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Sudan Rebels Kill 79 Troops, Militia in Blue Nile
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Page 4: Opinion
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2 06:29 Gruth McGurque5303 [1] 
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Caribbean-Latin America
On Rantburg's Sunday Morning Coffee Pot: The Legacy of General Acosta Chaparro


An iconic Mexican military commander was murdered in the streets of Polanco in Mexico City Friday.

General Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro is reviled by the Mexican left for his involvement in the Dirty War as commander of the Mexican Army garrison in Acapulco where, critics claim, he ordered the murder of hundreds of political opponents of Mexico's ruling party, charges of which he was later acquitted.

As dark as his military record was during the 1970s, his final legacy may well be a last, failed mission he had during the early part of Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's war against Mexican drug cartels.

Rantburg.com correspondent Chris Covert examines the life of General Acosta Chaparro on Rantburg's Sunday Morning Coffee Pot.
Posted by: badanov || 04/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Waiting for it. BTW, this is excellent, Fred. Fast as damnit website. It's neat!
Posted by: newc || 04/21/2012 2:42 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Taliban are Pak Army proxies, not Pashtun nationalists - III
The notion that 'fiercely autonomous' tribes in the 'weakly governed' FATA gave refuge to fleeing cut-throats from Afghanistan in line with the code of Pashtunwali is completely false
See parts I and II here.
In the aftermath of 9/11, Pakistain was forced to fight the Taliban. Pak generals accommodated the immediate US concerns about Al Qaeda but also continued a low profile relationship with the Afghan Taliban to preserve them for strategic depth in Afghanistan after the US had left the country. They managed to play the double role by creating a 'managed chaos' in FATA that made the region too insure for independent observation from the outside and too frightening for the local tribal people to share information with the outside world. It was systematically propagated in Pak media that 'fiercely autonomous' tribes in the 'weakly governed' FATA have given refuge in line with the code of Pashtunwali to the fleeing cut-throats from Afghanistan in defiance of the Pak state. All this is utter nonsense.

Not even a single tribe in FATA gave refugee to any bad turbans. People who cooperated with the cut-throats were individuals within tribes. These individuals have longstanding links with the military establishments and their tribes have no control over them. For example, Maulana Noor Muhammad from South Wazoo was openly urging the tribes in his Friday sermons to support the cut-throats following their escape in the area.

South Waziristan was the first FATA agency where the 'managed chaos' was imposed to construct a fake popular support for the bad turbans. While most people watched the activities of the cut-throats as unconcerned bystanders, it were the local Waziri Pashtun nationalists and other sensible local tribal people who foresaw the danger in such activities and began to educate people about them. At this point mysterious assassination of such anti-Taliban people began in 2003. The first anti-Taliban primitive who was target killed in 2003 was Farooq Wazir, the local leader of the Pashtun nationalist Pashtunkhwa Mili Awami Party, PMAP, who had publicly declared in response to Maulana Noor Muhammad's sermons that no cut-throats will be allowed to enter the city centre of Wana, capital of South Waziristan.

Between 2003 to 2007, over 200 political activists, including tribal leaders in South Waziristan were target killed under mysterious circumstances never investigated by the government of Pakistain. The common denominator among them is that they all were anti-Taliban. Their families hold the ISI responsible for their killing. Many of the eliminated anti-Taliban people were local activist of Pashtun nationalist political parties, PMAP and ANP. Mahmud Achakzai, leader of PMAP, repeatedly visited Waziristan to attend the funeral ceremonies of his assassinated party workers.

At the time of his arrival in South Waziristan as a Taliban capo, Baitullah Mehsud could not even speak Pashto in the typical Mehsud dialect
When the 'managed chaos' had to be shifted to the Mehsud area of South Waziristan, the intelligence authorities could not even find a suitable local Mehsud to 'crown' as Taliban capo. Thus a non-local Mehsud, Baitullah Mehsud, was chosen for the purpose on the recommendation of Maulana Mirajudin, an establishment linked Mehsud holy man. Although originally from South Waziristan, Baituallah's family had settled in Bannu for a long time. At the time of his arrival in South Waziristan as a Taliban capo, Baitullah could not even speak Pashto in the typical Mehsud dialect. He used to speak Banuchi - the Bannu Pashto dialect. Later during his stay in Waziristan as a terror leader he learned the Mehsud dialect.

