Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Heather Graham aka Mercedes Lane in "License to Drive" aka Brandy 'Rollergirl' in "Boogie Nights" aka Felicity Shagwell in "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" (age 41)
[Tolo News] A jacket wallah targeted an Afghan supermarket on Friday in Kabul killing eight people and wounding 6 others, local official said.
The incident happened in 15th street of Wazir Akbar Khan area in Kabul when a jacket wallah entered into Finest Supermarket, shot at people and went kaboom!", a salesman told TOLOnews.
"I saw four seriously maimed people being taken out of here", an eyewitness told TOLOnews.
The suicide kaboom happened in a heavily guarded area of Kabul, Wazir Akbar Khan, where many embassies and guest houses are located.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, the police chief of Kabul told TOLOnew that eight people including foreigners were killed and 6 other people were maimed in the incident.
Mr Salangi said police have started investigation about the incident and it is not yet clear if it was a suicide kaboom or a kaboom.
Hezb-e-Islami party led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, ... who used to be known as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... has grabbed credit for the incident and said the suicide kaboom was carried out by someone named Rafiullah.
This is the second suicide kaboom in Kabul. Two weeks ago, a jacket wallah targeted a bus carrying National Directorate of Security staff in which dozens were killed and many got maimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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Bedouin tribesman have reportedly taken control of two towns in the Sinai Peninsula. These two towns are the closest to the Gaza Strip and right next to the border with Israel.
There were reports yesterday that Bedouin tribes had besieged a police station in Suez and it appears that these riots have spread. This would effectively end the Mubarak dictatorships control of the region. There are no reports of the Egyptian military stepping in here.
The more disturbing news is a threat that has been made by the tribes if Mubarak does not step down. According to one report coming from Time Magazine, they are willing to attack the Suez Canal if Mubarak does not leave.
The Suez Canal currently is where a third of the worlds oil and six percent of all products passes through. A seizure of the Canal could spike oil prices beyond the current $90 level, perhaps over $110. This could come to pass despite the fact that Egypt is not a major oil producer.
It has been speculated that the Egyptian army would not allow the Canal, perhaps Egypts most important economic element, to be attacked. However, there appears to be little to no protection and one report states that at least one ship has been attacked there. Others have reported fear of passing through due to the unrest.
#2
for the Bedouins - that would be....unwise. The military may not want to kill unarmed protesters...but armed attackers on their money source? Not smart
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2011 20:50 Comments ||
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#3
Are they sure they are Bedouins? Coming from Time magazine should be reason enough to double-check.
Looks like a perfect situation for that European Rapid Reaction Police Force - multinational, neutral, police rather than soldiers.
Shipping through the Suez is a good reason. Another is the Domino Theory.
Posted by: pan ||
01/29/2011 22:48 Comments ||
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#7
The UK no has the Seapower, AIrpower anymore to unilaterally intervene in the Suez widoutNATO andor UNSC support.
Again, as per the historical ARAB-ISRAELI STRUGGLE, ETC, RADICAL ISLAM BELIEVES THEY FINALLY HAVE ISRAEL'S B **** IN THEIR CROSSHAIRS, + by extension US-Western influence in the ME + Arab-Muslim World, + strongly doubt the Econ-troubled,"WEAK/DECLINING" Superpower US will be able to stop it short of initiating a MAJOR MILACTION WHICH BY DEFINITION IT CAN NO LONGER AFFORD??? Ditto NATO-EU.
IOW, ITO the US "CAN'T" OR "WON'T" BE ABLE TO PROTECT ANDOR STOP ISRAEL FROM BEING SURROUNDED BY PRO-ISLAMIST, NUCLEAR-ARMED?, ANTI-US/WESTERN MUSLIM STATES + various similar REGIONAL, GLOBAL MILTERR GROUPS.
INDIRECTLY, THE FALL OF EGYPT TO RADICAL ISLAM ALSO THREATENS THE POSITION OF SAUDI ARABIA.
Saudi Arabian King Abdallah Ibn Abdulaziz al Saud says demonstrators in Egypt want to destabilize the country by "inciting a malicious sedition."
He made the comments in a call to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Saturday to offer his support, the state-run Saudi News Agency reported. "Egypt is a country of Arabism and Islam," the king said. "No Arab and Muslim human being can bear that some infiltrators, in the name of freedom of expression, have infiltrated into the brotherly people of Egypt, to destabilize its security and stability and they have been exploited to spew out their hatred in destruction, intimidation, burning, looting and inciting a malicious sedition."
Mubarak told the Saudi king "that the situation is stable." Uh-oh...
Mubarak said Egypt would "deter anyone who tries to exploit the freedom of Egyptian people and will not allow anyone to lure those groups or use them to achieve suspicious and strange agendas."
#1
PJM's Tattler quotes a young Egyptian woman to the effect that it doesn't matter whether the new government is secular or Islamicist. If she's representative of young Egyptians, this will go very badly, very soon.
#2
If she's representative of young Egyptians, this will go very badly, very soon
Yeah, it will. The Iranians have been backing El-Baradei to the tune of $millions. Now the Sauds are publicly supporting Mubarak. And there's enough info to indicate reported support for the Muslim Brotherhood was always off by half.
