#2
Is it wrong to think the country would be better off without many of these places?
Posted by: Titus Ulans4144 ||
04/13/2013 19:02
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#3
Very simplistic analysis. Simply going by population? Come on, No.18 Detroit. It's already imploding. Talk about a waste of resources.
Is it a oneie or twoies rather than MAD? MAD means having to take out the sea based retaliatory capability. There is only one technically capable of attacking some of that. Anyone else is SOL. One or a handful will have have to be very selective for very obvious reasons. Rational targets will be restricted to political, key command and control centers, and key infrastructure/resource points. Pure terror targets have to be culturally high profile which would include NY, LA, DC, not flyover country. Then there are NIMBY targets not near major metro areas.
What could you deliver and by what means. What is the size of your system. If it's small enough to smuggle inland, it's not going to take out whole metro areas. Ports are better targets for infiltration delivery.
If you're delivering by missile, what is the accuracy of your system. Think terrain. A mile or so off could put the round on the opposite side of a mountain obstruction. Nagasaki's terrain mitigated the full effect that was witnessed in Hiroshima.
#4
I don't give a f*ck, as long as they hit D.C. and surrounding areas with a several megatons. We'll rebuild.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
04/13/2013 20:43
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#5
All right. Everybody sing along, please.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/13/2013 20:44
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#6
ROFLMAO!
Thanks for that video, Eric.
I'd forgotten about that song, though the words and the tune came back once he started.
I'd also forgotten how much fun it is to see Lehrer perform. His facial expressions are hilarious! He was a tresure.
:-D
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/13/2013 20:54
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#7
Barbara, I once watched the end of a game of "Nuclear War" ("Have you change for 25 million people?") when somebody managed to hit the stockpile with a 100 megaton bomb. Everybody cheered, and marched arouind the table giving their finest rendition of "We Will All Go..."
By the way, for those of you wishing for DC to be nuked, please note that I live in the area. Barbara lives in the area. Fred works in the area!
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/13/2013 21:10
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#8
...So let's just keep it in our imagination or computer/console.
#9
Ah yes - the game of Nuclear War! What fun. Used to play it in college. One time a girl asked us to stop because her boyfriend ( who was not playing) was getting upset because we were having so much fun.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/13/2013 23:03
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See page 70.
Iraq is the latest iteration of an old story. If the third Baron de Rothschild articulated a theme buy when there is blood on the streets then Iraq is the latest variation on that theme. Heeding Rothschilds advice was immensely rewarding in earlier frontier markets, such as post-WWII Italy and South Korea; in time, the same might be said of Iraqi equities.
Few would think of Iraq as being a place worth investing in today given the continued outbreaks of violence,political uncertainty, the legacy of war damage and the persistence of fundamental ethnic divisions within the country. For almost a decade, perceptions of Iraq have been shaped by stories that tell only of the countrys horrors and ignore what we believe is so crucial to understanding the potential of Iraqi equities to undergo a historic re-rating.
Iraqi GDP was $88 billion in 2007; the 2012 GDP was $179 billion a doubling in five years. Iraqs oil exports are at an all-time high and the 13% GDP growth this year makes it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Inflation is under control and the country sits on $47 billion of international reserves, an amount equivalent to 12 months import cover and one that provides the central bank with a great deal of power to defend the dinar should the need arise.
The story could not be better. Yet Iraqi equities are given no credit for this objective economic improvement.
#1
I believe that a man could make a lot of money going to Iraq and investing in hard products, housing, infrastructure, utilities, The country has the potential with its Tigris/Euphrates River confluence, to be an net exporter of agricultural products.
They have a good education system, lots of oil, and a good work ethic. What's not to like about Iraq other than the Shia Sunni silliness that gets in the way of any progress in the Islamic world.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/13/2013 17:42
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[IsraelTimes] A high school English teacher faces disciplinary action for giving a writing assignment that asked students to make a persuasive argument blaming Jews for the problems of Nazi Germany, Albany, NY school district officials said Friday.
You see, THIS is what's supposed to happen when a teacher does something really, really schtoopid, like asking students to tramp on the word "JESUS"...
Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard said administrators were discussing what official action the unidentified 10th-grade teacher at Albany High School will face for the assignment given to students on Monday. It could range from a letter of counsel to dismissal.
The assignment, first reported Friday by the Albany Times Union, asked students to research Nazi propaganda, then assume their teacher was a Nazi government official who had to be convinced of their loyalty. The assignment told students they "must argue that Jews are evil."
"This assignment for some of our students at Albany High School was completely unacceptable. It displayed a level of insensitivity that we absolutely will not tolerate in our school community," Wyngaard said at a news conference Friday at the United Jewish Federation. "I'm deeply apologetic to all of our students, all of our families and the entire community."
Wyngaard spoke in a room full of books on the Holocaust and was flanked by school board officials and representatives of Jewish organizations.
Golly. I'm impressed by the props, aren't you?
Speakers said the Anti-Defamation League will run sensitivity programs at the school for staff and students.
They might want to contact the local Holocaust society (Buffalo has an active one, if Albany lacks such things) and ask them to send out speakers. I'm sure my mother would be happy to go -- she's done programs in schools as far afield as northern Germany and the wilds of Pennsylvania.
"After this unfortunate lesson we know that the Albany School District will rededicate themselves to teaching about how prejudice led to genocide and to help their students build a better community," said Shelly Shapiro, director of the Holocaust Survivors & Friends Education Center.
School officials say they don't believe the teacher who handed out the assignment had malicious intent. The purpose of the assignment was to have students make an argument based on limited information, but it should have been worded differently, officials said.
The school district has not named the teacher, who was described as a veteran. The assignment was brought to administrators' attention by a parent of one of the students. Some students refused to write the assignment.
One third of them, actually, which is seriously impressive, given the usual thoughtlessness of tenth graders..
The teacher's assignment told students they "must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!"
Earlier this year, a teacher at Public School 59 in Manhattan caused a controversy by giving fourth-graders a math homework assignment that used scenarios about killing and whipping slaves. The school's principal ordered sensitivity training for the entire staff.
#1
I don't think the guy was a Nazi peddling his wares. Maybe just somebody who noticed that a lot of stuff published in most respectively progressive newspapers nowadays sounds familiar.
Or he could be challenging them argue something from the opposition's point of view, such as is done in debating, or in lawyering. Though if that's the case, he should have told them so.
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/13/2013 18:16
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#4
Barbara, I think you could be right - people, like lawyers, sometimes need to see the other side. On the other hand, they need to understand that it is the other side.
Besides which, this might have been better in a history class, for example. Then it should be followed by a presentation by the Trailing Mother on why the Holocaust was truly evil.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/13/2013 19:19
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Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2013 12:39
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#2
Looks iffy to me.