Taliban apologists, such as PTI leader Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
, have been claiming that Taliban militancy in Waziristan is inspired by Faqir of Ipi, the Waziri primitive who led Waziristan's armed resistance to the British. This is a misleading claim. The Faqir's struggle was basically nationalist despite his religious orientation. This is the reason that descendents of the Faqir's family have disassociated themselves from the Taliban militancy, implying that Taliban have no ideological connections with the Faqir. Moreover, descendents of the close associates of the Faqir, all of them Pashtun nationalists linked with PMAP and ANP, have been target killed for their public anti-Taliban stance. One of them, Mirza Alam had been approached by the military authorities in Wana to give them one of his sons or nephews for leadership of the Waziri Taliban. He refused and later was killed along with six members of his family.

In North Waziristan, unlike South Waziristan, there was almost no local resistance to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. This does not imply any popular tribal support for the bad turbans. The brutal massacre of the anti-Taliban people in South Waziristan was being closely watched in the neighbouring North Waziristan. By the time the cut-throats reached North Waziristan, people there had clear idea that resistance to Taliban/Al Qaeda was pointless since the state is behind them. That was further confirmed when they saw that Jalaludin Haqqani hosted all the bad turbans. Thus the cut-throats landed and continue to live there in peace amid the terrified local tribals whose free will is under siege.

A Pashtun from Afghanistan, Jalaludin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani Network, is one of the veterans of ISI's proxies, who were recruited in 1974 and later trained by colonel Imam in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar for Afghan 'jihad'. He was settled in Danday Darpa Khel, a village in the suburbs of Mir Ali, the second important town of North Waziristan. His extended family owns almost half of the real estate in Mir Ali. A signal phone call from his house or madrassa is enough to ensure postings and transfers in all government offices in North Waziristan. Also, the Haqqani family has houses in Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

The Haqqani network based in North Waziristan, a frequent target of the US drone strikes, is the most formidable Taliban group attacking the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. It is the Haqqani Taliban leaders that the military establishment of Pakistain wants to accommodate in the future government of Afghanistan as has been suggested by the establishment linked think tank, Jinnah Institute, in its report 'Pakistain, US and the Endgame in Afghanistan' (page 13). The same report warns of Pashtun backlash in FATA if the Taliban are not accommodated in power in Afghanistan. But there is no public support for Afghan Taliban in FATA that could translate in such a backlash. Although the ISI did try to create that support, it failed.

For example, the ISI tried to create a stature for the Haqqanis as respected tribal leaders in FATA. They were directed to make peace among the Shia and Sunni tribes in Kurram. The objective was to argue to the world that Haqqanis are respected tribal leaders who have managed to make peace among the Shia and Sunni tribals, something that even the government of Pakistain had not been able to achieve. Thus any action against the Haqqani Network, that the US is asking for, would enrage the 'fiercely autonomous' people of FATA.

The Shia and Sunni tribal leaders questioned the wak (authority) of the Haqqanis to negotiate Kurram disputes. The Haqqanis responded that they were directed by the ISI. They demanded full authority from the tribal leaders for a peace deal. The Shias flatly refused. The Sunnis gave them the authority that practically means no authority: they asked the Haqqanis to use their influence with the ISI to implement the Murree agreement negotiated between the Kurram Shias and Sunnis by the government of Pakistain in 2008 but never enforced.

In the past, Kurram has been accepting mediation from Waziristan. Khandan Mehsud, a respectable tribal elder from Waziristan target killed in the post 9/11 Waziristan due to his opposition to the Taliban, has been leading the negotiations. Why did tribes of Kurram welcome Khandan Mehsud but not the Haqqanis? This is because the Mehsud had the stature of a popular tribal leader in FATA that the Haqqanis simply do not have. The fact that Mehsud belonged to the Sunni sect never damaged the Shias' trust in him. In this context he was a Pashtun nationalist who sincerely worked for well being of the Pashtun regardless their religious affiliations. Contrary to this, the Shias see the Haqanis as their murderers and the Sunnis fear, not respect, them. This is not how popular nationalist leaders are looked upon by their people.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The water is further muddied by the Ghan government and western forces labelling all Pashtun's who oppose the government as 'taliban'.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/21/2012 4:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Truth comes out in the end.