#3
I'm not sure how much of this we could influence even in the best of circumstances, but I would feel a lot better about our prospects if we had an administration capable of stringing two coherent thoughts together in rapid succession. This is that 3AM phone call Hillary was always going on about.
And one thing we can control is the idiotic set of constraints currently choking US energy production. In this environment every barrel has strategic value.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/29/2011 16:22 Comments ||
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#4
The Iranians are said to be supportive of the the dissenters in the streets of Egypt. The Iranians are mostly Shia and Egypt is 90% Sunni. How does Iran have much influence in Egypt. It would seem that Saudi Arabia would ideologically be much closer to Egypt than Iran.
#5
The Iranians have been backing El-Baradei to the tune of $millions.
Why do you say that, Pappy? Your statement feels right, given how Mr. Elbaradei covered for the Iranian nuclear effort while at the IAEA, and he apparently has the expense of keeping a home in Vienna as well as the family house in Cairo...
#6
The Iranians are said to be supportive of the the dissenters in the streets of Egypt. The Iranians are mostly Shia and Egypt is 90% Sunni. How does Iran have much influence in Egypt. It would seem that Saudi Arabia would ideologically be much closer to Egypt than Iran.
Money. Lots and lots of it. As in support for the opposition. The Saudis aren't supporting* the opposition. Who would you expect to have more influence among Mubarak's opponents?
* In fact, most of the Saudi "aid" to the Muslim world comes in the form of the building of mosques and madrassas. The Iranians provide training and funding to foreign revolutionaries.
Example (referencing Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood aka Ikhwan - whose most well-known alumnus is Zawahiri - from the Long War Journal):
Zawahiri's ties to Iran are decades old. In The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright explains that Zawahiri planned a coup in Egypt in 1990. "Zawahiri had studied the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran," Wright explains, "and he sought training from the Iranians." In exchange, Zawahiri offered the Iranians sensitive information "about an Egyptian government plan to storm several islands in the Persian Gulf that both Iran and the United Arab Emirates lay claim to." The Iranians paid Zawahiri $2 million for the information and trained Zawahiri's operatives for the coup attempt, which was ultimately aborted.
In sum, the Iranian revolution has provided inspiration to Sunni and Shiite Islamists alike. It has offered them hope that they could overturn the existing order and impose their own radical vision on the state.
#7
The Iranians are said to be supportive of the the dissenters in the streets of Egypt. The Iranians are mostly Shia and Egypt is 90% Sunni. How does Iran have much influence in Egypt. It would seem that Saudi Arabia would ideologically be much closer to Egypt than Iran.
Here's an analog from a couple of centuries ago - George Washington had fought for king and country during the French and Indian War; yet he allied with the French during the Revolutionary War. Note that Washington was English by descent, and that the English and the French had been traditional enemies for many hundreds of years at that point.
According to the daily Al-Siyassa, known for its opposition to the Iranian regime, a senior Iranian official delivered a check in the sum of seven million dollars to a businessman close to Mohamed ElBaradei. The transaction, it was reported, took place in Bucharest, and was intended to fund the latter's campaign in the Egyptian presidential elections.
#10
Sounds like a reward from a grateful nation for a job well done.
I always wondered what the payoff to that piece of shit was gonna be for buying them all that time.
#14
#11 Frank, glad to see you hold a grudge as long as I do.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/29/2011 21:16 Comments ||
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#15
Well all of these riots and demonstrations in the Middle East are troubling because I would be VERY surprised if any of the changes move the governments closer to the west, freedom and a representative government. It will be a disaster for the muslims living in these countries but they are too stupid to see what they are doing to themselves. As to the impact on the west it is a giant step towards the final confrontation between islam and the west. Please review the Three Conjectures - these crazy muzzies WILL join together and attack Israel and then the West as a whole. Bad times are coming but they do take us one big step closer to resolving the muslim war with the west.
#16
I see one possible way the youth will turn away from the Brotherhood. The Antiquities. It's been built and hyped into the point it's a National Pride, there are even reports of protesters grabing abandoned police batons and forming a barricade around the National Museum until the Army arrived to...Deal, with the looters. And that the Protesters helped.
Also reports of Protesters making blockades all around the city in a vigilante effort against looters.
The Brotherhood doesn't strike me as the type to give a damn about Ancient Egypt, and would more likely destroy or sell it off. It's possible if some of the looters caught end up being "radicals" the situation could change. VERY unlikely, but wierder things have happened.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/29/2011 22:18 Comments ||
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#17
Despite any PC-Deniable Media, Diplomatic rhetoric to the contrary, THE SAUDIS + US-NATO KNOW THE FORMER ARE NEXT ON THE RADIC ISLAMIST HIT LIST, as is the rest of Muslim OPEC.
Wid the Oil also goes the Muslim States budding NucProgs.
IT WON'T MATTER ANYMORE IFF THE US-ISRAEL MIL ATTACK OR INVADE IRAN, OR SUBORN AFPAK, BECAUSE RADICAL ISLAM WILL NOW HAVE MULTIPLE ALTERNATE SOURCES FOR NUCTECHS. Both Russia + China will have to kowtow as well.
