[Dawn] The US commander in Afghanistan has warned troops that they face an increased threat of attack after a series of inflammatory anti-US comments by President Hamid Karzai.
Nato's International Assistance Security Force (Isaf) on Thursday confirmed the contents of a strongly-worded advisory sent by US General Joseph Dunford to his senior commanders on Wednesday.
Karzai on Sunday accused the United States of colluding with militants to justify its presence in Afghanistan and banned international troops from university campuses due to unproven claims of harassment of students.
"Karzai's remarks could be a catalyst for some to lash out against our forces, he may also issue orders that put our forces at risk," Dunford said in the advisory, which was obtained by The New York Times.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
"Karzai's remarks could be a catalyst for some to lash out against our forces,
Yes, in platoon and company size attacks, then melt away and never be found. Its only a matter of time.
[An Nahar] President Hamid Karzai on Thursday said he wanted to "correct" rather than damage U.S.-Afghan relations, after a storm of protest over his recent anti-U.S. remarks.
Karzai, who on Sunday suggested that the United States was working in concert with Taliban militants, acknowledged there were serious bilateral strains as the NATO-led military coalition starts to withdraw from Afghanistan.
"The president called the United States a friend and strategic partner of Afghanistan and said his recent comments... had been to correct rather than damage this relationship," a statement from his office said.
"The president said that both countries are in a critical stage of relations, therefore it is natural that each side tries to stand for and focus on its national interests."
Karzai told a forum at his palace in Kabul that among the causes of tension were a dispute over detainees held by the United States and civilian casualties in NATO military operations.
"We want a good relationship with America, we want friendship, but friendship between two sovereign nations," Karzai told the audience of invited guests and government officials.
Karzai's allegation of collusion provoked fury among U.S. officials, as both nations negotiate the framework that could allow some American troops to remain in Afghanistan when NATO combat troops leave next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Karzai Says He Wants to 'Correct' U.S.-Afghan Ties
How about none. If we have to come back, we'll bounce the rubble.
h/t Instapundit
Egypts death spiral is now scaring off even its closest friends. Last year, Qatar give an Egypt in crisis $5 billion in aid money. But Qatar wont help Egypt anymore, according to the FT. Qatars decision comes as Egypt continues its downward spiral: Wonder what Spengler will have to say?
[Ynet] Three senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, figures were involved in the attack on an Egyptian position in Rafah last August, in which 16 Egyptian officers were killed, Egyptian magazine Al-Ahram Al-Arabi reported.
The report named Raed al-Atar, the commander of Hamas' military wing in Rafah, as one of the people who orchestrated the attack. Al-Atar was one of the beturbanned goons behind the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. Hamas denied the report and claimed the magazine was cooperating with Israel.
[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council raised new concerns Thursday about arms flowing from Libya into neighboring countries and thousands of detainees held in secret by militias.
A resolution renewing the mandate of the U.N. mission in Libya highlighted "the illicit proliferation of all arms and related material of all types" since the fall of Libya's longtime dictator Muammar Qadaffy. ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years until he was ejected from the gene pool by his indignant citizens... The 15-nation body said heavy and small weapons and surface-to-air missiles were involved and stressed the "negative impact on regional and international peace and security."
"There are suggestions that weapons are going out through the southern borders of Libya to countries in the region," Britannia's U.N. ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said.
"We know that in the immediate aftermath of the overthrow of Qadaffy, quite a number of weapons flowed into Mali and Niger," the envoy told news hounds, while adding that the council had no firm information on where the arms are ending up now.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Ali Larayedh became Tunisia's new Islamist premier on Thursday, taking over from his predecessor Hamadi Jebali and faced with the task of ending a political and economic crisis gripping the country.
Speaking at the swearing in ceremony at the prime minister's office, Larayedh said his cabinet would listen to "the concerns of the nation and the people."
Larayedh was speaking a day after his coalition received parliament's backing in a vote of confidence, and just hours after the funeral of a street vendor whose self-immolation served as a stark reminder of the problems facing the new government.
Larayedh has already promised to resolve Tunisia's institutional crisis this year, by ensuring the adoption of a new constitution and organizing elections, while creating the conditions for an economic recovery and restoring security.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Egyptian opposition is more determined than ever to boycott parliamentary elections after Islamist President Mohamed Morsi challenged a court decision delaying the polls, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Thursday.
In an interview with Agence France Presse, Moussa said there had been no "serious talks" with the president on the opposition's core demand for a government of national unity despite the impact of the political deadlock on Egypt's faltering economy.
The opposition has come under strong U.S. pressure to take part in the elections, which had been scheduled for next month, and Mussa said it might have done so had the president accepted the delay ordered by the court.
"We would have gained some time to talk about the points we are raising, and to give the government time to reconsider," he said.
The president's appeal "does reverse the situation," he said, "bringing it back to the tension around the election."
Morsi lodged the appeal on Wednesday against the March 6 court order cancelling his calling of the election, arguing he had acted within his sovereign powers when he set the timetable. The court has yet to give its ruling.
Moussa heads the National Salvation Front along with former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei and leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, who like Mussa ran against Morsi for the presidency last June.
