[An Nahar] Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday claimed victory in his latest dispute with the U.S. after accusing its special forces of abusing civilians in the key strategic province of Wardak. Well, okay. Zat mean they're gonna put up a statue of Hamid on a rearing horse, pointing his sword toward Mecca?
Karzai had demanded that the elite U.S. units leave the province, just outside Kabul. On Wednesday, a deal was stuck in which Afghan forces will take responsibility for security in Nerkh, one of Wardak's eight districts.
The agreement made no mention of special forces, and the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said that it was "business as usual" for its troops in the rest of Wardak. It's almost like Kabuki theater...
President Hamid Karzai said he welcomed the announcement that coalition forces were preparing to pull out of the province, which is seen as critical for protecting Kabul from insurgent assaults.
"The decision for withdrawal follows repeated local complaints of harassment and annoyance by the American Special Forces, and a decision by the National Security Council as well as a presidential order," he said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2013 00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian salafist jihadists announced their allegiance to al-Qaeda this week, accepting the group's invitation to wage a holy war.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's call on Sunday (March 17th) to fight the French, westerners, secularists and other so-called "enemies" was welcomed by Tunisian salafist jihadists, the movement's leader, Mohamed Anis Chaieb, told Assabah.
"The statement posted by AQIM calls for the preservation of the gains of the Tunisian revolution and the salafist jihadist movement will heed this call and defend these gains," the movement's leader, Mohamed Anis Chaieb told Assabah.
He added that the "onslaught of secularism" is what made sheikhs and al-Qaeda urge young people in the Maghreb not to leave their countries because "these lands had become vulnerable".
This was the first time for Tunisia's salafist jihadist groups to officially announce their allegiance to al-Qaeda, though some of their leaders were known to be linked to the terrorist organization.
This is the case of Ansar al-Sharia ...an Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... leader Saif Allah bin Hussein (aka Abou Iyadh), who is currently being investigated by security services.
Since the overthrow of ousted President-for-Life Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ...who departed by popular demand in January, 2011, precipitating the Arab Spring... in early 2011, security forces clashed on more than one occasion with gunnies belonging to Death Eater religious movements.
"Tunisians see the phenomena as a threat to the way of life of the majority," President Moncef Marzouki said in November, warning against those beturbanned goons who try to "impose their law by force in some mosques and neighbourhoods in the country".
This is "a scheme by the salafists to establish an Islamic emirate in Tunisia, similar to what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan", former Interim Prime Minister Hamadi Jebai said.
For secondary school teacher Neila Makhlouf, al-Qaeda's "call for support is an indication of its defeat and disintegration, as well as a decline in its popularity after the Arab revolutions".
But the organization will try to take advantage of the prevailing insecurity in the region, she added.
"They want to fight secularism with violence, murder and sabotage. Yet I tell them that there is another way to confront and combat secularism, which is with knowledge and science," she said.
"They support al-Qaeda in the fight against La Belle France and secularists but do not support the economy of the country or the poor and orphans. Fighting La Belle France and secularism is not the solution for Tunisian people, because arms and the subsequent terrorism are a problem and not a solution," Fourat Yahmadi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2013 00:00 ||
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{MAGHAREBIA] With news that the United Nations (UN) will soon deploy a mission to northern Mali, Arab and Touareg refugees currently living in Mauritania, Algeria and Niger are now hopeful that they could soon return home.
The Friends of Mali on Sunday (March 17th) held a meeting in Nouakchott to discuss the option of sending troops to northern Mali under the UN umbrella before April.
The deployment of a peacekeeping mission is the best way to consolidate stability in Mali's northern regions, according to the country's neighbours and regional African organisations.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2013 00:00 ||
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Iran has illegally laundered billions of dollars through the Venezuelan financial sector and is currently stashing hundreds of millions of dollars in virtually every Venezuelan bank today, according to a former senior State Department official.
Its a huge blind spot in those trying to implement sanctions on Iran, Roger Noriega, a former United States ambassador and assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, told the Washington Free Beacon.
Venezuela served as Irans closest Western ally under the late President Hugo Chavez, who allowed the rogue regime to establish a military and financial presence at the highest levels of the Venezuelan government.
Irans foothold in the country is expected to grow exponentially under the rule of Chavezs likely successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro.
Noriega and other experts warned House lawmakers at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday that Irans terrorist proxy Hezbollah is gaining power in Venezuela.
Hezbollah, which carries out terrorist attacks on Irans behalf, has helped Tehran access Venezuelas sophisticated financial sector, experts said.