Looks like everybody's making their move...
SINAI PENINSULA, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Palestinian sources say 12 people including Bedouins and Egyptian police officers were killed Saturday in clashes in the Sinai Peninsula, in what appeared to be an attempt by tribes in the region to take control of the swath of land south of the Egypt-Gaza border.
Gunshots were heard in the Egyptian city of Rafah as Bedouins attempted to occupy the border with Israel and the Gaza Strip. Rocket-propelled Grenades were fired at Egyptian soldiers, witnesses said, causing the near-total destruction of one home near the border area, and damage to a sector of the Gaza-Egypt border fence.
Gaza government police were said to have fixed the breach immediately, while eyewitnesses said police forces deployed across the border area on the Gaza side, in an apparent attempt to prevent Gaza residents from entering Egypt. "We've already got enough trouble going on here right now. The LAST thing we need is a host of dirty Paleos swarming across the border! Paleos never miss a chance to make people mad at them, do they...
Armed groups attacked Egyptian police in the cities of Rafah and Sheikh Zweid, set fire to one police station and were behind the slaying of one officer identified as 36-year-old Jum'a Hamid after he was abducted along with two others, security sources said.
Security officials also said Bedouins were behind an earlier attack on an Egyptian security checkpoint, where four officers were killed and four others injured. All were transported to hospital in Al-Arish. Four banks and several state buildings were also reportedly set ablaze and looted.
#1
See also PEOPLES DAILY FORUM > THE FATE OF EGYPT TO DETERMINE THE MIDDLE EAST STRATEGIC PATTERN.
and
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > ISRAEL FEARFUL OFSUDEN CHANGESIN EGYPT - ISRAEL SURVIVAL IN QUESTION!| ISRAEL FEARS REGIME CHANGE IN EGYPT/
RADICAL TAKEOVER IN EGYPT.
* WAFF > US STOCKS PLUNGE DUE TO MIDDLE EAST UNREST.
* SAME > PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENTS A BIG PROBLEM FOR US |OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STRUGGLES TO COPE WID THREATS TO KEY ALLIES.
* TOPIX > EL-BARADEI: EGYPTIANS "DISAPPOINTED" IN US SUPPORT FOR MUBARAK GOVT.
* ASIA TIMES > EGYPT A REVOLUTION FOR DIGNITY. Ordinary Egyptians tired of CORRUPT, SELFISH, GREEDY, DYNASTIC = SELF-PERPETRATING RULING ELITES + LYING GOVT.
[Ennahar] A protestor was killed on Friday in the town of Suez, east of Cairo, during festivities with police, witnesses said, bringing to eight the number of deaths in four days demonstrations against the regime of geriatric President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.
Hamada Labib el-Sayed, a driver of 30, was shot in the head as police tried to disperse several thousand demonstrators trying to storm the cop shoppe in the city.
The demonstrators burned eight police cars and set fire to the cop shoppe in the district of Arbayine in Suez.
Because of the fire, the police decamped the building when the protesters entered, seized the weapons there, witnesses said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters poured into the streets of Egypt Friday, stoning and confronting police who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas in the most violent and chaotic scenes yet in the challenge to geriatric President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
Even a Nobel Peace laureate was sent to his room after joining the outraged demonstrators.
Groups of thousands of protesters, some chanting "out, out, out," gathered at different venues across Cairo, a city of about 18 million people, some marching toward major squares and across scenic Nile bridges. Security officials said there were protests in at least 11 of the country's 28 provinces.
It was a major escalation in the movement that began on Tuesday to demand 82-year-old Mubarak's ouster and vent rage at years of government neglect of rampant poverty, unemployment and rising food prices. Security officials said protesters ransacked the headquarters of Mubarak's ruling party in the cities of Mansoura north of Cairo and Suez, east of the capital.
Some of the most serious violence Friday was in Suez, where protesters seized weapons stored in a cop shoppe and asked the coppers inside to leave the building before they burned it down. They also set ablaze about 20 police trucks parked nearby.
Internet and cell phone services, at least in Cairo, appeared to be largely cut off since overnight in the most extreme measure so far to try to hamper protesters form organizing. However, The infamous However... that did not prevent tens of thousands from flooding the streets, emboldened by the recent uprising in Tunisia -- another North African Arab nation.
"It's time for this government to change," said Amal Ahmed, a 22-year-old protester. "I want a better future for me and my family when I get married." 281453 jan 11GMT
Police earlier fired water cannons at ElBaradei and his supporters as they joined the latest wave of protests after noon prayers. Police used batons to beat some of ElBaradei's supporters, who surrounded him to protect him.
A soaking wet ElBaradei was trapped inside a mosque while hundreds of riot police laid siege to it, firing tear gas in the streets around so no one could leave. The tear gas canisters set several cars ablaze outside the mosque and several people fainted and suffered burns.
There were smaller protests in Assiut south of Cairo and Al-Arish in the Sinai peninsula. Regional television stations were reporting festivities between thousands of demonstrators and police in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria and Minya south of Cairo.