The opposition bloc is demanding a national unity government ahead of any vote. Morsi insists it is for the new parliament to choose a new administration.
"There has to be a unity government to face the situation, and take responsibility -- collective responsibility, national responsibility," Mussa said of the country's teetering economy.
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03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Thousands of people who fled when Islamists attacked the largest city in Mali's war-torn north have returned, a survey by a local charity working to resettle refugees told Agence France Presse on Thursday.
Tassaght said a study of returning refugees and internally displaced people indicated that 5,800 residents who fled the occupation by al-Qaida-linked Islamists had come home, most after Gao was liberated in late January.
The survey, which took the form of a questionnaire to returning residents, showed that "their primary needs are food", Tassaght head Almahadi Ag Akeratane told AFP.
"The displaced are coming back with nothing," he said, adding that many of those who fled have yet to return.
Gao and the rest of the northern desert area comprising about 60 percent of Mali fell to ethnic Tuareg rebels a year ago.
But they lost control to Islamist fighters who imposed a brutal version of sharia law on the local population before Mali's former colonial power France sent in troops and took back the cities of the north in January.
Gao has enjoyed an uneasy calm in the three weeks since a raid by resurgent militants, and buses coming back from the capital Bamako have been crowded.
Around 170,000 Malians have fled the region to neighboring countries and 260,000 others have been displaced internally since early 2012, according to the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Gao had about 90,000 inhabitants, but Tassaght estimates that around 80 percent fled the Islamist invasion.
"There isn't a single family that isn't missing someone," local councilor Yacouba Maiga told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
collect $200?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2013 10:59 Comments ||
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#2
Game pieces for Islamic Monopoly would be interesting: a severed head, a burning church, a child bride, a dancing boy, etc.
[Guardian Ng] THE European Union (EU) Thursday said it was set to deploy its expertise in engaging the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) on how to arrest the current insurgency by Boko Haram, which has led to the kidnapping and killing of foreigners in some part of the North. And who knows more about tackling Boko Haram than the EU?
The EU delegation, which had earlier met the Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Ramalan Yero, also visited the ACF at its secretariat in Kaduna to deliberate on how to combat the insecurity in the North.
The Ambassador and Head of EU Delegate to Nigeria, Mr. David Macrae expressed the interest of the European Union to engage efforts in bringing solution to the insurgency ravaging the North.
Macrae said: "I have a special interest on how we could engage with the North, and I believe anything we want to do has to be with the executives of ACF, it has to be with you.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Bangladesh Olama Mashaek Sanghati Gay Pareehad, a platform of Islamist scholars and holy mans, yesterday announced to hold a grand rally on March 23 in the capital demanding a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... and capital punishment for all war criminals.
The rally will begin at 11:00am at Motijheel Shapla Chattar, parishad leaders told a presser at Dhaka Reporters Unity auditorium at Segunbagicha.
"Jamaat is an enemy of Islam. It is importing religious extremism in the country in the name of Islam. That's why we demand a ban on Jamaat," said Fariduddin Masud, chief of the parishad and Khatib (chief Imam) of Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj.
He also called upon all Islamic forces, scholars and holy mans to get united for the March 23 rally and raise voice against war criminals and anti-Islamic forces.
Jamaat often openly compares its leaders with Hazrat Muhammad (PTUI!), which is against Islam, mentioned Masud.
The party, he complained, wants to turn the country into a turban one.
He called upon all youths in Jamaat and its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... not to take responsibility of its leaders involved in war crimes.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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Radical British Islamists are heading to Syria in greater numbers than all other theatres of war, a senior British official has said. The numbers of young British Muslims going to fight with extremist groups battling the Syrian regime has risen to the point where the conflict already poses a "major threat" to Britain's stability and security.
The official said, "This is a horrific situation that is now on a grave trajectory. We now have more British jihadists going to Syria than all the other areas of conflict, be it Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen combined."
The government is trying to find ways of isolating jihadist groups in Syria, as Whitehall considers plans to increase aid to rebels, including sending arms.
Security experts fear a new generation of radicals intent on a career of jihadist warfare is gaining training and experience of war in Syria. The exodus from British towns and cities is believed to have escalated to levels last seen decades ago when the Bosnian and Afghan conflicts were at their height.
Nigel Inkster, the director of transnational threats at the IISS think tank and former deputy head of MI6, said Syria has become a more important battle for young Muslims than insurgencies against Western troops and their allies. He said, "Syria is the increasing focus of jihadist activities especially with Afghanistan winding down and and the conditions in the training areas of tribal Pakistan increasingly difficult as a result of the threat from American drone strikes.
"Intelligence and security reports warn Syria could become the crucible of trans-national terrorism in much the same way as the insurgency against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was in the 1980s."
#1
The official said, "This is a horrific situation that is now on a grave trajectory. We now have more British jihadists going to Syria than all the other areas of conflict, be it Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen combined."
How about not allowing them back into the UK? Wouldn't that help Britain's stability and security?
#3
But...but...but they all keep saying Islam is the religion of peace. If that's so they won't mind having their welfare jizya cut off while they are overseas peacefully studying in Syrian madrassas.