Its easy to say billions have been laundered through various Iranian enterprises and institutions through the Venezuelan economy, Noriega told the Free Beacon in an interview Thursday. The Iranians have seized on this as a way to evade sanctions.
Hezbollah has not only infiltrated Venezuelas governmental bodies. The organization has also established terrorist training facilities on the countrys Margarita Island, according to Noriega.
Hezbollah has been able to form from this Caribbean haven a marriage of convenience with various narcotics traffickers and drug gangs that bring the terrorist threat to our doorstep, Noriega told lawmakers Wednesday.
The U.S. government is expanding a cybersecurity program that scans Internet traffic headed into and out of defense contractors to include far more of the country's private, civilian-run infrastructure. As a result, more private sector employees than ever before, including those at big banks, utilities and key transportation companies, will have their emails and Web surfing scanned as a precaution against cyber attacks.
Clearly we need to 'harden' critical communications, internet, electrical, etc facilities against cyber-attack. I'm all for being careful. I just get a creepy feeling watching this administration do this sort of thing...
Under last month's White House executive order on cybersecurity, the scans will be driven by classified information provided by U.S. intelligence agencies -- including data from the National Security Agency (NSA) -- on new or especially serious espionage threats and other hacking attempts. U.S. spy chiefs said on March 12 that cyber attacks have supplanted terrorism as the top threat to the country.
The Department of Homeland Security will gather the secret data and pass it to a small group of telecommunication companies and cyber security providers that have employees holding security clearances, government and industry officials said. Those companies will then offer to process email and other Internet transmissions for critical infrastructure customers that choose to participate in the program.
By using DHS as the middleman, the Obama administration hopes to bring the formidable overseas intelligence-gathering of the NSA closer to ordinary U.S. residents without triggering an outcry from privacy advocates who have long been leery of the spy agency's eavesdropping.
How does using DHS accomplish that? It just turns DHS into a spy agency.
The telecom companies will not report back to the government on what they see, except in aggregate statistics, a senior DHS official said in an interview granted on condition he not be identified.
So statistics about an email talking about committing a terrorist attack somewhere will be aggregated with a bunch of statistics about other suspicious emails? That doesn't make a bit of sense.
"That allows us to provide more sensitive information," the official said. "We will provide the information to the security service providers that they need to perform this function." Procedures are to be established within six months of the order.
The administration is separately seeking legislation that would give incentives to private companies, including communications carriers, to disclose more to the government.
What they call 'incentives' we might call 'coercion'...
NSA Director General Keith Alexander said last week that NSA did not want personal data but Internet service providers could inform the government about malicious software they find and the Internet Protocol addresses they were sent to and from.
"There is a way to do this that ensures civil liberties and privacy and does ensure the protection of the country," Alexander told a congressional hearing.
In the past, Internet traffic-scanning efforts were mainly limited to government networks and Defense Department contractors, which have long been targets of foreign espionage. But as fears grow of a destructive cyber attack on core, non-military assets, and more sweeping security legislation remained stalled, the Obama administration opted to widen the program.
It's a legitimate concern. Do we want Big Sis and Eric Holder running this?
Last month's presidential order calls for commercial providers of "enhanced cybersecurity services" to extend their offerings to critical infrastructure companies. What constitutes critical infrastructure is still being refined, but it would include utilities, banks and transportation such as trains and highways.
Under the program, critical infrastructure companies will pay the providers, which will use the classified information to block attacks before they reach the customers. The classified information involves suspect Web addresses, strings of characters, email sender names and the like.
Not all the cybersecurity providers will be telecom companies, though AT&T is one. Raytheon said this month it had agreed with DHS to become a provider, and a spokesman said that customers could route their traffic to Raytheon after receiving it from their communications company.
As the new set-up takes shape, DHS officials and industry executives said some security equipment makers were working on hardware that could take classified rules about blocking traffic and act on them without the operator being able to reverse-engineer the codes. That way, people wouldn't need a security clearance to use the equipment.
The issue of scanning everything headed to a utility or a bank still has civil liberties implications, even if each company is a voluntary participant.
Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that the executive order did not weaken existing privacy laws, but any time a machine acting on classified information is processing private communications, it raises questions about the possibility of secret extra functions that are unlikely to be answered definitively.
Indeed, they can't be answered definitely: doing so tells the bad guys how to duck the screening process.
"You have to wonder what else that box does," Tien said.
