Syrian soldiers have been shot by security forces after refusing to fire on protesters, witnesses said, as a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations intensified.
Witnesses told al-Jazeera and the BBC that some soldiers had refused to shoot after the army moved into Banias in the wake of intense protests on Friday.
Human rights monitors named Mourad Hejjo, a conscript from Madaya village, as one of those shot by security snipers. "His family and town are saying he refused to shoot at his people," said Wassim Tarif, a local human rights monitor.
If we had a CIA worth anything at all Mourad Hejjo would be a hero, his name whispered throughout Syria as a patriot and true man of the people.
Footage on YouTube shows an injured soldier saying he was shot in the back by security forces, while another video shows the funeral of Muhammad Awad Qunbar, who sources said was killed for refusing to fire on protesters. Signs of defections will be worrying to Syria's regime. State media reported a different version of events, claiming nine soldiers had been killed in an ambush by an armed group in Banias.
Activists said not all soldiers reported dead or injured were shot after refusing to fire. "We are investigating reports that some people have personal weapons and used them in self-defence," said Tarif.
Good for them. 'Bout time the Syrian people stood up for themselves.
The reports came as a leading Syrian opposition figure said pro-government gunmen had attacked two villages close to Banias, 25 miles south of Latakia, which has become the latest focus of violence since protests on Friday. Haitham al-Maleh told AP attackers were using automatic rifles in Bayda and Beit Jnad.
Human rights organisations said at least five protesters in Banias had been killed since Sunday including one on Tuesday. In Bayda witnesses reported that security thugs had beaten up men in the central square, and rights groups said hundreds of people had been arrested, including students who took part in an unprecedented rally at Damascus University on Monday.
Violence in the port cities of Banias and Latakia has become increasingly messy as locals report the involvement of pro-government thugs and private militias. One witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said "shabiha" (pro-government thugs) had attacked in cars decorated with photos of the president, Bashar al-Assad, on Sunday. Residents of Banias said there was a shortage of bread, and electricity and communications were intermittent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2011
22:09 ||
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While cities across the country are cutting services, raising taxes and contemplating bankruptcy, something extraordinary is happening in a suburban community just north of Atlanta, Georgia.
Since incorporating in 2005, Sandy Springs has improved its services, invested tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure and kept taxes flat. And get this: Sandy Springs has no long-term liabilities.
This is the story of Sandy Springs, Georgiathe city that outsourced everything.
UNITED NATIONS Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country.
The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to "dominate and exploit" to the point that the "well-being and existence of many beings" is now threatened.
The wording may yet evolve, but the general structure is meant to mirror Bolivia's Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, which Bolivian President Evo Morales enacted in January.
Clearly high on his own supply...
That document speaks of the country's natural resources as "blessings," and grants the Earth a series of specific rights that include rights to life, water and clean air; the right to repair livelihoods affected by human activities; and the right to be free from pollution.
It also establishes a Ministry of Mother Earth, and provides the planet with an ombudsman whose job is to hear nature's complaints as voiced by activist and other groups, including the state.
Of course, since Mama Earth can't speak for herself (other than the occasional earthquake) we need activists to speak for her. And the activists always seem to know what Mama Earth wants to say...
"If you want to have balance, and you think that the only (entities) who have rights are humans or companies, then how can you reach balance?" Pablo Salon, Bolivia's ambassador to the UN, told Postmedia News. "But if you recognize that nature too has rights, and (if you provide) legal forms to protect and preserve those rights, then you can achieve balance."
The application of the law appears destined to pose new challenges for companies operating in the country, which is rich in natural resources, including natural gas and lithium, but remains one of the poorest in Latin America.
Just have all the multi-nationals pull out, and make sure no coca leaves the country. Then Evo can live in harmony with Mama...
But while Salon said his country just seeks to achieve "harmony" with nature, he signalled that mining and other companies may come under greater scrutiny.
"We're not saying, for example, you cannot eat meat because you know you are going to go against the rights of a cow," he said. "But when human activity develops at a certain scale that you (cause to) disappear a species, then you are really altering the vital cycles of nature or of Mother Earth. Of course, you need a mine to extract iron or zinc, but there are limits."
"We want ours."
Reflecting indigenous traditional beliefs, the proposed global treaty says humans have caused "severe destruction . . . that is offensive to the many faiths, wisdom traditions and indigenous cultures for whom Mother Earth is sacred."
We can't impose Christianity on the world since that would be 'wrong', but "indigenous traditional beliefs" are okay, because they're always right -- at least after 'activists' are finished interpreting them.
It also says that "Mother Earth has the right to exist, to persist and to continue the vital cycles, structures, functions and processes that sustain all human beings."
Whatever that means -- where's an activist when you need one?
The UN debate begins two days before the UN's recognition April 22 of the second International Mother Earth Day another Morales-led initiative.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2011
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#1
Let me know when Bolivia collapses since they won't be able to grow, harvest or slaughter any plants or animals since they have the same rights and that would be considered "murder" and "cannibalism".
#3
"Rights" are based upon "responsibility", which requires rational thought. That's pretty well limited to human beings at this point. In fact, it's questionable with a majority of human beings.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/12/2011 17:53
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#4
What's next, rights for Father Time, and the Grim Reaper?
Posted by: The Other Beldar ||
04/12/2011 18:00
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#5
"since Mama Earth can't speak for herself we need activists to speak for her"
And those activists need to be well-compensated for their vital work! Along with their large staffs of friends and relatives.
#7
It also needs to be addressed what abortion rights Mother Earth has. Especially she needs to have at least the same rights as men have. Because Men Have Abortions Too
FORMER Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak suffered a heart attack during questioning by prosecutors investigating graft and abuse allegations which prompted his admission to the hospital overnight, state television said.
Dang. I thought for sure he'd succumb to acute cirrhosis.
The ex-leader was taken to a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh two days after reports that he was about to be summoned for questioning.
"Mubarak was admitted to the Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital this afternoon, amid a very heavy security presence in the town," a security source said.
A hospital source refused to comment on the news and said that "the minister of health will make an announcement" shortly.
Mr Mubarak was admitted by his bodyguards to the VIP wing of the hospital, state television reported, adding that the hospital was not accepting any patients except for emergency cases.
Omar Hammami, the reputed terrorist born in Alabama who the government in Somalia had reported dead last month, may be alive after all.
Hammami purportedly released an audio recording this month proclaiming jihad. The Long War Journal posted a recording of the rap song on its website. The recording is described as Hammami's way of mocking reports of his death.
Federal prosecutors in Mobile first obtained a secret indictment against Hammami in 2007, for providing material support to terrorists. Prosecutors got an updated indictment in 2009, adding a conspiracy charge and a count of providing material support to a designated.
On March 8, Somalia's defense minister said that "intelligence reports" indicated that Hammami had been killed in fighting between al-Shabaab and government forces. At that time, the FBI sais that it could not confirm the report.
#1
Often there's an artistic 'fourth wall' problem with depicting not just religion, but a list of things in movies, depending on the movie. That is, even a mention can "break the fantasy", and remind everyone that "it's just a movie".
To start with, Hollywood *has* tried to depict religious themes in past, and sometimes did very well and others struck out badly, *despite* their intentions, so it is seen as "hard to direct" and even harder to predict how audiences will take it.
Then they have to ask what audience they are shooting for. In this case, is it the intersection of people who surf and people who are religious; people who are looking for inspiration, or what?
Very hard to guess. And add icing of people who dislike religion, especially Christianity, and it's a tricky proposition.
#3
I saw the movie this weekend. My take is that since it was based on a true story and faith helped the girl recover quickly, then it is an appropriate part of the story.
The part where they depicted the Shark as a Muslum was a little over the top ;)
Scott Ritter was nailed again by a detective posing as an underage girl in an online chat room.
He exchanged sexually graphic messages with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl, according to testimony Tuesday in the second online sex-sting case involving the former Marine captain who has a penchant for young girls, and a lack of either observational skills or pattern recognition.
Though charges ten years ago of his attempting to meet a 16 year old girl were eventually dropped, this time there is "not a shred of evidence" that he thought the detective was underage, or that he kept a child pornography collection, or otherwise actively seeks young girls because he is a pervert.
Posted by: Fi ||
04/12/2011 14:02
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#2
Can we start hanging people now, beginning with Bernanke? I knew everything that happened from about mid-2008 through yesterday was fishy, but I didn't believe it was THIS fishy. Silly me.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/12/2011 17:49
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The link works for me. But it's the Rolling Stone, which may not be the most unbiased of sources.
The attorney for a former U.N. chief weapons inspector from Delmar facing charges over a sexually explicit online chat says his client never believed he was exchanging messages with an underage girl.
Testimony got under way Tuesday morning in Stroudsburg, Pa., in the trial of 49-year-old Scott Ritter. He is charged with engaging in a sexually graphic online chat with an undercover police officer posing as a 15-year-old from the Poconos.
Prosecutors say Ritter turned on a webcam and fondled himself despite the officer saying he was underage.
Defense attorney Gary Coleman says Ritter believed he was chatting with an adult.
Ritter became a fierce critic of the Iraq war. He claimed similar charges filed against him previously in New York were politically motivated. Those charges were eventually dropped.
Have to say I agree with Germany. The Pottery Barn rules ought to apply: "You break it, you own it"
As long as France and England want to run around displaying their testosterone fuelled stupidity, they ought to be responsible for the mess they create(potentially hundreds of thousands of refugees)and not expect Italy and Germany to absorb the mess.
"Refugees ought not to come to Germany," announces Die Welt. The position that Berlin is expected to adopt when European interior ministers meet to discuss immigration on 11 April is unlikely to be welcomed by Italy which has called for solidarity in the drive to cope with thousands of immigrants who have recently arrived from North Africa. Italys dirty tricks amount to unacceptable blackmail," remarks the conservative daily, which nonetheless acknowledges that "it is inadmissible that Italy and Malta pay the price for changes that are in all of Europes interest." For Die Welt, Europe should come together to invest in Arab countries to bring about positive change and reinforce cooperation on the issue of migration flows: What is a major problem for Italy and Malta could be considerably reduced if it was shared by the EUs 27 member states."
The historic $38 billion in budget cuts resulting from at-times hostile bargaining between Congress and the Obama White House were accomplished in large part by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.
Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs - Pell grants for poor college students, health research and "Race to the Top" aid for public schools, among others - from Republican knives, according to new details of the legislation released Tuesday morning.
And big holes in foreign aid and Environmental Protection Agency accounts were patched in large part. Republicans also gave up politically treacherous cuts to the Agriculture Department's food inspection program. And don't forget to thank the Trunks for allowing this to happen! Remind me again why we pay them so much only for them to pretend to be surprised by this $hi+?
And thanks again to the Donks for tacking against the will of the American People.
Vote Libertarian. Vote Tea Party. Anybody but the big government establishment. And no, I won't forget, if for no other reason than the economy makes it impossible to.
We calibrate Californias decline by its myriad of paradoxes. The nations highest bundle of gas, sales, and income taxes cannot close the nations largest annual deficit at $25 billion. Test scores are at the countrys near bottom; teachers salaries at the very top. Scores of the affluent are leaving each week; scores of the indigent are arriving. The nations most richly endowed state is also the most regulated; the most liberal of our residents are also the most ready to practice apartheid in their Bel Air or Palo Alto enclaves.
We now see highway patrolmen and city police, in the manner of South American law enforcement, out in force. Everywhere they are monitoring, watching, ticketing no warnings, no margins of error desperate to earn traffic fines that might feed the state that feeds them. I could go on. But you get the picture that we are living on the fumes of a rich state that our forefathers brilliantly exploited, and now there is not much energy left in the fading exhaust to keep us going.
#2
...especially with a total lack of linkage between pay and performance coupled with artificial anchors that debase merit within the schools and families and elevate 'special interests' over all.
#3
Test scores are at the country's near bottom; teachers' salaries at the very top.
I'm not so keen on the teachers' union myself but there is more to those low test scores than you might think. When half or even more of your elementary school students don't speak English it's pretty hard to teach them. Fact is, a lot of them come to this country illiterate in Spanish and completely ignorant of English. We are prohibited by law from even asking if those kids are here legally. We have to spend OUR tax dollars educating illegal aliens because the FEDERAL government won't secure the border. Most likely it's gotten to the point of no return because the majority of our legislators are elected from neighborhoods like the one you see in the graphic. I've tried to tell you people before, although California takes the brunt of it, this is a FEDERAL problem. As I've tried to tell you before, California used to be a red state. Remember Dick Nixon, Pete Wilson, Sam Hayakawa, Ronald Reagan? California changed because the FEDERAL government refused to enforce the law, because jackasses like Bill Clinton and George Bush were derelict in their duty. Make fun of us all you want but it's just as much your fault as it is mine. Am I pissed off about it? You're damn right I am.
#4
It's like there's some link between subsidy and falling quality..
I think a big piece is the link between the large number of non-English speaking immigrant students in California (illegal or legal, it doesn't matter) and the ability of the teacher to teach at the speed the English-speaking students can absorb. Separating students by English-language ability would allow the fluent speakers to speed ahead, but many non-English speakers would take years to make the transition. And the average numbers would still be awful.
#7
I don't have a whole hell of a lot of sympathy.
I know all about the CTA. I think they're fairly typical of unions all across this country. You didn't say what state you live in but you might want to check out the teachers' union there.
As for the teachers' pay in this state, you probably don't want to get me started on the cost of housing here. But, too late, you already did. California experienced a building boom that has gone on for the past few decades. It was artificially stimulated by Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, another FEDERAL problem. But the boom went completely out of control here. It seemed that, despite your scorn and derision, everybody in the whole country wanted to move here. And why not? We have the palm trees, the beaches, the mountains and the weather that can't be beat. And for a time before the loonies took over we had an extremely competitive business environment and LOTS of jobs.
I could have sworn there were days back in the 70's when I saw more out of state license plates than California plates on the cars. New York, New Jersey, Texas and Michigan were by far the most numerous. That's right, Texas was right up there. There were times when I thought I might start throwing punches the next time I heard a New York accent. They just grate on the ears. I've said this before too, scratch a Californian and you're likely to find a New Yorker.
Well, all that demand sent the cost of housing into the stratosphere. We have houses here that go from half a million to a million bucks that would probably only get 200 grand in Kansas City. Back to the subject, teachers are human too and they like to live in nice houses just like everybody else. It's just that a nice house out here is gonna cost a fortune.
So yes, we're too crowded, too expensive and the state is run by crooked morons. If you don't like it, don't come here. I won't miss you.
#8
We Kalifornians are having an epiphany on taxes. It seems there is little or no support for the tax extensions that Jerry Brown proposed. The people are beginning to question why do the cuts only target education, safety, and health services. Also the state has businesses fleeing the state in record numbers. Mark this down: Liberals are facing a revolt in Kalifornia.
#10
"We now see highway patrolmen and city police, in the manner of South American law enforcement, out in force. Everywhere they are monitoring, watching, ticketing no warnings, no margins of error desperate to earn traffic fines that might feed the state that feeds them" What a Jacka## - LAPD just lost a 2 million dollar lawsuit filed by the officers for attempting to force a ticket quota on them. Quotas are illegal. The CHP and most other Agencies have gone to 12 hours shifts - thus you see more cops on the beat.
