A federal judge on Thursday dismissed terrorism support and conspiracy charges against the younger of two Muslim clerics accused of funneling thousands of dollars to the Pakistani Taliban, citing a lack of evidence.
The judge ruled that "no rational trier of fact" could convict 26-year-old Izhar Khan, who is imam at a mosque in suburban Margate north of Fort Lauderdale. Trial is continuing against his father, 77-year-old Hafiz Khan. U.S. District Judge Robert Scola said the evidence against the older Khan is much stronger.
"This court will not allow the sins of the father to be visited upon the son," Scola wrote in a seven-page order.
Federal prosecutors earlier dropped charges against another of Hafiz Khan's sons who also had minimal involvement. Izhar Khan's attorney, Joseph Rosenbaum, said a judge's dismissal of charges is rare, particularly in a case linked to international terrorism.
Sin City A Pub California congressman said Tuesday that he was considering asking the Pentagon inspector general to investigate why Champ hasnt approved the nations highest military award for gallantry for a former Army captain whose nomination has been stalled at the White House since last summer.
Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr., R-Calif., said that before requesting a probe, he wanted to give the Army and the Defense Department a final opportunity to explain the delay in awarding the Medal of Honor to former Army CPT William Swenson for valor for acts he performed during a 2009 battle in eastern Afghanistan.
Seeking an inspector generals inquiry is something that were talking about if the Army and the Defense Department dont come out and say why Swenson hasnt been awarded the medal yet, said Hunter, a former Marine who served two combat tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. It shouldnt be complicated to come out and do the right thing.
[VOA News] Algeria's state-run news agency says the military operation at the natural gas complex where Islamic militants seized 41 foreign hostages has ended.
But firm information on the fate of the captives is hard to confirm.
The country's communications minister, Mohamed Said, said a "large number of terrorists were neutralized" during the raid. But he also said that several hostages were killed.
A news agency in Mauritania quoted a militant spokesman as saying 34 hostages and 15 kidnappers were killed when Algerian helicopters attacked as the militants tried to move the hostages. That report has not been independently confirmed.
Algeria's news agency reports four hostages - one from Kenya, one from France, and two from Britain - were freed. Other hostages are believed to include Norwegians, Japanese and Americans.
Al-Qaida-linked militants stormed the Amenas gas complex in eastern Algeria Wednesday for what they say is retaliation for French military operations in Mali. Islamic militants also with ties to al-Qaida are in control of northern Mali and have threatened to move towards the capital.
The gas complex is jointly run by Algerian, British and Norwegian firms. The Pentagon says it is ready to intervene if Algeria asks for help, and a Defense Department official would not deny reports that the U.S. sent a drone over Algeria.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
16:03 ||
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#1
... and what were the communications between Hildebeast and Algeria on this one? Was Al Qaeda active in the area? Did the State Departement ask that precautions be taken regarding the lives of American hostages even though a long term hostage situation would be damaging to Hussein and Hildebeast?
Will answers NOT be forthcoming such as Al Qaeda's attack on American citizens in Lybia?
#2
you'd expect major casualties if helicopters gun down vehicles carrying mujahideen and captives. The enws says 2 Americans have survived. The fate of 5 other Americans is unclear.
The Algerians will take some fierce criticism about the heavy firepower directed towards hostages in this recue.
#3
Al Qaeda is CLEARLY attacking installations around the world where there are American citizens. Armed by the Obama/Hilebeast supported rebel campaigns in Egypt, Lybia, aA.K.A. North Africa.
#6
I wonder who is funding/supporting these AQ-linked militants?
Much of the funds are likely from the same funding mechanisms used by the 'original' Al Qaeda. Those, unlike bin Ladin, haven't been killed off. Additional sources are piracy, smuggling (human and contraband), the blackmarket, taxes extortion within the areas that they and affiliated groups control, and so forth.
No doubt there are state actors involved as well. For hints, see previous comments made by 'Paul', one of our British commenters.
#8
media now reporting 30 hostages dead ... but seems like a round figure. it always takes a long time to get accurate info from Africa (and sometimes you never get it).
keep in mind that these various Islamist groups across N. Africa are united in a hidden goal to establish a Grand Caliphate stretching across the continent. Th people funding these groups certainly have that goal. It's reasonable to suspect prominent families from the Saudi's, Qatar and elsewhere.
#9
I wonder who is funding/supporting these AQ-linked militants?
I would say Qatar, which was tut-tutting about the Frenchies "hasty" military actions. Qaradawi, who's based in Qatar, is also bitching and moaning about it.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013 19:05
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#10
These gas and oil sites are critical to our national interest, and the national interest of many in Europe. Perhaps a re-examination of organizations and missions of firms such as the former Executive Outcomes should be undertaken.
#11
Interestingly we learn that a US Army Mobile Training Team (MTT) had recently departed Mali and that a Mali Captain had decided to go the AQ route. Shades of former US MTT's and the late MSG Sammy Doe in Monrovia.
#12
I wonder who is funding/supporting these AQ-linked militants? Mokhtar Belmokhtar the bandit behind the attack, looks like he is mainly self funded. However his gang was hired by Daffy as mercenaries before his premature demise. His gang (plus other) proceeded to empty Daffys arms depots. North Africa is now awash with the latest arms thanks to French, British and US air bombing.
#14
O got a great night's sleep, so, not a problem
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/17/2013 20:50
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#15
Zero's not as happy this time: There's no fund raiser in Vegas.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/17/2013 21:24
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#16
Reuters: A local man who had escaped from the facility told Reuters the militants appeared to have inside knowledge of the layout of the complex, supporting the view of security experts that their raid was long-planned, even if the Mali war provided a motive.
"The terrorists told us at the very start that they would not hurt Muslims but were only interested in the Christians and infidels," Abdelkader, 53, said by telephone from his home in the nearby town of In Amenas. "'We will kill them,' they said."
Algiers, whose leaders have long had frosty relations with the former colonial power France and other Western countries, may have some explaining to do over its tactics in putting an end to a hostage crisis whose scale was comparable to few in recent decades bar those involving Chechen militants in Russia.
Government spokesman Said sounded unapologetic, however: "When the terrorist group insisted on leaving the facility, taking the foreign hostages with them to neighboring states, the order was issued to special units to attack the position where the terrorists were entrenched," he told state news agency APS, which said some 600 local workers were freed.
The militants said earlier they had 41 foreign hostages.
A schism is developing in northern Syria between jihadists and Free Syrian Army units, which threatens to pitch both groups against each other and open a new phase in the Syrian civil war.
Rebel commanders who fight under the Free Syrian Army banner say they have become increasingly angered by the behaviour of jihadist groups, especially the al-Qaida-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra, who they say aim to hijack the goals of the revolution.
The rising tensions are palpable in the countryside near Aleppo, which has become a stronghold for the well-armed and highly motivated jihadists, many of whom espouse the Bin Laden worldview and see Syria as a theatre in which to conduct a global jihad.
Syrian rebel groups, on the other hand, maintain that their goals are nationalistic and not aimed at imposing Islamic fundamentalism on the society if and when the Assad regime falls.
[ONLINE.WSJ] The Algerian army attempted to take control of the gas field where suspected Islamic militants are holding foreign hostages, the site's operator BP said Thursday, amid unconfirmed news reports that there had been casualties in the operation. And other unconfirmed reports that somewhere between one and 41 of the hostages have escaped and/or been killed or wounded...
British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... only found out about the military operation after it was under way, a front man for Mr. Cameron said Thursday afternoon. After destroying the GAI and whittling down the GSPC, Algeria probably doesn't think it needs advice or consent from anyone...
Several news agencies reported that some hostages and hostage-takers had been killed by air strikes by the Algerian army at the In Amenas natural-gas field. They have obviously come to the conclusion that negotiations with Mokhtar or Droukdel will result in precisely squat. While there are a finite number of AQIM, the number of potential hostages is effectively infinite.
The Mauritanian news agency ANI cited a front man for the Islamic fascistias saying his group was trying to transport some of the hostages to a more secure location, but they were hit by Algerian air strikes. Once they've been moved they're effectively lost to the govt's control and influence.
No government has confirmed the reports of deaths, nor have the companies that operate the site. It's doubtful they know anything apart from the AQIM press releases, which aren't what you'd call reliable.
Earlier Thursday, Algerian state media reported that 30 hostages, including some foreigners, had escaped. The reports couldn't be independently confirmed. At least one, an Irishman, has gotten away, since he's called home to his family...
BP said it had been "been informed by the U.K. and Algerian governments that the Algerian army is attempting to take control of the In Amenas site. The situation remains unclear and we continue to seek updates from the authorities." The alternative is to leave it in the control of Mokhtar's gunnies. The end result of that will be either the death or the ransom (by BP) of the hostage and the destruction of the natural gas plant.
The energy major said it was aware of reports of casualties, "but we are still lacking any confirmed or reliable information. There are also reports of hostages being released or escaping." I'm guessing Algeria's position is to keep the hostage casualties as low as they can but to destroy the turbans. Especially if there's a chance Mokhtar is there.
The Irish government said an Irish man who had been a hostage is safe and had made contact with his family. I said that.
There's another report that says two Americans have escaped. There'll likely be a movie about that one, only with AQIM changed to neo-Nazi rednecks or something.
The White House said Thursday it is trying to determine the status of American hostages. Press Secretary Jay Carney said the B.O. regime is in contact with the Algerian government and BP. I still feel a bit of irritation at the "America-centric" approach to the situation. It would be just as serious if none of the hostage had been American. But we tend not to notice when Chinese or Frenchies are kidnapped. When it's Algerians or Mauritanians it probably won't even make the paper.
Mr. Cameron's front man said Mr. Cameron called Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalik Sellal late Thursday morning and it was then that his Algerian counterpart informed him the military operation was under way. He added that Mr. Cameron had stressed in an earlier call between the two that he wanted to be informed beforehand. "Sorry. I was busy."
"The Algerian government is aware we would have preferred to have been contacted in advance," the front man said. He added that the Algerian prime minister said that hadn't been possible because of the fast-moving nature of events. Good OPSEC precludes a press release hitting the Daily Mail before the rockets hit the bad guys...
The front man declined to comment on reports of casualties but said there were several British nationals among the hostages. "We are doing as much as possible to establish what is going on on the ground," he added. "We'll let you know shortly after we know!"
The U.K. had told the Algerians that "we wanted to work through the Algerian government and the company to try and resolve the situation as peacefully as possible," the front man said. Meaning they were willing to lay out the money for the ransom...
The operation remained ongoing and was being entirely conducted by Algerian authorities, according to the front man, who said the British government was "in constant contact." [RING!]
"Algerian prime minister speaking!"
"London calling! Any word?"
"No. Call back later."
[CLICK!]
[RING!]
"Algerian prime minister speaking!"
"It's me again! Any word?"
"No. Call back later."
[CLICK!]
The Algerians haven't requested military assistance, the front man said. "The incident is taking place on Algerian sovereign territory," he added. One thing the Algerians have lotsa practice at is fighting terrorists.
During the roughly 15-minute call Thursday morning with the Algerian prime minister, Mr. Cameron "expressed his views about the seriousness and gravity of the situation," the front man said. "Thanks for your opinion. I'll get back to you."
[CLICK!]
Mr. Cameron also discussed the situation by phone with U.S. President Barack Obama In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed... and French President François Hollande. "Barack? Have you heard anything?"
"No. They told me to call back later."
"Okay. [CLICK!]"
[RING!]
"Alleau?"
"Francois? This is David..."
Mr. Hollande said Thursday the hostage crisis in Algeria was "unfolding in a dramatic way." Mr. Hollande didn't elaborate on the circumstances at in Algeria. "I'll let you know when something happens! Call back later!"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
13:36 ||
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#1
apparently Western Gov't were not consulted. but in the end I think it's smart that the Algerian forces moved quickly on this incident. the more time the terrorists had to secure their strategy and move hostages to a new location - the more publicity they would get and more psychological shock on the hostages. Get it over fast ... good motto for the Sahara.
#4
For anyone who is interested
Info on the most advanced Algerian attack helicopters - Mi- 28
they started receiving them in 2012.
before this they were using the MI-25 an export of the Russian Mi-24 .
A well-known Saudi Islamic scholar has issued a new fatwa (edict) saying holding elections for a president or another form of leadership is prohibited in Islam.
Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Nassir Al Barrak, reputed for his radical views, described western-style elections as an alien phenomenon to Islamic countries.
Electing a president or another form of leadership or council members is prohibited in Islam as it has been introduced by the enemies of Moslems, he wrote on his Twitter page, according to Saudi newspapers.
Selecting an Imam (leader) must be up to the decision-making people not the public election is a corrupt system which is not based on any legal or logical concept for those who enforce this system by some Moslems this system has been brought by the anti-Islam parties who have occupied Moslem land.
The cautionary tale cited yesterday from 1954 Vietnam applies here. The jihadis want the land more than the French do. In the end that will make the difference.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2013 11:28
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#2
France can't even achieve it's goals in France.
#1
More and more of this going on lately. Arizona wanted to enforce immigration laws but the federal government sued them not to. Now, the govmint wants sheriffs to enforce executive orders to enforce their gun-control EOs. Something is seriously wrong in the country.
#2
We will need a lot more sheriffs like these guys if it all begins to go seriously south. What is the law like where you live?
Posted by: Past Master of the Obvious ||
01/17/2013 11:55
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#3
For good or bad, the elected County Sheriff is 'The Law' in their county wielding authority over even Federal Officers. Some will be Leftist, some won't. Some will do O's bidding, some won't.
In the coming conflict, when things get HOT, sure is going to be interesting. I wouldn't want to be a Federal LEO of any stripe in any of the Red States. You can almost hear the knives being sharpened.
#4
You can almost hear the knives being sharpened.