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] North Korea held a live artillery drill close to its disputed border with South Korea, its official state news agency reported today.
The country's leader Kim Jong-un personally supervised the drill, in a move that is sure to inflame tensions further between the two countries, the KCNA agency said.
The North has stepped up military preparations in response to being sanctioned for its February nuclear test, with the border being seen as the most likely site of any clash.
The country's latest move follows a series of inflammatory statements in which North Korea has threatened a nuclear war with the United States in response to new United Nations sanctions and to strike back at South Korea and the United States during military drills that the two allies are holding.
Kim praised the artillery units on two islands after watching them hit targets, in what KCNA described as the "biggest hotspots in the southwestern sector of the front", in practice for striking at two South Korean islands.
Pyongyang has kept up a steady stream of incendiary rhetoric since moves began to sanction it in the United Nations over its third nuclear test. It was also subject to sanctions for the launch of a long-range test rocket in December that critics say is aimed at proving its long-range missile technology.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Can SKor respond by using a bunch of trebuchets and launch all of those dead pigs from the Shanghai River near the live fire areas? Because that would be cool...
#2
I Remember in Batman where the firing squad suddenly turn and became an execution squad, why can't real executions happen this way.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/15/2013 11:05 Comments ||
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#3
As per DRUDGEREPORT, KJU = North Korea has just test-fired SRBMS into the Sea of Japan.
Meanwhile ...
* SAME > [The Sun] US BOLSTERS MISSLE DEFENSES IN FACE OF [expanding/escalating] NORTH KOREA NUKE THREAT.
RELATED FOX NEWS > US PENTAGON SEES SUDDEN RISE IN NORTH KOREAN LONG-RANGE MISSLE, NUCLEAR THREAT TO US.
* RELATED WAFF > US TO BEEF UP [West Coast]MISSLE DEFENSES AGZ NORTH KOREA, vee basing or deployment of an additional 14 missle interceptors to 26 already based at Fort Greely,
Alaska.
BMD-capable USN, JMSDF AEGIS Warships + Japan-based PATRIOT batteries aside, these Interceptors back in CONUS will likely be END-PHASE INTERCEPTIONS.
As IMO any DPRK LRBM threat agz CONUS-NORAM is actually from CHINA, there is still extant the prob of the PLAN's FBM strategic nuclear-powered submarines, espec those repor allegedly patrolling on-station off HAWAII + WESTERN CANADA.
Following a meeting in early March between Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish-Greek relations have continued to improve with Greece now planning to extradite to Turkey a leader of the terrorist Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP).
Reports said in addition to MLKP leader Zeki Gurbuz, the country has captured a person identified as S.E., a member of the terrorist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C).
Greece is planning to return these two men, according to reports, in strong contrast with past years when the country had refused to extradite any suspects being sought by Turkey.
The MLKP's Gurbuz, according to intelligence reports, has connections to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). He in fact even arranged arms training for MLKP militants at the PKK's Gare base in northern Iraq. Gurbuz has consistently been able to escape at the last minute from operations conducted to capture him. Most recently, he was able to escape a 2006 operation in which most MLKP leaders were arrested, dealing a severe blow to the organization.
In 2012, police trying to capture Gurbuz raided four cell houses, failing to find him each time.
The head of a U.N. team investigating casualties from U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan declared after a secret research trip to the country that the attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty.
Ben Emmerson, the U.N. special wrapper rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, said the Pakistani government made clear to him that it does not consent to the strikes -- a position that has been disputed by U.S. officials.
We've never before seen Pak gummint officials say one thing to one person and something entirely different to someone else...
President Barack Obama has stepped up covert CIA drone strikes targeting al-Qaida and Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal region along the Afghan border since he took office in 2009. The strikes have caused growing controversy because of the secrecy surrounding them and claims that they have caused significant civilian casualties -- allegations denied by the United States.
You'd think the camp followers would learn...
According to a U.N. statement that Emmerson emailed to The Associated Press on Friday, the Pakistani government told him it has confirmed at least 400 civilian deaths by U.S. drones on its territory. The statement was initially released on Thursday, following the investigator's three-day visit to Pakistan, which ended Wednesday. The visit was kept secret until Emmerson left.
Was Ben afraid that he'd be drone-zapped?
Imtiaz Gul, an expert on Pakistani militancy who is helping Emmerson's team, said Friday that the organization he runs, the Centre for Research and Security Studies, gave the U.N. investigator during his visit case studies on 25 strikes that allegedly killed around 200 civilians.
The website for the CRSS makes them sound like gentle, fluffy-bunny huggers committed to democracy and a separation of powers. I'd personally like to know how much money they're getting from George Soros -- and from the Saudis...
The U.N. investigation into civilian casualties from drone strikes and other targeted killings in Pakistan and several other countries was launched in January and is expected to deliver its conclusions in October.
Any doubts about what Ben will say? Anyone? Bueller?
#1
this douchebag Emmerson turns up every other week or so to handwring his panties in a bunch over something awful the 'Mericans and Juice are doing. We should demand his position be required to live in Somalia, Egypt, Pakistain,....
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2013 10:58 Comments ||
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#2
Did 9/11 violate USA sovereignty?