One technique for examining email and other electronic packets en route, called deep packet inspection, has stirred controversy for years, and some cybersecurity providers said they would not be using that. In deep packet inspection, communication companies or others with network access can examine all the elements of a transmission, including the content of emails.
"The signatures provided by DHS do not require deep packet inspection," said Steve Hawkins, vice president at Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems division, referring further questions to DHS.
The DHS official said the government is still in conversations with the telecom operators on the issue.
The official said the government had no plans to roll out any such form of government-guided close examination of Internet traffic into the communications companies serving the general public.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
"Borderless" US under OWG + NAU 2015-n-higher, etc. + still aren't gonna secure the borders nor domestic criminal trafficking.
D *** NG IT, OUR SOON-TO-BE-GLOBAL NATIONAL WELFARE-NANNY STATE + MASSIVE DEBT, DEFICIT BURDENS M-U-S-T BE PROTECTED + EXPANDED, THUS OUR RIGHTEOUS NEED TO VIOLATE THE CONSTITUTION + THE RIGHTS OF LAW-ABIDING AMERICANS.
NEW DELHI: An appeal from the Press Council of India (PCI) chief, Justice (retd) Markandey Katju to the Maharashtra governor K Sankarnarayan seeking mercy for actor Sanjay Dutt seems to have found favour from the government with several UPA ministers on Friday suggesting if the Bollywood star approaches the governor an "appropriate" decision may be taken.
"Governor will use his discretionary power when there will be an appeal to him. He has the power to pardon," said law minister Ashwani Kumar. He, however, refrained from giving his own opinion on it.
Information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said the authorities will take cognizance of the matter at an appropriate level.
"Justice Katju has been a very eminent judge of the Supreme Court. Whenever he articulates a position on an issue, people both inside and outside the government listen to it carefully," Tewari told reporters.
Tourism minister and film star Chiranjeevi too favoured mercy, saying Dutt, "should get mercy ... if he gets mercy, I will be the most happiest person."
Earlier, Justice Katju had appealed to the governor K Sankarnarayan seeking pardon for Dutt on humanitarian grounds under Article 162 of the Constitution after the apex court had upheld his five-year sentence in the 1993 blasts case.
However, Raj Bhavan officials in Mumbai said they were yet to receive any official communication in this regard from Justice Katju.
Maharashtra home minister R R Patil said that the state government too had not received any application in this regard. "The entire issue was being handled by the centre. I haven't yet read the entire SC judgment," he said. Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan chose not to comment on the issue.
Plea for clemency for the film star has been made by some allies of the Congress too. NCP general secretary D P Tripathi made a strong pitch for mercy. "The governor has the right and he should give clemency to Dutt who has not been accused of any involvement in terrorist activities but illegal possession of arms," Tripathi said.
Opposition BJP was more cautious. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said, "Review petition has been allowed to be filed by the SC. Now it is up to Sanjay Dutt whether he wants to file or not. Let's see what they have to decide."
Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan said she will appeal to Maharashtra governor K Sankarnarayanan to pardon Dutt. "I agree with everyone that he has suffered a lot. I believe that he should not be given such a big punishment. He is a changed man now. I'm going to personally appeal governor and ask him to pardon him," she said.
This article starring:
Sanjay Dutt
Posted by: john frum ||
03/22/2013 18:43 ||
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ROME Italy said two marines on trial for murder in India would return to the country by Friday, a stunning turnaround after Rome earlier unleashed a diplomatic furore by saying they would not go back.
Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, granted special leave last month by an Indian court to return to Italy to vote in elections, had skipped bail.
The government said on Thursday it had received "ample assurances" from Indian authorities "on the treatment that the marines will receive and the defence of their fundamental rights.
"The government decided, also in the interests of the marines, to maintain the commitment taken when they were granted leave to take part in the elections to return to India by March 22," it said.
"The marines agreed to this decision," it added.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti met with Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola and Steffan de Mistura, a junior foreign minister who has taken a lead on the case, to discuss the issue on Thursday.
De Mistura said the decision was a "difficult" one.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said he appreciated the "sense of responsibility" displayed by the two marines.
The government had announced on March 11 that the marines would not return from their leave.
Italy insists the marines should be prosecuted in their home country because the shootings involved an Italian-flagged vessel in international waters. India says the killings took place in waters under its jurisdiction.
The two are accused of having shot dead two Indian fishermen they mistook for pirates off the Indian port of Kochi last year. They were serving as security guards on an Italian oil tanker.
