hat tip to Weasel Zippers: he's toast
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi survived a NATO missile strike Saturday that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren and wounded friends and relatives, Libya's spokesman said. curly-toed slippers don't fails me now!
Gadhafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house of his 29-year-old son, Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, when it was hit by at least one missile fired by a NATO warplane, according to Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim. knock knock! NATO America calling.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2011
19:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If you really want to hurt someone, kill off his children, until he's the only one left.
#4
I spotted him several times in the streets of Munich where he raced his roaring loud Ferrari without bothering for any rules.
Munich police impounded his car several times but then "diplomacy" kicked in. He was also known to beat up people in discotheques. Claims were discretely settled.
Good riddance. Sorry for the children though. I bet he was using them as human shields. Ugly Coward.
I try to see him in that scene of the movie Ghost. He's arising dead in midst of the ruins of his house and has a moment to realize that what's coming for him are not 72 virgins, but the shadowy demons who drag him away screaming into the darkness.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
04/30/2011 21:56
Comments ||
Top||
#5
"has a moment to realize that what's coming for him are not 72 virgins, but the shadowy demons who drag him away screaming into the darkness"
Heart. Warm. Cockles.
Thanks, EC. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2011 22:01
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Besoeker, I disagree. Killing a head of state is always permitted in war, even in 'legal war' theories. Gaddafi is a head of state and appears in public in uniform. He's a legitimate target. Saif had military rank -- ditto.
This means that our C-in-C is a legitimate target as well under the laws of war, something our past presidents, such as Roosevelt in WWII, understood very well.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2011 22:04
Comments ||
Top||
#7
And that was my nicer version, Barbara :-)
Posted by: European Conservative ||
04/30/2011 22:04
Comments ||
Top||
#8
#6 Besoeker, I disagree. Killing a head of state is always permitted in war,
Really? I suppose it depends upon the outcomes.
Historical Footnote: Booth was shot in a burning barn. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, and David Herold, were all executed by hanging. Samuel Arnold, Dr. Samuel Mudd and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to hard labor for life.
#9
If I remember well Booth didn't wear a Southern uniform when he sneaked into Lincoln's loge to shoot him from behind.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
04/30/2011 22:31
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Correct EC, both terrorists and cowardly assassins seldom wear uniforms. For that matter, uniforms have sort of gone the way of the Deutsche Mark when it comes to counterinsurgency warfare. Perhaps that says something for the line of work.
#11
The Deutsche Mark today would probably have reached parity with the dollar by now.
Not necessarily a good thing (except for extended holidays in the U.S.)
Posted by: European Conservative ||
04/30/2011 23:20
Comments ||
Top||
#12
FREEREPUBLIC > GADDAFI CALLS ON [for] WAR WID ITALY.
IIUC Uncle Muammar has declared since Italia has killed Libyan = Gaddafi's children? in 2011, he cannot interfere in the right of Libyuhns to strike back violently at such a heinous enemy(s).
IOW, Mummar has just declared a RESUMPTION OF SUPPORT FOR TERROPS TO BE LAUNCHED AGZ THE ENMIES OF HIS REGIME + LIBYUH, which may lessorily or subjectively include LIMITED STRIKES BY LIBYA'S ARMED FORCES.
* Various Regional States have placed their armed forces on alert in the wake of this attack + Gaddafi's response.
Animal lovers should stop calling their furry or feathered friends "pets" because the term is insulting, leading academics claim.
Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as "companion animals" while owners should be known as "human carers", they insist.
Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned -- who should instead be known as "free-living", the academics including an Oxford professor suggest.
The call comes from the editors of then Journal of Animal Ethics, a new academic publication devoted to the issue.
It is edited by the Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, a theologian and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, who once received an honorary degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury for his work promoting the rights of "God's sentient creatures".
In its first editorial, the journal -- jointly published by Prof Linzey's centre and the University of Illinois in the US -- condemns the use of terms such as "critters" and "beasts".
#1
Andrew Linzey, a theologian and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, who once received an honorary degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2011 19:39
Comments ||
Top||
#7
"who once received an honorary degree from the Archdruidbishop of Canterbury for his work promoting the rights of 'God's sentient creatures'"
That says it all.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2011 19:40
Comments ||
Top||
#8
My pet cat is Named Pet (short for Petra). She does not mind to be called as such as there is an understanding that whenever I call her, it s almost as if I were saying food's ready. She agrees to be domesticated as long as that excludes masticated. She is free-living (comes and goes as she pleases), but sometime a bit wild, and at other times a bitch. She is usually a cuddly critter, but there were times when she's a beast.
Regarding animal rights, she accepts that the mice have a right to be cornered and frightened to such a degree that their hearts pump blood with such a force that they jump off the floor by the sheer action of the pulse. She thinks the birds' feathers are unsightly and considers that birds have a right to be defeathered. Whether they are recycled or not depends on her mood. Squirrels have a right to be positioned on the doormat neatly, with their heads and tails. It is uncertain what happens to the body.
The army has seized control of a mosque which had become a centre for anti-government protests in the southern Syrian city of Deraa, witnesses say.
Soldiers are now stationed on the roof the Omari mosque in the city centre, after an assault supported by tanks. Activists said six people were killed.
On Friday, they reported that at least 66 protesters were killed across Syria - more than half of them in Deraa.
Officials said the number of dead was far lower, and included four soldiers.
State television said security forces had come under attack by "armed terrorists" in Deraa and Homs, Syria's third city.
Foreign journalists are not being allowed into the country, and the exact picture of what is happening remains unclear.
However, residents of Deraa said the assault on the historic Omari mosque involved troops backed by tanks and heavy gunfire. It took about 90 minutes for the army to gain control, they added.
"The shelling has stopped. There are snipers on the roof of the mosque," one man told the Reuters news agency, adding that forces appeared to be in control of the city's old quarter for the first time.
#1
good thing it's just Arab-on-Arab violence. If the Juice or Crusaders were involved it would be a war-crime against humanity.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2011 19:11
Comments ||
Top||
#2
sweeeeet. Our lil' pillow-biting inbred Saoooodi friend shows up, like that occasional bout of herpes, with all the same fanfare! Hellllooooo gay muslims!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2011 22:52
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Or is that the first word you learnt as a baby?
along with JUSTICE's childhood: "it's cool, we're related. Loosen up!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2011 22:56
Comments ||
Top||
#4
The odd thing is, there are Saudis who are charming and interesting, delightful at an intimate dinner party. Then there are those like young JUSTICE, who work hard to ruin the reputation of the entire country.
One day he'll realize to his horror that what he fondly hoped would be his future employer found his little ramblings, and all his father's wasta isn't going to help one bit. As has been well publicized, there is a surplus in his generation of young men with all his skills, and young women with considerably more, and employers will enjoy being picky.
The Alabama Senate approved a measure on Wednesday that would eliminate references to "Jim Crow" or segregationist laws as well as all mentions of race from the state constitution.
The legislation passed in a 22-9 vote, with all Republicans voting in favor after an all-night session, said Republican Senator Jabo Waggoner.
The proposed amendment would eliminate language that calls for separate schools for black and white students and poll taxes, the latter generally viewed as instituted to keep black residents from voting.
"Even though federal laws nullify these old wordings, it remains a black eye on the state," said Cam Ward, another Republican senator.
(Was that you, 'moose? I'm sure it wasn't the Lame Stream Media.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2011 16:40
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yes I did. I think it neither fair nor just that Democrats get a pass on doing overtly racist acts. I like to point out that only one of the national Dixiecrats ever became a Republican, and the rest stayed segregationist and racist and Democrat until their dying days.
Excerpt: American leaders make policies that fly in the face of Washingtons advice. The government spends way too much money, and will continue to spend too much money. Look at what is happening today. There are numerous entitlement programs, and government is expected to pay until the system is totally bankrupt. It is therefore foreseeable that the U.S. military will collapse when the U.S. financial system ultimately fails. Even our enemies recognize this, and look forward to it
"I just want you to know that we are working on it," Barack Obama reportedly told Sarah Brady regarding gun control. "We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar."
This interesting bit of news was reported in an April 11 Washington Post Lifestyle section story about Obama's gun-control and regulatory policy wonk Steve Croley. Toward the end of the article the writer, Jason Horowitz, mentions a March 30 meeting between Jim and Sarah Brady and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney during which the President "dropped in."
Horowitz quotes Sarah Brady relating how President Obama gave his personal assurance that he and his administration were working hard on a gun-control agenda. Brady reported that Obama then told them about advancing the agenda "under the radar."
Apparently Mrs. Brady either doesn't grasp the concept of "under the radar," or, more likely, she expected the reporter to be discreet and keep the "good news" about Obama's stealth operations to himself. Thankfully this reporter chose to report the news, so we have direct corroboration of Obama's sneak-attack against the Second Amendment.
One element of this agenda is found in a deceptively benign sounding "study" being conducted by the ATF. The ATF "study" examines current laws, regulations and practices regarding the importability of shotguns based on whether they are considered to have a "sporting purpose" in accordance with the provisions of the Gun Control Act.
The ATF "study" puts forward a bold list of features that they say generally distinguish non-sporting shotguns from sporting shotguns.
The trick is that the 1968 Gun Control Act is not the only federal law to which a "sporting purposes" test is applied. The National Firearms Act uses almost identical language when it declares that any firearm with a bore diameter of greater than .5 inches (a 12 gauge shotgun bore is about .73 inches) is a "destructive device," except for those shotguns that the attorney general determines to be particularly suitable for sporting purposes.
One seemingly minor change in enforcement lays the groundwork for bans not just on importation, but also eventually on sale and possession, of many popular shotguns. And it is all taking place virtually undetected and unopposed because, as Obama himself has stated, it is "under the radar."
#5
"...support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."
is an assault on the 2nd amendment through regulatory lawfare something that requires defense? If so, do federal officials who that that oath risk breaking the oath if they allow it? And are elected officials impeachable for so doing?
Inquiring minds want to know.....
#7
The NRA is seeking the resignation of Eric Holder over the "Guns to Cartels" program
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2011 18:54
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Totally agree A2U, wait until they find the spot in the 1700 page bill passed which says firearms, lead, and powder all lead to unacceptable health care risks. EPA, FAT are already on it, wait until HHS with an unlimited budget gets going.
Arming our enemies and organized crime, yet attempting to disarm legal law abiders on suspicion to commit crime.
And the reason these..people..can sit and pontificate is they will have their licensed diamond curriors and they will not be knocking on doors for handover searches.
Disarm every foriegn and domestic enemy before talking about the good guys. Even then, isn't it Haiti which is known for its sword fights? Think they can change the laws of man, of nature, of economics, of mathematics, by decree and PR, its bullshit.
A bill before the Texas State House would make it a felony for a security officer to intentionally touch someone's private areas even atop clothing unless they have probable cause to believe the person is carrying illegal items in those areas.
A spokesman for the TSA said the agency doesn't comment on pending legislation. The question then boils down to whether the security areas of Texas airports and bus terminals are under State or federal jurisdiction; and if the feds can legitimately claim that air transport, not just across State lines, but intrastate, is under federal control via the interstate commerce clause. And remember that the TSA just recently changed the rules, so that airports can no longer elect to have private security services doing passenger searches.
#1
I thought unreasonable search & siezures were against the Constitution.
The chances of the average searchee at the airport being a terrorist are very close to zero, if not actually zero. I cannot recall the TSA crowing about the terrorist they caught with a bomb on their person.
I can think of all kinds of cases of drugs getting through, however.
If the chances that a searchee is carrying a bomb is zero, it would seem unreasonable to me to search that person.
Of course, these invasive searches might have kept a few bombs off planes, but it would be easier to put a bomb in one's luggage than to bother to carry it into the plane if this were the case. Plenty of contraband makes it onto planes in luggage. So that argument is out the window, too.
#2
And remember that the TSA just recently changed the rules, so that airports can no longer elect to have private security services doing passenger searches.
That is so as to preserve legalized groping of men, women and children as a union thug right.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Fourth Amendment - Constitution of the United States of America
State Attorneys General should be arresting and trying these people under existing laws. Once the facts come out, no federal court and no Congress will be willing to undo the resulting convictions.
#5
Oath or affirmation - What asketh the bad son? He asketh: What do these words mean? These words were written over a hundred years ago and have no meaning. Therefore, I will substitute my own.
The concept is as valid today as it was then. Probable cause means just that: PROBABLE. Prove-able. Meaning you stand at least a 50% chance of being correct. So far, the TSA hasn't even hit 0.00000001%, if not zero itself.
particularly describing - Ever heard of the word "particular"? This means very specific. Exact. Enough to establish identity. The TSA is not operating on a particular warrant of any kind. It is some kind of "general" warrant, which in my tiny mind is unconstitutional.
Damn those founding fathers who made the Constitution a document that the common man could interpret so they would know if their politicians were taking advantage of them or playing outside of bounds.
#6
What asketh the bad son? He asketh: What do these words mean? These words were written over a hundred years ago and have no meaning. Therefore, I will substitute my own.
So close to what we read in the haggadah at the Passover Seder, gorb. :-)
A DOJ list of terrorism-related investigations conducted from Sept. 11, 2001 through Mar. 18, 2010 has been unsealed. There are 403 defendants on that list of which, according to the GAO, at least 43 percent were aliens--both legal (26 percent) and illegal (17 percent)--at the time they were charged with crimes.
Prosecuting terror-related targets using Category II offenses and others is often an effective method--and sometimes the only available method--of deterring and disrupting potential terrorist planning and support activities, explained the DOJ in the document that listed the defendants.