Posted by: Harry the Florid4274 ||
03/15/2013 11:09 Comments ||
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#3
He can just kiss our collective butts on this one.
Who in their right mind would even give one ounce of credibility to a representative of Pakistanarchy? Sovereignty? You have to freaking have some control over your borders AND you have to have some legitimate social validity. Pakistanarchy fails the definition of a sovereign country.
As for this imbecile, moron, idiot clown, fool, antiamerican commode licker, Emmerson, he is just another reason to send the UN to Geneva to join the League of Nations as another failed diplomatic experiment infested with sissies, liberals, and self serving cowards.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/15/2013 12:15 Comments ||
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#4
AND, if you have the band width and a couple of hours, I tell you what I REALLY THINK about the United Nations.
We should cut off our contribution to that bunch of jerks and send them on their way.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/15/2013 12:17 Comments ||
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#5
Don't the drones fly from an airbase in Pakistan?
#6
Are you questioning our Lord and Lawyer about law and procedure? Are you doubting His correctness Mr. Emmerson? Why, he simply grants them US citizenship.
#7
Ummm Bill? Can you give a condensed version of that couple of bandwidth hours? ;^)
The UN building in NYC should be turned into either low-rent housing or an armaments factory. Relocate all the dips to a new, thatched HQ in Mali or Somalia or Afghanrchy or someplace similar.
The UN is a bunch of Useless Nitwits anyway. And overpriced too. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/15/2013 18:24 Comments ||
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#9
I always said the U.N. should be located in the center of the biggest mass grave around - and the delegates forced to walk in from outside the site.
As for the U.N. building - turn it into a small arms factory - selling to the American public.
[Dawn] Chief of his own faction of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... has said that both Taliban and the government should take the efforts for restoration of peace seriously.
Talking to media persons after a jirga with tribal elders of North Wazoo Agency at Durrani House here on Wednesday, Mr Rehman asked Taliban not to act in haste and wait for the outcome of efforts being made by the grand jirga.
He said that the rulers should also reciprocate the peace offer and take the steps taken for restoration of durable peace seriously.
The JUI-F chief said that the rulers had made wrong decision of owning the US war imposed on the region. He said that the government had made wrong decisions and sabotaged peace agreements in past.
He said that the all parties conference had achieved its objectives by coming up with a joint declaration on holding talks with Taliban for restoration of peace. Implementation of the joint declaration is the responsibility of the next government, he maintained.
Mr Rehman said that any conspiracy to delay general election would prove dangerous for the country and his party would oppose any such move.
He said that the party would adopt a consensus policy concerning seat-to-seat adjustment with other political parties for the upcoming elections. All such decisions would be taken in the best interest of the country and its people and country, he claimed.
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03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] On Thursday, a three-man team from the capital police will leave for Afghanistan, hoping to arrest the man accused of killing a former Advocate General of the 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. High Court.
Their target, Rooh Ullah, beat feet from custody last July while in District Headquarters Hospital, and is reported to have been hiding in the home of an Afghan senator.
A police official, requesting anonymity, said that three officers -- Tahir Alam Khan, AIG of Police Operations; Sajid Kiani, Superintendent of Police at Saddar; and Raja Rahat, an inspector -- will meet with Interpol representatives after arrival in Kabul.
The customary procedure, when a criminal flees to a foreign country, is to return that person to the country of his or her crime.
In this case, however, a joint team of Islamabad police, Interpol and the Afghan immigration department will cooperate in the arrest.
The officer reported that Afghanistan's ambassador in Islamabad had promised IG Police Bani Amin Khan his cooperation.
If the IGP could track down his location, the ambassador is reported to have said that he would help coordinate actions from the Afghan side.
Earlier efforts by Afghan police to apprehend Rooh Ullah were unsuccessful, however.
According to the police officer, "an Afghan senator is protecting him".
One of Rooh Ullah's four wives is from a powerful Afghan family, and once he beat feet from custody in Rawalpindi, the accused used those connections to get the protection of the Afghan senator.
His location has been traced to a home owned by the senator, in a rural area near Jalalabad.
Rooh Ullah's time in police custody in Pakistain and his escape on July 28, 2011 were also controversial. Although he was tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in 2011 for the murder of a former advocate general, he had yet to be indicted, and not a single hearing had taken place.
According to an inquiry after his escape, while in Adiala Jail he received "VIP treatment", with two mobile phones, access to meals and clothes from his home, and no ban on visitors.
An investigation also found seven cheques from different bank accounts in his pillow, five of them blank but bearing his signature, and the other two drawn for Rs500,000 and Rs25,000. Police Sherlocks, under the supervision of AIG Tahir Alam Khan, believed he used cheques as bribes, to secure help in his escape.
On July 16, 2011 Rooh Ullah was taken to DHQ Hospital where he received an endoscopy and a Polymeras Chain Reaction test, and was prescribed medications, including Interferon, a hepatitis treatment.
Police say that he could have been given those treatments while in prison, but doctors and the hospital's Medical Superintendent ignored a July 18, 2011 letter requesting his transfer back to Adiala Jail.
