[Wash Times] A new document reveals that the U.S. Department of Justice secretly kept track of Americans calls to foreign countries for more than a decade to track drug trafficking and other criminal activities.
The new database of stored calls was described in a filing Thursday in the case of a man accused of conspiring to unlawfully export goods to Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Probably just metadata, please have someone ring up Jim Clapper to confirm.
#4
Just remember, it was Bush the elder that got mad over referring to feds as 'jack booted thugs'.
Everybody knows they actually wear black combat boots, no polish required.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/18/2015 10:28 Comments ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The former Minister of Energy and Water and ex-provincial governor of Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province Mohammad Ismail Khan has said that the security institutions have been given to leftists who were involved in 1973 Saur Coup.
Speaking during a presser in Herat province, Ismail Khan criticized the Government of National Unity for the lack consideration of prominent Mujahideen leaders in the cabinet.
Khan said the security sectors have mostly been given to leftists who were involved in Saur Coup in 1978 that saw the liquidation of Daud Khan.
He said the leftists were responsible for 14 years of civil war that forced over 5 million people to flee the country, 2 million people were killed and nearly 40 percent of the country was destroyed.
Khan was apparently gesturing towards the Ministries of Interior and Defense whose nominees have worked under the leftists regime supported by ther former Soviet Union.
He also expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... s regarding the secret peace talks with the Taliban group and said the Mujahideens have been sidelined in peace talks which have taken place in Pakistain, China and United Arab Emirates.
He also added that no major posts were considered for the western provinces of the country despite the western provinces have vital role in governments income.
The Government of National Unity on Monday introduced the cabinet ministers after almost three and half months delay where majority of the nominees are new faces and have not worked in the previous government.
The minister-designates are expected to be introduced to the Lower House of Parliament Wolesi Jirga on coming Tuesday for confidence voting.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock minister-designate Mohammad Yaqub Haidari is on the most wanted list of the International Police (Interpol) for tax evasion.
According to the information provided on Interpol website Haidari is wanted by the judicial authorities of Estonia for prosecution.
He has been accused of large-scale tax evasion and fraudulent conversion. Haidari: Wanted by the judicial authorities of Estonia for prosecution / to serve a sentence over large-scale tax evasion, fraudulent conversion, the Interpol website said.
According to the biography of Mr. Haidari, he has served as the head of a private company in Eastern and Northern Europe during the year 2003. He has also owned a food and diary processing company.
Haidari was among the 25 nominees for the cabinet of the Government of National Unity whose names were released last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
What are the chances this guy is a close personal friend of George Soros?
[AnNahar]. Algerian soldiers discovered a cache of explosive vests and ammunition in the east of the country near where jihadists beheaded a French hostage in September, the defense ministry said Saturday.
"In the framework of the anti-terrorist fight and a search operation near Iboudrarene (150 kilometers or 90 miles east of Algiers), the army... on Friday uncovered and destroyed on site five explosive vests, six homemade bombs" and ammunition, it said.
Algerian troops on Thursday found the body of French tourist Herve Gourdel, who was beheaded by jihadists demanding that La Belle France halt air strikes in Iraq against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group.
The body was found buried without its head in Akbil, where Gourdel was kidnapped by the Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) group, security sources said.
The defense ministry said Saturday that tests carried out by police forensic experts had confirmed his identity and DNA tests would also be carried out.
The army mobilized 3,000 troops to find the 55-year-old mountain guide's body and launched a new search operation on Wednesday.
Excavations were carried out in Akbil and the neighboring town of Abu Youssef following a tip-off by an Islamist detainee, a security source told AFP.
The search was headed by an elite army unit and aided by sniffer dogs. The military had to bring in munitions experts to sweep the area for booby-traps, the source said.
Gourdel was kidnapped by Jund al-Khilafa on September 21, while hiking in a national park.
He was beheaded days later in a video posted online after La Belle France rejected the jihadists' demand to halt air strikes against IS.
Jund al-Khilafa had earlier pledged allegiance to the jihadist group.
In December, the army said it had killed the leader of the faceless myrmidons who beheaded Gourdel.
An Algerian court has also launched legal proceedings against 15 people suspected of participating in the murder.
Violence involving armed Islamists in Algeria has fallen considerably since the civil war of the 1990s, but groups linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb still attacks in the northeast, mostly on security forces.
