MOGADISHU -- Somali Police force celebrated their 70th anniversary with a well organized ceremony and parades at General Kahiye Police training academy in Mogadishu on Friday, Garowe Online reports.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Somalia Police Chief Gen. Abdihakin Dahir Saacid, the Acting Defence Minister Abdihakin Haji Mohamud Fiqi, the acting Interior Minister Abdikarin Hussein Guled and Mogadishu Police commanders have attended the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of police forces.
Speaking at the event, President Mohamud congratulated Somali police on their anniversary: "Congratulations! ,today marks a historic occasion and I am demanding you to redouble your efforts. Also the public are expected to closely work with the security forces so that we can avert the security threats".
President Mohamud inaugurated Afar-Irdod police station and commando Polizia base on the sidelines of the celebrations.
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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"70 years of ineffectual corruption"
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[Ynet] Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri Al-Youm reported that the country's security estabilshment received information that foreign intelligence forces plan to either assassinate deposed president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... or break him out jail before his trial.
Officials at the Alexandria prison where Morsi is being held taken steps to increase security, like closely monitoring the prisoner and regularly testing his food for poisions.
[AnNahar] Libyan Oil Minister Abdelbari al-Arusi on Saturday issued a renewed threat of force to lift a months-long blockade of oil terminals by striking autonomists.
"The government is making every effort to hold talks with those blockading the terminals," he told journalists on the sidelines of a conference in Doha of the Organisation of Arab Oil Exporting Countries.
"But all options, including the military option, remain open to put an end to this situation," he said.
Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has already threatened to use force against the strikers but without taking action.
Armed protesters have refused to lift their blockade of vital oil terminals in eastern Libya, despite a tribal pledge to do so.
The action, which has sent oil output plummeting to 250,000 barrels per day from the normal level of almost 1.5 million bpd, was launched in July in support of demands for regional autonomy.
Since the ouster of Libya's long-time leader Muammar Qadaffy ...a proud Arab institution for 42 years, now among the dear departed, though not the dearest... in 2011, authorities have struggled to quell rising lawlessness and impose their authority.
Arusi said in early December that lost production had cost Libya "around $9.0 billion" in revenues.
[AnNahar] Egypt's deposed President Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... and 132 others, including members of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, will stand trial for a prison break and the murder of officers during the 2011 uprising, the prosecution said on Saturday.
Almost 70 of the defendants are members of Hamas and Hizbullah, the Paleostinian and Lebanese groups, who will be tried in absentia.
The prosecutors claim Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund, Hamas, Hizbullah and jihadist faceless myrmidons attacked prisons and cop shoppes during the first few days of the revolt against dictator Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , killing coppers and helping thousands of inmates escape.
They say members of the Brotherhood, Hamas and Hizbullah attacked the prisons to free Islamist inmates.
Several Hamas and Hizbullah members were imprisoned in Egyptian jails and escaped during the unrest.
The other defendants include leaders of Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund, who also beat feet from the Wadi al-Natrun prison during the revolt, and prominent Qatar-based holy man Yusef al-Qaradawi ...crackpot Egyptian Islamist theologian. He is best known for his program Shariah and Life on Al Jazeera, with an estimated audience of 60 million kindred souls worldwide. He is also well-known for IslamOnline, which occasionally advocates things like slavery and thumping the old lady with a rod no thicker than an inch, and has published more than 120 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization. Joe has long had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Moslem Brüderbund. Some of his views have been controversial in the West, though less so among the rubes of the Mysterious East, and he was refused entry to the United Kingdom in 2008. In 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and from the Palestinian territories condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving Islam a bad name.... , the sources said.
Morsi had been under investigation for the January 28, 2011 prison break along with Brotherhood members.
He is already on trial for allegedly inciting the killings of opposition activists during his one year in power.
And prosecutors said earlier this week he will also stand trial for espionage involving Hamas.
The latest charges underscore the shift in the Islamists' fortune following Morsi's overthrow.
Egypt's first democratically elected president, Morsi quickly alienated his secular opposition, the police and the military, which overthrew him in July after millions rallied across the country demanding his resignation.
Morsi himself had given a telephone interview to a television station shortly after he escaped, saying the guards had left and the inmates walked out of their cells.