At the upscale Mohandiseen district, at least 10,000 of people were marching toward the city center chanting "down, down with Mubarak." The crowd later swelled to about 20,000 as they made their way through residential areas.
Residents looking on from apartment block windows waved and whistled in support. Others waved the red, white and black Egyptian flags. The marchers were halted as they tried to cross a bridge over the Nile, when police fired dozens of tear gas canisters.
At Ramsis square in the heart of the city, thousands clashed with police as they left the Al-Nur mosque after prayers. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets and some of the tear gas was fired inside the mosque where women were taking refuge. Hundreds later broke through police cordons to head to the main downtown square, Tahrir. But they were stopped by police firing tear gas.
Near Tahrir, hundreds of riot police clustered together moved in, anticipating the arrival of large crowds of protesters. A short while later, thousands of protesters marched across a bridge over the Nile and moved toward the square, where police began firing tear gas into the crowds.
Later, television footage showed protesters throwing rocks down on police from a highway overpass near Tahrir Square, while a police vehicle sped through the crowd spraying tear gas on demonstrators.
Clusters of riot police with helmets and shields were stationed around the city, at the entrances to bridges across the Nile and other key intersections.
Internet and cell-phone services were disrupted across Egypt starting overnight and throughout the day as authorities used extreme measures to hamper protesters from organizing the mass rallies called after Friday prayers.
Mubarak, 82, is Washington's closest Arab ally, but Washington has signaled that he no longer enjoys its full backing, publicly counseling him to introduce reform and refrain from using violence against the protesters. He has not been seen publicly or heard from since the protests began Tuesday.
The United States, Mubarak's main Western backer, has been publicly counseling reform and an end to the use of violence against protesters, signs the Egyptian leader may no longer be enjoying Washington's full backing.
President Barack B.O. Obama said Thursday the anti-government protests filling the streets show the frustrations of Egypt's citizens.
"It is very important that people have mechanisms in order to express their grievances," Obama said.
Friday's demonstrations were energized by the return of Nobel Peace laureate ElBaradei on Thursday night, when he said he was ready to lead the opposition toward a regime change.
They also got a boost from the endorsement of the country's biggest opposition group, the Mohammedan Brotherhood. The group called its supporters to join the protests on Friday.
The Brotherhood, outlawed since 1954, is Egypt's largest and best organized opposition group. It renounced violence in the 1970s and has since been a peaceful movement. Its network of social and medical services has traditionally won it popular support, but its detractors say its involvement in politics has chipped away at its support base.
It made a surprisingly strong showing in 2005 parliamentary elections, winning 20 percent of the legislature's seats, but it failed to win a single seat in the latest election late last year. The vote is widely thought to have been marred.
Mubarak and his government have shown no hint of concessions to the protesters who want political reform and a solution to rampant poverty, unemployment and rising food prices.
While Mubarak may still have a chance to ride out this latest challenge, his choices are limited, and all are likely to lead to a loosening of his grip on power.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Surfing the boob tube for different coverage--found it interesting the only net service was good old-fashioned dial-up on land lines. KT McFarland also noted that you don't see any US flag burning so maybe the wind is blowing in the right direction in the ME. They have had a taste of freedom and hopefully won't choose Islamic fascism to replace a military dictatorship.
[Ma'an] Embattled Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak called out the army and declared a curfew in three major provinces on Friday, as tens of thousands of protesters rampaged through the streets of major cities demanding his ouster.
A curfew in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez kicked in at 6:00 pm and will run until 7:00 am, state television reported. ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Mubarak "has asked the armed forces, in cooperation with the police, to implement the decision, and maintain security and secure public establishments and private property," it said.
In the capital Cairo, protesters poured out of mosques after Friday prayers and ran rampant through the streets, throwing stones and torching two cop shoppes as police chased them with batons, firing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.
The nationwide demonstrations, inspired by the "Jasmine Revolution" in Tunisia, have swelled into the largest uprising in three decades, sending shockwaves across the region. Eight people have been killed, hundreds injured and some 1,000 jugged.
But in a hint that authorities might heed the rising tide of popular anger, a senior politician and member of the ruling party called for "unprecedented reforms" in order to stave off a revolution.
As the violence raged, Mustafa al-Fekki, National Democratic Party member and chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said security forces alone could not prevent revolution in Egypt, that reform was necessary.
"Nowhere in the world can the security forces put an end to revolution," he said in remarks to Al-Jazeera television.
"The security option alone is not sufficient, and the president is the only one to put an end to these events," he added, calling for "unprecedented reform."
US President Barack B.O. Obama said on Thursday that "violence is not the answer in solving these problems in Egypt" and that it was "absolutely critical" for Mubarak to move towards political reform.
Egypt is one of Washington's closest allies in the region, but analysts say the United States is growing increasingly concerned that its refusal to implement more political reforms could lead to further unrest and instability.
That was reflected on Friday when Fitch ratings agency said it had revised its ratings outlook for Egypt to negative.
"A continuation or intensification of significant unrest that seriously threatened economic and financial performance and the economic reform process would lead to a rating downgrade," Fitch said.