<7 minutes after the strike there's no dust in the air locally, and the air strike on the day he just happens to be there for that meeting.
Then wrapped up with lots of people talking to the camera "spontaneously"....
#3
the reporter makes comments about the time line that indicate significant editing. the tape is about the 7 min mark and he says that 15 minutes have passed since the strike. so at least 10 minutes edited out there. later at the other site, he makes a comment about how long ago the first strike was that suggests further editing out of 'boring' footage. furthermore the fact that the biggest fights being waged in the Arab Spring have been for western public opinion (and the arabs would far prefer uncle sugar to take out Assad without having to work it themselves) it is no surprise to me that they all want a moment of face time to play up their victim-hood.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/13/2013 20:35
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During an official visit to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum last week, the Obama-backed Muslim Brotherhood regime of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt announced that it was pursuing so-called "integration" with the mass-murdering dictatorship ruling over Sudan. The authoritarian-minded rulers even claimed to be "one nation."
In the Arabic, did they say one nation or Ummah? The former is plan for unification, the latter mere religious piety. And how does the Egyptian half of this unification feel about Sudan shipping weapons north to those barbarians in Gaza?
The surprise announcement came after the Libyan regime -- installed by Western forces and foreign-funded Islamist fighters amid a brutal United Nations-approved war -- unveiled similar "integration" plans with the infamous Sudanese tyrant in late 2011.
Genocidal Sudanese "President" Omar Bashir, a military dictator whose autocracy has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. government for two decades, celebrated the increasingly friendly relationship between his regime and others in the region. Media outlets in Sudan reported that the war criminal ruling the nation announced that he was working with the Egyptian regime in "removing all the obstacles and clearing the borders to ease the movements of the citizens and commodities."
[AlAhram] The judge in the retrial of the former president on charges of failing to protect demonstrators during the January 2011 revolution sends case to a different court
Judge Mostafa Hassan Abdullah of the Cairo Criminal Court overseeing Mubarak's murder retrial has recused himself on Saturday and referred the case to the Cairo Appeal Court.
"This is in line with the demands of the Lawyers' Union Lagna Horreyat (Freedom Council), who asked him [the judge] to recuse himself already," Ahmed El-Damaty, the deputy head of the lawyer's union told Ahram Online's Bel Trew outside of the courtroom.
Upon the judge's announcement, tensions escalated between the plaintiff's lawyers and relatives of the January 25 Revolution deaders and lawyers of the defendants.
Minor scuffles erupted between the two sides before security intervened.
The Cairo Appeal Court is expected to set a new date and judicial district for the retrial to resume.
Lawyers for plaintiffs relieved for now
"The decision today was 100 percent right. All Egyptians asked that the judge step down because that judge was involved in the infamous Battle of Camel case. All of these cases concern the January 25 Revolution - which means people have been closely following them, so the judge felt 'embarrassed.' This is what he said. So he decided to step down," El-Damaty told Ahram Online.
"It was not a surprise for us - this decision will satisfy most of the people, except for those siding with the former president. We hope that this trial will be part of the ongoing and real revolution, which will finally remove all the feloul [former regime remnants] from our lives and from Egypt," El-Damaty added.
Moslem Brüderbund lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud described the decision as "positive," considering that Judge Hassan Abdullah had already ruled in a similar case in 2012 and the outcome in Mubarak's retrial today would not likely be very different.
"The court made its stand clear when it ruled in favour of those accused in the Battle of the Camel... it is a wise decision [to recuse himself]."
Eleven anti-Mubarak protesters were killed and over 600 injured on 2 February, 2011 in an attack by a mob of Mubarak supporters using camels and horses on Tahrir Square.
In October, 2012, Abdullah cleared 21 top Mubarak-era officials accused of criminal masterminding the attack on peaceful protesters of all wrongdoing.
"I'm one of the lawyers who filed for the judge to step down: he was the judge of the Battle of the Camel trial, which acquitted everyone involved. This worried us; we feared he would not be impartial and that his presence would affect the trial's fairness," Amer Ahmed Saad, civil rights lawyer, told Ahram Online.
"Ultimately, the judge stepped down because he felt 'embarrassed.' This is why he recused himself. I am satisfied with this. It is better for him to step down; it is the right thing for him to do," Saad added.
"Egypt's leader, Mohamed Morsi, forced lots of people to rethink the old regime" said Saad, regretting that the current state of affairs in Egypt has made some reminisce and wish for the old Mubarak days.
"However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... what we can say is that the one person who brought all of this corruption and madness that we are suffering from is Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... . We have to blame him first before we can fix the current regime.
"Mubarak is responsible for destroying our freedom and our constitution and faking the elections all time. The Brotherhood are just continuing his legacy. They are only interested in their own people. I fear that the Brotherhood regime will be worse than Mubarak's, but, ultimately, who is responsible for setting the precedent is Mubarak," he concludes.
Mubarak's hopes dashed for now
Earlier on Saturday morning, ousted President Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Alaa smiled as they waved to supporters from their cage inside the court room as they waited for judges to start proceedings in their retrial cases.
A medically equipped helicopter had carried ousted geriatric former President-for-Life Hosni Mubarak from Maadi Military Hospital to the Police Academy in North Cairo where he faces retrial for his role in killing protesters during the January 25 Revolution, Ahram Arabic news website reported.
Alaa and Gamal Mubarak arrived at the academy a few minutes after their father in armoured personal carriers guarded by police vans to face retrial in financial corruption convictions.
Attorney Essam Batawy, representing former interior minister Habib El-Adly, told Ahram Online he would have petitioned for El-Adly be released for time served, considering his client has spent two years in provisional detention.
The ministry of interior had intensified its security measures around the academy where the proceedings of his retrial were set to take place.
Tens of pro-Mubarak supporters carrying pictures of the former dictator rallied outside the academy and were hoping he would be released today.
Legal case continues
The former president will be retried before the Cairo Appeal Court for the charges on which he was convicted and sentenced to life in jail last June: turning a blind eye to the killing of more than 840 demonstrators during the 18 days of the uprising that toppled him.
Additionally, former interior minister Habib El-Adly and six of his top aides face retrial for their role in the murder of protesters during the uprising.
El-Adly, like Mubarak, was hit with a life sentence, however, his six aides were all acquitted.
In January, an appeal court ruled Mubarak and co-defendants had the right to appeal verdicts due to procedural irregularities in the initial trial.
One of the plaintiff's lawyers, Sayed Hamed, told Ahram Online from the courtroom that he had intended to demand that the court add several key figures in the Mubarak era to the list of defendants in the case. Those include the secretary general of the now dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) Safwat El-Sherif; former NDP member and steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz; Mubarak's younger son, Gamal; former first lady Suzanne Mubarak and parliament speaker under Mubarak's rule Ahmed Fathi Sorour to the list of defendants in the case of killing demonstrators during the 18-day uprising.