Not a wise thing to do.
For starters, you don't bring a knife to a gun fight. Especially if the fight is over the Second Amendment that says you have a right to owning a gun that you CAN bring to the gun fight.
#5
I'd say presently local law-enforcement (police and sheriffs) are professional and good people where I live. I was a private accident investigator before retirement and interacted with quite a few of them. The bad apples (very rarely this happens) tend to get sorted out. I couldn't say much about federal officers as I did not interact much with them.
Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.
-Thomas Paine
#8
Could the peaceable principle of the Quakers be universally established, arms and the art of war would be wholly extirpated: But we live not in a world of angels...I am thus far a Quaker, that I would gladly agree with all the world to lay aside the use of arms, and settle matters by negotiation: but unless the whole will, the matter ends, and I take up my musket and thank Heaven He has put it in my power.
-Thomas Paine
MANILA, Philippines -- A U.S. Navy minesweeper ran aground on a coral reef in the Philippines on Thursday, but there were no injuries to the crew and Philippine authorities were trying to determine if the ship caused damage to a marine park in a protected area.
The Navy said in a statement that the crew of the USS Guardian was working to find out the best method of safely extracting the ship.
It had just completed a port call in Subic Bay, a former American naval base west of the Philippine capital, when it hit the reef in the Tubbataha National Marine Park, a World Heritage Site in the Sulu Sea, 640 kilometers (400 miles) southeast of Manila. The ship was not listing or leaking oil but about 15 percent of the bow appeared to have struck the reef, said Angelique Songco, head of the government's Protected Area Management Board, after flying over the ship in a Philippine Air Force plane. "It does not appear to be damaged."
Tell that to the chief boatswain...
She said it was unclear how much of the reef was damaged. She said the government imposes a fine of about $300 dollars per square meter of corals that are damaged. In 2005, the environmental group Greenpeace was fined almost $7,000 after its flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, struck a reef in the same area.
Songco said the ship may be able to float free during a high tide later Thursday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2013
08:25 ||
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#1
It had just completed a port call in Subic Bay..
In the old days that would warrant a 100% urine test of the command and crew, let alone a short arm inspection.
#5
the charts are outdated
Pappy, coral reefs don't grow that fast.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/17/2013 19:12
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#6
It had just completed a port call in Subic Bay..
In the old days that would warrant a 100% urine test of the command and crew, let alone a short arm inspection.
A couple of my shipmates had been on WestPac cruises back in the day. They said you could smell Subic (and Olongapo City) a day away.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/17/2013 22:11
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#7
Pappy, coral reefs don't grow that fast.
True. My remark referred to the possibility that the ship's charts had not been updated. Many times, also, charts are inaccurate (I remember seeing charts for regions in the Mid-East where the original Admiralty survey was in the late 1800s). Sometimes landmarks or navigational aids have changed.
Now, if they were relying solely on electronic navigation...
Security sources in Algeria told Al Arabiya that the al-Qaeda affiliated organization which took over a gas field in the country released 150 Algerian hostages.
According to the report, the armed militia holds captive 41 foreign nationals, kidnapped in retaliation to the French military operation against al-Qaeda in Mali.
Islamist gunnies holding dozens of Western hostages at a gas plant in Algeria have forced some to wear belts strapped with explosives, French television said on Thursday, quoting one of the hostages.
La Belle France 24 said the man also told the channel during a telephone call late on Wednesday that the hostage-takers were heavily armed and had threatened to blow up the natural gas facility if the Algerian army tried to free the hostages.
Thirty Algerian workers have managed to escape from the desert gas facility where dozens of hostages are being held hostage by an al Qaeda-affiliated group, Algeria's official APS news agency said on Thursday.
It did not say how they eluded their captors. (Rooters)
Fifteen foreign hostages escaped the desert siege of a gas pumping station in Algeria, Algeria's Ennahar television reported on Thursday.
An Algerian security source said the gunnies, who stormed the gas facility on Wednesday, were demanding safe passage out with their captives. The gunnies say they have been holding as many as 41 foreigners as well as scores of Algerians. Ennahar said 40 Algerians had been freed, mainly women working as translators. (Rooters)
Algerian official says at least 20 foreigners have beat feet from Sahara gas plant where Islamist gun-hung tough guys are holding dozens of hostages; French TV reports some hostages were forced to wear boom belts
An Algerian security official said Thursday at least 20 foreigners have beat feet from the natural gas plant deep in the Sahara desert in Algeria where Islamist forces of Evil are holding dozens of hostages.
The official said those escaping included Americans and Europeans. He did not give any further details.
According to a French television report, which quoted one of the hostages, the forces of Evil have forced some of the captives to wear belts strapped with explosives.
La Belle France 24 said the man also told the channel during a telephone call late on Wednesday that the hostage-takers were heavily armed and had threatened to blow up the gas facility if the Algerian army tried to free the hostages.
"They attacked the two sites at the same time. They went inside and once it was daylight they gathered everybody together," the man, who sounded calm, said in the only part of the phone call that La Belle France 24 aired.
Gunmen stormed the gas pumping site and workers' housing before dawn on Wednesday and a group calling itself the "Battalion of Blood" has claimed it is holding 41 foreigners including Americans, Japanese and Europeans at Tigantourine, deep in the Sahara.
Earlier Thursday security sources in Algeria told Al Arabiya that the gunnies released 150 Algerian hostages.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague confirmed one Briton had been killed and "a number" of others were being held hostage. Algerian media said an Algerian was killed in the assault. Another local report said a Frenchie had died.
Led by an Algerian veteran of guerrilla wars in Afghanistan, the group demanded La Belle France halt its week-old intervention in Mali, an operation endorsed by Western and African allies who fear that al-Qaeda, flush with men and arms from the defeated forces of Libya's Muammar Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years until he was ejected from the gene pool by his indignant citizens... , is building a haven in the desert.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/17/2013
07:23 ||
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Algerian helicopters attack plant, two hostages hurt
[Rooters] 01/17/2013 14:21 NOUAKCHOTT - Two Algerian army helicopters attacked the gas complex where Islamists have seized dozens of foreigners and Algerians, injuring two of the Japanese hostages, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported, citing one of the kidnappers.
It was not possible to independently verify the report.
ANI has close contacts with the al Qaida-linked group that has claimed responsibility for the mass kidnapping in retaliation for France's attack on Islamists in neighboring Mali.
An Algerian news website, TSA, says the army is now in full control of the gas facility. No figures available on number of casualties, the website adds.
#8
sorry ... bad math. 25 rescued, 6 killed, 10 unaccounted for right now. looks like the Islamists tried to run with the hostages in vehicles, and the Algerian Army cut them off.
#9
they really need to kill each and every one of these Islamists. No "arrests", no "escaped".
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/17/2013 14:03
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#10
they really need to kill each and every one of these Islamists. No "arrests", no "escaped".
I think they need to arrest these people to find out where they're getting financing, and then arrange for hit teams to kill the financiers. Getting accurate information will require multiple captives for corroboration, so they really need as many alive as they can get. Maimed is fine, as long as they're lucid. Obviously they'll also need organizational details such as names, locations and so on, so that relatives and friends can be used as hostages and harmed if members at large do not become turncoats in service of the regime. Such are the tools of repression available to a non-Western state.
From the mid-17th century to the late 20th century, the American economy grew roughly 3.5% a year. That growth rate has since declined significantly. When the final figures are in for 2012, the annual rate of real output growth for the first dozen years of this century is likely to be about 1.81%.
What accounts for the slowdown? An important part of the answer is simple: Americans aren't working as much today. And this trend reflects more than the recession and sluggish economy of the past few years.
The national income accounts suggest that about 70% of U.S. output is attributable to the labor of human beings. Yet there has been a decline in the proportion of working-age Americans who are employed.
European foreign ministers have been summoned to an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday to decide how to support France's war in Mali.
They are expected to finalise plans to dispatch hundreds of EU military personnel to Bamako to train half the Malian army and appoint a head of that mission as well as a senior diplomat as an EU special representative to the Sahel.
Caught by surprise by the Islamist surge at the weekend from the north of the country, individual EU countries have been quick to offer the French logistical support, mainly in the form of transport aircraft from the Germans and the British. While the French media have largely cheered on the president, François Hollande, in what is considered to be a rare display of decisiveness in Africa, they have also showered scorn on the other Europeans, seen as failing to step up to the plate.
#3
EU authorizes military training mission for Mali The European Union on Thursday authorized sending a military training mission to Mali to help the African nation fend off the Islamist rebels that have taken over a broad swath of territory.
The EU said the mission would provide instruction to the Malian army on matters of command and control, logistics, civilian protection and humanitarian law. It would not involve combat.
Although dispatching the training team will require another decision by European leaders, the move Thursday was aimed at bolstering support for the Malian government and came days after major EU power France launched its own military operation to help its onetime colony.
Fifteen people were killed in a series of bomb blasts in Iraq.
An Iraqi provincial health official said at least 11 Shiite pilgrims died when two car bombs exploded near Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, as they were heading to a shrine in the town of Samarra. Raed Ibrahim, head of the Salahuddin provincial health directorate, said more than 60 others were wounded.
Earlier, another car bomb killed another four Shiite pilgrims as they were traveling to shrines in the south of the country.
Began day by looking at cat videos and Reddit for two hours
Took 90-minute lunch breaks
Also wasted time on eBay, Facebook and LinkedIn
Paid Chinese consulting firm $50,000 to do his work for him
Was praised for being 'the best developer in the building' and was described as 'Someone you wouldnt look at twice in an elevator'
#1
I'm a bit skeptical - because this story almost exactly parallels a set piece that was put out by the Onion, several years ago: http://www.theonion.com/video/more-american-workers-outsourcing-own-jobs-oversea,14329/ (Make sure you hit "Skip" in upper right corner off the video box, to avoid unrelated content)
Referring to the terrorist attack today at the BP oil facilities in Algeria, in which an Algerian and a British citizen died, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) leader Omar Oud Hamaha has told the German daily Die Welt that ''we have taken 41 British and French soldiers hostage and we will kill them one after another if the French attacks do not cease''.
MOJWA is the group which Moctar Belmoctar joined after having fought with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). ''More and more Islamists from across the entire region are coming to help us,'' he added.
Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said that the authorities ''will not meet the demands of terrorists and refuse to engage in any sort of negotiations'', according to APS. Algeria has always maintained an intransigent stance as concerns terrorists.
Meanwhile, some of the hostages being held have been released. According to APS, the latter are Algerian workers. However, approximately 150 Algerian employees of the French company CIS Catering are still being held in the BP facilities after the attack conducted by ''about 60'' attacked from neighbouring countries, said the company's managing director Régis Arnoux. ''I have about 150 Algerian workers who have been left free (to move around) on the base, but who cannot yet get out''.
According to what was reported to French newspaper Le Figaro by one of the hostages, the terrorists claim to have mined the base. ''They are holding about forty foreigners hostage, but we are not all in the same place,'' said the hostage contacted via telephone. After a very violent phase in which a number of shots were fired, the situation now seems to be ''calmer''. ''They have asked for water and food for about 60 people, and have loaded vehicles belonging to British Petroleum,'' he added, noting that the hostage takers are armed with rocket-launchers.
According to what has been reported to APS by Crisis Unit sources from Illizi, the foreigners taken hostage number about twenty and are for the most part Norwegian, British, American French and Japanese.
Teachers Foundation of Malaysia issues guidance for parents aimed at pointing out signs of homosexuality
Lists the wearing of v-neck sweaters, sleeveless t-shirts and tight clothes
Deputy education minister said few people know homosexuality 'symptoms'
#2
The record? Jihad is mentioned in the Koran something like 41 times. Seems to be a commonly held belief in Islam. Jihad. It is no wonder that the Religion of Peace members suddenly are inspired to move to jihad. Just an admonition: Know your enemy. It eliminates a lot of confusion.
Posted by: Ho Chi Omaigum4727 ||
01/17/2013 18:17
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#5
"Why is this article not in Western papers?"
Silly Ho. It doesn't fit the narrative, of course.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/17/2013 18:28
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#6
The internets are your friend HO. Folks on the Burg don't blindly drink the media pablum. They surf obscure and foreign sources and compile and share their assessments.
The threat of a soft coup against Pakistans government receded today as the countrys supreme court was told its order to arrest the prime minister could not be carried out.
Raja Pervez Ashraf was supposed to be arrested and brought before the countrys most senior judges today on graft charges. Instead the head of an anti-corruption body told the supreme court there wasnt enough evidence against him.
The timing of Tuesdays arrest warrant, which coincided with a mass protest outside parliament, led by Tahir-ul Qadri , a firebrand cleric with close links to the military, fuelled suspicions of a coordinated plot to bundle the government out of office before it could complete a full term.
[CTVNEWS.CA] Senior UN Sherlocks opened a new round of talks Wednesday with Iranian officials in Tehran in hopes of restarting a probe into allegations that the Islamic Theocratic Republic carried out atomic bomb trigger tests and other suspected weapons-related studies.
The semiofficial ISNA news agency reported that negotiations started at the headquarters of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization. It gave no further details.
The UN meetings are considered an important test of Iran's willingness to address Western concerns before the possible resumption of a wider dialogue with the U.S. and other world powers. Negotiations with the six nations --the United States, Russia, China, Britannia, La Belle France and Germany -- fell apart more than six months ago. Iran has proposed getting them back on track, perhaps as soon as later this month.
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[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. late on Wednesday warned Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri, backed by thousands of protesters camped out in the heart of the capital near parliament, to disperse, saying they were at risk of attack from bad turbans.
Speaking to media representatives, he said authorities had learned that Death Eaters might be planning to target the crowd, and that Tahirul Qadri would be held responsible for any such attack.
