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Suicide bomber hits north Mali, troops clash in capital
Today's Headlines
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Home Front: Culture Wars
Pro-Taliban terrorist tries to blow up Oakland bank and blame it on the Right to start civil war
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/08/2013 17:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  arrested early Friday after trying to detonate what he thought was a car bomb at a Bank of America

He fell for the fake telephone detonator? Idiot of the day award.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 18:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Wanted to get it blamed on conservatives? Sounds like your standard Democrat to me.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/08/2013 19:29 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't think our side would be blowing up banks anyway.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 02/08/2013 20:15 Comments || Top||

#4  During his time in Arizona, Llaneza described himself as an “armorist” who was proficient in weapons assembly, and records show that in February 2008 founded Sand Fire Tactical LLC, which he described in its articles of organization as an “internet sales, light manufacturing” firm located in Mesa... "Findthecompany.com” claims that Sand Fire Tactical LLC had $58,000 in 2011 revenue (Estimated data)

Interesting to see if there were export-related sales.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/08/2013 20:26 Comments || Top||

#5  The GOP-Right lost a lot of trust + "true believers" wid the Bammer-Boehner "fiscal cliff" deal - even iff the GOP proclaims to seek new "fair-n-balanced" compromise wid the DemoLefties, that lost trust + believers aren't in a rush to come back.

THE MAINSTREAM HAS HAD IT WID RINOS CINOS, PERENNIALLY BROKEN PROMISES, + WAFFLING POLITICOS WHOM ARE MORE INTERESTED IN GETTING ELECTED OR REELECTED + NOT BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANYTHING THAN SOLVING IMPORTANT NATIONAL OR SOCIETAL PROBS.

SO-CALLED "MILITIAS", ETC. ARE MORE LIKELY TO IGNORE BOTH THE GOP-DEMS + START AIMING, SHOOTING THEIR GUNS AT SAME - IMO a Gop-Right victory in the Midterms or 2016 POTUS Elex, etc. is N-O-T going to change their minds.

Expect to see more + more "Penelope Sotos" giving the finger to any + all Public Servants regardless of Affiliation or Agency.

AND GUESS WHAT - THE GOVT. W-I-L-L DESERVE IT.

THE PEOPLE HAAAAVVVVEEE H-A-D IT! They are more interested in killing + armed resistance than listening to more Excuses + Cover Stories widin more Excuses + Cover Stories.

I'm not talking about dedicated anti-US Commies, Socialists, or Muslim Jihadis either.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/08/2013 20:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Dr. Benjamin Carson's Amazing Speech at the National Prayer Breakfast with Obama
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 17:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That will never fly with the government.

No opportunity for corruption and skimming to re-election funds.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/08/2013 17:45 Comments || Top||

#2  What a wonderful speach! Thanks for posting, tipper.

He's right about the HSAs and independence. I've had an HSA ever since the gummint allowed individuals who work for companies to get them. I've always paid the doctor (like everyone did when I was growing up), so I know what medical services cost.

When I signed up for Social Security (I'm still working; just don't trust them to have the money available when I do retire), they forced me to go on Medicare as a condition. I had to drop the HSA as a result. The government stole part of my independence.

And they wonder why this nation is broke (fiscally as well as morally)?

But unfortunately Darth is right. Dr. Carson's common-sense suggestions afford no opportunity for graft - so entrenched Dems and Pubs alike don't want simplification of anything to happen. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 02/08/2013 19:10 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuela Launches First Nuke In Currency Wars, Devalues Currency By 46%
While the rest of the developed world is scrambling here and there, politely prodding its central bankers to destroy their relative currencies, all the while naming said devaluation assorted names, "quantitative easing" being the most popular, here comes Venezuela and shows the banana republics of the developed world what lobbing a nuclear bomb into a currency war knife fight looks like:

VENEZUELA DEVALUES FROM 4.30 TO 6.30 BOLIVARS
VENEZUELA NEW CURRENCY BODY TO MANAGE DOLLAR INFLOWS
CARACAS CONSUMER PRICES ROSE 3.3% IN JAN.

And that, ladies and gents of Caracas, is how you just lost 46% of your purchasing power, unless of course your fiat was in gold and silver, which just jumped by about 46%. And, in case there is confusion, this is in process, and coming soon to every "developed world" banana republic near you.
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 16:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thinking about it, how many other checks were smuggled out of Venezuela before the devaluation?
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 16:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Damn! I can't believe they did that before the election. Maybe Hugo is alive.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/08/2013 16:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Still not enough tho, dollars will still outflow, the black market rate for dollars is 18 bolivar.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/08/2013 16:37 Comments || Top||

#4  "Maybe Hugo is alive" > a restaurant patron-friend of mine believes Hugo may already be dead, or else is possibly on his deathbed, which IHO explains why Cuba's pro-Hugo Uncle Fidel Castro made a sudden reappearance in the Medias a few days ago - he also opined that Hugo's passing is a great opportunity for the USA = Bammer Admin to re-establish cordial ties + trade wid Oil-State Venezuela. IHO THE US NEEDS TO HELP VENEZUELA BE SAVED FROM ITSELF LIKE CHINA-WARY BUT STARVING NORTH KOREA???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/08/2013 18:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Galrahn points out the obvious in Truman deployment cancellation
Worth the rant.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/08/2013 15:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting oxen are now being gored...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/08/2013 16:05 Comments || Top||

#2  If you look at the STRATFOR naval deployment weekly, you note that CBGs ABGs are virtually static. Only the Stennis is in the Gulf area, a reduction from to groups to one. And no group is in transit, so the Stennis and one Amphig group are the total force projection in the Middle East. Wonder how that affects the Iranians and the Israelis regarding any actions that might take place. Perhaps we have to little resources to be helpful and thus change the battle calculus for someone? Just wondering.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/08/2013 16:32 Comments || Top||

#3  I agree with the comment made by a number of folks: if you're not there to do anything, don't waste time, money and people's lives by just hanging around.

A carrier battle group is supposed to focus the mind of the opposition. But we've had one or two in the Arabian Sea/Persian Gulf for so long now that the Iranians have adjusted to it. Whatever they had to do, they did it a while back. I don't see that continuing to wave the big stick at them accomplishes anything.

But then I've been a believer in Operation Lemony Snickett. I'd put down the big stick and pick up a small shiv...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/08/2013 18:22 Comments || Top||

#4  we have a load of Iranian arms intercepted on their way to Yemen. Return them to Iran vs the MEK and any other effective anti-Mullah groups. Our hands are clean
Posted by: Frank G || 02/08/2013 20:24 Comments || Top||

#5  And today it was reported that the Lincoln's refueling was going to be delayed for an unknown period due to the budget. Since a nuke refueling exercise takes 3.5 years ( navy figures) that is going to have a huge ripple effect. and part of the refule was also a change of homeport. you think the Truman cost Sailors a lot, stand by for the Lincoln figures ( new housing deposits, spouses quit jobs to follow the Sailor), it will be frikkin huge!
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/08/2013 20:43 Comments || Top||

#6  So IOW the Fed is trying hard NOT to say they expect the private sector + industrial econ to stay so bad such that the USDOD is the only positive or proactive, econ productive activity going on in the immediate + surrounding regions.

EVERYTHING OR NEARLY EVERYTHING THAT IS NON-DOD = NON-FED/GOVT-CONTROLLED OR RELATED IS SHOT = NON-EXISTENT???

Dats great news for Rising China + Rising Iran + the Nuclear, Caliphate-happy Hard Boyz - US + MAINSTREAM AMERIKA NOTSOMUCH.

* See RELATED DRUDGEREPORT > [USNI.Org] NAVY UNABLE TO FUEL CARRIER DUE TO BUDGET CUTS.

* Also from USNI.ORG > NAVY: "LINCOLN" REFUELING DELAYED, WILL HURT CARRIER READINESS.

NOT good news from the US side for the US CVN USS "GEORGE WASHINGTON" over in NE Asia = Japan, vee the DPRK [read, CHINA].

and

* TOPIX > [HuffPo = Switched] REDUCED ROLE OF US WORRIES ALLIES.

As per FOX NEWS AM, it would appear that neither the GOP-Right nor US Allies have heard nor fully understand the concept + merits, demerits behind [anti-US] OWG "Globalism" + NAU 2015???

* SAME, FREEREPUBLIC > [Federal News Radio] BY YEAR'S END, US TROOPS WILL BE UNABLE TO RESPOND TO CRISES: PENTAGON SAYS, as per looming "sequestration" cuts.

WHAT CRISIS OR CRISES COULD THAT BE IN 2013???

* TOPIX > [Bloomberg] JAPAN RADAR TARGETING PROTEST IS "WAR SIGNAL", GLOBAL TIMES [China]SAYS.

* SAME > [Asian News Network] TOKYO: CHINA SHOULD STOP PLAYING DANGEROUS GAME OVER SENKAKUS.

* SAME > [Russia Today] NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR TEST MAY CAUSE VOLCANO ERUPTION NEAR CHINESE BORDER - REPORT, vee already naturally expanding magma chamber/pool bubbling underneath Mt. Baekdu in the DPRK.

Moreso iff the DPRK does conduct two simultaneous Nuke Tests [HEU + Plutonium].

ROK Geologist Yoon-Sung-ho.

* Also from RUSSIA TODAY > ISLANDS DISPUTE [South Kuriles] KEEP RUSSIA-JAPAN RELATIONS ON THE ROCKS.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Asahi Shimbun] JAPAN: HOTLINE NEEDED [SinO-Nippon "Red Phone"] AFTER CHINESE WARSHIP "THREATENED FORCE".

* BHRATA RAKSHAK > [The Hankyoreh = Hani.co/KR] NORTH KOREA COULD BE DEVELOPINGA HYDROGEN BOMB.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IN SEVEN YEARS, CHINA'S STORY COULD BE OVER.

On a separate note, the post-Bammer US should not be so presumptious to think that what occurs dubiously or detrimentally to China, etc. won't affect it also, e.g. OWG "CONSENSUS ON PEAK OIL/RESOURCES IS THAT THERE IS NO CONSENSUS".

Ditto as per a seemingly "strong" US suborned under anti-Nationalist, anti-Sovereignty, anti-Borders, anti-US Constitution, "multi-polar" anti-US OWG + NAU starting in 2015 or ASAP thereafter.

OWG + ANTI-US NAU 2015 > STRONG US = STRONG CHINA, ETAL. JUST AS SIMIL A WEAK US = WEAK CHINA, ETAL. = GREAT GEOPOL "EQUALIZER".

Not starring Brit actor James? Woodsworth/
Woodworth???

China + PLA may not even to demand or militarily conquer 1/2 or more of CONUS-NORAM for "living space" because a US suborned under OWG + NAU 2015 will be all nice-n-legal like letting Chinese workers by the Milyuhns + Dilyuhns + Silyuhns. DITTO FOR HISPANICS + CALIPHATE, UMMAH, NUCLEAR-HAPPY MUSLIM + THIRD WORLD EMIGRES.

The Jihadis will just legally formally emigrate or just walk into future ISLAMERICA/ISLAMERIKA, aka future HISPAMERICA/HISPAMERIKA, aka future SINOMERICA/SINOMERIKA.

Again, WID EYES WIDE OPEN, N-O-T EYES WIDE SHUT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/08/2013 21:57 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Suicide bomber hits north Mali, troops clash in capital
A suicide bomber blew himself up in northern Mali on Friday as a dramatic turn towards guerrilla tactics by Islamists and an outbreak of fighting among soldiers in the capital show the war is far from won for the embattled nation.

In Mali's first ever suicide bombing, an attacker drove up to a group of Malian troops in Gao, the largest town in the north, and detonated an explosive belt, wounding one soldier, said First Sergeant Mamadou Keita.

The Islamists who occupied northern Mali for 10 months have resorted to guerrilla warfare after being ousted by French-led troops who on Friday took control of the strategic town of Tessalit near the Algerian border.

Many of the rebels are now believed to be holed up in the remote hills of the far northeast.

In the capital Bamako infighting in Mali's deeply divided military erupted as soldiers attacked a camp of elite paratroopers loyal to ex-president Amadou Toumani Toure, who was ousted in a March coup.

The putsch was launched by soldiers from Mali's poor and ramshackle army after their humiliation in the north at the hands of well-armed rebels fighting for independence for the Tuareg, a northern people who have long complained of being marginalised by Bamako.

A month later, "Red Beret" paratroopers loyal to Toure launched a failed counter-coup. Fighting between feuding factions left about 20 people dead.

Friday's gunfight broke out after the paratroopers refused to be absorbed into other units and go to the northern frontline.

"From 6:00 am (0600 GMT) heavily armed soldiers, from all units, attacked the camp," said Yaya Bouare, one of the "Red Beret" soldiers inside the camp, adding that there were many wounded.
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 13:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
Restored Payroll Tax Pinches Those Who Earn the Least
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/08/2013 12:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Women and minorities hardest hit.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/08/2013 12:26 Comments || Top||

#2  So, they don't care if SS collapses years earlier due to no funds? Thought so.
Posted by: tipover || 02/08/2013 16:24 Comments || Top||

#3  SS will be bailed out by forcing IRA and 401(k) assets to be 'reinvested' in government bonds backed by future SS reciepts.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/08/2013 18:19 Comments || Top||

#4  I have to think that if Champ takes away the 401k and IRA funds that people believe to be 'theirs' that we'll have the revolution some have been suggesting is just around the corner...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/08/2013 18:23 Comments || Top||

#5  He'll undoubtedly figure out some way to exempt the unions, Steve. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 02/08/2013 19:12 Comments || Top||

#6  I talked with a handful of people who are considering borrowing from their 401k and paying off their home and just pay themselves interest into their 401k
Posted by: Airandee || 02/08/2013 19:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Dumped my 401k into an IRA. Will dump any growth, less taxes :-( into a ROTH once a year. No guarantees, but it was suggested by an financial advisor.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 19:39 Comments || Top||


Government
DoJ lawsuit against S&P even sillier than first thought
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/08/2013 11:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh my. Still, the DoJ lawyers are on salary, and it's not as though Attorney General Holder would have had them doing anything useful instead... Besides, however it gets there, once the money is in the economy it can only have a positive multiplier effect, according to the administration's favourite economic theories.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/08/2013 13:32 Comments || Top||


Why are the feds loading up on so much ammo?
In a puzzling, unexplained development, the Obama administration has been buying and storing vast amounts of ammunition in recent months, with the Department of Homeland Security just placing another order for an additional 21.6 million rounds.

Several other agencies of the federal government also began buying large quantities of bullets last year. The Social Security Administration, for instance, not normally considered on the frontlines of anything but dealing with seniors, explained that its purchase of millions of rounds was for special agents' required quarterly weapons qualifications. They must be pretty poor shots.

But DHS has been silent about its need for numerous orders of bullets in the multiple millions. Indeed, Examiner writer Ryan Keller points out Janet Napolitano's agency illegally redacted information from some ammunition solicitation forms following media inquiries.

According to one estimate, just since last spring DHS has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm. That's sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times. Including illegal immigrants.

To provide some perspective, experts estimate that at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, DHS is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war.

The perceived need for so much ammunition in federal custody is especially strange given Obama's double-barreled emphasis in his inaugural address on the approaching end in Afghanistan "of a decade of war." And he also noted, "We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war."

The lack of a credible official explanation for such awesome ammunition acquisitions is feeding all sorts of conspiracy theories, mainly centered on federal anticipation of some kind of domestic insurrection. Napolitano has at times alluded to threats from the extreme right-wing.