He and other Moslem Brüderbund leaders had been rounded up on the morning of January 28, after the Islamists said they would join protests against Mubarak.
The uprising forced the hated interior ministry to withdraw from the streets, and Mubarak resigned on February 11 after three decades in power and handed the reins to the military.
Mubarak, his interior minister and top police commanders were put on trial for the killings of protesters during the uprising. Their defense blamed the violence on the Brotherhood, Hamas and Hizbullah.
Since Morsi's ouster, more than 1,000 people, mostly Islamists, have been killed in street festivities with police, and thousands imprisoned.
Morsi's supporters continue near daily protests demanding his reinstatement, while the military battles an insurgency in the Sinai peninsula that has killed dozens of soldiers and coppers since Morsi's overthrow.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, the little lost dog backed into the corner and showed its teeth. And what big teeth they were!... courts this week dismissed corruption charges against Ahmed Shafiq, Morsi's rival in the 2012 election. A prime minister under Mubarak, he fled the country after narrowly losing to the Islamist.
Shafiq will not stand in presidential elections scheduled for next year if military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, widely popular for toppling Morsi, declares his candidacy.
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Attacks Morocco's "Kingdom of Corruption and Despotism"
Al-Andalus, the media branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), released a rather sophisticated and detailed video on Morocco titled "Le royaume de la corruption et du despotisme" (The kingdom of corruption and despotism) on September 12. [1] The video mixed a series of elements, from Wikileaks cables to TV reports, to present a harsh set of accusations against Moroccan King Muhammad VI (Lakome [Rabat], September 14, 2013; Afriquinfos [Barcelona], September 16). Communications Minister and government spokesman Mustapha al-Khalfi said that the AQIM broadcasting was an "attempt to undermine the Moroccan model" (Maroc.Ma, September 18).
Given this history, the AQIM video is particularly notable -- it represents AQIM's first real and open threat against the kingdom (Le Monde, September 18). However, the rationale behind this video likely stretches beyond the specific idea of targeting Morocco in the future. It is more likely that AQIM, which is undergoing a major process of reorganization following the French-led intervention in Mali, wants to send a signal to potential militants in Morocco. This is an attempt to push them to join their ranks and direct their rage against the system (embodied by the king) in an AQIM-guided jihad
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Attacks Morocco's "Kingdom of Corruption and Despotism"
Considering the King of Morocco has the best lineage claim to the Prophet, AQ is pretty much declaring itself apostate.
The Swiss government has decided to continue a freeze on assets linked to former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali for three more years. In early 2011, Switzerland froze 60 million francs ($67 million) in Tunisian assets and 700 million francs ($782 million) held by former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The aim of the asset freeze is to facilitate mutual legal assistance on criminal matters with the affected states and thus to create the preconditions for judicial scrutiny into the origin of suspicious assets, the Swiss Federal Council, a seven-member cabinet said in a statement published on Wednesday.
The aim of the three-year extension is to give investigations in Tunisia and Egypt more time and to take account of the political transition in the two countries, the statement read.
Last October, a Switzerland fined three banks for mishandling assets belonging to the Ben Ali close circle.
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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I keep having trouble visualizing where South Sudan is on the map of Africa. Could the 'Burg start including such whenever this country is mentioned? Eventually I will have a clear mental image of where the place is, but until then ...
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/sudan_map_01.jpg?_=1387768877115
[Yemen Post] Yemen coalition government, which under the leadership of President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi has intensified and tightened its anti-terror alliance with the United States of America, has been directly threatened with great much retribution in a video-message uploaded onto YouTube this Monday, by a man who introduced himself as a AQAP commander (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.)
It is important to note that while the video has not yet been authenticated by the Yemeni authorities, this message was carried by non-other than al-Malahi, al-Qaeda media arm.
A man identified as Qasim al-Raimi warns in the video that al-Qaeda has grown so strong in both men and weapons that it is now in the position to oppose Yemen armed forces on the ground, not just as a terror organization but as a movement whose span and reach can rival with that of the coalition government.