[RFE/RL] Thousands have marched in the Russian republic of Ingushetia to protest publications that insult Mohammad. Ingushetia's leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov told the crowd that the publication of insulting caricatures is equivalent to "state extremism on the part of some Western countries."
A similar protest is planned on January 19 in the nearby Chechnya. Ramzan Kadyrov has promised a turnout of 500,000 people.
#3
Ingushetia's leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov told the crowd that the publication of insulting caricatures is equivalent to "state extremism on the part of some Western countries."
Another "useful aspect of Islam," albeit not as useful as Ramzan Kadyrov.
Erdogan regime organized 'vigils' and 'visits' in front of media offices are no problem.
In reaction to the Charlie Hebdo massacre of laicists, Jews, and police the political elite attends an Muslim Brotherhood organized Islamic 'admonitory vigil' framed by Islamic religious recitations.
Looking at the photograph in the article the 'vigil' more resembles the founding congress of a new political unity front including the political establishment and their new Muslim enforcers and shock troops. (front left to right, president, chairman MB front organization, chancellor, vice-chancellor).
Pay no attention to the islamisation behind the curtain!
</rant>
North Korean leader Pudgy Kim Jong-un visited a foodstuff factory for athletes, calling for a boost in production of nutritious food to help the country's sportsmen, Pyongyang's official news agency reported Sunday.
Only for the sportsmen. Military sportsmen. Military sportsmen with shoulder boards...
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), monitored in Seoul, said the size 2XL Kim gave his field guidance to the Kumkop General Foodstuff Factory for Sportspersons, without giving a specific time frame for his visit. The English-language report said the corpulent Kim praised the workers for their high productivity and their application of "advanced technology" in packaging.
Then he pretty much ate the place out...
Fat Boy Kim also noted the importance of the factory "not only in the sports field but also in developing the nation's food industry."
"He underscored the need for the factory to put main emphasis on boosting the production of varieties of foodstuff helpful to the care for nutrition of sportspersons and their recovery from fatigue and steadily improving their quality," the report added.
Until the sportsmen are sent to the concentration camps...
The chubby Kim was accompanied by Choe Ryong-hae, secretary of the Central Committee in the Workers' Party of Korea, and Kim Yo-jong, the leader's younger sister and a vice department director of the same Central Committee.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"without a specific time frame for his visit" the big hand and the little hand were both on 12.
Posted by: Steven ||
01/18/2015 4:04 Comments ||
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#2
Pudgu loading up his car's trunk with tree bark and grass?
[IsraelTimes]. Tokyo also promises $200 million for countries affected by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... rampage
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Saturday $2.5 billion in non-military aid for the Middle East as he launched a regional tour that includes visits to Jordan and Israel.
In a speech in Cairo, Abe also pledged $200 million in non-military assistance for countries affected by the Islamic State (IS) groups bloody expansion in Iraq and Syria, which spurred an exodus of refugees to neighboring countries.
Japan will newly carry out assistance of 2.5 billion US dollars in non-military fields including humanitarian assistance and infrastructure development, intended for the entire region, Abe said, according to an official transcript.
He said Japan would provide assistance for refugees and displaced persons from Iraq and Syria.
I will pledge assistance of a total of about 200 million US dollars for those countries contending with ISIL (IS), to help build their human capacities, infrastructure, and so on, he added.
A Japanese foreign ministry official told AFP that much of those funds would go towards assisting neighboring states hosting refugees.
The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... has warned that the number of Syrian refugees could shoot up to 4.27 million by December from the current figure of more than three million.
#1
So $2.5 billion to the middle east. First, that's more than the soddies give to their neighbors, but more importantly, that $2.5 billion the fascists wont have to spend on infrastructure and it allows them to focus their funds on the war against the west. Smart move Japan!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/18/2015 11:28 Comments ||
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A high-ranking government official revealed on Saturday that Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom canceled her trip to Israel after she was notified that she would have to bring her own security personnel and that her trip would not be considered an official state visit.
[ARABNEWS] The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) intends to take legal measures against the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... , for publishing blasphemous cartoons, Secretary General Iyad Madani told a local daily on Friday.
OIC is studying Europe and French laws and other available procedures to be able to take legal action against Charlie Hebdo, he said. If French laws allow us to take legal procedures against Charlie Hebdo, OIC will not hesitate to prosecute the French magazine, he said.