We have being fighting Paki proxies for the last 10 years
Posted by: Gruth McGurque5303 || 04/21/2012 6:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Hype and Hypertrophy: How Lamborghini Lost Its Man Card
By Jack Baruth

Via the Puppy Blender (and doesn't recent dog news implicate him even more!), Mr. Baruth writes a true rant about manhood, courage and cars. It's a sheer delight to read, and that's why I'm pointing to it.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/21/2012 09:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  linky wrong
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2012 11:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Fixed.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/21/2012 11:47 Comments || Top||

#3  So if you're from a rural area you have zero chance at success. Interesting.
Posted by: Jefferson || 04/21/2012 12:33 Comments || Top||

#4  IMO, there's nothing wrong with a man imitating a rabbit. Preferably this one. But, sometimes, this one works better.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2012 14:08 Comments || Top||

#5  What's up, Doc grom? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 04/21/2012 14:42 Comments || Top||

#6  :-)
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2012 16:07 Comments || Top||


The Great California Exodus
Another in a series of articles by various writers about how truly boned California is. Worth a read if you haven't encountered the argument already.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2012 08:34 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good find, Besoeker.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/21/2012 11:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Unfortunately you will never see this editorial in the San Francisco Comical or the Los Angeles Crimes.

The guy hit it out of the park over the apartment building across the street and into the vacant lot next to the tracks...he got it ALL.

The only reason I am here is because I bought this beautiful house that is now completely underwater AND I am unemployed. I'd move in a heart beat if I could find a job somewhere else and could unload my house.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 04/21/2012 12:41 Comments || Top||

#3  OK, so right of the bat there is this...

Mr. Kotkin, one of the nation's premier demographers, left his native New York City in 1971 to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley.

New York City??? Blame Californians all you want but I blame New Yorkers.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/21/2012 14:22 Comments || Top||

#4  off the bat, not of the bat. Sorry, but I started seeing red. New York is a red flag and by that I do NOT mean Republican.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/21/2012 14:24 Comments || Top||

#5  OK, now I've read the whole thing and some of it is absolute nonsense...

Part of California's dysfunction, he says, stems from state and local government restrictions on development. These policies have artificially limited housing supply and put a premium on real estate in coastal regions.

How often does this guy leave his little ivy covered tower?

During the 1980's, 1990's and early 2000's the cities along the coast in northern San Diego County grew faster than any other cities in the state. I know. I was there. The city council members in these cities were in bed and having fun with any and every developer who came down the pike and there were a whole helluva lot of them. They went from sleepy, agricultural beach towns to big, frickin' Orange County style cities almost overnight. It's sticks and stucco with red tiled rooftops as far as the eye can see. Yes, it's expensive but it's in high demand and you could get an exotic, fraudulent mortgage courtesy of Fannie and Freddie for no money down. As for those who had to move to Temecula, boo hoo. You think Texas is better? Be my guest and leave. Or maybe you should go back to New York.

You want the entire California coast to look like Long Beach? FOAD.

You want the nicest weather in the world? You want to live with the beautiful people? You want a big house in the suburbs with a green lawn, palm trees, the beach down the street and fancy cars? You're gonna have to pay extra for that.

Yes, Jerry Brown is an idiot. But I didn't vote for him. Transplanted New Yorkers like Joel Kotkin did. Illegal aliens did. Thanks to Bill Clinton for that. Kotkin probably voted for him too. That's why California is boned.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/21/2012 15:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Brown has structured his next FY budget assuming the voters will pass another big tax increase on those bastard rich people, or the "schools and parks will close". Typical. Either you vote for this draconian tax increase or "the poor and students will be kicked into the streets™". No other alternative exists in the Democrat calculus. Of course, when the vote fails, they'll find a way to make it work. Lying assholes
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2012 15:27 Comments || Top||

#7  Part of California's dysfunction, he says, stems from state and local government restrictions on development. These policies have artificially limited housing supply and put a premium on real estate in coastal regions.
True whether or not you like it.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/21/2012 15:32 Comments || Top||

#8  You want the nicest weather in the world? You want to live with the beautiful people? You want a big house in the suburbs with a green lawn, palm trees, the beach down the street and fancy cars? You're gonna have to pay extra for that.
And Californians are paying extra for that. Oh, how they are paying!
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/21/2012 15:33 Comments || Top||

#9  True whether or not you like it.