Other conspiracists harken back to an Obama Colorado campaign speech in July, 2008. That day he deviated from his prepared text to say:

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

Writing at American Thinker, Lee Cary noted at the time that the speech context seemed to involve expanded opportunities for community service. But as still happens when Obama goes off-teleprompter, his non-fortuitous word choice on the fly such as "national security force" prompted numerous writers to speculate since about some kind of national Obama para-military force.

And as great as Obama's unlikely, newly-revealed passion for skeet-shooting might be, that involves shotguns, not handguns over-heated from blasting off millions of rounds.

Additionally, Napolitano, a former governor of Arizona, is widely expected to seek the 2016 Democrat presidential nomination. But you wouldn't think she'd need that much ammo for such a bid.

The lack of good answers makes one paranoid. Lord knows I'm paranoid enough of this government and this really doesn't make me more at ease. Especially with the push to disarm us.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/08/2013 11:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why does anyone "load up" on anything? Because they fear, or have knowledge of a future shortage.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 11:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Donald Sensing has a slightly different view.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/08/2013 12:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Or because you are planning to use a lot of it - like chip dip and beer at an upcoming party.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/08/2013 12:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Has an Executive Order been issued for all federal employees to take up Skeet Shooting ?
Posted by: Your Name Here || 02/08/2013 12:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, here's at least one of the FedBizOpps requests for quotes. I wonder what the contracting officer might have to say, rhetorical question of course.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 12:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Solicitation Number:
HSFLCS-13-Q-00009
Notice Type:
Award
Contract Award Date:
January 2, 2013
Contract Award Number:
HSFLCS-13-P-00012
Contract Award Dollar Amount:
$45,758.00
Contract Line Item Number:
ALL
Contractor Awardee:
EVIAN GROUP, INC. [DUNS: 078701804],105 South Eastern Ave,Las Vegas NV 89123
Synopsis:
Added: Dec 17, 2012 4:04 pm Modified: Jan 02, 2013 2:43 pmTrack Changes
No Description Provided
Additional Info:
www.fedbid.com (b-442047, n-97369)
Contracting Office Address:
2000 Bainbridge Ave., Charleston, SC 29405
Point of Contact(s):
Name: Cynthia Doster, Title: Contracting Officer, Phone: 8435668565, Fax: 8435668561, Email: cynthia.doster@dhs.gov;

Been researching this of the past few days. If you enter the above address of Evian Group you will see nothing but a couple of seedy hotels, service station and money wire location that habla espaniol.

The Evian Group also won $150,000.00 federal government awards on January 4, 2013 for replacement camera housings for an ungodly amount of small cameras and concrete barriers. Award activity ceased on that date.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/08/2013 12:18 Comments || Top||

#7  Evian Group is charging half of what the closest bidder bid, 21 cents per hollow point, which is unrealistic.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/08/2013 12:24 Comments || Top||

#8  No infor found on a "Grace Hodge and Larayne Whitehead", the two registered officers of Evian Group in Nevada. Hard to find the web site for the Clark County Appraisal District to determnine the owner of the address which is supposed to be public record.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/08/2013 12:30 Comments || Top||

#9  What's "Evian" spelled backwards?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/08/2013 12:35 Comments || Top||

#10  Looking at the obvious reasons and Sensing's "looting the treasury" option, I have to say, "Why can't it be both?"

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/08/2013 12:38 Comments || Top||

#11  The '105 South Eastern Ave,Las Vegas NV 89123' appears to be an accommodation address.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 12:40 Comments || Top||

#12  Aside from the interesting procurement arrangements being explored here, is there any reputable estimate of recent DHS ammo procurement? When I take the time to look at the solicitations, I see training quantities in the hundreds of thousands to low millions, not low billions. But what's a factor of 1000? What difference does it make?

Anyone got a link? I checked Snopes and came empty.
Posted by: KBK || 02/08/2013 12:51 Comments || Top||

#13  Came up empty.
Posted by: KBK || 02/08/2013 12:52 Comments || Top||

#14  Rob:

What is "Strohs" spelled backwards.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/08/2013 13:08 Comments || Top||

#15  I wonder if dedicated guards are willing to give their lives to defend such a tempting and obvious target against a determined armed assault.

Just saying...
Posted by: badanov || 02/08/2013 13:21 Comments || Top||

#16  Blueprint of the closure of a democracy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 13:43 Comments || Top||

#17  My guess is the administration was hoping to buy up all the ammo so the yokals can't get any. Typically they don't understand supply and demand.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/08/2013 14:40 Comments || Top||

#18  Well, there are a lot of Federal agencies that have armed police: Armed agencies. Gang that couldn't shoot straight? Maybe they practice a lot? Somehow, I don't think it's the gang who couldn't shoot straight. Some of these agency police are the best at what they do. Just scanning the wiki list, it may not be too accurate.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 15:17 Comments || Top||

#19  I hadn't realized that each of the major components of the IGs have armed units, for suitable law enforcement. The social security administration has an armed unit because the IGs can arrest people for SS fraud; and if you're going to have officers who can arrest people, said officers need to be armed and trained. Apparently lots of IG units have police powers.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/08/2013 15:20 Comments || Top||

#20  Evian Group, Inc. Nevada incorporation data. Not much here. Mystery company?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 16:05 Comments || Top||

#21  From johnQC's link
All the same address, no other contact info.

Officers Include Inactive Officers
Treasurer - ROMAN THARP
Status: Active Email:
Secretary - SCOTT ROGAN
Status: Active Email:
President - LARAYNE WHITEHEAD
Status: Active Email:
Director - GRACE HODGE
Status: Active Email:
Address 1: 105 SOUTH EASTERN AVE Address 2:
City: LAS VEGAS State: NV
Zip Code: 89123 Country: USA
Posted by: tipover || 02/08/2013 16:43 Comments || Top||

#22  Is this one of these shell companies that grow like mushrooms? Kept in the dark and covered with sh!t?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 17:00 Comments || Top||

#23  Good work tipover. I'd bet those names lead nowhere.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 17:27 Comments || Top||

#24  http://www.manta.com/c/mt12wm4/global-synergy-group-inc

Global Synergy Group, Inc in Matthews, NC is a private company categorized under Small Arms Ammunition. Our records show it was established in and incorporated in North Carolina.

13663 Providence Road # 370
Matthews, NC 28104-9373

Phone:
(704) 254-9886

Larayne Whitehead
Chief Executive Officer
Posted by: Nero || 02/08/2013 17:31 Comments || Top||

#25  Appears they also like handcuffs.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 17:46 Comments || Top||

#26  Appears Evian group was formed only 5 days prior to the solicitation. A very aggressive crew of business developers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 17:57 Comments || Top||

#27  http://www.businessminority.com/matthews/nc/

Probable "minority owned" shell company.
Posted by: Nero || 02/08/2013 17:59 Comments || Top||

#28  Payback for election support?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 18:12 Comments || Top||

#29  http://www.corporationwiki.com/North-Carolina/Charlotte/techelon-consulting-inc/65600043.aspx

Techelon Consulting, Inc. has a location in Charlotte, NC. Active officers include Larayne Whitehead. The company's line of business includes Book Printing.

http://www.governmentcontractswon.com/department/defense/techelon-consulting-inc-962531054.asp?yr=10

Another minority-owned shell.
Posted by: Nero || 02/08/2013 18:21 Comments || Top||

#30  So how does this work? A contract gets awarded to a newly sprouted company that doesn't appear to manufacture or sell anything. Is this like one of those "green" companies that goes belly-up half-way through next year? I suppose a person could call the contract administrator and make inquiries but then again it might not be such a good idea.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 18:23 Comments || Top||

#31  Always wondered where all the ammo that kept showing up in Fallout 3 came from.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/08/2013 18:29 Comments || Top||

#32  Hodge or Hodges???

D *** NG IT, DAT NAME SOUNDS AWFULLY FAMILIAR, BUT WHERE!?

Oh wait ....
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/08/2013 18:32 Comments || Top||

#33  #30 So how does this work? A contract gets awarded to a newly sprouted company that doesn't appear to manufacture or sell anything. Is this like one of those "green" companies that goes belly-up half-way through next year? I suppose a person could call the contract administrator and make inquiries but then again it might not be such a good idea.


Typically a "minority owned" vendor that is a shell business puts in a bid for portion of a program that is the minority/disadvantaged set-aside part of a program. That shell just passes the order through to the real vendor, after raking off a percentage for their 'trouble'. Yet another way to pay off your supporters.
Posted by: Nero || 02/08/2013 18:33 Comments || Top||

#34  I do believe the procurement that oversees this contract lives in North Carolina from checking a few days ago. Will check again.

www.zabasearch.com is great at checking that stuff.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/08/2013 19:41 Comments || Top||

#35  No doubt there are shenanigans going on in the awarding of contracts, but the U.S. Government needs a bunch of ammo. Every year every member of the armed services, and many law enforcement folks need to qualify on their weapons. Before 2001 only grunts, marines, and special people really had to do annual qualification. Afterwards, everybody does.

You can see the results of the change in this article from 2004.

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2001834393_ammo11.html

Here the Army manufacturing plant is maxing out at 1.5 billion rounds a year. And they need more.

We only shot something like 60 million rounds in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2005. It is important to realize that real serious wartime needs are less than 5% of routine training requirements.

A couple billion bullets sounds like a lot, but that is really about what we shoot every year. It's a big country with a big government. Hyperventilate about that instead of the bullets.

Posted by: rammer || 02/08/2013 20:38 Comments || Top||

#36  Yep, they really need all that ammo. Dja see where the LAPD open fired on two unarmed women and only managed to wing one?

What do you call an LA police officer who empties his weapon and only hits his target twice?

Marksman.

That's no good when the zombies come...
Posted by: badanov || 02/08/2013 21:22 Comments || Top||

#37  badanov, that's just the way California rolls.

I was talking about the Feds, 2 billion rounds for the Feds, alone.

California, they buy weed, condoms and transgender sensitivity for their officers to train with, not bullets.
Posted by: rammer || 02/08/2013 22:11 Comments || Top||

#38  "That's sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times"

Good. I don't want to be crawling down the sidewalk wounded. If they're gonna shoot me - they better man up and do it right.
Posted by: Raider || 02/08/2013 23:23 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tense Tunisia to bury Chokri Belaid
Tunisia is set to bury opposition leader Chokri Belaid amid huge tension surrounding his assassination.

Towns nationwide are braced for another day of violence and the largest trade union has called a general strike. Unions say the government led by the Islamist Ennahda party is to blame for the killing, an accusation it denies.

PM Hamadi Jebali has tried to defuse tensions by calling for a non-partisan technocratic government but his party has refused to accept this.

On Friday, the streets of the capital Tunis were largely deserted, with many shops shut and most public transport not running. A number of flights at Tunis-Carthage airport were cancelled.

Tunisian state TV said universities had been ordered to suspend lectures on Saturday and Sunday, while France said it would close its schools in Tunis.

The BBC's Wyre Davies in Tunis says thousands of mourners have already gathered in the suburb where Mr Belaid's body is being brought before the burial. Hundreds of thousands more are expected to take to the streets of the capital following Friday prayers and ahead of the funeral in the afternoon.

Our correspondent says it is difficult to overestimate the tension on the streets of Tunis, Sfax and other provincial towns - a tension that has been simmering for many months between liberal, secular Tunisians and the Islamist-led government. He says that people who thought the violence and division had ended as the Arab Spring swept through the country almost exactly two years ago now find themselves protesting on the same streets, fighting with riot police and accusing the Islamist-led government of stealing their revolution.
Unexpectedly...
The death of Mr Belaid, a leading critic of the governing party, has proved to Tunisians what they already feared, says our correspondent, and Friday's funeral is certain to be an emotional and highly charged event.

The first political assassination in Tunisia since the Arab Spring uprising in 2011, Mr Belaid was shot dead at close range on his way to work on Wednesday. The attacker fled on the back of a cycle of violence motorcycle.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/08/2013 11:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Obamacare: Man Who Murdered Navy Seal Released Against Family's Wishes From VA Hospital
His other court-appointed attorney, J. Warren St. John, said Routh was released from the Dallas Veterans Affairs hospital against his family's wishes just two days before the shootings.

In September, Routh had been transported to a psychiatric hospital after he threatened to kill himself and his family, and he later told officers that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, Lancaster police records show.
Erie how Obama and Satan seem to really hate the Navy SEALS.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/08/2013 10:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another mental patient goes wrong and pushes someone in front of a subway train, shoots them at a range, or gets all stabby in a restaurant.

It is time to crack the whip on mental patients.

Here was a guy, already in the nut house for being a nutbag. His family said, "Keep him in there. He is a nut bag." And some moron let him out? Then he wigs out and kills people.

The moron who set the nutbag free should at least expect some sort of discipline. I mean, does he get a letter in his work record saying, "Oh, bad call, dude."

For goodness sake, can't we at least publish the record that says, "Magistrate Joe released nutbag Jimmy on Tuesday." Then when Jimmy flips his wig on Saturday morning, we would know who to shun at dinner parties next month.
Posted by: rammer || 02/08/2013 20:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Emergency hospitalization is intended only for evaluation and stabilization. The case -- and the patient -- are then released into the wild after being advised to make an appointment with an outpatient psychiatrist and therapist upon return home. Psychiatric wards cost about $8,000/week in my part of the world, and there are considerably more people in need than beds, so they're rotated through as quickly as possible.

Unless we as a society are willing to budget considerably more than we do today for psychiatric treatment, particularly hospital treatment, this will continue.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/08/2013 21:37 Comments || Top||

#3  tw, sorry, not good enough.

Normal procedures are fine for normal cases, but when the family turns up and says no, then it is not normal.

When I had to go pick up a relative at the jail, I was pissed, but I didn't say to the man, please keep this nutbag in the jail. It is just not normal to put up a fight about letting your own stay in the lockup.

Dead people cost a lot of money in lost wages at least. Keeping a few nutbags in the ward for a few more weeks is a small price to pay.

The Solyndra losses alone would cover about 250,000 patient weeks. I am good with that.
Posted by: rammer || 02/08/2013 22:06 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm hearing that this guy was a fobbit, so the source of his neuroses probably predates his years in the service. My guess is that Chris Kyle was a victim of relaxed recruitment standards during the campaign in Iraq, which mostly coincided with the major economic boom from the housing bubble.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/08/2013 22:15 Comments || Top||


Africa North
No Word from SecState During Benghazi Attack
Neither the Secretary of Defense nor the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke to the secretary of state during the 8-hour attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. At a Thursday hearing in the Senate, Republican Ted Cruz asked both Leon Panetta and Martin Dempsey, "In between 9:42 p.m., Benghazi time, when the first attacks started, and 5:15 am, when Mr. Doherty and Mr. Woods lost their lives, what conversations did either of you have with Secretary Clinton?"

"We did not have any conversations with Secretary Clinton," Panetta responded.

"And General Dempsey, the same is true for you?" Cruz asked. Dempsey confirmed this.
Posted by: || 02/08/2013 09:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Then whom did you have conversations with? General Petreaus? Tom Donlon? Give us a name and tell us about the conversation.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 11:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, come on, Besoeker, what do you think this is, a Congressional hearing?
Posted by: KBK || 02/08/2013 12:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Indeed KBK, my apologies. What was I thinking. Frankly, I've always had a difficult time distinguishing cheap, political theater from reality.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 12:43 Comments || Top||

#4  What difference does it make?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/08/2013 13:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Sadly true, tu.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/08/2013 15:03 Comments || Top||

#6  tu wins the thread.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/08/2013 15:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Present!
Posted by: Shipman || 02/08/2013 16:30 Comments || Top||

#8  tu3031 already won the thread, but Shipman gets a cupcake. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/08/2013 17:00 Comments || Top||

#9  It's the Obamination, so shouldn't we *all* get a cupcake - including that ${REDACTED} Hillary?

