai, use improvised bombs to blow up the shrines of two religious leaders. The first shrine belonged to Sheikh Hamid Abu Jarir, located in the Al-Mughara region of the city of Al-Hassana in Central Sinai, with the second belonging to Sheikh Salim Ashraf Abu Jarir in the Mazar region in the city of Bir Al-Abd.
The attacks were coordinated and took place at the same time, with the assailants fleeing both scenes in four-wheel-drive pickup trucks without license plates.
Over the weekend a senior Egyptian official said 90 suspects, including seven Paleostinians, have been arrested over the past month during military operations in Sinai. He said 60 gunnies have been killed, among them 30 Paleostinians.
[Ynet] Customs in Cairo's international airport incarcerated Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! two Egyptian travelers who arrived from Istanbul in possession of large quantities of arms and munitions.
Al-Qeada emblems and black flags associated with radical Islamism were found in their possession as well as fake Egyptian and Afghanistan army uniforms.
The Saudi King on Tuesday replaced the country's deputy defense minister, Saudi Press Agency reported. Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued a royal order, exempting deputy defense minister Prince Fahd bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, and naming Prince Salman bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to the post, Xinhua reported.
Prince Fahd was appointed deputy defense minister on April 20, replacing Prince Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
The newly-appointed deputy defense minister was the assistant secretary of National Security for Security and Intelligence Affairs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2013 00:00 ||
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Seriously? That's not what happens in real countries.
Last month's heavy rain in North Korea seems to be having an impact on the country's annual summer military exercises.
Citing a South Korean government source, Yonhap News said troops in the North have been ordered to help with flood relief work. Up to 900 millimeters fell in parts of the country in July, killing roughly 60 people and destroying over 100 sq km of farmland, while flooding more than 26,000 buildings.
North Korea regularly conducts large-scale military exercise around this time of year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2013 00:00 ||
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#2
Korea(s) is a wet mountain range. The hills are rocky and abrupt. Travel of people and water happens in the valleys. Rain is an attractant for heavy equipment and dirt roads. I remember exercises when the gear was left behind and reported 'pre-deployed' for later retrieval.
#7
I'd say a country reduced to rusty tire-burning trains has finally achieved full communism. It has always baffled me how leftists fail to understand that that is what the fabled pot of gold at the end of the rainbow really looks like.
#10
I don't know too much about steam locomotives, but that looks like an awful lot of steam bypass for such a slow train. The steam cylinders' seals must be totally worn out.
#11
Along w/ bad seals, how about how hard that thing was working @ the 1:20-ish time hack; only 3 empty cars and was putting a huge load on the engine.
the dual guage trackage was interesting however. as was the faceted curves; musst not have stolen a rail bender yet.
[REUTERS] Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. army psychiatrist accused of murdering 13 fellow soldiers and wounding dozens more in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood four years ago, told a court on Tuesday that the evidence would clearly show "I am the shooter."
Hasan, who is confined to a wheelchair after being shot by military police during the attack, is representing himself in the trial at the Texas army base.
In a brief opening statement on the first day of the trial, he said witnesses would testify that "war is an ugly thing," "What?"
"[Click! Click! Whirrr! Snap!] Wahr iss an urgly t'ing!"
"What?"
"Wahr! It is an urgly t'ing!"
"Oh."
with death and devastation on both sides. [Click! Click! Whirrr! Snap!]
Does this really need to be established for the benefit of a military tribunal, presumably intimately familiar with the uglier aspects of that war thingy? Will he also explain where down and up are located, and define the colour of the sky as "mostly blue during the daytime but seriously indigo at night"?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Good. He has confessed. Bring the guilty bastard in. We'll give him a fair trial before we hang him, or shoot him. I'm not proud.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/07/2013 0:05 Comments ||
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#2
Be sure to have him called in the civil suit where they are trying to defend their treatment of this as workplace violence, instead of what it is: Islamic Terrorism.
#3
Was is ugly, so he felt obligated to show us some of the ugliness right here in our backyard - and the heart of the Army. He's just a simple soldier, following orders from allen. Allen made him do it.
He thinks that makes him "not guilty". Should make for a short defense, unless his defense is how bad the US is.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/07/2013 7:41 Comments ||
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#4
Good. He has confessed.
Better than that. He's now met the Constitution requirement to be tried for treason - confession in open court. At least the lads of 1861 resigned their commission before heading home.
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
The offense will have to be handled in federal court rather than courts martial. Official transcripts will be evidence enough to meet the proof. Of course, that will require regime change that will treat the event as more than just 'work place violence'.
#9
I'm normally in favor of the death penalty, but for Hasan, I want him to live a very long life in maximum security, paralyzed and having to wait 30 or 40 years before he finds out whether or not the paradise he believes in exists.
#10
IMO its possible that the Major is intentionally presenting no viable defense in order to support a Court-ordered/mandated change of plea to "guilty by insanity"???
[Ynet] Syria is trying to tap frozen funds in foreign bank accounts to step up purchases of food stocks including wheat, as civil war and a deepening humanitarian crisis push Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... to seek new ways to feed his people.
The country faces its worst wheat harvest in nearly three decades due to the conflict, dealing a blow to Assad's plan for self-sufficiency in food that was aimed at sidestepping Western moves to isolate his government through sanctions.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/07/2013 00:00 ||
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[TheHill] The American special forces teams have spent the past week waiting for U.S. military and intelligence officials to confirm the whereabouts of the terror cell plotting to attack U.S. diplomatic outposts in the Mideast and North Africa.
Unnamed sources told CNN on Monday that the teams were poised to carry out the preemptive strikes, but declined to comment on where the U.S. forces were located or which potential targets the Pentagon has identified.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[LATIMES] The reclusive leader of Afghanistan's Taliban said Tuesday that his
[Ynet] Security officials say Sinai-based jihadists planned to attack convoys of senior figures behind Morsi's overthrow with grenades on first day of Eid al-Fitr holiday
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