According to Damaty, the Fact Finding Committee established by President Mohamed Morsi following his election last year has recently finished further investigations, which revealed that there are 10 more pieces of evidence against Mubarak in the trial that still need to be considered.
"This, I believe will change the new case... I think it will take a maximum of three months to find out who the new judge is who will take over" El-Damaty said.
Counter to general expectations before Saturday's court session, Mubarak will not be released anytime soon, according to Damaty.
"Mubarak is not only incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! for 15 days on one corruption case, but rather there are two other cases extending his period of detention, hence he will stay in jail."
"We don't know if there will be other cases raised against him, which will further extend his current detention and if this will cover the time until his retrial. We'll know about the new judge in the next two to four months. At this point they will also announce the new schedule for the trial, however, none of us knows when the retrial will take place. It's up to the office of Special Prosecutor for the Protection of the Revolution [established by President Morsi after his inauguration] to decide how long the trial will take and can ask the judge to speed up the process."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/13/2013
08:29 ||
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[AlAhram] Egyptian court announces retrial of ex-minister of petroleum Sameh Fahmy and business tycoon Hussein Salem in Egypt-Israel gas case
The Court of Cassation has ordered the retrial of former petroleum minister Sameh Fahmy and Mubarak-era business tycoon Hussein Salem in the Egypt-Israel gas case.
Hussein Salem and Sameh Fahmy were both sentenced to 15 years in jail in June 2012 for squandering public funds in a gas deal with Israel.
Salem and Fahmy submitted appeals against their original convictions and the court ordered the retrial.
Egypt agreed to provide Israel with natural gas in 2005 in a deal built on the landmark 1979 peace accords. The public prosecution claimed the agreement lost Egypt over $714 million.
Salem, a founding shareholder of East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG) which supplied Israel with gas from June 2008, was accused of collaborating with EMG to profiteer from gas deals with Israel.
The business tycoon was described by ex-justice minister Abdel-Aziz El-Guindi as the man who holds "the keys to corruption in Egypt."
Egypt unilaterally terminated its natural gas export contract with Israel in April 2012.
Not that Israel cares -- they had one tight year until gas started flowing from their new wells in the Mediterranean a few weeks ago. And in the meantime, Egypt learnt what it's like to live without that lovely Israeli income, now lost forever.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/13/2013
08:29 ||
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[AlAhram] Salafist Moslem is killed in Friday attack on cop shoppe in Tunisia's northeast, according to media and interior ministry
Tunisian police potted a Salafist Moslem after a group of assailants attacked a cop shoppe in the northeastern town of Hergla, the interior ministry and media reports said on Friday.
During the incident on Thursday night, police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse a group of Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... seeking to free one of their number being held there, private radio station Mosaique FM reported.
The 23-year-old was mortally maimed in the festivities, which continued into Friday morning, and four others were maimed.
The interior ministry said on its official Facebook page that 150 radical Islamists tried to break in to the cop shoppe, throwing rocks at security forces.
"To start, the police gave them a verbal warning, before firing tear gas to disperse them. The group persisted, so security forces were ordered to use live rounds, killing one attacker and wounding four others," the statement said.
Since the revolution that toppled the regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, radical Islamists have launched several attacks on cop shoppes across Tunisia.
Tunisia is facing a growing number of Islamist groups that authorities say are responsible for incidents such as the attack on the US embassy in Tunis in September and opposition politician Chokri Belaid's liquidation in February.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/13/2013
08:29 ||
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[AlAhram] The Egyptian president is to meet his Russian counterpart to discuss financing needs and oil and wheat supplies
It must be utterly humiliating for the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood triumphant to go from country to country, hat in hand, begging for a bit of grain or oil or money to keep his people from starvation and riot, as if he hadn't the mark of Allah's favour pounded into his forehead, as if he were no more beloved of Allah than the meanest kaffir cleaning his outhouses.
Egypt wheat stocks dwindle; no purchases planned until June
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will visit Russia next week, a state-run newspaper reported on Friday, in a visit market sources expect to focus on the cash-strapped Arab state's energy, wheat import and financing needs.
Morsi will meet President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... for talks that would explore "ways to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in all fields", Al Gomhuria reported, citing an anonymous source.
And the world waits with bated breath to see if Russia will fall into old Soviet habits. No wait -- it doesn't. But the readers of Al Ahram, tuned as they are to the wider world beyond the desert sands, not to mention able to read in both Arabic and English, are no doubt praying hard, each in his or her own way, that that President Morsi gets what the country needs instead of what his party deserves.
The Syria crisis would be high on his agenda, it said.
"Awful what's going on in Syria, President Putin."
"Yes, awful indeed, President Morsi. Ah well, at least they're killing each other, and not bothering the rest of us. Tea?"
The presidency could not immediately be reached for comment.
Egypt is grappling with an economic crisis caused by more than two years of political instability.
...preceded by two generations or so of skimming by the rulers of the country, their friends and relations, and senior members or the army...
The country's foreign currency reserves are at critically low levels and the government is struggling with an unaffordable deficit.
Shortages of imported fuel are disrupting transport and causing power cuts in the country of 84 million. The situation is expected to worsen as summer approaches and Egyptians switch on their air conditioning.
The world's biggest importer of wheat, Egypt has cut back on international purchases this year in the hope of a bumper local harvest.
How that is to be obtained without fertilizers or running tractors is beyond my meager ability to imagine, but no doubt copious prayers to Allah by particularly pious men has something to do with it.
In a boost to Egypt's finances, Qatar this week agreed to buy $3 billion in government bonds and to supply natural gas in the summer when it is needed. Libya also signed a deal to give Egypt a $2 billion, five-year, interest-free loan, according to the Egyptian state news agency.
The government is also in talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan deal that would unlock billions more in international support.
WHEAT STOCKS
Several sources on European commodities and energy markets told Rooters the Egyptians may discuss financing needs and oil and wheat supplies during their visit to Russia.
"Talk is that an Egyptian delegation to Russia has both oil and gas as a focus," said one European trader. "Imports by Egypt with delayed payment seem to be on the wish-list."
Egypt's wheat stocks are likely to plunge below 1 million tonnes by June 30 as its economic crisis cripples purchases from the international market, a U.S. Department of Agriculture report said.
A second Moscow-based source said that Egypt also planned to discuss a possible $2 billion loan from Russia.
Russia, which is a net creditor, has been sought out by countries in financial difficulty that are seeking easier terms than those offered by the IMF - with recent examples including Cyprus and Serbia.
Egypt is likely to discuss wheat supplies from the next crop, as Russia has already run down the exportable surplus from last year's poor harvest.