Posted by: retired LEO ||
04/12/2011 13:42
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#11
Mark this down: Liberals are facing a revolt in Kalifornia.
Call me when they start tarring and feathering them, I will come and help.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man (at large) ||
04/12/2011 13:44
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#12
"Liberals are facing a revolt in Kalifornia."
Geez - aren't they revolting enough already, Sarge?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/12/2011 13:45
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#13
When half or even more of your elementary school students don't speak English it's pretty hard to teach them.
Nearly every wave of immigration till the 80s, English was not just the key to integration and success, but literally pushed by the parents on their children. While they'd speak it at home and in ghetto'd neighborhoods, they all saw it as opportunity for the next generation and promoted it. Then the 'diversity' and 'multicultural' thinkers got hold not just of the education institutions, they also sold a bill of goods to the new immigrants that they don't have to melt into the pot and could cling to the old ways and be entitled to it all. The families now see no need to become part of that which generations of immigrants before them had done. That is now coming home to roost to a state that promoted the attitude so much. It's costly and a dead end for future prosperity.
#15
Liberals are not facing a revolt in Caliphornia. They are Caliphornia. They elected Brown, Harris and Lockyer, not to mention Boxer Feinstein and the rest of the Bay Area Babes in Congress and defeated every rational measure Ahnold proposed and turned him into a girly man. Liberals have taken over the state and it is now living with the consequences.
#16
Beavis, I'm not trying to be personal either. The point I'm trying to make is there are a lot things that have been foisted upon this state by people from outside the state. Also, if some of those people who came to California have now become disillusioned, they are free to leave because IMHO the state really is too crowded. Having grown up here I considered myself fortunate and when I finally scraped up enough money I bought into the state thinking it was different from New Jersey. Now I'm not so sure that I wouldn't be better off in New Jersey. It has changed that much.
#17
Mr. Lotp was born and raised in CA, and we lived there during most of the period 1978-1989, both in the north and in the south. We still own a home there.
Around 1987 my small firm had to fire a new employee whose resume was badly inflated. The state legal environment was strongly pro-employee / anti-employer, EB6305 - much more so than in other states. That led to a real hassle for us, in which we were essentially required to prove we had a right to fire someone who'd been with us 2 months. That environment drove away a lot of business = tax base.
#18
BS, Kommiefornu is exactly what it's residents wanted it to be and no amount of whining can change that. It's residents keep voting for liberal morons and now we see the outcome. When was the last time the state built a power plant, or went after any type of useful industry? Foreign car companies are building new car plants, how many on the left coast?
Posted by: Jefferson ||
04/12/2011 15:50
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#19
The only car plant I am aware of in California is the Tesla Motors plant in Fremont.
1. You always get more of what you subsidize.
2. You always get less of what you tax.
Was in paying my property tax bill yesterday (last chance before it's late) and it was interesting listening to the other tax-livestock (I mean home-owners) paying their huge property tax bills for houses that are worth much less than shown on their property tax bills. Lots of anger in that room waiting to pay bills.
I'm hoping the coming hyper-inflation will bring my inflation-adjusted tax bill down... as long as the tax-eaters leave Proposition 13 alone. Tax increase is limited to about 1.5% per year unless the house is sold or work done on it. The increase isn't inflation adjusted - so that might help.
How sad is it that I'm hoping our Federal government crazy monetary policy will inflate down my property tax? I pray for our kids.
The crisis in the Ivory Coast has important lessons for Europe, Israel and the United States. And none of these lessons is being conveyed by the Western media.
The most important aspects of the crisis in the Ivory Coast are being overlooked or deliberately disguised by the Western media. One can read media report after media report without discovering the basic fact that the Northern Ivory Coast rebels are Muslims. Indeed they are Muslims who by and large entered the Ivory Coast as infiltrators, through borders that are poorly patrolled, from neighboring countries. A better advertisement for stronger border control cannot be found. At least four million illegal immigrants, mostly Muslim, entered the Ivory Coast during the past two decades, tilting the demographic balance there.
And these Muslim infiltrators and interlopers, increasingly backed by African, French and Western powers, are challenging the control by Ivory Coast natives over their own country. The sufferings and violence in the Ivory Coast may well illustrate what awaits Europe if it continues its own demographic suicide and if it continues to flood itself with Muslim immigrants. The conflict also illustrates the extent to which the Western powers are willing to subvert their commitment to Wilsonian principles. Since Woodrow Wilson and the end of World War I, the West was nominally committed to erecting and defending nation states. We now see that the Western powers (and African regimes) are willing to abandon this set of principles whenever faced with a cheap way to curry favor with Muslims. Finally, it shows what awaits Israel if its seditious Left ever has its way and implements a Palestinian Right of Return that converts Israel into a bi-national state.
h/t Gates of Vienna
Considerable foreign debt together with the fragility of the financial sector and the risk of a new fall in income are increasing the risk of a serious shrinking of funds, which in turn would make Spain the next Euro-zone country to be forced to ask for assistance from the International Monetary Fund.
Last July the Arizona District Court judge enjoined enforcement of the law, and today a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.
Judge Richard Paez, writing for a 2-1 split panel, said, "By imposing mandatory obligations on state and local officers, Arizona interferes with the federal government's authority to implement its priorities and strategies in law enforcement, turning Arizona officers into state-directed (immigration) agents."
"Congress has created a comprehensive and carefully calibrated scheme and has authorized the Executive to promulgate extensive regulations for adjudicating and enforcing civil removability," Paez wrote.
In court papers lawyers for the Department of Justice had argued, "The immigration framework set forth by Congress and administered by federal agencies reflects a careful and considered balance of national law enforcement, foreign relations, and humanitarian concerns -- concerns that belong to the nation as a whole, not a single state."
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer released a statement Monday vowing to appeal the ruling. "For decades the federal government has neglected its constitutional duty to American citizens by failing to secure the border," she said.
When a Royal Navy warship captured a crew of Somali pirates, it seemed like a rare chance to strike back at the ruthless sea gangsters.
The 17 outlaws were armed with an arsenal of AK 47s and rocket-propelled grenades, and had forced hostages on a hijacked fishing vessel to work as slaves for three months.
But instead of bringing them to justice, the British servicemen were ordered to provide the pirates halal meals, medical checks, cigarettes -- and in one case even a nicotine patch -- before releasing them in their own boats.
#3
I think what is needed is for the pirates, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, to capture about a dozen British swabs, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, to turn into a propaganda campaign.
The British have gotten into the unlovely habit of reveling in self-doubt and recrimination for so long that they need a shock to wake them up.
#6
As a Brit, this is definitely getting embarrassing: "He also said he was unconvinced that they had enough evidence to convict the pirates even though they were heavily armed, were carrying hostages and had confessed." Good Lord!
A SPATE of anti-Turkish protests has swept rebel-controlled parts of Libya. In Benghazi hundreds of worshippers chanted anti-Turkish slogans after Friday prayers. Take your beloved Qaddafi and allow us to be armed, read one placard. On April 6th over 100 people gathered outside the Turkish consulate in Benghazi to demand the removal of the Turkish flag. Revolutionaries want to arm, they sang.
Their frustration might be shared by Turkeys more hawkish NATO allies. Turkeys mildly Islamist AK government is rigidly against plans to arm Libyan rebels who might bring about the removal of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi by force. Turkeys foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has been trying to broker a truce even while telling the colonel to step down and allow the establishment of a transition government. So far, no deal. But the dogged Mr Davutoglu refuses to give up.
Since the uprising in Libya began, Turkey (caught off guard like others) has been squeamish about foreign intervention. The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even called the idea absurd. He was offended not to be invited to the first Paris conference to discuss Libya (Mr Davutoglu went to the second, in London). Turkish stonewalling has revived old questions about whether Turkey is turning its back on the West. It was only after France and Britain began pounding Libyan air defences that Turkey belatedly backed NATOs plans to create a no-fly zone.
The Turks have since dispatched four frigates, one submarine and an extra warship to Libya. This week a Turkish ferry-turned-hospital took hundreds of Libyans wounded in the fighting off for treatment in Turkey. Most were from the rebel camp. The government has put a brave face on its U-turn, insisting that it moved only because NATO had taken the lead. More likely it feared being left out. This would have put a dent in Turkish claims to be the regional superpower. Yet Turkey remains fiercely opposed to expanding NATOs role in Libya, saying it should be limited to protecting civilians.
#1
Turkey under Erdogan has become a total loss. Bye, Bye. Flush 'em from NATO - it's a waste of time, energy, money, and information.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/12/2011 19:16
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#2
While Turkey may not be a loyal member of Nato, as only potential competitor to Iran for domination of the Caliphate to come it should not be considered a total loss. Better to have the Ottomans battling the Persians if they become too big for their britches.
A man, wearing a suicide bomber vest, died in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan after his bomb apparently exploded prematurely, said police on Sunday, adding no one was hurt in the explosion. The incident occurred late Saturday in Kizlyar town. The body of the man, identified as a 30-year old resident of Dagestan, was found at the explosion site.
A submachine gun, two grenades and the fragments of a suicide bomber vest were found near him, the police said.
The man was found near a railway station and a filling station, the police said.
Russia has been fighting terrorists in its volatile southern republics for over a decade.
Terrorist attacks are common in the mainly-Muslim region and regularly stray to the Russian capital.
#3
Another good example of why you don't want a jihadi moving in next door. One misunderstanding with the Erector Set and bang, there goes the neighborhood...literally.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/12/2011 10:25
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#4
Why am I reminded of the Achmed the Dead Terrorist skit? Oh wait.
I thought this is NATO's master plan. Nothing else makes sense.
Libya's former foreign minister Moussa Koussa, who is in Britain after defecting from Moammar Gaddafi's regime, said on Monday the restive nation could become a "new Somalia" if civil war broke out.
#4
What I'm looking for tonight is the results here in Georgia. Can Edwards have a comeback here? Can he win the Minnesota caucuses? Can he keep it close in New York and Ohio? And barring a miracle, I mean a real miracle, John Kerry will be within a stone's throw of winning the nomination.
#5
I believe that the layabouts who suck on the welfare teat and give nothing back are taking my money and taxes. Whether that person is black, white, hispanic or purple means nothing to me. They are lazy and a parasite on society.
They will have to invent a new word besides "racist" for people that don't want to "spread their wealth around". Let's see, capitalist pig is a bit worn out. They need something new.
#6
There is one element of welfare that is totally different from the others, which is food aid. An overabundance of food has been a problem in the US for a century, and it would be both cheaper to the taxpayer to give the surplus away than to store it, *and* it would actually stabilize, not raise, retail food prices.
But the brains in D.C. have even overcome that abundance by wasting vast amounts of food to produce alcohol to add to gasoline. If they will just cut *that* idiocy out, then food will be back to such abundance in the US that literally no one should do without, and we can keep our expensive warehousing to a minimum.
#9
American agribusiness is the Twilight Zone. It has been essentially socialized since Ol' Frank, and ironically, most of the subsidies are to farmers to *not* produce food. So with the end up subsidies--more food.
Even at the height of the Dust Bowl, wiping out tens of thousands of farms from Texas north to Canada, the rest of the farmers produced so much food that corn was being burned for fuel and wheat was fifty cents a bushel. Low prices made much worse by severe deflation. Food was too cheap to be worth transporting to where people were starving.
So the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation (FSRC) was created, to *destroy* food. One of its first acts was to confiscate, kill and bury six million pigs from the totally decentralized swine farmers.
And it took just a small part of all the crops it destroyed, and transported them for distribution to charities, to hand out to starving people.
To this day, the Russians still believe that this event in the US was the same as Stalin's collectivization of the Ukraine, which there starved millions of people to death. And they assume that millions of Americans also starved to death, but that it was hidden by the government.
Since then the US has poured vast amounts of money into keeping farmers from overproducing, and even more, to keep prices from fluctuating too much. This ends up in weird production circles, for example.
The price of dairy was dropping too much, so major dairy farms were paid to slaughter a bunch of their cattle. The slaughtered cattle dropped prices in the meat market, so ranchers were paid to slaughter some of their herds, which further depressed meat prices.
This also drove down the price of feed grain, so the government had to pay them as well to destroy grain to sustain grain prices. Then because the price of dairy went up, the government had to pay cheese makers to keep their prices down.
And it never ends.
The power involved in all of this is immense as well. Reagan probably broke the Soviet Union's back by selling them as much grain as they wanted, which cost so much that we got all their oil, and gold, and foreign currency, and drained their economy dry.
#10
They will have to invent a new word besides "racist" for people that don't want to "spread their wealth around".
Survivorist?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/12/2011 12:21
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So Donna sez...
"That's the reason we've had such a very deep trouble...deep and abiding trouble of getting the white vote...the middle class in this country is squeezed. Blue-collar workers...are feeling squeezed...so when they feel the squeeze they don't blame it on somebody...ultimatly that blame goes to those people."
Sound fammiliar? Yeah, try this one on for size.
You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Hey...all you Blue-collar white folks...how come you get so irrational when the economy sucks?
#12
My grandparents were forced (by the local party controlled apparatus) to plow under 40 acres of crops. The next year they had to slaughter sheep which were then doused in kerosene so they couldn't eat the meat themselves. They were paid a fraction of the market rate. Oh yeah, and they were Republicans. Funny how the Democratic farmers just down the road were allowed to sell their crops on the open market. That was a story that has been told for generations now. Wonder why it didn't make it into the history books?
#13
Perhaps the damn white people don't turn out to vote Democrat because they are tired of the constant slurs of racism coming at them from that direction.
#1
Interesting kind of reassurance -- if you don't support terrorism, we'll leave you alone, but if you do we'll be watching, listening, and arresting.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/12/2011 13:45
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There is a distinct difference in tone between the first speaker quoted (U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade) -- too much ignorance and fear of Islam and the "blaming all Catholics for the acts of Timothy McVeigh" analogy which may give the wrong sort of comfort to the wrong people -- and that of Special Agent Arena.
But if a religious leader is supporting terrorism, the FBI has a responsibility to investigate, Arena said.
If this message is coming through loud and clear, that reassures me too. And should help reassure any patriotic Muslim who wants to help create a modern, tolerant, pluralistic Muslim tradition suitable for a secular democracy.
#1
I think it's long past time we started shooting everyone promoting "political correctness", simply as a matter of survival as a nation, and as a people.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/12/2011 15:56
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Chances are that if it is "correct" according to your politics, it is most likely "incorrect" according to mine.
[Yemen Post] Yemen's opposition coalition the Joint Meeting Parties, JMP, officially rejected the GCC initiative because it gives immunity to Saleh and his followers and does not call for the immediate withdrawal from power for President-for-Life Saleh. ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
Mohammed Basendowah, President of the opposition dialogue committee said, "The GCC initiative was rejected because it was different from the one we received from the gulf ambassadors in Yemen."
The JMP said that the change in stance of GCC was to please the Saleh regime. "It's sad that the GCC were not credible and was forced by Saleh to change it's initiative against the will of the Yemeni people," said Basendowah.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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[Al Jazeera] President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh, ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... Yemen's embattled president, has welcomed "efforts" by members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) to end his country's political crisis, according to a statement from his office.