In addition, the AIG's investigation claimed that while his transfer to the hospital was unnecessary, he should have been sent to an institution in Islamabad rather than Rawalpindi, and Adiala administration should have obtained permission from the Chief Commissioner Islamabad rather than the Punjab Home Department. "Adiala administration violated prison rules," the Sherlocks found.
While his lawyer maintains that he should be tried under the Pakistain Penal Code at the District and Sessions Court in Islamabad, the IHC is currently hearing a case that would send his trial to the Anti-Terrorism Court instead.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] LAHORE: In its preliminary report after a fact-finding mission to the Joseph Colony in Badami Bagh, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has held the police and the provincial administration squarely responsible for the attack on Christian homes earlier this week.
The mission's purpose was to "present facts -- regarding the incident of violence on Saturday, March 9 -- and the events that led up to the incident."
The report also seeks to look at the response of the administration before and during the incident and identify those responsible for the lapse. The initial investigations were conducted over two days and the HRCP plans to issue detailed findings within a few days.
On March 9, more than 200 houses in Joseph Colony were attacked, looted and burnt by a mob. The incident which sparked the chain of events that led to the assault is said to have occurred on Wednesday, March 6. "(A)ccording to most residents...on Wednesday evening a quarrel broke out between Shahid Imran, a local barber, and Sawan Masih alias Bodhi, while they were drinking together," says the initial HRCP report. "At the end of the fight Imran alleged that Sawan had made blasphemous remarks.
"At a subsequent stage, a resident of a neighbouring locality, Shaikhabad, Shafiq alias Cheeko, came to know of the incident through Imran. Later Shafiq, with the apparent intention of attacking Sawan, went to Joseph Colony, burnt down the billiard table (owned by) Sawan and proceeded to curse and threaten Sawan and the Christian community generally. Sawan was subsequently arrested on Friday after an FIR under Section 295-C, PPC, had been registered against him at the Badami Bagh police station."
The report quotes Zahida Parveen, a relative of Sawan, as saying that on the Friday evening the local police told the Christian community to vacate their houses as there was a possibility of violence erupting on Saturday. "The police also assured them of the safety of their houses and their belongings. Following the warning by the police almost the entire community evacuated the colony on Friday."
Some of the residents expressed the fear that the local trader community might have played a role in escalating the tensions. A local candidate for the upcoming Trader Association elections was alleged to have played a subversive role in the episode and in particular the incitement.
"On Saturday, a mob reportedly of around 3,000 ransacked and looted the colony with complete impunity, setting fire to majority of houses," says the HRCP report. "There is enough evidence to suggest that there was a considerable presence of the police force on the scene of occurrence. There is nothing to suggest that the mob was in any way resisted by the police.
According to some residents, there was looting before the houses were set on fire."
The HRCP mission found it "disturbing" that the local administration "that was clearly aware of the possibility of such an attack failed to take adequate measures either before or even during the attack". The commission asserts that the warning issued by the police on Friday to the residents "establishes conclusively the fact that the administration knew about arson and plunder in advance".
DCO Noorul Amin Mengal, while talking to the mission, "admitted the knowledge on Friday about possible violence and claimed to have informed his superiors, the IGP, and the chief minister, about the situation". The DCO said "he was present at some point during the incident on Saturday and asserted that maintenance of law and order was not part of his job as after the Police Order 2002 this power had devolved to the police administration".
The mission contacted City SP Imtiaz Sarwar, who had taken charge of the post after the occurrence. "He said in his opinion the police could have contained the protesters and a mistake had occurred in threat assessment by the local police and administration". The entire police administration at the time of the occurrence, consisting of SP City, DSP Badami Bagh and the SHO Badami Bagh have been removed from their posts and "were not available for comment at this stage".
The HRCP mission also tried to contact SSP (Investigation) Babar Bakht, who also was not available.
"The HRCP mission feels that the responsibility for the incident has to be ascribed at two levels -- immediate and ultimate," says the report. "The immediate responsibility for this act lies primarily with the police and district administration that despite prior knowledge failed to act. The ultimate responsibility rests squarely with the provincial government. The statement by the DCO establishes that the provincial government at the highest level was aware of the threat and potential damage, even likely violence in advance, and yet failed to order any measures. The HRCP mission also took note of statements made by the people it talked to that the raiders were ordinary residents from the adjacent areas and could not be identified as a group. That points to the effect of accumulated animus against the minority communities."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] When he visits the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem next week, US President Barack Obama If you have a small business, you didn't build that... will be looking to signal solidarity with the Middle East's Christian communities, the White House said on Thursday.
Many of the region's Christian populations are embattled minorities, and Obama's trip to the church, believed by many to be the site of Jesus' birth, is intended as a message to the region's oft-persecuted Christian minority.
"It's been a very difficult series of challenges for Christian communities in the region," White House Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communication Ben Rhodes said Thursday on a conference call with news hounds.
These challenges were "not just in the West Bank, but [also in] places like Syria, Egypt and Iraq. And recognizing the very deep and ancient Christian communities in that part of the world is a very important thing to do," Rhodes said.
Actually doing anything, on the other hand, isn't important at all.