Currently there is no clarity on the wheat supply volume, timing or payment method, the sources added.
Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov met with Essam Haddad, an assistant to the Egyptian president for foreign relations on Thursday, but wheat supplies were not discussed, his ministry said.
Russia's new crop is likely to arrive in June or July, its 2013 grain harvest is officially expected at 90-92 million tonnes with an exportable surplus of around 20 million tonnes.
As I recall, in recent years Russia has had no surplus to export, which is why poor Egyptians were losing the competition with Chinese pigs for sustenance. If there really are surpluses -- and if Russia has one, surely other countries will as well -- total catastrophe in Egypt may yet be avoided.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/13/2013
08:29 ||
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#1
I think Russians remember that Soviet Union bankrupted itself supporting all these third world allies.
Former president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak appeared in court to face his retrial over the killing of protesters in 2011, only to have the judge step down.
Wearing a white track suit, the 84-year-old former president was wheeled into court on a hospital gurney on Saturday to answer charges of complicity in the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators in 2011.
Judge Mustafa Hassan Abdullah, however, almost immediately withdrew from the trial, signaling an indefinite adjournment. The judge said that he felt "unease" in reviewing the case and referred it to the Cairo appeals court.
Saturday's proceedings were held at a police academy on the fringes of Cairo, where Mubarak had been flown to by helicopter.
An assistant village chief was killed in an ambush in Pattani province on Friday night. The victim was identified as Torleb Puten, 46, assistant chief of Moo 4, tambon Korlum in Yarang district. The attack occurred about 9:30 p.m. a local road in Mayo district.
Witnesses said Torleb was traveling heading down the road in his car when gunmen hiding in a roadside rubber plantation fired on him with assault rifles. He was hit several times and died on the spot.
[NgGuardian] NORTHERN Islamic leaders under the umbrella of the Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI) have said that the rejection of the amnesty proposal by the Federal Government, by the leadership of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Militants is a setback in finding lasting solution to the insurgency in the North.
Besides, they also blamed some Christian leaders, particularly, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, for their utterances and opposition to the amnesty proposal, saying that the position on the issue was capable of fuelling further crisis in Nigeria.
The Secretary General of the JNI, Sheikh Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, who spoke Friday in Kaduna said that "It is an unexpected happening that just came from the blue and took Mohammedans in particular and the whole country unawares."
"If man had pre-knowledge of what will happen, then it wouldn't have happened, the way accident is. If the person involved in an accident knew that it will happen, he would have taken precautionary measures not to allow that happen."
According to Aliyu: "There are many options left for the government. Even the amnesty itself must have preparatory steps before the amnesty is reached. First is finding them, second is to ask them to come out and then dialogue with them. I think that these are the most important ingredients that are supposed to come first. I think we are just putting the cart before the horse because the first thing is to look for them, then ask them to come out and if they do, create a conducive atmosphere for dialoguing with them before the amnesty which should the final stage".
The JNI Secretary General, while addressing journalist at a presser, said that the Islamic leaders have "noticed with dismay the manner and language of argument from some quarters in the country over the seeming controversy being generated by the federal government's proposal on amnesty for Boko Haram turbans," adding that "while such controversy is legitimate and contribution to it is a right of every Nigerian, we feel that at a precarious time like this, the basis of any contribution should be for the purpose of achieving peace and not to further aggravate the tension in the land."
Aliyu declared: "We are therefore perplexed that while the call to grant amnesty to Boko Haram by the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General, JNI, has received strong support of prominent Christians, such as Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Bishop Mathew Kukah, Pastor Paul Unongo, to mention but few, the President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejfor and his cohorts are busy confusing the country's leadership on the way out of the security challenges.
"Our concern is what is the motive behind the total rejection of amnesty by them? Do they benefit from the quagmire of the Boko Haram? When were they appointed special advisers to the President on the Perpetuation of Insecurity? However, ars longa, vita brevis... if leaders' utterances cannot ventilate the atmosphere for peace at a time when peace is most needed, what else will guarantee peace? The unfortunate menace of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria is indeed an accident beyond religion which affects every Nigerian directly or indirectly and upon which no passing of buck can be logical."
He continued: "as a matter of fact, that menace affects more Mohammedans than non-Mohammedans as it becomes evident in the cases of some members of the JNI top hierarchy, such as the attack on the Shehu of Borno who is the Deputy President-General (JNI).
The Emir of Fika (Vice President-General, Yobe State), and the Emir of Kano, (Vice President-General, Kano State), were also attacked".
Besides, Aliyu explained further that "uncountable eminent Mohammedan scholars were brutally maimed or killed in cold blood, despite scholars efforts to curb the insurgency", adding that the likes of late Sheikh Ja'afar Mahmud Adam, Sheikh Isa Ali Pantami and many others had intellectual dialogue with the late Muhammad Yusuf who was said to be the founder of Boko Haram with a view to dissuading the group from resorting to violence.
"That is why the question on the hurried killing of Muhammad Yusuf sounded strange and illogical. The question should have been 'who killed him and why? By and large, this is an opportunity to remind those who care to know that Islam is a glass house from which no true Mohammedan should throw stones. We stand by the teachings of Islam which cautions against making provoking statements in times of anger because it only leads to regret."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/13/2013
00:50 ||
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[Naharnet] A bomb went kaboom! near a Sunni mosque north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... on Friday, killing seven people, a police colonel and a doctor said, the latest in an uptick in violence in the runup to elections next week.
The bomber struck after prayers at the Omar bin Abdul Aziz mosque, south of Baquba, and also maimed another 25 people the sources said.
Iraq is to hold provincial elections on April 20, its first polls since 2010.
Attacks on candidates have left at least a dozen election hopefuls dead, according to an AFP tally. That, and the fact that only 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces will vote due to a government postponement has drawn the credibility of the elections into question.
Violence killed 271 Iraqis last month, the highest monthly figure since August, according to an AFP tally.
#1
While I think it was a good idea to go into Iraq, I don't think any of us quite understood how toxic the animosity between the Shia and the Sunni is.
They are tearing a country with enormous potential apart. Obviously they care more about their crazy dispute over the successor to Mohammed than they are about anything else.
That situation, until some prominent Shia and some prominent Sunni come forward and say "Enough"
Of course, the fanatics would kill any religious leaders who attempted to negotiate a peace between the two groups.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/13/2013 17:38
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[Naharnet] Western nations have "hard evidence" that chemical weapons have been used at least once in the Syrian war but a U.N. investigation is now unlikely to get into the country, diplomats said Thursday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... 's government asked the U.N. to investigate its claims against rebel forces. But it is now refusing to let international experts into the country because the U.N. wants to look into claims against Assad's forces.
"In one case we have hard evidence," a western diplomat told news hounds, commenting on the rival claims.