After Italy said the marines would not return, Indian authorities forbade Italy's ambassador to New Delhi, Daniele Mancini, from leaving the country, saying he had broken a written promise.
Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born head of India's ruling party, had accused Rome of an unacceptable "betrayal", and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had warned Italy that there would be "consequences".
Italy had accused India of violating international laws on diplomatic immunity as the Indian Supreme Court issued a decision requiring Mancini to seek the court's permission to leave the country.
New Delhi also put its airports on alert to prevent Mancini from leaving.
Without legal protection he could be prosecuted for contempt of court.
A lawyer for the Italian government argued that Mancini still enjoyed diplomatic immunity and freedom of movement under international rules contained in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday defended Mancini, saying diplomatic immunity "should be respected at all times". Limiting his movement "would be contrary" to international obligations, she said.
Italy said it was trying to find a way out of the dispute that would satisfy both sides.
"The Italian government is working on a friendly agreement with India based on international law," Italian President Giorgio Napolitano's office said in a statement.
Relations between the two countries have also been soured by corruption allegations surrounding a $748 million deal for the purchase of 12 Italian helicopters, which the Indian government is now threatening to scrap.
The case of the marines caused more uproar in the local assembly of southwestern Kerala, the home state of the dead fishermen.
The opposition Communist party walked out of the assembly after their demand for an urgent discussion on how the Italian marines had been allowed to return home was dismissed by the ruling party.
"It's a shame on India that this case was dealt with casually," senior Communist leader P.K. Gurudasan told AFP.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/22/2013 14:08 ||
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Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf said Friday he would definitely return home Sunday to contest historic elections in May and that he was prepared to risk any danger to his life.
He gave an interview with AFP in Dubai just hours after a Pakistani court granted him protective bail in a string of legal cases, paving the way for his return from nearly five years in exile without the risk of immediate arrest.
But commentators say most of his powerbase has evaporated and that he will only secure at the most a couple of seats for his All Pakistan Muslim League (APLM) party in the next national assembly at the May 11 election.
"Two hundred percent! I am travelling back on Sunday to Pakistan," he told AFP in Dubai, where he has divided his time with London.
"I will go by land, air or sea... even to the peril of my life this is the oath I took for the country."
Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup when he was army chief of staff in 1999 and left the country after stepping down in August 2008, when Asif Ali Zardari was elected president.
[Washington Times] US says deal violates international accord
China and Pakistain reached a formal agreement last month to construct a third nuclear reactor at Chashma that the B.O. regime says will violate Beijing's promises under an international anti-nuclear weapons accord.
According to U.S. intelligence and diplomatic officials, the secret agreement for the Chashma 3 reactor was signed in Beijing during the visit by a delegation from the Pakistain Atomic Energy Commission from Feb. 15 to 18.
The agreement calls for the state-run China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) to construct a 1,000-megawatt power plant at Chashma, located in the northern province of Punjab, where two earlier Chinese reactors were built.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/22/2013 03:26 ||
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Israel's prime minister has apologised to Turkey for any mistakes that could have resulted in the loss of lives during the 2010 raid on a flotilla that tried to breach the blockade of Gaza.
In a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to compensate the families of the victims.
Mr Netanyahu had previously only expressed regret for the nine deaths.
The stance significantly damaged relations between the two US allies.
The telephone conversation took place at the end of a visit to Israel and the West Bank by US President Barack Obama.
Before departing Tel Aviv airport for Jordan on Friday afternoon, Mr Obama revealed that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Erdogan had spoken.
"The United States deeply values our close partnerships with both Turkey and Israel, and we attach great importance to the restoration of positive relations between them in order to advance regional peace and security," he said in a statement.
US officials told reporters that Mr Netanyahu had apologised for the flotilla incident and acknowledged "operational mistakes".
Reactions from MKs to US President Barack Obama's speech in Jerusalem on Thursday ranged from excited support to condemnation.
Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett mentioned the rockets fired at Sderot in the morning, saying they were the result of the previous withdrawal from land, as were thousands of victims over the years.
"A Palestinian state is not the right way," the Bayit Yehudi chairman said. "The time has come for new ideas and creativity to solve the Middle East conflict."
"Anyway," he added, "a nation does not occupy its own land."
#2
I thought that was Eminent Domain. The power to take private property for public use by a state, municipality, or private person or corporation authorized to exercise functions of public character, following the payment of just compensation to the owner of that property.