In the upheavals currently underway in the region, "we've underscored the need to protect the rights of minorities. The visit to the Church of the Nativity is intended to send that signal."
The millenia-old Christian communities of the Middle East have dwindled dramatically in the 20th century, with severe persecution reported in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Libya, Gazoo to Iraq.
Obama's visit to the region has been framed by the White House as a series of messages. The White House has earnestly downplayed the significance of the trip for policy, explaining that no new peace plan or key policy question is behind the visit.
Rather, officials have suggested, the trip is seen by Washington as a signal to the region's various actors that Washington will remain involved and supportive of its allies.
"My goal on this trip is to listen," Obama told Israel's Channel 2 news in an interview aired Thursday night.
The Paleostinian Ma'an News Agency reported late Wednesday that the president may limit his time in the West Bank to four hours, only visiting Bethlehem and skipping the Paleostinian administrative center of Ramallah.
He doesn't want to see the riots that are being planned -- no chance of good optics there.
The report quoted a senior Paleostinian Authority source who said Obama would meet with Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... in Bethlehem, and that together they would visit the Church of the Nativity.
That's the one where the besieged jihadis peed on the alter and otherwise desecrated the place most thoroughly, as I recall.
But the White House conference call Thursday detailed trip plans that included a visit to Ramallah on Thursday, the second day of Obama's trip. The president will meet Abbas and Paleostinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad ...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either... , together with a group of young Paleostinians, while in the city.
The Church of the Nativity has been a political lightning rod in recent months after UNESCO put it on the list of Endangered World Heritage Sites in June, at the request of the Paleostinians and against the objections of Jerusalem and Washington.
Paleostinians touted the recognition by the UN cultural body as an affirmation of illusory sovereignty.
The visit to Israel will include meetings with President Shimon Peres, nearly half a day of consultations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- Netanyahu and Obama "have spent more time together one-on-one than frankly any other leader since the president came into office," Rhodes noted -- and visits to Mount Herzl, Yad Vashem and the Israel Museum.
The president's visit to Jerusalem is "an important opportunity for the president to consult [with Israeli leaders] on broad range of issues on which we cooperate," Rhodes said, including Iran, Syria, the fallout from the Arab Spring and the grinding of the peace processor.
But "more than that in some respects, this is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the Israeli people. There's no substitute for the president going directly to Israel... to spend some time speaking directly to the Israeli people," he said.
Israelis are outspoken. They might well speak directly back. Also not the best optics.
Rhodes, together with US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, who also spoke to news hounds, referred repeatedly to the president's "speech to the Israeli people," which will take place Thursday night at Jerusalem's Binyanei Hauma International Convention Center.
"The president very much wanted to have the opportunity to speak not just to Israelis, but Israeli young people," Rhodes said.
But not the ones from that university beyond the Green Line. The president was very specific about not wanting to see hide nor hair of *shudder* those people.
Update: The American Embassy says he is not either boycotting Ariel University. There are other reasons they were the only ones not invited.
The speech will focus on "the nature of the ties" between the two countries, "the broad agenda we work on" when it comes to security, peace talks and the economy, and "will speak to the future of that relationship," he said.
Everybody carefully don't mention Iran. That triggers his Mr. Hyde.
#2
Why is Obama talking to the Israelis about the plight of Christians in the Middle East? Christians in Israel are OK. It's the Christians in the West Bank, Egypt and other countries run by MUSLIMS who are suffering.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/15/2013 8:58 Comments ||
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#3
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/15/2013 11:12 Comments ||
Top||
#4
the president's "speech to the Israeli people,"
Any bets as to what point in this narcissistic and overlong speech that his lips fall off?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/15/2013 13:03 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Why is Obama talking to the Israelis about the plight of Christians in the Middle East
Meanwhile his Holder 'Justice' Department will continue to prosecute Christians whose beliefs are counter to Obamacare dictates.
[Ynet] Paleostinian officials' expectations of presidential visit relatively low; president's tour of Ramallah to be met with protest involving black flags
US President Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... 's upcoming visit to Israel and the Paleostinian Authority is not inspiring high hopes for a resumption of peace talks among Paleostinian leaders.
Chief Paleostinian negotiator Saeb Erekat ...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state... on Thursday led a group of Western diplomats in a tour of Jerusalem's Givat Hamatos neighborhood and Beit Safafa, stressing that Israeli construction in these areas as well as in Ramat Shlomo and Area E1 will terminate the two-state solution.
Low expectations notwithstanding, Erekat said that the visit is important in that it reflects American involvement in the Paleostinian issue.
He added that the Paleostinian Authority continues to demand the release of Paleostinian prisoners held by Israel who were tried prior to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
The Paleostinian Authority's ministry of prisoners' affairs has asked the US to arrange a meeting between Obama and a family whose son is held in an Israeli jail, but has yet to receive a response.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread... a group named "Paleostinians for Dignity" who is opposed to normalizing relations with Israel is seeking authorization from the PA to protest in Ramallah during Obama's visit. The group wishes to protest what they call a US bias towards Israel.
The group is planning on waving black flags and sending thousands of black balloons into the air when the president enters Ramallah.