A March 2011 audit (released on April 21, 2011) by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), entitled Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests and Costs, shows that three individuals were among defendants where the investigation involved an identified link to international terrorism but they were charged with violating other statutes [not directly related to terrorism], including fraud, immigration, drugs, false statements, and general conspiracy charges, referred by DOJ as Category II terrorism-related cases.
Tip o' the hat to Richard Fernandez at the Belmont Club.
Israel's military is reported to have built a underground complex to train troops how to be Vietnam-style "tunnel rats" and go after Hezbollah in its elaborate bunker system across southern Lebanon should the shooting starts again.
The Hebrew-language Maariv daily reported this week that two of its reporters and a camera crew were allowed to inspect the "subterranean city" built in northern Israel "to train for an imminent war" against Hezbollah. The newspaper quoted an unidentified "military commander" as saying the complex was fashioned on the labyrinth of tunnels constructed by the Viet Cong at Cu Chi, northeast of Saigon, during the Vietnam War.
That complex of tunnels stretched for more than 100 miles 40 feet below the ground, on as many as three or four levels. They contained hospitals, arsenals, meeting rooms, sleeping quarters and kitchens.
The objective of the Israeli training program is to fight Hezbollah in its hidden bunkers, where it deploys rocket launchers aimed at Israel and stores its weapons.
The Israelis learned in the 34-day war it fought with Hezbollah in July and August 2006 that these concealed underground missile sites were impervious to airstrikes. After success in hitting missile sites in northeastern Lebanon during the opening hours of that conflict, Israeli forces were unable to stop Hezbollah from firing nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, including the port city of Haifa.
Since that war, in which Hezbollah's guerrillas fought the Israeli military to an embarrassing standstill, the Iranian-backed Shiite movement has constructed even more elaborate defense lines of bunker and tunnel complexes. This includes a countrywide fiber-optic communications system that supposedly cannot be electronically penetrated.
In the 2006 fighting, highly agile teams of Hezbollah fighters were able to repeatedly ambush Israeli infantry and armored units in the south Lebanon panhandle, popping up from hidden bunkers and causing heavy casualties.
"The Israeli military was only able to inflict a limited number of injuries to Hezbollah fighters when they emerged from their underground defenses," the commander told Maariv.
Israel's military intelligence estimates that these days Hezbollah possesses more than 42,000 rockets and missiles supplied by Iran and Syria. These include hundreds of long-range missiles capable to hitting anywhere in Israel.
Israel has developed the Iron Dome anti-rocket system. It made its combat debut in March against short-range Grad rockets fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip south of Israel. It shot down a dozen or so but only two batteries are operational and could easily be overwhelmed in large-scale missile attacks.
The Israeli air force has been equipped with U.S.-made "bunker buster" precision bombs but the military believes that sending ground troops into Hezbollah's bunker network will be more effective in knocking out launch sites and depots.
Hezbollah's arsenal of missiles and rockets is its most potent weapon because it exposes Israel's cities, industry and military bases to long-distance attack that to a large degree marginalizes Israel's vaunted ground forces.
U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in recent months indicate that Israeli planners believe the next war with Hezbollah will last up to two months. During that time 24,000-36,000 rockets and missiles are expected to be unleashed against Israel -- an unprecedented assault. Some 6,000 of these will be aimed at the urban area around Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city, where at least 1 million people live.
The casualty toll is expected to reach 3,500, with at last 100 civilian fatalities.
The cables filed by the U.S. Embassy in November 2009 noted that Israeli military chiefs estimated Hezbollah would fire 400-600 rockets a day during the conflict, 100 of them aimed at Tel Aviv.
In late March, the Israeli military released maps and satellite images of what is said were some 950 Hezbollah bunkers, missile sites and arms depots in south Lebanon, most of them hidden in or near 270 villages.
A senior commander warned Hezbollah that if it fired into Israel, launch sites would be destroyed, even if they were in populated areas. Many of these sites are believed to have been identified by Israeli agents since the 2006 war.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2011
10:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
The mainstream media got caught lying with the truth again. Christians for Fair Witness did the legwork and deserve our thanks.
The Palestinian Authority's decision to seek a deal with Hamas is being seen in Jerusalem as a gamble intended to attract support from the international community for a declaration of statehood from the United Nations General Assembly in September.
The PA is wagering that it is more important to present the world with an image of Palestinian unity in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip ahead of the vote than to distance itself from the terrorism of Hamas. By building a government of technocrats that would limit terrorism -- at least for a few months -- the Palestinians are trying to eliminate excuses that could be raised to prevent a state from arising.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu intended to tell European leaders in his visit to London and Paris next week that supporting the UN resolution in September would be giving the Palestinians theatrics but no state, while a state -- and a peace agreement -- could only be born via negotiations.
However, the Palestinian unity announcement, which took Israeli intelligence agencies by surprise, could make it harder for Netanyahu to make that argument, because there is no chance for negotiations with a Palestinian government built with a Hamas that refuses to renounce terrorism. Or the Palestinians might have played into Netanyahu's hands by making it easier for him to warn the international community against creating a state that could serve as a base for terrorism against Israel's heartland.
Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas will travel the world between now and September to try to sell their respective sides of the story. One element that could be crucial in getting world leaders to accept their narratives ahead of September 2011 is to make sure they understand why substantive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ended in September 2008.
This is especially important now because the Palestinians justified seeking a state from the UN and an agreement with Hamas by saying that reaching a deal with Israel was not an option. One of the central arguments that Abbas is making to world leaders is that he tried to reach an agreement with Netanyahu's dovish predecessor Ehud Olmert, and he came close, but the criminal investigations that brought down Olmert's government also ended chances of reaching peace.
Olmert has argued that the reason peace was not achieved is that he offered Abbas a sweetheart deal and the Palestinian leader never responded. He says that on August 31, 2008, three weeks before he resigned, he offered 100 percent of West Bank land (minus 6.8% in land swaps), 10,000 Palestinian refugees returning to Israel's final borders, and the holy basin of Jerusalem's Old City coming under joint Israeli-Palestinian-American- Jordanian-Saudi control. He last met with Abbas on September 16 of that year -- five days before he resigned, and more than six months before he left office -- and Abbas did not respond or make a counteroffer.
The 1,700 documents revealed by Al Jazeera and the Guardian in January, called "the Palestine Papers" or "Palileaks," were seen by much of the world as proof that the Palestinians were willing to make unprecedented concessions on Jerusalem and refugees in Abbas's talks with Olmert. That impression was fed by the analysis of the two media outlets that released the documents selectively in a way that made Abbas seem overly generous and Israel overly hard-line.
But a new reading of the documents by a Christian organization in the United States found that unlike the way they were reported, the Palestine Papers actually proved the Israeli point of view correct on all the key issues.
Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East -- which bills itself as a liberal, non-Evangelical Christian (mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic) organization focused on bringing facts about the Arab-Israeli conflict to American churches -- had a team of researchers read through all of the 1,700 Palestine Papers.
The organization has been trying to get the world to look more deeply into the papers as well, rather than accept the misreporting of them as fact.
THE KEY concession that the Palestinians were reported to have made was control over Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Al Jazeera broadcast that the Palestinians had offered to "let Israel keep all but one of the Jewish enclaves it built in East Jerusalem," referring to Har Homa, and settlements over the Green Line amounting to some 2 percent of the land controlled by Jordan between 1948 and 1967.
But Christians for Fair Witness found that the Palestine Papers did not indicate that Abbas made a counter-offer to Olmert's August 31 proposal. They revealed documents indicating that the Palestinians had decided ahead of the final Olmert-Abbas meeting on September 16 not to issue a counter-offer at that meeting and that Abbas had been advised by his team to wait to respond until George W. Bush was out of the White House.
A December 2, 2008, memo indicated that in response to Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Welch's question about Olmert's offer, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Welch that "We offered a 2% swap that would allow 70% of the settlers to remain."
But the 2% figure is not mentioned at all in either a September 16, 2008, memo of "talking points" for Abbas at his final meeting with Olmert, or a September 22, 2008, memo of "Palestinian Talking Points Regarding Israeli Proposal." Therefore, it appears that the 2% figure did not play a part in the Palestinian thinking about possible responses to Olmert's package offer. Moreover, there is no indication whatsoever of this figure having been presented to Olmert post-September 16, 2008.
"Nowhere in the Palestine Papers is there any indication that Abbas ever communicated this 'counter-offer' of a '2% swap' -- or any other -- to Olmert," the organization wrote.
"And while the Palestinians had memos and maps outlining the Israeli offer in detail, there is no documentation in the Palestine Papers of the parameters of a counter-offer designed to respond to this offer."
THE SECOND concession the Palestinians reportedly made in the talks with Olmert involved the fate of the Temple Mount and the Holy Basin.
"The [PA] proposed international control of the key Jerusalem holy site," the reports said.
But the documents revealed by Christians for Fair Witness found that Al Jazeera had wrongly portrayed the international control over the Holy Basin as an official PA proposal. In the document, Erekat told American diplomats -- and not Olmert -- that he was speaking in his private capacity "That was not an offer, it was just talk," the organization said.
Finally, on the refugee issue, Al Jazeera reported that the Palestinians had agreed that Israel would only take in 10,000 refugees a year for 10 years for a total of 100,000, giving up their demand that all refugees from 1948 and their descendants -- amounting to several million people -- enter Israel.
But the documents highlighted by Christians for Fair Witness report a conversation between Abbas and Olmert that Erekat recounted, in which Abbas said, "Are you joking?" to Olmert's figure of 10,000 over 10 years. In a September 22, 2008, internal memo drafted in response to Olmert's offer, it states that "while we agree to negotiate the number of returnees in consideration of Israel's capacity of absorption, this particular offer cannot be taken seriously."
The Palestinians estimated Israel's absorption capacity at slightly more than a million people over a 10-year period. That's the only concession the Palestinians were willing to make on the issue. And even that would be only temporary.
They expected additional "returns" later on.
"While there have been claims in the media that the Palestinian Authority was willing to offer great compromises on refugees, the Palestine Papers reveal that this was not the case," the organization wrote. "While Palestinian negotiators spoke publicly about compromise on refugees, privately they spoke of the 'Right of Return' as a matter of individual choice that would have to be extended to each of over seven million 'refugees.' They anticipated the potential 'return' of millions of Palestinians to the State of Israel, with Palestinians retaining the open-ended right to try to negotiate additional 'returns' beyond any number initially agreed upon in a peace treaty."
The organization expressed hope that just like the understanding that former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat turned down a generous Israeli offer at Camp David in 2000 improved Israel's image internationally, the same could happen if the world realized that Abbas repeated Arafat's mistake in September 2008.
It said it was praying that this could help Israel avoid a major crisis this coming September.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2011
10:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Thank you, anon1. Like Japan or your own Australia, we can be grateful that the number of deaths and injuries might have been considerably worse. Nature is not always kind, and each part of the world has its own risks.
#4
Trailing wife, were it true that the number we lost was insignificant, then your assessment "it could be worse". Who are you to discount loss of life? God?
Having been reading your comments extensively, its obvious you take "moderating" to mean having no actual principles but just saying whatever sounds good at the moment. Not too long o you were stomping all over the female contributor of Rantburg for having views that are unpopular in your little mind( Anon1 and Fi) such as supporting Wikileaks or renouncing Judaism.
Maybe just maybe when you die they should bury you stomach down to give that ass you've been sitting on up on your high horse a rest. And maybe you should take your sexist fingers and write out a check to your Rabbi for teaching you that being a kept woman who doesn't actually work but just sounds like Whoopi from the view. And then maybe you should pray your husband puts up with you since you haven't really worked in decades, and if you did go back to the workforce you'd wind up as like the smartest cashier at Kohl's.
Go drink some tea and please stop assailing the world with whatever the Hell you think you should be saying. BTW, shouldn't you be observing the Sabbath, you fucking hypocrite?
Posted by: George Tholutle5614 ||
04/30/2011 12:47
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Trailing wife, were it true that the number we lost was insignificant,...
You are putting words into her mouth. Suggest you take a chill pill and wash it down with a glass of Thorazine, George Tholutle5614. That was offensive and insulting.
#6
George that was too blunt a stroke as we try to have a "civil well reasoned discourse" here. Many other sites I have visited are bloated with that sort of talk. We have visitors from all the world and I would like for them to see a site that promotes logic rather than emotion. When the bloods up we all can say things that we might regret later. Enjoy your visit but please try to tread lighter.
#7
stop assailing the world with whatever the Hell you think you should be saying.
I am most disappointed in your outburst Geo. Please step up to the blackboard and write the above phrase 100 times. I will not have one of my third graders acting in such a manner!
#8
Prayers and strength for search and rescue, it is an important day.
Those of you unfamiliar with tornadoes, there is a lot going on there. It is easy to focus on the vortex because, well, its fascinating, hypnotizing, in fact our department reminds those spotting to not get tunnel vision when we go out. See, its not the vortex which is deadly, it is the debris flying about. Forks stuck in walls, 2x4's impaling the engine cabin of a tractor, all that is real. After that, it is large hail. This storm, which lingered in Arkansas and Texas for a couple of days, I believe I saw reports of 3.5"+ hail and that size is a killer. Lightning. If low-precipitation there are lightning fires. If you get a high-precipitation event then flooding is a concern.
All that is with your weak to mid-level tornado. I was with a meteorologist the other day, the kind who chases for legit research (not the tourists, not going to start that rant).