Personally, I'd settle for some answers.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/08/2013 17:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Since nobody was home, I would like Gen. Ham called to testify and, for the record, tell us who told him to stand down.
And just where are all the survivors ( and family members)? Is it possible that Bambi has all of them locked up in 'protective custody'? I cannot beleive not one individual has contacted any news organization ( even FOX) to tell them that 'all at once, Little Johnny and his Mom were called away. His Dad works for State...."
this cover up is even bigger than F & F.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/08/2013 20:24 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria polio vaccinators shot dead in Kano
Nine female polio vaccinators have been killed in two shootings at health centres in northern Nigeria, police have told the BBC.

In the first attack in Kano the polio vaccinators were shot dead by gunmen who drove up on a motor tricycle.

Thirty minutes later gunmen targeted a clinic outside Kano city as the vaccinators prepared to start work.

Some Nigerian Muslim leaders have previously opposed polio vaccinations, claiming they could cause infertility.

On Thursday, a controversial Islamic cleric spoke out against the polio vaccination campaign, telling people that new cases of polio were caused by contaminated medicine.
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 06:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That wonderful, modern Religion of Peace strikes again. Infect that cleric with polio and let him live out his days in an iron lung.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/08/2013 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Some Nigerian Muslim leaders have previously opposed polio vaccinations, claiming they could cause infertility.

How utterly savage as well as ironic. In the west, fertility is routinely seen an inconvenience. Strange the urge and power of the procreative process.

Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 7:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Got to give the women points for guts. "greater love" and so forth.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 02/08/2013 9:39 Comments || Top||

#4  ...who drove up on a motor tricycle.

Tricycles now have motors?
Posted by: Raj || 02/08/2013 16:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Even Hell's Angels get olde Raj.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/08/2013 16:28 Comments || Top||

#6  these jihadists are really scraping the bottom of the bell curve ... on the IQ scale.
Posted by: Raider || 02/08/2013 18:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
How Many People Have Been Killed by Guns Since Newtown?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/08/2013 05:54 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not one. They were killed by people using guns. How many people have been killed by baseball bats? Knives? You get the idea. Deamonize the guns, not the people doing the killing.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/08/2013 7:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Unarmed people killed at Treblinka: Operation Reinhard, operated between July 23, 1942 and October 19, 1943. During this time, between 780,863 and 870,000 men, women and children were murdered.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 7:41 Comments || Top||

#3  How many have been killed by DUI?
Supposedly they're registered and insured. Of course, there are those who don't follow the law or who have lost 'legal' authority to operate the device, but doesn't seem to stop them. Time to grab all those motor vehicles - if it just saves one child....
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/08/2013 8:45 Comments || Top||

#4  In the liberal media "Sleeping giants" get a pass.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 8:54 Comments || Top||

#5  A person steals guns, (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW),

shoots and kills his own mother (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW),

transports these guns loaded (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW),

brings guns onto school property (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW),

breaks into the school (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW),

discharges the weapons within city limits (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW),

murders 26 people (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW),

and commits suicide (WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW).

And there are people in this country that somehow think passing ANOTHER LAW Banning guns would protect us from someone like this. If you haven't noticed, people like this are not concerned about breaking laws - they only care about fulfilling their own twisted agenda.





The only people that a gun ban law would impact are the LAW ABIDING CITIZENS, which will only serve to cripple the ability to protect ourselves.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 9:23 Comments || Top||

#6  My mother-in-law is a survivor of the German concentration camps of WWII. She does not like firearms. I try to explain to her our Second Amendment and how it prevents the rise of a tyrannical government such as in occurred Nazi Germany through gun confiscation. I'm afraid all this falls on deaf ears. But she must be making some headway because the last couple of elections, she voted Pub--previously, she had always voted Donk. Most of her other relatives and friends voted Donk. I guess she has an acquired penchant for recognizing scoundrels or she sees familiar patterns from her past developing.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 9:35 Comments || Top||

#7  The only people that a gun ban law would impact are the LAW ABIDING SUBJECTS CITIZENS, which will only serve to cripple the ability to protect ourselves.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/08/2013 10:14 Comments || Top||

#8  The one way gun ban laws can actually affect things like Newtown - in the long run - is by reducing the number of guns available for psychos and criminals to steal and trade. If Newtown killer's mother had not been allowed to possess guns of any kind, and had been law-abiding, her son would have had to steal them from a criminal instead, which is harder and more dangerous. I'm not saying I approve of gun bans, just pointing out that there actually IS a logic behind them.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/08/2013 10:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Yes, guns are banned in prisons, the ultimate police state. Somehow they get around to killing each other anyway. And mind you, the thugs not the armed uniform personnel do have enough control of the prison yard and hallways to influence the behavior of other inmates.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/08/2013 11:37 Comments || Top||

#10  In the liberal media "Sleeping giants" get a pass.
Besoeker, do you mean this "sleeping giant?
You [critics] disrespect the office of the POTUS/Presidency and Commander in Chief. You call him Kenyan, mongroid, halfrican, muslim, and FBHO when in essence you are to address him as simply, President.... You call his wife a Wookie. Off the record, I love your new bangs, Mrs. Obama…

Mr. Vice President, do your due diligence when formulating a concise and permanent national AWB plan. Future generations of Americans depend on your plan and advisement to the president. I’ve always been a fan of yours and consider you one of the few genuine and charismatic politicians…

Hillary Clinton. You’ll make one hell of a president in 2016. Much like your husband, Bill, you will be one of the greatest… Look after Bill. He was always my favorite President…

Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, Pat Harvey, Brian Williams, Soledad Obrien, Wolf Blitzer, Meredith Viera, Tavis Smiley, and Anderson Cooper, keep up the great work and follow Cronkite’s lead. I hold many of you in the same regard as Tom Brokaw and the late Peter Jennings.
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 12:49 Comments || Top||

#11  How many shootings were justified? How many stopped a crime in progress? How many were in self-defence?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 14:19 Comments || Top||

#12  An FBI crime stat pointed out that in 2011, 80% of victims of gun violence had a prior criminal record. 323 people were killed by long rifle last yr, of which, approximately 40 were killed by an "assault rifle". I am not sure how many of these "victiims" had prior records. All proposed new Gun laws are a sham, most of the ones handed down since the 50s are also a sham -- and I'm fairly certain our Founders would be pissed at what absolute pussies we've become in not fighting harder to maintain our God given rights. Essential liberty vs a little security...
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 02/08/2013 15:29 Comments || Top||

#13  "Essential liberty vs a damned little security..."

FTFY, Broadhead.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/08/2013 15:36 Comments || Top||

#14  Exactly Barbara. Gun Control is not about guns, it's about control. I've had enough from either side about what "gun owners" are going to do in the wake of Newtown. As if by owning a gun we have some sort of guilt by association w/that Lanza psycho. Never let the statists frame the argument.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 02/08/2013 15:44 Comments || Top||

#15  Somebody does something illegal with a gun and people die, so the gummint wants to take guns away from law-abiding citizens.

So I guess that the next time somebody does something illegal with a CAR and people die, the gummint is going to insist on "common-sense car control"? Are they going to limit the number of gallons you can have in your car at any one time?

And why isn't the gummint going ballistic about the more-than-a-gun-murder-a-day in Chicago? I'll ask the obvious question: Does it have anything to do with the skin color of the dead? If not, what?
Posted by: Barbara || 02/08/2013 16:01 Comments || Top||

#16  Sort of reminds me of the "defending your self from a man attacking you with a banana" routine.

If a nutjob wants to murder large numbers of innocents, there is no stopping their perverse creativity.

Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/08/2013 18:39 Comments || Top||

#17  NONE, However a lot have been Killed by Bullets.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/08/2013 19:37 Comments || Top||

#18  I'm also curious how many infants have been sacrificed in the Democrats religion of Abortion in that time frame? Of course everything is FOR THE CHILDREN cause the Children are the sacrifices that feed their god.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 02/08/2013 20:57 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Is Qatar Sponsoring Al-Qa’ida in Mali?
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 05:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Overall, there appears to be no evidence for the more outlandish claims that Qatar is training or financing Al-Qa’ida-splinter groups. Not only would this idea contradict key tenets of Qatar’s foreign policy for decades now, but it is wholly unclear how useful it would be to befriend a group of extreme Sharia-devout Al-Qa’ida types in northern Mali

If one goes by "foreign policy is everything", then the claims might be outlandish.

If one considers the idea that Qatar, through its actions (such as sponsoring al-Jazeera, support for Hamas, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Libyan rebels and Syrian Islamist groups) is walking a careful line while long-term attempting both to advance a wahabbist agenda and increase its influence within the Muslim sphere, then it is not so outlandish.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/08/2013 13:43 Comments || Top||

#2  agree with Pappy. "outlandish" is the cover for credible.
Posted by: Raider || 02/08/2013 23:25 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Argentine president defends accord with Iran over bombing
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez defended a pact with Iran to set up a "truth commission" to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and asked Congress on Thursday to approve the accord.

Argentine courts accuse Iran of sponsoring the attack, which killed 85 people. The pact signed with Tehran has been criticized by Israel and Jewish groups who fear it could end up weakening the case against Iranian officials.

They also see it as a diplomatic victory for Iran as it faces international isolation over its nuclear program.

"What I want to avoid ... is the pain of the (victims') families and the country's shame by finding the path to break the deadlock," the left-leaning Fernandez said in a speech, refuting criticism over the accord.

"The memorandum of understanding we have signed is a step toward unblocking a case that has been paralyzed for 19 years," she added. "Dialogue is a part of Argentina's foreign policy."

Fernandez said she sent a bill to Congress asking it to approve the agreement, which envisions the establishment of a five-member "truth commission" of international legal specialists.

It also outlines plans for Argentine prosecutors to travel to Tehran to question Iranians accused of links to the attack, which Iran denies any involvement in.

In 2007, Argentine authorities secured Interpol arrest warrants for five Iranians, including Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, and a Lebanese citizen.
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 02:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  there is no deadlock. Interpol knows who was involved. Once a lying whore, always a lying whore - just for the Mullahs, this time
Posted by: Frank G || 02/08/2013 9:45 Comments || Top||


Europe
Bulgaria says anti-Israeli bomber died by mistake
The bomber who killed five Israelis in Bulgaria last July did not intend to die in the attack, but wanted to return to Lebanon with his two Hezbollah-linked accomplices, the government said Thursday.

The man "was not a kamikaze but only meant to put the ... explosive device in the baggage compartment of the bus and detonate it later from afar," Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said.

Tsvetanov told reporters that remote control equipment found at the scene showed the bomb could have been detonated remotely from around 10 kilometres (six miles) away.

"The damages would have been much bigger then," Tsvetanov said.

Instead, the device exploded, killing the bomber, five Israeli tourists and the Bulgarian driver of their bus at Burgas Airport on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast on July 18, 2012.

The minister added that he believed the bomber intended to flee Bulgaria and return to Lebanon, as his two accomplices did.

Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 01:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm shocked - S-H-O-C-K-E-D I tell ya, that an Amish-built barn could collapse!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/08/2013 18:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Southern Poverty Law Center, or Sending People to Liquidate Conservatives?
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 01:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whatever works.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/08/2013 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  We're good to go on nutcase, redneck Jimmie Lee Dykes. Keep the media and local law enforcement at a distance and SEND IN THE TEAM!

We've got a "HOLD DO NOT ENGAGE" on disenfranchised, workplace victim Christopher Jordan Dorner.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 2:14 Comments || Top||

#3  That whole liquidation thing can work the other direction as well. Maybe, a demonstration could be arranged.
Posted by: Goober Snore6519 || 02/08/2013 8:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Now we have another maniac and another map. Except this time, the maniac is pointing directly at that map and saying, “That’s why I picked those people.”

I'm reminded of the scene and Steve Martin role of Navin R. Johnson (the only white son of black share-croppers) in "The Jerk" where he has been targeted by some nut who selects his name, at random, out of the phone book. [Bullet] Holes start appearing in the cans of oil at the gas station where he works. He thinks the cans are defective. It takes him forever to realize the holes are bullet holes.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 9:03 Comments || Top||

#5  The SPLC seems to be very selective in who they deem extremists. They state: Extremists in the U.S. come in many different forms – white nationalists, anti-gay zealots, black separatists, racist skinheads, neo-Confederates and more. I didn't notice any Mooselimbs or leftist extremists (environmentalist activists, Communists, former Weathermen bombers, Wallstreet Occupiers, etc.) on their list.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 9:17 Comments || Top||

#6 
It takes him forever to realize the holes are bullet holes.


And when he does: "Stay away from the cans! He hates the cans!"
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/08/2013 10:15 Comments || Top||

#7  This is how it all starts, my only question is: When they come to my house for me will they be in Brown shirts? Second, I'm not a passive person, they better be good, they will get a fight.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/08/2013 10:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Christopher Dorner, the ex-cop who is on the run sounds a lot like a left-wing nut. Likes CNN, Piers Morgan, is in favor of gun-control, etc.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 11:05 Comments || Top||

#9  "is in favor of gun-control"

I'm in favor of gun control too, John.

So I use a two-handed grip.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/08/2013 11:26 Comments || Top||

#10  The ex LAPD cop who's on the warpath seems to have a legitimate complaint, he's mad that the LAPD would Not Listen and Fire him, bet they're NOT listening now.

There's a better way, but I have to admit that He's getting attention(Which will vanish as if it didn't exist AFTER he's Killed, Pay attention folks, Don't let this vanish.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/08/2013 13:58 Comments || Top||

#11  He apparently has made the local cops jittery as they shot up a vehicle that looked like his vehicle. The occupants were wounded. He sounds like he has a good skill set. He's been trained in shooting skills, evasion skills, and explosives. This may not go well for him or others.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 14:34 Comments || Top||

#12  I see the Bureau is now involved and has emptied his residence.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 14:37 Comments || Top||

#13  Silly Moriarity thought the Bolshevik-vs-Menshevik inter-Socialist/Marxist purges started after 1917, NOT in 1913.

SON, AHZ EZ CONFUSED.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/08/2013 18:26 Comments || Top||

#14  The ex LAPD cop who's on the warpath seems to have a legitimate complaint, he's mad that the LAPD would Not Listen and Fire him, bet they're NOT listening now.

According to his 'manifesto' it's a lot more than just a "legitimate complaint".
Posted by: Pappy || 02/08/2013 20:31 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
No regrets advising against Bin Laden raid, says Brennan
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama's nominee to be the new CIA chief has said he does not regret advising against a strike targeting Osama bin Laden in 1998, a few months before the bombings of two US embassies in Africa.

Irish American John Brennan said that the attack could have killed other people as well as Bin Laden, and that the chances of success were minimal.

He also told the Senate Intelligence Committee the information supporting the attack was "not well grounded".

He said he was among numerous intelligence officials who urged against such an attack. Mr Brennan was the CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia at the time of the embassy bombings. Three years later, on September 11 2001, Bin Laden launched the deadliest terrorist attacks in US history.

Speaking at his confirmation hearing yesterday, Mr Brennan pledged to bring openness to the CIA and repair a "trust deficit" with congressional politicians.

He acknowledged that critics have accused the White House of failing to be as forthcoming with Congress and the public on national security issues as Barack Obama promised to be as President.
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 01:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Irish American John Brennan said that the attack could have killed other people as well as Bin Laden

We all know my drone programme only terminates the designated target. I'm no second class Irish bomber; not killing innocent people has always been my greatest concern.

and that the chances of success were minimal.

But, but, but General Petreaus visited PAK a week before the operation, it was all wired. Didn't you see the movie? Oh wait, that part wasn't in the movie(s) ?

He also told the Senate Intelligence Committee the information supporting the attack was "not well grounded".

That POTUS, such a risk taker, such bravado! Who me? Well, I'm the risk avoidance, cautious type. Why do you ask?