A GCC statement on Sunday, talked of "the formation of a national unity government under the leadership of the opposition which has the right to form committees ... to draw up a constitution and hold elections".
It said Saleh should hand his authorities over to his vice president and that all parties should "stop all forms of Dire Revenge™ .. and [legal] pursuance, through guarantees offered" - wording that appeared to offer Saleh assurances of no prosecution for him or his family once he leaves office.
The statement from Saleh's office on Monday said: "In compliance with statements made several times ... the president has no reservation against transferring power peacefully and smoothly within the framework of the constitution."
The response did not make clear whether Saleh accepted the proposal for him to step down and ensure a peaceful transition of power to his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
Al Jizz's correspondent in Sanaa said: "This has always been his position - the key words are 'within the constitution' which could either mean through elections at the end of the year, or if he chooses to resign it must be accepted by parliament.
"In which case, as we saw with the emergency law a few weeks ago, he can easily swing to make sure they don't accept his resignation."
'Blatant interference'
Speaking to Al Jizz, Mahjoob Zweiri, professor of Middle Eastern history at Qatar University, said: "It is very difficult to say that what he [Saleh] is saying now is a positive response to the [GCC] initiative."
Opposition leaders will meet later on Monday to discuss the terms of the GCC plan.
Speaking to Al Jizz, Najib Ghaniem, a senior member of the opposition Islah party, said: "We are only interested in the end to the agony of our people.
"If this initiative means that Saleh steps down, then all issues can be put on the table to discuss later on."
Saleh has been in power since 1978 and has faced fierce protests demanding his departure since late January.
"The opposition has accepted the initiative in principle and they are discussing it. But the youth in Taghyeer square have not accepted it yet," Zweiri added.
On Friday, the president rejected a proposal for his exit, made by Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister, as a "blatant interference in Yemeni affairs".
His statement came after the Qatari prime minister said that the GCC member countries "hope to reach a deal with the Yemeni president to step down".
More protests Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38... tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Sanaa, Taiz, Hudaida, Ibb and the southeastern province of Hadramut to protest against the GCC plan on Monday, witnesses said.
Diplomatic sources say Saleh has dragged his heels for weeks over US attempts to get him to agree to step down and end the protests crippling the country.
With more than 100 protesters killed as security forces tried to break up the demonstrations with tear gas and live fire, activists say they want to see legal action against Saleh and his sons, who occupy key security and political posts.
Saleh has been manoeuvring to win guarantees that he and his sons do not face prosecution.
"I see that now Ali Abdullah Saleh is worried, he is under increased pressure from Washington, from EU, from GCC," Zweiri said.
"There has been a decision made by Washington that he should go, and he was relying on getting support from Washington."
Long regarded by the West as a vital ally against al-Qaeda, Saleh has warned of civil war and the break-up of Yemen if he is forced to leave power before organising parliamentary and presidential polls over the next year.
Saleh had sought Saudi mediation for some weeks, but Gulf diplomatic sources have said Riyadh was finally prompted by concern over the deteriorating security situation in its southern neighbour.
Soddy Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, is the key financier of the Yemeni government as well as many Yemeni tribes on its border.
Many leaders in the region became convinced that Saleh is an obstacle to stability in a country that overlooks a shipping lane where over three million barrels of oil pass daily.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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[Ennahar] At least 35 members of the forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy ... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ... were killed near Ajdabiya in the east, Saturday and Sunday, according to the rebels who have reclaimed the city after heavy fighting. ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting...
More than a dozen burned pickups, equipped with heavy machine guns by the pro-Qadaffy, lying on the front line between the east of the city, which was held by the rebels, and west, where were positioned pro-Qadaffy, according to an AFP journalist.
Many bodies buried in the western suburbs of the city were burned and rendered unrecognizable.
NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... has conducted raids this weekend in support of the rebels to repel attacks by loyal forces in Ajdabiya, 160 km south of Benghazi, the stronghold of the rebels.
"We found a total of 35 bodies, there may be two or three more, reduced to ashes in the burned vehicles," said Jadallah Mouftah, 63, who attends the funeral of the last bodies.
"They launched a surprise attack against us but the (NATO) aircraft have emerged," said a rebel, Saleh Hassan Farez.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
I've seen a lot of back and fourth, but not so much of the body counts.
I wonder of this war involves more running than fighting?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/12/2011 6:07
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#2
They're Arabs. Look for a lot of firing in the general direction of, gun sex, and mustache cursing.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011 9:50
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Primitive warfare with modern toys. It's not so much about pitting industrial or technological edge or utilizing structured forces with specific doctrine as much as basically tribes/clans vying over territory or range or hierarchical dominance.
#4
..Letting my mind run away for a moment, but I wonder how many of our problems in that Part Of The World would be solved if we just went full SPQR on them - bomb and vaporize their military toys into nothingness, wipe out the 'Death to Everybody' types, and let whoever we leave in charge know that as long as the oil flows at about, say, $50/bbl, they can do whatever they want as long as it does not involve annoying us. Something reasonably approximating a mildly authoritarian republic would be nice, but that's just us.
And then we leave, until they annoy us, then we rinse/repeat until they get the message. It would n't take more than a couple times before people might get the idea.
Sorry if that sounds unpleasant. I am just having a harder and harder time every day feeling sorry for anyone in Africa or the ME/PGR any more.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/12/2011 10:31
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#5
I agree entirely, the phrase is "Take names and kick Butt" we're past the "Take names "Part and well into the "Kick Butt' part.
So KICK ASS.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/12/2011 10:52
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#6
Mike, I'd be more inclined to practice conservation AND develop our own energy resources so we could leave these people to their own devices. You might call it disengagement. Then they could eat sand, murder each other and suffer from their own stupidity until such time as they are all dead or, probably far less likely, a little more evolved.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/12/2011 12:59
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#8
BTW, has anyone else actually read the caption on the picture shown above?
ROFLMAO, Fred! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/12/2011 13:00
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#9
The term you want to use is "going Mongol", as in Genghis Kahn. We need to pulverize Tripoli with multiple ARCLIGHT strikes, two or three hours apart, for about four or five days. The (very few) survivors can tell the rest what it was like. THEN we can dictate terms to the "winner" (I.E., whomever we allow to survive). The Arab world has never suffered a truly CRUSHING defeat since the time of Genghis Kahn. They need one, just to be reminded that the winner, not the whiner, dictates the terms. A LOT of our problems in this world would disappear if we were truly the nation of Teddy Roosevelt -- "Speak softly, but carry a BIG stick." We also need to USE that stick once in a while.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/12/2011 14:28
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#10
Where was Carthage? In or near present-day Libya somewhere. They p*ssed off the Romans one too many times and look where it got them. Might be a lesson in there someplace - for Daffy and the West.
#12
Carthage, or what is left of it, is in Tunisia. The Carthaginian Empire stretched around the western Mediterranean. Carthage was established by the Phoenicians from present day Lebanon.
[Arab News] Oil prices hovered at a 30-month high near $113 a barrel Monday in Asia as traders eyed fresh Middle East tension and a wobbly US dollar.
Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 6 cents at $112.85 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract jumped $2.49 to $112.79, the highest since September 2008.
In London, Brent crude for May delivery was down 91 cents to $125.74 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Oil prices have soared 33 percent since mid-February as traders worry political violence in the Middle East and North Africa could disrupt crude supplies.
Violence escalated last week between Paleostinians in Gazoo and Israel. Since Thursday, Paleostinians have fired more than 120 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel, prompting Israeli reprisals that have killed 19 Paleostinians, the most intense fighting between Israel and Gazoohard boyz since January 2009.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hoedown Bob finally got to dance with Sally... Egyptian soldiers Saturday attacked protesters calling for an investigation of former President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... for embezzlement, killing at least one person and injuring 71 others. Several hundred protesters remained barricaded at Cairo's Tahrir Square.
"Fresh headlines over the weekend could portend another difficult week for oil bears," energy consultant The Schork Group said. "Gazoo-Israel violence along with new protests in Tahrir Square against the military could incite another buying frenzy in the market." Investors are also watching closely the currency markets as the US dollar fell to a 15-month low against the euro last week. A weaker US currency makes dollar-based commodities such as oil cheaper for investors with other currencies.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
A weaker US currency makes dollar-based commodities such as oil cheaper for investors with other currencies.
So Bernake printing all those dollars actually does have a benefit! It makes oil cheaper for everyone else!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/12/2011 6:50
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#2
And it'll keep on like this until at least three years after we elect a president at least as sane as Sarah Palin.
#3
Unfortunately, I received a rude shock researching a project.
I went to the Economist Intelligence Unit Country Reports and they rate the government financial status of the US as a 4 out of 100, this is with Iraq at a 41. I think Zimbabwe is a 3. That gives you an idea of what the Economist thinks of our current government's economic policies...
I hope to go overseas and get a job that pays in something substantial like Italian Lira or Pesetas or Drachmas.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/12/2011 15:39
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[Ma'an] A Paleostinian turban was maimed Monday morning when an improvised explosive detonated in the Al-Bureij camp in the central Gazoo Strip. "Dammit! I told you the red wire was positive!... Or is it the green wire? I forget..."
The explosive was said by medics to have detonated as it was being prepared. Oh, don'tcha just hate it when that happens?
Medics in Gazoo said a 21-year-old man arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah with his hand blown off by a blast. He was then transferred to the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gazoo City for surgery. "My hands! I've lost my hands!"
"Don't worry, Mahmoud! One's over there, and that's part of one over there, and another part over there, and here's a thumb..."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
So what's Allen trying to teach him? That he's not islamic enough?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/12/2011 6:40
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#2
Now he can open a branch of Jihadi No-Thumbs Fireworks Emporium.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/12/2011 12:09
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#3
He'll probably go into teaching bomb-making.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/12/2011 12:16
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#4
"He'll probably go into teaching bomb-making."
Ummmm, would you want to take bomb-making lessons from a teacher who had his hand blown off by a bomb, Deacon?
Of course, the Gazooks aren't as smart at you are, so that'll probably be his next career move.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/12/2011 13:29
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#5
couple of hooks, a glass eye, and he'll be a hit as an Imam
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/12/2011 14:52
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[Straits Times] AN INDONESIAN politician from a conservative Islamic party resigned on Monday after he was photographed looking at pornography on his tablet computer in parliament.
Despite an outcry against him on Twitter, Mr Arifinto insisted that nobody had pressured him to resign and that he was stepping down from the House of Representatives 'for the sake of my and my party's honour'.
'I will also improve myself by... reciting the Koran, seeking advice from clergy, giving alms to the poor and doing other good things to earn glory in this life and thereafter,' he said at a televised news conference.
Mr Arifinto, who represents the conservative Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), was caught on camera on Friday looking at a pornographic image on the tablet, which he was holding just under his table in the legislative chamber.
The photograph, first posted on a local news website, sparked uproar on the Twitter microblogging site over the weekend and the House Ethics Committee (think of an escargot pretending it has a backbone) launched an inquiry.
Mr Arifinto, who goes by one name, had said he had unintentionally opened an email link that led to the image. But the photographer who took the shot said the politician was watching a porn video.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Ma'an] Islamic Jihad will not "beg for a ceasefire" from any party, the movement said on Sunday.
The faction said it "will not and would not request that from anyone."
"Truce means nothing to us," Dauod Shehab, front man of the movement said in a statement, "because we do not trust neither the [Israeli] occupation nor its pledges, so what we are interested in is the situation in the field."
"If war is imposed then we will fight," he said "we do not have anything to be afraid of or to cry about."
The movement did not initiate the escalation, the statement said. "At this stage we are not interested in escalation and the projectiles which we possess are defensive and means for fighting back," the movement added.
If the assault stopped, the movement will take note of that, Shehab added, but if it continues "nothing will possibly stop us from responding to the [Israeli] occupation, we will be totally free in choosing the appropriate way to respond in the way, the place, time."
He continued: "Our understanding of calm or ceasefire as comprehensive and unconditional, means that we can't talk about calm with while being pursued and assassinated."
Many contacts had been made, he affirmed, "some of which we knew of, others we did not," and said such moves are "appreciated and respected," thanking those "who honestly move to stop the shedding of Paleostinian blood and to stop offenses on them," but despite this, the movement's position was related to the situation in the field.
Shehab said that the recent attacks showed "the enemy had taken a decision on war and assault, and we decided to defend our land and our people, whatever sacrifices it would cost us."
"We are confident that the goals of the [Israeli] occupation will fail," he said, adding that "the [Israeli] occupation will not succeed in passing its messages through our people in Gazoo."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
I think I got it figured out. The missiles are not aimed at the Juice, they are 'defending themselves' shooting at the Juice warplanes.
It's just that their launch control is time-accurate within a few hours. Or weeks.
And these near-misses would fall harmlessly on good, arab soil, except for the fact that the illegal Juice are living illegally on the arab ground.
Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? So the UN-enforced no-fly zone means they wouldn't have to defend themsleves, and the missiles would stop. In a few hours. Or weeks.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/12/2011 6:28
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Egypt's military rulers have transferred former dictator Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... to the capital Cairo in a bid to probe his involvement in the killing of peaceful protesters.
The tumbrels are only in your mind...
Mubarak decamped to his villa in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh following his ouster in February.
Ahmed Abu Baraka, a member of the Moslem Brüderbund Legal Committee, says he will remain in military custody until judicial proceedings begin through the order of a court, the Tehran-based Arabic news channel al-Alam reported.
This comes after Egypt's public prosecutor summoned Mubarak and his son for questioning.
The ousted ruler faces corruption charges and the use of violence against peaceful protesters.
Mubarak on Sunday denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! of corruption in an interview with the Saudi-funded al-Arabiya television station. He called the accusations a libel campaign.
The developments come as tens of thousands of protesters demanded the prosecution of officials belonging to the former regime -- mainly Mubarak and his family.
Meanwhile, ...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos... Egyptians continued their protests against the ruling military council in Cairo's Liberation Square on Monday.
The protesters are demanding an end to the military rule. They also want the head of the military council Field Marshal Mohammad Hossein Tantawi to step down, and Mubarak to be tried.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Forces loyal to Muammar Qadaffy shelled the besieged town of Misrata on Monday after the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... said he had accepted a plan to end Libya's civil war. Al Jizz television quoted a rebel front man as saying five people died and 20 were maimed in Misrata, a lone rebel bastion in western Libya, which has been under siege for more than six weeks.
Rebels in Misrata told Rooters Qadaffy's forces fired Russian-made Grad rockets into the city, where conditions for civilians are said to be desperate.
The beturbanned goons said they would accept no plan that allowed Qadaffy to stay in power and prepared to advance on the eastern front after repelling a major government assault on Sunday against their town of Ajdabiyah.
Prospects for a cease-fire looked remote.
South African President Jacob Zuma, head of an AU peace mission, said early on Monday that Qadaffy had accepted a peace "road map," including a cease-fire, after talks in Tripoli.
A front man in the rebel capital of Benghazi said the opposition would look at the plan but Qadaffy must end his 41-year rule.
"The Libyan people have made it very clear that Qadaffy must step down, but we will consider the proposal once we have more details, and respond," front man Mustafa Gheriani told Rooters.