This (the publication by Charlie Hebdo) is an idiotic step that requires necessary legal measures, Madani said on his Twitter account while condemning the republication of the anti-Islam cartoons.
These cartoons have hurt the sentiments of Moslems across the world, said Madani. Freedom of speech must not become a hate speech and must not offend others. No sane person, irrespective of doctrine, religion or faith, accepts his beliefs being ridiculed, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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Mr. Madani,
I suppose you are conveniently forgetting all of the foaming at the mouth fatwas and other blessed documents encouraging the killing of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, the Amish, Rostafarians, Wiccins, Awalites, Druze, Pogo Stick enthusiasts, and IPhone addicts...
Oh and don't forget, the primary purpose of satire is to get under your skin and expose you to ridicule when you get flustered.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/18/2015 21:59 Comments ||
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[Ynet]. A French court has upheld the Gay Paree police chief's order to ban a planned demonstration against radical Islamists in the wake of La Belle France's worst terrorism in decades.
The Gay Paree administrative tribunal ruled in an accelerated judgment Saturday that police were authorized to ban Sunday's "Islamists out of La Belle France" rally. Two groups that promote secular and republican values were key organizers of the planned demonstration.
A police official confirmed the ruling after Gay Paree police chief Bernard Boucault ordered the ban because the rally might incite civil unrest.
Je suis Charlie Hebdo. But to be Charles Martel is forbidden, lest it upset those who will kill.
#2
In Europe, only the ruling class has the 'right' to express what the nation feels. We have similar attitudes here as well (part of the Euro disease), but there are still areas they haven't co-opted yet. As long as the 2d Amendment lives, they'll respect that.
A group protesting what it calls "the Islamization of the West" says it is calling off a weekly rally planned for Monday because of what it says is a threat against one of its organizers.
The group calling itself PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, has organized rallies every Monday in the eastern city of Dresden. Last week's event drew the biggest crowd yet, with police estimating some 25,000 people attended.
[AnNahar]. Belgium on Saturday began deploying hundreds of troops to patrol the streets after security forces smashed a suspected Islamist "terrorist" cell planning to kill coppers.
Up to 300 soldiers will be progressively deployed in the capital Brussels and the northern city of Anvers, which has a large Jewish population, Prime Minister Charles Michel's office said in a statement.
"The mobilised troops will be armed and their primary responsibility will be to survey certain sites" and to reinforce police, the statement said.
The soldiers could also eventually be deployed to the industrial eastern city of Verviers, where early on Friday security forces killed two suspected Islamists in a huge raid on an alleged jihadist cell planning to attack police in the country.
First harden soft targets, then go after the enemy stronghold? Sounds about right, assuming the Belgians do get to step two.
The Belgian raid came a week after Islamist attacks in and around Gay Paree killed 17 people, rekindling fears in Europe about the threat posed by young Europeans returning home after fighting alongside krazed killer groups in the Middle East.
Following the raid in Verviers, Belgian police locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! 13 people during a series of raids across Belgium, five of whom were later charged with "participating in the activities of a terrorist group."
Belgian prosecutors said there were no immediate links with last week's Islamist attacks in Gay Paree on the Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... satirical magazine, a Jewish supermarket and a policewoman, the country's worst attacks in half a century.
There is one key link: they are all self-organizing enforcers of Sharia law on the population of unbelievers, an ancient principle in Islam. No doubt it will be later discovered that there are a myriad of social connections between the various individuals, just as there were between the three killers in France, despite pledging to different organizations.
French police separately arrested 12 people early Friday and questioned them about "possible logistic support" they may have given to the Gay Pareegunnies -- Islamist brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, sources said.
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Foreign intelligence agencies have intercepted discussions by Islamist holy warriors about possible attacks on weekly marches organised by Germany's new anti-Islamic movement, a news weekly reported on Friday, without citing its sources.
Der Spiegel magazine said that foreign intelligence services had picked up the content of communications by some "known international jihadists", without giving specific details.
The intelligence, which was passed to German authorities, indicated they had discussed possible attacks on the rallies organised by the so-called group, "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" (Pegida), the magazine said in a pre-released story to appear in this weekend's edition.
"We take these leads very seriously," Spiegel quoted an unnamed high-ranking security official as saying.