Adnan Damiri, a front man of the Paleostinian security apparatus, said that such protests are protected under freedom of speech and that they are authorized as long as there is no violence.
3-G protest
On Wednesday, Ramallah's main streets became filled with posters calling on Obama to leave his smartphone at home when visiting Ramallah seeing as Israel prevents the PA from utilizing the third-generation (3-G) cellular technology.
On Thursday, unknown vandals marked an "X" over Obama's posters.
Paleostinian elements opposed to the visit endorsed the protest claiming that the cellular issue is minor in comparison to the more pressing issues such as prisoners, settlements and US military support of Israel.
Mohagher Iqbal,the chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's peace panel, said the talks between the rebel group and the government will resume late March despite the ongoing tension in Sabah. He said, As far as we are concerned, the peace talks will proceed as scheduled before the end of this month."
Iqbal said that the hostilities in Sabah would not derail the peace negotiations, and that the Sabah standoff and the peace negotiations were unrelated. He said, Why do we have to complicate the issue, thats another issue."
Of the MILF's no comment policy on the Sabah standoff, Iqbal said the issue is so sensitive that they decided to keep silent on the issue.
The scheduled talks in Kuala Lumpur this month would continue discussions on power sharing, wealth sharing and normalization.
More than 1,500 Filipinos have fled troubled Sabah and returned to their country.
#1
At last check, PHIL Prez Aquino is still under pressure from PHIL Political Circles/Personages to protect + defend the Followers + Territorial Claims of the Sultan of Sulu as per Sabah.
A U.S. Army veteran who was fighting for Syrian rebel forces has been declared dead in a graphic YouTube video showing at least a half dozen dead bodies.
That was fast. Last we heard, he was taking a break in Turkey.
The bloodied face of someone resembling Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix, was shown in the video, which was posted Wednesday under the title, 'Terrorists, including American Extremist "Eric Harroun" Have Been Terminated.'
The Pentagon said it is aware of the video but could not confirm whether Harroun is alive or dead.
'We are aware of the reports and we're watching them,' Pentagon spokesman Steve Warren told MailOnline.
Syria has warned it may strike at rebels hiding in neighbouring Lebanon if the Lebanese army does not act, the state news agency SANA said on Friday.
Syria's Foreign Ministry told its Lebanese counterpart late on Thursday that a "large number" of militants had crossed Lebanon's northern border into the Syrian town of Tel Kalakh over the past two days, SANA said.
"Syria expects the Lebanese side to prevent these armed terrorist groups from using the borders as a crossing point, because they target Syrian people and are violating Syrian sovereignty," the diplomatic cable said.
It said Syria's "patience is not unlimited", even though "Syrian forces have so far exercised restraint from striking at armed gangs inside Lebanese territory."
Fighting near the border resulted in a large number of casualties, SANA said, before the gunmen retreated into Lebanon.
Lebanon has a policy of "dissociation" from the two-year civil war in Syria but officials say they feel their country is increasingly at risk of being dragged into a conflict that the United Nations says has killed 70,000 Syrians.
U.N. refugee agency chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the Syrian conflict threatens Lebanon's existence.
[Jpost] The United States on Thursday slapped financial sanctions on a Greek businessman for secretly operating a shipping network on behalf of the Iranian government to get around international sanctions on the country's sale of oil.
"Today, we are lifting the veil on an intricate Iranian scheme that was designed to evade international oil sanctions," US Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence David Cohen said in a statement.
The move named Dimitris Cambis and a number of companies for purchasing oil tankers on behalf of the National Iranian Tanker Company, and bars US citizens from doing business with any of them
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03/15/2013 01:07 ||
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[An Nahar] France and Britain are seeking to lift an EU embargo to enable them to arm Syrian rebels, arguing that Moscow's supply of weapons to Damascus is giving the regime an unfair edge, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday.
His comments were welcomed by the Syrian opposition as a step in the right direction, but condemned by the regime of President Bashar Assad which said arming the rebels was "a flagrant violation" of international law.
The European Union is sharply divided over the issue, with some fearing that sending more weapons to Syria could further escalate a brutal two-year conflict that has left about 70,000 people dead according to U.N. figures.
Fabius said Paris and London plan to call for the next EU meeting on the weapons ban, currently planned for the end of May, to be held sooner.
"The position that we have taken with President Francois Hollande is to ask (the European Union) to lift the embargo on arms (to the rebels)" he said.
Fabius said Paris could decide to arm the rebels even if the 27-member body does not give unanimous agreement, underscoring that France "is a sovereign nation" and hinting at independent action.
The EU last month amended its embargo to allow member nations to supply "non-lethal" equipment and training to the opposition but stopped short of lifting the ban entirely.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The balance of power in Syria will eventually shift to rebel forces but a protracted civil war risks destabilizing the whole region, a leading think-tank warned Thursday in its annual report on world military strengths.
Syria dominated an "increasingly complex" global security situation that also includes China's rise and a continuing increase in Asian defense spending, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.
Cash-strapped Western militaries are meanwhile using the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan as a pretext for focusing on smaller but more capable forces, it said.
The "Military Balance 2013" report said the tide was turning against President Bashar Assad in the two-year conflict in Syria, even though the prospect of foreign military intervention remained "remote".