Libyan officials have repeatedly said that Qadaffy, who holds no official state position, will not quit.
The AU delegation went to Benghazi to confer with rebel leaders on Monday and was met by more than 2,000 demonstrators holding banners reading: "African Union take Qadaffy with you" and "Qadaffy has committed genocide."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
On 18th of March, Gaddafi's government declared an immediate ceasefire, yet shortly afterwards Gaddafi's forces were shelling Misrata and Ajdabiya and started a full scale assault on Benghazi.
[Ma'an] A group calling itself the Marwan Haddad division of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a new Paleostinian military group in Gazoo, said Sunday its fighters had launched a homemade projectile toward Israel late Saturday night. ... and everybody was just so surprised...
"Israel is not safe from the resistance," a statement from the group said, adding that the projectile was aimed at the Ashkelon power plant.
The group said it would not accept truce conditions with Israel, and the announced launch took place less than an hour before a ceasefire deal was set.
On Sunday morning, the group issued its first statement, saying fighters had fired a Grad-style missile at the Israeli city of Ashkelon and two homemade projectiles at the Zikim military base.
"The shelling is part of ongoing retaliation to the crimes committed by the Zionists who were known for killing prophets. This will continue until the Paleostinian land is liberated and Tawhid flag is raised," a statement by the new group read.
The group was one of three previously unknown jihad boy brigades that issued statements on Sunday, without indicating a political affiliation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
And the ISI immediately disintigrated the area where the Missle game from, Right?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/12/2011 10:59
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#2
I assume you meant Hamas, Redneck Jim. The ISI is in Pakistan.
A French government source on Monday denied reports that French troops had placed in durance vile Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo, ... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker.... as forces loyal to his rival Alassane Ouattara stormed his headquarters.
"We got you guys here, now it's your turn. Do it exactly as we taught you, 'k?"
"Mr. Gbagbo was placed in durance vile by Mr. Ouattara's troops, that is true, but not by French special forces, who did not go into the enclosure of (Gbagbo's) residence," the source said.
Earlier, witnesses had reported seeing pro-Ouattara forces entering Gbagbo's besieged residential compound, while French and UN armoured vehicles deployed on a road leading to the complex.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
ION LES FRANCAISE, MEMRI > BELGIAN ISLAMIST ABU IMRAN ON APRIL 9th DEMOSTRATION IN PARIS: PLANT THE BLACK FLAG OF "THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH" OVER ELYSEE' PALACE; CARLA BRUNI SHOULD DIVOCE SARKOZY + WEAR THE NIQAB.
ARTIC = ABU IMRAN = also warns that ...
> Muslims are coming to "RECLAIM THEIR LANDS".
> Tacit rejection of [Western]Democracy for Muslims in France + EuroStates.
> reminds Frenchies of ANDALUSA, + that Islam once held control of POITIERS + PARTS OF FRANCE.
IIUC Methinks Radical Islam isn't going to settle for REGAINING CONTROL OF ONLY "PARTS OF FRANCE" OR "EUROPE" ANYMORE AS PER CHARLES MARTEL - THEY WANT IT ALL + EVERY ESCARGOT + WINE THAT GOES WID IT???
[Tolo News] The Afghan Minister of Education says those who burn schools are not Talibs. "No, no! Certainly not!" After all, they're 'students'...
In an exclusive interview with TOLOnews, Afghan Education Minister Farouq Wardak said there are unknown hands involved in burning schools in Afghanistan, but he said he cannot figure who they are. He stressed that burning of schools should no longer be attributed to the Taliban.
Taliban spokesmen have often grabbed credit for burning schools, but Mr Wardak views the Taliban spokesmen as 'unidentified ones' who he believes should not be trusted.
Mr Wardak says the Ministry has established local councils comprised of local holy mans, tribal elders and teachers who have convinced the Taliban not to burn schools.
Mr Farouq Wardak has sometimes been criticised for holding two positions both as the Minister of Education and a member of the High Peace Council. It is believed that if he is too busy in the Peace Council, he would not be able to fulfill his responsibilities in the Ministry of Education.
But the Minister says he has been successful in fulfilling all his responsibilities. "Others are spending their time in picnics, horse racing and javelin throwing. If those who criticise me use their time entertaining themsleves and I use my time for peace in the country, then who deserves criticism?," Mr Wardak said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#3
I had forgotten that 'Talib' means 'student.' So I guess these school burnings and bombings are just a variation of the old fire alarm stunt our students pull in order to get away from an exam they are flunking.
Muslims are allowed to burn Korans, and occasionally do. The issue is when kufrs have the temerity to lay hands upon it, or in any other way act as equals to those more beloved of Allah. Unbelievers must be brought to understand and accept their inferior position in the universe.
Two anonymous young men in Iran, one Iranian and one Afghan, have burned a Koran in protest. This seven-and-a-half minute long video shows the two men, their faces obscured, holding the Muslim holy book and reading prepared statements. They say that Arabs have foisted this book and their homelands and because of it they have gone backwards for 1400 years. They say they dislike the Koran and want it to disappear, adding "Viva freedom!"
Afterwards they stand the Koran on a flat rock, douse it alcohol and light it. One of them hoots and laughs. The book burns fiercely, and after a few moments one of them sprays more alcohol into the flames. The video ends with them warming their hands over the blazing book.
#3
They say that Arabs have foisted this book and their homelands and because of it they have gone backwards for 1400 years. They say they dislike the Koran and want it to disappear, adding "Viva freedom!"
This is the problem with Islam in a nutshell. Until the possession of a Koran is made a capital crime(except in controlled situations, which allows for its toxicity to be examined in controlled laboratory situations)this incurable disease will keep spreading and claiming innocent lives.
Maybe Trump should have a chat with these guys and then he will know better what's wrong with the Koran.
[jpost] - Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered Rafael to immediately begin producing another four Iron Dome batteries on Monday, Israel Radio reported.
Barak informed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he authorized the order following the US government's announcement that it would transfer $205 million for the acquisition, according to the report.
US President Barack Obama was expected to sign the necessary documents authorizing the transfer in the coming days. The funding was to fall outside of the existing security package.
#1
Meanwhile, C-RAM systems, with radar, are still available for the bargain basement price of $15m a system. And while they can't handle the more advanced stuff that Iron Dome can take out, they are just the cat's pajamas for the low tech mortars and home rockets that are far more common.
And it's a mystery why Israel hasn't adopted both. Iron Dome missiles are about $30k a pop, which is a tad pricey for taking out Hamas bottle rockets.
[Ma'an] The interior security department in Gazoo said Sunday that its Sherlocks seized an unspecified number of collaborators, who were "working to disturb security in Gazoo" on behalf of Israel.
An official said at a news conference that all affiliated departments "are gearing up in the field to protect the internal front and to monitor all of the suspects' movements."
"Not a single traitor who collaborates with the occupation will escape pursuit," he warned.
"The campaign to confront collaborating with the occupation" by national security and the ministry of the interior, he said, had in the past year been able to "restrict the occupation and prevent it from reaching the resistance fighters or gain any access to information about them."
The official noted civilians targets hit by Israel in the past two days, saying this "reveals a failure [by Israel] to get information on the Paleostinian resistance fighters."
Israel's attacks on civilians, he said, is "confirmation that the [Israeli] occupation is lying about having a real bank of targets that [they are] working to take out" during the latest attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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[Iran Press TV] Amid a Saudi-backed brutal clampdown on Bahraini anti-government protesters, an Iranian politician has proposed that the Islamic Theocratic Republic should dispatch its military forces to the Persian Gulf state.
"I believe that the Iranian government should not be reluctant to prepare the country's military forces at a time that Soddy Arabia has dispatched its troops to Bahrain," Khabar Online quoted Head of the Islamic theocracy Faction of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Ruhollah Hosseinian as saying on Sunday.
He added that the Iranian government should prevent Soddy Arabia from imposing a military occupation on another regional country.
The politician emphasized that Iran's Foreign Ministry should have taken a firm international stance on the Saudi military invasion of Bahrain and the violent massacre of the Bahraini people.
"Iran's Foreign Ministry should have made greater efforts and should have filed international lawsuits against the Saudi government and asked for the assistance of the Organization of the Islamic Conference OIC is an international organisation with a permanent delegation to the UN, with 57 member states. It represents all countries with substantial Moslem populations (as opposed to the Arab League, which excludes members not of the Master Race) except those which member countries block from joining. These include India, which has more Mohammedans than does Pakistain, whose membership is vetoed by Pakistain... regarding the massacre of the Bahraini people," Hosseinian said.
He noted that the Bahraini civilians are currently under enormous pressure but world powers are heedless of events in the Persian Gulf country "just because they are Shia Mohammedans."
Since February 14, Manama has been conducting a brutal crackdown on protesters who want an end to the rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.
In March, Soddy Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait deployed their troops to Bahrain to reinforce the armed clampdowns.
According to the state-funded BBC, the harsh crackdown has so far left over 30 people dead.
Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the Bahraini and Saudi regimes for the heavy-handed tactics against civilians in the Persian Gulf state.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
Meanwhile Part III ...
* WORLD NEWS > IRAQ SAYS IRAN MUJAHEDEEN MUST LEAVE BY YEAR'S END [EOY 2011].
* SAME > MORE ENRICHED URANIUM NEEDED FOR [4-5] FUTURE IRAN RESEARCH REACTORS, SAYS TOP NUCLEAR OFFICIAL [Feredoun Abbasi].
* SAME > NATO SHIPS ON [Persian]GULF TOUR AMID IRAN TENSIONS [Shia Iran versus Sunni Saudis + GCC].
Minesweeping TF.
* TOPIX > AHMADINEJAD: NO NUCLEAR LIMITS FOR IRAN.
ARTIC = Iran cannot be denied its Natural/Moral Right to explore + dev Any Each + All aspects, kinds or types of Nuclear Technologies.
Pakistan has privately demanded the Central Intelligence Agency suspend drone strikes against militants on its territory, one of the U.S.'s most effective weapons against al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, officials said.
'No.'
Pakistan has also asked the U.S. to reduce the number of U.S. intelligence and Special Operations personnel in the country, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.
'Hell no.'
The U.S. strategy in the war in Afghanistan hinges on going after militants taking refuge in Pakistan. The breakdown in intelligence cooperation has cast a pall over U.S.-Pakistani relations, with some officials in both countries saying intelligence ties are at their lowest point since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks spurred the alliance.
Beyond the Afghan battlefield, officials believe that without a robust counterterrorism relationship with Pakistan, al Qaeda and other groups can operate with far greater impunity when planning attacks on the U.S. and Europe. The vast majority of attacks against the West in the last decade originated in Pakistan.
Relations have been under heightened strain since Pakistan's arrest in January of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who was jailed after killing two armed Pakistani men in Lahore on Jan. 27. Mr. Davis was released last month, but the case fueled Pakistani resentment over the presence of U.S. operatives in their country.
Pakistani officials complained that Mr. Davis and potentially dozens of other CIA operatives were working without Islamabad's full knowledge.
Drone strikes are opposed by an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis, and are widely seen as a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.
If you don't control the people who abuse your sovereignty, we will...
The CIA's covert drone program has operated under an arrangement in which Pakistani officials deny involvement in the strikes and criticize them publicly, even as Pakistan's intelligence agency secretly relays targeting information to the CIA and allowed the agency to operate from its territory.
That arrangement appears to be unraveling. Pakistani civilian, military and intelligence officials have sent private messages in recent weeks objecting to the strikes, complaining they have gone too far and undercut the government's public standing.
Pakistani officials say the drones are responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths since the program was greatly expanded in the last half of 2008. Their U.S. counterparts say the number of civilians killed is at most a few dozen.
Truth is somewhere in-between. For the drone strikes to be effective we need good ground intel, the type Mr. Davis was working to get. Otherwise we do indeed make mistakes. Again, however, if Pakistan would control the Talibs and other assorted nutters on its side of the border, we wouldn't need the drone-zaps.
U.S. officials on Monday publicly sought to play down the tensions. CIA Director Leon Panetta met with the head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha at CIA headquarters. After the meeting, CIA spokesman George Little said the intelligence relationship "remains on solid footing."
Some U.S. officials believe Pakistan is using the threat to cut off intelligence cooperation to get greater oversight of covert U.S. activities on its territory.
'No for a third time.'
Of special concern to Pakistanis are American efforts to gather intelligence on a number of militant groups with ties to Pakistan's intelligence agency, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani network. Lashkar was responsible for the 2008 attack on Mumbai; the Haqqani network is one of the pillars of the Taliban insurgency and is based in North Waziristan, a border tribal area frequently targeted by CIA drones.
"The Pakistanis have asked for more visibility into some things, and that request is being talked about," a U.S. official said. "The bottom line is that joint cooperation is essential to the security of the two nations. The stakes are too high."
The official added: "The United States expects to continue its aggressive counterterrorism operations in Pakistan, and it would be unfortunate if the Pakistanis somehow stepped back from counterterrorism efforts that protect Americans and their citizens alike."
Like, for example, turning over all the intel the US generates to the Talibs...
Some U.S. officials say the breakdown in relations can be linked, in addition to the Davis case, to a civil court case brought in New York in November in which Lt. Gen. Pasha was named as a defendant. The case accuses the ISI of complicity in the assault on Mumbai. The ISI denies any involvement.
U.S. officials provided assurances to Lt. Gen. Pasha that he wouldn't be summoned for questioning in the case during his visit this week.
The CIA has been caught off guard by Islamabad's recent actions, including a rare public statement by Pakistan's Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, condemning a March 17 U.S. drone strike that Pakistan said killed up to 40 people in North Waziristan. The strike came a day after Mr. Davis's release; some Pakistani officials saw the strike as a provocation.
Mr. Kayani said the U.S. had "carelessly and callously targeted" a peaceful meeting of elders in North Waziristan. U.S. officials say they believe the dead were militants and dispute the high death toll.
Officials say Gen. Kayani's public condemnation has been matched with a series of private messages from Islamabad asking the Obama administration to curtail the drone strikes, and demanding a fuller accounting of the March 17 incident.
The U.S. hasn't committed to adjusting the drone program in response to Pakistan's request. The CIA operates covertly, meaning the program doesn't require Islamabad's support, under U.S. law. Some officials say the CIA operates with relative autonomy in the tribal areas. They played down the level of support they now receive from Pakistani intelligence.
Pakistan has no limited control over the tribal areas, and the region has in the past decade become a home base for myriad militant groups. Some are focused on fighting U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan; others primarily hit targets inside Pakistan; and some operate on both sides of the frontier.
Yet without the cooperation of Pakistan, which has a far more extensive informant network in the tribal areas, U.S. and Pakistani officials say the effectiveness and accuracy of CIA strikes could suffer.
A senior Pakistani official said Pakistan's military had long been uncomfortable with the drone campaign. It now could no longer provide any "operational aid" to the campaign following a series of "intolerable outrages," the official said.
The Pakistani official cited the March 17 drone strike as a "catalyst" but said tensions had been mounting with the U.S. for some time. "Our people don't like it," the official said. "We don't like it."
Obviously the pain isn't great enough yet for you to get the TP, Lashkar, the ISI, and other assorted nutters under control.