"By contrast, an effective government response that eased political tensions up to and beyond September's [presidential] elections and allowed economic reforms to continue, would mean the rating outlook would return to stable."
The Cairo bourse was closed for the weekend, after having plunged 10 percent this week.
Mubarak, aged 82 and said to be in poor health, has not been seen publicly since the unrest erupted. However, The infamous However... the culture ministry has said he is to make an appearance on Saturday at the opening of the annual Cairo book fair.
Demonstrations spread around the capital of Cairo, where police appeared overwhelmed as protesters broke through several police barriers.
Protesters were seen being dragged away and pushed into police vans, as others defied the heavy police presence and made their way to the central Tahrir Square.
Leading dissident Mohamed ElBaradei, who has said he would be prepared to lead a transitional authority if he were asked, was among a crowd of around 2,000 targeted by police and was forced to take refuge inside a mosque in Giza Square and not allowed to leave.
ElBaradei is a board member of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which issued a statement of condemnation.
"His detention has no credible basis. It also will not serve Egypt's interests at this critical juncture," Crisis Group President Louise Arbour said.
"In a situation as tense as this, repression and abuse can only further inflame the situation. Rather than resort to repression, the authorities should heed demands of the population for dramatic political, social and economic transformation."
In Alexandria, protesters threw stones at police after prayers with cries of "God is greatest" followed by "We don't want him," referring to Mubarak.
The crowd attacked police vans, torching one, after a civilian had most of his hand blown away, allegedly by police.
Protesters also set fire to the governorate building in the city center.
In the Delta city of Mansura, hundreds chanted "Down with Mubarak" as they emerged from prayers, heavily outnumbered by security forces.
Some imams had encouraged worshipers to "go out and seek change," an AFP correspondent reported.
In another Delta city, Damietta, tens of thousands protested and set fire to the NDP headquarters, witnesses said.
Egypt's largest opposition group, the banned Mohammedan Brotherhood, has also joined the uprising, and at least 20 of its members were jugged overnight, a lawyer for the group said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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http://www.worldthreats.com/?p=5599
Israeli newspaper Haaretz, is saying that some elements of the Egyptian military are joining the protesters.
As good a place to start for an update as any. Political news in other posts.
CAIRO Chaos engulfed Egypt Friday as protesters seized the streets of the capital, battling police with stones, bottles and firebombs and burning down the ruling party headquarters. The peak of four days of unrest posed the most dire threat to President Hosni Mubarak in his three decades of authoritarian rule.
The Egyptian government planned to announce an "important matter" to the nation late Friday evening.
NBC News' Richard Engel reported that a group of luxury sedans, under heavy guard, had traveled to Cairo airport's VIP lounge, and a short time later three private jets had left the country.
Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was put under house arrest after he joined a march earlier in the day.
Demonstrators were trying to storm the foreign ministry and the state TV building in Cairo, The Associated Press reported. Violent clashes were also reported near the Egyptian parliament. Television images showed several buildings in Cairo, including the headquarters of the ruling party, ablaze.
Flames also threatened the Egyptian National Museum, where Army units secured the building with spectacular treasures such as the death mask of the boy king Tutankhamun. Young men could be seen forming a human barricade in front of the museum to protect it.
Friday saw demonstrations across the country, which continued despite a 13-hour military curfew which began at 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET). It initially covered the cities of Cairo, Suez and Alexandria, but was later extended to cover all cities.
Demonstrators stayed on the streets in defiance of security forces, some mounting armored cars, cheering and waving flags. Others around the city looted banks, smashed cars, tore down street signs and pelted armored riot police vehicles with paving stones torn from roadways.
Egyptian medical sources said 13 people had been killed in protests in the eastern city of Suez on Friday and 75 wounded, medical sources said. They did not specify whether they were protesters or police who were killed, or how they died. They said 1,030 had been wounded in the protests in Cairo, up from an earlier estimate of 870.
Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was put under house arrest after he joined a march earlier in the day. He and scores of protesters were forced to seek refuge in a mosque after police used water cannons and tear gas. There were also reports that protesters had taken control of central areas of Suez and Alexandria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post Front Page] The head of the Egyptian opposition Wafd party on Friday called for a period of transitional rule in Egypt, new parliamentary elections and amendments to the constitution limiting presidential terms, Rooters reported.
In the latest day of protests, al-Jazeera reported that the number of people who died in the Egyptian city of Suez rose to 11, bringing the total number of people killed to 16.
Nearly 20 people were also reportedly injured in the protests in Suez, with over 900 people injured throughout the country.
Earlier, five people were confirmed dead in protests in Cairo.
As protests continued into the night, Egyptian authorities were reportedly holding talks to establish a "transitional government," following the series of deadly protests against geriatric President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] The Mohammedan Brotherhood has said that Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak will be stepping down.
At 11:51 p.m. Cairo time on Friday night, the Mohammedan Brotherhood's website Ikhwanweb.com posted the sentence: "Semi-confirmed: The dictator will step down, his family decamped the country secretly."
Tens of thousands of protesters across the country turned out after Friday prayers and clashed with police.
Egyptian authorities shut down internet and cell phone service in the country on Thursday and imposed a curfew in major cities.