Pegida marches began in the eastern city of Dresden with several hundred supporters three months ago and have steadily grown, to number 25,000 on Monday, five days after the attacks in Gay Paree by Islamists, in which 17 people were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar]. A South Korean has gone missing in Turkey near the border with Syria, a foreign ministry official said Saturday, following reports that the man had joined the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... bully boy group.
"The man disappeared on January 10 after he left a hotel" in the southern Turkish town of Kilis near the border with Syria, the official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Turkish newspaper Milliyet earlier reported that the unidentified man, aged 18, had crossed into Syria and joined IS.
"We dispatched officials from our embassy on Tuesday and since then they have been searching for him, together with Turkish police," the official said, while declining to give further details.
Milliyet said the teenager exchanged emails with IS gunnies before he entered Turkey.
He had been accompanied by another South Korean man, who reported the disappearance to the South Korean embassy on Monday, Seoul's Yonhap news agency said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar]. Around 3,000 people in Turkey are believed to be linked to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) jihadist group, a Turkish intelligence report said on Saturday, warning of possible attacks by Death Eaters.
The report called for enhanced surveillance of the 3,000 people, including identifying their rank within the Death Eater group or whether they were active within it, the Hurriyet newspaper reported on Saturday.
A "red alert" had also been sent to security units warning of possible attacks on the embassies of Western countries by IS jihadists following last week's deadly Islamist attacks in La Belle France, the report said.
Security at the diplomatic missions had been increased to the maximum level, the report said, adding that NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... facilities and Western nationals were also potential targets.
And it warned of possible kabooms "anywhere and anytime" in Turkey by "sleeping cells."
Most of the vehicles stolen in Turkey ended up in the hands of IS jihadists, it said, warning that they could be used in car kabooms in the country.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday said up to 700 Turkish nationals had joined the IS.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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The Center for Security Policy reported last week that the United States Council of Muslim Organizations will be the first political party in the United States to be openly connected to the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood from which most of the Muslim terrorist organizations were spawned. Awaiting the "2-fer" voter drives.
[ARABNEWS] India may buy unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, from other countries if the United States does not ease current export restrictions on such aircraft, a key Democratic senator said.
Israel, one assumes...
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who will join President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... during a trip to India on Jan. 26, said he was concerned that other countries could rush in to sell India the equipment it desires if the United States drags its feet.
This is going to be a space ... where other countries are moving very quickly too, he told an event hosted by the nonprofit Atlantic Council. If the Indians cant find a partner with the United States, theyll find one somewhere else.
US aerospace and arms companies have been pressing the US government for years to ease current tight restrictions on foreign sales of unmanned vehicles, arguing that other countries such as Israel are overtaking the United States in drone sales.
India, which is modernizing its military, is a big and growing market for US weapons makers who are seeking foreign sales to help offset declines in US defense spending.
Warner said he hoped that unmanned aircraft would be included as part of a broad US push to expand defense ties with India but said he was not aware of any specific initiatives to be announced during Obamas visit.
US and Indian officials are trying to work out pilot projects for joint production of drones and other weapons as part of the US-India Defense Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), a source familiar with the effort said. One drone project involves the RQ-11 Raven built by AeroVironment Inc, a small US firm, but Northrop Grumman Corp, Textron Systems, a unit of Textron Inc. and General Atomics, a privately held firm, are also seeking permission to sell their unmanned systems to India.
The US government strictly controls foreign sales of larger UAVs but has approved sales of unarmed systems such as the Raven, which are used purely for surveillance to a range of countries, including Uzbekistan, according to a US source.
Warner said he expected some announcements about joint defense projects during Obamas visit but said he had not been briefed on specific deals.
US officials are weighing options as they seek to expand defense ties with India as Washington grows concerned about the extent of Pakistains efforts to crack down on krazed killers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Here we go again. Kissinger "tilted toward Pakistan" decades ago, and we know how that turned out. The future lies with India. Pakistan is a failed state propped up with cash.
The problem is that O is a Mo Bro and he has, ahem, emotional ties with Pak. Congress needs to confront him on this. In the present case, it's a drone issue. In the big picture, India is where it's at.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/18/2015 0:18 Comments ||
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[DAWN] Retired Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, former director general of the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC), told a Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday that he had addressed a presser following the liquidation of Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... after discussing it with the spymasters and then secretary interior.
This statement differs from the one the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) produced before the ATC on February 7, 2011, where the prosecution included Brig Cheema as a prime witness against former president retired General Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... , in connection with the Benazir murder case.
