[Tolo News] Afghan security officials on Saturday said that Al-Qaeda and Haqqani Network activities in Pakistain pose a major threat to Afghanistan's current and future security, adding that while Afghan forces are capable of combating the threat, they will need further support to be fully successful.
Sediq Sediqi, the front man for the Ministry of Interior (MoI), called on the international community to help address the issue of terrorist and insurgency supporting groups like Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani Network operating in Pakistain.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... Mr. Sediqi also expressed confidence in the Afghan forces ability to manage the threats posed by these groups. "We cannot rejects threats from Pak soil, but Afghan cops are ready to faces these challenges," Mr. Sediqi said.
Members of the Security Commission in Parliament were a bit less confident, cautioning that the Afghan forces' success in combating threats from groups like Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network would be contingent on whether or not they are properly equipped. "If the forces are not equipped with the necessary weaponry, Afghanistan will face a serious crisis after 2014, said MP Mirdad Khan Nejrabi, the head of the Security Commission.
"Pakistain and Death Eater networks in Pakistain pose serious threats to Afghanistan's security," Mr. Nejrabi said, reinforcing the remarks made by Mr. Sediqi.
Fatema Azizi, another MP on the Commission, was critical of the way funding has been used for the Afghan cops and eager to see support for more equipment."The Afghan forces are not equipped with the weapons they need despite millions being spent on them," she said.
With the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... mission in Afghanistan coming to an end, and the U.S. pulling troops out by the end of 2014, the window of opportunity for the Afghan forces to lobby for more training, financial and technical support is closing fast. That time pressure is bringing Kabul and Washington together, despite numerous differences and tensions between officials, to hammer out a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that would lay the roadmap for security cooperation and assistance between the U.S. and Afghanistan for the foreseeable future.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2013 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Some 600 Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, operatives have crossed the tunnels from the Gazoo Strip into Sinai since the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported.
It was further reported that security forces in Sinai captured a terror cell trained by a Paleostinian citizen in the peninsula. According to sources, the origin of their arms was from Libya and from Hamas in Sinai.
[Ynet] Security officials say will disperse Morsi supporters' camps in Cairo on daybreak Monday, two weeks after bloody festivities claim lives of dozens
Egyptian security forces will besiege two sit-ins by supporters of the country's ousted president within 24 hours, police officials said Sunday, setting up a possible confrontation between the military-backed government and the thousands gathered there.
One police official suggested action against the sit-in protests by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi could begin as early as daybreak Monday.
Officials, who spoke anonymously in line with regulations, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named they are also preparing for possible festivities that might erupt in reaction to the cordons they will set up barring anyone from entering.
Egypt's new leadership says that the sit-ins and protests have frightened residents of Cairo, sparked deadly violence and disrupted traffic in the capital. Leaders of the sit-in say their protests have been peaceful and blame security forces and "thugs" for violence.
The Arab world's most populous country is readying itself for more potential bloodshed. Already more than 250 people have been killed in violence since Morsi's ouster.
A last-ditch effort over the weekend by the Sunni Mohammedan world's pre-eminent religious institution, Al-Azhar, also failed to push the two sides closer to reconciliation. Mass rallies two weeks ago called by military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi showed that a large segment of Egypt's population backs action by the armed forces.
The Interior Ministry had said earlier it would not clamp down on the protesters but will take gradual measures, which include the cordons. Other measures suggested include the use of water cannons and tear gas to minimize casualties.
The protesters, expecting an imminent security push to clear them out, have begun fortifying their positions.
At Egypt's main protest camp in eastern Cairo, vendors say they have sold hundreds of gas masks, goggles and gloves to protesters readying themselves for police tear gas. A few meters (yards) away from the vendors, three waist-high cement and wooden barriers have been constructed by protesters to keep armored vehicles from crushing the sit-in.
The protests include many women and kiddies. Organizations like UNICEF have cautioned against what they say is the deliberate use of children in Egypt who are "put at risk as potential witnesses to or victims of violence." Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund group says it cannot control whether families choose to stay camped out.
Some of the Islamist group's top leaders have used the sit-ins as a cover to avoid arrest. Others have already been incarcerated Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! and face charges of inciting violence. Morsi has been held at undisclosed locations since his ouster and is facing a criminal investigation.
Tensions between Mohammedans and Christians south of Cairo have been especially high since the Islamist president's ouster. On Sunday, 15 people were maimed when a Mohammedan woman tried to stop a Christian neighbor from building a speed bump in front of her home. Officials say both families started fighting and assailants tossed gasoline bombs into four Christian homes and a local church.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/12/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
#1
If I was in charge of Egypt... I would lob some of those anti-personal rounds into these MB protesters, the ones that activate upon movement, then sit back and watch the hilarity ensue.