"There are several examples where we are quite sure that shells with chemicals have been used in a very sporadic way," added the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... and without giving details of the evidence.
A diplomat from a U.N. Security Council nation also said that "quite convincing" evidence had been sent to U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... to back accusations against Assad's forces.
Britannia and La Belle France have submitted information to the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... about allegations that government forces used chemical arms in the city of Homs on December 23 and at Ataybah near Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... last month. Neither has disclosed details but the Homs case is said to be the most serious of the two.
The Syrian government called for a U.N. investigation after it said opposition rebels fired a chemical weapon shell into Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province on March 19.
Syrian government troops were among those killed or maimed in the attack, according to diplomats.
The U.N. has assembled a team of international experts, led by Ake Sellstrom of Sweden, in the region. But Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem wrote to Ban this week saying his government could not accept an inquiry that went beyond the Aleppo incident.
"It is regrettable that the Syrian government has rejected my offer to engage in (an) investigation," Ban said Thursday after talks with US President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... in Washington.
Ban had demanded "unfettered access" to all of Syria before sending the team. "They are now ready. They can be deployed any time soon; so this is my urgent appeal," Ban told news hounds.
U.N. Security Council diplomats said communications between the Syrian government and the United Nations had been severely cut back. They added that the chemical weapons inquiry was now likely to fall victim to divisions on the 15-nation council.
Russia and China have blocked three council resolutions intended to increase pressure on Assad over the conflict, including by threatening sanctions.
But with the conflict worsening -- well over 70,000 people have now been killed -- the international showdown over the conflict has also deteriorated. Ban has blamed the divisions for the failure to make progress on a negotiated settlement to the war.
"It is obvious that the Security Council is going to go nowhere on Syria. It is totally blocked," said a senior council envoy.
[Naharnet] Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird met an Israeli minister in annexed Arab east Jerusalem this week, a front man said, breaking a widely observed diplomatic taboo.
Baird met Justice Minister Tzipi Livni at her office in east Jerusalem, Canadian foreign ministry front man Rick Roth said, in a move normally avoided by visiting diplomats over concerns it could be seen as legitimizing Israel's annexation of the city's eastern sector.
Israel captured east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
Roth told Agence La Belle France Presse Baird "wanted to get Livni's view on the Middle East grinding of the peace processor, given her new responsibilities and important role in the new cabinet".
Livni was appointed justice minister and lead peace negotiator in Israel's cabinet, which was sworn in last month.
"This doesn't change our longstanding position that all final status issues must be negotiated between the two parties. As guests, we were pleased to meet our hosts where it was most convenient for them," Roth added.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem its "eternal, indivisible" capital, but the Paleostinians want the eastern sector as capital of their future state.
"It is not common that foreign officials meet Israeli officials in east Jerusalem," said Israeli foreign ministry front man Yigal Palmor.
"The Canadians have been making a name for themselves by speaking out on the international scene in a way which is all too rare," Palmor told AFP, saying they were demonstrating an unusual "courage and moral stance".
"There should be nothing unusual about meeting Israel's justice minister in east Jerusalem (where the ministry is based). What is strange is that this is the exception," he said.
During his six-day tour of the region, Baird also visited troops in the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory which Israel annexed in 1981 in another move never recognized by the international community.
A bigwig at the foreign ministry told Haaretz newspaper the Canadian embassy had advised Baird against both the east Jerusalem meeting and the Golan visit.
Canada is one of Israel's staunchest allies and was one of the few countries that opposed a successful Paleostinian bid for upgraded status at the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... late last year.
The debate in Washington on immigration reform has had no political impact, but the debate is having a major impact on south Texas, 1200 WOAI news reports.
Officials say the number of people entering the U.S. illegally is way up and, tragically, the number of undocumented immigrants who have been found dead in the unforgiving Texas Brush Country is way up, and is on path this year to beat last year's record for the number of people found dead in the ranch country.
Linda Vickers, who owns a ranch in Brooks County, which is Ground Zero for the immigration debate, pins the blame directly on talk of 'amnesty' and a 'path to citizenship' for people who entered the U.S. illegally.
She recalls one man being tossed in the calaboose Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! on her ranch not long ago.
"The Border Patrol agent was loading one man up, and he told the officer in Spanish, 'Obama's gonna let me go'."
Border Patrol agents report that immigrants are crossing the border, and in some cases surrendering while asking, "Where do I go for my amnesty?"
"When you have amnesty waving in the wind, you're going to get an increase," Vickers says. "And when you get an increase, especially with this heat, you're going to get an increase in deaths."
She says the current increase in undocumented Democrat entries began last summer, at almost exactly the same time as President B.O. unilaterally announced plans to no longer deport young people who came to the U.S. as children with their undocumented Democrat parents.
"Washington is directly responsible for these deaths," she said.
Brooks County routinely has the largest number of undocumented Democrat deaths each year because smugglers come up U.S. 281 from the Rio Grande Valley, but kick their human cargo out of the truck before reaching the Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias.
"If that individual, undocumented Democrat, can't keep up, they are left behind," she said. "And you are going to die out in this heat if you can't find water."
She is afraid of 'carnage' this summer, when temperatures in the Brush Country routinely reach 115 degrees.
Negotiators in Washington yesterday agreed to limit any 'path to citizenship' or any benefits under immigration reform to people who arrived in the U.S. before 2012, but Vickers says that won't do any good.
She says immigrant smugglers, who charge between $2000 and $7000 per person to smuggle them into the U.S., routinely lie to would be immigrants, and the current lie is 'if you can only get into the U.S., you'll get amnesty.'
#3
All an exercise in abject failure. One of the key players is absent. That is the government in Mexico City, and the caste that owns and operates the country, who'll continue to dump their mestizos y indios upon El Norte to avoid reform and revolution. They ain't playing the game.
#4
The extremely dangerous divisive flag in the wind of its "us against you" wedgge this regime is driving between traditinal Americans, thier constitution, their fortunes and non citizens being encouraged to just walk right in and take it all being sent by the Obama/Democrat regime is the big game now.
#5
Leno [something of a Will Rogers of our age] had it right with "undocumented democrats". Africa is replete with single party, totalitarian regimes which employ class warfare, tribal hate, division, and shifting demographics to retain power. Rather old, but highly effective tactics.
KARACHI: At least four people, including an Awami National Party (ANP) activist were killed in separate acts of violence in the metropolitan on Friday.
A man affiliated with ANP was shot dead at Qasba Colony. Police officials said that unidentified armed riders targeted Bismillah Khan. The dead body was handed over to his family after completing medico legal formalities.
Police said that victim Rashid, 20, was killed while Rustam Ali and Sajid were wounded, when unidentified armed motorcyclists opened indiscriminate fire at them. All the victims sustained bullet injuries and were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), where Rashid succumbed to injuries and was pronounced dead. Investigations into the incidents are underway.