"There are four credible threats of suicide kaboom on Qadri and other protesters and we take it very seriously," Malik said.
"People are falling sick due to cold, rains are about to start and gun-hung tough guys can strike anytime," Malik said.
"He should leave tonight." Malik said that a "targeted action" to disperse the protesters could start between any time tonight (Wednesday) or tomorrow night," Malik said.
"Yes a targeted action is on the card and it can happen any time because I have to save people from terrorist attacks," Malik said.
The minister, however, made it clear that no "Lal Masjid" like operation would be carried out against the protesters, adding that no harm would be inflicted to children and women of the march.
"It will not be an operation like Red Mosque," he said referring to a 2007 week-long military operation in which more than 100 people were killed in Islamabad.
He said that the security forces have many ways to tackle the situation. "The best commandos are with me today," Malik told news hounds, saying security forces could take action against Qadri within the next two days to prevent "expected terrorism".
"I hope that he listens to me."
President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... , however, has ruled out the possibility of any operation against the participants of the sit-in.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, Harrigan had lost the feeling in his legs from the cold. I told 'em they'd never take me alive, he thought. I was right!... PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and MQM chief Altaf Hussain have also condemned the interior minister's statement of the targeted operation. Both the leaders urged the government to tackle the issue without using force.
The clarification from the president came when all sorts of speculations were being circulated about the government's next line of action to deal with the protesters.
Qadri, who backed a military coup in 1999, is calling for the immediate resignation of the government and the installation of a caretaker administration to oversee electoral reforms.
The protest rally has threatened to destabilise the nuclear-armed country as it inches towards what would be the first democratic transition of power between two civilian governments at elections due by May this year
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SEOUL -- North Korea's state-run media has stepped up efforts to portray Pudgy Kim Jong-un as a leader devoted to the welfare of the people in an attempt to solidify his hold on power, local sources said Wednesday.
Observers in Seoul said a front-page article carried by the Rodong Sinmun claimed four fishermen who were rescued after drifting aimlessly for 46 hours in the Yellow Sea expressed "tearful gratitude" toward Suet Face Kim for their safe return. The newspaper also said the families of those rescued, and all people in South Pyeongan Province, hailed at gunpoint the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) for ordering the prompt dispatch of an aircraft to help save the fishermen.
"The rescue story printed on the front page of the WPK-controlled paper on Wednesday is an indication that the media outlet wants to bolster people's loyalty to the fat boy young leader," a North Korean watcher said. He pointed out that securing loyalty is important for Kim, who came to power abruptly after his father's sudden death in late 2011.
Experts on the communist country said judging by the country's track record of using events and near tragedies to glorify its leaders in the past, recent articles are nothing out of the ordinary and could be the natural step in creating a personality cult. The incumbent leader's father and grandfather all went through a mythologization process after they took power.
Besides the latest rescue operation, North Korean media reported last July that 60 people who were saved from rising flood waters shed tears of gratitude and praised their leader. At that time North Korea media said Kim personally ordered an aircraft to be sent to help the trapped people.
Meanwhile, experts following developments in the North said the need to earn foreign currency seems to be causing fishermen to risk their lives by going out to sea on old boats with little fuel and faulty communications equipment. In the past, North Koreans generally did not go to sea to catch fish during the winter months.
They said since Kim Jong-un took power, there has been a sudden increase in calls for all sectors to earn more hard currency.
The rescue of the four fishermen comes a day after Chinese media said 31 North Korean fishermen were saved by authorities earlier in the week after their boat ran aground. Chinese Radio Network said the people were rescued from the boat that was in danger of capsizing and brought to safety. The boat had been drifting for some time before it got stuck near Dandong port, near the North Korea-China border.
On Dec. 13, the South Korean Navy said it saved three people near Ulleung Island, who claimed they had been drifting for close to a month in the East Sea. All three were sent back to North Korea.
The Japan Coast Guard also rescued a handful of fishermen at sea or reported finding dead North Koreans on its shores in the past few months.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
And his ignoring His People.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/17/2013 17:04
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[FoxNews] A criminal court in the central Egyptian city of Beni Suef meted out the shocking sentence last week, according to the Arabic-language Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm. Nadia Mohamed Ali, who was raised a Christian, converted to Islam when she married Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab Mustafa, a Mohammedan, 23 years ago. He later died, and his widow planned to convert her family back to Christianity in order to obtain an inheritance from her family. She sought the help of others in the registration office to process new identity cards between 2004 and 2006. When the conversion came to light under the new regime, Nadia, her children and even the clerks who processed the identity cards were all sentenced to prison.
Samuel Tadros, a research fellow at Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, said conversions like Nadia's have been common in the past, but said Egypt's new Sharia-based constitution "is a real disaster in terms of religion freedom."
Iran will create a squadron of pilotless planes for border troops to strengthen control over its borders, Iran's police chief, General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam said on Wednesday, Iranian Mehr news agency reported.
To strengthen air control over the country's eastern borders, a drone squadron will be created for border troops in Sistan and Baluchistan, Moghaddam said. He said this year the state allocated $85 million to strengthen border security in order to strengthen the fight against drugs.
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Iran knows the US wants "strategic access" direct to the sea for Afghanistan + future Afghan economy.
MOSCOW - Iran will deploy a fleet of warships to the Mediterranean Sea, Navy chief Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said on Wednesday.
The Navys 24th fleet of warships will patrol the north of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, Bab-el-Mandeb, the Red Sea, Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea for three months and will even sail as far as southeastern Asian countries, Sayyari was quoted by Press TV as saying.
This allows the Iranians and the Russians to share the expense of the sea-going tugs...
The 23rd fleet of warships will return to the country next week, he added.
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Is there room in the tubby for two destroyers and a blue submarine?
[An Nahar] The United States will on Thursday recognize the first Somali government in two decades, heralding a significant shift in ties since the deadly 1993 attack on U.S. helicopters over Mogadishu.
The beginning of a new chapter will come when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Richelieu ... exchanges diplomatic notes with visiting Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a top U.S. official said Wednesday.
"The visit here this week of the new Somalian president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud represents a significant change in the security and political situation on the ground in Somalia and our relationship with that country," Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson told journalists.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991. Two years later, Americans were shocked by scenes of U.S. soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu after Somali Islamic fascistishot down two Black Hawk helicopters. Eighteen Americans died, and 80 were maimed.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... a new Somali administration took office last year, ending eight years of transitional rule by a corruption-riddled government.
And in recent months, a 17,000-strong African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... force, fighting alongside government troops and Æthiopian soldiers, finally wrested a string of key towns from the control of Islamist Shabaab bully boys.
Carson hailed recent U.S. policies on Somalia, and praised the work of African nations through the African Union force in Somalia AMISOM, which helped oust the Islamic fascistifrom their last stronghold in Kismayo in September.
"This has been a major, major success. We are long way from where we were on October 3, 1993 when Black Hawk down occurred in Mogadishu," Carson said.
"Significant progress has been made in stabilizing the country and in helping to break-up and defeat al-Shabaab ... the successor to the Islamic Courts... . Much more needs to be done but we think enormous progress has been made," he added.
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[An Nahar] Iraq has freed around 400 prisoners since Sunni Arabs began anti-government demonstrations last month, and will press on with more releases on a daily basis, a top minister said on Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said that a committee formed in the wake of the protests would accelerate the process of reviewing prisoners' cases and would look to immediately release those who had been proven innocent.
Thousands of demonstrators have been rallying in Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq for more than three weeks, protesting the alleged abuse of anti-terror laws by the Shiite-led authorities and demanding the release of prisoners they say were unfairly tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
"The release of detainees will continue on daily basis, not just for media purposes," Shahristani told a news conference in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
But, he added, "the demonstrations alerted us to the presence of a defect."
Shahristani said authorities had released 70 prisoners on Wednesday, bringing to more than 400 the number of detainees freed in recent weeks.
Officials have not provided any breakdown of the prisoners, and have not given details on how many had finished jail terms and how many had been held without charge.
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#1
Same People over and over again.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/17/2013 17:07
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From the Two-Letter Press Agency, so fair use only here:
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday the U.S. "will take all necessary and proper steps" to deal with an Islamist attack on a natural gas field in southern Algeria that has resulted in Americans and other foreigners taken hostage.
Just like we did in Benghazi...
Panetta would not detail what such steps might be,
Since Obama himself doesn't know...
but he condemned the incident as "terrorist attack" and likened it to al-Qaida activities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in the United States on 9/11.
A militant group that claimed responsibility says it's holding seven Americans, but State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said she wouldn't provide details to protect those who were kidnapped. Panetta said he didn't know the numbers of those kidnapped.
Militants said they attacked and occupied the field partly operated by the energy company BP
Wonder what the site protection was like. Did BP have guards present? Where they locals (ala the Benghazi type that walked/ran away when the shooting started) or were they Western?
because of Algeria's support of France's operation against al-Qaida-linked Malian rebels groups to the southeast.
I suppose that makes sense in an Islamic way...
"It is a very serious matter when Americans are taken hostage along with others," Panetta told reporters in Rome, where he spent the day meeting with Italian leaders, in part to discuss the operations in Mali. "I want to assure the American people that the United States will take all necessary and proper steps that are required to deal with this situation."
Though Leon doesn't know what those are...
Panetta told reporters in Italy that he was briefed Wednesday on the Algeria attack and said the U.S. is in consultation with the Algerians to determine what the situation is and what happened.
He said he did not know if the kidnappings were connected at all to the French military assault in Mali.
"I do know that terrorists are terrorists and terrorists take these kinds of actions," he added, "We've witnessed their behavior in a number of occasions where they have total disregard for innocent men and women. This appears to be that kind of situation."
That's why they're called, "terrorists", Leon...
Nuland said that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke Wednesday by telephone with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.
Was that at 3 am local time?
She also said the U.S. Embassy in Algiers issued an emergency message to American citizens encouraging them to review their personal safety.
As in, you might want to get out of Dodge...
"We're obviously taking the appropriate measures at the embassy as well," she told reporters.
Let's hope they learned something from Benghazi. Another attack on an American embassy or consulate will be awfully hard to explain. Champ might have to get those children back for another press conference, and they can't afford to miss too many days of school...
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"I do know that terrorists are terrorists and terrorists take these kinds of actions," he added, "We've witnessed their behavior in a number of occasions where they have total disregard for innocent men and women. This appears to be that kind of situation."
Boy that Leon... he's absolutely brilliant isn't he? Whatever would we do without him leading the way?
#4
"It is a very serious matter when Americans are taken hostage along with others," Panetta told reporters Yes, the more taken or killed, the harder it is to cover up.
#6
"I do know that terrorists are terrorists and terrorists take these kinds of actions," Shrug, shrug, shrug.
Such a profound grasp of the painfully obvious. Perhaps events in Benghazi and Fort Hood have helped him formulate these earthshaking hypothesis.... (in the closing moments of his miserably failed tenure).
Abu Sayyaf terrorists rebels holding at least 5 kidnapped foreigners have turned down demands by a former Muslim terrorist rebel group to free their hostages being held in the southern Philippines.
Officials said a senior leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Habier Malik, tried to negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf for the freedom of the captives in the hinterlands of Sulu Island.
Army Col. Rodrigo, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga City, said, "As far as we know, the Abu Sayyaf has rejected the MNLF efforts to secure the release of the hostages, not without ransoms."
Rodrigo said Malik's group has returned to their bases. He said, "The efforts of the MNLF to secure the freedom of the hostages are unilateral on their part and have the permission of the local government officials and military commanders on the ground. But our efforts are also continuing to safely recover all the victims."
Police said the Abu Sayyaf has been holding a Japanese treasure hunter, Toshio Ito, 66, since 2010. He was last reported to have been helping the rebel group in cooking food for them and moves around freely. Aside from the Japanese man, the Abu Sayyaf is also holding Jordanian journalist Baker Atyani, 43, and his two Filipino assistants Rolando Letrero, 22, and Ramelito Vela, 39.
Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra, the Sulu police chief, said the trio came to Sulu province in June last year to secretly film the Abu Sayyaf for a documentary on Al Arabiya News Channel. Before his detention, Atyani has had previously visited the province in secrecy to interview terrorist leaders, according to the Philippine military.
The military previously said it would arrest Atyani for espionage if he were released by the Abu Sayyaf. Atyani had also clandestinely interviewed Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks.
Freyra said two European wildlife photographers Ewold Horn, 52, from the Netherlands; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, from Switzerland, kidnapped in February his year in Tawi-Tawi province had been brought to Sulu.
In an interview he said, "As long as the MNLF (members) don't put the law in their own hands or violate the law in pursuance of their efforts, I don't see any problem. We welcome all efforts in securing the safe release of the hostages."
Police in Tawi-Tawi said the duo was allegedly taken by members of the MNLF. Another group of kidnappers are also holding a Malaysian fish trader Pang Choon Pong, who was taken in October 2011 in Tawi-Tawi, but his fate is unknown.
In November last year, Malaysian officials said two of its nationals were seized by five gunmen disguised as policemen from a palm oil plantation in Sabah. It said the two were both working for the plantation and had been taken at gunpoint. Their companions said the gunmen spoke in Malayu and Tausug, a dialect commonly used in the southern provinces of Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.
Abu Sayyaf terrorists rebels are also holding Australian adventurer, Warren Rodwell, a former soldier, who was seized in the seaside town of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay province in December 2011. The terrorists rebels originally demanded $1 million ransom for the release of Rodwell, but eventually lowered this to $460,000.
It is known what ransoms the Abu Sayyaf is asking for the remaining captives, who are being held by different rebel commanders.
Posted by: ryuge ||
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#1
IMO 'tis a direct open challenge by Abu Sayyaf to the new Bangsamoro entity + Manila, MILF peace deal.