As per Brig Cheemas previous statement, submitted by the FIA along with case challan, the former DG NCMC was quoted as saying that a day after Ms Bhuttos liquidation, on December 28, 2007, he held a presser on the advice of Gen Musharraf. In the FIAs version of Brig Cheema statement, he maintains that he held the presser, in compliance with Gen Musharrafs orders, to dispel the negativity against the regime, that prevailed in the aftermath of the liquidation.
A news hound who attended the presser in question told Dawn that during the presser, Brig Cheema had said that the cause of Ms Bhuttos death was an injury to the head, sustained when her head hit the sunroof lever of her own vehicle. The second thing he disclosed during the presser was that Baitullah Mehsud, who was the leader of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain at the time, had claimed the responsibility for the attack in a video message.
Brig Cheema had also shared the video where Mehsud had indirectly grabbed credit for the liquidation of Benazir Bhutto with members of the press corps.
But on Friday, when the prosecution produced Brig Cheema as a witness before the ATC, he told the court that the decision to hold the presser was taken by then-interior secretary Kamal Shah.
He said that before the presser, he was summoned to the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence ...the Pak military intelligence agency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir... (ISI), where he met the interior secretary and the heads of the ISI, Military Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau.
He told the court that the spymasters briefed them about their meeting with Gen Musharraf and handed him the video and instructed him to hold a presser to this effect. He also told the court that he also consulted then-interior minister retired Lt-Gen Hamid Nawaz before holding the presser.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... condemned French magazine Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... for publishing offensive cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and said "people who in the name of freedom are spreading hate are no better than terrorists".
Nisar was addressing a presser in Islamabad on Saturday. "The resolution [adopted by the National Assembly] condemned their so-called freedom of disrespecting Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!) and Islam," he said.
Nisar said that Pope Francis has also condemned Charlie Hebdo for publishing those caricatures. "If religious beliefs of others are not given respect then it will only promote terrorism.
"People of Gay Paree should have protested against the cartoons the same way they protested against the attack on Charlie Hebdo," he added. Except tat Charlie never murdered anyone.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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In a theocracy there's a total ban on blasphemy against one specific religious doctrine. Blasphemy against other doctrines and other religions however is not only permitted but rather mandatory.
#6
Sometimes I think a glass lake over the site of the former Mecca or Qoms would be a real knee slapper...other times, I think we should just build a high wall and feed them weapons and ammunition and let natural selection winnow them out...
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/18/2015 22:01 Comments ||
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[DAWN] In implementing the National Action Plan against terrorism and extremism, the Punjab police are engaged in a province-wide campaign against the waving guns in public and dissemination of sectarian hatred from the pulpit and through books. Though late - perhaps very late - it is good that the PML-N leadership has woken up to the menace that had been wreaking havoc on the society for decades.
Since the crackdown started in Rawalpindi last week, the police have tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! 15 people in 20 cases of violation of the Amplifier Act. And three booksellers were hauled up on Thursday for keeping hateful sectarian literature for sale.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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Fred, is this meaningful, or just a minority trying feebly to buck the traces?
It's genuine enough, but never discount Short Attention Span Syndrome. There's another editorial in Dawn today that quotes an army chief speech in he sez they're going after extremism, by gum, no distinction between "good" and "bad" Talibs. The army chief was Musharraf, the speech issued in January 2002.
[AnNahar]. One month on from a Taliban school massacre in 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. that left 150 dead a new movement is growing among marginalized urban liberals rallying to "Reclaim Pakistain" from violent extremism.
[IraqiNews.com] Reports confirmed that a third group of several dozen Peshmirga Kurdish Forces flew into the Kobane Syrian city through Turkish territories to fight the gunnies of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Levant.
Happy hunting, guys!
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes]. Jihadist group surprise releases captives, likely because they were a burden, Kurdish official says
Then they were ISIS's burden, potentially useful as hostages and human shields, demoralizing by their very existence; now they've shoved the burden onto the Kurds, hoping it will sink them, or at least slow them down a bit. It's an ancient tactic.
The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group released more than 200 mostly elderly members of northern Iraqs Yazidi minority Saturday who had been held for months, officials and activists said.
Autopsies of combat veterans who survived IEDs and later died of other causes reveal a unique pattern of injuries in parts of the brain involved in decision making, memory, reasoning and other executive functions.