First, some perspective. The Greensburg tornado, easy EF5, some measurements had the vortex at 2.25 miles across, nails the town. (Puts on tour guide hat) The town of Greensburg is/was famous for its 109 foot hand-dug well and 1000 lb. pallasite meteor, located at the bottom of the well. That tornado sucked that meteor out of the well and threw it 3 miles away. There were survivors of the hit, with stories about how they were scared they would drown as they hid in the basement bathroom and watched the water get sucked out of the sink and faucet...but they lived.
Meteorologist said some of these tornadoes were the same power, but concentrated into a smaller vortex (which increases wind speed) and with that happening, it creates that situation where a person could be in ideal protection and still not make it. Debris is more than sticks and stones and glass, but cars, houses, trees, basically anything not attached to the ground, and most of the stuff which is/was. That stuff falls...somewhere. And there is not reason to it. Greesburg story, tornado picked up a garage roof, threw 2 cars into the car already there, then dropped the roof - for real, its crazy.
Its the debris why the basement or interior room or bathtub (for a number of reasons bathrooms can be left standing when the rest of the house is gone, cover with a mattress or heavy blanket.) under stair case, is suggested. Trailer/Mobile homes can topple and roll in 60 mph winds - I heard that there were winds at 200 mph.
As I said earlier, this storm lingered a bit in Arkansas & Texas (mostly), and reports in my area about the potential severity of this system a full day beforehand so I would guess an area acclimated to such sever activity was well on top of this. Now, why people go camping or boating or whatever when only a severe storm would ruin your day I can't say, but there was plenty of heads-up on this. And as I explained, some of these were simply and unfortunately no-chance situations. I'm afraid to say that it may be another week before we have a fairly accurate count of losses, and I am afraid it will go past my personal guesstimate. I mean, they are still trying to clear roads and find safe shelter for people. And you can's sit there and sweep the roads it would take too long, but all that debris just destroys tires. Gotta get S&R/Water/Food in and Patients out.
So with good preparation, advanced information, motivated and mechanized S&R, good medical system, population density considerations, in conclusion yes it could have been worse. In fact, as a rule of thumb, it can always be worse. Speaking of thumbs, GT5614 why don't you take yours out of your ass and stick it back in your mouth before you say something else turtleshit stupid.
#9
"stop assailing the world with whatever the Hell you think you should be saying"
Follow your own advice, George, and go crawl back under whatever rock you slithered from. You're the hypocrite.
Oh, and the camel horse you rode in on.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2011 14:27
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Y'know, George, I used to like the old days here when you could say what you think. But posters used a regular nym, and you always knew where they stood and they were willing to take as good as they got.
If you had any courage to stand behind your words, you wouldn't be posting with a random nym and using a bogus IP.
Right now you're the punk, the wannabe, the slimy little freak who stands in back of the crowd and throws the rock, then slinks away.
So even though I long for the old days of uninhibited discourse where posters could say what they think, your comment is redacted.
#11
Thank you for this session of Rantburg U, swksvolFF.
My apologies to George Tholutle5614 and anyone else who feels I was tactless. Tact is not, unfortunately, one of my strengths. Quite possibly George Tholutle5614 is one of those affected by the storm, making his touchiness on the subject understandable, and his reticence to make of himself an object a matter of praise rather than otherwise. In these difficult times, stress occasionally bursts out in unexpected directions.
I am grateful to have so many valiant defenders, and feel quite humbled by your kindness. Thank you all.
TW wrote: Like Japan or your own Australia, we can be grateful that the number of deaths and injuries might have been considerably worse.
I was thinking the same thing when I read that comment: as bad as it was it could have been a lot worse. Since TW said I didn't think I needed to, but I was definitely thinking it. I am saddened for the people we lost and am praying for their families, the injured and the homeless. It could have been a lot worse.
George: does all that make me a bad person?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2011 16:03
Comments ||
Top||
#13
"George: does all that make me a bad person?"
Probably in his eyes, Dr. Steve.
Of course, he actually is a bad person, so he wants to drag everyone else down to his level.
It's called projection. From the bottom of a mile-deep pit.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2011 16:26
Comments ||
Top||
#14
"My apologies to George Tholutle5614 and anyone else who feels I was tactless."
Nobody else feels that, tw, and you don't owe that little asshole "George" an apology. He owes you one.
"Quite possibly George Tholutle5614 is one of those affected by the storm"
You're kinder than I am, tw (but we knew that), but I doubt it. If he'd actually been affected by the storms, he wouldn't have time to be on the internet bad-mouthing people who express sympathy and pray for those affected.
Assuming he even had any electricity.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2011 16:34
Comments ||
Top||
#15
You are welcome. Fortunately not many people have real first hand experience with tornadoes, especially not the monsters. I will admit I stopped short of a full story, on account that the rescue window is still very open and that part is quite frankly just not appropriate at the moment. Fair weather and good response time getting at it instead of waiting for the Fed's to show. First night is the worst - its the missing glasses theory "I need my glasses to find my glasses". Its like that but with light; it is dark, there are no landmarks, and every step is dangerous. At this point they should be moving right along, still good chances of rescue.
The other thing it seems they have on-scene are counselers. If that sounds out of place it isn't...there are toughies who find out they are not so tough at this, and there are regular people out there who don't like this but are sucking it up to go help anyways.
I don't know who GT5614 is, but if so grieved as to outburst like that ya need to put the damn keyboard down and take care of business. If you need to talk about it, talk about it. If you were just looking for a reason to rail on someone you need to go sit on the wrong end of a bar stool.
#16
I finally heard from my relatives who live 3 miles from where the Birmingham tornado touched down. All are well and no damage. I have experienced tornados first hand and I am always awed by the power they release.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/30/2011 20:21
Comments ||
Top||
#17
I finally heard from my relatives who live 3 miles from where the Birmingham tornado touched down. All are well and no damage. I have experienced tornados first hand and I am always awed by the power they release.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/30/2011 20:21
Comments ||
Top||
#18
God bless them (and you, of course), Deac
Frank
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2011 20:33
Comments ||
Top||
#19
Thanks, Frank G. I wonder why that posted twice?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/30/2011 20:46
Comments ||
Top||
While Jonah Goldberg was asking why have a debt limit at all, Michael Kinsley took it to the next stage: If the national debt doesnt matter, why have taxes at all? Particularly when you no longer have to print money, you can just quantitatively ease yourself into it. Once we raise the old debt ceiling, well be pretty much at the point where the U.S. government is spending $4 trillion but only taking in $2 trillion: For every dollar we raise in taxes, we spend two. No surprise there: The poorest half of the population pay no federal income tax. Theyre not exactly poor as the term would be understood in almost any other country, but in federal-revenue terms theyre dependents, so in order to fund government services for the wealthiest poor people on the planet we borrow money from a nation of subsistence peasants where pigs are such prized possessions they sleep in the house
#1
Anybody ever go to Disneyland and get on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/30/2011 13:27
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"he toured Africa with Bono and they were photographed in matching tribal dress looking like Colonel Qaddafis Mini-Me twins at a Tripoli sleepover."
#4
When the British Army had occasion to surrender, which they have had to do from time to time in the Revolutionary/Napoleonic era, they played a special tune called "The World Turned Upside Down" as they marched out to surrender.
Feels like that tune is growing in the background doesn't it, wonder if they play it at the White House?
ISMAIL Haniya, the prime minister of the Islamist Hamas movement in power in the Gaza Strip, said today he was ``ready to resign''.
``I am prepared to tender my resignation as part of the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah (the secular party of Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas),'' Haniya said.
``This agreement is very important and should boost efforts to end the divisions and encourage unity among Palestinians.''
On Wednesday, the rival Palestinian groups reached an ``understanding'' in Cairo to set up a transitional unity government and hold elections.
Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, has tried to bring the two sides together since Hamas defeated Fatah loyalists in week-long street battles four years ago, reducing their power base to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad expressed the hope on Wednesday that the agreement could lead to "the reunification of the nation, needed to enable our people to decide their destiny and to establish an independent state on all territories occupied since 1967, with east Jerusalem as its capital".
The Palestinian factions were on the verge of agreeing to a deal in 2009 that would have led to a transitional government ahead of elections when Hamas pulled out.
#1
The crowd grew as they spoke, with more Muslims appearing as the rally took place. Some waved shoes, an Arab symbol of disrespect. Others held up Qurans. American, Palestinian and Lebanese flags also were waved. More than 600 counter-protesters appeared to assemble.
Appeared?
Attorneys with the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor filed an appeal on behalf of Jones on Wednesday.
No doubt, the local chapter of the ACLU.
Written by NIRAJ WARIKOO, so I'm sure the bias I thought I saw was, in fact, my own koo-ran-o-phobic bias. [Yawn]
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/30/2011 9:21
Comments ||
Top||
#2
What an odd article. I look forward to something a little more balanced, written by someone with a better grasp of English. What on earth is a "young crowd"?
A good first cut article, ryuge. I wonder how soon we'll see riots in Afghanistan and elsewhere of the Pastor Jones' temerity.
#4
Angered, some of those protesters stormed past their police barricades and marched across Michigan Avenue as they hurled bottles and shoes at Jones' supporters across from them. One woman spit in Jones' direction.
Just like muslims everywhere. The young crowd then pushed down a security fence that separated them from Jones' supporters and surged forward, their faces tight with anger. For a moment, it appeared a major clash was about to break out.
And then they remembered the bigger picture of where they were. They remembered that they had a facade to maintain. Because they were not in the majority. Yet. But Arab-American leaders and police pushed back the angry group as dozens of police officers in full riot gear marched out in single file to separate the two sides. At least two were arrested.
I'm sure those same Arab-American leaders will be calling for more peaceful rhetoric in the future at the local mosques, too. Dearborn Mayor John O'Reilly Jr. said afterward that Jones was responsible for creating the disturbance by ignoring city requests not to approach the barricade.
It's a slightly more obscured argument along the cat<=>meat line. "He refused to comply," O'Reilly said. "He was asked, 'Please don't come to the barricade.' He just ignored us. ... His goal was to start trouble. ... That shows his character."
Gee. I thought I had the right to go where I wanted to when I wanted to. Since when does the government tell me where to stand?
In my opinion, criminal behavior begins and ends with the criminal. The criminal is responsible for the results of his actions at all levels. Terry should be able to stand where he wants and say what he wants as long as he is not endangering other people's lives. This is not a crowded theatre full of innocents. If one of them kills their neighbor or Terry Jones, then it is the responsibility of the person who did th killing with a rock, gun, knife, or their bare hands. It is an intentional act whatever the case. In a crowded theatre where people are trying to get out because someone yelled "fire", the people are not trying to kill each other, but that may be the result as they compete to get out a narrow doorway.
Terry Jones has revealed these folks for who they are for anyone who is paying attention. I hold these muslims responsible for their own behavior and actions. They are not going to use temporary insanity as a defense because everything sets them off. By choice. They were not born that way. They chose this path. And they listen to their peers and their imams and watch the TV and have decided that this is the way they wish to behave.
John O'Reilly needs to learn this or become a muslim himself.
#5
Jones' goal seems to be to become a martyr, and a cause for violent retaliation against Islam. I'm pretty sure he will succeed in getting himself (and others) killed if he continues on his path, but doubt it will lead to an uprising against Islam. We're all too bogged down in our guilt feelings to stand up for ourselves (the end result of too much unearned self-esteem?)
#6
While I've always considered Terry Jones to be something of an idiot, it's fascinating to watch him twist the extremely PC government of Dearborn into hypocritical knots. Whatever else he's done or will do that's priceless.
#7
According to the article I read the trouble started when Jones walked towrd the crowd "with his palms extended in a provocative manner". So open palms is now provocative. Appeasement so debases the people doing the appeasing.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/30/2011 20:30
Comments ||
Top||
I wonder if they have seen the writing on the wall?
Hamas' Syria-based leader, Khaled Mashaal and other senior Hamas officials are planning to relocate from Syria to the Arab emirate city of Qatar, Army Radio reported on Saturday. Quoting London-based Arab daily Al-Hayat, Army Radio reported that Qatar had agreed to host the leaders after Egypt and Jordan denied the request, but refused to host the party's military leaders.
[An Nahar] The al-Qaeda terror network is among the suspects in connection with a kaboom that killed 16 in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh, the government said Friday.
Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said that Sherlocks would pursue all leads including possible links to al-Qaeda which operates a North African offshoot which is active in the region, Agence La Belle France Presse reported.
"All leads will be investigated, including al-Qaeda," he said.
"The investigation continues to find the perpetrators, but for the moment I am not prepared to point the finger."
Fourteen people, most of them foreigners, died Thursday when a suspected suicide bomb went kaboom! at a crowded tourist cafe in Djemaa el-Fna, the main square of Marrakesh.
A total of 23 others were badly injured, two of whom died overnight, bring the toll to 16 Friday.
The blast was condemned as a terrorist attack by the Moroccan government, the United States and La Belle France and a Moroccan official said it may have been the work of a jacket wallah.
Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui said the 14 who died Thursday included 11 foreigners. No nationalities were given for the two fatalities Friday.
Authorities in La Belle France said at lest six of the dead were French.
Rabat, Washington and Gay Paree condemned what they said was a "terrorist" attack on the cafe, a favorite haunt for foreign visitors to the touristic city about 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of the capital.
Al-Qaeda's regional offshoot, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, is active in countries in the region, notably carrying out a serious of kidnappings for ransom in recent years.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... , who spoke to Morocco's King Mohammed IV on the telephone Thursday, said the bombing was "heinous, cruel and cowardly."