A seminary leader was gunned down in Block-2 Nazimabad. SHO Faryad Bhatti said that victim namely Ghazanfar Ali, 62, was going to the mosque for offering Friday prayers, when unidentified assailants targeted him. He sustained bullet wounds and died on the spot. SHO Bhatti said that the deceased hailed from Kohat, and suspected that the motive behind the incident might be personal dispute. Further investigation is under way.
In another incident late night, a man was shot dead in Gulshan-e-Ameen within the limits of Sohrab Goth police station. Police officials said that victim Habibullah, 30, son of Asad Qureshi was targeted by unidentified pillion riders, who shot him dead. The victim's body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital by the police and later handed over to his heirs.
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[France24] Tunisia received a fiscal boost on Thursday after the government was handed a cheque amounting to $28.8 million in recovered assets that had been held abroad by ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife, Laila Trabelsi.
Tunisia received $28.8 million on Thursday in the first such retrieval of what it calls looted assets held abroad by ousted President-for-Life Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ...who departed by popular demand in January, 2011, precipitating the Arab Spring... and his family.
The state news agency TAP said a cheque in that amount had been handed to President Moncef Marzouki by Ali bin Fetais al-Marri, appointed by the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... to head efforts to recover money from leaders tossed in Arab uprisings.
Marri, Qatar's attorney-general, was named U.N. Special Advocate for Stolen Asset Recovery in September.
TAP said the money returned to Tunisia had been in a Lebanese bank account belonging to Laila Trabelsi, the wife of Ben Ali, who fled to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... with his family on Jan. 14, 2011 after popular protests ended his 23-year rule.
Local media say billions of dollars acquired corruptly by Ben Ali and his entourage remain unaccounted for, but the exact amount is not known.
Tunisia's Islamist-led government, grappling with economic woes that include high unemployment, is under popular pressure to recover the money, but faces legal and political difficulties in gaining access to the accounts where it is believed held.
An International Monetary Fund team arrived in Tunis this week to discuss a $1.78 billon loan requested by the government.
The Interior Ministry said thieves broke into a warehouse and stole a
huge amount of firearms and ammunition. The ministry said 20,000 U.S.-origin M-16 assault rifles and 15,000 rounds for 9mm pistols were stolen.
"There were no guards during the break-in," the ministry said on April 7.
No doubt it will be blamed on the Sequester.
The Syrian rebels say "thank you", and the CIA says "you're welcome"...
#4
Just at market value that's 20 millions dollars worth of merchandise. Probably cheaper for the cartels to run an operation like this than have straw buyers paying a thousand dollars or more in driblets north of the border since their ATF suppliers dried up.
#7
Can you imagine the logistics (people, equipment, time) to just move that much from the warehouse? And no one noticed? What other goodies are stored in unguarded warehouses in the middle East?
#8
Looks like Procopius2k and I are on the same page on several issues.
I don't think people quite understand the reach of the Mexican drug cartels. When you can crank out the BILLIONS of dollars they can crank out, working a deal with a local group of malcontents and bribing a couple of guards to take a long break is no big deal.
Feinstein needs to remember that the terrorists are getting their weaponry from sources beyond her reach, the international gun trade doesn't give a damn about a silly toothless rag of a treaty signed by an impotent bunch of diplomatic drones and poseurs at the UN.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/13/2013 13:42
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#9
Mil-to-Mil programs become cash cows for corrupt foreign military leaders, and the records are either lost, forged or ignored. The number of automatic assault weapons that come out of the back of the armories in Guatemala, Panama, Mexico and other Latin American states are a major source of the automatic weapons used by the cartels. DoD knows it, Justice knows it, DHS knows it and says nothing because we might embarrass a foreign leader whose corruption is less troubling than their worthless, apparent friendship.
[France24] Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi promoted military commanders on Thursday in a show of support for the army amid rumours of tensions between himself and the once ruling generals.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi promoted the heads of Egypt's air force, air defence forces and navy to the rank of Lieutenant-General on Thursday, amid recurrent media reports of strained relations between the Islamist president and the military.
The promotions came after the Egyptian press and British daily The Guardian reported that a fact-finding committee Morsi had appointed found evidence of military abuses during the 2011 revolt that ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... Morsi's front man said in statement that the promotions were made in a meeting with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which was in charge after Mubarak's ouster and before Morsi's election last June.
Morsi had called for the meeting "in order to calm the situation and remove tensions affecting the military as a result of a defamation campaign and attacks by some politicians," the official MENA news agency reported.
Morsi took office with his powers circumscribed by the military -- then led by Mubarak's former defence minister, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
Loyalties in doubt
The Islamist president -- modern Egypt's first civilian leader -- sacked Tantawi after a jihad boy attack in August killed 16 soldiers at a border outpost, seizing on discontent within the military to purge commanders whose loyalties were in doubt, one of his aides said at the time.
Renewed tensions between Morsi and the military, now led by Colonel General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, were reported in the Egyptian press after the military called for dialogue between Morsi and his opposition following mass protests in December.
The presidency had denied the reports.
The legislature also approved a revised version of the law organising the country's parliamentary elections on Thursday, after a court ruled an earlier version was invalid and delayed the vote.
The parliamentary elections had been scheduled to start this month, but the ruling said the law must be reviewed by the Supreme Constitutional Court before elections can be called.
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#1
Might want to give them a raise to boot, as long as the check from Qatar clears...
[Ynet] Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula have uncovered a secret cache of explosives in a desert area south of El-Arish, the Paleostinian Ma'an News Agency reported.
According to an Egyptian security source, the explosives found include three cases of TNT weighing some 250 kilograms (about 550 pounds), a machine gun and eight anti-tank mines.
A Chicago man accused in a fumbling, cloak-and-dagger plot to build a pipe bomb during last springs NATO summit pleaded guilty today and was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
Fumbling doesn't make it less dangerous...
Judge Kenneth Wadas handed down the sentence for Mark Neiweem, 28, who pleaded guilty to one count of attempted possession of an incendiary device, according to the Cook County states attorneys office.
Neiweem was one of the mooks in the Occupy movement. Such nice people...
Neiweem was arrested last May after undercover police officers infiltrated a group of alleged anarchists who had come to Chicago in the days leading up to the summit. According to the charges, Neiweem met with a member of the group in the Schiller Woods Forest Preserve and asked an associate if he had "funds for fun."
When the associate asked what he meant, Neiweem took him on a walk away from others and told him not to talk about their discussion because a member of their group had "diarrhea of the mouth" and his "reckless" text messages could bring law enforcement scrutiny, prosecutors alleged.