The honeycomb pattern of IED survivors brain injury is different than the effects of motor vehicle crashes, opiate overdoses or punch-drunk syndrome.
The Johns Hopkins-led research team may have found the signature of shell shock, or blast neurotrauma, a mysterious ailment that has afflicted soldiers since World War I.
The brains of some Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans who survived blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and died later of other causes show a distinctive honeycomb pattern of broken and swollen nerve fibers throughout critical brain regions, including those that control executive function. The pattern is different from brain damage caused by car crashes, drug overdoses or collision sports, and may be the never-before-reported signature of blast injuries suffered by soldiers as far back as World War I.
Soldiers have struggled with bomb-induced brain damage since 1914, when German and Allied forces tried to blast one another out of entrenched positions with months-long bombardments. Many World War I fighters survived the barrage outwardly unscarred, but with an array of cognitive and psychological difficulties known as shell shock. After World War I, mass bombardments of troops were rare, and shell shock became uncommon. Now renamed blast neurotrauma or blast injury to brain, it has re-emerged due to insurgent forces widespread use of IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
#1
Scopolamine and Ketamine are supposed quickly break severe depression -- in as little as a few hours or days -- by causing the quick growth of new dendrites, resulting in new connections between neurons in the brain. Could this help repair the damage described here, Anguper Hupomosing9418?
#2
I'm not a neurologist, but I don't think growing new dendrites would help much for the blast-damaged brain. The main significance of this finding is that specific changes in brain microanatomy match a history of blast injury & associated neurologic malfunction, and these cellular changes are not found in other types of neurologic ailments. Now there's something for researchers to measure and attempt to change, besides symptoms.
[FoxNews]. For many men and women serving in the armed forces, the battle does not end when they return home. Such was the case for Sgt. First Class Andrew Marr, whose career as an Army Special Forces Green Beret explosive breacher was brought to a premature end.
The nature of his work, which began in 2006 and included three tours in Afghanistan, placed Marr in and around numerous explosions and caused him to suffer multiple traumatic brain injuries (TBI), eventually leading to his military medical retirement. When he returned home to his wife and five children in Washington, he was a changed man.
I would just have these bouts where I would be overcome with emotion and I couldnt stop crying, I couldnt control it, Marr told FoxNews.com. He began suffering from insomnia and distancing himself from his family and friends. For Marr, who said he suffered from no symptoms prior to 2013, the answers did not come easily.
Constantly agitated, finding myself irritable and that would turn into a burning rage, which was very uncomfortable to deal with, especially when you dont want to be feeling like that and you try to turn it off and it wont turn off, he said while describing his symptoms.
Please make a point of double checking to make sure you pasted the article URL in the Source box.
#1
“When I was there they made it very clear to me that my alcohol consumption was killing me as much as anything else,” Marr said. “For the first time they really made it clear what I was doing with my body.”
Yo Andy! Good move. Limit your intake, and stick with the PT programme. Good on ya brother. Hang in there !
#2
Good for him! Taking control of his life.
Self-medicating trauma induced depression with alcohol can quickly become a habit, masking physical or psychic diagnostic pain.
Interesting diversionary physical therapy: I was given one(1) shoe insert. This changed my gait and the accompanying list-to-port forced me to focus on subtle balance issues instead of what was in my head. Two(2) weeks then rotate.
#3
Interesting diversionary physical therapy: I was given one(1) shoe insert.
If it works, I would instead call it "truly elegant therapy", something Milton Erickson MD would have done.
[DAWN] Iran's judicial authorities have banned a newspaper for publishing a front-page headline allegedly indicating support for French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
Mohammad Ghoochani, chief editor of the daily Mardom-e-Emrooz, or Today's People, is quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying his paper has been ordered closed for publishing a front-page story on the French magazine controversy.
The article's headline on Tuesday quoted filmmaker and activist George Clooney as saying I am Charlie Hebdo.
Iran has condemned both the magazine's publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and the deadly assault on the magazine's Gay Paree office by forces of Evil who killed 12 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar]. Around 400 Lebanese youth from the north had joined jihadists in Syria since the beginning of the war in the neighboring country, media reports said on Saturday.
As Safir newspaper reported that in 2014 around 200 Lebanese youth from the north, most of them between 18 22, headed to Syria to join rebels.