U.S. officials overcame early Pakistani objections to the program by targeting leaders of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, or TTP, a group that has targeted the Pakistani government and security forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2011
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#2
Meanwhile, the US repor supports INDIA's contention of sizable CPLA troops presence in the LOC in PAK-OCCUPIED KASHMIR [PoK], which Indjuh deems a direct threat to its national security.
* ION MINZHOU, PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > [NEastern South America] CHINA EXPANDS ITS PRESENCE IN
SURINAME, BUT ACCUSED OF "CHINESE INVASION".
#3
Take out Gul and Khan and then offer to talk about the drones and such...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2011 1:26
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#4
MEMRI.ORG > FORMER PAKISTANI MILITARY OFFICER: TRIBESMEN [Drone Strike victims]SHOULD BE PERMITTED TO TAKE REVENGE AGZ THE US FOR DRONE ATTACKS;THE TIME HAS COME FOR PAKISTAN TO EXIT THE WAR AGZ TERROR [ + withdraw from all Accords wid USA].
UAV/Drone Strikes which kill or maim innocent Pakistani civilians including Tribemen is tantamount to the US waging de facto War agz Pakistan = US-PAK WAR IN ALL BUT NAME???
Posted by: Jefferson ||
04/12/2011 9:20
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#8
Spies Gone Wild
Pakistan's leaders are losing their war with Islamic terrorists. Not because the security forces can't hunt down and kill Islamic terrorists, but because the continued corruption and incompetent government has kept most Pakistanis unhappy with their government. This makes it possible to keep recruiting new Islamic terrorists, who keep seeking to kill the people who run the country. Thus the Taliban threat to come after senior military and civilian leaders if the government did not halt the American CIA use of UAVs to kill terrorist leaders. Officially, the government has refused to comply. But it appears that the intelligence agency, ISI, has backed down to the Taliban threat. Cooperation between the CIA and ISI has been much reduced in the last four months, As a result, the number of CIA missile attacks on terrorist leaders are down as well. The U.S. has been forced to pull dozens of intelligence operatives out of Pakistan.
#10
Mr. Davis and potentially dozens of other CIA operatives were working without Islamabad's full knowledge.
Total bull. The ISI knew about Davis. The 2 guys who tried to "rob" him were ISI operatives tailing him (without his knowledge). They are primarily pissed that their 2 agents got shot.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
04/12/2011 11:26
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#11
The ISI knew about Davis.
Of course they did. Or at least the government did. How many times had the American embassy submitted Davis's paperwork to get him diplomatic status, only to have the Pakistani government ignore it?
The issue is, are we ready for open war against Pakistan? Because that's what they're working themselves up to, fitting it into the "White Colonialist Oppressor" meme.
#12
Pull every US person out of Pakistan, then start ARCLIGHTing the entire area until it's just one big pile of gravel - radioactive in some areas. It's time Pakistan felt some hurt - some SERIOUS hurt. I'm tired of a tribal, illiterate, arrogant, and just plain unsociable bunch of Neanderthal rejects making themselves a pain in MY a$$. "Phakestan" needs to cease to exist.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/12/2011 19:05
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#13
The head of the ISI met with Leon Panetta today. Some of the things he demanded were to be informed of the names and missions of every US covert agent in Pakistan, and to be informed of all drone strikes beforehand.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/12/2011 19:53
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#14
don't forget too stop payment on the checks either
Posted by: chris ||
04/12/2011 20:15
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Sources within the Libyan opposition National Transitional Council have informed Asharq Al-Awsat that they have received indications, from international mediators, that Qadaffy is willing to step down from power. This proposal would see Colonel Muammar Qadaffy ... dictator of Libya since 1969. From 1972, when he relinquished the title of prime minister, he has been accorded the honorifics Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution. With the death of Omar Bongo of Gabon on 8 June 2009, he became the longest serving of all current non-royal national leaders. He is also the longest-serving ruler of Libya since Tripoli became an Ottoman province in 1551. When Chairman Mao was all the rage and millions of people were flashing his Little Red Book, Qadaffy came out with his own Little Green Book, which didn't do as well. Qadaffy's instability has been an inspiration to the Arab world and to Africa, which he would like to rule... remaining in a symbolic position, with power being transferred to his son Saif al-Islam Qadaffy, who would rule the country for a transitional period to be decided on by the parties concerned. Asharq Al-Awsat was unable to confirm whether this proposal was part of the African Union's ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... ceasefire or not.
Sources within the National Transitional Council told Asharq Al-Awsat that they have received confirmation that Qadaffy is prepared to step down so long as this is done in a dignified and secure manner. However the sources said that the messages they received from Tripoli did not clarify the kind of figurative or symbolic position that Colonel Qadaffy intends to hold in the future.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat from the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi, sources said that the National Transitional Council -- which is led by former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil -- could accept Saif al-Islam Qadaffy as leader for an agreed upon transitional period, so long as Colonel Muammar Qadaffy is not present in any shape or form in the management of the executive affairs of the Libyan state. The source said that despite the public reservations expressed over Saif al-Islam Qadaffy as a leadership candidate -- with him being viewed by some as nothing more than an extension of his father -- it would be far easier to deal with him than Colonel Qadaffy, who is completely rejected by the majority of the Libyan population.
However the source within the National Transitional Council also acknowledged the difficulty of convincing the Libyan public, particularly those in eastern Libya which has been under rebel control for more than a month, to accept this proposal, especially in light of the controversial and combative statements issued by Saif al-Islam Qadaffy during the early weeks of the popular uprising.
With the military confrontation between the Libyan army and the anti-Qadaffy rebels stagnating, both sides appear willing to reach a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiations.
A source within the anti-Qadaffy rebel forces told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the situation on the ground is not good, we need weapons and fighters and money. Whilst it is true that we are fighting for a cause, namely freedom, enthusiasm alone is not enough." He added "if there is a political and peaceful solution, why not?"
However the anti-Qadaffy rebel stressed that any proposal must, at the very least, include Qadaffy stepping down from power. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that "if Qadaffy leaves power, and if Libya transforms into a modern and democratic state, then there is nothing to fight about...we are not bearing arms to fight the Qadaffy forces, but rather to protect the unarmed civilians."
It seems that Saif al-Islam Qadaffy is trying to revive his old project [of reforms], which includes implementing wide-spread political and economic reforms upon the Jamahiriya ... An Arabic neologism coined by Muammar al-Qadaffy. The word jamahiriya was derived from jumhuriya, which is the usual Arabic translation of republic. It was coined by changing the component jumhur ‐ public ‐ to its plural form, jamahir -- the masses. Thus, it is similar to the term People's Republic, only more denigrating to the actual inhabitants of the country... political system imposed upon Libya by his father following the 1969 revolution. Saif al-Islam Qadaffy has also spoken about drawing up a new constitution for the country, and transforming Libya into a democratic state, widening public freedoms, as well as media freedoms. However many Libyan opposition figures have expressed their reservation about the figure of Saif al-Islam Qadaffy, saying that he would be nothing more than a puppet of his father.
A high level Libyan official, speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, has said that Qadaffy seems now more than ever, accepting of a political solution to the crisis. The official, speaking from Tripoli, said that "yes, he is prepared for this [political solution], we just have to take into account his history and what he contributed to the country."
The official added "Qadaffy previously stated that he is not a president or a ruler, but rather the leader of the revolution that he implemented in 1969 to overthrow the monarchy, this means that we can elect a president according to an agreed upon framework. [Muammar] Qadaffy will not nominate himself, but perhaps Saif al-Islam will."
Many Libyans have said that they do not want Colonel Qadaffy, or indeed any member of the Qadaffy family, to determine the political future of Libya; however aides close to Saif al-Islam Qadaffy have stressed that he is not like his father, and that he will be more open with the opposition.
Sources close to Saif al-Islam Qadaffy have said that he is prepared to stand for election, in internationally monitored presidential elections. This proposal would also see the formation of a new parliament that does not include members of the hard-line Revolutionary Committees that are known to be fanatical loyal to Colonel Qadaffy.
Libyan deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim previously informed journalists during a presser in Tripoli that a new constitution would be adopted by Libya in the near future, whilst Libyan parliamentary speaker Mohammed Abul-Qassim al-Zwai has said that a draft constitution has already been prepared, and will be considered soon.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
Rantburg needs some new pictures of Qadaffy.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/12/2011 10:26
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#2
Same $hi+, different dictator.
Rantburg needs some new pictures of Qadaffy.
They all look about the same, just different sprockets.
[Al Jazeera] Hundreds of students have rallied in 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... the Syrian capital, to express solidarity with pro-democracy protesters killed over the weekend.
The rare demonstration on Monday at Damascus University reportedly turned violent when security forces beat up and tossed in the calaboose several protesters who were shouting for freedom and unity, witnesses told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency.
Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organisation for Human Rights, told the AP one student died after he was shot in the demonstration.
Video footage posted online showed what appeared to be plainclothes security forces beating protesters and forcefully pulling others away as they marched inside the campus.
An activist in touch with students who witnessed the demonstration corroborated the footage, but spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
"The Syrian people are one!'' the students shouted in the video.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue... William Hague, Britain's foreign minister, said on Monday that "meaningful reform" was the only legitimate response to the demands from protesters.
"We call upon the Syrian government to respect the right for free speech and peaceful protest," he said at a news conference in London.
Syria's three-week uprising against the government of Bashar Al-Assad, the president, has continued to gather strength despite a government crackdown.
The activist who spoke to AP said most of the students taking part in Monday's protest in Damascus were from Daraa - the southern city that has become the epicentre of the violence - and the port city of Baniyas, where four protesters were killed on Sunday.
About 2,000 mourners chanting "death is better than humiliation!'' turned out in Baniyas on Monday for the funeral of the four protesters after noon prayers, an eyewitness said.
The army has been deployed in the city and a resident told Al Jizz that the area was calm but tense.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
See also TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > {Opposition Group] IRGC DEPLOYS 10,000 TROOPS TO SYRIA, to protect Assad + Regime.
[Tolo News] Fifty beturbanned goons have renounced violence and surrendered to government in the southern Kandahar province on Monday, local officials said.
The surrendered men under Maulawi Noorul Azizi have handed over their weapons to Afghan forces in Kandahar province and surrendered to government, Tooryali Weesa governor of Kandahar said.
Mr Weesa called on other turban groups in the province to renounce violence and join the Afghan grinding of the peace processor.
The government will provide job opportunities to those who have joined the government, he added.
The men have promised to work for peace and stability in Kandahar province.
The Taliban have not yet commented.
The Taliban only seem to comment when they burn down a school, nowadays.
It comes as violence has increased in some villages of Kandahar province and there have even been incidents of turban attacks on government buildings in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Colonel Qadaffy said that the world was conspiring against Libya, out of envy for what the Libyan people enjoy. Then he recited the Holy Koranic Verse "From the evil of the envious when he envies." [Surat al-Falaq, Verse 5] The Syrian official media said that Syria was being exposed to a foreign conspiracy against its heroic struggle for resistance, resilience, survival and opposition. At this point, let me note that the Golan Heights have been under occupation for nearly half a century. The official Yemeni media stated that Yemen had been "targeted" because the country represents the cultural depth of the Arabs, and has a pan-national strategic dimension, along with further raving, irrational rhetoric. The official media in Jordan spoke of a foreign conspiracy hatched by covert forces to destabilize the country.
I would say: When will the Arabs abandon this conspiracy complex and stop denying mistakes and searching for scapegoats? When will you stop performing this farce, accusing foreign powers of conspiring against you, and blaming others for your faults? Who are you, to have the world conspire against you? Who are you to have the world's superpowers preoccupied with you? Why would the world target you, and what would it envy you for? Your wealth? Whilst your peoples feel the bitter taste of hunger, shame, ignorance, disease and underdevelopment? Or would the world target you for your giant industries, large-scale production, research centers, energy sources, bountiful knowledge, arsenals, destroyers, battleships, and aircraft carriers, when you can't even construct a car? Frankly, you are bottom of the global list in terms of industry, agriculture, education, development and production.
The annual budget of one Western multi-national corporation is far greater than the collective budget of the aforementioned Arab countries. Their peoples have taken to the streets to organize peaceful demonstrations for food, medicine, clean air, clean water, electricity, freedom and dignity. Those countries have failed to meet the basic necessities of their citizens, and so they have accused the world of conspiring against them. How much do these Arab "locusts" really believe their stock is worth? I would liken these Arab countries, who accuse the outside world of targeting them, to a mosquito alighting from a palm tree. When this mosquito decides to take off, it would say to the palm tree: Hold on tight, I am about to fly. The palm tree would reply: By God, I felt nothing when you landed, and most probably I won't feel anything when you fly away.
The US, Europe, China, Japan, Canada and Russia are busy with their factories, laboratories, nuclear industries and energy production. They are immersed in making discoveries and designing inventions, and thus they might think isn't it high time we, the Arabs, focused on our own flaws, corrected our errors, reconsidered our behavior, and rid ourselves of the conspiracy complex, which has become nothing more than a silly joke and an old ploy.
My good friend Abu Tayeb al-Mutanabbi once described an acquaintance of his, who hoped al-Mutanabbi would praise him publicly, or at least ridicule him, so that he could become famous. Al-Mutanabbi replied by saying:
"[You are] too insignificant to be praised, so I thought I had better ridicule you, but you are too trivial to be ridiculed."
The Holy Koran attributed the defeat of the Mohammedan army in the Battle of Ahud to a disagreement which had arisen between the Companions of the Prophet. In that respect, Almighty God said "Say: It is from yourselves; surely Allah has power over all things." [Surat Al-Imran, Verse 165] People ought to be held accountable for their errors and transgressions. Almighty God said "Corruption has appeared in the land and the sea on account of what the hands of men have wrought, that He may make them taste a part of that which they have done, so that they may return." [Surat al-Room, Verse 41] Therefore to blame others for your faults and use the world as a rack for hanging your mistakes on, that is an embodiment of the lack of mental perception and the corruption of opinion.
A sick person can never recover unless they first admit that they are suffering from a particular illness, and that they will not get better unless they take medicine. It is no use trying to run or hide in the dark. The truth comes with real courage, the nerve to admit to being wrong and the desire to change for the better. Almighty God says: "Allah does not change a people's lot unless they change what is in their hearts." [Surat al-Rad, Verse 11]
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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Frankly, you are bottom of the global list in terms of industry, agriculture, education, development and production.
I feel a fatwa coming on! I hope the author has a good hiding place.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/12/2011 9:08
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[Ma'an] Israel should not settle for a truce with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, in Gazoo, and should instead seek to topple the Islamist rulers of the coastal strip, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday.
"The goal that we have settled on, of seeking a return to calm, is a grave error because it will allow Hamas to reinforce along the lines of Hezbullies," Lieberman told public radio, referring to the Lebanese militia with which Israel fought a 2006 war, killing 1,200, mostly civilians.
"The objective must be to force Hamas out of power," said Lieberman, who heads the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
"To return to calm accepts a war of attrition in which Hamas can determine when there is a lull and when the front is heating up," he said.
A tense truce appeared to be taking hold between Hamas and Israel early Monday, after both sides stepped back from the brink on Sunday.