#2
15 people were maimed when a Mohammedan woman tried to stop a Christian neighbor from building a speed bump in front of her home. Officials say both families started fighting and assailants tossed gasoline bombs into four Christian homes and a local church.
[An Nahar] The head of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party Ennahda is to meet the powerful UGTT trade union chief on Monday on the crisis sparked by the killing of an opposition politician.
The UGTT said that its head, Houcine Abassi, would meet Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi and Mustapha Ben Jaafar, speaker of the National Constituent Assembly.
Nearly 500,000 Tunisians are members of the UGTT, and the union can paralyze the country with strike action.
The planned meeting comes after Ben Jaafar announced the suspension of the assembly's work drawing up a new constitution while the Islamist-led government and the opposition hold talks on ending the political crisis.
Ben Jaafar has proposed the UGTT as mediator for the talks.
The union has called for the resignation of the Islamist-dominated cabinet and its replacement by a government of technocrats.
Ennahda has rejected the proposal so far.
Ghannouchi said on Facebook on Saturday that he had met the head of employers' organization Utica, Wided Bouchamaoui. Utica too has called for the formation of a cabinet of technocrats.
Meanwhile Tunisia's Tamarod, a movement that has modeled itself on the one in Egypt that led to the army ousting the elected Islamist president, said five of its activists were on hunger strike in front of the constituent assembly to demand its dissolution and the resignation of the government.
Tamarod Tunisia says on its Facebook page that it has collected 1.6 million signatures in support of both measures. The figure, which has not been verified, would amount to some 15 percent of the country's population.
Tunisia's opposition coalition, made up of parties from across the political spectrum, has refused to meet Ennahda until a new government is formed.
Hundreds of opposition supporters have kept up protests every night in front of the assembly but on August 6, tens of thousands took part in demonstrations.
The opposition is hoping to raise the pressure on the government with a new demonstration on August 13 to mark the anniversary of the promulgation of the Personal Status Code in 1956 under Tunisia's first president, Habib Bourguiba.
The code gave Tunisians unequaled rights in the Arab world at the time, and the country's ruling Islamists have regularly been accused of trying to roll them back.
Ennahda's critics have blamed the Islamists for the rise of the ultra-conservative Salafist movement in the country since January 2011, whose violent actions are a threat to stability in the country.
Radical 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... were blamed for the liquidation of opposition MP Mohamed Brahmi at the end of July, the second opposition politician to be killed this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
Bahrain has deported an American female nursery school teacher for her online publications and social media activities linked to radical opposition groups, as well as violating terms of her work permit.
Nursery school teacher? The sheikhs couldn't hire a Filipino for that?
The ministry of state for communications said in a statement on Saturday that it received a "complaint about an individual using Twitter and other websites to publish articles" on Bahrain that were "deemed to incite hatred against the government and members of the Royal family, as well as spreading misinformation and encouraging divisions in Bahraini society based on religious sect".
Was she an ACORN worker?
The American teacher,
...perhaps a member of the Chicago Teachers Union...
who wrote under a pen name, violated the Labour Laws of Bahrain by working illegally as an unaccredited journalist.
That's just the excuse they used; the reason is that she was a pain in the ass...
She published a number of articles for online journals including Muftah (where she holds the title of co-editor and works as a reporter), Lebanon's Hezbullah-linked As Safir newspaper
Oh, so she was one of those Shiite-Americans. Presumably an immigrant or first-generation American, with fluent Arabic.
and the outlawed Bahrain Centre for Human Rights newsletter, among others.
According to her landlord, she had a Hezbullah flag along with other paraphernalia of the Lebanese terrorist organisation in her residence. This along with her social media activities led to the complaint filed with the ministry.
The principal at the school where the woman taught said in the statement: "We cannot have someone teaching impressionable young children who supports an internationally recognised terrorist organisation like Hezbullah."
So she'll just have to go back home to Seattle to do that...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[Dawn] After a demonstration by a mob outside the Pakistain High Commission in New Delhi on Wednesday over the killing of Indian soldiers along the Line of Control, the Foreign Office asked India to beef up security of Pak diplomats and high commission staff.
Indian Deputy High Commissioner Gopal Baglay was summoned to the Foreign Office and asked to convey to the Indian government that Pakistain expected it to meet its responsibility of protecting Pak diplomats and allied staff posted there.
"We summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner to the Foreign Office to stress that protection of the Pakistain High Commission and Pakistain House is the responsibility of the Indian government," Foreign Office front man Aizaz Chaudhry said. "We called for strengthening security of Pakistain representation in New Delhi."