Witnesses said the kaboom happened on the terrace of the popular Argana cafe, whose facade and first floor were severely damaged, with tables and chairs strewn around the terrace.
The latest attack was the deadliest in the North African monarchy since 33 people were killed by 12 suicide bombers in Casablanca in 2003. An attempted attack in 2007 was thwarted and one of three would-be bombers killed.
Morocco, a country of 32 million people whose economy relies heavily on tourism, has largely been spared the pro-change revolts that have swept the Arab world since the end of last year.
But there have been three protests since February to demand reform, prompting King Mohammed to announce major political changes, including greater judicial independence.
In mid-April, he pardoned political prisoners, including Islamists, in a gesture of appeasement.
Moroccan security forces have been deployed in the country in the wake of the blast.
A senior police official said cordons have been erected at the entrances to Morocco's main cities, "to ensure the internal security of the country".
French intelligence and anti-terrorism experts will travel to Marrakesh on Friday to help in the probe, a source said.
The United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... , Perfidious Albion, Germany, Spain and the Council of Europe human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... watchdog also condemned the attack.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague described it as "utterly reprehensible and said alleged links to terrorism were worrying.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
Corinne Calvet aka Colette in "On the Riviera" aka Corinne Calvet, herself in "Sailor Beware" aka Charmaine in "What Price Glory?" aka Renee Vallon in "The Far Country" aka Suzzane Sorrel in "So This Is Paris" (Died in 2001 at age 76)
#3
This was the time for hats. Several women in their 90's still were wearing stylish hats in the late eighties. I kinda like'm. We still have the Red Hat women in my area. Then at around this time you had some of the most unusual gifted people;
Although a late news report by the Mexican news daily Milenio quoted sources saying a third gravesite exists west of Durango city which contained as many as 40 victims, the death toll includes only those found in the original two sites.
The exhumations began three weeks ago as Mexican Federal agents acting on a phoned in tip found four dead buried in the Providencia colony of Durango city. Information developed from arrests revealed a second site nearby near a radiator shop in La Fuentes colony.
The latest reports in Milenio continue to suggest a third site exists between the city limits of Durango and El Salto in the Pueblo Nuevo municipality. Sources on the report are anonymous and the facts are unconfirmed.
Vela Valenzuela said that 14 individuals have so far submitted DNA samples in connection with the Durango graves. Last reports were that more than 200 individuals had submitted DNA samples in the San Fernando, Tamaulipas cases.
In related news, two Durango state police agents were killed in shootouts and pursuits in Durango city.
A patrol of the Durango state Policia Estatal Preventiva was fired on on Bulevar Francisco Villa at about 1740 hrs Thursday by armed suspects killing state police agent Raul Segura Antuna and wounding two others.
Security forces responding to the subsequent Code Red entered several colonies in Durango inclduing El Eden, Granja Graciela, Fidel Velasquez and Domingo Arrieta colonies in search of armed suspects involved in the shooting on Bulevar Francisco Villa.
During the sweep a police commander Sergio Hernandez Escobedo, was shot and killed while travelling on Bulevar Politecnico. A few meters away a third shootout took place near Durango state government offices on Bulevar Domingo Arrieta, where one armed suspects and a number of weapons were seized.
#1
However, just do it to hundreds of females in Juarez and the authorities really didn't, still don't care. Guess it wasn't a direct threat to the authorities incomes or lives.
#2
Women are murdered in Juarez because they are part of organized crime, they know or are related to someone in organized crime, or they are victims of organized crime. There's no middle ground here.
And while it is certainly bad women are getting killed, men are killed by a number several factors higher than women.
I think it is bad politics and worse policy when a factor in pointing out just how bad things are in Juarez, you have to point out women are being killed.
It is subtly bad idea that women somehow have greater value than men when the fact is that organized crime shooters who target their victims often go out of their way to avoid shooting those who are not related to the reasons the target is selected, men, women or children. Ipso facto, they will concentrate their weapons fire on those who are, men, women or children.
The problem in Juarez, as elsewhere, isn't women are getting killed; it is the pervasiveness of organized crime in Mexican national life, and that can get everyone killed.
#3
Tough. The same problem happened on a smaller scale in Albuquerque. Google Albuquerque serial killer. Killed the same profile of victim. The police didn't care and couldn't be bothered to put two and two together. It's not me elevating a definable groups status, it's the authorities who downgrade 'human beings' as unworthy of attention.
#4
The issue of murdered women in Juarez is not directly related to the Cartel's. Women were being killed there at a horrendous rate for the last 20 years. Check P2k's link.
[Al Jazeera] At least two people have been killed after Ugandan police fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds protesting against the arrest of Kizza Besigye, leader of the country's main opposition party, a Rooters witness says.
Ugandan security officials prevented Besigye from boarding a plane to Kenya on Friday to seek treatment for injuries received during his arrest on Thursday.
"Plain clothes men have blocked him from leaving. We don't know why. They are threatening him with arrest if he does not leave (the airport)," Anne Mugisha, deputy foreign secretary of the the Forum for Democratic Change party (FDC), said.
She said the plane Besigye had been due to board left for Nairobi without him.
One of the victims in Friday's riot appeared to have been shot in the head and was lying in a pool of blood at a local market, a witness said.
Michael Nataka, from the Ugandan Red Thingy, said more than 100 people had sought medical attention.
"There are a number of injuries. Some, about 21 of them, have bullet wounds. Then we have people who have been affected by tear gas, there are those who have injuries as a result of stones, they were hit by stones," he said.
"Then we have those who look like they were beaten, either by batons or sticks. Then we have those who were maimed as a result of falling down as they were running." Nataka said.
Local media reported a third person had been killed in the riot, but the claims could not be independently verified.
Smoke billowed over the capital Kampala after crowds burnt tyres to block roads.
Protesters stoned shops and cars to express their anger at Besigye being beaten, pepper-sprayed and dragged away by police, all shown on TV.
Besigye, who was a runner-up to veteran president Yoweri Museveni in a disputed February election, was placed in durance vile and later freed on bail for his role in leading the ongoing protests against soaring fuel and food prices.
The protests - dubbed "walk to work" in solidarity with Kampala residents who cannot afford public transport as a result of high fuel prices - have been joined by several opposition politicians, one of them still in detention.
Besigye's arrest, the fourth time in three weeks he has been jugged, followed a week of detention in a countryside prison where he was held with three of his supporters and the head of the Democratic Party, Nobert Mao.
The leader of the FDC, who has previously been jugged on trumped-up charges of rape and treason, said he was leading peaceful protests and that he and his supporters had the right to protest.
"We shall continue protesting within the law [and] peacefully. None of us is armed," he said while seated on the back of a police pick-up truck, his right hand hit by a rubber bullet a week ago still heavily bandaged.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
[The Nation (Nairobi)] At least three Mombasa mosques have been identified as recruiting points for al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader... militia in Coast Province.
Top of the list is Masjid Musa in Majengo where darasas (religious classes) are held every Tuesday with the aim of recruiting youths as soldiers for the militia group.
In a press briefing during an anti-drugs workshop in Mombasa organised by the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, council treasurer Sheikh Hassan Omar said though informed of the happenings, the government was yet to take any measures to stop the recruitment.
Efforts to get comments from Masjid Musa leaders were unsuccessful. The imam declined to speak, but the chairman promised to issue a statement after consulting the committee.
"It is the government's duty to protect its citizens but it is sad that to date, although we have informed several security officials of the happenings, no action has been taken.
"The government should take all measures possible to save our youths by arresting those responsible for the recruitment and severe action taken against anybody else involved in this exercise," said Sheikh Omar.
To him, government laxity had encouraged more mosques to start recruiting al-Shabaab members.
The holy man said the youths were lured with false religious persuasion and money which is paid out in two instalments; Sh40,000 given to the youths while still in Kenya and another Sh40,000 on arrival in Somalia.
"It is sad that our youths are dropping out of school in Form Two to join the militia group and a large number of them die in the battle field although such information is normally hidden from us," he said.
Sheikh Omar said the council could confirm up to 10 youths dead, but the number could be as high as 50 with those returning alive posing a security threat to the country.
The youths, he said, were taught weapon assembly and usage. They were told that they were fighting a holy war yet "the war in Somalia is not jihad as it involves Mohammedans fighting against other Mohammedans."
Sheikh Omar restated that Kwale and Mombasa were the main recruiting points. On Thursday, police released the photograph of a Somalia-trained terrorist identified as Abdullahi believed to have sneaked back into the country to launch an attack in Nairobi.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
"It is sad that our youths are dropping out of school in Form Two to join the militia group and a large number of them die in the battle field"
Just doing the work that ordinary surviving Somalians won't do.
[Bangla Daily Star] A leader of Janajuddha faction
Splitter!!!!
of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP-ML) was killed in a 'shootout' between his cohorts and Rab at Goashbari village under Ataikula Police Station in Pabna
Presumably somewhere on the map...but it sounds too small to see without one of Old Patriot's special maps and a stronger pair of glasses.
early yesterday.
Ziarul Rahman, 28, alias Bomaru Zia,
A good alias, to be sure.
son of Mofiz Uddin of the village, was operational commander of the outlawed party.
Habibul Islam,
Golly. With a name like that, one might begin to suspect he's probably not a Lutheran .
officer-in-charge of the cop shoppe, said a patrol team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) challenged a gang of outlaws near Goashbari High School at about 3:00am as they were roaming there suspiciously.
Everyone knows only the most hardened of miscreants hang out at high schools.
Spider senses tingling at the proximity of the elite force, the outlaws opened fire on the law enforcers forcing them to fire back.
It's like getting an engraved invitation from the queen, you see. No real choice about how to respond.
Ziarul was caught in the line of fire while trying to flee the scene.
He somehow managed to flee in exactly the right way to acquire one bullet behind each ear. Quite clever, if you think about it.
His body was sent to Pabna Medical College Hospital morgue for his appointment with Doctor Quincy.
"He's dead, Jim."
"Your perspicacity continues to amaze, Dr. Quincy. (Perspicacity is the word for today on my "Word of the Day" calendar)."
Police seized a shutter gun, a pistol, two magazines, one cartridge and five bullets from the spot.
Subsequently cleaned by the newest Rab recruit, polished to a gleam, and stored in their individual velvet bags until next they will be needed.
Ziarul was wanted in several cases including seven for murder, police said.
An old-fashioned badman. The modern ones all go in for ISI-sponsored jihad.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm still waiting for the local residents to capture one of these bad guys and their cohorts, and string them up in the town square. That will do far more to put a stop to murder and mayhem than anything RAB can do. Of course, if they ALSO happened to capture the group's ISI controller, that would be something requiring a spectacular effort - perhaps fireworks in the victim's clothinghonor or something.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/30/2011 12:10
Comments ||
Top||
[Al Jazeera] Egypt is to permanently open the Rafah border crossing to ease the Israeli blockade on Gazoo, Nabil al-Arabi, the country's foreign minister, has said.
Golly, that's a surprise. How soon until Gaza is the tip of the Egyptian spear again, d'you suppose?
Arabi said Egypt would take "important steps to help ease the blockade on Gazoo in the few days to come".
Then the Gaza flotilla really is unnecessary.
Speaking to Al Jizz on Friday, the minister said Egypt would no longer accept that the Rafah border, Gazoo's only crossing that bypasses Israel, remain blocked, describing the decision to seal it off as "shameful".
The announcement came days after Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, which controls Gazoo, and their secular West Bank rivals Fatah, which controls the Paleostinian Authority (PA), agreed to end their rift and form an interim government to prepare for elections.
In talks before the deal, the two sides had discussed reopening the crossing after positioning PA representatives at the border, a condition in a US-brokered 2005 border crossing agreement between Israel and the PA.
Mahmud Zahar, a senior Hamas official, told the AFP news agency that it was understood that the crossing, which under the 2005 agreement was to be monitored by European Union delegates, would be opened after a unity deal.
Still monitored by the fair-minded EU, is it?
Israeli concerns
A bigwig in Jerusalem said Israel was "very concerned" about the implications of the Rafah crossing being open.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said Hamas had already built up a "dangerous military machine" in northern Sinai which could be further strengthened by opening Rafah.
"What power could they amass if Egypt was no longer acting to prevent that build-up?" the official said.
Earlier this week, unknown assailants in northern Sinai blew up a gas pipeline supplying Israel and Jordan, the second time it has been sabotaged in 10 weeks.
"We are troubled by the developments in Egypt, by the voices calling to annul the peace treaty, by the rapprochement between Egypt and Iran, and by the upgrading of relations between Egypt and Hamas," the Israeli source said.
"These developments potentially have strategic implications for Israel's national security."
Paleostinian officials welcomed the Egyptian move, with Saeb Erakat, the PA's chief negotiator, saying it was one step towards loosening the siege on the Gazoo Strip.
"We welcome this step by Egypt. We have been pressing them all the time to end the suffering of the people in Gazoo, but the real siege is caused by Israel because there are many border crossing with Israel but only one with Egypt," he said.
"We ask Israel to open all the borders to end this crime against the Paleostinian people in the Gazoo Strip," he said.
Hatem Ewidah, the Hamas official in charge of border crossings in Gazoo, also welcomed the move, but stressed it was "important to open the commercial crossing with Egypt" to reduce the impact of the blockade.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
[Yemen Post] According to Abdu Ganadi, a governmental spokesperson, the GCC general secretary will arrive to Sanaa on Saturday to officially hand over the GCC invitation to sign the transfer of power proposal. Ganadi said that the signing will take place on Monday in Riyadh.