I don't believe it. All I've seen in the past three decades is growth. In 1993 I could drive down Interstate 5 to work without ever touching my brakes. Now I5 is a big parking lot. The politicians are in bed with the developers. They let them do whatever, wherever and whenever. Are you telling me you haven't seen that? Where do you live?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/21/2012 18:36 Comments || Top||

#10  Ebbang - you know my bio by now. The Coastal I-5 improvements planned by Caltrans (I was Project Manager for the City's Project Report and Enviro Document clearance from Sorrento to LJ Village Dr as part of a new Genessee/I-5 bridge interchange) Help is on the way
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2012 19:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Anguper hears and sings along with the siren song of The Golden State's Demise. It's just so pretty to think so, especially for those who have never lived hear.

Posted by: Gabby Cussworth || 04/21/2012 19:40 Comments || Top||

#12  Ebbang, I can only speak for myself in my tiny little northern California town, but I had to fight city hall tooth and nail for years just to get permission to build a house on my own damn property. It was a friggin nightmare. I love it here (just got back from a beautiful spring skiing day), but I hate all the Californians who want big government to be responsible for all of us whether we like it or not.
Posted by: AuburnTom || 04/21/2012 19:50 Comments || Top||

#13  GOV.
Posted by: newc || 04/21/2012 22:45 Comments || Top||

#14 

Let me be blunt: as a gun collector I was actively driven out of California under Grey Davis. One year the things I had in my gun cabinet were legal. The next: ten years in state prison for having them. The Secretary of State said (and I quote)"Move to Nevada or Texas if you like that kind of thing."

So I did. And I cursed the state and everything it stands for as it vanished behind me.

Have you Californians ever wondered why your neighbors - the liberals in Oregon, the libertarians in Nevada, and the conservatives in Arizona - all despise you? Because you're arrogant, self-important, culturally grotesque, violent, and exploiting. When you move to other states, you don't assimilate - you try to force everyone to assimilate to you. You spread the sickness that is your state's degraded Stalinist culture every chance you get. And you - not anyone else - are responsible for the artistic Holocaust that is Hollywood.

We, your neighbors, have every right to hate you. You're our oppressors. You want to make CA a better place? Start by burning the LA and SF areas down.

Posted by: Secret Master || 04/21/2012 22:55 Comments || Top||


-Election 2012
Obama's Chicago war room
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2012 06:53 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BBC biased? Is there a quote about bears and woods?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/21/2012 7:31 Comments || Top||

#2  They will be calling in the heavy hitters from Nevada Aerial Research and British Columbia. Where is that Holly Wood Al Qaeda sign terrorist anyway?
Posted by: Titus the Full Bosomed2177 || 04/21/2012 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Interesting sour notes buried in all the wide-eyed hooraw:

But it is clear they are here to deal with Mr Obama's overwhelming problem. 2012 is not 2008.

The amazing coalition that propelled him to power hasn't exactly fractured, but the enthusiasm and energy has run away into the sand. Many natural Obama voters are disillusioned and demoralised.

Mr Obama's team believe that if they can't have the natural wild magic of 2008, some clever stage craft and behind the scenes mechanics will still synthetically reproduce that winning wizardry in 2012.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2012 13:53 Comments || Top||

#4  "some clever stage craft"

Oh, please bring back the Greek columns again. :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 04/21/2012 14:47 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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2Govt of Syria
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1al-Qaeda
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
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On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-04-21
  Sudan Rebels Kill 79 Troops, Militia in Blue Nile
Fri 2012-04-20
  8 die in Michoacan state as conflict goes hot
Thu 2012-04-19
  Qaeda leader suicide bombs himself and family in Iraq
Wed 2012-04-18
  Hadi Refuses to receive Former Yemen President
Tue 2012-04-17
  UN Camp in South Sudan Targeted by Sudanese Warplanes
Mon 2012-04-16
  US drone strike kills senior al-Qaeda Militant in Yemen
Sun 2012-04-15
  Afghan capital hit by blasts, gun attack
Sat 2012-04-14
  U.S. drone strike kills 7 al-Qaeda members in Yemen
Fri 2012-04-13
  23 Reportedly Dead as Syria Regime, Opposition Trade Charges of Breaking Ceasefire
Thu 2012-04-12
  Nork rocket launched, then 'breaks up'
Wed 2012-04-11
  Syria denounced for not adhereing to agreed peace plan
Tue 2012-04-10
  Syrian Rebel Army Ready to Respect Truce
Mon 2012-04-09
  84 Dead, 200 Arrested as Violence Rages across Syria
Sun 2012-04-08
  Hugo off to Brazil for Emergent Care
Sat 2012-04-07
  Azerbaijani intel service jugs 17 hard boys

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