[An Nahar] Hundreds of Iraqi expatriates protested against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party.... outside the Iraqi embassy in Sanaa on Wednesday, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent reported.
"Maliki leave, the Iraqi people don't want you," chanted the protesters, who marched from Sanaa's northern Sittin Avenue to the embassy carrying Iraqi flags.
Protests against Maliki and his Shiite-led government have gripped Sunni Arab majority areas of northern and western Iraq since December 23.
The protests were sparked by the arrest of at least nine guards of Sunni Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi on terror charges.
In a statement, members of the Iraqi community in Yemen who organized Wednesday's protest said it was "to express our support to our Iraqi people who are demonstrating in the squares of dignity for their legitimate demands."
"Free Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , out Iran," the protesters called, referring to Iraq's Shiite-dominated neighbor with which Maliki's government has warm relations.
Asem al-Dulaimi, front man of the Iraqi community in Yemen, accused Maliki's government of "implementing foreign agendas, especially Iranian, in addition to U.S. and Zionist" agendas.
Iraq is engulfed in a political crisis with Maliki facing calls for his ouster from many of his erstwhile government partners.
A wave of attacks in Storied Baghdad and northern Iraq killed 29 people on Wednesday as hundreds attended the funeral of a Sunni MP who died in a suicide kaboom on Tuesday.
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[Dawn] Activists of the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) came out on roads and streets in various areas of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on the second consecutive day, Wednesday, to protest against the likely arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the rental power projects case.
The SC bench had ordered the arrest of 16 persons, including the premier, on Tuesday and directed the authorities to present PM Ashraf in the court.
Dozens of PPP workers blocked Shahrah-e-Faisal for more than an hour, the main artery of the city leading to Jinnah International Airport and inter-linking many roads, by setting tyres on fire.
They were raising slogans in support of the party, the prime minister, PPP Chairman Bilawal Baby Bhutto Zardari ...Pak dynastic politician, son of Benazir Bhutto and grandon of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As far as is known, Bilawal has no particular talents other than being pretty and being able to memorize political slogans, but he had the good luck to be born into the right family and he hasn't been assassinated yet... and President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
Malir, Gadap and Bin Qasim towns also remained disrupted for the second day in a row for the same reason.
A large number of party supporters also assembled at Bilawal House and expressed full confidence and support to the party leadership and the premier.
On Tuesday, as the news broke out, a large number of protesters came out on roads to show their resentment against the order in different cities of interior Sindh as well. Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu and Shedadpur were among the other areas of the province.
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JOHANNESBURG -- When do you not listen to the African wildlife expert? When he tells you to stand closer to the rhino.
That suggestion by a South African game park owner resulted in serious injuries to a 24-year-old woman from Johannesburg.
The Beeld newspaper reported Tuesday that Chantal Beyer said the game park owner snapped pictures and suggested that she "stand just a little bit closer" seconds before the attack. Photos show Beyer and her husband only feet away from two rhinos.
The paper said that just after the photo was snapped, the rhino attacked, and its horn penetrated Beyers' chest from behind, resulting in a collapsed lung and broken ribs, the paper said. The Aloe Ridge Hotel and Nature Reserve, where the incident took place, declined to comment Tuesday.
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Two people, killed in a special operation in the North Caucasus on Wednesday, were terrorists militants who had prepared a series of attacks in the area, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK) said.
The NAK statement reads. According to our data, members of the eliminated armed group were involved in attacks on law-enforcers and extortion of money from the republics businessmen. They also plotted attacks on law-enforcers and officials in January and February. Therefore, a series of militant attacks on the republics territory was prevented by prompt actions of the FSB and the Interior Ministry.
A special anti-terror operation was launched in the city of Tyrnyauz in Kabardino-Balkaria after a group of three suspected terrorists militants was blocked in a five-story building. A woman, believed to be an accomplice of the gunmen, and a two-year-old girl were in the apartment where the gunmen took refuge.
During the course of negotiations, the child was allowed to leave the apartment, but the woman would not leave. The apartment was stormed when the gunmen fired shots at law-enforcers. Two suspected terrorists militants, aged 20 and 22, and the 25-year-old woman, were killed in the shootout.
Authorities detained three people thought to be accomplices of the gunmen.
Two assault rifles, a grenade, a pistol and ammunition were found in the apartment. The terrorists militants had also installed five homemade bombs in the building. Three of them were detonated when law-enforcers burst in. The statement made no mention of any injuries or casualties among the law-enforcers.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] House Republicans proposed a bill today that would cut the pay of Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... and other federal officials, noting that the executive order that President B.O. signed to raise their pay costs $11 billion in new spending.
"The President has once again demonstrated his penchant for unrestrained spending by giving federal employees an across the board pay hike and sticking the rest of us with the $11 billion bill," Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., the lead sponsor on the bill, said in a statement today. "At a time when the average federal worker compensation is nearly double the median U.S. household income, and attrition from the federal workforce is already at an all-time low, we simply cannot afford this unnecessary and unilateral action by the President."
Obama's executive order raises Biden's salary $225,521 to $231,900. House Speaker John It is not pronounced 'Boner!' Boehner ... the occasionally weepy leader of House Republicans... , R-Ohio, would see an $1,100 raise while the Senate majority and minority leaders would get paid an extra $1,000, according to Fox. "The House and Senate, however, voted down the congressional pay increase earlier this year," the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee notes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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Please remember this EO does NOT extend to all gov't employees, only the SES.
regular GS/WG types need not apply.
#7
Executive Order 13635 seems to apply all the way down the GS scale (otherwise it wouldn't have cost $11B)
Nope. Veep on down through Senior Executive Service. Don't forget that includes State, Justice and other agencies and departments with senior federal officials.
[Dawn] In a late night development, police was called in to disperse protesting rustics outside the governor house and move the bodies to a cold storage, DawnNews reported.
Police used tear gas and shelled at the rustics and others who had joined in the protest. The bodies were loaded on to trucks and taken to a morgue by the police. The move came following the rejection of an agreement between the tribal elders and Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Masood Kausar by the protesting rustics over the killing of 18 rustics in Bara tehsil.
According to the agreement, the government would conduct an impartial inquiry into the killings and punish those involved. The inquiry committee will also comprise judges and other stakeholders who would be included into the committee with the consent of the tribal elders.
The protesting rustics however rejected the settlement between the representative jirga and KP governor and are refused to bury their dead, saying they would continue with the sit-in protest until rustics were provided security.
PM takes notices of killings
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, had taken notice of the protest in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , telephoned KP Governor Masood Kausur and directed him to address the protesters' grievances.
Governor Kuasar while speaking to the media after the jirga, said that seven lakh rupees each would be provided as compensation to the dear departed's family and four lakh rupees for burial of the dear departed. Protestors however refused to accept the compensation amount and assurances to conduct an inquiry into the killings.
The KP governor had said that an impartial inquiry would be conducted into the incident and if there were excesses proved, against anyone, the culprits would be penalised according to the law.
"It will not be a judicial inquiry, but it will have members of the judiciary as well," he said.
The governor stated that if the tribal elders could guarantee no terrorist activity in their areas, the government would be ready to call back security forces. However he said that the army had been deployed at the request of tribal elders when they were unable to resist the cut-throats onslaught.
Earlier on at least 400 to 500 rustics had marched from Bara to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa bustling provincial capital, carrying the bodies of the dear departed in pick-ups and demanded justice for the victims.
The protestors accused security forces of the killings and demanded that the governor and authorities provide them justice. Security forces claim that the turban group Lashkar-e-Islam, led by Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... , is behind the murders.
An elderly man, who was also protesting the killings, told Dawn.Com that his colleagues killed were simple labourers who had been killed in their homes allegedly by the security forces.
"They were taken out of their houses and were rubbed out by the forces, it's a routine now they don't care who is being killed when they open fire, we have been tolerating it for almost four years," he said.
Peshawar's main Railway Road was blocked for traffic due to the protest. Traffic on Sunheri Mashid and Peshawar Cantt roads was also suspended and security forces had sealed the entire cantonment area to stop protestors from entering the red security zone.
Protestors had carried placards and banners calling for an end to the ongoing military operation in their areas.
The rustics protested that undirected mortar bombs and artillery shelling have killed a number of innocent people in their area.
Security forces denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! claiming that the dead included a former Frontier Corps soldier's father and four brothers -- all five bumped off by cut-throats on Tuesday night, they claimed.
Military sources said that cut-throats from the banned Lashkar-e-Islam group had raided the house in Dogra area of former FC-man, Shabbir Ahmed, and bumped off his father and brothers.
"I was a government servant but I don't know why this injustice done to me," former FC official, Shabbir, who was also among the protestors outside the Governor House, told Dawn.com.
"I am serving the nation and working for the security of the country but don't know why and who has killed my four brothers and father. The government must answer why this has been done to me," he said.
Security forces claimed they had also launched a counter-attack after cut-throats attacked several check-posts, killing six soldiers and injuring 28 others on Tuesday. Four cut-throats were also killed in the festivities, they said.
The officials claimed that Lashkar-e-Islam turbans, dressed in FC uniforms, were also involved in the killings of innocent rustics in a bid to malign the security forces.
They also further denied that any operation was carried out by the FC force in the area where the bodies were found.
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Kyrgyzstan will adhere to its position regarding the extension of the "Manas" air base lease, KyrTAG reports on Wednesday referring to the Kyrgyz President's press service. This statement was made by the President of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Atambayev, during the meeting with U.S. State Department representative Robert Blake, visiting the country.
Apparently the Russians continue to apply pressure to close Manas.
"After the expiration of the agreement on the placement of a U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan in 2014, the "Manas" airport should not be used for military purposes", president highlighted.
The Transit Centre, formerly called the air base was opened at Manas international airport in late 2001. The centre is a major logistics hub for transportation of goods and the antiterrorist coalition forces to Afghanistan. An agreement on the placement of a U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan is valid until 2014.
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[An Nahar] The Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Wednesday expressed support for the French-led Mali military operation, a day after calling it "premature" and urging a ceasefire.
OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu "has reaffirmed the full support and solidarity with the Republic of Mali in its efforts to expeditiously recover areas in the north of its territory under the control of gangs in order to restore its national unity and territorial integrity," a statement said.
It said Ihsanoglu reiterated support for the UN Security Council resolution 2085 which authorized the deployment of "an African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA)."
He welcomed the troop contributions by OIC member states in West Africa, and appealed to others "outside the region to extend all possible form of assistance to AFISMA for the fulfillment of its mandate in order to preserve the peace and stability of the wider region."
Ihsanoglu had on Tuesday called for an "immediate ceasefire in Mali and for all parties to go back to the negotiations which were led by Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now... ," after he described the military offensive which is led by French forces as "premature."
In his Tuesday statement, he "expressed his deep concern over the military escalation" also called for "maximum self-restraint from all parties at this critical time in order to reach a peaceful solution to this conflict."
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#1
Africans versus Arabs, methinks.
One has to wonder what the Africans think about some of their fellow members' "support" of, and "solidarity" with, AQIM.
These are just my thoughts. Guns, knives, baseball bats, golf clubs, sticks, stones, hammers, whatever do not cause crimes. There have always been criminals (see Cain and Abel) but the objects used to commit murder do not cause criminal behavior. Almost all firearm related crimes are committed by Gangs over turf wars or drug wars.
Banning firearms is the easy and cheap political way to reassure a lot of the public. It makes people feel safer. It doesn't address the underlying causes of violent crime. That's much too expensive and un-PC. The school system is broken and has been for a long time. No one wants to address the problems of disfunctional families, absent Fathers, the dissolution of the Family, or the complete lack of basic morals in Modern society. Inner cities have been abandoned by the very elected officials whose job it is to assure these principles.
Elected officials have put self agrandizement and monetary gain as their main objectives. The Voters bear some responsibility for this and the Mainstream media bears some responsibility by being Agenda oriented. The decline of the Rule of Law is very clearly demonstrated by the decision by the Washington D.C. prosecuters to not charge and prosecute a crime commited by David Gregory, shown on National TV. Mr. Gregory was in possession of a rifle magazine that exceeded 10 rounds, a clear violation of law that others had been guilty of. It's a ludicrous law, true, but the Constitution guarentees us equal protection under the law. I guess some people are more equal to others.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
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#1
Yea, but you can't abolish 22nd until you abolish the 2nd, DB.
#2
As I've said elsewhere - the politicians don't *want* to solve the problem of spree shootings (I refuse to call it 'gun violence') or of 'poverty' or of 'drugs' or of single-parent households or of a failing school system, etc... So we have a continuing 'war on poverty' and a 'war on drugs' and now a 'war on violence'.
The reason is simple - if they actually *solved* the problems then they would not longer have an *issue* they can use to drive their agenda.
Take for example 'gun violence'. Obama and Biden and the rest know full well that gun control will not do anything to stop spree-shootings like in Newtown or Aurora. That is not the real target. The real target is to disarm law-abiding citizens.
The fact that the measures are very likely to *increase* the likelihood of spree-shootings and school-killings is, to them, a *bonus* - and will help drive their next item.
Notice how quickly they came out with their 'steps' after Newtown? Obama had his agenda lined up before Biden even completed his work - _that_ was simply theater. I'm willing to bet they have these measures are drawn up beforehand - just waiting for an incident so they can act. They were waiting -and perhaps praying- for an big school shootings with lots of kids getting killed so they can take advantage of it.
#4
Washington doesn't solve problems, it manages them. Solved problems don't create job security and donations.
It has been said that Champ seems to be doing his best to set us off. Like he's trying to irritate normal Americans for some reason. Not just trample our rights, but insult, embarrass and humiate us in the process. Why? I'd be curious to find out.
#5
If he can't control the 2300 guns he ran to the Mexican drug lords, how does he expect to control the 300 million already in the hands of mostly law abiding citizens?