A GCC official in Sana'a confirmed that that GCC general secretary Abdul Latif Zayyani will arrive on Sana'a on Saturday.
Sate media in Yemen has been repeating over the last 24 hours that Zayyani will arrive on Saturday and a government delagtion will go to Riyadh to sign the agreement on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
[Bangla Daily Star] Three activists of BCL Chittagong University (CU) unit were maimed when supporters of a rival faction attacked them following an altercation over playing a cricket match yesterday.
The injured are Mehrab Hossain, a third year student of Applied Physics department, Rasel, a first year student of Physics department and Foysal, a third year student of Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries.
Police inspector Mizanur Rahman of university police outpost said activists of a Bangladesh Chhatra League ... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ... (BCL) faction stabbed Mehrab, of the rival faction, at the Shaheed Abdur Rab Hall playground around 4:30pm.
When Mehrab's friends were taking him to CU medical centre, the rival groups attacked them again, leaving two others injured.
Mehrab was rushed to Chittagong Medical College and Hospital at death's door while others took treatment at the medical centre, Mizanur added.
Mohammad Sayedul Islam, assistant proctor of CU, said stern action will be taken against those involved in the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...For some reason, I read this as "3 Hurt in BCS Infighting", and all I could think of was that these college football fans were getting out of hand.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/30/2011 14:25
Comments ||
Top||
[Iran Press TV] Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have deployed tanks and armored vehicles in Diraz, shortly after attacking a peaceful protest march in the western village of Karzakan.
Witnesses say regime forces fired live bullets and tear gas at anti-government protesters and that army helicopters have been flying over protesters in Karzakan on Friday. There were no immediate reports of casualties or arrests.
What odds the troops are rented from Pakistan, rather than Bahraini?
Also on Friday, the regime forces besieged the northwestern village of Diraz with tanks and heavy military vehicles.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Esquimeau village our hero was receiving a quick lesson in aeronautics:... pro-regime thugs backed by police stormed Dair village.
Despite a martial law and the brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, hundreds of protesters erupted into the streets in several Bahraini cities following the Friday Prayers, demanding an end to the rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.
They also condemned the Manama regime's violent crackdown on demonstrators.
On Thursday, a military court in Bahrain sentenced four anti-government protesters to death and three years to life in prison for their alleged involvement in the killing of two coppers last month.
Bahrain's Center for Human Rights says the charges brought against the four protesters are politically motivated and rights activists have questioned the trial's legality.
The verdicts have also caused international outrage with the European Union and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbullies strongly condemning the death sentences, describing them as deplorable.
"Such a judgment is a continuation to the crime committed by the regime in Bahrain against its people," Hezbullies said in a statement.
"The reality of matters shows that these judgments are political and not judicial, the regime's attempt to [show] it is a judicial [matter] will not succeed in hiding the truth of what the Bahrain people are [suffering] from. They are being oppressed because they are demanding their legitimate rights," the statement added.
Dozens of protesters have been killed and scores of others have been injured since the uprising began in Bahrain in mid February.
Many journalists, bloggers, doctors, lawyers and opposition activists have also been placed in durance vile as part of a widespread crackdown on anti-regime protests.
Protesters are demanding an end to the 40-year rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.
Protesters say they will continue their street demonstrations until their demands for freedom, constitutional monarchy as well as a proportional voice in the government are met.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Jazeera] A brief ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia has broken down, shattering hopes for a quick end to the border conflict as the two sides exchanged fire for an eighth day.
Field commanders agreed to the truce in a meeting at the disputed border on Thursday. But Cambodian Colonel Suos Sothea said the Thai army fired artillery shells into Cambodia again on Friday and small arms fire crackled anew around the Ta Krabey temple, which lies in a disputed zone along the frontier.
"We cannot trust the Thais," he said. "Yesterday they said they'd stop fighting and now they are attacking us again."
The corpse count since the festivities has risen to 16.
Thai army front man Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said there had been light festivities late on Thursday as well as early on Friday.
He blamed Cambodia for breaking the deal, saying its "local units might not agree to the talks as easily as their commanders did."
The director of Phanom Dongrak hospital, about 20 km from the border, confirmed one Thai soldier was killed late on Thursday, bringing the total dead to 16.
Al Jizz's Wayne Hay, reporting from Ta Mieng, Thailand, near the border with Cambodia, said that "Thais are beefing up their presence, but Cambodians are doing the same as well.
"More and more people in Thailand, are starting to believe that there are political motives behind these festivities.
"Cambodia has used these festivities as a political tool for internal politics."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"DAY OF THE GENERALS", i.e. both Armies continue to slug it out despite any Govt-Political orders to the contrary???
[WW1 FRENCH ARMY HERO = WW2 ENEMY? OF FRANCE MARSHAL PETAIN here].
CAMBODIA is repor appealing to the UNO + World Court to settle the issues.
CHINA is demanding both sides make an end to the fighting.
#2
ION PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > INDONESIAN PRESIDENT WARNS ISLAMIC RADICALISM RISING, which threatens in LT to alter the character of the Indones Nation + Peoples.
[Al Jazeera] Dozens of people have been rubbed out by Syrian security forces, activists claim, as tens of thousands took part in anti-government rallies dubbed a "day of rage".
Activists said at least 62 protesters were killed across the country on Friday, although Al Jizz cannot independently verify the corpse count.
At least 15 people were reported killed near Deraa where security forces fired on thousands of protesters trying to enter the besieged southern city, sources told Al Jizz's Rula Amin.
Deraa has been the scene of regular demonstrations since protests against Syrian president Bashir al-Assad's rule began last month, but the city has also borne the brunt of weeks of government repression.
The government claims its forces are battling "extremist and terrorist groups in the town" and said two soldiers were killed on Friday.
"Deraa has been under siege since Monday morning. Residents from the surrounding villages were trying to break the siege as they tried to get supplies," our correspondent said.
"They met with hostile security forces who fired at them and we know that at least 15 people were killed.
"One resident told me that people do not have supplies, no communication, the situation is dire and they wonder what the security forces want from the town," or correspondent said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#2
While I harbor no love for Pencil-neck, there is a strong probability that many of the protesters he has had killed are ones we would also want killed. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend, especially in that part of the world.
[Ennahar] Five municipal guards were killed and four were maimed by the kaboom of a bomb in the wilaya of Ain Defla, in northern Algeria, said Friday the newspaper El-Watan citing an informed source.
The newspaper provides no indication of the circumstances of the attack which took place in the town of Oued Djemaa, in the extreme southeast of the town of Ain Defla (140 km south-west of Algiers).
On 17 April, five soldiers and a policeman had been killed in similar circumstances in Amal and Bouderbala, east of Algiers.
These attacks, not claimed, are generally attributed to the gunnies who continue to operate in the country. However, The well-oiled However... they fell with the national reconciliation policy launched by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third term, which is probably why Algerians are ready to dump him... six years ago to the attention of all who lay down their arms.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Bangla Daily Star] Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy ... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ... crossed into neighbouring Tunisia and fought a shootout with Tunisian troops in a frontier town yesterday as Libya's conflict spilled beyond its borders.
Pro-Qadaffy forces fired shells into the town of Dehiba, damaging buildings and injuring at least one resident, and a group of them drove into the town in a truck in pursuit of anti-Qadaffy rebels.
The Libyan government troops were chasing rebels from the restive Western Mountains region of Libya who decamped into Tunisia in the past few days after Qadaffy forces overran the border post the rebels had earlier seized.
Government tanks launched a fresh assault on Misrata, rebels said.
"Four tanks attacked the city and one has been destroyed so far," said Ibrahim Ahmed Boushagha, a rebel fighter who accompanied a maimed man back from the front in Misrata.
"They took up positions during the night on the airport road, and tried to enter the city. We've stopped them at the outer limits, at least for now."
He said his group had come under mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire, and three or four of them were maimed.
AFP journalists reported whistling sounds followed by a volley of detonations from the direction of the airport early afternoon, with an enormous plume of grey smoke rising over the area.
A constant stream of casualties was brought in to the city's main hospital, with several rebels saying the men had been maimed in a counter-attack by regime forces.
Earlier, fierce festivities and continuous kabooms were heard in the suburbs, an AFP journalist said, and at midday the hospital reported a toll of two dead and 16 maimed.
Dr Khalid Abu Falra of the city's medical committee said that a small clinic in the western suburbs also reported at least three deaths.
Western Misrata also came under seemingly indiscriminate mortar and rocket fire yesterday as a 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... warplane flew overhead, witnesses and medics said.
While the Libyan forces were battling in Dehiba, the rebels who are fighting to end more than four decades of Qadaffy's rule announced they had seized back the border post.
Rebels seized the post a week ago, as it controls the only road link which their comrades in Libya's Western Mountains have with the outside world, making them rely otherwise on rough tracks for supplies of food, fuel and medicine.
After weeks of advances and retreats by rebel and government forces along the Mediterranean coast, fighting has settled into a pattern of festivities and skirmishes.
The fighting for the crossing between Dehiba in Tunisia and Wazin on the Libyan side was typical of the fluid and confused conflict, which broke out in mid-February.
Some of Qadaffy's soldiers were killed and maimed in the fighting in Dehiba. Two residents told Rooters that shells had fallen on the town from pro-Qadaffy positions across the border in Libya.
"Rounds from the bombardment are falling on houses.... A Tunisian woman was injured," one of the residents, called Ali, told Rooters by telephone.
He said later the fighting and shelling had stopped. "The Tunisian army is combing the town. We have no idea about the fate of Qadaffy's forces there because the Tunisian army closed the gates to the town and nobody is allowed to enter."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Uncle Muammar's Boyz = Libyuh have repor apologized to Tunisia for the incident.
#3
Western Misrata also came under seemingly indiscriminate mortar and rocket fire yesterday...
It makes no sense why Govt. forces would waste their arms by blasting em off willy-nilly. It must have something to do with the Viagra Susan Rice was talking about the other day.
#4
Thats truly an international incident and an act of war with Tunisia. Note how immediately after th incident, Gdaffy duck recanted and made statements and stood on his head and spun around.
BASRA / Aswat al-Iraq: The Iraqi army conducted maneuvers in Basra on Thursday within preparations to received security duties from U.S. forces, according to the commander of operations in the southern Iraq province.
We conducted mobilization drills in which ground, naval and air forces as well as special troops participated in the area of Khour al-Zubeir, Lt. General Muhammad Jawwad Howeidi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The drills were carried out with live munitions and helicopters took part in the drills. The objective is to enhance the Iraqi forces readiness to completely receive security responsibilities from the U.S. forces, added Howeidi.
For his part, Lt. General Riad Jalal, the commanding official of the drills, said the maneuver is one of the most successful to date, adding coordination among the participating corps was high.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Embattled President 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. ... has accused Qatar of a "conspiracy" and threatened to pull out of a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) transition deal to end the violence in Yemen.
"Contacts are under way for the signing of the agreement on Monday in Riyadh, but we have reservations about some mediators involved in a conspiracy," Saleh said in an interview with the Russia Today television channel.
He singled out Qatar among the six-nation GCC and accused it of causing unrest in Yemen where more than 145 people have been killed in the past three months as protesters demanding the immediate ouster of Saleh.
"The state of Qatar is funding chaos in Yemen and in Egypt and Syria and throughout the Arab world," he charged.
"We reserve the right not to sign if the representatives of Qatar are present" at the ceremony, Saleh warned.
The foreign ministers of the GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Soddy Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- are to meet in Riyadh on Sunday to finalize the Yemen transition deal before presenting it to the parties for ratification.
The plan proposes the formation in Sanaa of a government of national unity, Saleh transferring power to his vice president and an end to the deadly protests rocking the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation since late January.
The president would submit his resignation to parliament within 30 days, to be followed two months later by a presidential election.
However, The well-oiled However... a defiant Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years, has publicly insisted on sticking to the constitution in any transfer of power, even though his ruling General People's Congress party has said it accepts the GCC plan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV] Hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters take to the streets in Yemen to demand the immediate departure of President Ali Abdallah Saleh, instead of the phased handover of power.
In the capital, some 100,000 demonstrators erupted into the streets to mark a "Friday of Loyalty to the Martyrs" after attending the funeral of 12 anti-government protesters who were killed by security forces on Wednesday.
"We will continue our revolution forcefully and we will not back down even if we have to offer a million deaders," a holy man told the crowds.
The protesters also condemned a deal proposed by the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council under which Saleh will receive complete immunity from prosecution in return for transferring power to his vice president and submitting his resignation to Parliament within 30 days.
The agreement is due to be signed in Soddy Arabia on Sunday. Many protesters, however, say Saleh cannot be trusted to honor the deal.
In the port city of Hudaydah, plainclothes gunnies attacked anti-government protesters, wounding at least 10 demonstrators.
"Two of them were seriously injured, and they were kidnapped by what we think were plainclothes secret police and put in a car. There was nothing we could do," AFP quoted Abdulhafez al-Hatami, a political activist in Hudaydah as saying.
Similar huge anti-Saleh protest rallies were also held in the cities of Ibb and Bayda.
According to local sources, since the beginning of anti-Saleh demonstrations across Yemen in late January, at least 300 protesters have been killed and many others injured during festivities with riot police and armed forces loyal to the unpopular Yemeni president.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
[Ma'an] Gazoo Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... on Friday called on the Paleostinian Liberation Organization to withdraw its recognition of Israel.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the announcement of a reconciliation deal between Hamas and Fatah by saying the Paleostinian Authority must "choose between peace with Israel or peace with Hamas."