At least 21 people have been killed and dozens of others have been injured since the demonstrations against unemployment, corruption, and rising prices began four days ago.
Over 1,000 people have been jugged during the protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
If Mubarak steps down, who will keep a lid on the Mohammedans?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/29/2011 11:43 Comments ||
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#2
I don't think you get the Muslim's Brotherhood's goal here....
[Al Jazeera] The Egyptian president has dismissed his government, saying that he will replace it with a new one on Saturday.
"I have asked the government to resign and tomorrow there will be a new government," Hosni Mubarak said in an address to the nation late on Friday after four days of deadly protests.
The president said that change can not be achieved through chaos but through dialogue. Saying he understood that the people of Egypt wanted him to address poverty, employment and democratic reform, he promised to press ahead with social, economic and political reforms.
"We will not backtrack on reforms. We will continue with new steps which will ensure the independence of the judiciary and its rulings, and more freedom for citizens," Mubarak said.
He said new steps will be taken "to contain unemployment, raise living standards, improve services and stand by the poor."
Reacting to the protests that have erupted in the capital and other cities, Mubarak urged calm, adding that only because of his own reforms over the years, were people able to protest.
His words, however, are likely to be interpreted as an attempt to cling to power rather than take concrete steps to solve some of the more pressing problems facing many Egyptians, primarily unemployment and rapidly rising food prices.
Al Jizz's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Cairo, said many Egyptians calling for change would say the sacking of the government is not enough.
"Ultimately in Egypt, the power lies with the president," he said. "On paper, you have an independent parliament and an independent judiciary but every Egyptian will tell you that at the end of the day, power is concentrated in the hands of the president.
"Very few institutions can challenge his authority so the sacking of the cabinet is not going to end the grievances of the people."
A somber looking Mubarak called anti-government protests "part of a bigger plot to shake the stability and destroy legitimacy" of the political system.
He also defended the security forces' crackdown on protesters, saying he had given them instructions that the protesters be allowed to express their views. But, he said, acts of violence and vandalism left the security forces with no choice but to react to restore order.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
This is such a good time to bomb the sh*t out of Gaza. Not bloody likely though.
[Ennahar] The civilian who will take control of Niger after the presidential election will succeed where the military junta in power for one year, failed: containing the threat of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) who multiplies the kidnapping of Westerners.
January 7, jihadists have inflicted on the Nigerian authorities for their transition more serious blow by removing in central Niamey, in the most secure area of the capital, two young French, killed the next day during a rescue Franco Niger-Mali operation.
Operating in the Sahel-Sahara band on the borders of Mauritania, Algeria, Mali and Niger, AQIM still retains five French, a Togolese and a Malagasy kidnapped in September 2010 on an uranium mining site north Niger.
"We take very seriously the threat that could destabilize our country so fragile," said a Nigerian minister on condition of anonymity, who acknowledged that the fight against AQIM is a "huge challenge".
In one of the poorest countries of the world, it's first "the weakness of the Nigerian state, the army and administration" in the desert areas of the north, breeding ground of AQIM, which is involved, says historian Djibo Hamani of Niger.
To monitor an area of some 1.2 million km2, the power has only a few thousand soldiers of modest means.
The military junta in place since February 2010 and until the inauguration of new president in April, said to take the measure of danger. It announced in mid-January that it would redefine its strategy against the "terrorists", but revealed nothing of his plans.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] A fight over a game of billiards disintegrated into religious violence in northern Nigeria, leaving at least four people dead among the smoldering ruins of churches and mosques, authorities said Thursday.
The attack in the town of Tafawa Balewa in Bauchi state came the same day police said members of a radical Mohammedan sect killed a police officer guarding a voter registration site in northeast Nigeria. The attack showed the continuing ability of members of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... sect to kill at will despite a military and police crackdown, leaving a state police commissioner to admit he cannot guarantee the safety of election officials.
The violence also comes ahead of April elections that many worry could ignite simmering ethnic and religious tensions in a country that became a democracy only a decade ago.
In Tafawa Balewa, the home of Nigeria's assassinated first prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the violence started Wednesday night, said Borno state police Muhammed Indabawa.
Indabawa said a group of youths playing billiards got into an argument, which sparked violence in a town familiar to riots between Nigeria's two main faiths.
Paramilitary police patrolled the city's streets Thursday as mosques, churches and homes sat destroyed, Indabawa said. The commissioner said he believed soldiers also would join the security crackdown.
"We've mounted road blocks at areas leading to the town to avoid a spillover of the crisis to other areas," Indabawa said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Borno state police commissioner Ibrahim Abubakar told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Thursday that an officer in Maiduguri died Wednesday night after being shot while guarding a primary school holding registration equipment. Abubakar said another officer was maimed in an attack by gunnies riding cycle of violences, an assault that follows the pattern of others allegedly committed by the Boko Haram sect in the arid, dusty city.
Nigeria is in the midst of an effort to register an estimated 70 million eligible voters before its elections.
Abubakar said the attack Wednesday night showed police were unable to defend the university graduates staffing the registration effort.