The calm came after several days of confrontation between Israel and the Islamist group, which have raised tensions to their highest levels since Israel's 2008-2009 war on Gazoo.
The fighting, which has left at least 18 Paleostinians dead, came after an anti-tank missile fired from Gazoo hit an Israeli school bus on Thursday, wounding two people, one of them a teenager who was critically injured.
Hamas said the attack was in response to an earlier Israeli liquidation of three senior members of the Islamist group, but claimed school children were not targeted, citing heavy use of the road where the projectile landed of military vehicles.
Israel responded to the bus attack with air strikes across the Gazoo Strip, as Paleostinian bad boy groups fired a barrage of rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel, causing no further injuries.
But both Israeli and Hamas officials expressed interest in a truce by Sunday, and the rate of rocket fire dropped off significantly as a period of calm took hold. Hamas had offered a truce on Thursday evening, an hour ahead of a series of air strikes that hit targets across Gazoo, killing four bad boys.
Lieberman's opposition to the truce is at odds with the support expressed for a ceasefire by other Israeli officials including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, but he ruled out a coalition breakup over the issue.
"I don't want a government crisis, or to quit the coalition. We can influence much more from the inside than from the opposition," he said.
Others within Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party, including National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau, expressed support for a new campaign of liquidations targeting Hamas members.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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[Tolo News] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid 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... on Monday warned all those responsible for the crisis in Kabul Bank will be prosecuted.
Mr Karzai called on the US and European countries to send all the Kabul Bank related money to Afghanistan without any conditions.
He said Kabul Bank shareholders would have one month to repay the money they have withdrawn and if failed they could face prosecution.
"The former shareholders can no longer be part of the Bank. They must pay all their debts in a month or face prosecution," President Karzai said at a presser in Kabul.
President Karzai cites internal and external factors to have been behind the Kabul Bank crisis and puts a part of the blame on foreigners, especially an American company he names as Price Water House Cooper.
"The American audit company had reported positively about Kabul Bank and it was three months ahead of the crisis, and the Central Bank also trusted the report. This company is under investigation now," Mr Karzai said.
He also partly blames Bearing Point and Delight for what Kabul Bank suffered.
On Saturday the Afghan Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal said that restoration of Kabul Bank was one of the Afghan government priorities and that efforts were underway to restore people's confidence in the bank.
Recently there have been reports saying that Kabul Bank was being put into receivership.
The IMF had demanded that Kabul Bank should either be closed down or sold, otherwise a financial assistance programme for Afghanistan could be halted.
The UN had also warned that international donors may halt or redirect their assistance if the Afghan government failed to reach an agreement with International Monetary Fund.
Kabul Bank nearly collapsed last year but was taken over by Afghanistan Central Bank in September.
Some of the Kabul Bank shareholders are accused of personally using millions of dollars of depositors' money.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
But it's likely his brother is behind it?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2011 14:35
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[Jerusalem Post Front Page] 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... chief Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa, ... who has been head of the Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... a leading contender to become Egypt's next president, said Islamists will not take power in the country but are bound to be a player on the political scene.
"Egypt will be a democratic state and will not regress," Moussa told newspaper al-Hayat in remarks published on Monday.
"There will be an Islamic element -- or an element based on an Islamic reference, as the constitution says -- in Egypt's political body," he said.
Moussa, 74, said his age meant he would stand for only one term and had already drafted his campaign manifesto.
Secretary-General of the vaporous Arab League since 2001, Moussa declared his candidacy for the Egyptian presidency after a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... from power on Feb. 11.
The country is now run by a military council which has promised free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections by the end of the year.
Mubarak's three decades of autocratic rule made it almost impossible for anyone to challenge the dominance of his National Democratic Party, which dealt crushing defeats to its rivals in elections that his critics say were rigged.
Egypt's public prosecutor is now investigating Mubarak as part of probes into the killing of prosecutors and embezzlement of public funds, although the ousted president says allegations against him are lies.
Moussa said Egypt needed a presidential, not parliamentary, system of government for the immediate future because political parties were still too weak.
"Party activity and interaction, and the building of strong political currents, need a period of time," he said. Egypt "should be a presidential state for the coming years in the absence of strong parties."
Asked whether he feared the rise of Islamists in Egypt, Moussa replied: "Lunatic groups are too weak to pounce on power, but the desire for leadership will remain."
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An elderly Cuban former CIA operative accused of lying during a U.S. immigration hearing was acquitted on all charges Friday, with jurors taking just three hours to reach a verdict after enduring 13 weeks of often-delayed testimony.
The abrupt decision ends four years of attempts by the U.S. government to convict 83-year-old Luis Posada Carriles, and means he no longer has to face the prospect of spending the final years of his life in prison, at least in the United States.
For decades, Posada worked to destabilize communist governments throughout Latin America and was often supported by Washington. He is Public Enemy No. 1 in his homeland, even considered ex-President Fidel Castro's nemesis. In Havana, the government had no immediate comment to his being cleared across-the-board.
Posada, who has slurred his words since being shot in the face and losing part of his tongue during a 1990 assassination attempt in Guatemala, joked softly with his defense team, then left the courthouse a free man.
The defense, which called just eight witnesses over eight days, maintained Posada should have been allowed to retire a hero in Miami, where he had been living since his 2007 release from an immigration detention center, for his service to the country during the cold war.
Posada participated in the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion, served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and was a CIA operative until 1976. He then moved to Venezuela and served as head of that country's intelligence service. Also in 1976, he was arrested for planning the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada was acquitted by a military tribunal, but escaped from prison while still facing a civilian trial.
He helped the U.S. funnel support to Nicaraguan Contra rebels in the 1980s, and, in 2000, was arrested in Panama amid a plot to kill Castro during a summit there. He was pardoned by Panama's president in 2004 and turned up in the U.S. the following March.
Cuba and Venezuela would like to try Posada for the 1997 hotel bombings or the downing of the 1976 airliner, but a U.S. immigration judge has previously ruled that he can't be sent to either country, for the certainty that fear he could be tortured.
Jose Pertierra, the Washington-based lawyer representing Venezuela in its case against Posada sat through every day of the trial and was crestfallen after the verdict.
"The theater was worth more than the evidence in this case. The evidence was strong. We heard the voice of Luis Posada saying he was the mastermind of the bombings," Pertierra said. He said Venezuela will renew its efforts to have Posada extradited to face 73 counts of first-degree murder. Speaking of theater...
The U.S. tried to convict Posada in El Paso of the seven perjury and immigration fraud charges in 2007, but U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone threw that case out, chastising the government for using an immigration hearing to build a criminal case against Posada. When that ruling was overturned on appeal, prosecutors added four new charges, including those alleging obstruction of justice.
#2
Oh. I thought Left Enraged referred to Luis' state of mind when he departed the courtroom.
Had the headline said Left Unhinged, I would've been less likely to be confused.
But unhinged or enraged - it's all good.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/12/2011 6:05
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This guy truly needs an rah-rah biography about how he spent his life fighting commies, and why, going into detail about how evil they were, and how some Americans supported them.
#4
Oh sure, so he bombed a hotel and brought down an airliner killing dozens of civilians. And then there's all those crazy rumors of sabotage and assasinations. But think about it. Say you and your buds blast a couple of Stingers off the back of your pleasure craft and what...all of sudden people are calling you a terrorist. Is that fair? That's such an ugly lable. Just remember, those were confusing times way back then. Big Red was knockin' on the back door. And don't forget, he was (and prolly still is) on the Agency's dole. So really...if you think about it...he's more like ah...ummm...a Freedom Fighter. Yeah...that's the ticket. Also, try to keep all that escaping from a US prison then sneaking back across the border only to lie immigration stuff in perspective. After all, he's a "Cold War Hero". International espionage is his craft. And, dammit, if it wasn't for his pesky illegal alien citizenship status he might even be considerd a national treasure. Hey...Libya has their al-Megrahi so why can't the US have their Posada? So yeah...what's "The Left" all jazzed up about anyway?
He's a complex guy. And what you call terrorism today was fair game on both sides during the Cold War. For every bit of real evidence of his activities, there is more and greater efforts to fabricate evidence and stop him by the left, both internationally, and in the US.
You mentioned his prison escape? How about imprisoning a man for eight years while Democrat prosecutors delay and appeal acquittals? How about Cuban spies working hand-in-hand with US Democrats to try and take him out?
Face it, as much as Cuba tried to be a pest in this hemisphere, and wherever else Castro sent his spies, assassins and mercenaries, people like Posada kept trying to stop them, and usually with US government help. Except when Democrats tried to stop him for their commie buddies.
[Dawn] The residents of placid provincial capital see no letup in subversive activities as at least 47 persons were killed and 112 injured here only in the month of March during the current year in terrorism related incidents.
On the other hand, 12 people including two coppers were killed and 17 injured in January, while in February 12 were killed and 11 injured. Most of the victims had fallen prey to terrorist acts in suburban areas of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar.
The worst hit were the residents of Adezai where 45 people were killed in a suicide kaboom on a funeral and over 100 injured.
At least 11 incidents of terrorism took place in March wherein 11 houses, two power pylons, one CD shop, one mosque, one police post, two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... oil tankers and three schools were blown up.
Similarly, in February two police posts, one grid station, 14 NATO oil tankers, two police vans, three schools, one school van and the house of a leader of Adezai Qaumi Lashkar came under attack.
The major incidents that occurred during the past three months include car booming at Tela Band Road, Badhber, and suicide attack on a funeral in Adezai.
Four coppers including a DSP were killed and five injured in January and two coppers were killed in February in terrorism related activities.
The areas where Death Eaters showed their presence include Adezai, Teleband, Sulemankhel, Darwazgai, Badhber, Sheikhan, Batatal, Ghari Qamar Din, Pejagi Road, Liaquat Bazaar, Charkhana Road, Mathra, Bacha Ghari, Maryamzai, Kohat Road, Bara Qadeem, Matani, Hassan Ghari, Ring Road and Charsadda Road.
All these areas are located in the rural circle where police are yet to take effective measures for checking movement of suspected people. The localities are linked to tribal and semi-tribal areas and that is why Death Eaters can easily enter Peshawar through different link roads.
Despite tall claims by authorities, law enforcement agencies have so far failed to deploy sufficient personnel on the entry points to check movement of anti-state elements.
The ratio and fashion of these sabotage acts show that Death Eaters used to strike at every alternate day during the past three months without any check by law-enforcers.
These subversive acts caused huge losses of lives and properties but they did not get due attention of citizens and officials because the incidents occurred in rural areas and people did not make hue and cry to create problems for government.
Peshawar SSP Ijaz Ahmed claimed that security had been beefed up to check movement of terrorists. He hoped that wanted accused would soon be tossed in the calaboose.
He said that police had started round the clock patrolling and suspected vehicles and persons were thoroughly being checked at different places to put brakes on their movement in the settled areas of Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
Probably because the joint is lousy with terrorists.
[Dawn] Two security personnel were killed and seven others injured when Orcs and similar vermin attacked a convoy in Baizai tehsil of Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Bloody Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency here on Sunday.
The security forces tossed in the clink 30 suspects during a search operation in the area after the incident. Officials said that security forces were engaged in a search operation in Suran Darra area of Baizai when they came under attack. A soldier was killed and five injured in the attack.
Security forces retaliated and pounded suspected positions with mortars and heavy gunfire. The search operation continued in the area for the last seven days.
In another incident, a security official was killed and two others injured when they clashed with Orcs and similar vermin in Chamar Kand area of Baizai.
Later, security forces intensified the search operation and tossed in the clink 30 suspected Death Eaters. They were shifted to Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location for interrogation.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths... at least 107 families of internally displaced persons (IDPs) arrived in Nahaqai IDP camp after they decamped their native areas owing to continued festivities and search operations.In Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central, a Death Eater was killed and another tossed in the clink when security forces launched a search operation in Mamond tehsil on Sunday.
Sources said that security forces took the action on information that the criminal mastermind of Dera Ghazi Khan suicide kabooms was present in the area. Militants attacked security personnel when they busy in combing the area, they added. In retaliatory firing, a Death Eater identified as Rahim Khan was killed and his accomplice Behram Khan was captured. Behram is stated to be the criminal mastermind of the D.G. Khan bombings.
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Syrian security forces sealed off the coastal city of Banias overnight following pro-democracy protests and killings by irregulars loyal to Syrian hereditary President Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad, One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist presidents-for-life. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... witnesses said on Monday.
Violence in Banias, home to one of Syria's two oil refineries, erupted on Sunday when irregulars from the ruling Alawite minority, known as "shabbiha," fired at residents with automatic rifles from speeding cars, the witnesses said.
Four people were killed in the mostly Sunni Mohammedan city on the Mediterranean coast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Authorities said an gang had ambushed a patrol near Banias, killing nine soldiers.
Activists and protesters said roads to Banias were blocked.
"Electricity has been cut since yesterday. People are very afraid," Anas al-Shughri, one of the protest leaders, told Rooters from Banias. "The army has deployed in Banias with infantry and they have set up checkpoints in and around the city."
Facing an unprecedented challenge to his authoritarian rule, Assad has said the protests are part of a foreign conspiracy to sow sectarian strife.
His father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, used similar language when he crushed leftist and Islamist challenges to his rule in the 1980s, killing thousands.
Civic leaders and opposition figures reject the allegation and issued a declaration last month denouncing sectarianism, committing to non-violent democratic change and stating that Syria's people "as a whole are under repression."
ALAWITES PROTEST
The ruling family, Bashar's brother Maher is the second most powerful person in Syria, belong to the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, which comprises around 10 percent of the country's 20 million population.
"The Alawites, like other minorities living under tyrannical systems, fear the unknown if the regime falls. But this does not mean that they support the violence it is committing," an Alawite human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... lawyer said.
The protests have spread across Syria despite Assad's attempts to defuse resentment by making gestures towards demands for an end to an emergency law in force for five decades and to appease minority Kurds and conservative Sunni Mohammedans.
With popular dissent now in its fourth week, security forces fanned out in tanks on Saturday night near the Banias oil refinery, close to the Alawite district of Qusour where the main hospital is located.
Gunfire could be heard across the city on Sunday.
"The streets have emptied following the killings. People are afraid. The shabbiha fired at random and you can see bullet holes on buildings," a human rights activist in Banias said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
Hama II about to begin?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2011 1:38
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#2
Hama II about to begin?
The Chinese approach is to detain clerics together with the male members of their families. Some are executed while others are simply never heard from again. I wonder if Assad's hands are tied because Syria is nominally a Muslim country, even if Alawites are Muslim heretics.
[Tolo News] Libyan rebels have insisted that Col Muammar Qadaffy must go, while the Libyan Leader has welcomed a peace plan proposed by the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... delegation visiting Tripoli, reports say.
Rebel representatives have said they will accept no ceasefire if Col Qadaffy and his sons remain in power.
The African Union delegation headed by South African President Jacob Zuma has met with President Qadaffy in Tripoli and are expected to meet rebel representatives in Benghazai to push for a ceasefire.
Mr Zuma has called on NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... to stop targeting government locations and give peace efforts a chance.
"The brother leader delegation has accepted the roadmap as presented by us. We have to give ceasefire a chance," Mr Zuma has said.