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fla. criticized President B.O. moments ago for his speech promoting gun control and abusing his executive powers. The president initiated 23 executive orders during his presser, vowing to "use whatever weight this office holds" to promote his agenda.
In a statement, Rubio warned that Obama's use of executive power was troubling.
"Making matters worse is that President B.O. is again abusing his power by imposing his policies via executive fiat instead of allowing them to be debated in Congress," he said. "President B.O.'s frustration with our republic and the way it works doesn't give him license to ignore the Constitution."
Rubio added that Obama's proposals would not have actually prevented the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut and were threatening the Second Amendment rights of legal gun owners.
"President B.O. is targeting the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens instead of seriously addressing the real underlying causes of such violence," Rubio said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
Seems to me that his executive orders were so much hot-air. A pantomime to make it look like he was doing something while telling folks to do their jobs better. That is an abuse of the executive powers but much less damaging than I'd suspected he was going to manage.
About 100,000 of refugees from Afghanistan will be leaving Iran for their homeland this current Iranian year, Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdullahi said today, Mehr reported.
Abdullahi said that during the last Iranian year, about 50,000 Afghan refugees already left Iran voluntarily for Afghanistan. Abdullahi said there will be appropriate infrastructure available for the refugess, when they arrive in Afghanistan.
He noted, that in 2010, about 1.4 million of illegal Afghan refugees have been registered in Iran, and in order to remain legally in Iran, they would have needed a passport and visa. About 1,000 of them registered for a visa online.
"About 1.3 million people came as volunteers for their visas, and thus far, about 780,000 people have received their identification cards in Iran," Abdullahi said.
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[REUTERS] Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman on Tuesday became the second Republican governor in the last week to propose ending his state's income tax, saying he wants to make Nebraska more competitive with its neighbors by eliminating the tax on both individuals and corporations.
Heineman said that if a complete elimination of the two taxes could not be passed, he would push to lower rates on both individuals and corporations. He promised to make up the lost revenue by reducing business exemptions to the sales tax.
Last week, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said he wanted to eliminate all personal and corporate income taxes in his state. Louisiana's personal income tax rate is 3.9 percent.
Nebraska's personal income tax rate is 6.84 percent, higher than every one of its neighbors -- Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado and Wyoming -- according to a table accompanying Heineman's remarks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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#1
US States must be confident that Mexico + Canada + Greenland will willingly give mucho $$$ to the USA vee future NAU Member-State contributions + ultimately NAU-level Member-specific appropriations, as unlike the Cold War where many n the Internat Community = World Govts-Nations wanted the US-n-only-the-US to take the lead + be principal???
PRAY HARD + KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED, BECUZ AMERIKKA IS GONNA NEED IT.
#3
Are they the same, income tax hits earnings while sales tax hits spending. Moving from one to the other has to have some effect (working harder but spending less or something like that).
#4
I had a close look at these executive orders, and I also believe that they are a whole lot of nothing. And they don't seem to exceed the exceed the president's authority for the most part. He has the right to name a head of the ATF. He has the right to instruct his departments to conduct studies. He has the right to tell them to (in essence) try to enforce the law harder. I might not *like* Obama, but I don't see that he's breaking any new ground here.
#5
Tell us first about government's Fast and Furious gun-running to the drug cartels in Mexico and gun-running to our AQ enemies in Syria. Also come clean on Benghazi.
#6
The devil is in the details. Would anyone really trust this President with the power these EOs would give him and and the bureaucracy of the government?
#7
"The State must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endorse any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation".
#8
Some of the EOs are fairly straight-forward and fairly clear. Many other EOs are couched in generalities and leave out specifics. Without details and specifics, the door is open to vast power and control over law-abiding citizens with no effect on reducing violence. The EOs only serve to disarm law-abiding citizens. No mention is made of Hollywood's role in promoting violence through movies and television. Nothing is said of violent lyrics in music (gangsta rap) which promote violence to woman, police, and others. Nothing is said in these EOs about controlling gang violence. Nothing is said about the role of the main stream media in hyping violence in the media and what role this might play in violence. Nothing is said about the government's role in weakening the laws of the country (immigration, gun-running, etc.) and the lack of respect for the government and the law that this creates. Like health care and TARP funds, these EOs have been created in a rushed manner in a knee-jerk reaction to tragic events.
SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is believed to have attempted hacking attacks on the computer server handling the Internet for the press rooms at South Korea's presidential transition team, a committee official said Thursday.
Wonder if they got any tips from Google...
The attempts were discovered when intelligence authorities conducted a security checkup on the committee, the official said. Only the press rooms were affected and the team's main office remained safe, he said.
It was not immediately clear whether the attacks caused any damage.
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[An Nahar] Twin boom-mobiles killed at least 22 people in the Syrian city of Idlib on Wednesday as universities nationwide held a day of mourning for 87 people killed in kabooms on the student campus in second city Aleppo.
The bombings had the hallmarks of operations staged by the jihadist al-Nusra Front, a rebel group with a strong presence on the ground in northwestern Syria and blacklisted by the United States as a "terrorist" organization.
"The first kaboom took place in al-Ziraa Square and the second kaboom took place in al-Mutlaq Square, killing 22 civilians and wounding 30," the state SANA news agency reported, blaming "terrorists" for the blasts.
Idlib city remains under the control of forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... but most of the rest of the northwestern province on the border with Turkey is in the hands of rebels fighting to oust him.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a higher toll of 24 dead and said most were soldiers. The Britannia-based watchdog said there were three bombs in all and that many of the maimed were at death's door.
"After taking the airbase at Taftanaz (on January 11), the city of Idlib has become the rebels' new target," Observatory directory Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The Observatory said the corpse count from Tuesday's blasts at Aleppo University could top 100 as many of the maimed were critically hurt, which would make it one of the bloodiest attacks of the 22-month conflict.
Washington on Wednesday condemned the "despicable attack," blaming regime air attacks.
"According to eyewitnesses at the scene, regime planes launched aerial strikes on university facilities," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told journalists.
No one has grabbed credit for the kabooms, with the government and rebels blaming each other.
Opposition activists said government jets carried out an air strike, but the army said rebels fired rockets at the campus, in a government-controlled area of the battleground northern city.
"The General Command of the Army sees in the targeting of academics, colleges and universities further proof of the killers' dark methods, and of an ideology that belongs in the past," a military statement said.
Higher Education Minister Mohammed Yahia Moalla called a nationwide "day of mourning" on Wednesday, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
In a letter addressed to U.N. Secretary General Bank Ki-moon and the U.N. Security Council, the foreign ministry called on the international community to "denounce the terrorist massacre."
Alluding to Western support for La Belle France's military intervention against beturbanned fascisti in Mali, the ministry said "some countries in the world are practicing two-faced politics, by supporting terrorism in Syria and denouncing it in others."
Ban sent his condolences on Wednesday to the families of those killed and said "deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian targets constitutes a war crime."
He stressed the "urgent need for a peaceful political solution that ends the violence and meets the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people."
Near the capital, the army sent reinforcements to the town of Daraya as warplanes and rockets bombarded the rebel enclave, the Observatory said.
"The army's assault is insanely violent. The shelling is continuous, it has been so intense in the past hours. There are many injured people," said local activist Abu Kinan.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted in March 2011, according to the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit...
The Observatory said 103 people died in violence nationwide on Wednesday, including 44 civilians.
Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... the World Food Program said that it would quickly try to distribute aid to an additional one million Syrians after Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... gave the green light for it to work with local aid organizations to reach more of those in need.
Previously most of the U.N. agency's food aid was delivered through the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy, which was overstretched and only able to provide help to some 1.5 million Syrians a month.
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ISLAMABAD Pakistan accused India of warmongering and lodged an official protest on Wednesday after another soldier was killed in disputed Kashmir in a flare-up that threatens to derail a fragile peace process.
Diplomats on both sides have warned against allowing a spate of deadly cross-border incidents to wreck the tentative progress that has been made since a total break in relations following the 2008 attacks on Mumbai.
But tensions escalated as Pakistan reported another of its troops had been killed on Tuesday in unprovoked firing across the militarised border, bringing the toll on both sides to five since January 6. Pakistan armys director-general of military operation telephoned his Indian counterpart on Wednesday to strongly protest over the death, an official said.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar hit out at strident comments by Indian politicians over the incidents, and warned against upping the ante between the nuclear-powered neighbours.
We see warmongering, Khar said at the Asia Society in New York late on Tuesday. It is deeply disturbing to hear statements which are upping the ante, where one politician is competing with the other to give a more hostile statement.
India says two of its soldiers have been killed, one beheaded, since hostilities erupted along the Line of Control (LoC) where a cease fire has been in place since 2003. It has demanded the return of the soldiers head which is still missing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
It has demanded the return of the soldiers head which is still missing.
prolly an ashtray in ISI HQ
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/17/2013 8:43
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[An Nahar] The U.N.'s World Food Program said Wednesday it would quickly try to distribute aid to an additional one million Syrians after Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... gave the green light for the body to work with local aid organizations to reach more of those in need.
Until now most of the agency's food aid was delivered through the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy, which was overstretched and only able to provide help to some 1.5 million Syrians in the war-torn country a month.
To boost the number of people receiving emergency assistance, the Syrian government last week drew up a list of 110 local non-governmental organizations that were allowed to participate in the aid effort, out of which the WFP selected 34 partner agencies, WFP's executive director Ertharin Cousin told a presser in Geneva.
"This will give us the ability to scale up to reach one million more people," said Cousin, who visited a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey on Tuesday.
Coordinators from different aid agencies and representatives from governments hosting refugees from the violence-wracked country will meet in Amman on Thursday to organize the new distribution procedure, she added.
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[Dawn] A young man was rubbed out in what appeared to be an attack on sectarian grounds in Surjani Town on Tuesday evening, police said.
They said that assailants riding a cycle of violence fired at Asghar Ali Shah when he was coming out of his house in Surjani Town's Sector 7-A and rode away.
While Surjani SHO Ejaz Rajpar was not sure whether it was a sectarian killing, a front man for the Majlis Wahdat-e-Moslemeen said that it was a sectarian attack as the victim was among the founding members of an annual Muharram procession in the area.
Condemning the killing, he said that the victim, father of four, had survived an liquidation attempt about a year ago.
Following the incident, tension gripped parts of Surjani Town.
One killed, two maimed in Sohrab Goth
A man was killed and two others were maimed when gunnies opened indiscriminate fire on an eatery in Sohrab Goth on Tuesday.
Police said that Sardar Sheikh, 25, Naqeebullah, 26 and Hussain Deen, 26 were sitting at the eatery near Indus Plaza when they came under an armed attack.
They said that the maimed men were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where Sardar was pronounced dead while two others were admitted for treatment.
The police suspected that the attack was an outcome of some personal enmity.
They said that the three men had recently come here from Afghanistan.
Tea shop worker rubbed out
An employee of a roadside tea shop was rubbed out in North Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on Tuesday.
Police said that gunnies riding a cycle of violence targeted Abdul Qadeem, 35, at the Quetta Unnabi Hotel, the tea shop, within the remit of the Khawaja Ajmer Nagri cop shoppe.
The victim was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he died during treatment.
Police were not sure about the motive for the killing. They suspected that it might have been related to some personal enmity.
KMC driver rubbed out, friend maimed
A man was rubbed out and his lover companion was maimed in an armed attack near Qalandria Chowk in a North Nazimabad locality on Tuesday.
Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan SHO Nisar Lodhi said that two armed riders fired shots at Attaur Rehman, 35, and Shabbir, 31, and escaped. They sustained bullet wounds and were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Atta died during treatment.
The maimed man told the police that he and his friend had gone to the Sakhi Hasan graveyard to attend a funeral. They were targeted on their way back home, he added. The dear departed was father of two and worked in the Bloody Karachi Metropolitan Corporation as driver.
Woman dies from burn injuries
An elderly woman died after she caught fire while cooking at her Bihar Colony house on Tuesday, police said. A duty officer at the Chakiwara cop shoppe said that 53-year-old Zainab, wife of Sattar, was busy making a meal in the afternoon when her clothes caught fire. She suffered serious burn injuries and was rushed to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi where she died during treatment.
She was 70 per cent burnt, said hospital sources.
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The deputy chairman of a local administrative organization was seriously wounded when two suspects on a motorcycle, one of whom was dressed in traditional Muslim female robes, opened fire on him in Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district on Wednesday. Mahama Imae was shot multiple times by the perpetrators. His pickup was found riddled with bullets.
An initial investigation showed that Mahama dropped his sister off at a school in the district in the morning before heading to his office. He was driving his truck when the two suspects on a motorcycle following him began shooting.
[Dawn] THE capture by beturbanned fascisti on Monday of Diabaly, a hitherto government-controlled town some 400km from the Malian capital of Bamako, comes across as a setback for the French military intervention in Mali, which began last week without a great deal of warning.
On the other hand, it also suggests that President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it... was to some extent justified in claiming that delaying international assistance could have led to Bamako being overrun by jihadists.
A degree of international attention has been focused on Mali since last year, with government writ more or less absent in the northern two-thirds of the country amid a separatist Tuareg rebellion complicated by the increasing clout of Wahabist groups.
Western training for the Malian army was part of the idea, but it was thwarted to a degree by the defection of US-trained military officers -- and an army captain, also American-trained, led a coup last March that pre-empted elections planned for April. Captain Amadou Sanogo overthrew the regime of Amadou Toumani Toure, an ex-general who had once led a coup of his own but was subsequently credited with ushering in democracy.
Toure is reported to have become fairly unpopular by the time he was deposed, and he was replaced after the coup by the speaker of the National Assembly, Dioncounda Traore, a mathematician by training, who made a calculated decision to request assistance from the former colonial power -- La Belle France ruled Mali until 1960 -- after Islamists overran the central town of Konna.