The demonstration was largely peaceful, except for charged youths raising anti-Pakistain slogans.
The protesters belonging to the Youth Congress demonstrated outside the high commission and the Pakistain House, the residence of the high commissioner, over the killing of five Indian soldiers in an apparent terrorist attack near the LoC.
Pak Deputy High Commissioner Mansoor Ahmed Khan was summoned on Tuesday to the Indian ministry of external affairs over the LoC incident and Defence Minister A.K. Antony in a statement in parliament accused "men in Pakistain Army uniforms" of having aided the attackers.
Pakistain rejected the allegations and reiterated its commitment to the 2003 ceasefire agreement.
"Pakistain remains committed to the ceasefire agreement of 2003 which is an important confidence building measure and should be respected in letter and spirit," Mr Chaudhry said.
Pakistain also had accused India on Tuesday of unprovoked firing in Pando Sector, near Muzaffarabad, in which two soldiers were seriously injured.
The military operations chiefs of the two countries spoke to each other over the hotline in an attempt to calm down tensions.
According to ISPR chief Maj Gen Asim Bajwa, Director General of Military Operations Maj Gen Ashfaq Nadeem in his conversation with his Indian counterpart said there was no truth in the (Indian) allegation of LoC violation.
The Indian DGMO shared his side's version of the event.
"Pakistain Military has strongly protested Indian violation of LoC in Pando Sector," Gen Bajwa added.
Under the ceasefire agreement reached on Nov 25, 2003, the two sides committed not to target each other's posts and personnel.
The agreement has largely held and was considered as one of the main successes in the grinding of the peace processor. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... violations increased in January this year and have been holding up the third round of the resumed peace dialogue between the two countries
The two sides are now preparing to restart the round and dates for talks on Wullar Barrage and Sir Creek have been proposed by Pakistain.
Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising. And then he smelled the smoke... Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan warned that baseless Indian allegations against the Pakistain Army would undermine the grinding of the peace processor.
Rejecting the Indian government's accusation about an attack on its troops, he asked how the Pakistain Army could have launched such an attack 5km across the boundary line.
The minister said the Indian media was unleashing negative propaganda against Pakistain. The hue and cry of the Indian government and media was beyond comprehension, he added.
He advised the Indian government not to blame the Pakistain Army for its own failures.
Chaudhry Nisar said Pakistain wanted peaceful relations with India and it was possible only through bilateral efforts.
He said unnecessary allegations would only vitiate the atmosphere and block the way for resolution of outstanding issues through talks.
AFP adds: The foreign ministry said Pakistain wanted a strengthening of existing channels to stop "such ill-founded reports" in the future.
Indian army front man Rajesh Kalia said the two sides had exchanged fire late on Tuesday but only "small arms" were used.
In India, the opposition accused the government of letting Pakistain off the hook over the killing of soldiers, as the attack triggered uproar in parliament.
Indian army had initially blamed the attack on Pak troops but later withdrew the statement.
"Our defence minister has given a clean chit to Pakistain," Sushma Swaraj, lower house leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said. He "has let the country down. He must apologise to the nation", she said as the uproar forced parliament's adjournment.
Senior BJP leader L. K. Advani told politicians "this is no time for talks" as news channels ran footage of the arrival of the soldiers' flag-draped coffins in New Delhi.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The United States condemned the perpetrators of deadly attacks in Iraq Saturday as "enemies of Islam," in an unusually detailed statement following the latest violence in the war-ravaged country.
The State Department said the boom-mobiles that tore through Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... cafes and markets, as well as other blasts and shootings elsewhere, were "cowardly" attacks "aimed at families celebrating the Eid al-Fitr" holiday that marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
The violence killed at least 61 people and came just weeks after brazen assaults, claimed by an Al-Qaeda front group, on prisons near Storied Baghdad that freed hundreds of bad boys, and amid high daily corpse counts in Iraq.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, however, went further, reiterating the $10 million award offered for Al-Qaeda in Iraq's purported leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is believed to be sheltering in Syria.
"He has taken personal credit for a series of terrorist attacks in Iraq since 2011, and most recently claimed credit for the operations against the Abu Ghraib prison outside Storied Baghdad, the suicide kaboom assault on the Ministry of Justice, among other attacks against Iraqi security forces and Iraqi citizens," Psaki said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
#1
if al Q in iraq is an 'enemy of islam' than what is al q in syria or al Q in yeman or the moslem brotherhood or boko haram or the mullahs of iran, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/12/2013 0:07 Comments ||
Top||
#3
We've got two choices in this war. Wipe out Islam or get the muslims to wipe the terrorists out of Islam. I know which will be cheaper in treasure and blood however improbable, so I applaud the DOS for making even a feeble move in the right direction.