Ceasefire proposals by Qadaffy have earlier been rebuffed by rebels stressing that his 41-year-old rule must end.
Ramtane Lamamra, Au Commissioner for Peace and Security, has told news hounds that there has been "some discussion" about Col Qadaffy stepping down. But he has declined to report on confidential discussions.
The AU delegation has urged all parties to start dilogue to establish an inclusive transition period with a view to adopting and implementing necessary political reforms.
Lamamra has said no outside force including the African Union can decide on behalf of the Libyan people about who their leader should be.
Apparently the Libyan people can't decide who their leader should be either...
NATO has yet to comment on President Zuma's call to end air strikes.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
So they Can Immediately establish an Ummah (Islamic rule) there?
No thanks.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/12/2011 11:03
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[Iran Press TV] At least 10 people have been killed and 36 others maimed in separate bombing attacks in Iraq, says an interior ministry official.
"There were three incidents in Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity ... killing four coppers and two other people and wounding 25 people," the official told AFP on Monday.
In Storied Baghdad, a police lieutenant colonel was killed in his vehicle by an armed attacker.
He added that an improvised bomb also killed three people and maimed 11 others in the Jisr Diyala area of south Storied Baghdad.
On Sunday, six Iraqis, including government employees, were killed and four others maimed in the capital city of Storied Baghdad.
The car boomkabooms and roadside kabooms claim the lives of civilians and injure them almost on a daily basis.
This is while there are about 47,000 US troops in the war-torn country to provide security for the people.
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04/12/2011
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[Straits Times] INDONESIA has decided to join international peacekeepers safeguarding a cease-fire that has helped foster peace talks between the Philippine government and the country's largest Mohammedan rebel group.
Philippine and Indonesian officials said on Monday the Jakarta government recently informed Filipino diplomats of its decision to join the 60-member International Monitoring Team.
The Malaysian-led team, which also has representatives from Brunei, Libya and Japan, has been credited with preventing festivities in the country's south from escalating into full-blown fighting that can derail the talks.
Presidential Adviser Teresita Deles says Indonesia is grateful for past Philippine peacekeeping help in the once-restive Aceh province on Sumatra Island.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
yes, send more Muslims to the area, what a good idea
[Straits Times] MYANMAR has jugged 146 boat people from Bangladesh after they were dumped on a beach by traffickers who told them they were in Thailand, an official said on Monday.
'They are in the Irrawaddy region under investigation,' said the Myanmar government official, who asked not to be named.
He said more than 80 of the detainees were Rohingyas, a Mohammedan group living primarily in Myanmar's western Rakhine state who are described by the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.
The group, found on a beach in late March, said they had paid to be taken from Bangladesh by boat to Bangkok and were told they had arrived in the Thai capital, he said.
'They will be charged under the immigration act. For the Rohingya they will be sent back to Maungdaw in Rakhine State. The others will be sent back to Bangladesh,' the official said.
As many as 300,000 Rohingya have decamped Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they live in 'primitive and squalid conditions' in both official and makeshift refugee camps, according to US-based Human Rights Watch.
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Four men, including a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, were bumped off in a renewed wave of assassinations in the city on Sunday, police said.
All the four men were killed in the city's defunct east district.
The police said that two men were found rubbed out at a desolate place in Gulistan-i-Jauhar in the early hours of Sunday.
Although the motive behind the murder was not yet clear to the police, they suspected that it was a assassination.
Gulistan-i-Jauhar SHO Asif Jakhrani said that unknown persons had brought the two men at a hillock in Block 3 and fired a volley of bullets on them.
The two victims were identified as 28-year-old Shera and 20-year-old Atiquz Zaman, both of them hailed from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
The police said the victims had no affiliation with any political party.
They said that the two men had left their home in Madina Colony on Saturday evening on a cycle of violence.
But it was unclear that when and where they were kidnapped, the police said.
The bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination. Both the men sustained multiple bullet wounds and the police found spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the crime-scene.
A case (FIR 240/2011) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (with common intention) of the Pakistain Penal Code on the complaint of Fakhuruddin against unidentified persons at the Gulistan-i-Jauhar cop shoppe.
An activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was rubbed out by person or persons unknown in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Sunday, police said.
They said that 27-year-old Mohammad Azam was called out from his Gulshan-i-Iqbal residence by someone and later he was shot near an area milk shop.
Quoting family sources, Gulshan SHO Kansan Dean said that Azam went out of his house when some-one called him on his cellphone.
"At a distance of 50 to 100 yards from his house in Block 13-D, two assailants riding a cycle of violence emerged in the commercial area and fired at him and decamped."
The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Later, the body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
The area SHO said that the victim was a worker of the MQM.
Tension and panic gripped the locality following the killing of the MQM man.
An FIR pertaining to the killing was lodged at the Gulshan-i-Iqbal cop shoppe.
Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... a middle-aged man was killed by unknown persons on Rashid Minhas Road in the small hours of Sunday.
Police said that the incident occurred within the remit of the Sharea Faisal cop shoppe near a departmental store.
Sharea Faisal SHO Sohail Sulari said that 55-year-old Abdul Wahid, who worked at a tea stall, New Mohammedan Quetta hotel,
on Rashid Minhas Road.
He said that two gunnies riding a cycle of violence came to the tea stall at 2.30am and opened fire on Wahid. He was rushed to the JPMC where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
An FIR pertaining to the incident was yet to be lodged as the family members told police that they would lodge the FIR following the burial of the victim, the police said.
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04/12/2011
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[Al Jizz] Ollanta Humala, a leftist former soldier, has taken the lead in the first round of Peru's presidential elections, with two pro-business rivals battling for second place and the chance to challenge him in a June 5 run-off, according to official results.
The latest results from Sunday's vote, with 64.3 percent of ballots tallied, showed Humala with 28.06 percent of the votes, Keiko Fujimori, a 35-year-old daughter of the imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori with 22.49 percent and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a 72-year-old former World Bank economist and investment banker, with 22.29 percent.
That would mean a June 5 run-off between Humala and Fujimori, who unofficial quick counts have suggested will advance.
"We want the wealth of Peru to be well distributed," Juan Urteaga, 18, from the Andean city of Cajamarca, said.
"How is it that my city is close to one of the world's biggest gold mines, Yanacocha, but my city has one of Peru's highest poverty rates?"
Discredited rivals
Polls suggest both Fujimori and Kuczynski would have trouble defeating 48-year-old Humala in a second round vote.
Fujimori supports existing free-market policies, but is shunned by many Peruvians because her father is in prison for corruption and human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... crimes stemming from his crackdown on guerrillas in the 1990s.
Kuczynski, a former prime minister, known as "El Gringo" because of his European parents, would have trouble gaining traction outside of Lima, where he is strongly backed by wealthy voters.
Humala, who led a short-lived military revolt in 2000, has softened his anti-capitalist tone since.
"We are willing to make many concessions to unite Peru, we are going to talk with all political forces," Humala told cheering supporters. "Social problems must be resolved through dialogue."
In order to win outright on Sunday, a candidate needed a simple majority.
With emotions running high, officials have called for caution since a clear picture could take several days to emerge.
Humala's image makeover
Almost 20 million people were obliged to vote to replace President Alain Garcia, with a fairer division of Peru's booming economy - backed by rich mineral resources - a key issue for more than a third of the population still living in poverty.
Humala has promised a "great transformation and great redistribution of riches".
He has surged in the race by recasting himself as a moderate in the vein of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and distancing himself from his former political mentor, Venezuelan His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez.
"Let's vote without fear," Humala said on Sunday.
His rivals have sought to hurt his chances by saying he would step up state control over the economy, rolling back reforms and jeopardising some $40bn of foreign investment lined up for the next decade in mining and energy exploration.
Moody's ratings agency said Peru's investment-grade credit rating would not be threatened by an eventual Humala victory.
Still, Peru's sol currency and the country's main stock index have dipped over the past two weeks on worries Humala could raise mining taxes, hike state subsidies or tighten control of "strategic" sectors like electricity.
The compulsory vote throughout the South American nation, which stretches from the Amazon to the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, was also for 130 politicians for the one-chamber Congress, which was set to remain fragmented, according to partial results.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
We were in Peru last summer, local people we talked politics with were all still grateful to Fujimori for stopping hyperinflation, which had just stopped economic life in it's tracks for ordinary working people. Nor did anyone object to him smacking around a few lefties. If his daughter had let him out of jail to effectively run the place that would have been just fine.
[Tolo News] Pakistain's President Asif Ali President Ten PercentZardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... has told the Guardian in a recent interview that the war in Afghanistan is destabilising his country.
The war in Afghanistan also seriously undermines Pakistain government's efforts to restore democracy and economic prosperity after a military dictatorship ruled the country for a decade.
Mr Zardari has said there is widespread concern in his country about the slow progress in putting an end to the war in Afghanistan.
He has said some American politicians had little understanding of the impact of US policies in the region.
"Just as the Mexican drug war on US borders makes a difference to Texas and American society, we are talking about a war on our border which is obviously having a huge effect. Only today a jacket wallah has attacked a police compound in Balochistan. I think it [the Afghan war] has an effect on the entire region, and specially our country," Zardari has said.
A White House report has recently criticised Pakistain's for not seriously cooperating in the war on terror, but Mr Zardari has told the Guardian that Pakistain has always listened to Washington's views.
He has criticised the way some Congress members and the US media talk about Pakistain.
"The US has been an ally of Pakistain for the last 60 years. We respect and appreciate their political system. So every time a new parliament comes in, new boys come in, new representatives come in, it takes them time to understand the international situation. Not Obama, but the Congress, interest groups and the media get affected by 'deadline-it is' [over ending the Afghan war]," Zardari has said.
He has said the US has been in Afghanistan for over a decade and everybody has obviously run out of patience, especially the American people are awaiting answers while it is difficult to convince them as there are no short-term answers.
The comments came as the White House in a recent report has strongly criticised Pakistain's military for failing to defeat insurgency despite years of US funding to the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
Pak ISI/Jihadis Destabilising Afghanistan should be the True Title!
#2
Again, another Muslim has it ass backwards. It's Pakistan's policies that has affected America, specifically New York City. The history book is still being written.
#3
We are at war with Pakistan, have been for years. Afhganistan is just the battlefield. If the Chinese tell Obama to stop the drone zapping and kiss Zardari's worthless ass, he'll do it in a heartbeat.
[Al Jazeera] The Transitional National Council has rejected outright the African Union's ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... proposal to negotiate a way out from the deepening crisis in Libya.
The Benghazi-based council, set up in opposition to longterm leader Muammar Qadaffy, ... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ... said the "roadmap" set out by a delegation of five African presidents was "outdated", following the deaths and destruction wreaked in the past month since the proposals were first outlined.
"The demand of our people of our people from day one was that Qadaffy must step down," front man Mustafa Jabril told news hounds.
"Any initiative which does not include this key popular demand will not be regarded. Muammar Qadaffy and his sons should depart immediately."
Jabril threatened that pro-democracy fighters would march on Tripoli.
"We cannot negotiate the blood of our deaders," said Jabril. "We will die with them or be rewarded with victory."
He also thanked the international community and coalition forces for their support, which he said had saved the lives of civilians.
The roadmap was a five-point plan which called for a ceasefire and the protection of civilians, alongside the provision of humanitarian aid for Libyans and foreign workers in the country.
The plan also called for dialogue between the two sides, an "inclusive transitional period" and political reforms which "meet the aspirations of the Libyan people".
Al Jizz's Laurence Lee, reporting from Benghazi, summed up Jabril's words as: "No deal."
"There's a particular military style of strategy at work here - and that is that they'd rather 'die on their feet than live on their knees'."
The African leaders met yesterday with Qadaffy, who they said "accepted" the proposals.
International reaction
The African Union's plan had been given a cautious welcome in capitals around the world, with British foreign secretary William Hague stating that any ceasefire agreement must meet the terms of UN resolutions in full.
Franco Frattini, Italian foreign minister, said it was unlikely Qadaffy would respect any ceasefire, "after the horrific crimes enacted".
And NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... 's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said that any ceasefire must be "credible and verifiable".
Jacob Zuma, the South African president, said Tripoli had "accepted" the African Union's plan for a ceasefire which would halt a NATO bombing campaign that destroyed 26 loyalist tanks on Sunday alone.
But anti-Qadaffy fighters doubted the Libyan leader would adhere to such a deal.
Rebels reclaim Ajdabiya, a city that has borne the brunt of the constantly shifting frontlines [Al Jizz]
"The world has seen these offers of ceasefires before and within 15 minutes [Qadaffy] starts shooting again," Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a front man for the Transitional National Council, told the AFP news agency.
They would negotiate a political transition to democracy with certain senior regime figures but only on the condition that Qadaffy and his sons leave the country, they said on Sunday.
People in Benghazi were asking whether the proposals were a "genuine attempt at conflict resolution" or "an attempt by people who have close economic and political ties to Qadaffy to try and shore up the appearance of legitimacy," said our correspondent.
The revolt against Qadaffy's 41-year reign began as a wave of protests across the country in late February but soon escalated into a civil war after Qadaffy's troops fired on demonstrators and armed fighters seized several eastern towns.
The battle for Libya's third largest city, Misrata,continues, as Qadaffy's troops shelled two neighbourhoods on Monday. The city has been the scene of fierce battles in recent weeks and has been largely closed off to news hounds.
"Heavy and fierce fighting is now taking place at the eastern entrance to the city and in the centre ... on Tripoli Street," a resident named Abdelsalam told Rooters by telephone on Monday afternoon.
Recapturing Ajdabiya
The government's troops have also pushed the rebels back on the eastern front, launching a major attack on the town of Ajdabiya on Saturday before being repelled by rebel forces.
Libyans outside the airport echoed the rebels' official demands, saying they appreciated the African Union's efforts but wanted Qadaffy to step down.
"The main thing we want is for Qadaffy and his family to get out and to be judged ... And we want the withdrawal of all troops from the towns," Azza Hussein, a doctor waiting with the crowds outside the airport, said.
"Qadaffy is a big liar, so we are afraid if there is a ceasefire he won't follow it," Abdullah Barud, 17, another protester, said.
In the 1990s, Qadaffy oriented Libya away from the Arab world and towards the sub-Sahara, calling for a "United States of Africa" and cultivating close ties with a number of rulers and some rebel movements.
Libya has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism, telecommunications, banking and agriculture across several sub-Saharan countries via the Libya Africa Portfolio (LAP).
The rebels have accused Qadaffy of deploying African mercenariesagainst them - without providing much hard evidence - and have said they would be raising the subject with the delegation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
See also WORLD NEWS > AS LIBYAN OPPOSITION REJECT AU PLAN LEAVING GADDAFI IN POWER, REBELS REPOR CAPTURE ALGERIAN MERCENARIES [15 ea. Soldats + Leaders], ACCUSE ALGERIA OF TURNING A
"BLIND EYE" TO HIRED GUNS CROSSING BORDER TO SUPPORT GADDAFI.
Gaaawd, dat t'was a long 'un.
The USA = POTUS Bammer + Admin say that Gaddafi's departue from political power is NON-NEGOTIABLE, but Uncle Muammar keeps "flipping the Bird" at US-NATO + UNO demands.