And while such a message could be understood as pure bravado, the last song of a dying terror organization, the attack, earlier this month, of the Defence Ministry earlier has proven beyond doubt that terror forces of Evil have managed to infiltrate Yemen's institutions to a much greater extent than first anticipated. Security experts have actually theorized that al-Qaeda had to have gained insiders' knowledge to carry its attack against Yemen Defence Ministry, putting question marks over some politicians and officials' loyalties as well as agendas.
"We are able to drive two trucks to every military camp in Yemen. We are able to drive two trucks to every ministry loaded with tons of explosives," said Qasim Al-Raimi.
The self-proclaimed al-Qaeda commander continued, "We are still calling on the wise people of the government, if there are wise individuals. We say to them, the government and the army should not get involved in this conflict and should not chase us or give intelligence information to the American drones."
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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President Almazbek Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan announced this month that a US$1 billion Kyrgyz-Russian arms deal is ready to be implemented, with delivery "soon" of "artillery pieces, tanks, shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles and other military equipment". [1] The Russian Federal Security Service controlled Regnum news agency [2] has coincidentally quoted a statement by Atambayev on December 16 referring to a possible "foreign army attack" on Kyrgyzstan. [3]
Domestic politics insiders in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, believe Atambayev was referring to complications with Uzbekistan in the Ferghana Valley. It is no secret that the present state of Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations is considered outside government as counterproductive given the numerous deadly cross border skirmishes between the states. Official Tashkent, the Uzbekistan capital, does not miss a chance to remind its neighbors in Kyrgyzstan of the possible consequences of any unilateral decisions Bishek makes to build hydro stations in the upstream rivers in the Ferghana Valley.
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution condemning human rights abuses in North Korea. The UN has adopted similar resolutions every year since 2005, and this year's was passed by consensus without the need for a vote, just like last year's.
Alas it was not a strongly worded resolution...
The UN expressed "very serious concern at the persistence of continuing reports of systematic, widespread and grave violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights."
The resolution calls for an immediate abolition of political prison camps and release of the inmates, and improvement of human rights conditions for defectors repatriated to North Korea.
The North Korean ambassador to the UN condemned to resolution and called the charges a "fabrication" concocted by "hostile forces."
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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The US Congress is set to adopt a law next week forbidding Turkey from using American funds to acquire a $4 billion missile system from a Chinese company blacklisted by Washington.
The United States has voiced deep concern over Turkey's decision in September to enter negotiations with China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corporation for its first long-range anti-missile system.
CPMIEC, which makes the HQ-9 missile system, is under US sanctions for selling arms and missile technology to Iran and Syria.
Turkey's move also irritated its allies in NATO, which has said missile systems within the transatlantic military alliance must be compatible with each other.
The annual US defense authorization bill, passed Thursday by the House, contains a clause barring the use of "2014 funds to integrate missile defense systems of the People's Republic of China into US missile defense systems."
"Such a system would not be compatible with, and should not be integrated with, missile defense systems of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," the Senate and House Armed Services Committees said.
Without US subsidies, the cost for Turkey to install the Chinese missiles becomes steeper.
The bill is expected to be approved in the Senate next week, before being signed into law by President Barack Obama.
[Ynet] At final presser of 2013, US president repeats position on Iran's nuclear ambitions, belief in diplomatic solution. Asked about low approval ratings, Obama plays down importance of polling
At an end-of-the-year White House presser, President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... reiterated his position and strategy for dealing with Iran's nuclear aspirations: "It is my goal to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon... I'm keeping all options on the table, but if I can do it diplomatically, that's how we should do it."
Obama said that he believed his strategy was supported by the voters: "I would think that would be the preference of everybody up on Capitol Hill, because that sure is the preference of the American people."
The American president, who oversaw the withdrawal from Iraq and is negotiating an exit strategy with Afghanistan, repeated his reason for pursuing a diplomatic solution with the Islamic republic, "It is very important for us to test whether that's possible, not because it's guaranteed, but because the alternative is possibly us having to engage in some sort of conflict to resolve the problem with all kinds of unintended consequences."
While the presser focused mainly on domestic issues and the president's popularity, Obama answered the Iran question thoroughly, explaining again why he believed the Geneva agreement was in America's interest: "We lose nothing during this negotiation period. Precisely because there are verification provisions in place, we will have more insight into Iran's nuclear program over the next six months than we have previously."