Presidential front man Nabil Abu Rudeina said Netanyahu "must choose between peace and settlements."
Speaking after the Friday prayer in Gazoo City, Haniyeh said that the PLO should not only demand that Israel chose between settlements and peace, but should also withdraw its recognition of the state.
In a surprise unity deal announced Wednesday, Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a transitional government ahead of elections to take place within the next year.
President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... said the interim government would not dictate policy when it came to negotiations with Israel, which would remain the mandate of the Paleostine Liberation Organization that he heads.
On Thursday, Netanyahu met with government ministers who decided to reject negotiations with a united Paleostinian government, Israeli media reported.
The Paleostinian unity deal crossed "a red line," Israel's settler Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday, warning that an array of measures could be taken against the Paleostinian Authority.
Haniyeh said the unity deal would meet Paleostinian peoples' aspirations, and reflected the will of the people. He said obstacles to unity placed by Israeli "would be overcome."
The reconciliation deal followed youth protests across the West Bank and in the Gazoo Strip demanding an end to the national division. Since March 15, protesters demanding Paleostinian unity have taken to the streets, camped out in public squares, and held hunger strikes.
Tensions between Fatah and Hamas date back to the start of limited Paleostinian self-rule in the early 1990s. They worsened dramatically in 2007 when Hamas forces ousted Fatah from the Gazoo Strip after a week of deadly festivities, cleaving the Paleostinian territories into hostile rival camps.
The disunity of the Paleostinians has prevented them from taking a common stance in peace talks with Israel, which are now off the table.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
For many years we (in Israel) have been remindedby the Israeli left wingers how valuable the peace agreement with Egypt was. It has now fully collapsed in two weeks. I expect severe problems with the Egyptians in the near future as the peace treaty disintegrates.
This should be a very vasluable lesson to anyone who believes a "peace agreement" with the Paleostinians will be worth the paper it's written upon.
Making any concessions to the Treacherous Paleos will only weaken Israel and is an act of sheer stupidity and wishful thinking.
The entrenched paleostinian habbit is to bite the hand that feeds them.
"New middle east" is indeed looming in our future, only it is not the utopia-like kind envisioned by the self-deluded Shimon Peres.
Personally, I hope we have enough nukes stashed away for the coming rainy days. I also hope we have the guts to use them in the critical moment.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
04/30/2011 10:46
Comments ||
Top||
A visit to Zim-bob-we by Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Friday has provoked vicious attacks from state media.
The government-owned press launched attacks on Mr Odinga after he accepted an invitation to a congress for a party led by a fierce rival of President Bob Muggsy Mugabe. Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case...
Mr Odinga's office in Nairobi confirmed that he will officially open Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party congress in the second city of Bulawayo on Friday.
He will first pay a courtesy call on President Robert Mugabe of Zim-bob-we at State House, Harare, before travelling to Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo. Mr Odinga is expected back in Kenya later in the day.
While Mr Odinga has agreed to speak at the MDC meeting, it is not clear whether Mr Mugabe might try to keep Mr Odinga out of the country.
However, The wishy-washy However... State media propaganda against the PM's party has gone into overdrive in what analysts say is a reflection of widening cracks in Zim-bob-we's coalition government.
The state owned Herald newspaper, which usually reflects the thinking in President Mugabe's Zanu PF party, described Mr Odinga as a merchant of violence.
"Who then is this Raila Odinga?" asked George Rugare Chingarande in the paper's opinion pages.
Dictatorial streak
"Raila Odinga is a political schizophrenic. His rhetoric oozes with (sic) refined contemporary democracy dogma but his actions reveal a very violent and dictatorial streak.
"The exorbitant nature of this obsessive preoccupation with violence is rivalled by a few in modern day African. His proclivity for violence can be traced to his student days."
Mr Mugabe's sympathisers have never forgiven Mr Odinga for calling for the 87 year-old leader's exit in a 2008 interview with BBC.
In the interview, the Kenyan Prime Minister called on African leaders to push Mugabe out of power because he was a stumbling block to political reform in Zim-bob-we.
Mr Mugabe however reacted angrily, saying Mr Odinga was not welcome in Zim-bob-we.
The Zim-bob-wean power-sharing deal that brought opposition leader Tsvangirai into government was modelled on the Kenyan agreement after the disputed 2007 elections that saw Mr Odinga become prime minister while Mr Mwai Kibaki retained the presidency.
The MDC congress whose theme will be "United Winning Covenant for Real Change" started on Thursday afternoon and ends on Saturday.
All the executive positions will be contested at the congress except the presidency and party leadership which will remain in the hands of Mr Tsvangirai.
Zim-bob-we's unity government was also formed after contested elections in 2008. Mr Mugabe declared victory in a one-man presidential runoff after a violent campaign against the MDC and its supporters.
This led to the signing of the Global Political Agreement, similar to Kenya's National Accord, that created the unity government.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV] Mexican prosecutors say they have extradited the leader of the Tijuana narco mob, Benjamin Arellano Felix, to the United States to stand trial.
Felix who was handed over on Friday, is one of the highest-profile cartel members extradited since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, AP reported.
Felix will face charges of conspiracy, money laundering, controlled drug trafficking, aiding and abetting, and operating a criminal organization.
In October 2008, Mexican security forces captured Felix after a three-hour shootout with more than 100 coppers and soldiers in the border city of Tijuana.
More than 5,000 people have been reported missing in Mexico, and many are presumed to be victims of the drug war, according to According to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission.
Mexico says more than 34,200 people have been killed in violence and bloody wars between narco mobs since December 2006. Attorney General Arturo Chavez says criminal gangs and narco mobs killed more than 15,000 people in 2010, making it the deadliest year ever.
The spike in drug-related violence comes despite a crackdown launched by President Felipe Calderon against narco mobs. He has ordered the deployment of about 50,000 troops across Mexico to combat narco gangs. President Calderon has announced that four additional battalions would be deployed to the northeast of the country.
The Mexican president has successfully pushed the United States to acknowledge its own responsibility in the violence in Mexico since it is the American market that fuels drug-trafficking and American guns smuggled into Mexico that are used by narco gangs.
"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of coppers, soldiers and civilians," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Tallyrand ... said in 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Narcos
#1
"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade."
A stopped clock is right ....
"Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals"
Inability? Or unwillingness? And how can one make a border a one-way membrane to smuggling (keep things from moving south, while allowing illegals to move north?)
#2
"Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals"
I seem to recall that the Department of Justice deliberately let those weapons through to the narco gangs despite the expressed concerns of the gun sellers, some of which were used to kill two Border Patrol agents in Mexico. It is the job of the secretary of state to announce the president's position on a given subject, but when the plot and the perpetrators have been publicly revealed, she really ought to display a bit of principle and spine.
#3
"Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of coppers, soldiers and civilians," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."
How much longer did her nose grow when she said that?
Tell the truth, Hill - your only concern is your inability to cover up that the Administration YOU serve sent the weapons south on purpose.
Hmmm. Wonder if there's any way to check if any of Bambi's "donations" came from the Mex cartels? I'd at least check the bank accounts of the higher-ups in the ATF.
/conspiracy theory
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2011 14:20
Comments ||
Top||
[Iran Press TV] Soddy Arabian riot police have attacked a peaceful protest rally east of the kingdom, injuring at least five people while attempting to disperse demonstrators by force.
Despite a heavy security presence, hundreds of anti-government protesters erupted into the streets in the city of Qatif on Friday to condemn Riyadh's role in the brutal crackdown on Bahraini protesters.
They also called for human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... reform, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners some held without trial for more than 16 years.
Saudi women also held a candle-light vigil in the city of Awamiyah in solidarity with the people of Bahrain.
The latest protest rallies in Qatif came one day after activists announced that at least 30 people, including two bloggers and a writer, were incarcerated in the past few days for taking part in anti-government demonstrations.
According to an activist, those jugged were either called to cop shoppes and incarcerated or were incarcerated during raids by security forces.
Soddy Arabia's east has been the scene of anti-government protests over the past months.
Human Rights Watch says more than 160 dissidents have been incarcerated since February as part of the Saudi government's crackdown on anti-government protesters.
According to the Saudi-based Human Rights First Society (HRFS), the detainees were subject to torture both physically and mentally.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
[Dawn] Militants ambushed Pak police before dawn on Friday, sparking a shootout that killed two coppers and two faceless myrmidons in the country's troubled southwest, officials said.
One policeman and a jihad boy were also maimed during the shootout in Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, police said.
A group of faceless myrmidons attacked a police vehicle in the town of Mir Hasan, about 360 kilometres southeast of Quetta.
"Police also returned the fire and the faceless myrmidons bravely ran away after the encounter. Two coppers were killed and one was injured," Saadullah Khetran, Naseerabad district police chief told AFP.
Two faceless myrmidons were also killed in the shootout and their bodies taken to a local hospital, Khetran added.
Impoverished Balochistan is wracked by an insurgency waged by ethnic Baloch tribes seeking greater autonomy from the federal government and a greater share of profits from the region's wealth of oil and gas resources.
The region has also been hit by attacks blamed on Talibs, although sabotage of gas pipelines is a trademark of nationalist jihad boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Blasts from improvised explosive devices southeast of Baghdad on Friday left three people, including a police officer, killed and 28 others wounded, a security source said.
Three IEDs targeted an Iraqi federal police convoy in the village of al-Janabat, al-Zaafaraniya area, southeast of Baghdad, leaving three dead, a police officer and two civilians, and wounding 28 others, including eight policemen, the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Earlier, the source told Aswat al-Iraq that 12 persons, including four policemen, were wounded in blasts from three IEDs that went off near a convoy of police vehicles in al-Janabat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV] Senior Iranian holy man Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami warns of enemy plots to disturb the country's calm by spreading rumors about discord in the country.
"The foreign-based and isolated enemies of the nation, in their interviews constantly seek to suggest there is a rift in the country," Ayatollah Khatami told crowds of worshipers in Tehran on Friday, IRNA reported.
The holy man cautioned against an enemy plot to show the atmosphere in Iran as tensional, calling on Iranian officials "not to play in their court" and "not to fill their puzzle squares."
Ayatollah Khatami ruled out a "dual government" in Iran, and emphasized that the only rule in the country is that of the constitution which above all contains Islamic Jurisprudence.
The capital's interim Friday Prayers leader noted that the Medes and the Persians has learned to assess the righteousness of parties and politicians based on the enemy's response.
"I tell the foreigners that whatever figure or movement you support will be recognized as deviatory by the people [of Iran], and this will be to that [figure or movement's] disadvantage," he added.
Addressing the developments in the region, the holy man blamed the United States for the unrelenting violence in Arab countries where people are demanding the end of the rule of their dictators.
He accused 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... forces of engaging in "a war of attrition" in Libya in a bid to win control of the oil-rich country in the long run.
Ayatollah Khatami pointed to the US intervention in Yemen, and blamed the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council for siding with "dictators and executioners" and functioning as "the arm of the US" in the region.
He lashed out at the "deadly silence" from the international community.
"You the United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... , are you not an organization of nations? ... Why are you as silent as death? You the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... , are these not Arabs? Why aren't you supporting them? You the Organization of Islamic Conference, why have you been hit by this plague of indifference? Why aren't Mohammedan scholars crying out [in protest]?" he questioned.
Ayatollah Khatami warned the ruling royal families in Soddy Arabia and Bahrain to stop their violent crackdowns on popular demonstrations and anti-regime protesters.
"I warn Al Khalifa and Al Saud that every crime you commit takes you a step closer to elimination," he said
"People in the future will remember the Al Khalifa [regime] as war criminals and the Al Saud regime as traitors standing by Israel in the 22- and 33-day wars," he added, referring to the wars Israel waged respectively on Leb in 2006 and the Gazoo Strip in Dcember2008-January 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
"The foreign-based and isolated enemies of the nation"...seem to worry our esteemed friend. And he admits to some discussion about a "dual-government" as if that potentiality might exist. Well, he brought the subject up, I was just standing here watching him fiddling with his turban. I wonder what he could possibly be talking about, dont you?
And he speaks of "Islamic Jurisprudence" which, I think has something to do with if you shake it more than three times you might be playing with it. Which is an old Moslem custom and requires a law to govern any excessives (as it were).
I particularly like the use of the word "deviatory". Its in the text somewhere near the Iranian Constitution and the personality traits of the Medes and the Persians. It usually occurs in reference to foreigners like the evil (ONE) the United States, (TWO) NATO, and (THREE) any Moslem country which has a problem with Dictators.
The Holy Man also accused NATO and the violent United Statesforces of engaging in "a war of attrition" in Libya in a bid to win control of the oil-rich country in the long run. Personally, I have no problem with that myself, but we should be sensitive to the Iranian Moslem point of view which seems to think we might be doing what is in our own best interests in Libya.....to drag it all out as long as possible and wait for the next news brief on Syria strangling on its own breakfast. Neither Assad nor Khadaffy sure are going to get their developing abortions back in the closet anytime soon.I personally dont think they either one of them has a prayer.
Meanwhile the whole world munches donuts and watches the Telly with their feet up while our Holy Man lashes out at the "deadly silence" from the international community. It is apparent that the majority of humanity could care less what happens to Iran, especially when they are doing it largely to themselves. Its kind of interesting watching Moslems shove can openers up their nose.
And as a Closer, this Holy Man brings up how fast Israel is in waging a war and how the Moslems always seem to lose in Oopsy time.
As to what people of "the Future" will remember...that depends on WHO writes the History books.
BUT if you see the street signs in Hebrew you know Islam has had some big problems somewhere on THAT highway.