Just last month, meanwhile, Hollande turned down a plea from the Central African Republic's Francois Bozize to send troops to stave off a rebel takeover of the capital, Bangui. "Those days are over," the French president said at the time -- which partly explains why the decision to send French troops and fighter jets into combat in Mali came as such a surprise.
Domestically, it has done wonders, at least in the short term, for the reputation of a president widely seen as indecisive. Even those who oppose Hollande on various other grounds, such as his advocacy of gay marriage rights (which prompted a sizeable conservative mobilisation on the boulevards of Gay Paree on Sunday), are impressed by his initiative, which has officially been explained on the grounds that Mali's conversion into a "terrorist state" would not just endanger the 6,000 French expatriates in Bamako but also sharply increase Western Europe's vulnerability to Islamist attacks.
In his campaign for the presidency, one of Hollande's planks was an early pullout from Afghanistan -- which could be viewed as something of a contradiction, given that it's not hard to draw parallels between the Taliban and Mali's Ansar Dine and the smaller Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa. Besides, just as Al Qaeda and the Taliban are frequently deemed to be in cahoots, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is deemed to be playing a significant role in Mali. It is believed, for instance, to have been instrumental in the destruction of historic Sufi mosques and shrines in Timbuktu.
A key element in the Malian rebellion, meanwhile, is the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a Tuareg organization that has fought alongside the Islamists but also feuded with them. Its declared aim is a separate state in northern Mali, but it has lately indicated its willingness to join the push against the jihadists.
There have been reports that Nigeria's Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... is also involved in Malian subversion. Ansar Dine, intriguingly, is led by Tuareg leader Iyad Ag Ghaly, whose conversion to the Salafist cause was reportedly the consequence of proselytisation by Pakistain's Tableeghi Jamaat.
Much of the MNLA's firepower, meanwhile, is attributed to the weapons its fighters brought back from Libya, where they were apparently involved in defending the Qadaffy regime.
The US has been engaged to some extent in 'counter-terrorist' surveillance and training across swathes of Africa, its operations shrouded in secrecy; it came as a surprise to American media last July when three US commandos ended up dead in the Niger River after plunging off a bridge in Bamako. Tellingly, the fatalities included three women accompanying the troops, who were subsequently identified as Moroccan hookers.
Unwilling to commit substantial forces, the US has backed a United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... Security Council plan that entailed eventual military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which was expected to commence in September, after the rainy season, as well as training for Malian soldiers.
La Belle France evidently believed that would have been much too late, and last week Ecowas countries indicated they would rush troops into Mali within days to back the French forces. Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, has meanwhile rejected comparisons with Afghanistan and indicated that his nation's involvement in Mali would be over in "a matter of weeks".
That may turn out to have been a tall claim. Foreign military interventions, no matter how well-intentioned and well-planned, are rarely swift and they can often turn exceedingly messy. There have already been claims of civilian casualties in Mali, and many more are likely to follow.
The strength of the rebels is a source of speculation, and one can only hope that reports of their grassroots unpopularity are not exaggerated. It is not hard to understand why brutal punishments would cause consternation in a hitherto relaxed milieu, or why a ban on music would go down poorly in a land that has spawned the likes of Ali Farka Toure, Salif Keita and Toumani Diabate.
An eventual evaluation of Monsieur Hollande's initiative will depend, however, on what French forces -- so far gratifyingly small -- leave behind. The weakness of Mali's civilian as well as military institutions suggests stability would be a miracle even if the local and foreign Islamists can decisively be repulsed.
What's more, there's not much comfort to be found in the consequences of either sustained military intervention of the Iraqi and Afghan variety or the short, sharp variant witnessed in Libya.
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#1
The whole city is made of mud. If it ever rained, the place would melt.
Hossein Karroubi, son of one of Iran's opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi being held under house arrest, will have a probation sentence for a period of six months, Fars agency reported today.
According to the information, while voicing the statements against the Islamic Revolution in the foreign media, Hossein Karroubi is accused of creating unrest among the population.
Ex-presidential candidates protested against the results of the presidential elections in Iran on June 12, 2009. Reformist candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi made statements about the election result being falsified. According to observers, the protests which began in Iran after the elections have been held at a level having no analogue after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Hundreds of political activists were arrested and dozens of citizens killed.
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[An Nahar] The International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... on Wednesday opened a war crimes probe on Mali, where French troops are fighting beturbanned fascisti who have been occupying half the country since April last year.
"Different gangs have caused havoc and human suffering through a range of alleged acts of extreme violence," the Hague-based court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in a statement.
"I have determined that some of these deeds of brutality and destruction may constitute war crimes."
The probe will focus on crimes committed in rebel-held northern Mali, where "there is still turmoil... and populations continue to be at risk of yet more violence and suffering," she said.
Bensouda in July last year ordered a preliminary probe into reports of terrifying atrocities committed in Mali to see if the criteria for a fuller investigation were met.
She said her office believed there were sufficient grounds for "further action", and identified potential cases of atrocities in the impoverished west African state, which has effectively been split in two by the conflict.
Potential charges included murder, rape, mutilation, torture and summary execution, Bensouda said, though a situation report issued by her office said there was currently no evidence that crimes against humanity had been committed in Mali.
The report also said Sherlocks had "an indication of those persons and groups who appear to bear responsibility for the alleged crimes."
It mentioned the execution of between 70 and 153 detainees in the small northeastern desert town of Aguelhok.
Up to 90 cases of rape were reported in different locations at the end of March and beginning of April.
"The imposition of severe punishments and the destruction of religious buildings in Timbuktu and other areas in the north followed," Bensouda said.
In July, when Bensouda announced a preliminary probe, she said the destruction of Mohammedan shrines in Timbuktu inscribed on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites may also constitute war crimes. The Islamists who seized the ancient city considered the saints' tombs idolatrous.
Mali ratified the ICC's founding document, the Rome Statute, in 2000.
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[Dawn] Prior to their trip to Pakistain, the Hurriyat leaders claimed "they will talk business" but many perceived their visit as "remote controlled" in the first place. Now the Indian media is astounded after reports emerged that a Hurriyat delegation also met the alleged "26/11 criminal mastermindHafiz Muhammad Saeed ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... and Chief of Hizbul Mujahideen, Syed Salahuddin, on Pakistain soil".
India is firm that Saeed is the "Mumbai attacks criminal mastermind", but Pakistain maintains there is "lack of evidence" to "prove his guilt" in the court of law.
Even the supporters of the larger autonomy to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmire like Dr. Kamal A. Mitra Chenoy, well-known expert in International Affairs, felt "outraged" by the reported meeting of Hurriyat leaders with Saeed and Salahuddin.
Prof. Chenoy -- Chair, Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, School of International Studies, Jawahar Lal University, New Delhi -- opined that it is a case of "bad judgment" on the part of the Hurriyat to meet "terrorists". "Not only is Hafiz Muhammad Saeed wanted by India in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks, he is also an international terrorist wanted by the Americans. I'm a supporter of the larger autonomy to Kashmire, but I will be outraged to hear that the Hurriyat leaders from Kashmire have met Saeed in Pakistain," Prof. Chenoy told Dawn.com on phone from the Indian capital, New Delhi.
"If indeed they [Hurriyat leaders] have met the Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... [LeT] chief in Pakistain, they would be losing friends. They have been going to Pakistain on a regular basis. I don't think that is an issue. But what benefit would they get by meeting an international terrorist?" he remarked.
A delegation led by Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq last month visited Pakistain and reportedly met Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... Chief, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen Supremo, Syed Salahuddin, there. It could well be the case that the Hurriyat wanted to build a broader consensus on the issue of Kashmire, keeping in view the importance of all the major stakeholders of peace vis-à-vis Kashmire.
"Several leaders of Hurriyat are married to Pak women. They have their family connections with Pakistain. That again is not an issue. Some people in Kashmire were sympathetic towards Hurriyat's visit, hoping for something positive. But it seems that the Hurriyat has been badly advised by their friends in America and the United Kingdom. Their reported meeting with Saeed has not served any purpose," Prof. Chenoy added.
India's weekly magazine Tehelka quoted one of the Hurriyat delegates as "confirming" this controversial meeting. "Both Saeed and Salahuddin told us [Hurriyat delegation] that militancy in Kashmire would escalate after the US-led international troops depart from Afghanistan in 2014," Tehelka reported while quoting an unnamed Hurriyat delegate.
According to Tehelka, the Hurriyat delegation also met Pakistain Army Chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... , who reportedly ruled out his country's support for armed uprising in the Indian-administered part of Kashmire in future. The magazine also said that the meeting with the Pakistain Army Chief in Islamabad was well-publicised, but interactions with Saeed in Lahore and Salahuddin in Islamabad were kept private.
The Hurriyat Conference, meanwhile, is mysteriously tight-lipped on this issue. The APHC leaders are neither divulging details of their 'meeting' with two militia commanders nor denying meeting them. Their silence is only contributing to the ambiguity surrounding the 'meeting'.
"Whoever we meet, we speak our mind right unto his heart, why should people make noises for just nothing...How does it matter who we meet? Who we meet is not important, what you talk about there is important," Prof. A G Bhat, a senior Hurriyat leader, was quoted by India Today having said so.
Pakistain had invited Hurriyat's top brass to visit the country last month. The Hurriyat delegation that visited Pakistain from December 16-28, 2012, included its chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat, Bilal Ghani Lone, Maulana Abbas Ansari, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Musadiq Adil and Agha Syed Al-Hassan.
The APHC is an amalgam of various political, social and trade organizations based in the summer capital Srinagar favouring a 'palatable' resolution to the Kashmire dispute. Earlier, Hurriyat's visit to Pakistain drew flak from various quarters. Many well-meaning political pundits dismissed their exercise as "futile". Now the alliance finds itself in a tight-spot for a different reason.
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[TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES] In a major climb-down after facing military as well as diplomatic heat from India, the Pakistani Army on Wednesday shed its earlier confrontationist attitude to declare its troops would now firmly uphold the ceasefire agreement and exercise restraint on the 778-km-long Line of Control (LoC).
The Indian Army, while still furious over the beheading of one of its jawans, promptly accepted the truce offer made during the DGMO (director-general of military operations)-level talks to ensure the precarious situation along the LoC did not escalate "beyond the tactical level".
The beginning of the military de-escalation on the ground came even as Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar struck a discordant note at the UN headquarters in New York to charge India with "war-mongering".
With sports, cultural and trade ties already taking a hit, it's clear the bilateral diplomatic chill will continue for some more time to come. A day after PM Manmohan Singh warned Pakistan that it could no longer be ``business as usual" in the peace process, senior government officials on Wednesday reiterated Pakistan would have to investigate the barbaric beheading of the Indian soldier if it considered itself a ``civilized country''.
Indian DGMO Lt-General Vinod Bhatia also raised the beheading of Lance-Naik Hemraj by Pakistani Army regulars, in the Mendhar sector of J&K on January 8, with his Pakistani counterpart Major-General Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmed during their talk over the hotline at about 10am on Wednesday.
But while the Pakistani Army remained in denial mode on this matter as before, it did not exhibit the "belligerence" displayed earlier during the DGMO-level talks on January 9 as well as the flag meeting at the Chakkan-Da-Bagh crossing point in Poonch district on January 14.
"The conversation on Wednesday lasted for just about 10 minutes. The Pakistani DGMO said orders had been passed to his troops to strictly observe the ceasefire and exercise restraint. The two DGMOs came to an understanding on not allowing the situation to escalate," said a senior officer. Added another, "Pakistani Army has violated the ceasefire agreement around 15 times since January 1, including four times since Tuesday evening. We were only retaliating to firing from the other side...Let's see for how long the Pakistani Army sticks to its new position."
India had already decided that it would "militarily respond" to Pakistani firing only "tactically" without unnecessarily "upping the ante", in a meeting chaired by the PM on Monday, which was attended among others by the three Service chiefs -- Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne, Gen Bikram Singh and Admiral D K Joshi.
Gen Singh had also declared that all his battalion commanders on the LoC would retaliate "aggressively and offensively" but only if the Pakistan Army provoked them by violating the ceasefire or pushing militants into J&K.
Holding that while the beheading had "angered" India at the strategic level, Pakistan's cross-border raid of January 8 was "a tactical operation'' that would be answered ``at the tactical level" only, he added.
On Wednesday, once again rejecting Pakistan's charges about Indian troops crossing the LoC, the Army chief said any casualties across the border would have taken place due to the retaliatory firing. "Our jawans don't cross the LoC. We honour human rights. We fire in retaliation when provoked," he said, after meeting the family of Lance-Naik Hemraj at Khairiar village in Uttar Pradesh.
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[BIZJOURNALS] Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick on Monday laid tax and fee increases and new taxes on the table, including more than doubling the state's gas tax. But that's alright. Y'all keep turning out 110 percent Democrat. He's raising taxes to fund projects instead of maintenance on existing transit. Then he'll come back and raise taxes ... for maintenance on the new stuff. It never ends.
He's seeking more than $1 billion a year in new revenue to fund projects designed to fund public transit and highway operations, reduce MBTA debt and borrow money to double infrastructure spending. Beacon Hill leaders reportedly signaled agreement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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#2
Y'all could move here to Virginia. Our governor just proposed dropping the gas tax.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/17/2013 8:24
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#3
Just remember the families backs in Europe who were unwilling to join those who were kicked out or left on their own accord back before 1914 and what they got to endure for the first half of the 20th Century.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
[An Nahar] Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said on Wednesday that comments on Israel attributed to him before he was elected, slammed as deeply offensive by the United States, were taken out of context.
"The president stressed they were taken from comments on the Israeli aggression against Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip, and stressed the need to put the remarks in the right context," said a statement from the presidency issued after Morsi met U.S. Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution...