Obama emphasized that the Geneva deal provided a forum for "a serious conversation" about the possibility of Iran acceding to international pressure and restricting its nuclear program to peaceful, civil purposes.
The final presser of the year took place moments before the president and his family boarded Air Force One on their way to a Christmas vacation in Hawaii.
Before leaving, Obama addressed new calls for sanctions against Iran by a number of politicians from both sides of the aisle: "There is no need for new sanctions legislation. Not yet. If Iran comes back and says, we can't give you assurances that we're not going to weaponize... it's not going to be hard for us to turn the dials back, strengthen sanctions even further. We can do that in a -- in a day, on a dime."
"But if we're serious about negotiations, we've got to create an atmosphere in which Iran is willing to move in ways that are uncomfortable for them," he said.
Ratings low
Obama left for his birth state of Hawaii with his popularity at a low according to a CNN poll. The president's approval ratings sunk to 41% despite an avalanche of positive economic data -- with which Obama opened the presser.
The president fielded a question about the CNN poll, answering: "I have now been in office five years... we have had ups and we have had downs. I think this room has probably recorded at least 15 near-death experiences."
The journalist pushed the point regarding Obama's unpopularity, but the president calmly replied, "I guess what I'm saying is if you're measuring this by polls, my polls have gone up and down a lot through the course of my career."
Obama said his administration's focus in 2014 will remain as global as it is local. The agenda includes the removal of Syrian chemical weapon stock, a comprehensive agreement with Iran regarding its nuclear program, and the withdrawal of combat troops from Afghanistan.
On the economy, the president noted that for the first time in two decades, the US is producing more oil at home than it is purchasing from abroad.
Before jetting off Obama fielded questions about amnesty for Eduard Snowden and the success of the Affordable Care Act. He declined to discuss the former because Snowden is under indictment, but vigorously defended the latter, saying: "You're right, the health care website problems were a source of great frustration."
But, he said, "On the other hand... I now have a couple million people, maybe more, who are going to have health care on January 1st. And that is a big deal. That's why I ran for this office."
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12/22/2013 00:11 ||
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#1
On the economy, the president noted that for the first time in two decades, the US is producing more oil at home than it is purchasing from abroad.
#5
Andor Iran ally Baby Assad cheats on destroying his chemical weapons as agreed upon.
Both Syria + Iran are gener safe until Summer 2014 when interim time limits expire.
The unsaid?, unwritten, "wink-wink" agreement underlying Geneva is SHIA IRAN'S DE FACTO, ALBEIT LIKELY PDENIABLE, HELP AGZ SUNNI AL-QAEDA, ETAL. FOREIGN MILTERR GROUPS.
Iff Iran intends other, then Iran should expect weird-n-mysterious, CIA or MOSSAD-led major "workplace/industrial/lab accidents",
to include casualties, to times occur at its NucProg sites.
WASHINGTON The Obama administration moved late Friday to prevent a federal judge in California from ruling on the constitutionality of warrantless surveillance programs authorized during the Bush administration, telling a court that recent disclosures about National Security Agency spying were not enough to undermine its claim that litigating the case would jeopardize state secrets.
In a set of filings in the two long-running cases in the Northern District of California, the government acknowledged for the first time that the N.S.A. started systematically collecting data about Americans emails and phone calls in 2001, alongside its program of wiretapping certain calls without warrants. The government had long argued that disclosure of these and other secrets would put the country at risk if they came out in court.
But the government said that despite recent leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, that made public a fuller scope of the surveillance and data collection programs put in place after the Sept. 11 attacks, sensitive secrets remained at risk in any courtroom discussion of their details like whether the plaintiffs were targets of intelligence collection or whether particular telecommunications providers like AT&T and Verizon had helped the agency.
Not sure if it puts the country at risk, but it certainly puts Champ and his administration at risk. That's why they're litigating.
Disclosure of this still-classified information regarding the scope and operational details of N.S.A. intelligence activities implicated by plaintiffs allegations could be expected to cause extremely grave damage to the national security of the United States, wrote the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr.