Mr Brennan pledged to bring openness to the CIA and repair a "trust deficit" with congressional politicians.

Trust me. I'm here for YOU!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 1:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Brennan was for EITs and extraordinary rendition before he was against them. He prefers the term "extremists" rather than "jihadists." He is fluent in Arabic. That must be why he understands those fine nuances of language. Speaks like an auctioneer. IMO, never trust anyone who speaks too fast. Geraldo Rivera fawns over him and sings his praises (IMO, that is a strike against Brennan). For a lawyer, Rivera sure seems selective in which rights he likes and which he would be O.K. scrapping in the Bill of Rights.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 8:47 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen blames Iran after weapons haul
Yemen's president has called on Iran to stop backing armed groups in his country after coastguards seized a ship carrying missiles and rockets.

Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's message came amid speculation the weapons originated in the Iran.

Tehran has denied any connection to the weapons; Yemen has asked the UN Security Council to investigate.

The Sanaa government fears Iran is working with separatists and rebels in the south to destabilise the country.

The weapons were found aboard a vessel intercepted off Yemen's coast on 23 January in an coordinated with the US Navy.

Officials say the shipment included anti-aircraft missiles, Katyusha rockets, rocket propelled grenades and C4 explosives.

Reports suggest the weapons were destined for the Red Sea port of Al-Mukha, and that their intended recipients were the Houthis - a Shia insurgent group based in northern Yemen.

Government official Abdel-Rashid Abdel Hafez said Mr Mansour Hadi had contacted his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to demand Tehran stop smuggling in weapons.

Mr Abdel Hafez gave no more details about the correspondence.

Correspondents say the discovery of the shipment will further sour ties between Iran and Yemen.
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 00:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Iran was "addressed", a huge percentage of M.E. problems would be eliminated.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 9:47 Comments || Top||

#2  And Saudi.

It would be like the fall in terrorism when the Communists imploded.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/08/2013 10:18 Comments || Top||

#3  intercepted off Yemen's coast on 23 January in an coordinated with the US Navy.

Something missing here?
In A coordinated WHAT?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/08/2013 14:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Its the BBC.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 14:40 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Arm Syrian Rebels: CIA, Pentagon And Hillary Said Yes; Obama Just Said No
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 00:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Haven't they all been armed already by us through nefarious means?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/08/2013 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Yet another Clinton defining moment for Obama, ala Bosnia, where we could have stopped extra-national Iranian influence.
Its like sticky buttons in a jukebox. You put your money in and regardless of what you pick you hear the same tune over and over again.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/08/2013 0:47 Comments || Top||

#3  He [Champ] was against it before he was for it. Please call Ambassador Stevens before the committee. Also, note the lack of a timeline or chronology in the article.

Note the cautious, peace loving Obama vs the all knowing, decisive Clinton.

Notice who we're not seeing or hearing from? Has he died and no one announced it? Paging General Pretreaus. General David Petreaus.

This story gets a cow pie insulation value of R5
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 1:28 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm still not sure why we had to get involved at all. As bad as Assad is I haven't seen any signs that the "rebels" are any better and may be worse depending on the amount of Salafist content. After Libya - Mali, after Syria - ?????
Posted by: AlanC || 02/08/2013 7:49 Comments || Top||

#5  the 'arm a moderate faction' would probably have been a very modest effort even if it would have been tried

- it would be difficult to verify the faction was moderate
- once they got heavy weapons, the faction might have splintered or individuals defected to unmoderate factions
Posted by: lord garth || 02/08/2013 7:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Had it been done early enough, while factions were still recognizable and the Islamists weren't dominant, it would have had some moderate success.

As it was, the request came during the election cycle; Champ would never have approved it.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/08/2013 9:46 Comments || Top||

#7  As it was, the request came during the election cycle; Champ would never have approved it. Posted by: Pappy

Ditto! Add to the "election cycle" dynamics, the Benghazi cluster. From yesterday's Panetta testimony, one might surmise the Champ was purposefully distanced from the disaster [and bad news].
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 9:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Champ was gone after about 5:00 p.m. Went to some fund-raiser in Vegas. I heard he was unavailable for some period of time when the sh!t storm hit. Reads like a Dilbert cartoon but not very funny.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 14:38 Comments || Top||

#9  He was Present! But having iced Tea with Algore in the family quarters.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/08/2013 16:33 Comments || Top||


Ahmadinejad Proposes Axis of Evil with Egypt
[FRANCE24] President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, on the first visit to Cairo by an Iranian leader in more than three decades, called for a strategic alliance with Egypt and said he had offered the cash-strapped Arab state a loan.

In a step by Iran to advance ties that were broken in 1979, the Iranian foreign minister said Egyptian tourists and merchants would no longer require visas to visit, Egypt's state news agency reported.

The effort drew a cool response, however. Shi'ite Islamist Iran is still looked on with suspicion by many in Egypt, a predominantly Sunni Muslim nation. Points of contention include Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its policies elsewhere in the Arab world.

Ahmadinejad said outside forces were trying to prevent a rapprochement between the Middle East's two most populous nations, at odds since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and Egypt's signing of a peace treaty with Israel in the same year.

"We must all understand that the only option is to set up this alliance because it is in the interests of the Egyptian and Iranian peoples and other nations of the region," the official MENA news agency quoted him as telling Egyptian journalists.

The two countries have not restored diplomatic ties since Egypt overthrew its long term leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011, but its first Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, gave Ahmadinejad a red-carpet welcome on Tuesday to a summit of Islamic nations.

"There are those striving to prevent these two great countries from coming together despite the fact that the region's problems require this meeting, especially the Palestinian question," Ahmadinejad said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  he's probably trying to set up a new smuggling operation to get weapons to Hamas thru the Sinai. But who knows ... maybe he's selling nuclear-powered ovens for baking pizza.
Posted by: Raider || 02/08/2013 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  No one, be it Shia Iran or Sunni KSA, wants to pay Egypt's transit fees for entering, leaving the Suez Canal iff they had a choice.

* See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IRAN-EGYPT RAPPROCHMENT IMPOSSIBLE AMID SHIA-SUNNI DICHOTOMY.

Lest we fergit, twas a pre-9-11 CANAL PROPOSAL directly linking the north Persian Gulf to the Eastern Mediterranean, roughly following both sides of the borders of several Sunni Muslim countries - ALONG CAME 9-11 + OUT THE WINDOW THE SAILOR CAMEL FLEW.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/08/2013 0:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Meanwhile, not to be outdone by Iran or Egypt ...

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [TheNews.com/PK] US WARNS PAKISTAN ABOUT SIGNING PEACE DEAL WID TTP, due to the alleged wily dastardly role of Taliban Emir Mullah Omar in its original inspiration + development.

Could mean the end to any US-specific econ + military assistance to Pakland iff the latter signs it.

versus

* TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > PAKISTAN SLAMS US OVER ANTI-PEACE DEAL PRESSURE.

Islamabad rly really Really R-E-E-L-L-Y WANTS TO SIGN A PEACE DEAL WID THE TALIBAN!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/08/2013 1:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Iran,Qatar and Sudia Arabia are the current axis of evil.

Pakistan,Egypt,Yemen,Libya and Mali just want their money
Posted by: Lumpy Jesh6054 || 02/08/2013 9:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Mursi might wanna consider using the Iran card as a means to shake the Soddies down for more money. Then again, he might not. But if Egypt is as desperate as we've been hearing...
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/08/2013 15:44 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Teenage Girl Receives Threats to Marry Former Kidnapper
[TOLONEWS] A teenage girl has fled with her family from their home in eastern Nangarhar province to live in Kabul after receiving ongoing threats from the man who kidnapped the girl more than a year ago.

Zamzama, who was kidnapped with her brother last year, told TOLOnews she has received threats to marry her former abductor Taj Mohammad or she will be kidnapped again and her intimidators will ensure her reputation is destroyed.

Zamzama said that when she and her and brother were kidnapped, Taj Mohammad took them to a mountainous area of the Noor Valley in Nangarhar, but her father received the help of some provincial council members and they were released three days later.

While Taj Mohammad was charged with the kidnapping, he was freed and is now threatening to repeat the act, Zamzama claimed Thursday.

Zamzama's father Abdul Matin believes those sending the threats have the support of Nangarhar province's former police chief Karim Gol.

Gol no longer works for any government structure but he holds much power in the area, Matin said, and the local officials "even the governor" seem afraid to further inspect Zamzana's case.

Matin added that although he alerted Nangarhar provincial governor Gul Agha Sherzai to the threats, nothing has changed and so he decided to move the family to Kabul to protect his daughter.

"The Nangarhar provincial governor lives in a palace and you have to wait a week to meet him. How could he solve the case?" Matin said.

Nangarhar provincial spokesman told TOLOnews that efforts are being made to arrest Taj Mohammad and that it is not yet clear who is supporting or protecting him.

Zamzama called on President Hamid Karzai to address her case.

"I want the president to help me. How would he react if it was his sister or daughter?" She said.

Civil society activist Mohammed Yusof Amin said the government needs to seriously address the problem of abductions if it is truly concerned about people's sense of security.

"The government has the responsibility to address this case. How long will the armed be allowed to go against the law?" He said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Execution, there's no repeat.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/08/2013 6:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Karim Gol, that's a good name for an NPC in an RPG.
Posted by: gromky || 02/08/2013 7:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Zamzama called on President Hamid Karzai to address her case.

President Hamid Karzai last July issued a decree to fight corruption and bring administrative reform within the government departments -- Decree 45. That'll fix it.

For a minute, I thought he was resigning.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 9:42 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
ECP agrees to army deployment in Karachi polling stations
[Dawn] Responding positively to one of the reservations of the opposition parties in Sindh, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday agreed that at least one army official will be deployed at every polling station in Karachi during the upcoming general elections, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives after meeting a delegation, comprising of all parties which participated in a recently held sit-in in front of the ECP's provincial office in Karachi, Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim said that fair elections were the only way to take Pakistan out of troubles.

Representatives from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Sunni Tehreek had called upon the CEC to apprise him of their reservations.

He said it was government's responsibility to maintain law and order in Karachi as the city, he added, has become a hub of problems.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Mali war costs debt-laden France 70 million euros
[FRANCE24] France has spent an average of 2.7 million euros per day on its military intervention in Mali so far, an expenditure that could be questioned as the war effort in the West African nation evolves.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  that's a lot of euro's ... for a country that's bankrupt and in denial about it :-) Maybe they should turn the Follies Bergere into a worldwide franchise. Just sayin' :-)
Posted by: Raider || 02/08/2013 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  France is no more broke than we are. They just have to raise the debt ceiling and get Brussels to print more Euros.

I know that the EU is different, but in the end it doesn't stop them from spending what they don't have.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/08/2013 7:54 Comments || Top||

#3  They have no choice. A simple matter of economics. If their uranium mines in North Africa fall to AQ, their domestic electricity is terminated.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 7:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/08/2013 11:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.
Yes Ebbang Uluque6305 and sometimes you spend money and get nothing.
France‘paid $17 million’ ransom for Mali hostages
Paris paid a ransom in 2010 of some 17 million dollars to free four French hostages - who are still being held by al Qaeda-linked militants, probably in northern Mali, according to a former US ambassador to Mali.
Posted by: tipper || 02/08/2013 14:19 Comments || Top||

#6  70 million euros? Considering there are only a few hundred millionaires in the world, that's a lot of money.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/08/2013 16:29 Comments || Top||

#7  :)
American (real millions) ZF. Keep your commas to yourself.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/08/2013 16:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Chickenfeed. Really. The cost of one Eurofighter Typhoon
Posted by: European Conservative || 02/08/2013 18:31 Comments || Top||

#9  In Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, Dr. Evil wakes up after decades of suspended animation, at the beginning of which $25 bought an ounce of gold. Naturally, he comes up with a new money-making scheme that involves threatening The World:

Dr. Evil: Shit. Oh hell, let's just do what we always do. Hijack some nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage. Yeah? Good! Gentlemen, it has come to my attention that a breakaway Russian Republic called Kreplachistan will be transferring a nuclear warhead to the United Nations in a few days. Here's the plan. We get the warhead and we hold the world ransom for... ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

Number Two: Don't you think we should ask for *more* than a million dollars? A million dollars isn't exactly a lot of money these days. Virtucon alone makes over 9 billion dollars a year!

Dr. Evil: Really? That's a lot of money.
[pause]

Dr. Evil: Okay then, we hold the world ransom for...

Dr. Evil: One... Hundred... BILLION DOLLARS!
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/08/2013 22:09 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Nawaz urges govt to take Taliban talks offer 'seriously'
[Dawn] The chief of Pakistan's main opposition party on Thursday urged the government to immediately take result-oriented steps in response to an offer of peace talks by the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants.

In a statement issued in Lahore, Pakistan Muslim League -- Nawaz (PML-N) chief 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...
said that the Pakistani Taliban's offer of peace talks should be taken seriously, and that the government should not waste any time in taking concrete steps in that direction.

In a video released earlier this month, the TTP had expressed its willingness to hold talks with the government on the condition that leaders of PML-N, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the Jamaat-i-Islami provide guarantees to make the exercise fruitful.

Earlier this week, JUI-F chief 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 ...
welcomed the Taliban's "positive" demands for peace talks, and recommended using the platform of the tribal areas' grand jirga for peace negotiations with the outlaws.

In his statement today, Sharif, however, rejected the offer of acting as a guarantor. He said that his party supported the offer of dialogue by the militants, although, keeping in mind the current government's track record, nobody could insure negotiations.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Political crisis grips Tunisia in wake of assassination
[FRANCE24] Tunisia's ruling Islamist Ennahda party on Thursday rejected the prime minister's pledge to form a government of technocrats and to call fresh elections, one day after the assassination of secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid .

Tunisia's ambassador to France criticised Ennahda's opposition to Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali's plans to form a new government.

"It's dangerous," Ambassador Adel Fekih told FRANCE 24. "For the last few months [the government has been at] an impasse. I know that since June there have been a number of parties within the coalition who have asked for a cabinet reshuffle because the people's needs weren't being met. The Ennahda party has been determined to maintain their predominance in government, a position that they continue to hold today."

Belaid's murder by masked men outside his Tunis home on Wednesday sparked a huge outpouring of anger across Tunisia, with nationwide protests that saw Ennahda offices trashed and torched and at least one death. The party has ruled Tunisia since elections there in October 2011.

Protests continued Thursday with police firing teargas at demonstrators in central Tunis as they marched near the interior ministry on Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the centre of the 2011 uprising that toppled the country's former dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address...
lawyers, judges and some teachers began a two-day strike, as the influential UGTT trade union called for a general strike on Friday. The French embassy in Tunis also announced that its schools in the city would be closed on Friday and Saturday.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Home Front: Politix
Secretary Kerry Calls UN Secretary-General Ban
[STATE.GOV] Well, of course he would. That's his name.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Secretary Kerry Calls UN Secretary-General Ban .... a brainless, political hack ?
Posted by: Your Name Here || 02/08/2013 11:57 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
One cop killed, three injured in north Caucasus
A policeman has been killed and one injured in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Russian Interior Ministry said two armed men opened fire at the police officers in the republic's capital, Nalchik, on February 6.

In a separate attack in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, two police officers were injured by unknown assailants. This incident took place in the capital, Makhachkala, also on February 6.
Posted by: ryuge || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
PHC declares carrying suicide vest terrorism
[Dawn] The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
High Court on Wednesday ruled that carrying a boom jacket was an act of terrorism and the anti-terrorism courts had the exclusive jurisdiction for its trial.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Irshad Qaiser set aside an order passed by a judge of an anti-terrorism court in Peshawar through which the case of an alleged bad turban carrying boom jacket was sent to a routine court.