Federal, state, and local governments may take private property through their power of eminent domain or may regulate it by exercising their Police Power. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires the government to provide just compensation to the owner of the private property to be taken. A variety of property rights are subject to eminent domain, such as air, water, and land rights.
Oh, wait. Thats HERE anyone with the juice can condem and acquire your property. Like a foreclosure.
#2
Given how the Shia hate the Sunnis and everyone hates the Juice, we'll have an Ice Age before we have peace in the ME. I suggest B-HO practice making peace with the Canadians before he tries the hard stuff.
Posted by: David Soul ||
03/22/2013 11:57 Comments ||
Top||
#5
You don't create peace in the ME from a position of weakness.
The soft approach to Libya and Egypt, the use of drones instead of force of arms, and the nonsense about Israel do not breed an environment conducive to negotiations.
You have to stick a knife in the table and slap them around if you want the Moslems to agree to anything.
I'd start with carpet bombing Wardak and the Tribal Territories.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/22/2013 13:07 Comments ||
Top||
#6
See also WAFF > OBAMA: ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF WEST BANK MUST END [Paleos deserve their own sovereign + indepedent state].
and
* TOPIX > OBAMA IN JORDAN WARNS OF EXTREMIST THREAT IN SYRIA WHEN - NOT IFF - ASSAD REGIME FALLS.
Also promised Jordan = King Abdullah a whole lotta US aid $$$.
[An Nahar] Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas on Thursday slammed violence against civilians, including Gaza rocket fire after two projectiles hit Israel as U.S. President Barack Obama visits.
"We condemn violence against civilians, whatever its source, including the firing of rockets," political adviser Nimr Hammad quoted Abbas as saying.
What did he say in Arabic?
"We are for mutual and comprehensive pacification in the Gaza Strip, and we supported the agreement that was reached through Egyptian mediation on November 21, 2012," he added, referring to a ceasefire after eight days of conflict between Israel and Hamas militants.
Two rockets fired by militants in Gaza on Thursday hit southern Israel on the second day of a visit by Obama to the Jewish state.
Israeli officials pointed the finger at Islamist movement Hamas, a rival to Abbas's West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. Hamas implicitly denied responsibility, but gave a guarded reaction to Israeli accusations.
Hamas said it "considers talk of rocket fire to be merely Israeli accusations aimed at gaining sympathy from Obama... and inciting him against Palestinians," its spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2013 00:00 ||
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The European Union edged closer on Friday to lifting an embargo against shipping arms to Syrias opposition, but differences remained about the feasibility of giving a boost to moderates there while bypassing militant jihadist groups.
Britain and France have in recent weeks pushed hard to allow sending weaponry to Syrian rebels, but Germany, Sweden and others among the E.U.s 27 nations have been skeptical about the advisability of intervening in a bloody sectarian conflict where individual opposition groups have uncertain allegiances.
German willingness to entertain lifting the ban has been increasing in recent days, ahead of a Friday meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in Dublin to discuss the embargo. Germany has been one of the major opponents and any shift may bring other countries along.
We must prevent heavy weaponry from falling into the wrong hands, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters in Dublin on Friday. But in a separate interview published Friday in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, he said that at the same time we know that we must be ready to change our policy if there is a change in the situation.
The United States has also resisted arming the Syrian rebels. According to United Nations estimates, more than 70,000 people have died in Syria since the conflict started in March 2011.
The Syria embargo will expire at the end of May if the E.U. takes no action before then, and Britain and France have urged that sanctions continue on Assads government but that exceptions be added to allow antiaircraft and antitank missiles to be sent to rebel groups. Doing so could dramatically change the course of a bloody conflict that has entered its third year. Right now, Syrian government fighter planes and helicopters are able to fly over large portions of Syrian territory unhindered. The heavy weapons and the training to operate them could push Assad on his heels.
But Europeans are split on whether there is anyone to arm within Syrias fragmented opposition. Weapons such as shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles would be useful in the fight against Assad, but they would also be useful in taking down a Western airliner. Some European countries, including Germany, believe that the only rebel group in Syria with the organization to effectively use heavy weaponry against Assad is the Jabhat al-Nusra, or al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group that has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States for its suspected ties to al-Qaeda.
What makes us very nervous is that al-Nusra is stronger than people believe it is, said a senior European official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal intelligence assessments.
That official said that lifting the weapons embargo may be largely symbolic, because Britain and France may not have significant stockpiles of weaponry to send to rebel groups. But lifting it would give Europeans greater leeway to channel arms from Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar to rebels training in Jordan and Turkey.