According to a TV clip released by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Morsi refers in a 2010 interview to "occupiers of Paleostine" as "blood suckers and war mongers, and descendants of pigs and apes."
"We must resist them with all forms of resistance. A military resistance in Paleostine against these Zionist criminals assaulting the land of Paleostine and Paleostinians," he says in the remarks to Quds Channel three years ago.
In Wednesday's statement, Morsi "stressed his commitment to the principles he has always insisted on, including full respect for religions, freedom of faith and religious practices, especially the heavenly religions."
Morsi also "stressed the need to differentiate between Judaism and its adherents from (those who practice) violent actions against Paleostinians."
He also "stressed the importance of building a strategic relationship between Egypt and the United States based on mutual respect and shared interests."
On Tuesday, Washington condemned Morsi's remarks and urged him to clarify his views.
"The language that we've seen is deeply offensive," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, adding "we think that these comments should be repudiated, and they should be repudiated firmly."
Morsi, who was a leader of Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund, came to power in June as the Arab nation's first democratically elected president, following the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
Nuland said Washington had already raised its concerns about the television clip with Cairo, and stressed again that Congress, which has blocked part of $1 billion in extra U.S. aid, was watching the new Egyptian leadership carefully.
"We completely reject these statements, as we do any language that espouses religious hatred. This kind of rhetoric has been used in this region for far too long," she told journalists. "It's counter to the goals of peace."
"President Morsi should make clear that he respects people of all faiths and that this type of rhetoric is not acceptable or productive in a democratic Egypt," added White House front man Jay Carney.
The two administration officials stressed, however, that since coming to office, Morsi had reaffirmed Egypt's commitment to the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
He had done so "in both word and deed, and has proven willing to work with us toward shared objectives, including a ceasefire during the crisis in Gazoo last year," Carney said.
Washington would judge Morsi by both what he says and what he does, Nuland added.
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#1
Ma, he's at it again. Newly Released Morsi Video: Nurse Children on Hatred of Jews Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them, he added. They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue.
[CHRON] Syrian troops stepped up an offensive against rebels in the north on Wednesday, following kabooms targeting security forces and a university campus that killed more than 100 people in two days.
Powerful suicide boom-mobiles that killed about two dozen people in Idlib marked another escalation in the fight for control of northern Syria, a key battlefield in the country's civil war. The day before, massive blasts heavily damaged the main university in the commercial hub of Aleppo, killing 87 people and wounding scores of others.
The nearly simultaneous bombings in Idlib Wednesday bore the trademarks of Islamic bad boys, the most organized rebel fighters trying to topple Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's government. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the 22-month conflict, according to the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas...
Assad's warplanes struck rebel targets in both northern cities, still reeling from the deadly kabooms. The Syrian army vowed to crush the armed opposition to "cleanse the homeland of their dirt."
The army said in a statement that its troops killed and maimed dozens of "terrorist mercenaries" in Aleppo following the attacks on the university where students were taking mid-year exams. Assad's regime regularly refers to rebels as "terrorists."
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Indonesian officials are threatening to move a community of displaced Shi'ite Muslims to another part of Indonesia if they refuse to convert to Sunni Islam. Authorities in East Java have told the group they must convert to Sunni Islam by March, or face relocation.
About 165 Shi'ites have been camped out in a sports complex in East Java since August, after their village was stormed by about 500 people opposed to their beliefs. One person died and several others were wounded in the August attack in Sampang district, where many homes were burned to the ground.
Five people are reported to be awaiting trial for their role in the attack.
Amnesty International's Indonesia campaigner, Joseph Benedict said the violence may have been provoked by local Sunni leaders. He said, "They mobilised many of the villagers to attack the community. What we heard is that there's been a lot of incitement against the Shia community for many months leading up to the attack and we're also aware that the police were aware of the attack before it happened."
The Setara Institute of Peace says attacks on religious minorities have steadily increased since 2009, with more than 370 incidents committed last year alone. Bonar Tigor Naipsos, the institute's deputy director, said, "The target especially is the Christian minority and the second is the Ahmadiyya and the third is Shia and the fourth is an Islamic sect - they're accused because they are deviant or heretic."
#1
Meanwhile, back in Pakland, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > VIDEO: NO BIGGIE IFF 40 SHIAS ARE DEAD IN MASTUNG, BALOCHISTAN, THERE ARE MILLIONS MORE SHIAS STILL ALIVE.
Video = the more dead Sunni-despised Shias the better for Pakistan + Islam???
OOOOOOOOO, you just know IRAN is NOT going to be a happy camper.
[NY Times] French soldiers encircled a desert village in central Mali on Wednesday, a Malian Army colonel said, in the first direct operations involving Western troops since La Belle France began its military campaign here last week to help wrest this nation back from a Death Eater advance.
The Malian colonel said his army's ground troops had joined the French forces and ringed the village of Diabaly, which Islamist fighters had seized the day before. Now, he said, they were engaged in trying to extricate the Death Eaters, who had taken over homes and ensconced themselves.
"It's a very specialized kind of war," said the colonel, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The town is surrounded."
French officials have been cautious about saying exactly when the ground combat would begin. On Wednesday, a senior French defense official confirmed that a detachment of about 100 members of the French special forces were approaching Diabaly, about 250 miles north of the capital, in an effort to halt an krazed killer move south and take back the town. But the official refused to confirm that an assault was yet under way.
The ground fighting expands the confrontation between the Islamists and the French forces, who have previously conducted aerial assaults after President François Hollande of La Belle France ordered an intervention in Mali last Friday to thwart a broader push by beturbanned fascisti controlling the north of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... beheaded a Pak man in the eastern Khubar province on Wednesday after he was convicted of drug trafficking, the interior ministry announced.
Arshad Mohammed was enjugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! for smuggling heroin and hashish into the kingdom, the ministry was quoted as saying by the official SPA news agency.
His execution brings to four the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year.
Last year, the ultra-conservative Moslem kingdom beheaded 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... put the number at 69.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.
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[DAILYCALLER] A second Republican congressman is suggesting that impeachment should be an option as President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... takes executive action to enact gun control measures.
In an interview with Florida's "The Shark Tank," Florida Republican Trey Radel addressed Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman's statement that he might seek impeachment if Obama goes forward with executive action to bring about gun control measures.
"All options should be on the table," Radel responded.
Obama announced 23 executive actions during his Wednesday presser. (READ: Obama's 23 executive orders
"It is one of those times in our history, we are at this breaking point," Radel added, going to to explain, "We have completely lost our checks and balances in this country, the Congress needs to hold the president accountable for the decisions that he's making right now, and that why again, I would say that all options should be on the table."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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#1
IRONY > a POTUS at risk of impeachment for abuse of Executive/Prsidential Privelege vee Gun Control, BUT N-O-T FOR ANTI-SOVEREIGN, ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL OWG + OWG NAU???
Reminds me almost of POTUS Clinton's impeachment for lying under oath as per Monica, BUT NOT FOR SELF-ADMITTED/PROCLAIMED ELECTION FRAUD.
The establishment in Washington must be gluttons for making sure the wrong issues never get addressed - THE SOONER CHINA OPENS FIRE ON JAPAN IN NE ASIA + THREATENS NUCLEAR WAR ON THE UNITED STATES, THE BETTER FOR THE RETURN OF ETHICS OR MORALISM TO WASHINGTON + US POLITICS.
Histoire' + Perts say "It takes a major Incident or Event" - so be it!
#3
Time to remind yourself that the US Constitution is not about the government telling THE PEOPLE what it can do, but about WE THE PEOPLE telling the government what it can do.
And more importantly, what NOT.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/17/2013 4:37
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#4
Second GOP congressman suggests impeachment
It's a beginning... which (in my opinion) should end in deportation.
#5
Ha ha, that's adorable, EC. American schools stopped teaching the concept of "limited government" many years ago. As if King George III will come charging in with his Stamp Act and his redcoats and muskets and bayonets to enforce it, or whatever happened? Ridiculous. It's all about fairness and self-esteem and identity politics now. It's the modern world, the 21st century! We're all enlightened now (well, those who agree with Obama, anyway.) How could anything possibly go wrong?
[An Nahar] Algeria, which has opened its airspace to French warplanes hitting Islamists in northern Mali, was targeted Wednesday in a deadly Dire Revenge™ attack in which faceless myrmidons seized 41 Western hostages.
The Islamists, who said they entered Algeria from northern Mali, told Mauritanian media they were holding 41 Westerners, among them French, British and Japanese citizens, as well as seven Americans, at a southern gas field.
One Briton and an Algerian were killed in the attack, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia said.
Six people were maimed -- another Briton, a Norwegian and a Scot, as well as an Algerian security agent and two coppers.
Britannia's Foreign Office was unable to confirm that a Briton died, saying only that "British nationals are caught up in this incident."
The In Amenas gas field is jointly operated by British oil giant BP, Norway's Statoil and state-run Algerian energy firm Sonatrach. Production was shut down after the attack.
A worker at the scene told Agence La Belle France Presse by phone that the gang was demanding freedom for 100 Islamists held in Algeria in exchange for the Western hostages.
"The assailants have demanded that these Islamists be taken to northern Mali," he said.
The interior minister insisted Algiers would not negotiate with the "terrorists," who he said were surrounded by the army and security services.
Speaking on national television, Kablia said the group appeared to want to leave the country with the hostages, which Algiers rejected, but denied they had come from either Mali or Libya, saying they were "around 20 men from the region."
The attack took place at dawn, when armed Islamists targeted a bus carrying oil workers to the In Amenas airport, the interior ministry said.
The assailants were repelled by security escorts, but then headed for the gas field's residential compound, where they took the hostages.
BP confirmed that the In Amenas gas complex had been attacked.
"The site was attacked and occupied by a group of unidentified armed people at about 0500 (GMT). Contact with the site is extremely difficult, but we understand that armed individuals are still occupying the In Amenas operations site," it said in a statement.
"Our absolute priority is the safety and security of our staff," BP added, saying "we do not yet have confirmed information on the status of personnel at the site but believe some are being held by the occupiers."
A French catering company said 150 of its Algerian employees were being held at the complex.
"The information I have is that a group of around 60 bully boyz from neighboring countries attacked the base overnight," said CIS Catering's executive director Regis Arnoux.
"They took all the expatriates hostage, regardless of nationality, and tied them up. The Algerian staff are being held inside the site," he told French newspaper the Journal du Dimanche, adding: "We fear the worst, there are many lives at stake."
The Algerian news agency APS said Algerian hostages were later freed, without saying how many.
Japanese engineering firm JGC said five Japanese workers were believed to have been seized, while separate sources said a Frenchies, an Irish citizen and a Norwegian were among those taken hostage.
The U.S. State Department confirmed that American citizens were among hostages, and the White House said it was "closely monitoring" the situation.
One of the attackers told AFP by telephone that they were al-Qaeda loyalists who had slipped into Algeria from northern Mali where La Belle France launched a major offensive against the jihadists on January 11 to prevent them from advancing on the capital Bamako.
"We are members of al-Qaeda and we came from northern Mali," the cut-thoat said.
"We belong to the Khaled Abul Abbas Brigade (better known as Mokhtar Belmokhtar)," he added.
An Islamist front man separately told Mauritanian media that the attack was "a reaction to Algeria's flagrant interference in allowing French planes into its airspace to launch raids on northern Mali."
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[TAMPA.CBSLOCAL] A Florida Senate panel says police should be banned from using drones to spy on citizens.
A bill (SB 92) that would prohibit law enforcement agencies from gathering evidence or other information flew through the Criminal Justice Committee with a unanimous vote Tuesday.
It also would ban government agencies from using drones for code enforcement.
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[Washington Post] One of Russia's biggest criminal bosses -- call him the country's Don Corleone -- was bumped off in the center of Moscow on Wednesday as he left his favorite hangout surrounded by bodyguards.
Aslan Usoyan, a 75-year-old gangster known as Grandpa Khasan, was hit by a sniper perched on the sixth floor of an apartment building, shot in the head by an assailant armed with a silenced assault rifle, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement. He died at a hospital, leaving behind a nephew he was grooming for succession and the prospect of a bloody war over turf.
Usoyan controlled prostitution, construction and all manner of protection rackets in Moscow and a wide swath of Russia, according to Mark Galeotti, a New York University professor who has studied the Russian mob for 20 years. The crime boss reportedly had a stranglehold over Sochi, home of the 2014 Winter Olympics, to the envy of the underworld.
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[An Nahar] Egypt's prosecution on Wednesday accepted an offer by ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... and his family to pay back gifts from the country's flagship newspaper worth millions of Egyptian pounds.
Mubarak, his wife Suzanne, his two sons Alaa and Gamal and their wives allegedly accepted gifts from al-Ahram worth 18 million Egyptian pounds (around $2.7 million) between 2006 and 2011.
The 84-year-old, who is currently being treated in a Cairo military hospital, was questioned last week about the gifts and ordered jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! pending investigation.
Last week, an Egyptian court ordered a retrial for Mubarak after accepting an appeal against the life sentence handed him for his involvement in the deaths of protesters in 2011.
Mubarak, 84, his two sons, his former interior minister Habib al-Adly and top security chiefs will face a new trial, the Court of Cassation, the top appeals court, ruled after a very brief hearing.
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ALEPPO -- Once cogs in a dynamic industrial engine that helped power Syria's economy, the factories in a sprawling zone in the heart of battle-ravaged Aleppo now stand largely silent, the workers mostly fled. In their place, thousands of people sheltering from the violence that has swept Syria's northern commercial capital since July, and from the severe winter weather that has brought misery to much of the Middle East.
This is what happens in a civil war...
The Shaikh Najjar complex opened five years ago in Aleppo, Syria's commercial capital in the north of the country, and was quickly touted as an economic success story. Today it works at about only 20 per cent capacity, according to one estimate. This is more to do with a lack of electricity and a dearth of supplies of much-needed raw materials than as a result of being directly caught up in the fighting.