Posted by: de Medici3489 ||
04/30/2011 8:42
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Theholy man cautioned against an enemy plot to show the atmosphere in Iran as tensional, calling on Iranian officials "not to play in their court" and "not to fill their puzzle squares."
he also said: Don't get caught in a half-court defense or give up the fast-breaks and turnovers. Don't ice the puck. Play smallball with their heavy hitters, and finally 'give us 110% and play it one game at a time'", quoting Ayatollah Crash Davis
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2011 15:18
Comments ||
Top||
#3
And just 'cause it's fun: http://weaselzippers.us/2011/04/30/power-struggle-in-iran-has-ahmadinejad-playing-hooky-from-work/
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas, click here.
The Mexican Army intervened in an intergang fire fight near the Tamaulipas-Nuevo Leon border, killing six suspects according to Mexican press accounts.
A Mexican Army unit of the 8th Military Zone late Wednesday night entered an area near Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, dispatched after reports of an intergang firefight were received. Entering the area just past midnight it immediately came under grenade and small arms fire. The ensuing firefight lasted almost six hours killing six armed suspects.
Seized in the aftermath were assault rifles, ammunition and weapons magazines, as well as three vehicles.
In nearby Ciudad Mier, Tamaulipas on Wednesday, a Mexican Army unit on patrol in the area fought a gunfight with armed suspects killing two. Seized following the operation were 15 rifles, 9,132 rounds of ammunition, 187 weapons magazines, three vehicles, and military gear.
#1
Badanov: It needs to be said more often -- thank you for all your work in finding and putting out these articles on the "secret" war in Mexico. At least, "secret" as far as the utter lack of coverage in the US MSM.
Strange as it may seem, this puts you on nearly the same, exclusive level as Michael Yon. Less actually getting shot at, of course.
William Randolf Hearst must be rolling over in his grave, thinking of all the newspapers he could sell with an honest to god war in Mexico. Yet these MSM boogers couldn't care less.
DIALA / Aswat al-Iraq: A leader in north Iraqs Kurdistan Alliance has demanded that a portion of the U.S. forces remain in the areas of dispute of eastern Iraqs Diala Province, due to what he described as non-readiness of the Iraqi forces to take over the security dossier in the province.
Our Alliance in Diala Provinces Council demands to keep part of the U.S. forces in the Province, for several reasons, most important of which is the deterioration of the security conditions in the province, Assistant Chairman of the Provinces Security Committee, Dilair Hassan told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Thursday.
A little worried about their position with the Shi'a around Kirkuk?
The decision on the complete withdrawal of the U.S. forces from Iraqi territories, including Diala Province, will be reflected passively on the security conditions, especially if all evidences point to the non-readiness of the Iraqi forces to receive the security dossier in full, Hassan said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Northern Diala province is effectively part of Iraqi Kurdistan.
I think most of terrorism in the central area where Kurds and Arabs overlap comes from Sunnis against those 'uppity' Kurds.
#2
I imagine the Kurds are still pushing out the Shiite immigrants that Saddam brought into the North to settle on Kurdish land. That creates tension since the immigrants probably don't have anything to back to after 20-30 years (if they had anything in the first place).
Protests against Assad took place in most major centres around Syria on Friday, in a repeat of pro-democracy rallies that have become the norm after weekly Mohammedan prayers. Activists called on protesters to express solidarity with Deraa, where more than 100 people died a week ago.
Friday brought the largest anti-regime protest in the Syrian capital since the protests began last month. Several thousand protesters demonstrated in the conservative Sunni neighbourhood of Midan, many calling for the toppling of the regime, witnesses told Al Jizz.
After the protesters had dispersed, a small pro-government demonstration took place with demonstrators carrying sticks and chanting: "With our soul and blood, we sacrifice to you Bashar." "Saddam Bashar, we will defend you with our blood!"
Witnesses told the AP news agency that security forces had fired on around 2,000 protesters chanting "God, Syria and freedom only" in the central 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... neighbourhood of Midan.
Large demonstrations were also reported in the central city of Homs, the coastal cities of Baniyas and Latakia, the northern cities of Raqqa and Hama, and the northeastern town of Qamishli.
The AFP news agency reported that 10,000 turned out in Banias, shouting "liberty, solidarity with Daraa" and "down with the regime."
In Deir Ez-Zor, northeast of the capital, two demonstrators were beaten with batons and electrical cables after 1,000 people emerged from a mosque and were dispersed by security forces, Nawwaf al-Bashir, a human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... activist, told AFP.
According to the the AFP, some 15,000 people turned out in the majority Kurdish city of Qamishli and the surrounding towns, shouting "national unity" and "with our soul and with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for Daraa," activists said.
'Death and devastation' Meanwhile, ...back at the sandwich shop, Caroline was experimenting with ingredients... an eyewitness in Deraa, speaking to Al Jizz on Friday from close to the Omari Mosque that has been a focus for the uprising, described a scene of death and devastation.
He confirmed earlier testimony from a separate source of a split in the military forces sent by Assad to lay siege to the city.
The witness said he had collected the names of the dead from different neighbourhoods and counted 25 bodies in his own area.
"Some areas smell really bad due to the bodies rotting in the street. No one can collect them for fear of being shot," he said, the sound of continuous gunfire audible over the phone. Those bodies which have been collected are being stored in refrigerated lorries, he said.
"Deraa is completely surrounded by tanks and armed troops. There are snipers on the roofs of government buildings and tall buildings. They are hiding behind water tanks and some are even hiding in the minarets of mosques."
The Rooters news agency reported on Friday that a human rights campaigner revealed that makeshift morgues in Deraa contain at least 83 corpses, including women and kiddies.
We counted 83 bodies so far, many stored in refrigerator trucks. Most of the bullets went through heads and chests, indicating that snipers most likely had done the shooting,"Tamer al-Jahamani, a prominent lawyer in Deraa, told Rooters.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
DIALA / Aswat al-Iraq: A suicide blast that targeted a Shiite mosque in the district of Baladruz left eight people killed and 18 others wounded on Thursday, a senior security official in Diala said.
A suicide bomber with an explosive belt strapped to his chest blew himself up inside a Shiite mosque in Baladruz, (45 km) southwest of Baaquba city, killing eight persons and injuring 18 others, Muthanna al-Temimi, the chairman of the Diala provincial councils security committee, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Baaquba, the capital city of the volatile province of Diala, lies 57 km northeast of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Jazeera] Moroccan authorities have stepped up security following Thursday's kaboom at a cafe in Marrakesh in which at least 16 people were killed, including 11 foreigners.
A senior police official said cordons have been erected at the entrances to Morocco's main cities and security forces deployed across the country, "to ensure the internal security of the country".
"Preliminary investigation ... suggests that this was a terrorist act caused by an bomb," the official MAP news agency quoted Taieb Cherkaoui, the interior minister, as saying on Friday.
Khalid Naciri, a government front man, told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency it was too soon to say who had carried out what he called a terrorist attack.
Interpol, the international police agency, condemned the attack and said it would ensure "the Moroccan authorities investigating this terrible attack have the full support of the global law enforcement community."
French intelligence and anti-terrorism experts will travel to Marrakesh on Friday to help in the probe, a source said.
Police sought to restore calm in the iconic Jamaa el-Fna square, a cultural heritage site frequented by tourists, while Sherlocks worked to determine how it was carried out and who was responsible.
Police were at the site searching for clues on Friday morning, keeping back onlookers who showed up to see the dramatic sight. The kaboom ripped off the facade of the Argana cafe, leaving awnings dangling.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Jerusalem Post Front Page] The Libyan government said on Friday it had taken control of Misrata's port and warned rebels in the besieged city they faced further bloodshed unless they handed in their weapons in four days and received a pardon.
Libya was coordinating with the Tunisian government to prevent a disaster on the border, government front man Mussa Ibrahim told news hounds. He blamed the rebels for border violations and pledged respect for Tunisia's illusory sovereignty. Ibrahim also urged any imported muscle to leave the country or we will "finish you off."
Earlier on Friday. forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy ... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ... crossed into Tunisia and fought a shootout with Tunisian troops in a frontier town as Libya's conflict spilled beyond its borders.
Pro-Qadaffy forces fired shells into the town of Dehiba, damaging buildings and injuring at least one resident, and a group of them drove into the town in a truck, local people and a Rooters photographer in the town said.
The Libyan government troops were pursuing anti-Qadaffy rebels from the restive Western Mountains region of Libya who decamped into Tunisia in the past few days after Qadaffy forces overran the border post the rebels had earlier seized.
Tunisia's government late on Thursday issued a statement condemning incursions by Libyan forces after shells fired by Qadaffy loyalists fell into the desert near the border.
"Given the gravity of what has happened... the Tunisian authorities have informed the Libyans of their extreme indignation and demand measures to put an immediate stop to these violations," a statement from the foreign ministry said.
Friday's festivities marked the first time that Libyan government ground forces had crossed the border and entered a Tunisian town.
Residents said that a crowd of local people gathered in Dehiba on Friday morning to try to prevent pro-Qadaffy forces from entering the town.
They said the Tunisian military had gun sex to disperse them, and urged the demonstrators to seek shelter from the shelling inside their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Earlier on Friday. forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy crossed into Tunisia and fought a shootout with Tunisian troops in a frontier town as Libya's conflict spilled beyond its borders.
What? Crossed the border did they.... in hot pursuit of foreign backed conterinsurgent mooslim terrorists.... yes, counterinsurgent mooslim terrorists, attempting to make their way to the safety of cross-border sancuaries? Did I mention COIN and cross-border enemy sancuaries?
Has Libya learned nothing from our COIN lessons in Afghanistan; our...don't go too close to the border policy; our catch & release program; our highly successful pre-sharia trial detention at Sarpoza Prison? .....Oh WAIT!
[Arab News] [Arab News] A senior Islamic Jihad member on Friday said that his movement will not join the Paleostinian national unity government the rival Fatah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movements will form to end their internal split.
Mohammed Al-Hindi, a member of Islamic Jihad politburo, said in a press statement that the movement "will not participate in the unity government in accordance with the Cairo announcement" since the Islamic Jihad "does not join any of Paleostinian Authority's institutions that were established in accordance with Oslo Accords."
"Ending the differences between Fatah and Hamas on the government, elections and security is an important move. But the deal does not form a national reference that the Islam Jihad calls for," Al-Hindi said.
Fatah and Hamas representatives on Wednesday signed a preliminary agreement on all controversial issues including the elections, reformation of Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the formation of the interim government in Cairo.
For its part, the Israeli government decided to hold off any contact with the incoming national unity government.
Israeli government sources said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak took the decision following a series of consultations on late Thursday.
Mark Regev, front man of Netanyahu's office, said will not hold any contacts with the Paleostinian Authority (PA) if the latter is "related in any way with Hamas."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Jihad
#1
More strategic, proliferation worries for Tel Aviv as per Iran, except not ala Iran...
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SAUDIS BUY ADVANCED NUCLEAR-CAPABLE MISSLES FROM CHINA [new CSS-3's = DF-3's to "replace" early but still reliable DF-21 variants purchased by Prince Bahar for the KSA in the 1980's.
The KSA also repor purchased short-range DF-15 B's, C''s.
and
* WINNIPEG FREE PRESS > PAKISTAN SAYS IT HAS [test]FIRED ANOTHER NUCLEAR-CAPABLE CRUISE MISSLE. The "Hatif-8" ALCM wid a range of 220 miles = 350-kms.
The United States Friday blocked assets of the powerful brother of Syria's President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad, One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... several other officials and of the country's intelligence services and Revolutionary Guard.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
The Syrian Accountability Act already forbids any U.S. company or person to do business with Syria. This latest executive order by Pres. Obama is meaningless.
Posted by: American Delight ||
04/30/2011 14:26
Comments ||
Top||
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter ... the worst president ever. Maybe the second worst. The votes aren't all in yet... on Thursday urged the West not to interfere over human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... in North Korea and immediately resume food aid to the renegade nation. Carter was in Seoul as part of a group of ex- leaders calling themselves the "Elders" that included former Irish President Mary Robinson and former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari who were winding up a three-day visit to North Korea.
Carter, 86, who was not travelling on behalf of the U.S. government, had been invited to North Korea for discussions with senior political and military officials as a way to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which he said were ''at rock bottom."
He travelled with two other former presidents, Mary Robinson of Ireland and Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, and former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway. All four are members of the Elders, an independent group of world leaders established by Nelson Mandela.
Ms Robinson echoed Carter's concerns about what she called the "very serious crisis" over food supplies in North Korea because of a harsh winter, severe flooding and an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. She said the withdrawal of U.S. and South Korean food shipments had aggravated a dire situation, which had become "a matter of life-and-death urgency."
Ms Brundtland cited a lack of running water in hospitals, even in maternity and pediatric wards, and a deep shortage of what she called "essential medicines." A third of all North Korean children were stunted because of malnourishment, she said.
Carter said North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho came to the guest house, where he took a sheet of paper from an envelope and read to them what he said was a written message from Kim.
"He specifically told us that he is prepared for a summit meeting directly with President Lee Myung-bak at any time to discuss any subject directly between the two heads of state," Carter said.
Kim Jong-il "sent word that he and the people of North Korea are willing to negotiate with South Korea or the United States or (the other powers involved in six-party nuclear disarmament talks) on any subject, at any time and without any preconditions," he added.
Asked if he mentioned human rights to North Korean officials, Carter said he believes there are some human rights concerns about the North Korean regime's policies but that they cannot be changed by outsiders.