"Voters' registration materials should be kept at the nearest cop shoppes," the commissioner said.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, has attacked churches and engineered a massive prison break in recent months.
The violence in central and northern Nigeria comes as President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian who took over Africa's most populous nation after the death of its elected Mohammedan leader, seeks the presidency. Some believe a northern candidate should stand in Jonathan's place to appease an unwritten powersharing agreement in the oil-rich nation's ruling party.
While Jonathan overwhelming won the party's recent primary, some fear more violence cutting across the country's ethnic, religious and political lines will come as the election draws near.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Aid workers sought to help some 4,000 displaced people in Nigeria Friday after a row over billiards led to festivities between Christians and Mohammedans that left four people dead and buildings burned.
Police have also declared a night-time curfew in the central Nigerian district of Tafawa Balewa following the festivities that began on Wednesday night and continued into Thursday morning.
The rioting killed at least four people and left 50 houses and five mosques burnt, police have said.
"We now have about 4,000 displaced people, mostly women and kiddies that we've been able to camp in primary schools in two neighboring towns," said Adamu Abubakar, head of the Red Thingy in Bauchi state, where Tafawa Balewa is located.
"The displaced are in dire need of food, clothing and blankets because they couldn't come out of Tafawa Balewa with any."
Most of the displaced were in Bununu while the others were in Kwaltukurwa.
Police commissioner Abdulkadir Mohammed Indabawa said the curfew had been put in place to maintain calm. Eighteen people had been jugged and more were being sought, he said.
The dispute began Wednesday night after a disagreement over money between a Mohammedan player and the Christian owner of the billiards table, the commissioner has said.
It was settled through mediation by elders in the area, but the table was later burnt. Christian youths blamed Mohammedans for burning the table, setting off the festivities.
Tafawa Balewa is located near the border with Plateau state along the so-called middle belt region between Nigeria's mainly Mohammedan north and predominately Christian south.
The region has been hit by waves of violence in recent years that have left scores of people dead.
Human Rights Watch issued a statement Thursday saying more than 200 people have been killed in Plateau state since Christmas Eve, when dozens died in a string of bombings and resulting festivities in Jos, the state capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Trouble with a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!/em>
[Yemen Post] Yemeni authorities jugged six suspected Al-Qaeda hard boyz in connection with an attack on a military vehicle in which five people were killed, including four soldiers, and maimed others in Hadramout, Yemen.
Yemen's Interior Ministry website said that the six suspects were jugged in Al-Shihr district after being hunted by the security apparatus within the province. The source added that the ages of the detainees are between 25 and 36.
Last Wednesday, Al-Qaeda hard boyz intercepted a security patrol escorting a postal vehicle in Al-Shihr district, Hadramout, fired on the soldiers and looted YR 10 million the vehicle was transporting from Mukalla city.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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MOSCOW (Itar-Tass) -- The suicide bomber who set off the explosive device is identified -- it is a 20-year-old native of a North Caucasian republic, the Investigation Committees spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
"Though the investigators know the name of the terrorist, we will not give it today, as investigation and operative search work is underway now to establish and arrest the organisers and the accomplices of the terrorist act," Markin noted.
The official said investigators of the main department of the Russian Investigation Committee together with operatives of the Federal Security Service and the Interior Ministry had solved the crime committed at Domodedovo airport on January 24.
"I particularly note that the terrorist act was committed in the international arrivals hall not accidentally. According to the investigators' version, it was aimed first of all against foreign citizens," Markin said.
The investigators are ready to make public the results of the investigation into another terrorist crime. All the persons involved in the explosion that took place in a hotel room at the sport shooting club located at Golovachev Street in Moscow on December 31, 2010, are identified, Markin said.
Some of the suspects are already taken into custody. Under consideration is placing of four of them under arrest. Several are sought by operatives. According to the investigators, the group of terrorists prepared a terrorist attack to be committed in central Moscow on December 31, the official said.
He particularly noted that the investigation established that the attack at Domodedovo and the explosion in the hotel complex were committed by armed groups that operated in North Caucasian republics, but were not connected with each other.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2011 13:19 ||
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[Geo News] Security forces Friday killed a commander among three local Islamic fascistiduring their gunbattle in tehsil Safi of Mohmand Agency. According to official sources, the gunbattle between the security forces and Islamic fascistitook place in Sagi area of tehsil Safi. Later, security forces launched search operation in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Spanish police have jugged a Pak man they say is linked to a cell that forged passports for al Qaeda-linked groups.
Pakistani... forged passports. How unexpected.
Police had been looking for the suspect since seven members of the cell were jugged in Spain in December and three more in Thailand, Interior Ministry said on Friday in a statement. It named the suspect as 30-year-old Malik Imtanan Sarwar and said he was picked up on Thursday in Barcelona. The statement said he worked with other group members to send stolen passports to Thailand to be doctored and later distributed to groups linked to al Qaeda, mainly Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistain-based terror group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai, India, attacks that killed 166 people. The ministry said the group also supplied forged documents to Tamil Tiger rebels who were crushed in 2009 by Sri Lankan troops after a quarter-century war for an independent state. The seven people jugged in December were six Paks and one Nigerian. The ministry said they stole passports, mostly from tourists around Barcelona. The forged passports allowed members of terror groups to enter Europe and other countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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WASSIT / Aswat al-Iraq: Five persons, wanted for being members of an extremist militia have been detained during an inspection campaign by the Iraqi Interior Ministry's Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) in Nu'maniya township, 40 kms to the north of Kut, the center of Wassit Province, the RDF's Commander said on Friday.