Neiweem allegedly told the associate that he wanted him to obtain material to make a pipe bomb. When they rejoined the others in their car, Neiweem allegedly crumpled a piece of paper and tossed it back to the associate, saying it was garbage.
The associate threw it out the window. Neiweem then fetched it and pressed it into the associate's palm, saying that if the associate bought the items on the list, Neiweem could build a pipe bomb, prosecutors said.
Neiweem, who is known as Migs, had been held on $500,000 bond since his arrest.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
future Columbia Uni lecturer with tenure
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2013 11:03
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PESHAWAR: Banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced supporting the anti-polio drives on a condition that such campaigns were not used by the United States as a cover for espionage.
What nice people...
The Pakistani Taliban militants also placed the condition that their apprehensions about the vaccination campaigns being un-Islamic be removed.
They're asking that we convince them that their irrational fears are irrational. Somehow I don't think that's going to work...
If they can convince us that these polio drops are Islamic and the spy agencies are not using it to kill our fighters, we would have no objection to any vaccination drive which is in the public interest, TTP spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan said while talking to private news channel on Friday via telephone from an undisclosed location.
Referring to the Abbottabad incident which led to the capture of Osama bin Laden, Ehsan said vaccination drives were being used by the CIA to hunt down its Mujahideen.
If only our CIA was that clever...
Our opposition and suspicion to the vaccination drives have been increased manifold after the Abbottabad incident, he said.
The Taliban spokesman also denied any involvement in previous attacks on polio workers.
Must have been the Ruritanians...
We are not involved in attack on the polio teams and the threats given to them. We do have reservations against the drive but we are not attacking them, said Ehsanullah. Our strategy is very clear. We will not attack any public welfare institution and non-military installations, he added.
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KUNAR: Scores of heavily armed Taliban militants killed 13 Afghan soldiers in fierce clashes on Friday after storming an army post in the east of the country near the Pakistan border, police said. More than 100 militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and guns launched the attack in Nari district of Kunar province, attacking the post from three directions before dawn.
The attackers were heavily armed, a senior police officer in Nari district, who declined to be named, told AFP. We have recovered the bodies of 13 of our soldiers, the outpost has been nearly destroyed.
The attack was finally pushed back after several hours when Afghan military and police reinforcements arrived. One soldier was severely injured, police said.
Defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zaher Azimi confirmed the attack but said that exact casualty figures were not available. We are still in the process of gathering information, he said.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the assault in an email to AFP and said that the militants had seized all weapons and ammunition from the army post.
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#1
just a preview
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2013 10:51
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#2
Comments from Karzai condemning the Taliban in 10...9...8...7....wait! Isn't he one of them.
Oh well, nothing to see here, no dead bunnies or puppies, the Taliban are nice Joe's they only kill our soldiers...
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/13/2013 13:48
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[YemenPost] As the Yemeni government is fighting off Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda in Yemen, a Sunni Muslim terror group which seeks to overthrow the republican system in order to establish a Islamic Caliphate(system of government based solely on Shariah Law and the teachings of Prophet Mohammed. Conceptually the caliphate represents the political unity of the entire community of Muslim faithful (ummah) ruled by a single caliph); a number of state, tribal and religious Yemeni dignitaries have been increasingly calling for the Youth to fight alongside Jabhat al-Nusra (JAN) in Syria, under the banner of Jihad.
The poorest country of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has a long history with Jihad (holy war). Profoundly attached to its religious identity, Yemen is decisively one of the Peninsula most devout and traditional societies. It is this attachment to its Islamic roots and belief system which times and times over have pushed young men to leave their homeland and fight Islam's cause on foreign shores.
Back in the 1980s when the Soviet Union was occupying Afghanistan, thousands of Yemeni nationals answered the call of Jihad to fight alongside American-backed militias.
History will have it that many of those very mujahideen (Jihad fighters) would morph into terror militants under the black banner of al-Qaeda or like in Afghanistan, the Taliban.
Fears are now that Yemen fresh Mujahideen recruits will end up serving terror groups' purposes in the region rather than support the people of Syria in their fight against tyranny.
While Yemenis might have the best intentions at heart, feeling a duty toward their fellow-Muslims, officials at the Interior Ministry are concerned more young men will become radicalized.
Jabbhat al-Nusra
Founded on 23 January 2012 in reaction to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad violent military crackdown against pro-democracy activists, Jabhat al-Nusra was identified by the U.S intelligence services in December 2012 as a terrorist organization linked to al-Qaeda.
Described by western powers as "the most aggressive and successful arm of the rebel force", Jabhat al-Nusra has grown stronger and more powerful as more recruits answered its leaders' calls for jihad. All across the Arab world, and maybe most predominantly in Yemen, where notions such as Jihad and religious brotherhood are taken very seriously indeed, men flocked to the callings of prominent clerics, such Sheikh Abdel Majeed al-Zindani.
Both an influential religious and tribal leader, Sheikh al-Zindani has long figured among America's most wanted terror list, as officials in Washington believe the man had close link with al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Rumored to be a supporter, mastermind and financial enabler, Washington was however never able to question the powerful and well-respected Sheikh; officials in Sana'a having warned his arrest would prompt widespread violence and outrage throughout, so much is his pull in Yemen.
According to reports published in local Yemeni newspapers, among which, al-Shareh and al-Jumhour, several religious leaders associated to al-Islah, Yemen Sunni radical faction, would have not only called for new recruits to join in the fight in Syria but they would have facilitated their travel to Syria, via Turkey.
It is important to note that while elements within al-Islah are in favor of Jihad in Syria, their stance does not reflect that of the party as a whole.
The Terrorists of tomorrow?
Speaking to al-Shorfa in April, Interior Ministry's spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Qaedi insisted "the government lacks specific figures regarding the number of recruits going to Syria."
He also emphasized "Yemenis must work together to lift the country out of its crisis because we have serious problems that require unity."
Security analysts are now raising the alarm bells, warning that today's new mujahideen would turn into the terrorists of tomorrow. Saeed al-Jamli from the Center for Studies and Research said he personally believed that using religion to fulfill a political purpose was positively dangerous and harmful to society, as returnees will find difficult to reintegrate their communities.
"Regardless of the positions taken by individuals and countries", he said, recruiting people to fight in the name of religion means many enthusiastic youth will declare jihad as they interpret it".
This will make Syria a training ground for fighters and a source for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which poses an even greater threat than fighters trained in Afghanistan."
Analysts are all pointing to the same historical reference, Afghanistan 1990s war against Russia, when tens of thousands of foreign fighters, many Yemeni nationals, were allowed to leave their country to enroll as mujahideen. Backed and financed by Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, as both allies sought to fight off the soviet threat in the region, America's funded holy war, ended up creating modern times' biggest threat, al-Qaeda.