So, he said, he was continuing to assert the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to seek to block information from being used in court even if that means the case must be dismissed. The Justice Department wants the judge to dismiss the matter without ruling on whether the programs violated the First or Fourth Amendment.
This is where trust comes in, and since we don't have any trust in Champ, we'll keep litigating, thank you...
The filings also included similar declarations from earlier stages of the California litigation, which were classified at the time and shown only to the court but were declassified on Friday. The judge, Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California, had ordered the government to evaluate how the disclosures since Mr. Snowdens leaks had affected its earlier invocations of the state secrets privilege.
The plaintiffs have until late January to file a response. Cindy Cohn, the legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is leading one of the cases, called the governments assertion very troubling. She said that despite the Snowden revelations, it was still essentially saying, We cant say whether the American people have been spied on by their government.
Mr. Clappers unclassified affidavit to the court he also filed a classified version, the documents state contrasts sharply with the findings of President Obamas advisory committee on signals intelligence, which said in a report made public on Wednesday that the collection of bulk telephone data was of little proven value.
The panels experts concluded that there has been no instance in which N.S.A. could say with confidence that the outcome would have been different in a terror investigation without the collection of the telephone data. Moreover, now that the existence of the program has been disclosed publicly, we suspect that it is likely to be less useful still.
Mr. Clapper, however, suggested that the program was one of many that needed to continue, and he discussed a litany of threats, mostly emanating from Al Qaeda and its affiliates, that he said made the program vital. He argued that revealing additional details, including whom it targets or how companies like AT&T and Verizon have given the N.S.A. access to its equipment and data, would be harmful.
Still, Mr. Clappers description of the program as an important tool for tracking possible plots was a downgrade in rhetorical urgency. In earlier, now-declassified court filings, he and other officials had portrayed it as an essential tool.
They'll keep back-pedaling, which is how we know that it's all nonsense...
Mr. Obama, in a news conference on Friday, strongly suggested that he was looking for a way to split the difference between these two views. He stopped short of endorsing the advisory groups recommendation that the data should be held by telecommunications companies or a private consortium that has yet to be created.
Just because we can do something doesnt mean we necessarily should, he said, repeating a line he has used often.
Unless you're him, in which case it's fine.
The California litigation over warrantless surveillance represents the remnants of a wave of lawsuits filed in 2006 after The New York Times revealed that the Bush administration had authorized a program of wiretapping without warrants. Most of the initial suits were filed against telecommunications companies and were dismissed after Congress passed a law retroactively immunizing them for participating in the programs.
The new filings came five days after another judge, Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court in the District of Columbia, ruled in a case filed shortly after Mr. Snowdens first reported disclosures that the call-logging program in its current form probably violated the Fourth Amendment and called it almost Orwellian. The government is expected to appeal that decision.
Here's a question: did the NSA eavesdrop on the Romney campaign? If so, did some tasty information make its way to ValJar, Axelrod and Plouffe? Maybe that's why Champ is fighting so hard...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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That would be the same DNI, General James Clapper that told the Congress that none of this was actually going on anyway, rignt ?
#3
Here's a question: did the NSA eavesdrop on the Romney campaign? If so, did some tasty information make its way to ValJar, Axelrod and Plouffe? Maybe that's why Champ is fighting so hard...
Hummm.... would Nixon have done it? Hell damn yes, would Johnson have done? Hell damn yes. We've got to get a handle on this shit somehow.
#4
Perjury. Clapper should be brought up on charges and imprisoned. Same with Sebelius re Obamacare web site. You or I lie under oath, you can bet we see a jail cell. Should be the same for them.
PESHAWAR: Despite reiterating full support to the ongoing government-led peace process with the Taliban militants, Pakistans new army chief General Raheel Sharif Saturday vowed to not tolerate any more terrorist attacks.
During his visit to the Corps Headquarters in Peshawar, he emphasised that terrorist attacks will not be tolerated and will be responded effectively, said a statement issued by the ISPR.
Ruling out military action against proscribed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as its first preference, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs government has promised to persuade insurgents to lay down their weapons through peace negotiations.
PM Sharif, earlier this week, said the government will use force as a last resort.
The Pakistani Taliban, however, have dismissed the governments peace initiative saying they have information that plans are already under way for a military operation, adding the insurgents were ready for battle.
Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Sharif laid a flower wreath at Yadgar-e-Shuhada (martyrs monument) on his arrival in the capital of troubled Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP) province bordering Afghanistan.
He paid tribute to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the defence of motherland, said the statement.
Later, he was briefed in detail at the Corps Headquarters about various operational, training and administrative matters.
The army chief appreciated the resolve displayed by the officers and men during fight against terrorism and bringing stability to the militancy hit areas.
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] 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... rejects US security proposals for future Paleostinian state which would allow IDF presence in eastern border, calling them 'an American retreat.' Arab League promises there will not be even one soldier in Paleostine
The Arab League on Saturday rejected US proposals that would allow Israeli soldiers to be stationed on the eastern border of a future Paleostinian state, underscoring the challenge facing a US effort to wrap up a peace deal by April.
At an emergency meeting called at the request of Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... on Saturday, Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said there could be not one Israeli soldier in the territory of a future Paleostine.
But a resolution he read at the end of the meeting did not repeat the harshly critical language of a report circulated to the Arab delegates ahead of the gathering.
The report, seen by Rooters, said the US security proposals "achieved Israeli security expansionist demands, and guaranteed (Israel's) continued control of (the Jordan Valley) on the security pretext".
It also described them as "an American retreat."
Paleostinian sources have detailed a US plan to allow a continued Israeli military presence for the next 10 years in the Jordan Valley. Israel says its troops have to remain there to prevent arms and hard boyz entering the West Bank.
Abbas has rejected the idea of Israeli troops being stationed along the Jordan Valley, but says he could accept the deployment of US troops there.
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... , who has been shuttling between Israelis and Paleostinians, has said the United States has presented "some thoughts" on security arrangements, but given no details.
The Arab League report said the United States and Israel were linking talks on political issues to the Paleostinians' consent to "the American security solution". "This is what the Paleostinian side rejects," it said.
Israel and the Paleostinians resumed direct peace negotiations in July after a three-year break, but there has been little public sign of progress.
Ezzat al-Rashq, a member of Hamas political bureau, completely denied the presence of Mahmoud Ezzat, the deputy Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the Gaza Strip.
Likely true. The ebil Jooz would have planted a Hellfire on him if they knew he was there...
Rashq said that the continuing talk about this issue proves the attempts by many parties to get Hamas involved in the Egyptian affairs.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Thursday, Rashq also expressed Hamas condemnation of what he described as the political and media campaigns against Hamas and its resistance approach.
Rasgq referred on the trial of deposed President Mohamed Morsy and other MB leaders on charges of collaborating with foreign organizations to commit acts of terrorism and disclose official classified information, the sole beneficiary of this charge, and of considering Hamas an enemy, is the Zionist occupation.
The movement considers Egypt its strategic depth, and it has and will not interfere in [Egypts] internal affairs, he said.
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] The Iranian air force has successfully launched the Qadr long range ballistic missile, which can reach distances of over 200 km, the Fars news agency reported.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/22/2013 01:23 ||
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A better target for charity than their usual jihadi groups...
[AnNahar] An Emirati campaign to raise funds for Syrian refugees faced with harsh winter conditions in camps in neighboring states has raised almost $28 million, the Red Islamic Thingy announced Saturday.
Red Islamic Thingy chief Mohammed Atiq, quoted by state news agency WAM, said a Friday-Saturday telethon organized by local television collected 102 million dirhams ($27.8 million).
The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... on Monday appealed for a record $12.9 billion in global emergency aid, half of which is for victims of Syria's war, which has displaced millions both within the country and across its borders.
The oil-rich UAE, like its Gulf neighbors, has come out in support of the opposition battling to oust Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... .
[AnNahar] Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali slammed on Saturday calls by some officials to shut his country's embassy in Leb, considering that Beirut has no interest in doing so.
"We are keen to maintain deep brotherly ties between the two countries, those who are demanding the shut of the Syrian embassy represent only themselves," the ambassador told news hounds after talks with Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... in Rabieh.
On Friday, al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... bloc MP Khaled al-Daher accused the Syrian regime of the twin bombing that rocked Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... in August.