The anti-terrorism court had ruled that carrying boom jacket didn't come under the Anti-Terrorism Act and it was plain case of recovery of explosives coming under the Explosive Substance Act and therefore, it should be tried by a routine court dealing with criminal cases.

The bench was hearing a plea of the provincial government for setting aside the order of the ATC and refer the case back to ATC.

The suspect, Deen Mohammad, was jugged
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
near the General Bus Stand in the jurisdiction of Pahari Pura cop shoppe in Peshawar on May 22, 2011. Police claimed to have recovered a boom jacket filled with explosives from his possession.

On Nov 14, 2012, a judge of the anti-terrorism court referred the case to a routine court after recording statements of some of the witnesses.

The chief justice observed that the suspect was carrying the explosives filled vest for carrying out an act of terrorism and not protecting himself from harsh weather.

He added that for eight years, blasts through boom jackets had been carried out across the country, especially Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
. The court observed that security forces, police and civilian population had suffered fatal casualties in thousands due to suicide kabooms.

It ruled that the phenomenon of suicide kaboom had become so consistent that even in mosques, the people felt scared and suspected the people standing by them in the row as terrorists. It added that once boom jacket was recovered containing high quality explosive, then undeniable inference would be that it was meant for act of terrorism and not for any other purpose.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Bangladesh
3 Jamaat leaders asked to appear at tribunal on Feb 20
[Bangla Daily Star] The International Crimes Tribunal-2 yesterday asked three top 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...
leaders to explain why they would not face contempt of court charges for making provocative and derogatory remarks about the tribunal.

The three-member tribunal headed by Justice Obaidul Hassan asked the Jamaat leaders to appear before it to do the explaining on February 20.

The trio is Jamaat acting secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan, its Central Executive Council member Hamidur Rahman Azad, also a politician, and its Dhaka City unit Assistant Secretary General Selim Uddin.

The tribunal issued the notice on the basis of the reports published in The Daily Star and Prothom Alo on February 5. The dailies published the reports over a Jamaat rally held in the city on February 4.

Bangla daily Prothom Alo quoted Selim Uddin as saying at a Jamaat rally in the capital on February 4: "There is no scope for the controversial tribunal to deliver any verdict if the country is to save from a civil war."

It quoted Azad as saying at the same programme, "This tribunal cannot exist anymore."

The Daily Star in a report headlined "Jamaat warns of civil war" quoted Rafiqul Islam as saying, "Don't push the country into a civil war by delivering one-sided verdicts against our leaders. If anything happens against Quader Mollah, every house will be on fire."

"People would even shed blood to resist vindictive verdicts by the international crimes tribunals," the daily further quoted Rafiqul.

Yesterday, the tribunal in its order said, "We have perused the remarks which appear to be extremely derogatory to the independence and image of a lawfully constituted court of law."

In the name of politics and saving a party man, no one, on any consideration, can threaten or warn of waging civil war in the event of any punishment to be awarded by a lawfully constituted tribunal, the tribunal said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Pro-Syria regime group hacks Sky News Arabia's social sites
[FRANCE24] A pro-Syrian regime cyber group hacked the Twitter and Facebook accounts of Sky News Arabia, the Abu Dhabi-based Arabic news channel said on Thursday.

The "Syrian Electronic Army" -- said to be close to the Syrian regime -- hacked into the channel's social network accounts at around midnight on Wednesday, the broadcaster said.

The hacked accounts were two Twitter handles, @skynewsarabia and @skynewsarabia_c, and the channel's Facebook page.

The news channel said that it regained control of the hacked accounts on Thursday and was "taking precautionary measures to ensure all its IT systems are secure."

The cyber group boasted on its website that it had hacked pages belonging to Sky News Arabia and displayed its logo along with a picture of a channel's page.

It said it carries out online hacking because of the "bias" that the foreign media has against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and their support for the rebels in the Syrian conflict.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Afghanistan
Kabul Bank Tribunal Chief Claims Karzai, Fahim Still Owe Debt
[TOLONEWS] The former Kabul Bank's powerful shareholders claim they have repaid all their loans, but the head of the special tribunal on the Kabul Bank collapse has insisted they still owe money.

Shamsul Rahman Shams said Wednesday that Mahmoud Karzai and Mohammad Hassin Fahim have not repaid their loans from the former Kabul Bank.

He said the issue is being followed by the Financial Disputes Resolution Commission (FDRC) but without any satisfactory results.

"Still, the issue about the debts of Karzai's brother who was one of the shareholder's of Kabul Bank and Hassin Fahim has not been resolved. The issue is being studied by the Financial Disputes Resolution Commission but it has not been fruitful," Shams said.

President Hamid Karzai's brother Mahmoud Karzai owes $9 million and the vice-president's brother Mohammad Hassin Fahim owes $3 million, he added.

Mahmoud Karzai rejected the statement, saying that he is only in debt of $6 million to Shahin Money Exchange whose owner was former Kabul Bank chariman Shir Khan Farnood.

In turn, Karzai accused the tribunal, the Financial Disputes Resolution Commission and the Kabul Bank Receivership Department for complicating matters.

"These three organisations have made the issue so complicated," he told TOLOnews. "I only borrowed $6 million from Shahin Money Exchange and did not borrow from Kabul Bank."

"I wish the bank crisis was being assessed abroad in the US or Dubai courts," he added.

Hassin Fahim did not respond to TOLOnews' requests for comment.

FDRC head Abdullah Dawran said the bank's crisis is very complicated, but that most of those who were part of its collapse are being accounted for.

"Karzai and Fahim are part of the commission's work but there are others who have a hand in the crisis who we're dealing with here," Dawran said Wednesday.

Shams' comments come ahead of the verdict of the Kabul Bank special tribunal on the involvement of 22 people in Kabul Bank's collapse in 2010.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
After heavy rainfall in KP: Relief givers focus on CM's hometown
[Dawn] The widespread rain and snowfall caused substantial damages to private properties across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) largely focused its attention on Mardan district, hometown of the chief minister.

The authority immediately conducted damages and needs assessment survey in Mardan and sent 700 tents from its warehouses with directives to the district authorities to arrange food and nonfood items for the affected people.

The PDMA director general also visited Mardan on Wednesday.

The statistics compiled by the authority showed that three people have been killed and 10 injured in rain-related incidents, while 125 houses have been damaged fully or partially in Mardan.

The rain caused widespread damages in the adjacent Swabi district, where 1,227 houses, including 100 houses in the Afghan refugee camp, Gandaf, had been declared damaged.

The PDMA has dispatched 100 tents and 100 food packages to help the affected population in Swabi.

It sanctioned Rs2 million for Haripur district, while heavy machinery has been dispatched to Shangla district to clear snow from roads.

Officials said total death toll from the three-day rain in the province was 29, while 75 people suffered injuries. They said a total of 1,393 houses had been fully or partially damaged across the province.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
ICC orders Libya to extradite Gaddafi spy chief
[FRANCE24] The International Criminal Court in The Hague on Thursday ordered Libya to extradite Colonel Gaddafi's former spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi, in another stage of a power struggle with Libyan authorities, who want him to face local justice.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Bomb kills policeman in Karachi's Orangi Town
[Dawn] A policeman was killed and five other people, including two police, were wounded in a bomb attack targeting a police van in the Pakistani port city Karachi's Orangi Town neighbourhood on Thursday, officials said.

"A low-intensity remote-controlled bomb planted on a footpath exploded in Orangi Town injuring six people, including three of our officials. One policeman died in a hospital," police official Naveed Nasir told AFP.

"Another police official is in critical condition," he said.

Orangi is an impoverished neighbourhood in the west of the city.

"We can't say who is behind this attack, but it is certainly a part of the terror campaign aimed at police officials that has killed and injured scores in the last two months," said another official Ahmed Khan.

At least 10 people have been killed in acts of violence in the city since late Wednesday, said a security official who wished not to be named.

Ethnic, sectarian and politically-linked violence in Pakistan's financial capital killed at least 2,284 people in 2012 in the deadliest such violence for two decades, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

The unrest comes with general elections due by mid-May. The polls will mark the first democratic transition between two civilian governments in Pakistan's history.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Tales from the Bangla police blotter
[Bangla Daily Star] Two alleged forest robbers, including a ringleader, were killed in a shootout with members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in Shelarchar area (east circle of Sundarbans) in Sharankhola upazila of the district yesterday.

The dear departed were identified as Shahidul Sheikh alias `Nut' Shahidul, 40, ringleader of `Shahidul Bahini', and Mujibar, 39, second-in-command of `Bakibillah Bahini'.
Ahah. A Numbah One and a Numbah Two!
Rab-8 commander Lt Col M Faridul Islam said that acting on a tip-off,
"Lissen! Dis is Mahmoud da Weasel!"
a Rab team conducted drive in Kalam Miah Bharani Khal area of Sharankhola upazila at about 9:15 am yesterday.
A bit early for Rab to be out. Or maybe a bit late.
Sensing the presence Rab,
"Hark! My spider sense is tingling!"
he said that the robbers started firing on the elite force which also returned the fire,
"You may fire when ready, Sergeant Shafiq!"
leading to a fierce a shootout.
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
After nearly one-hour shootout, the robbers fled away into the deep forest, the Rab-8 commander said.
"Flee! We are undone!"
He added that the Rab members later recovered the bullet-hit bodies of Shahidul and Mujibur and some abandoned arms and ammunition from the spot.
"Sir!"
"Yes, Sergeant Shafiq?"
"Two corpses, sir!"
"Ahah! Where?"
"On the spot, sir!"
"Which spot?"
"That spot, sir!"

The recovered arms and ammunitions included six SBBL guns, five shooter guns, two air guns, one pistol and 30 bullets.
Don't ask me.
The bodies and seized ammunition were handed over to Sharankhola cop shoppe.
"Here ya go, and welcome to them!"
"Gosh, thanks, Sergeant! Now what'll we do with 'em?"

Local sources said that the two gangs -- Shahidul Bahini and Bakibillah Bahini -- were long been involved in robbing fishermen and honey collectors, apart from kidnapping people for ransom.
"Shahid ul-Bahini" doesn't sound like they expected to survive the experience.
In Manikganj, locals held an alleged robber from Mitora bus-stand in Sadar upazila early yesterday. Later they handed him over to police.
"Here, now! Wot's all this?"
"An alleged robber, officer!"
"Cheeze. Looks like a sack of old clothes!"

The alleged robber was identified as Shamim Hossain, 26, of Bhanga upazila of Faridpur district, police said.

A gang of robbers, numbering 12-14 entered the house of Afsar Hossain of Gokulnagar village in Manikganj Sadar upazila at around 1:00 am.

At gunpoint, the gang tied hands, legs and mouths of the people in the house and looted cash Tk.6, 000 and mobile sets .
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
In Amenas attack magnifies Belmokhtar, AQIM rift
[MAGHAREBIA] The recent siege at Algeria's In Amenas gas complex highlights a long-standing rivalry between jihadist leaders in the Sahara.

The terror attack was orchestrated by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a veteran thug with a long trail of blood from Afghanistan to his native Algeria. Belmokhtar, also known as Khaled Abou El Abbas or Laaouar, broke away from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) last fall amid incessant leadership disputes and quarrels over smuggling and ransom payments.

Belmokhtar's chief rival for al-Qaeda leadership in the Sahara has long been Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, emir of the Tariq Ibn Ziyad brigade.

Mohamed Mokaddem, an author of several books on al-Qaeda, told AFP that Belmokhtar has never accepted the fact that AQIM leader Abdelmalik Droukdel
... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb....
chose Abou Zeid over him.

"To (Belmokhtar), Abou Zeid is just a vulgar smuggler turned jihadist with no legitimacy. He believes Abou Zeid continued trafficking fuel and cars while fighting in the name of Allah and Afghanistan," Mokaddem said.

Sahel Isselmou Ould Moustapha, a Mauritanian specialist in Islamist movements, agreed with this view on al-Qaeda infighting.

"Belmokhtar considers Abou Zeid an ignoramus, a leader without charisma. He feels mistreated by AQIM because, unlike other jihadist leaders in its history, he comes from southern Algeria, and not the north," Ould Moustapha said.

"But with the hostage seizure at In Amenas, he made a grand strike," he added.

The assault on the Algerian gas plant was an opportunity for Belmokhtar to reassert himself, analysts told Magharebia.

"After the exit of Laaouar from al-Qaeda due to internal problems, he did not find any other path than terrorism," said Sid Ahmed Ould Otafal, a terrorism analyst. "Hence he tried to restore confidence in his character by establishing the 'Signed in Blood' battalion after his previous El Moulethemine battalion became known to be associated with al Qaeda."

"Laaouar proved that the organization suffers from a failure to keep its strong elements and reflects some sort of internal conflict among its leaders who are interested in gains and fame only," Ould Otafal added.

Analyst Abdul Hamid Ansari said that Belmokhtar was using the Algeria attack to say to his al-Qaeda colleagues that his existence was important in the region and they could not do without him.

Since Laaouar failed and all of his cohorts were killed or captured at In Amenas, the game has become open to all, according to Ansari.

"The only thing that he has succeeded with in the past is to recruit some young people by brainwashing them," he added.

Sid Mohamed Ould Abdel Kader, a Sahel expert and veteran of the 1990s Touareg rebellion, spoke to Magharebia at length about the history of Belmokhtar in northern Mali, his extensive relationship with the population and the approach he used to convince many young people of his jihadist ideology.

The terror leader gave young people loans and lent them vehicles to engage in cigarette and drug smuggling, Ould Abdel Kader said.

"Later on, he would gather them and lecture them on the importance of jihad and convince them to take up arms," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Egypt's opposition forces call for mass protests on Friday
[Al Ahram] A number of political parties and groups have called for mass anti-government protests on Friday.

The day's protests have been given different monikers in the media, with some labelling it "Departure Friday," while the 38 organisations that are behind the call to demonstrate described it as "the Friday of human dignity" in the press release they issued on Wednesday.

"Together on the Friday of human dignity, Egyptians will assert every day that they are free and they will not be enslaved or accept injustice, and will not allow their blood or dignity to be violated by police, or president, or a group," read the statement.

Among the parties and movements that declared their participation in the protests on Friday were the Constitution Party, the Popular Current, the Free Egyptians Party, the Maspero Youth Union, the Coalition of Revolutionary Powers, the Free Front for Peaceful Change, the Suez Revolutionaries Bloc, the Mahalla Revolution, the National Front for Justice and Freedom and the Youth of the Democratic Front Party.

The call to protest raised political and economic grievances, including "the sacrifice of social justice for the sake of the IMF loan" and the issue of torture and detention of protesters.

The call comes after widely published reports of human rights violations against protesters involved in recent anti-government protests, including reports of torture.

According to the liberal Constitution Party, the protests will include several rallies from locations in Cairo and Giza following Friday prayers (mid-afternoon), to both Tahrir Square and the presidential palace in Heliopolis.

There are also protests and rallies planned in several governorates including Ismailia, Suez, Alexandria, Mahalla, Sharqiya and Menoufiya.

The 'Ahmed Maher Front', a splinter group of the April 6 Youth Movement, has not yet announced its position on the protests. The 'Democratic Front' of the April 6 Youth Movement has announced it will participate in several governorates.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Afghanistan
Taliban, Haqqani Leaders Arrested in Afghan Operation
[TOLONEWS] Two local Taliban leaders and two Haqqani controllers have been captured in joint Afghan and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
troops operations, Isaf said Thursday.

A Taliban big shot, who was not named in Isaf's statement, was captured Thursday in the Khugyani district of eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province, according to Isaf's operations update.