#4
I'm sure the holy rollers are interested in what Jen Psaki knows what is and is not islam, and that the flip side of the coin is the USA is the defender of Jen's idea of true islam.
And knowing that this administration didn't go to the mat for the guy who found bin laden, why in the world would somebody accept this bounty?
They're the supreme authority on every goddam thing, grom.
Just ask 'em. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/12/2013 13:28 Comments ||
Top||
#6
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Iraq-based] ANSAR AL-ISLAM CALLS FOR SUNNI JIHAD IN IRAN, as due to its beliefs about growing or expanding Iranian = Shia Islamic influence in Iraq proper.
AND
* TOPIX > AL-QAEDA VOWS MORE IRAQ ATTACKS.
The hell you say!?
VERSUS
* TOPIX > [Long War Journal] US STATE DEPARTMENT CONFIRMS AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ LEADER HAS RELOCATED TO SYRIA, ostensibly to visit his Boyz there.
Thus of course proving he has no connection or linkage [wink-wink] to the latest attacks in Iraq???
[Ynet] Housing minister Ariel announces apartments up for sale three days before second round of peace talks begins. 'No country takes orders from other countries about where to build,' he says
See the outcome of the brilliant work of The Two Smartest Men In The Room.
Three days before the second round of peace talks begins, Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel announced that some 1,200 new apartments in Jerusalem and the West Bank are up for sale.
Nearly 800 of the 1,200 apartments will be built in Jerusalem: 400 in Gilo, 210 in Homat Shmuel and 183 in Pisgat Zeev. The settlement of Ariel will get 117 units; Efrat will get 149; Ma'ale Adumim -- 92 and Beitar Illit -- 36.
"The Israeli government is working to reduce the cost of living in all parts of Israel. No country receives orders about where it can and cannot build from other countries," Ariel said.
"We shall continue to market apartments all around the country, in the Negev, in the Galilee and in the center, to meet the needs of all the people of Israel. It's the right thing to do both for Zionism and for the economy."
Finance Minister Yair Lapid criticized the move calling it a "big mistake."
"Solutions for the housing problem should be implemented where there is demand. The use of resources designated for housing for the middle class for the purpose of unnecessarily defying the Americans is not conducive for the grinding of the peace processor."
It's not like this particular iteration of the peace process was ever going to result in anything like a peace treaty anyway...
The announcement was also criticized by the opposition.
Naturally.
"Building thousands of housing units in the settlements is a side bomb placed by the government to kill the negotiations before they even begin," said Meretz Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On. "We will not have an agreement with the Paleostinians as long as settlement construction continues. There will be no peace agreement that is not based on 1967 lines with land swaps and the division of Jerusalem."
The statement came after weeks of discussions between Naftali Bennett's Habayit Hayehudi party and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is leading the release of Paleostinian prisoners as part of renewed peace talks.
While Minister Ariel considers the move a victory, even his close advisers admit that the process is in the very earlier stages and that construction could take as long as two years to begin.
A source at the Habayit Heyehudi said, "There is a media battle in the Right. It's true we won't see construction in the near future but this is a first stage that sets the wheels of bureaucracy in motion after a long period of no construction."
Pope Francis on Sunday urged Christians and Muslims to promote mutual respect , especially through the education of new generations. His remarks came at the end of his Angelus address when he sent greetings to Muslims throughout the world who have just celebrated the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The text of the Pontiff's address is at the link. I respect the man greatly; but the key word here is 'mutual'.
Any word on what we're supposed to do if there isn't any mutuality?
Is crusading still an honorable option?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Holy Smiting™
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2013 8:39 Comments ||
Top||
Zimbabwe on Saturday rejected a report by British Newspaper Times concerning signing up a secret contract between Harare and Tehran to export uranium to Iran, calling it a story made up by the western media, IRNA reported.
According to the report of South Africa News Agency, Zimbabwe's Minister of Mines and Mining Development Obert Moses Mpofu said, "We are free to trade with all countries, but the Ministry has not signed any contract about uranium with Tehran".
He added this is the kind of story and misinformation usually made by the western media. Mpofu went on to say when Zimbabwe is a free country, why should it sign a secret trade contract?
Times wrote Friday that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to export uranium to Iran had been signed last year between Harare and Tehran, in spite of serious warning of Washington.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
As .com used to say, watch the hands, not the mouth...
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.