"Those who are behind the bombings are revealed, it's the gang of (Syrian President) Bashir al-Assad in Leb," Daher added.
He pleaded for justice, urging President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... and the government to expel the Syrian ambassador and cutting ties with the neighboring country.
Forty-five people were killed and over 800 maimed in the twin bombings that targeted two mosques in Tripoli.
Asked about the conditions of the Syrian refugees in Leb, Ali reiterated that his country "previously warned of the impact of the situation on Leb and the region.
According to the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 842,000 Syrians have fled to Leb since Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011.
Leb is hosting the highest number of Syrian refugees in the region, followed by Turkey and Jordan.
While both Turkey and Jordan have opened official refugee camps at the borders with Syria, Leb's government has refused to do so.
Thousands of refugees now live in apartments -- either as relatives' guests or as renters.
But thousands of others, who cannot afford the cost of living in Leb's cities, shelter in hundreds of informal tent settlements scattered across the country.
Ali pointed out that the Syrian government insists that it could find a way out of the crisis if the rest of the people cooperate with it.
"If there was any cooperation we would've averted the situation," the diplomat said, noting that Syria is still reaching its arm for any solution.
Ali added that gunnies in Syria are preventing people from returning to their country, calling on neighboring countries to act responsibly.
"The crises are complicated and dangerous and there's a clear intervention by Israel," he said.
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi stated that the Lebanese government can be held "partially" responsible for the developments in his country, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Saturday.
He told the daily: "The Lebanese government has interfered in Syrian internal affairs."
"Part of what Syria has been a victim of can be attributed to the policies of this government," he added.
Moreover, he accused the government of failing to disassociate itself from Syria.
Halqi explained that the government helped facilitate the infiltration of gunnies into Syria, adding: "Terrorist activity would still be ongoing had it not been for Hizbullah's presence on either side of the Lebanese-Syrian border, especially Syria's al-Qusayr."
Furthermore, the Syrian official said that contacts between the Syrian and Lebanese government's are nonexistent, revealing that the only communication between Syria and Leb is taking place with the latter's foreign ministry.
"The current relations do not represent the historic history between the two countries," lamented Halqi.
The Lebanese government has adopted a policy of disassociation from regional developments, especially those in Syria.
It adopted the Baabda Declaration in June 2012, which calls for keeping Leb away from regional conflicts.
Hizbullah has however acknowledged that it is involved in the fighting in Syria alongside the country's regime against what it called bad turbantakfir ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... i groups.
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12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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Article contains some background on "The Army of Justice" Sunni militant group in Iran.
The latest series of attacks by JA have not been isolated incidents. The armed Sunni group has carried out several military operations against the Iranian forces since 2012. The latest was on December 5, when four members of JA were killed by Iranian security guards in a series of skirmishes along the border between Iran and Pakistan (JamNews [Tehran], December 5). The militant group warns of future attacks against Iranian officials, while the Iranian state calls for a firmer response to such attacks.
JA describes itself as a "political-military" movement of the "Ahle Sunnat-e Iran" (Sunnis of Iran), with the aspiration of freeing the Baluch people from the hegemony of the Iranian government. The leader of the group, Abdul Rahim Mollahzadeh (a.k.a. Salah al-din Farogi), comes from Rasak, a southeastern border town in the impoverished Sarbaz County wiwhose local population has close cultural connections with the Pakistani region of Baluchistan (Shafaf, November 12).
The movement maintains that it is a clandestine group that focuses on attacking military bases and deliberately avoids harming civilians in order to uphold a just war against the "Safavi" regime in Iran. The reference is to the Safavid Empire, which established Shia Islam as the state religion in sixteenth-century Iran.
The origin of the JA goes back to 2012, when the organization first emerged as an offshoot of Jundallah (Soldiers of God), a Sunni militant organization of Baluch ethnic background founded by Abdolmalek Rigi, who was executed by the Islamic Republic in 2010 (al-Arabiya, October 29; JameJam News, October 29; Shafaf, November 12). While Jundallah disintegrated with the death of Rigi, JA emerged as a new Baluch militant movement with strong sectarian ideological overtones. Unlike Jundallah, whose primary demand was that Tehran improve the lives of Iranian Sunnis, JA appears to be more of a separatist movement, demanding that the Iranian regime leave the Sistan-Baluchistan province.