[Tolo News] Officials in Helmand provinces say farmers and Taliban hard boyz in the province plant mines to prevent destruction of their poppy fields.
According to local officials 7,000 hectares of land in the southern Helmand province have been cleared of poppy.
The destruction of poppy fields in the picturesque provincial capital Lashkargah and 10 other districts is continuing, officials said. The campaign has started a month ago.
Several soldiers of the counter-narcotics department have so far been killed in mine kabooms and jihad boy attacks in the province.
Dawood Ahmadi, a front man for Governor of Helmand province, said 1,300 hectares of land have been cleared of poppy in Marja district alone. The people and farmers have also cooperated at gunpoint voluntarily by taking part in the destruction of poppy fields in Marja district.
The campaign is expected to be accomplished in less than a month.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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#1
Napalm - Fire Purifies!
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2011 1:35
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Top||
#2
OTOH HOTAIR > NOW MORE THAN EVER, LETS BUILD AN AT-AT [Star Wars] FOR AMERICA.
All Terrain-Armored Transport(s) + Ice Planet HOTH.
Or in altern a MILLENIUM FALCON!?
Just becuz we can, D *** NG IT, ala POTUS Teddy Roosevelt.
#4
Catch 'em planting 'em with a Spectre. Alternative - use napalm to get rid of the poppies - and the mines. Use a Predator to find out who's actually planting these mines and target their front and back doors with Hellfires. ARCLIGHT a village found to be cooperating in planting poppies. There are so many options, and so few intelligent people in our government to actually think of them or implement them.
This war has lasted too long. Time to wipe the slate clean and start over. Perhaps the Uighurs would like a new homeland.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/12/2011 14:19
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#5
Fuel-air bomb will clear both the poppies and the mines up right quick.
AJDABIYAH, Libya - Libyan rebels cleared charred bodies and the shells of pick-up trucks from the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiyah on Monday, a day after they pushed out troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in a fierce battle.
Helped by NATO air strikes, opposition fighters took full control of the town, about 150 km (90 miles) from their coastal stronghold of Benghazi, after battling Gaddafi loyalists with rockets and machine guns on Saturday and Sunday. NATO says it destroyed 11 of Gaddafi's tanks outside Ajdabiyah on Libya's Mediterranean coast.
At least we seem to be destroying Qaddafi's tools of war (and hopefully WMDs, too).
The rebels are now upbeat about the air support from NATO after previously complaining it was taking too long to respond to government attacks. "We have been able to advance because of the air strikes," said rebel Belgassim El-Awami.
NATO must have some air combat coordinators on the ground...
After Sunday's pitched battle for Ajdabiyah there were only light skirmishes on Monday on the road to the oil port of Brega, 70 km (45 miles) further west.
Rocket fire from Gaddafi's forces fell short of Ajdabiyah's western gate and rebels fired a rocket back. Medics at the town hospital said two rebels were wounded in skirmishes west of al-Arbaeen, half way to Brega, but fighting later died down. Many insurgents praised French President Nicolas Sarkozy rather than NATO for the air strikes. Sarkozy led calls for military intervention in Libya and French warplanes were the first to attack Gaddafi's forces. He is a hero among the rebels.
At the town's green western gate, rebels gathered near the site of a NATO air strike to bundle the blackened and mangled bodies of Gaddafi fighters into blankets and drag them into the desert for burial.
"These are Gaddafi's men who died during Sarkozy's air strikes yesterday," one rebel said.
Another, Muftah Jadallah, said the insurgents had buried around 35 bodies of Gaddafi soldiers killed in the bombing and street fighting in the town.
Standing at a strategic junction on the road to Benghazi, Ajdabiyah would be a major prize for Gaddafi. It is scarred by repeated battles and most residents have fled. Homes and public buildings are pockmarked with machine gun and artillery fire, windows are shattered and graffiti is sprayed liberally across town. But the streets were quiet.
"Ajdabiyah has become a ghost town," Mohamed el-Qubaily, a 45-year-old engineer, said as he stood next to the twisted wreckage of a rebel pick-up hit by rocket fire on Sunday. "When the bombardment started, everyone left."
Like many others, Qubaily said he had moved his wife and six children to Benghazi, but was staying behind to look after his property. "I'm staying to defend my house," he said, pointing to a pistol tucked into his belt.
Essam Mohamed, another rebel standing near the wreckage, said he would also stay in Ajdabiyah, keeping up the fight as long as Gaddafi was still in power. It will take time," he said. "He's a very strong man, very strong."
The hospital, which had buzzed with frantic activity during the fighting, was nearly silent. The main hotel in town was shuttered, several of its windows shattered by gunfire.
Ajdabiyah has seen some of the most ferocious fighting of the armed revolt which began when Gaddafi crushed pro-democracy protests in February. In the first days, protesters torched many government buildings and covered its walls with spray paint. Two subsequent battles for the town have left its streets and outskirts littered with the remains of tanks, pickup trucks, rocket launchers and other military hardware.
Some rebels seemed more upbeat and confident than for weeks, savouring victory in Ajdabiyah after a long struggle for control of the oil port of Brega, 70 km (45 miles) west.
"Gaddafi won't enter Ajdabiyah again," said Nasser Ibrahim, a rebel at the western gate. "Our forces are surrounding the city, even the south."
But others thought Gaddafi's better armed and trained forces would eventually make another attempt to claim the town, connected by a desert highway to Tobruk, a vital oil exporting port for the rebels.
"Gaddafi has fast desert cars and Grad missiles," said engineer Qubaily, shrugging as some insurgents swept the last of the battle debris from Ajdabiyah's main street.
"This has been a strategic city throughout history," he said. "Since the days of the Romans, the Byzantines, the Greeks, the Italians, the English, the Americans -- a lot of armies have been here."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
NATO must have some air combat coordinators on the ground...
I recall one of the rebels saying "If we see western forces on the ground we will stop fighting Gadaffy and we will all turn our guns on them."
My, what a difference a couple of weeks of getting your butt kicked can make.
[Arab News] An Interior Ministry official in Russia's southern province of Dagestan says three coppers have been killed in a clash with turbans.
Vyacheslav Gasanov said the violence occurred Monday in the Tsunti region of Dagestan when police tried to detain three gunnies. The Orcs and similar vermin fired at police, killing two officers on the spot and wounding two, one of whom later died at a hospital.
Dagestan and other provinces in Russia's North Caucasus have been destabilized by an Islamic insurgency that has spread following two separatist wars in nearby Chechnya.
Dagestan has emerged as the turbans' main base, and they regularly attack police and other authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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looks like cooperation helped here. This was so heinous, even the Mexicans cooperated. Agent Rosas had, by all accounts, been the best of the best agents - someone you'd be proud of
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/12/2011
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#1
I suppose to get him extradited we'll have to promise not to invoke the death penalty.
So instead we can put him in with Assange's buddy Private Whatshisface and just make him wish he were dead.
#2
Lock him up for life in the Marion Federal Prison - that prison only lets inmates out for 30 minutes a day for exercise and a daily shower. The rest of the time, the inmates are locked individually in their own personal cell. Kind of like a permanent solitary confinement.
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas, click here.
The total dead found in the mass grave in San Fernando, Tamaulipas has risen to 88 as 16 more dead were uncovered based on information provided by an unidentified detainee, according to Mexican press accounts.
Nearly all the dead are Mexican nationals taken from a bus hijacking incident March 29th on the highway between Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas and Matamoros, on the US border.
The new death toll makes this find the largest mass grave in modern Mexican history. To read Rantburg reports on the Tamaulipas mass grave, click here and here.
[Iran Press TV] Bahraini forces have kidnapped two senior holy mans as the government is putting more pressure to suffocate anti-regime protests.
The Saudi-backed Bahraini forces incarceratedholy mans Sayyed Mohammad al-Alawi and Sheikh Abdul Adim al-Mohtadi in the capital Manama on Monday.
It comes after the Bahraini government dismissed 30 doctors and 150 health ministry workers for supporting anti-government protests, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths... police stormed schools on Monday and incarcerated teachers ahead of a planned strike.
Earlier, Bahraini authorities expelled 16 Lebanese nationals from the country. The move came after the leader of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbullies, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, voiced support for the Bahraini protesters.
Bahraini people have been demanding an end to the two-century-long rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty since February 14.
Scores of protesters have been killed and many others gone missing since the beginning of the revolution.
Bahraini forces have reinforced a massive armed crackdown on the uprising with the help of Saudi, the UAE and Kuwaiti troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Voters in Iceland issued a resounding "no" in a referendum on whether to approve a renegotiated deal to compensate Britain and the Netherlands over the 2008 collapse of Icesave Bank, leaving the issue to be settled in court.
Voters took the reasoned position that if British and Dutch banks were stupid enough to invest in Icelandic banks that then collapsed, it's their own tough luck, and certainly nothing for which the voters will want to impoverish their children.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
ANIMALS-DON'T-SAY-CANADIAN-"EH!"-IN-ICELAND
versies
* WORLD NEWS > WHITE HOUSE WARNS OF "DEBT ARMAGEDDON", unless US Congress-critters vote to raise the US Debt Ceiling from US$14.29Triyuhn by 05/16th next month.
* TOPIX > ANALYSTS: US DEBT CEILING CRISIS TO ENEMIES ADVANTAGE.
POTUS-BAMMER-VS-GOP-VS-DEM IMPASSE > "NO $$$ = NO HONEY" FOR US GLOBAL ANTI-TERROR MILPOL OPS + SUPPORT ACTIVITIES.
No $$$ to pay, rotate Troops [again?], MilWares, etc. i.e. BRING THEM HOME TO PROTECT AGZ 03/11 "SENDAI"-STYLE HIGH MAG EARTHQUAKES, ANDOR MASSIVE GROUND INVASION BY THE NORTH KOREANS [Red Dawn II = remake].
[WW2 US Army Gen. GEORGE "KEEP THE TANKS ROLLING UNTIL THEY RUN OUT OF GAS" PATTON, Troops run out of Bullets + Beans, here].
And left unsaid is the driving factor for all those Euro banks investing their money outside of Europe and into more speculative markets to begin with. The socialist redistribution policies and heavy regulatory bureaucracies makes turning a profit less attractive than investing in foreign markets. Clean your own house first. You gamble, you lose, it's your problem.
[Tolo News] Afghan forces have incarcerated the plotter of Nangarhar airport attack in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan National Directorate of Security said in a statement on Sunday.
The incarcerated bad turban named Zarmalook is from Pakistain, the statement added. Whoa! Never saw that one coming, didja?
The man has admitted that 12 other Pak nationals were involved in the attack on Jalalabad airport.
The 12 Pak hard boyz are said to have been killed in the counter-offensive of the Afghan forces who resisted the attack on the airport.
On April 5 some hard boyz attacked on Nangarhar airport and seven of them were killed in festivities with Afghan forces.
Seven killed during the attack, but twelve killed altogether in the counter-offensive? When were the other five killed?
Afghan and foreign forces or civilians suffered no casualties in the attack.
Militants have many times attacked on Nangarhar airport without success.
Nangarhar province is bordered by Pakistain and violence has recently increased in some parts of the province. According to Afghan officials, Mohmand Dara, Ghoshta, Pachegam and Lal Poor districts in the province are relatively insecure.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2011
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[Arab News] Turkey says it is willing to consider the idea of hosting a political office for Talibs from Afghanistan in order to promote talks to end the war there.
But a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Monday there was no official application to open a Taliban office in Turkey and that there were no immediate plans to host Afghan peace talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with ministry regulations.
Probably just as well. Look at how they handled the indirect Israel-Syria peace talks.
Arsala Rahmani, a member of the council set up by the Afghan government to work toward a political solution to the insurgency, says Turkey is making plans for the office but it will take time to work out.
Pak President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... is scheduled to arrive in Turkey late Monday, and Afghanistan is expected to be high on the agenda of talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
*** cough *** YOUNG BENAZIR BHUTTO ON GUAM *** cough *** ....
versus
* WAFF > [Chechnya]TURKISH ISLAMIC JIHADIS VOLUNTEER, to fight agz Russia in Chechnya + Caucasus.
RUSSIAN ALLEGATIONS = EVIDENCE OF TURKIC ISLAMIST MILTERR INVOLVEMENT not refuted either by Chechen or Turkic Jihadists.
* Also from WAFF > ARE KOREANS + JAPANESE PART OF [ancient] TURKIC PEOPLES - YES!, thanks to DNA Analysis.
Turko Tartaric Mongol-Chinese whose waves of landlubber mass migrations ended up in offshore ancient future Nippon???
KEMAL ATATURK + TAROS BULBA IS AS JAPANESE AS GENGHIS KHAN + GERONIMO, ETAL.
* TOPIX > MEDEVEDEV WARNS CHECHNYA REBELS: SURRENDER OR BE DESTROYED.
#2
Maybe Johnny Turk should consider a Pakistani peace role, sending troops to occupy the restive parts of the country the central government can't seem to get control over.
I'm sure they would be able to persuade the Taliban to join them in the 19th Century.
Alberta-based Earth Energy Resources Inc. aims to start with a roughly 62-acre mine here to produce bitumen, a tar-like form of petroleum, from oil-soaked sands. The Bureau of Land Management says Utah has an estimated 12 to 19 billion barrels of oil buried in its tar sands, mostly in the eastern part of the state, though not all of that would be accessible.
#2
So if they got at HALF of the LOW estimate of that oil-ish stuff, they would have a full year's worth of US oil imports (back-of-envelope-calculation.) Start drilling... or whatever it is that you do to a tar sand.
#5
#4 The Environweanies are going to *love* that.
Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-04-12 15:22
Any Enviroweenie trying to interfere with this operation should be sentenced to work in the mine for five years. Maybe one out of 100 would actually learn something. That's about as optimistic as I can be.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/12/2011 19:19
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#6
I'd settle for cutting off their electricity, water and fuel. Let them rage by candlelight.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
UNITED NATIONS Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country.
California in the Balance.
A man, wearing a suicide bomber vest, died in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan after his bomb apparently exploded prematurely, said police on Sunday, adding no one was hurt in the explosion. The incident occurred late Saturday in Kizlyar town. The body of the man, identified as a 30-year old resident of Dagestan, was found at the explosion site.
[Yemen Post] Yemen's opposition coalition the Joint Meeting Parties, JMP, officially rejected the GCC initiative because it gives immunity to Saleh and his followers and does not call for the immediate withdrawal from power for 
Ali Abdullah Saleh,
Muammar Qadaffy
Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 6 cents at $112.85 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract jumped $2.49 to $112.79, the highest since September 2008.
[Ma'an] A Paleostinian
Egypt's military rulers have transferred former dictator 
Muammar Qadaffy shelled the besieged town of Misrata on Monday after the 
Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker....
Pakistan has privately demanded the Central Intelligence Agency suspend drone strikes against militants on its territory, one of the U.S.'s most effective weapons against al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, officials said.
Muammar Qadaffy
handed over their weapons
Hamid 
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa,
Peshawar
Mohmand
al-Assad,
Four men, including a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, were 
His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez
Zardari
Muammar Qadaffy,
incarcerated