"The detention process was carried out according to intelligence information and arrest warrents by the Iraqi Judiciary," he said, adding that the detained persons "are now under investigation and will be sent for the Investigation Judge later."
The RDF is part of the security forces, assigned to carry out certain duties and missions, most of which are related to the detention of persons charged with terrorism and outlaws, who carry arms against the government forces.
Kut, the center of Wassit Province, is 180 kms to the south of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Five, including three federal police personnel, were wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast near their patrol in southern Baghdad on Thursday, a local security source said.
An IED went off near a federal police patrol, on al-Rasheed camp road, southern Baghdad, leaving three patrolmen and two civilians wounded, the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The explosion also left a patrol and civilian vehicles damaged, he said, adding the wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Thousands of Jordanian opposition supporters erupted into the streets Friday in the country's capital demanding the prime minister step down and venting their anger at rising prices, inflation and unemployment.
It was the third consecutive Friday of protests following Mohammedan prayers in Jordan, inspired by the unrest in Tunisia and rallies in Egypt demanding the downfall of the country's longtime president.
About 3,500 opposition activists from Jordan's main Islamist opposition group, trade unions and leftist organizations gathered in Amman's downtown, waving colorful banners reading: "Send the corrupt guys to court." The crowd denounced Prime Minister Samir Rifai's unpopular policies. Many shouted: "Rifai go away, prices are on fire and so are the Jordanians." Another 2,500 people also erupted into the streets in six other cities across the country after the noon prayers. Those protests also called for Rifai's ouster.
King Abdallah II has promised some reforms, particularly on a controversial election law. But many believe it's unlikely he will bow to demands for popular election of the prime minister and Cabinet officials, traditionally appointed by the king.
Rifai also announced a $550 million package of new subsidies in the last two weeks for fuel and staple products like rice, sugar, livestock and liquefied gas used for heating and cooking. It also includes a raise for civil servants and security personnel.
Still, Jordan's economy struggles, weighed down by a record deficit of $2 billion this year. Inflation has also risen by 1.5 percent to 6.1 percent just last month, unemployment and poverty are rampant -- estimated at 12 and 25 percent respectively.
Members of the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the powerful Mohammedan Brotherhood and Jordan's largest opposition party, swelled the ranks of the demonstrators, massing outside the Al-Husseini mosque in Amman and filling the downtown streets with their prayer lines.
As they broke into a procession, the demonstrators chanted, "In the name of God, the government must change" and the Mohammedan holy book "Qur'an is our constitution, jihad is our path." Leftist university professor Ibrahim Alloush said it was not a question of changing faces or replacing one prime minister with another. "We're demanding changes on how the country is now run," he said.
He accused the government of impoverishing the working class with regressive tax codes which forced the poor to pay a higher proportion of their income as tax.
He also accused parliament as serving as a "rubber stamp" to the executive branch.
"This is what has led people to protest in the streets because they don't have venues for venting how they feel through legal means," Alloush said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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ASUNCION, Paraguay (AFP) -- Paraguay has recognized a "free and independent" Palestinian state within its 1967 borders, the ministry of foreign affairs said Friday.
The South American nation thus joins a wave of other regional countries that include Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana and Uruguay.
For you Rantburgers out there, these South American countries come across negligent in their ability to understand what "statehood" really means, or (translated), they are simply too bothered to READ.
For example, here is a William Dever discussion of statehood from a 2001 book (here he is going up against the minimalists, who are contra the United Monarchy in ancient Judah/Israel):
"I can easily cite two dozen leading authorities who have analyzed states and their evolution worldwide, over many millennia. Without exception, they all point out that the single most significant criterion for defining "statehood" is centralization of power. It is that phenomenon, not size, much less urbanization, that characterizes statehood..."
What/where is the centralization of power for a proposed Palestinian state? Well, it's just pandemonium. The current two main parties, Hamas and Fatah, have segregated themselves into separate parts of the proposed state; they hate each others guts, and often kill or imprison each other.
In the meantime (back at the ranch), a dozen or so other groups in this so-called state kill or maim one another in reverence to a 7th century lunatic.
There is no centralization of power amongst the Palestinians, hence no state!
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/29/2011 13:41 ||
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#1
Wasn't there a book recently found on the border praising suicide bombers?
I suggest that until an investigation is completed,to see if there is any connection, that Jaziri is locked up.
Hopefully this is with Big Bubba, who will perform attitude alighment on him every night, until screaming and begging he is sent back to Tunisia, hopefully never to be seen again. Why should the military have all the fun?
#2
he's jugged til he testifies against the Gringo that trying to smuggle him in, then adios! Back to your third world. He'll claim that he'll be tortured if he's sent back, which I think is a feature, not a bug
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2011 15:40 Comments ||
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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.