The leader is believed to be a suicide operations controller who manages the recruitment, training and movement of bad boy to conduct attacks on government officials and security forces. He is also believed to be directly associated with several Taliban insider attack beturbanned goons and worked closely with Hezb-e-Islamic Gulbuddin leadership, Isaf said.

Furthermore, Isaf said he is believed to have used his village leadership position to recruit jacket wallahs and "insider attack" controllers from Wazir Jihadi High School.

During the operation, the security force also incarcerated
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
one suspected bad boy.

A second local Taliban leader was captured Thursday in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province, responsible for the facilitation and construction of improvised bombs (IEDs) and attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, according to Isaf.

He provided guidance to bad boys, regular network updates to Taliban leadership and placed IED against Afghan National Security Forces, Isaf said.

Meanwhile an Afghan and coalition security force tossed in the calaboose
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
a Haqqani controller in Sabari district, Khost province
... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name...
, Thursday.

Isaf said he is believed to have supplied beturbanned goons with funds, weapons and equipment to conduct attacks against Afghan and coalition forces in the district. He is also accused of helping finance the purchase of cycle of violences, IED materials, weapons, homemade explosives and fuel to support the insurgency.

Three other suspected beturbanned goons were also captured along with multiple rifles and ammunition.

The second Haqqani controller was captured Thursday in Pul-e 'Alam district of eastern Pashtun-infested Logar province, believed to be responsible for the acquisition, transfer and distribution of weapons and IED components for use in attacks against security forces through the province, Isaf said.

Isaf did not disclose the names of any of the local leaders it says were captured.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Are the Afghans able to stand up for themselves at this point in time?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 8:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Hell yes, they'll take over the country in no time flat.

Is that what you mean?
Posted by: Shipman || 02/08/2013 16:26 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Cara Wakelin [Australian][Playmate of the Month in November, 1999][Filmography](age 36)



NSFW Intelligent Design


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/08/2013 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Bain's twin sister
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/08/2013 13:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Dibs on the Windex consession.....
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/08/2013 20:19 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran supreme leader rejects US offer of talks
[Dawn] Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Thursday a US offer to negotiate one-on-one on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme so long as Washington continues to impose sanctions on Iran.

"You (Americans) want to negotiate when you are pointing the gun at Iran. The Iranian nation will not be intimidated by such actions," Khamenei told airforce commanders, according to excerpts of his speech posted on his website.

"Some rejoice at the offer of negotiations...but negotiations will not solve anything," he said.

The all-powerful Khamenei has the final say on all key issues in the Islamic republic, including Iran's sensitive nuclear activities and foreign policy.

"I am not a diplomat but a revolutionary," he said. "The US policies in the Middle East have failed and the Americans are in need of a winning hand. That is bringing Iran to the negotiating table."
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Yet another case of our leaders looking weak and foolish in the face of the Mad Mullah. All those sanctions and Khamenei is still not ready to negotiate? The sanctions are not working. Face it, Joe. If you have to ask for negotiations you've lost.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/08/2013 11:49 Comments || Top||


Government
Obama crony wins contract to give phones to jobless
[WASHINGTONTIMES] A cellphone company whose top executive has close ties to President Obama lobbied for and won a piece of a major new government push to provide Internet service to low-income job-seekers, even though critics say the company's smartphones are poorly suited to the task of helping those in the program find work.

The program's supporters tout it as a way for the unemployed to learn technical skills, to prepare resumes and to search for jobs, but one of the 14 pilot contracts that the FCC awarded went to Miami-based TracFone Wireless Inc.

TracFone CEO F.J. Pollak has been a frequent White House visitor and his wife Abigail has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for both Mr. Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

And although TracFone had originally lobbied for the program, critics say its contract would not provide recipients with skills-boosting computers and services, but would supply high-end Android phones, ready to play games and browse Facebook but doing little in the way of getting a job.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Will they have built-in reminders to go and vote Democrat?
Posted by: Bulldog || 02/08/2013 2:08 Comments || Top||

#2  They're not actually phones, they're hand-held voting machines.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 2:17 Comments || Top||

#3  http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/01/72400
1996: The Israeli secret service finds that a cell phone can be used for things other than chatting with friends. It also makes a pretty nifty little bomb for disposing of an enemy, which is what happens to Yahya Ayyash on Jan. 5, 1996 when he tries talking on a booby-trapped phone apparently provided by Israel's Shabak.
Ayyash might have appreciated the irony: He was the chief bomb-maker for Hamas, and was linked to the killings of more than 70 Israelis, many of them civilians.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/08/2013 8:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Wow - now high-end android phones are a right?

I take it this includes free unlimited data service as well. I work my ass off and I don't even have that.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/08/2013 8:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Saves a lot of valuable time CF. Enables one to call ahead to the Kroger or Publics meat section and order those favorite steak cuts. Think of the job search time wasted, waiting on special cuts....fumbling with real cash at the check-out, then the long slug to the handicapped parking slot.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 8:25 Comments || Top||

#6  So, like guns in Fast and Furious(tm), we can trace these back from cellphones taken in gang/drug busts? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/08/2013 8:39 Comments || Top||

#7  #4 Wow - now high-end android phones are a right?

It's in the revision and re-write of the Declaration of Independence.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 8:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Rights are restrictions on the power of the state.

A transfer of wealth can never be a right.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/08/2013 8:57 Comments || Top||

#9  ..yes, its something that's earned, like sticking a gun in someone's gut and demanding their wallet, or voting for politicians who'll do it for you.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/08/2013 11:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Find out who the carriers are. Boycott time...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/08/2013 16:08 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Candid camera
[Dawn] IMAGES of last week's brutal slaying in 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...
of holy men belonging to Jamia Binnoria, caught by security cameras, are still fresh in the mind. Though the footage was recorded by cameras installed at a marriage hall near the scene of the crime, the incident has raised legitimate questions about the effectiveness of closed circuit television camera networks, particularly the official networks on which public money has been spent. Two such CCTV networks exist in the metropolis; one run by the city government and the other belonging to the police, which has not yet been 'officially' launched. But these as well as cameras installed at private facilities such as banks have failed to help in reducing crime, even though in many instances the faces of the culprits are clearly visible on camera. What is the utility of having a CCTV network if it is not used to identify and track down criminals? Such footage practically becomes excellent prime-time viewing, with the electronic media using it to draw more viewers. Surely there is a more constructive use for security cameras.

CCTV footage can play an integral role in beating crime and terrorism. The London tube and bus bombings of 2005, after which Sherlocks sifted through extensive footage to zero in on the perpetrators, are a prime example of how to use the technology. But far from the potential of this technology being put to efficient use in a country that desperately needs effective crime detection, quite often it turns out that cameras that could have recorded footage are not even in working order. Now that the money has already been spent, the existing CCTV network in Bloody Karachi needs to be put to some good use by developing a comprehensive and integrated database. Further, no more money ought to be spent on them until law enforcement authorities come up with some data on how useful they have been. Not just in Bloody Karachi but to a lesser extent in some other urban centres too, law enforcement personnel tout CCTV networks as an important crime fighting measure. But are they actually any good? The public needs to be told.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Afghanistan
Afghans Paid Almost $4bn in Bribes Last Year: UN
[TOLONEWS] Afghan citizens paid as much as US$3.9 billion in bribes to officials in 2012, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Underscoring the immensity of the estimated amount, the UNODC said it is about double the government's revenue gained for its services in 2010 and 2011, and about one-fourth the amount pledged at the Tokyo conference in July by the international community to support Afghanistan's development.

The bribes are primarily paid to officials in the police, local government, judiciary, and education sectors, it added.

"Nobody in this country or interested in this country would deny the fact that corruption is a major problem, plaguing the government services and the way overall, the government is being perceived," UNODC regional representative Jean-Luc Lemahieu said Thursday at a press conference in Kabul.

The 2012 figure is a substantial increase on the UNODC's estimated total for 2009 of $2.4 billion.

However, some achievements in the battle against graft have been made. According to the study in which 6,700 citizens were interviewed -- 42 percent of whom were women -- there has been a nine percent decrease in the number of people who pay bribes, although the average bribe amount has increased a massive 40 percent to $214, up from $158 in 2009.

The survey states that the breakdown of bribes paid to the private sector versus the government sector showed that 30 percent of interviewees had paid bribes to non-governmental organisations compared to 50 percent who had paid bribes to a government department. In money terms, $600 million was paid to for the non-government sector which was 15 percent less than that paid to the government.

In the police force, bribe-taking has decreased from 52 to 42 percent, but the corruption in the education sector has increased from 51 to 60 percent.

"The Afghan population considers corruption as the number two most important issue after the insecurity problems," Lemahieu said.

Indicating corruption proportions across different parts of Afghanistan, the study showed that bribes were paid by 71 percent of the population in the west, 60 percent in the north-east, 40 percent in the south, and 39 percent in central areas.

It also noted that in the south of the country, most of the bribes were provided by non-government organisations and individuals especially the elders, mullahs, and those within the Taliban.

"Among the tribal elders, representatives of local areas, district councils, provincial councils, and aid organisations, there is corruption. People have complained. They have complained of consulates where you have to pay $400, $500, $800 to $2000 dollars to get a visa," said Mohammd Rafi Amini, Director General of Strategy and Policy at Afghanistan's High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption.

The UNODC said a strong political will was needed to reduce the nation-wide corruption and called on citizens to put their strongest efforts into wiping out the problem.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Afghans Were Paid Almost $4bn in Bribes Last Year
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/08/2013 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  At least it's open and known corruption, unlike that practiced in the US.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/08/2013 13:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Just because it isn't audited here in the US does not mean it is not widely known...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/08/2013 15:59 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Report against NSF leaders referred to Egypt's state security prosecution
[Al Ahram] Prosecutor-General Talaat Abdullah has referred on Thursday a report against National Salvation Front (NSF) leaders -- accusing them of supporting vigilante groups to overthrow the government -- to the Supreme State Security Prosecution for investigation.

The report, filed by lawyer Essam Khalil, accuses Constitution Party head Mohamed ElBaradei, Popular Current leader Hamdeen Sabbahi, Conference Party head Amr Moussa, Constitution Party member Gamila Ismail, Wafd Party head El-Sayed El-Badawi and other figures in the NSF for inciting the public against President Mohamed Morsi.

Khalil said in his report that the NSF leaders support groups such as the 'Black Bloc' that call for the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood rule, by providing "political cover to their terrorist actions."

He also said that the NSF leaders are "plotting to kill" youth members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In addition, Khalil's report accused the NSF leaders of "purposefully destructing the state's institutions by mobilising thugs against the Egyptian police."

The NSF leaders aim to stir up unrest and insecurity in Egypt and damaging the national economy, Khalil stated in the report.

The clashes in several Egyptian cities over the past two weeks, mainly Port Said and Suez, left over 50 people dead and hundreds injured.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Challenges to peace
[Dawn] TERRORISM, militancy, extremism -- the challenges to peace in Pakistain are many and myriad, and require being answered at multiple levels.

One of the main challenges faced is that those who perpetuate violence, whether Islamic fascisti or bully boys, keep changing their tactics. This requires the police and other law enforcement agencies to also keep changing tack. Further, these agencies and departments also face legal, financial and capacity-related issues. Terrorist and bully boy organizations, on the other hand, appear to have ample resources at their disposal.

After the operation undertaken by the security forces in Malakand, radical changes were evident in the strategy adopted by the hard boyz and the targets they chose. In the earlier phase, they had targeted mainly law enforcement and security agencies but after that operation, their sphere of operations widened. Similarly, the battleground has also expanded from just the tribal areas earlier to now the settled areas.

Despite the efforts on part of the country's law enforcement and security, the havoc wreaked by these groups and organizations has not been brought under control. Yet success has been seen from time to time. For instance, last year saw a 27 per cent decline in suicide kabooms as compared to 2011; according to a recent report by the Pakistain Institute for Peace Studies, there were 33 suicide attacks in 2012 as compared to 45 the year before.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
faced the brunt of the violence with 54 per cent of the attacks. Even so, last year's statistics show an 11 per cent decline in incidents there.

Nevertheless, there have been a series of attacks, including those on Bannu Jail, the Mehran airbase and others, that indicate that the perpetrators are moving from micro to macro targets. At such attacks, they have tried to create hostage situations and in response, the law enforcement personnel have had little choice but to kill the perpetrators. Making arrests is a remote possibility in such situations, which adds another challenge: it becomes doubly difficult for Sherlocks to trace the planners, controllers and handlers involved in the attack.

Another change in the bully boys' strategy has been to turn to technology such as improvised bombs (IEDs) and vehicle-borne improvised bombs (VBIEDs). During the last four years, IEDs and hand-grenades were used in 782 attacks. The police leadership will have to build up the technical capacity of the force, despite the dangers involved. Such personnel can serve as the shield between innocent civilians and a planted bomb; bomb-defusing expert Hukam Khan saved hundreds of lives over the course of his career before he laid down his life in the line of duty.

In another nefarious move, hard boyz and Islamic fascisti have taken to causing a first kaboom that is low intensity with time-fitted or remote controlled devices, which is then followed by a second, high-intensity, blast. Such a tactic results in higher casualties, and it is what recently caused carnage at Quetta's Alamdar Road.

After an incident has occurred, the challenge faced by law enforcement personnel is not just to secure circumstantial evidence but also ensure safety for themselves and everyone else at the scene. Such management is not possible without the cooperation of the public and media personnel, who need to be better sensitised in this regard. Journalists need to understand that in their blind competition for breaking news, safety procedures and protocols must not be set aside.

An increase in assassinations and sectarian violence adds another layer to the complex security situation. Last year saw significant sectarian attacks in 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...
, Quetta, Gilgit and Kurram Agency
...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora...
, and preventing these is a real challenge for the country's police. This requires intelligence-led policing and better coordination with other security agencies. Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos...
the police chiefs of the areas in which assassinations are common should employ the preventative and detecting strategies once employed by the Punjab police in the mid-1990s.

The onslaught will have to be resisted in the education and women's development sectors, too, where infrastructure continues to be destroyed and fear has spread. Over the last four years 839 schools have been destroyed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata. According to the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, 2012, Pakistain already has 5.1 million children out of school, making it second from the bottom in the world's rankings. While the law enforcement departments must work to counter the situation, the communities and education departments also have a part to play. The same goes for turning around the situation on the polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
front, where workers have been attacked and harassed.

To finance their operations, the terrorist-militant network has found bank robberies and kidnapping for ransom to be attractive avenues. They have used the proceeds for weapons purchases and other expenses; during 2010, a 50 per cent surge in bank robberies was recorded in Bloody Karachi alone. In the current environment of insecurity, criminals have also found lucrative opportunities in bully boy or terrorist organizations, where they often prove very helpful during acts of sabotage.

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), which was passed by the Cabinet last year, may prove a valuable institutional mechanism in Pakistain's struggle. With these patterns of violence having been in evidence for over a decade, it has been realised that an institutional network and coordination are missing links in our counterterrorism strategy. Fire-fighting is effective immediately after an incident but what is needed is a long-term, research-based vision. Nacta could provide an intellectual forum to develop a systemic and sustained response, while the recently passed 'fair trial' legislation may also prove useful. Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising. And then he smelled the smoke...
our security and law enforcement agencies face a gigantic task.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Bangladesh
Jamaat calls hartal in Ctg for tomorrow
[Bangla Daily Star] The 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...
called a dawn-to-dusk hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
in Chittagong division for tomorrow after party leaders were denied permission for holding a rally in the port city yesterday.

The protest programme was declared at a press briefing at the office of city unit Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
, student wing of Jamaat, at West Bakalia. Jamaat city unit Ameer Shamsul Islam, MP, made the announcement, according to a blurb.