He said that one of the most important human rights is "to have food to eat and for South Korea and Americans, and others to deliberately withhold food aid for North Korean people... is indeed a human rights violation." Critics in South Korea were stunned that Carter appeared to ignore the Kim Jong-il regime's responsibility for egregious violation of human rights including the operation of concentration camps, public executions and torture but accused Seoul of violating North Korean rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
But the Norks can afford to develop nuclear weapons and keep a HUGE standing army.
What a bunch of sick disgusting excuses for human beings.
#2
On the surface it would appear that ex-POTUS Jimbo is going against the very same, original Human Rights-centric rationale he began his international sojourns long ago after he left office.
OTOH, METHINKS JIMBO RECOGNIZES THAT NORTH KOREA'S DOMESTIC SITUATION [Food] IS STEADILY EVOL BEYOND DIRE, + THAT NEW FULL-SCALE WAR ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA IS MUCH CLOSER THAN ANYONE WILL ADMIT. IMO Jimbo likely is seeing that the US-West + ROK + UNO may have no choice in the end but to prioritize INTER-KOREAN, REGIONAL PEACE OVER HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN NORTH KOREA.
FOOD AID = STOPPING KIMMIE FROM ATTACKING VARIOUS MAJOR MIL TARGETS IN SOUTH KOREA + JAPAN, THUS ACHIEVING DPRK-DESIRED "MUTUAL DESTRUCTION" + INTENTIONAL US-CHINA, ETC. REGIONAL CONFLICT INCLUD NUCWAR???
Kimmie + Regime have no qualms about fighting the MAD "final battle" that Reagan, Bush 1 + Gorby did not after the collapse of the Berlin Wall + implosion of the USSR.
* WAFF > NORTH KOREA CONTINUING TO BUILD NUCLEAR REACTOR [Yongybon] | {StrategyPage] NORTH KOREA: THE ARABIAN NIGHTMARE.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > REAL POVERTY IN CHINA [PRC versus UNO WB Poverty Standards].
ARTIC = China continues to claim "neglible" poverty rates + 10% annual growth rates despite having Asia's, World's biggest population of poor.
#4
I wonder how long a starving cripple would be able to attack anyone.It might be unpleasant, perhaps even "disturbing" to be attacked by a starving cripple....but, ask yourself, just how long would the attack last...and who would ultimately win?
That is the bottom line...who is going to win. Club him when he comes and then get him in the bag. You can always wash up afterwards. Have a special unit ready for Kimmie, say he was killed in the fighting and look sorry about it.
Load the cripple on the truck, move in your own Army and keep out the reporters. You can triage to your advantage, make sure the Chinese frontier is secured. Explore the potentialities of benign neglect and salvage the useful. There are a myriad of ways to control and isolate NGOs.
Give it three weeks for the whole world to forget, they always do.
Get on with it.
Posted by: de Medici3489 ||
04/30/2011 7:53
Comments ||
Top||
#5
I wonder how long a starving cripple would be able to attack anyone.
I think the scenario has been covered in a couple hundred zombie movies and games. Just don't let them get too close to mob you.
#8
would someone do me a favour and shoot Jimmah in the head ?
so much stuipidity in one man is unbelievable.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
04/30/2011 10:22
Comments ||
Top||
#9
He's Invited to Nork?
We'll be paying ransom to get him back.
So why go? Or is that the whole idea, Go and let them ransom him back?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/30/2011 10:27
Comments ||
Top||
#10
"Carter, 86, who was not travelling on behalf of the U.S. government, had been invited to North Korea for discussions with senior political and military officials as a way to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which he said were ''at rock bottom." "
Well no problem. If tensions were high that would be bad, but tensions at rock bottom sounds like the peninsula is happy for a change. No wonder the North wants Carter there.
I suspect the oddly worded bit is more the fault of the writer than Carter but I think its funny.
#11
If James Earl Carter looked me dead in the eye and said the grass was green and the sky is blue, I'd take a trusted team of people outside to confirm it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/30/2011 13:27
Comments ||
Top||
#12
Kim Jong-il "sent word that he and the people of North Korea are willing to negotiate with South Korea or the United States or (the other powers involved in six-party nuclear disarmament talks) on any subject, at any time and without any preconditions," he added.
What's to negotiate? Drop your guns and come out with your hands up or stay in there and starve.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/30/2011 13:41
Comments ||
Top||
#13
The Kimmie regime in NORK has remained while others fell because of governments giving so-called humanitarian aid that propped up said regime. Including the US. Jimmy and Co are enablers of despots, not humanitarians.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2011 14:41
Comments ||
Top||
#14
enablers generally have a sick sense of love and support, so...
I would say "spot on", Al-Aska Paul
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2011 15:34
Comments ||
Top||
#15
I think that's it RJ, a volunteer human-shield and/or hostage. Someone quipped (I wish I could give proper credit) the other day that NORK holds its people hostage so the west either lets millions starve or feeds/arms their declared mortal enemy.
[Iran Press TV] Renewed hope for Paleostinians after Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Fatah reached an initial agreement to set up a unity government.
The breakthrough came on Wednesday in the Egyptian capital, Cairo following intensive dialogue.
The initial understanding paves the way for the formation of a transitional unity government. The move also means fresh elections will be held within months. An exact date for the polls has yet to be set.
The reconciliation ends more than four years of division within the Paleostinian political landscape. Negotiations between Israel and the Paleostinian Authority have been another source of friction.
On Friday, Hamas called on the Paleostine Liberation Organization to rescind its recognition of Israel.
The division between the factions emerged in June 2007, some18 months after Hamas was democratically elected and beat Fatah in parliamentary elections in 2006.
Following some differences, Hamas took control of the Gazoo Strip.
Paleostinians here say unity is indispensable, no matter how serious the division between the factions may seem.
Analysts believe that the road to reconciliation and true unity has been laden with obstacles, while Israel and the United States haven't made things any easier.
Paleostinians have seen enough division and disagreement. In the end, it's up to the Paleostinian people to determine their destiny, and now they are sure what they want, and that is unity.
Many here believe that Paleostinian national unity and the strategic changes in the region are the best opportunities for the ultimate liberation of Paleostine.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
[Al Jazeera] Significantly, Friday's demonstrations have the backing of the outlawed Islamist group, the Moslem Brüderbund, which was crushed by the regime in 1982.
It is the first time that the Brotherhood has called directly for protests in Syria since pro-democracy demonstrations against Assad erupted nearly six weeks ago.
A declaration by the Brotherhood, sent to Rooters news agency by its leadership in exile on Thursday, said: "Do not let the regime besiege your compatriots. Chant with one voice for freedom and dignity. Do not allow the tyrant to enslave you. God is great."
So far, the Brotherhood has been trying to keep a low profile, as the government has been trying to link them to protests, Amin said.
The protests have drawn a cross section of Syrian society, which has been under Baath Party rule for the last 48 years. The younger Assad kept intact the autocratic political system he inherited in 2000 from his father, Hafez al-Assad.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
Could there actually be a neutral personality in Lebanon?
[An Nahar] President Michel Suleiman and Premier-designate Najib Miqati have reportedly reached a tacit agreement for the head of state to drop his demand for the interior ministry portfolio as part of his share in the new cabinet.
An Nahar daily said Friday that Miqati visited Baabda palace the day before to discuss with Suleiman the government deadlock that mainly rose because of the bickering between the president and Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... over the portfolio.
Agreement has been reached for Suleiman to give up his demand for the portfolio, which was part of his share in caretaker Premier Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. 's cabinet, the newspaper reported.
However, The over-used However... it said it was not clear whether the ministry would be headed by a politician or a neutral personality.
But former minister Mario Aoun, who is an FPM official, told Voice of Leb radio station (93.3) on Friday that giving the interior ministry portfolio to any neutral personality won't solve the cabinet deadlock, hinting that an FPM politician should lead the ministry.
He said that if An Nahar's report about Suleiman's decision was true, only minor obstacles would remain.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily... consultations among involved officials continued to end the government impasse. The aides of the speaker and the Hizbullah leader respectively MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hussein Khalil visited Suleiman on Friday to discuss the cabinet crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
A total of 16 individuals were murdered on drug andand related violence in northern Mexico including a Mexican Federal agent shot to death in Juarez last Wednesday.
Two unidentified woman were found shot to death Tuesday morning in Juarez. The victims had been shot the night before, according to residents of the area. The victims were found near the intersection of calles Plan de Ayala and Vicente Suarez in the Barrio Azul. They had been tortured and then shot. Several 9mm spent shell casings were found at the scene.
An unidentified Juarez municipal motorcycle police officer was shot to death in an area south of Juarez. The officer was shot on the Kilometer 20 area of the Panamericana and Casas Grandes highways.
Two unidentified men were shot to death in two separate incidents including a Juarez municipal traffic police officer in Juarez Tuesday, according to the Mexican news daily La Polaka.
A Juarez traffic police officer was shot to death in Juarez only a few minutes after another officer was murdered. Hector Trevino was aboard his official vehicle near the intersection of Juan Gabriel and Barranco Azul when he was shot.
An unidentified man was shot to death between calles Santos Dumont and Eje Juan Gabriel.
An unidentified man was shot to death and three passengers in his car were wounded late Tuesday night in Juarez. The shooting took place near the intersection of calles Puertos de Palos and Puerto Altamir in the Tierra Nueva colony where the four men were in a Dodge Neon when they were fired on by armed suspects.
An unidentified man was shot to death in Juarez Wednrsday. The victim had been pursued for several blocks by armed suspects when he was shot near the intersection of Avenida Juärez and Calle Colon in front of a pharmacy. The victim was hit as he was seeking shelter from the attack. Several 9mm spent shell casings were found at the scene.
An unidentified man was found dismembered on a college campus in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Wednesday. The victim had been carved up into several different parts and deposited in front of a monument on the Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua. A message was left with the remains, but its contents were unrevealed in news reports.
An unidentified Mexican Federal agent was shot to death and another was wounded in an attack in Juarez Wednesday. The shooting took place near the corner of Avenida Vallarta and Calle Sicomoro in the Granjas colony where the agents were aboard a Volkswagen Jetta when armed suspects travelling in a convoy fired on them. Cesar Javier Olvera Mitre was identified as the agent who survived the attack. A few minutes following the attack two vehicles said to have been part of the attack were found blocks away damaged by fire. Reports say AK-47 assault rifle spent shell casings were found at the scene.
Three unidentified men were shot to death in two separate incidents in Juarez Thursday, according to the Mexican news daily La Polaka.
Two men were shot near the intersection of Barbados and Durango in the Guadalajara Izquierda colony. Reports say the victims were alleged drug dealers.
An unidentified man was shot to death near at a residence in Jurez. The victim was in the kitchen of a home on Calle Joaquin Terrazas in the Fancisco Sarabia colony when he was shot.
An unidentified man was found dismembered in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Thursday night. The victim was left at a monument on Avenida Miguel de Cervantes, wrapped in several black plastic bags and articles of clothing. A message was left with the remains.
An unidentified woman was shot to death and her male companion was wounded in a shooting in Juarez early Friday morning. The couple were parked outside a residence aboard a Ford Ranger pickup truck near the intersection of calles De los Laureles and 56th in the Granjas Cerro Grande colony when armed suspects fired on them. Guadalupe Romero Molina died at the scene.
An unidentified man was found dead in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Friday morning. The victim was naked from the waist down, and was found near the intersection of Calle Decima and Avenida Juarez. Reports say the victim died of an overdose.
An unidentified carjacker was shot to death in the commission of a crime in Juarez Friday. The suspect attempted to carjack a vehicle parked in front of a Del Rio convenience store near the intersection of calles Valentin Fuentes and Mecatepec. An undercover agent fired on the suspect killing him.
Two men were shot and wounded in a shootout in Altar, Sonora Thursday. Ernesto Medano Meraz, 34, and VÃctor Manuel Olivas Mancina, 28, both from Sinaloa, were at a residence on Callejón Vasconcelos when a fight broke out that led to the shooting. Reports say the victims were both alleged to be coyotes, engaged in smuggling immigrants into the US.
[An Nahar] Russian security forces killed five Orcs and similar vermin in a special operation in its violence-torn Northern Caucasus region, Agence La Belle France Presse reported on Friday.
The Interfax news agency quoted Sherlocks as saying that the Orcs and similar vermin were killed in the village of Progress on the administrative border between the Stavropol region and the largely Mohammedan region of Karbadino Balkaria.
It said that that the group was killed at around 3:00 am (2300 GMT) by security forces seeking radical Islamists in the village.
"They opened fire on the security forces who returned fire, destroying five people," it said.
It said that two leading Orcs and similar vermin -- named as Shameev and Khamurzov -- were among those killed.
Russia has for years been fighting Islamist Islamic fascistiin its Caucasus regions of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan but in the last months unrest has also spread to Karbadino Balkaria.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
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.
Animal lovers should stop calling their furry or feathered friends "pets" because the term is insulting, leading academics claim. 
The al-Qaeda terror network is among the suspects in connection with a 
al-Shabaab
[Bangla Daily Star] A leader of Janajuddha faction 
Bouteflika
[Bangla Daily Star] Forces loyal to Libyan 
The spike in drug-related violence comes despite a crackdown launched by President Felipe Calderon against 
Militants ambushed Pak police before dawn on Friday, sparking a 
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Blasts from improvised explosive devices southeast of Baghdad on Friday left three people, including a police officer, killed and 28 others wounded, a security source said.
al-Assad,
Jimmy Carter
Michel Aoun