In the initial weeks of the conflict last July, regime forces sent artillery shells smashing into the complex, alarming factory owners who begged that they be spared the violence so they could keep the wheels of industry turning.
#2
We have to burn plastic, wood, anything we find to keep us warm
What?? No wind-mills or solar power??
Figure this is the Greenies plan for the UK in a couple of years. You'ld think the Greenies would be all over this getting them low impact fuel and supplies, no?
[Shabelle] Somalia's orc group of Al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... has declared that it would execute French secret agent the group has been holding as a hostage for the last three years, according to a statement the group posted on its twitter page, @HSMPress Office.
The group says in the twitter that the French govt gambled on the life of dennis Aleex after French commandos conducted a botched rescue mission in Somalia recently.
"After the botched rescue to snatch Dennis that attempt by La Belle France sentenced Dennis to death, the group wrote in its twitter message.
The group alleged in its twitter that French defence minister wrongly told the media that Dennis died during the recent operation while he is till a live and in the hands of the group but the group didn't show if Dennis was alive after that operation in Bulo Marer.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
hard to get straight if he is still alive or not. there's not much that Al Shebaab says that you can take as gospel. if he's alive now ... they will probably execute him after Friday prayers.
i hope the French hit Al Shebaab very hard ... if they go thru with this execution. Load some heavy bombs onto some airplanes. Make it hurt!
Thereby giving them a chance at a straight shot to Paradise, which as non-jihadis they would not otherwise have had. Such noble, generous Lions of Islam!
[An Nahar] Islamist fighters waging a war against French troops in Mali are deploying child soldiers and using the population as a shield against the offensive, a Malian army source said Wednesday.
"These people (the Islamists) have two strategies: using the population as a shield and child soldiers as fighters," the military leader said on condition of anonymity.
He said this was the case in the small town of Diabaly, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the Malian capital, where Islamists clashed with French and Malian troops on Wednesday in the first ground offensive since La Belle France's operation was launched on January 10.
In Diabaly, the Islamists "are using the population as a shield, which is complicating matters for us. And they have only child soldiers," he said, as the battle raged to drive out the bad turbans.
The town was seized by Death Eaters led by Algerian Abou Zeid, one of the leaders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... urged rebel groups to immediately release child soldiers within their ranks. The rights group said it had interviewed several witnesses reporting children as young as 12 taking part in the fighting.
"These Islamist groups have no business recruiting children into their ranks, much less putting them on the front line," said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.
"These groups seem to be willfully putting scores of children directly in harm's way."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[GOVERNOR.STATE.TX.US] Gov. Rick Perry released the following statement regarding President Obama's executive actions:
"The Vice President's committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his recommendations have anything to do with what happened there.
"Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror.
"There is evil prowling in the world - it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.
"In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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#1
God bless Texas!
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/17/2013 6:11
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#2
FINALY, some sense.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/17/2013 8:49
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#3
"As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be."
"The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president."
The above comments are word of wisdom, but I am even more struck by intelligent Rick's horse looks compared to our President.
[Dawn] Pakistain's opposition parties have vowed to stay united to protect democracy in the face of "conpiracies being hatched to derail the democratic process."
At least 25,000 people are estimated to be taking part in the largest rally in the capital since the current government took office in 2008 and leader Tahir-ul Qadri, who has called for the government's immediate resignation, on Wednesday urged mainstream politicians to support his cause.
But the leader of Pakistain's opposition, Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , announced after consultations with main opposition parties that they would not be joining Qadri in a move that appeared to isolate the populist holy man.
"This meeting demands from the government that an election schedule and caretaker set-up should be announced without any delay and dates for these events specified forthwith," Sharif, who was unseated as prime minister by a military coup in 1999, announced at a news conference in Lahore.
The joint consultative meeting of all major opposition parties expressed the resolve to hold general elections on time and to not accept any delay in the polls.
The session vowed to continue upholding the rule of the law and the Constitution at all costs.
Qadri wants parliament dissolved now and a caretaker government set up in consultation with the military and judiciary to implement reforms such as setting up a new election commission and banning corrupt candidates.
But Sharif defended the current election commission, saying: "People should refrain from making any demands which are not in the ambit of the constitution."
Addressing the session, Sharif, who heads the Pakistain Moslem League -- Nawaz (PML-N), the main opposition party in the National Assembly, said that his party was not working for power but for democracy.
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 ... , chief of the Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) said that all parties would collectively condemn any unconstituitional step. He said that, instead of delaying polls, the government should immediately announce date for general elections.
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... (JI) chief Syed Munawwar Hassan said that non-democratic forces should not be given any chances. Mehmood Khan Achakzai of the Pakhtun Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) remarked that politics had no room for 'clowns'. The session was also attended by Talal Akbar Bugti, Hamid Nasir Chattha, Haroon Akhtar, among other opposition leaders.
A statement was issued from Prime Minister office later on Wednesday, with PM Raja Pervez Ashraf welcoming the opposition parties' position.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[BELLINGHAMHERALD] Freezing weather with light snow flurries greeted about 200 climate activists gathered on the steps of the state Capitol noon Monday to demand the state Legislature get serious about climate change.
The climate rally unfolded four hours after the highest predicted tide of 2013 in Budd Inlet. Climate activists draw attention to the winter high tides, calling them a precursor of a future shoreline under siege from sea-level rise.
The irony of Monday's cold weather compared to a global climate that is heating due to a carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere was not lost on the crowd, or some of the speakers.
"Climate and weather are two different things," Olympia-area environmentalist Paul Pickett was quick to remind the bundled-up crowd. Climate is long term and weather is what happens daily, he said.
Urgency embroidered with anger and despair permeated the so-called Climate Crisis Rally timed to the first day of the 2013 legislative session.
Urgency because the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to build: Roughly two-thirds of the carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere the past 100 years is still there. The rest is in the ocean, Pickett said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just reported that 2012 was Earth's hottest year on record. Further, the latest draft report on United States climate change effects paints a picture of increased droughts, coastal erosion, sea-level rise, weird weather, melting glaciers and intense wildfires.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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Top|| File under:
#1
Compare wid PRAVDA.RU > MANKIND WILL NEED THREE MORE EARTHS [reserve resource planets] TO PRESERVE CURRENT CONSUMPTION.
Year 2023 is the deadline, + exclusive of "fracking".
AND
* SAME > CLIMATE CHANGE TO CREATE EPIC SURFING CONDITIONS.
Iff old Dreams/Visions once again hold true - YUUUPPP.
D *** NGED BEACH BLANKET GLOBALIST GIDGET BIKINI KIDS!
[Shaking OWG Solyent Apple Fritter angrily].
As they surf, I look deep D-E-E-P into the Water Blue for "signs".
#7
Remember, the US is only 1.58% of the global surface. Sooo, lets take on the task of cooling the entire planet with 54 mpg autos, ethanol, ect. Go ahead the American taxpayer can do it, and you'll feeeel better too.
[Pak Daily Times] Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) chief Tahirul Qadri on Wednesday revealed his four-point charter of demands and gave the government ultimatum to implement these demands by Wednesday night or face the wrath of what he claimed to be his million-people march.
Speaking for more than four hours on the second day of his supporters' sit-in at the federal capital's D Chowk, Qadri demanded the dissolution of the Election Commission of Pakistain (ECP) and even went to the length of targeting Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ibrahim by calling him too old to perform his responsibilities. Urging for reconstitution of the ECP, he said that a new one should be formed to conduct the elections in a fair and free manner.
The second point of his charter of demand related to electoral reforms. The holy man emphasised that these reforms should be undertaken before the elections are held because without implementing them the electoral exercise would be a practice in futility. He repeated his demands for implementation of articles 62, 63 and 218 of the constitution and suggested that the ECP should be given one month to scrutinise the credentials of the contesting candidates.
Qadri also called for dissolution of the national and provincial assemblies by listing it as a point in his charter of demands. The fourth point of his charter of demands pertained to the caretaker setup, and Qadri urged that it should not be installed only with the consensus of only two political parties, namely the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz (PML-N)
During his lengthy speech, Qadri also lashed out at the politicianship of the country and praised the judiciary and army. Referring to the government, he said, "Army and judiciary gave you five years but your failed to provide any relief to masses." The TMQ chief again dubbed politicians as thieves and tax evaders and said that the nation would kick them out of power corridors.
On the Asghar Khan case, the holy man said that it proved that the involved politicians did politics by taking money. Referring to the Supreme Court's order for the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the rental power plants' (RPP) case, he said that despite the court's clear instructions to arrest the premier, some federal ministers were denying that the orders were meant for the prime minister.
He further said that the intentions of those trying to link the Supreme Court's orders with the sit-in staged near the Parliament House were malafide. Qadri said he considered the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... a fellow seeker of change who was not tainted by corruption. He invited Imran to join the sit-in. He appealed to the supporters to remain in the sit-in as the government is about to be sent packing.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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[Dawn] Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar late Tuesday said that whoever calls the Haqqani network "an asset for Pakistain" did not represent the Pak government, a report from BBC Urdu said.
She further said that army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... did not hold such opinions in the present circumstances.
The foreign minister was addressing a discussion titled "Pakistain's Democratic Journey" held by Asia Society, a renowned think-tank, in New York on Tuesday evening. The discussion was moderated by a political columnist of Time, a weekly magazine in the United States.
The moderator asked Khar about an interview given by General Kayani to the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... four years ago in which he allegedly stated that he considered the Haqqani network an "asset" for Pakistain.
In response, Khar she did not know who had said it, adding that whoever calls the Haqqani network an asset to Pakistain could not be a representative of the Pak government.
She further said that General Kayani no longer held that opinion.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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[An Nahar] Four Chinese workers kidnapped by Darfur rebels on January 12 have been freed, a spokeswoman for the joint U.N.-African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... peace keeping force in the troubled western Sudan region said Wednesday.
"The four kidnapped Chinese workers were released and delivered to the headquarters of the UNAMID mission in the South Darfur region of Khour Abchi," spokeswoman Aicha Elbasri told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The Chinese embassy in Khartoum confirmed their release, saying it had asked Chinese nationals and companies in Sudan "to strictly comply with security measures and avoid going to unstable and dangerous regions."
The Chinese nationals along with five Sudanese workers were kidnapped by gunnies on January 12 as they were busy with road construction in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region.
The attackers kidnapped the men and seized their vehicles as they were finishing their work for the day. The fate of Sudanese hostages is unknown.
Recent years have seen a wave of kidnappings for ransom in Darfur, where ethnic rebels a decade ago launched an uprising against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2013
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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.
David Cameron
Fifteen people were killed in a series of bomb blasts in Iraq.
[CTVNEWS.CA] Senior UN 
President Asif Ali 
SEOUL -- North Korea's state-run media has stepped up efforts to portray 
[FoxNews] A criminal court in the central Egyptian city of Beni Suef meted out the shocking sentence last week, according to the Arabic-language Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm. Nadia Mohamed Ali, who was raised a Christian, converted to Islam when she married Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab Mustafa, a 
Abu Sayyaf 
Nouri al-Maliki
[Dawn] Activists of the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) came out on roads and streets in various areas of 
JOHANNESBURG -- When do you not listen to the African wildlife expert? When he tells you to stand closer to the rhino.
Two people, killed in a special operation in the North Caucasus on Wednesday, were 
Joe 
[Dawn] In a late night development, police was called in to disperse protesting 
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fla. criticized 
About 100,000 of refugees from Afghanistan will be leaving Iran for their homeland this current Iranian year, Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdullahi said today, Mehr reported.
SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is believed to have attempted hacking attacks on the computer server handling the Internet for the press rooms at South Korea's presidential transition team, a committee official said Thursday.
[An Nahar] Twin 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] A young man was 
International Criminal Court
"If indeed they [Hurriyat leaders] have met the 
[TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES] In a major climb-down after facing military as well as diplomatic heat from India, the Pakistani Army on Wednesday shed its earlier confrontationist attitude to declare its troops would now firmly uphold the ceasefire agreement and exercise restraint on the 778-km-long Line of Control (LoC). 
[BIZJOURNALS] Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick on Monday laid tax and fee increases and new taxes on the table, including more than doubling the state's gas tax.
John 
Indonesian officials are threatening to move a community of displaced Shi'ite Muslims to another part of Indonesia if they refuse to convert to Sunni Islam. Authorities in East Java have told the group they must convert to Sunni Islam by March, or face relocation.
[DAILYCALLER] A second Republican congressman is suggesting that impeachment should be an option as President 
[An Nahar] Algeria, which has opened its airspace to French warplanes hitting Islamists in northern Mali, was targeted Wednesday in a deadly 
[Washington Post] One of Russia's biggest criminal bosses -- call him the country's Don Corleone -- was 
[GOVERNOR.STATE.TX.US] Gov. Rick Perry released the following statement regarding President Obama's executive actions:
The above comments are word of wisdom, but I am even more struck by intelligent Rick's horse looks compared to our President. 
[Dawn] Pakistain's opposition parties have vowed to stay united to protect democracy in the face of "conpiracies being hatched to derail the democratic process."
Nawaz Sharif
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
[BELLINGHAMHERALD] Freezing weather with light snow flurries greeted about 200 climate activists gathered on the steps of the state Capitol noon Monday to demand the state Legislature get serious about climate change.
[Pak Daily Times] Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) chief Tahirul Qadri on Wednesday revealed his four-point charter of demands and gave the government ultimatum to implement these demands by Wednesday night or face the wrath of what he claimed to be his million-people march.
[Dawn] Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar late Tuesday said that whoever calls the Haqqani network "an asset for Pakistain" did not represent the Pak government, a report from BBC Urdu said.