Earlier, the party announced that it would hold a rally in front of Anderkilla Shahi Jaam-e-Mosque yesterday afternoon, protesting killings of four Jamaat activists in Chittagong during its February 5 hartal. But the Chittagong Metropolitan Police had not given them permission, Jamaat city unit Publicity Secretary Mohammad Ullah told The Daily Star.

Four people, including two pedestrians, were killed in festivities during the hartal enforced by Jamaat, said police sources, but Jamaat claims all of them belonged to the party.

Earlier in the day around 5:45am, a group of 15 to 20 Jamaat-Shibir men stopped a Chittagong-bound pick-up van and a covered van on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway near Banshbaria of Sitakunda upazila and set them ablaze.

On information, a unit of fire fighters from Sitakunda rushed to the spot around 7:00am and doused the fire, said Prahlad Singh, a telephone operator at Agrabad Fire Service and Civil Defence Station in the city.

No casualty was reported, he said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pool hall, Peoria Slim swung his cue at Hurley's head...
police incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
a Jamaat leader and 13 activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir in the port city and two upazilas of Chittagong on different charges.

Mostafa Noor, Jamaat assistant secretary general of Sitakunda upazila unit and also vice-chairman of the upazila, and a Shibir activist, Shahidul Islam, were arrested at their residences yesterday on charges of arson and creating obstacle in transport movement in the area during February 5 hartal, said Syed Iqbal Ali, assistant superintendent of police (Sitakunda circle).

Police arrested five Shibir activists -- Hamed Hasan, Monirul Islam, Galib Hasan, Alamgir Hossain and Mishkat Uddin -- in Bahaddarhat area under Chandgaon Police Station on Wednesday in connection with assaults on police during the hartal, said Rajesh Barua, sub-inspector of Panchlaish Police Station.

In another development at Lohagara upazila, police arrested seven activists of Shibir early yesterday and on Wednesday for attacking coppers, said Shahjahan, OC of Lohagara Police Station.

The arrestees were identified as Shafiqul Islam, Mostak Ahmed, Delwar Hossain, Ali Ahmed Sawdagar, Khaled Saifullah, Abdul Gafur and Parvez.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Opposition divided on dialogue
[FRANCE24] It also came as an offer by opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib for peace talks with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's
The Scourge of Hama...
regime suffered setbacks, with Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
ignoring it and a key opposing faction flatly rejecting the initiative.

The surprise gesture by Khatib, head of the opposition National Coalition, was welcomed by the United States and the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
, and was expected to receive the backing of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

International Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi welcomed the "positive" offer but warned it was not enough for a political solution.

Asked if he could see an end in sight to Syria's bloodshed -- which according to UN figures has killed over 60,000 people in nearly two years -- the UN-Arab League envoy told the French daily La Croix: "Not for the moment."

Assad himself has yet to comment on the offer by Khatib, who stepped up the pressure to engage in talks by setting the regime a deadline of Sunday for the release of all women held in Syrian prisons.

"The demand that the women are released means that if there is one single woman still in prison in Syria on Sunday, I consider that the regime has rejected my initiative," Khatib told BBC Arabic.

The Syrian National Council, the main component of the Coalition, has rejected the possibility of any talks, saying it is committed to ousting Assad's regime, rejecting dialogue with it, and protecting the revolution.

But Khatib, who last week called on Assad to agree to let Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa open peace talks with his coalition, appealed for the opposition to "declare our willingness to negotiate" the regime's departure.

Addressing an OIC summit in Cairo, Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi called on opposition factions "to coordinate with this coalition and support their efforts for a unified approach... for democracy".

Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, who al-Assad counts as one of his last allies, became the first Iranian president to attend the meeting since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syrian army battles rebels on edges of Damascus
[FRANCE24] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
forces launched a fierce assault around the centre of Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
on Wednesday as rebels sought to break through to the heart of the capital.

"The army has launched a coordinated all-out offensive on all of the areas surrounding the capital," said a Syrian security official who declined to be identified. "All entries to Damascus have been sealed."

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombardment and festivities around Damascus were the heaviest for a long time.

"The province was bombed very badly in attacks that have not been seen in months. There was also very heavy fighting," he said.

Assad, battling to crush a 22-month-old uprising in which 60,000 people have died, has lost control of large parts of the country but his forces, backed by air power, have so far kept rebels on the fringes of the capital.

The encroaching rebels now aim to break a stalemate in the city of two million people.

"We have moved the battle to Jobar, because it is the key to the heart of Damascus," said Captain Islam Alloush of the rebel Islam Brigade. The district links rebel strongholds in the suburbs with the central Abbasid Square.

Shattering months of relative calm in the capital, Wednesday's offensive coincided with two suicide boom-mobileings that killed almost 20 members of the security forces in the ancient city of Palmyra, a watchdog reported.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
MB's El-Erian sends 'message of respect' to women
As increasing reports of sexual harassment and violence targeting female protesters have been creating uproar amongst Egyptians, leading Muslim Brotherhood member and Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Vice President Essam El-Erian sent a message of appreciation to Egypt's women Al Ahramonline reported.

In a post made early Thursday on his Facebook page, El-Erian stated that in every man's life there are people who have made a huge difference and impacted him greatly.

"Those who have most left an imprint on me are Sara (my mother), Fatema (my wife), Sara, Samia and Asmaa (my daughters)," El-Erian said.
All of whom stayed indoors...
El-Erian mentioned his mother's efforts as a widow, raising him and his three siblings into faithful, loving and responsible men.

"My wife has stayed patient with me over many years, as witness to my frequent
arrests and detentions, and like my mother has never complained," the Brotherhood heavyweight asserted.

El-Erian also acknowledged his daughters, "Who are like flowers in the middle of a hectic life filled with work and sacrifices."
And who do exactly as they're told and are never seen outside...
El-Erian, concluding his message, stated: "Here is an example of Egyptian women working and striving both within and outside the home for the good of a better nation for all of us, free from injustice, corruption, tyranny and harassment."

His statements come a day after Egyptian women's rights groups and activists marched in downtown Cairo against assaults and rapes against women participating in public protests.

The most well known of these attacks was against Yasmin El-Bormawy, who gave her testimony on the private Al-Nahar satellite channel. She recounted how a large group of men, some armed, tore her clothes off and sexually assaulted her in a protest in Mohamed Mahmoud Street, downtown Cairo.

Several protesters have accused the Brotherhood of using organised harassment as a tactic to scare off dissenting protesters. FJP female member and former MP Azza El-Garf refuted such claims as "ridiculous and disgusting." She further asserted Thursday that Islam regards women respectfully, whether in their personal or professional lives. "So how can the Brotherhood propagate such heinous acts?"
Because the women ventured outside?
Uncovered meat bring it on themselves.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nice way of saying something, without really saying it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/08/2013 19:52 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
AKP deputy head slams US envoy's criticisms on long detentions
[Hurriyet Daily News] A senior member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) reacted strongly today to critical remarks from U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone regarding the Turkish judicial system.

"We are inviting Ricciardone to remain within his boundaries and limits. We are not pleased with [his remarks], we condemn and denounce them. The ambassador should know his place," said the deputy head of the AKP, Hüseyin Çelik in televised comments on the private broadcaster Kanal A.

Ricciardone, who briefed Ankara reporters yesterday after a suicide attack targeting the embassy killed two people Feb. 1, criticized the long detention of army officers, scholars and students. "You have your military leaders, who were entrusted with the protection of this country behind bars as if they were terrorists... When a legal system produces such results and confuses people like that for terrorists, it makes it hard for American and European courts to match up," Ricciardone had said.

Çelik noted that the U.S. envoy had in the past also commented about internal questions in Turkey, emphasizing that it was unappropriate for a diplomat to make judgments about "topics that he does not know the details of."

"The Prime Minister had called him 'novice ambassador.' As it seems, Ricciardone has not yet learnd his place in that period," said Çelik.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Ben Ali relative seeks Seychelles asylum
[MAGHAREBIA] Sakher El Materi officially sought asylum in the Seychelles, TAP reported on Wednesday (February 6th). Following the Tunisian revolution, the son-in-law of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Qatar. He is the subject to an international arrest warrant for his alleged ties to fraud and embezzlement of public funds.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Afghanistan
Insurgent Attack Kills Police Official in Afghan North
[TOLONEWS] The police chief of Kashinda district in northern Balkh province has been killed with three other coppers in an turban attack claimed by the Taliban.

An improvised bomb, believed to have been detonated by remote control, went kaboom! at about 3:00pm in Kashinda while the district governor was patrolling the area with the security forces.

The blast killed the district police chief Nasruddin and three other coppers, and injured the district administrative officer Delbar, the police commander in the North Zone 303 told TOLOnews.

The Taliban grabbed credit for the attack in an email.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Mauritania press freedom tops Arab world
[MAGHAREBIA] Mauritania topped all Arab countries for press freedom, according to the annual report from media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

For the second straight year, Mauritania placed 67th on RSF's Press Freedom Index, released Wednesday, (January 30th). Mauritania ranked ahead of all Arab countries.

Tunisia, the first country to usher in the Arab Spring, ranked No. 138 on the index.

Mauritania's retention of its index ranking demonstrates that the country is consolidating the progress it has made in easing government controls on press freedom, said Ambroise Pierre, who heads RSF's Africa Desk.

He praised "steps taken by the Mauritanian High Authority for Press in the field of control and regulation to urge journalists to be responsible without reducing their margin of liberty".

Among measures that eased state restrictions on the press, the Mauritanian government in 2011 authorised private television and radio stations.

"There is no doubt that pluralism in the Mauritanian media became available by freeing the audio-visual space and launching private and serious channels and radio stations," said Abdallah Ould Bay, head of the National Council for the Justice and Development Party.

"This represents an outlet for us as well as the abolition of the prison penalty for journalists. However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
I as a politician register some flaws with regard to the handling of the official media of some political parties as well as differing or double standards," he added.

RSF's 2012 Press Freedom Index noted that Mauritania rose "thanks to the adoption of a law on the electronic media, opening up of the broadcasting sector and other developments".

Sheikh Naji Ould Sidi Salem, the news director at state-run television, greeted news of the Mauritanian ranking by saying that more could be done to push his country higher up on the Press Freedom Index.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the smallest, in absolute terms, negative number?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/08/2013 3:06 Comments || Top||

#2  the only size 12 girl at the prom to use a corset
Posted by: lord garth || 02/08/2013 10:10 Comments || Top||

#3  "Mauretania Press freedom tops ARAB world"

Measure it against some other yardstick and see what you get.

Mauretania only outlawed Black slavery in 1989, (a new law more honored in the breach than the observance) and the biggest group of emigres to come to Senegal every years is slaves escaping over the border. So I wonder just how free anybody is, including the press.

journalists to be responsible without reducing their margin of liberty".

For example, what happens to Mauretanian journalists who report on Marabouts (combination imam and witch doctor) who abuse the talibe (students, all children) under their authority? The maribouts' usual custom is to send the kids out to beg during the day and memorize the Q'uran at night. Abuses abound. The abuse provoked so much outrage in Senegal that the Marabouts moved their operation over the border into Mauretania.

Freedom of what, indeed?
Posted by: mom || 02/08/2013 11:09 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Hacker 'botnet' hijacked online searches: Microsoft
[FRANCE24] Software titan Microsoft and computer security giant Symantec said Thursday that they smashed a hacker-infected computer network that was hijacking Internet searches.

A Bamital "botnet" raked in an estimated million dollars annually by routing Internet users to websites that generated revenue with bogus online ad "clicks."

"The Bamital botnet defrauded the entire online advertising platform, which is what allows the Internet and many online services to be free," Microsoft said in a blog post.

"What's most concerning is that these cybercriminals made people go to sites that they never intended to go and took control of the computer away from its owner."

Along with generating fraudulent clicks for which advertisers paid, the hackers sent Internet users to websites that could sneak malicious code onto machines or steal personal information, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft and Symantec research found that during the past two years, more than eight million computers were attacked by Bamital and that the scheme targeted popular search services and browser programs.

Symantec said it has tracked the botnet since late 2009 and joined forces with Microsoft to shut down the operation.

"Bamital is just one of many botnets that utilize click fraud for monetary gain and to foster other cybercrime activities," Symantec said in a blog post.

"Many of the attackers behind these schemes feel they are low risk as many users are unaware that their computers are being used for these activities."

Bamital is part of a family of malicious software designed to highjack search engine results and route Internet users to hacker-controlled servers, which then re-direct traffic to other websites, according to Symantec.

Bamital has been spread with "drive-by downloads" of malicious code at booby-trapped websites and by infected files downloaded from peer-to-peer sharing networks, Symantec said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Any recommendations from computer types on how to avoid such malicious botnets as Bamital?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 9:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Firefox and adblock
Microsoft Security essentials
Windows 7.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/08/2013 10:16 Comments || Top||

#3  I never liked having anti-virus software on my PC because so often it steals CPU cycles and storage almost as much as a virus. They get very intrusive, controlling and annoying. But these days you gotta have it. Go buy a reputable anti-virus package from a reputable computer store. DO NOT download some unknown "freeware" anti-virus.

I've had serious misgivings about Symantec because of their associations with the Chinese company Huawei. Last year they reportedly dissolved the relationship. But their decision to get involved with Huawei in the first place was such bad judgement that I'd still steer clear of them.

Kaspersky is pretty well known but he is also a Russian so I wouldn't trust him either.

Sorry. Having grown up in the 1950s and 1960s I don't trust Russians or Chinese. And having watched my web server's logs for the past few years leads me to trust them even less.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/08/2013 13:51 Comments || Top||

#4  I've been using Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection. Seems to work OK--seems catch bad stuff as it appears and gives a heads up. I also used Kaspersky one time; it seemed clunky to use. Have also used Norton; it came pre-loaded on my Windows 7 laptop. It seemed to work O.K. I've had trouble with Norton in the past. The trial ran out and I went to Forefront Endpoint.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/08/2013 14:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, I think Norton is a subsidiary of Symantec. Call me paranoid if you will. But just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/08/2013 15:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Lavasoft AVG both free and premium have a lot of nice features.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/08/2013 18:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Do I need anything for my iPad?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/08/2013 19:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Any recommendations from computer types on how to avoid such malicious botnets as Bamital?

If you're using broadband, your service provider may provide free antivirus software. It's typically either Norton or McAfee.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/08/2013 21:17 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
ASWJ man gunned down
[Dawn] A worker of the 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...
Electric Supply Company, also said to be affiliated with the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, was rubbed out on Khalid Bin Waleed Road on Wednesday, police said.

They said assailants riding a cycle of violence intercepted Ayaz Khan, 35, when he was heading towards his office in the morning, fired at him and rode away.

The maimed was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead.
He's dead, Jim!
on arrival. He was working with the KESC as a meter reader and was posted at the Khalid Bin Waleed Road office of the power utility.

An ASWJ front man said the victim was their active member and a former in-charge of the Mehmoodabad sector of the party's organizational structure.

A large number of people attended his funeral prayer at Makki Masjid in Mehmoodabad No 4.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the KESC expressed deep sorrow over the killing of its meter reader, Ayaz Khan, by unknown attackers at the gate of Operation Centre No 1, Bahadurabad.

It demanded a thorough inquiry into the attack and fast justice against the culprits.

The power utility also asked the law-enforcement agencies to provide foolproof security at its business centres, offices and installations so as to protect employees as well as visiting consumers.

Man killed in 'sectarian' attack

A young man was bumped off in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Wednesday evening. Police said assailants riding a cycle of violence and apparently following Syed Afzal Hussain Naqvi, 30, fired at him near Safoora Chowrangi within the remit of the Sachal cop shoppe and escaped. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He's dead, Jim!
on arrival. He was a resident of Amroha Society. Following the incident, tension gripped the locality. The body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

Condemning the killing, a front man for the Majlis Wehdat-e-Moslemeen described the murder as part of the ongoing sectarian killings taking place in the city.