"It was likely that, over time, the balance of forces would shift to the rebels, given that their capability and external support would rise," the report said.
"Short of using chemical weapons against rebels, with attendant risk of international intervention, it was difficult to see how Assad could reverse this trend."
But the report warned that regime forces "could still tactically defeat the rebels if the latter abandoned their guerrilla approach and tried to hold urban areas".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council expressed "grave concern" Thursday over cross-border attacks between Syria and Lebanon in a rare united declaration on the Syrian conflict. "What kind of concern?"
"Grave concern."
The 15-member body, bitterly divided over the Syrian conflict, expressed "deep concern" over the fallout from the Syrian conflict on stability in Lebanon, in a statement released after closed talks.
Council members "underscored their grave concern over repeated incidents of cross-border fire which caused death and injury among the Lebanese population, incursions, abductions and arms trafficking across the Lebanese-Syrian border, as well as other border violations."
The statement was read to reporters by Russia's U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin. Moscow has joined Beijing in blocking three resolutions aiming to step up pressure on President Bashar Assad to halt the conflict.
The Security Council "underlined the importance of full respect for Lebanon's sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity."
It also expressed "deep concern at the impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon's stability."
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03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Syria on Thursday warned that its forces would fire into Lebanon if "terrorist gangs" continued to infiltrate the country, in a letter of protest to Lebanon.
One assumes they don't mean Hizb'allah...
"These past 36 hours, armed terrorist gangs have infiltrated Syrian territory in large numbers from Lebanon," the Syrian foreign ministry said in the letter carried by Syria's news agency SANA.
"Syrian forces have confronted these gangs and clashes are continuing," the ministry added.
"Syrian forces are showing restraint by not striking these gangs inside Lebanese territory to prevent them from crossing into Syria, but this will not go on indefinitely," it said, urging Lebanon to take action.
Earlier on Thursday, Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali announced that Syria had submitted the letter of protest to Lebanese authorities, complaining against "violations of the neighboring country's territory on the border".
"Armed men have been sneaking into (the Syrian town of) Tall Kalakh and the region has witnessed several violations in the last couple of days," Ali explained in an interview with al-Mayadeen television.
He noted: "Syria is still exercising self-control towards violations coming from Lebanese territory".
The Syrian diplomat said the Lebanese Deputy Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry Charbel Wehbe expressed his "empathy with the note", promising to deliver it to President Michel Suleiman and relevant authorities.
"We hope the Lebanese army will respond to these acts that threaten security in both countries," Ali added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2013 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] The US commander in Afghanistan has warned troops that they face an increased threat of attack after a series of inflammatory anti-US comments by President Hamid Karzai.
[An Nahar] President Hamid Karzai on Thursday said he wanted to "correct" rather than damage U.S.-Afghan relations, after a storm of protest over his recent anti-U.S. remarks.
[Ynet] Three senior 
[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council raised new concerns Thursday about arms flowing from Libya into neighboring countries and thousands of detainees held in secret by militias.
[An Nahar] The Egyptian opposition is more determined than ever to boycott parliamentary elections after Islamist President Mohamed Morsi challenged a court decision delaying the polls, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Thursday.
[An Nahar] Thousands of people who fled when Islamists attacked the largest city in Mali's war-torn north have returned, a survey by a local charity working to resettle refugees told Agence France Presse on Thursday.
[Guardian Ng] THE European Union (EU) Thursday said it was set to deploy its expertise in engaging the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) on how to arrest the current insurgency by Boko Haram, which has led to the kidnapping and killing of foreigners in some part of the North.
North Korea
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
[Dawn] LAHORE: In its preliminary report after a fact-finding mission to the Joseph Colony in Badami Bagh, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has held the police and the provincial administration squarely responsible for the attack on Christian homes earlier this week.
On March 9, more than 200 houses in Joseph Colony were attacked, looted and burnt by a mob. The incident which sparked the chain of events that led to the assault is said to have occurred on Wednesday, March 6. "(A)ccording to most residents...on Wednesday evening a quarrel broke out between Shahid Imran, a local barber, and Sawan Masih alias Bodhi, while they were drinking together," says the initial HRCP report. "At the end of the fight Imran alleged that Sawan had made blasphemous remarks.
[IsraelTimes] When he visits the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem next week, US President 
A U.S. Army veteran who was fighting for Syrian rebel forces has been declared dead in a graphic YouTube video showing at least a half dozen dead bodies.
[An Nahar] France and Britain are seeking to lift an EU embargo to enable them to arm Syrian rebels, arguing that Moscow's supply of weapons to Damascus is giving the regime an unfair edge, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday.
[An Nahar] The balance of power in Syria will eventually shift to rebel forces but a protracted civil war risks destabilizing the whole region, a leading think-tank warned Thursday in its annual report on world military strengths.
[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council expressed "grave concern" Thursday over cross-border attacks between Syria and Lebanon in a rare united declaration on the Syrian conflict.
[An Nahar] Syria on Thursday warned that its forces would fire into Lebanon if "terrorist gangs" continued to infiltrate the country, in a letter of protest to Lebanon.