[An Nahar] Iran will "annihilate" the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa if it comes under attack by the Jewish state, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Thursday.
"Every now and then the leaders of the Zionist regime threaten Iran with a military attack," Khamenei said in a live televised speech from the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, referring to Israel.
"They should know that if they commit such a blunder, the Islamic republic will annihilate Tel Aviv and Haifa," he said.
Iran is said to possess ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel. It also has close relations with Israel's foes in the region, including Hizbullah and Palestinian militants in the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip.
Khamenei spoke with little sign of an easing in Tehran's position in its confrontation with the West over its disputed nuclear program of uranium enrichment.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Tell me again how a parking lot launches an annihilating attack on anyone.
#2
So-o-o not unlike NOKOR's latest threat to attack US Milbases on Japan + Guam wid Nukes, these claims taken collectively makes sense only iff Iran already has viable NucWarheads/Bombs [MRV/MIRV?] to put atop its LRBMS???
Now that they're done with their inquiry into North Korea...
[An Nahar] The United Nations will launch an independent investigation into a Syrian government allegation that opposition rebels staged a chemical weapons this week, U.N. leader Ban Ki-Moon said Thursday.
"I intend for this investigation to start as soon as practically possible," Ban told reporters.
And last past lunch...
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and World Health Organisation are helping to set up what Ban predicted would be "a difficult mission."
President Bashar Assad's government said opposition fighters used chemical weapons in an attack at Khan al-Assal near Aleppo on Tuesday.
The opposition has blamed government forces, but the government made a formal request for a U.N. inquiry on Wednesday. Western nations had demanded that the U.N. look into all allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria.
"I have decided to conduct a United Nations investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria," Ban told reporters.
"The investigation mission is to look into the specific incident brought to my attention by the Syrian government," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
IF it happened, expect the UN "experts" to blame the Juice
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2013 8:42 Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] Syrian opposition leader Soheir Atassi of the Syrian National Coalition grouping said on Thursday she was rejoining the body a day after abruptly "freezing" her membership.
"The main reason I froze my participation is the failure of organizational work and the lack of professionalism," Atassi wrote on her Facebook page.
"I canceled my decision... (and) I announce that I am resuming all my responsibilities... after serious and in-depth discussions suggesting a significant change that I demanded," she wrote.
Atassi's decision to freeze her membership in the coalition came shortly after the body elected Ghassan Hitto to serve as Syria's first rebel premier, tasking him with forming an interim government.
Hitto's election, and the move to form a government, were opposed by some Coalition members, around 10 of whom joined Atassi in announcing they were suspending their membership.
But Atassi backs the forming of an interim government and emphasized on her Facebook page on Thursday that she continued to support the process "as an institutional way of serving the revolution."
Atassi, 41, has become an icon of the Syrian uprising. She is the co-founder of the Syrian Revolution General Commission network of activists, and has a background in civil society.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] President Bashar Assad called the more than two-year deadly conflict in Syria a "battle of will and resistance," in remarks published in newspapers on Thursday.
"Today, all of Syria has been wounded," he was reported as saying on a visit the previous day to an educational center in the capital.
"But what is happening cannot weaken us, and the battle is one of will and resistance. If we are strong, we will be able to protect the sons of Syria," he said.
On Wednesday, Assad paid a surprise visit to the Educational Center for Fine Arts to honor "the families of students who were martyred as a result of terrorist acts, to honor the parents himself," the presidency said on its official Facebook page.
Media on Thursday reported the embattled Syrian leader as saying the conflict was "firstly a struggle against ignorance."
"Our message to our enemies is that we will turn Syria into a strong state that battles against ignorance," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2013 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[An Nahar] Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday claimed victory in his latest dispute with the U.S. after accusing its special forces of abusing civilians in the key strategic province of Wardak.
{MAGHAREBIA] With news that the United Nations (UN) will soon deploy a mission to northern Mali, Arab and Touareg refugees currently living in Mauritania, Algeria and Niger are now hopeful that they could soon return home.
The U.S. government is expanding a cybersecurity program that scans Internet traffic headed into and out of defense contractors to include far more of the country's private, civilian-run infrastructure. As a result, more private sector employees than ever before, including those at big banks, utilities and key transportation companies, will have their emails and Web surfing scanned as a precaution against cyber attacks.
[An Nahar] 
[An Nahar] President Bashar Assad called the more than two-year deadly conflict in Syria a "battle of will and resistance," in remarks published in newspapers on Thursday.