However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
the Sachal SHO said that apparently the victim had been killed due to his political affiliation.

One killed, two maimed in 'snatching bid'

A man was killed and two brothers were maimed when gunnies fired at them in what police described as a cash snatching attempt in the old city area on Wednesday.

Police said the two brothers, Aun Ali and Ali Raza, with their employee Aleem Pervaiz, were taking around Rs700,000 from their shop probably to a bank branch in a rickshaw when two men on a cycle of violence intercepted them near the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi and tried to snatch the cash.

Upon resistance they opened fire and expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, DIG-South Shahid Hayat said, adding that as a result the employee suffered fatal bullet wounds. He was rushed to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi, where he was pronounced dead.
He's dead, Jim!
However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
the two brothers, said to be members of the Bohra community, suffered minor wounds and were said to be in a stable condition, he added.

Two suspects killed in 'encounter'

Two suspected bandidos were killed and a policeman was maimed in what police described as an encounter in Nazimabad on Wednesday evening.

The police said two suspects were snatching valuables from some passers-by near Gol Market in Nazimabad No 3 when a police patrol arrived at the scene.

The suspects fired on the police in a bid to escape. A bullet hit police constable Mohammad Manzoor and the police also returned fire. During the shootout the two suspects suffered fatal gunshot wounds and was struck down in his prime, the police said.

The police claimed to have recovered pistols from them.

The bodies were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Till late in the night, both the men remained unidentified.

Body found in gunny bag

The body of an unidentified young man was found beneath the Banaras flyover on Wednesday morning.

Police said the body, stuffed in a gunny bag, bore torture marks. However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
no gunshot wound was found on the body.

The police shifted the body to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Bus torched

Unknown men set on fire a bus in North Nazimabad on Wednesday evening.

Police said the incident took place near the Five-Star Chowrangi where gunnies intercepted a bus and set it on fire.

Quoting the bus driver, North Nazimabad SP Khurram Waris said the driver had an altercation with some youngsters in the morning. He suspected that the same men torched the vehicle, he added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan

#1  Here I thought the guy wrote Naval Strategy books as a AntiSubmarine Warfare Journalist.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/08/2013 0:41 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Philippine president to visit MILF stronghold
Philippine President Benigno Aquino will make a historic visit to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's (MILF's) stronghold next week in an effort to move forward peace talks, his office said on Thursday. Aquino's trip on Monday to the outskirts of the 12,000-member MILF's main base in the country's south will be the first peace mission there by a president since the insurgency began.

Aquino and MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim will meet as they witness the launch of a social welfare project for the residents of communities where the rebels exert an influence, Aquino spokesman Ricky Carandang said. He said, "It's not a formal meeting, but their presence will underscore the commitment and optimism that both sides have that a final resolution to the peace process will be achieved. The launch of the social programmes will show concrete benefits of peace."

At the launch, health insurance cards will be distributed to residents, emergency jobs offered to adults and scholarships given to their children, the president's office said.

Cabinet secretary Jose Almendras said next week's event would be held at an MILF-run school about half a kilometer from the main gate of the rebels' headquarters, Camp Darapanan.

MILF spokesman Mike Pasigan welcomed the imminent launch of the social welfare project. In a statement, he said, "The program will further strengthen the collaboration between the government and the MILF as we build on the gains of the peace process."
Posted by: ryuge || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Moro Islamic Liberation Front


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran to unveil new long-range UAV models
Iran will unveil new models of long-range unmanned aircrafts, Deputy Defense Minister, Mohammad Islami said today, Fars reported. Noting Iran's capabilities in the design and manufacture of unmanned aircrafts, Islami said that three new models will be unveiled.

According to the Deputy, three models of a same UAV are meant for flying on different altitudes.

Islami noted that the new UAV has a strategic importance to Iran, and added that later more UAV models will be unveiled. Islami noted that Iran today manufactures about 20 different types of UAVs in the country, of different sizes and capabilities.

He said that Iran will in the future unveil more drones that can fly at the maximum altitude of 30,000 feet, have a 24-hour flight duration capability and can carry out special operations.

Deputy Defense Minister also said that Iran established UAV-manufacturing plants in other countries, which are interested in purchasing Iran-made aircrafts.

Yesterday, Iran's Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said that country will unveil a domestically designed and manufactured seaplane.

On Feb. 4, Iran unveiled upgraded versions of Zolfaqar and Samsam tanks as part of the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations commemorating the victory of Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979.

On February 2, Iran unveiled its latest fighter jet, the Qaher-313 (Conqueror-313). The single-seat stealth fighter aircraft can take off and land on short runways.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to the Deputy, three models of a same UAV are meant for flying on different altitudes.

One altitude runs into trees and cliffs (50')
One altitude runs into dirt (0')
One altitude runs into water (-10')

Inshallah.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/08/2013 14:14 Comments || Top||

#2  One shows up in America, wake me, otherwise ZZZZZ.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/08/2013 14:14 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Bangladesh mob torches Ahmadi festival site
[Dawn] Bangladeshi Ahmadis on Thursday shifted the site for their centenary celebrations after thousands of religious rivals torched the original venue.

A mob, which witnesses said numbered around 20,000, attacked the venue at Kaliakoir, near Dhaka, late Wednesday where members of the Ahmadiyya Jamaat were due to mark 100 years since the movement began operating in what is now Bangladesh.

"They attacked the venue from all corners, shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greater). They torched the canopy, tents and stage," Sanjit Kumar, a senior police official, told AFP.

"We fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the mob, but it was so huge that we could not protect the venue," he said, adding that one person was injured after he was beaten up.

Founded in 1889 in India, Pakistan declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims after it adopted a law in 1974.

In Bangladesh, where 90 percent of the country's 153 million people are Muslims, there is no such law. But Islamic parties and top clerics have long demanded the government declare them non-Muslims.

Ahmadiyya Jamaat's Bangladesh spokesman Tabshir Chowdhury alleged that despite repeated request for more security, only a few policemen were sent to protect the venue, situated 40 kilometres north of the capital.

"We got government approval for the three-day meet where 10,000 of our members, including 200 foreign guests, were invited," he told AFP.

"When we saw mob was building up and threatening to attack the venue, we asked for more security."

He said the venue for the celebrations had been shifted to the group's headquarters in Dhaka.

The Ahmadiyya Jamaat has been the victim of several attacks in recent years, including last November when a mob in a northern district vandalised an Ahmadi place of worship and torched several houses belonging to the community.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Algerian warplanes 'repel ill-advised large-scale barracks attack'
[FRANCE24] Algeria deployed military aircraft Wednesday to repel an attack by around 50 men armed with rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) on a military installation in the north-east of the country, local media said.

According to a report in daily newspaper El-Khabar, at least two of the assailants were killed and six soldiers injured in the attack.

The weapons included RPGs that had come out of Libya, the newspaper said, adding that many of the attackers were Tunisian and Libyan.

The assault began when a lorry delivering food to the barracks was hi-jacked, filled with weapons and used to force a way into the installation, while a second group opened fire in a diversionary attack.

The fire-fight lasted three hours. The Algerian military used warplanes, attack helicopters and artillery to beat off the attack, according to the report.

A search operation was underway Thursday to round up the rest of the attackers, while one who had been taken alive was being interrogated.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  I'm sure that they are not using water-boarding during the interrogation. Wouldn't want them to use torture. /s
Posted by: tipover || 02/08/2013 13:11 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm sure that they are not using water-boarding

I'm sure they're not waterboarding him too (water is precious). Spread eagleing him over an ant nest, or applying electricity to the genitals is much more likely.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 02/08/2013 16:21 Comments || Top||


Egypt presidency condemns killing fatwa as 'terrorism'
[Al Ahram] Egypt's presidential office has condemned the practice of or invitation to political violence, as said in a Thursday statement.

The released presidential statement comes two days after a cleric from Al-Azhar issued a religious edict -- on air -- giving the green light to kill opposition leaders Mohamed ElBaradei and Hamdeen Sabbahi.

"Practicing religious violence or threatening to do so has become one of the gravest challenges facing the Arab Spring," the presidential statement said. "Egyptians must join hands to avoid the danger of civil strife and face attempts to spread division."

"Some are promoting and inciting political violence while others who claim to speak in the name of religion are permitting 'killing' based on political differences and this is terrorism," read the statement.

The presidency "stresses on its complete rejection of hate speech which attributes itself to religion," calling on all national forces, religious institutions and intellectuals to stand together against "inciting" language, the statement asserted.

Sources told Al-Ahram Arabic language news website that security will be increased at the residences of prominent opposition forces, especially after the assassination of leading Tunisian leftist politician Chokri Belaid in Tunisia on Wednesday.

Sources told Reuters that forces were in fact stationed in front of both ElBaradei and Sabbahi's homes.

Egypt is undergoing a period of political unrest since the second anniversary of the 25 January Revolution when clashes between protesters, rioters and police left over 50 dead -- mostly protesters -- in the days following the anniversary.

The Egyptian government is accused by the opposition of relying on Mubarak-era repression in the face of popular discontent across the country.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  so why don't you arrest or kill him?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/08/2013 9:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Took their sweet time condemning it...
Posted by: Pappy || 02/08/2013 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Condemnation in English for English speaking audience only. In Arabic, only a wry smile, even though that could be interpreted as mirth which is also haram...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/08/2013 15:54 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Karzai Calls for Clerics to Condemn Suicide Bombing
[TOLONEWS] President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
addressed religious scholars at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Egypt with a call to condemn suicide kabooms as an act prohibited under Islamic law.

According to a statement from Karzai's office, he urged in his address Wednesday to the summit for the religious scholars of the Moslem countries to condemn suicide attacks.

Karzai was quoted as pointing the holy men to the remarks of Sheikh Abdul Aziz, Mufti-e-Azam of 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...
, whose sermon on the day of Arafat condemned suicide attacks as prohibited in Islam and anyone who attempts or carries out such attacks will not be forgiven by Allah.

According to the released statement, Karzai said, "It is a timely step to focus our attention on some of the gravest and consequential challenges facing us today. From the violence of terrorism to the crisis and conflict in several of our countries, to the ever continuing sufferings of our Paleostinian brothers and sisters, the Moslem world is strewn with difficulties.

"Our religious scholars and Ulema must effectively engage in our common struggle against krazed killers, who undermine the Ummah's progress and stability. To address these challenges, we not only need strong political unison but also sustained effort at raising our standard in human capital and economic development."
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Until every cleric is provided with a security detail, they'd have to be nuts to do so.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/08/2013 0:32 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
AMISOM Dismantles Terrorist Ambush Point
[Shabelle] Somali National Army with the support African Union troops today dismantled an ambush position set up by the Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab terror group in Gedo region of Somalia.

The joint forces conducted a surprise attack at the site in Mudale during which, the Al Shabaab militants suffered many causalities. Four AK 47 rifles, one double cabin vehicle and assorted communication equipment were recovered.

AMISOM Sector 2 Commander, Brigadier Anthony Ngere said that the operation had removed a threat to civilian movement between the towns of Mudale and Busaar.

"AMISOM is committed to protecting the security gains to ensure Somalia continues on the road to a sustainable peace," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  Hat tip to Brigadier Ant Ngere. The capture of "double cabins" never fails to send a tingle.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2013 7:21 Comments || Top||

#2  crew cab ...F-150? Drink up!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/08/2013 9:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Any time Al Shabaab and many casualties appear in the same sentence I am happy.

So how do you divvy up the crew cab? Paint it olive drab and put a Dshuska on top of it?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/08/2013 12:59 Comments || Top||

#4  At no point was a Ford product mentioned, thus, we are still dry.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/08/2013 16:27 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Blasphemer's appeal moving from one judge to another
[Dawn] An appeal of a blasphemer, who had been convicted by the sessions court of Jhelum in 2010, has been moving from one judge of the appellate court to another since 2011.

On Wednesday, an LHC judge, Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh, however, dismissed an application filed for the suspension of the sentence of the blasphemy convict under section 426 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

According to the section, the sentence of a convict may be suspended if his appeal was not decided within two years.

A man was booked by Sohawa police of Jhelum district on November 11, 2009 under section 295-B of Pakistain Panel Code for
allegedly desecrating the holy Koran.

According to the FIR lodged by a local resident Azizur Rehman, the man, who sold holy Koran, threw the pages of the Koran
into a dry well in village Kundpari of Sohawa tehsil.

An additional sessions judge of Jhelum district on June 6, 2010 sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The convict then filed an appeal in the LHC Rawalpindi bench in 2011.

Initially, it was heard by LHC Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, then by Justice Abdul Waheed Khan and Justice Shehzad Ahmed Khan.

On Decmber 13, 2011, Justice Mazhar Iqbal Siddhu heard the arguments of the defence counsel.

On January 12, 2012, the appeal was fixed before Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh. On September 24, 2012 it was placed before Justice Ali Baqir Najafi.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Senate, the partisans of Honorius went for their knives and the partisans of Stilicho went for the doors...
after completion of two years imprisonment, the convict's counsel barrister Imran Hassan Ali filed an application in the LHC under section 426 of CrPC for suspension of the sentence and release of his client till the final decision on the appeal.

The application was again fixed before Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh, who after hearing the arguments dismissed the petition and decided to give his verdict on two-year-old appeal.

In the appeal, the convict's counsel adopted before the court that Rehman and his client, were both sellers of the holy Koran, and in order to get rid of his business rival, Rehman implicated his client in the blasphemy case.

Advocate Ayaz Sial, the counsel for complainant Rehman, on the other hand told the court that the charges against the blasphemer were true. He requested the court to dismiss the appeal of the convict.

Mr Sial told Dawn that the delay in the case was routine matter. He said recently the LHC took up the appeal against the convictions of 2008 and 2009.

He said the court had examined different aspects of the case to give a clear and comprehensive judgment.

According to human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
activist I. A. Rehman, the trial courts decide blasphemy cases in a hurry.

"After registration of blasphemy case, people start demonstration and agitation aimed at pressurising the court," he added.

Subsequently, the trial court presided over by the additional sessions judge or senior civil judge decide the matter in haste.

He said in the appellate court the situation was somewhat different, where judges take time to decide the appeal against the conviction in the blasphemy cases.

Owing to this fact, the appeals in the blasphemy cases are piling up in the superior courts and the convicts had to wait for years for the disposal of cases, he added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1 

Throw the book at him !
Posted by: Your Name Here || 02/08/2013 12:10 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2013-02-08
  Suicide bomber hits north Mali, troops clash in capital
Thu 2013-02-07
  Syrian Army Launches 'All-Out Attack' on Capital Region
Wed 2013-02-06
  Fat Lady Sings for Abd el Kader Mahmoud Mohamed el Sayed
Tue 2013-02-05
  Second big turban nabbed in northern Mali
Mon 2013-02-04
  Ansar Dine #3 arrested in northern Mali
Sun 2013-02-03
  Yemen Troops Kill 12 'Qaida Militants' in Restive South
Sat 2013-02-02
  Syria Suicide Attack on Regime Kills 53
Fri 2013-02-01
  Binori Mosque cleric among 10 killed in Karachi
Thu 2013-01-31
  Boko Haram 'commander' declares ceasefire
Wed 2013-01-30
  Mali and Niger forces retake Ansongo
Tue 2013-01-29
  Sahel jihadist groups splinter
Mon 2013-01-28
  Timbuktu mayor: Mali rebels torched library of historic manuscripts
Sun 2013-01-27
  French and Malian troops begin restoring control in Timbuktu
Sat 2013-01-26
  Green-on-green clash in Khyber tribal region kills 32
Fri 2013-01-25
  AQAP #2 killed for the THIRD time in Yemen

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