The daily said that some of the youth are joining the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group in Syria, while others join the al-Qaeda-affiliate al-Nusra ...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant... Front in the Syrian al-Qalamoun.
The report continues that around 11 of them were killed in suicide kabooms in Syria.
Unofficial statistics show that 65 Lebanese people have been so far killed in Syria and Iraq, 13 in the Syrian border town of Tal Kalakh, two in the northern Paleostinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared and around 10 people from the Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen in the northern district of Akkar, while fighting alongside the Syrian army.
A security source revealed in comments to As Safir newspaper that a suspicious act is being prepared for the northern city of 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... , praising the cooperation of the residents with the army.
The source said that the security situation is under control, expressing fear of attempts to destabilize the north through suicide attacks by members who belong to ISIL and al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front.
And in a spurt of evenhandedness:
Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... fighters have also been aiding troops loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... against rebels trying to topple him.
Lebanese are deeply divided between supporters of Syria's regime and backers of the Syrian uprising.
[AnNahar]. A young boy raises a pistol, aims at two kneeling men and fires, in a shocking propaganda video highlighting the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group's efforts to indoctrinate another generation with its brutal ideology.
The boy, who doesn't look older than 11 or 12, has allegedly just executed two men said to have confessed to spying for Russia, the voiceover saying their bodies "lay humiliated" at the feet of the young jihadist.
Their fate could not be independently confirmed.
When asked in another video what he wanted to do in the future, the boy said: "I will be the one who slaughters you, O kuffar (unbelievers). I will be a mujahed (holy warrior)."
The video is one of many examples of propaganda aimed at spreading IS's beliefs to a younger generation to aid recruitment and to perpetuate the "caliphate" the group has declared in areas it holds in Iraq and Syria.
Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, said that over the past six months IS media materials "have steadily escalated the level of violence involving and being carried out by children, with this video being the most extreme level reached so far".
"Showing off children undertaking such violent acts is (IS's) way of suggesting its fight is one that should be undertaken by all men of supposed 'fighting age'," he said.
Also, indoctrinating young boys "into such a violent mindset helps to ensure the environment in which (IS) is now operating will be (one) in which it can continue to recruit from in the years to come."
One of the IS videos shows young boys undergoing classroom instruction in religion and Arabic, then firearms practice and physical training.
The jihadist group makes its aim clear.
"They are the next generation," a narrator says as one camouflage-clad boy quickly assembles a Kalashnikov assault rifle while others look on.
The boy, who calls himself Abdullah and says he is from Kazakhstan, is the same one who "executed" the two alleged spies.
- 'Damaging to children' -
Jeffrey Bates, the front man for the UN children's agency UNICEF in Iraq, said ideological indoctrination or participation in violence is incredibly damaging psychologically to the children who undergo it, and poses a major problem for the country.
"We have examples from around the world for decades of the impact this has on children, and it's devastating," Bates said.
"Not only are they using this as a tool to recruit people, but also to create a future where they have children who become adults who (move) this world view forward," he said of IS and other gangs.
"The scope of the problem in Iraq -- you cannot overestimate it. We're looking at... thousands and thousands of children" who will need help.
Young boys feature in IS propaganda photos, including one showing a group of children wearing ski masks, dressed in camouflage uniforms and holding Kalashnikov rifles in front of an IS sign.
Another shows a very young child with two Kalashnikovs, wearing a magazine carrier and standing in men's combat boots that are far too big for him.
IS photos said to be from the jihadist stronghold of Raqa in Syria also show maidens of tender years wearing Moslem headscarves holding toy assault rifles.
Aymenn al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, said the use of children in IS propaganda became more prevalent from mid-2013 onward, when its predecessor organization "was trying to demonstrate its influence inside Syria".
IS is not the only holy warrior group to use children for these purposes, but "for IS, it is a more distinct message because IS presents itself as an actual state," Tamimi said.
"The group uses children in its propaganda because it sees children as essential to perpetuate the Islamic state's existence into the next generation," he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/18/2015 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.
North Korean leader 
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Foreign intelligence agencies have intercepted discussions by Islamist 
The Center for Security Policy reported last week that the United States Council of Muslim Organizations will be the first political party in the United States to be openly connected to the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood from which most of the Muslim terrorist organizations were spawned.
[DAWN] Retired Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, former director general of the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC), told a Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday that he had addressed a 
Pervez 
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz 
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