In terms of organization, JA appears to be a tightly knit group of Sunni Baluch fighters who may have both rural and urban support in the Iranian and Pakistani border region. The group is based in three military camps near the Iranian-Pakistani border (JamNews December 2013). In operational terms, the group engages in activities such as the use of explosives against Iranian border guards, hostage-taking operations and assassination attacks against high-ranking government officials in the province.
The group has employed social media as a way to propagate its ideology and to express demands on the Iranian state. Videos and clips of military operations are posted online sporadically, often days or weeks after a military conflict between the organization and the Iranian military forces took place. JA leader Salah al-din Farogi and other commanders post anti-government statements on Facebook and YouTube, speaking of the oppressive nature of the Iranian regime and its efforts to marginalize Baluch, Arab and Kurdish populations. The videotaped confessions of prisoners purported to be Iranian intelligence officers are also posted on the group's Facebook and blog sites.
According to the Iranian state, JA is a foreign-backed militia that is modeled after the militant-political organization Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran (People's Mujahideen of Iran), a dissident-militant group known for its terrorist operations before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution (Mashreq News, October 27). Tehran accuses JA of taking support from Israel and Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, which seek to destabilize the unity of Islamic Iran (ShiaNews, November 18).
In reality, JA is a political-military movement that reflects a recent wave of radicalization among the younger Baluch population. The trend towards militancy and sectarianism is largely due to a combination of domestic and regional grievances. Such grievances play an integral part in shaping the conditions upon which the JA has risen to challenge the Iranian state, though its success in legitimizing its operations among the local population remains unknown.
The commander of Syrias main Western-backed rebel group has urged all opposition fighters to join ranks in the struggle against President Bashar Assads forces, pledging to do everything he can to stave off rebel infighting.
In remarks broadcast on Friday by Al Arabiya, Gen. Salim Idris said all rebels in Syria who believe in the goals of the revolution are our brothers. Idris spoke after a meeting late on Thursday in Istanbul with US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford.
His comments suggested he was trying to limit the damage from deadly infighting among moderate and extremist rebel factions ahead of a peace conference for Syria scheduled to be held in Switzerland in January.
The faction that Idris leads, the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army rebel umbrella group, has been dealt a severe blow by the rapid rise of extremist groups in Syria.
Earlier this month, the US and Britain suspended nonlethal military aid to the opposition in Syria, after militants captured warehouses that contained a cache of machine guns and ammunition intended for Idris SMC. The incident was an embarrassment to the Syrian opposition, which is struggling to maintain international support as extremists expand their hold across rebel-held territories.
The Supreme Military Council reaffirms that it is working to secure military and relief supplies to the fighters on the ground and to ward off strife, unite ranks and assimilate all fighters on the ground who believe in the goals of the revolution of the Syrian people, Idris said. Also on Friday, the UN-Arab Leagues envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, met with US and Russian officials to try to agree on which nations should be invited to Syria peace talks in Geneva next month.
Disputes over who should represent the Syrian opposition and government, and whether Iran, Saudi Arabia and other regional powers should be at the table, have blocked previous attempts to bring Syrias warring sides for peace talks.
Idris has said he will take part in the Geneva talks, but it is still unclear if any other rebel groups will attend. Syrias government has said it would take part in the talks.
However, the leader of one of the most powerful Al Qaeda-linked groups in Syria, Jabhat Al Nusra, said in an interview broadcast late on Thursday that his group will not acknowledge anything that comes out of the peace conference.
Geneva (conference) is an attempt to resuscitate the regime by the international community, said the man purported to be Abu Mohammed Al Golani, the Nusra Front leader, said in his first-ever interview, broadcast in full late on Wednesday on the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera television.
Al Golani said those who plan to participate in the Geneva conference do not represent the Syrian people.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/22/2013 00:00 ||
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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.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Attacks Morocco's "Kingdom of Corruption and Despotism"
The US Congress is set to adopt a law next week forbidding Turkey from using American funds to acquire a $4 billion missile system from a Chinese company blacklisted by Washington.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Michel Aoun