The very terror group which in 2011 invaded large swathes of land in Yemen southern province of Abyan, declared Islamic caliphates in Jaar and Zinjibar and relentlessly targeted government interests throughout the country as to destabilize the central government and achieve victory against the republican system.
Yemen still remembers how one of its national, Ossama bin Laden was seduced by radical Islamists and how his involvement in Afghanistan led to his leading of al-Qaeda and ultimately his death in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.
ISLAMABAD: Former president Pervez Musharraf acknowledged his government secretly signed off on US drone strikes, reports the CNN.
It is the first time a top past or present Pakistani official has admitted publicly to such a deal. Pakistani leaders long have openly challenged the drone programme and insisted they had no part in it. Musharrafs admission, though, suggests he and others did play some role, even if they didnt oversee the programme or approve every attack.
Ex-president insists govt signed off on strikes only on a few occasions when the target was absolutely isolated and no chance of collateral damage
In an interview this week in Islamabad, CNN said Musharraf insisted Pakistans government signed off on strikes only on a few occasions, when a target was absolutely isolated and no chance of collateral damage.
Still, his admission that Pakistani leaders agreed to even a limited number of strikes runs counter to their repeated denunciations of a programme they long claimed the United States was operating without their approval.
The drone strikes which the nonpartisan public policy group New American Foundation estimates have killed at least 1,990 people in Pakistan, including hundreds of civilians are unpopular in Pakistan.
Today, the world superpower is having its own way, without any consent from Pakistan, former interior minister Rehman Malik had said last month. Despite such pronouncements, theres been speculation that the story might have been different behind the scenes.
In a cable sent in August 2008 and later posted online by Wikileaks, then-US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson mentioned a discussion about drones during a meeting that also involved Malik and then-prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Malik suggested we hold off alleged Predator attacks until after the Bajaur operation, Patterson wrote. The PM brushed aside Rehmans remarks and said, I dont care if they do it as long as they get the right people. Well protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.
Unmanned U.S. drones began launching attacks in Pakistan in 2004, by which time Musharraf had been president for five years after taking power in a bloodless coup. He said that Pakistani leaders would OK US drone strikes after discussions involving military and intelligence units and only if there was no time for our own ... military to act.
This happened only rarely, CNN quotes Musharraf as saying. But sometimes, he said, you couldnt delay action. These ups and downs kept going, he said. It was a very fluid situation, a vicious enemy, ... mountains, inaccessible areas.
Musharraf said that one of those killed by US drones was Nek Muhammed, a tribal leader accused of harbouring al Qaeda militants in Pakistans western border region. At the time, in June 2004, Pakistan intelligence sources said Muhammed died after Pakistani forces launched a missile at a house where he was staying.
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Israel has told the European Union and UN it can deport a Palestinian prisoner on a life-endangering long-term hunger strike to one of their member states, an Israeli official told AFP on Friday.
But a lawyer for Samer Issawi, who has intermittently refused food for more than eight months,
What kind of hunger strike is that? I usually (but not always) refuse food between lunch and dinner...
said his client strongly rejected the Israeli initiative, and an EU spokesman said no official proposal had been received.
Issawi, 33, was first arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 26 years for military activities on behalf of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was released by Israel under a prisoner swap deal in October 2011, but rearrested last July for violating the terms of the agreement by travelling to the West Bank from east Jerusalem.
The Israeli official said Issawi had gone to the West Bank to establish terror cells there. Israel has ordered that he serve the remainder of his original sentence.
Issawis health has deteriorated because of his prolonged fast, and he was being held in an Israeli hospital. The Israeli official said he could immediately be released to Gaza.
At which point he decided to eat...
In addition, over the last few weeks the prime ministers office was approached by senior EU and UN representatives, who expressed concern over his humanitarian condition, the official said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said Israel was willing to deport Issawi to any EU member country, or any UN member country, said the official, noting that they had yet to receive an answer from either.
An EU spokesman told AFP that Israel has not formally approached the EU on this subject.
However, the Israeli official insisted the issue came up in official communications between officials on both sides.
Lawyer Jawad Boulos said that while Israel had tried to make him agree to being deported to any of a number of countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Finland and Switzerland, Issawi had strongly refused in principle to be deported to any state.
Issawi is the last of four Palestinian prisoners who were on extended hunger strikes in Israeli prisons, after two ended their fast in February and a third was exiled from the West Bank last month to the Gaza Strip for 10 years.
Israel isn't obligated to make him eat, it's only obligated to put food in front of him.
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Syrian forces battled rebels in the central province of Homs near the border with Lebanon Friday as part of a counteroffensive aimed at regaining control of territory around the country and along strategic border areas, Associated Press reported.
With a fresh influx of weapons, opposition fighters have made significant gains in the past weeks, particularly in the southern province of Daraa, where rebels have been advancing in the region between the Jordanian border and the capital, Damascus. The province of Homs and its capital of the same name were the scenes of some of the heaviest fighting during the first year of Syrian conflict. The violence has escalated there in recent weeks, with Syrian war planes hitting the city daily. On Friday, troops clashed with rebels on the edges of the province along the Lebanese border.
The border area is strategically important to both sides fighting in Syria's civil war and battles there have been frequent in past weeks, particularly in and around the town of Qusair in Homs province. The area is considered vital to the Syrian regime because of its location along a road linking Damascus with the city of Homs, a strategic supply route for the military. The rebels also have been using the road to transport supplies and weapons from Sunni supporters in Lebanon.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday's clashes between soldiers and opposition fighters were concentrated around Qusair. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Overlooking Qusair from the Lebanese side are villages populated mostly by Shiite Muslim supporters of the Hezbollah militant group, who have supported Assad's regime during Syria's two-year conflict.
Also on Friday, Syrian warplanes carried out airstrikes around the country, hitting targets in Daraa in the south, in Hasaka province in the north east near the border with Turkey and in the northern city of Aleppo, parts of which have been under rebel control since last summer.
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Spook 86 at In From the Cold writes at Closer to the Brink about what might happen and what the calculations are in various capitals. This analyses emphasizes the danger present in allowing decisions to drift, as Champ is currently doing in the White House. Seoul and Tokyo might decide they have to become more independent in their response, and therein lies danger.
Robert Farley (who blogs at Information Dissemination and other places) writes at TheDiplomat that if war comes, it won't be accidental: wars happen because policymakers, making good or bad decisions, want them. He reviews the potential scenarios of action on both sides and concludes that "a full war seems exceedingly unlikely, as none of the combatants stand to benefit."
Both articles are recommended. My own take right now is this: war will come if Pudgy puts himself into a position in which war is the least unattractive of the options available to him. He's a weak, vain, cruel man, I think, and such men, particularly in a Stalinist regime, can't afford to lose face, not ever. Ordinarily in the past we let the North Koreans 'climb down' after an escalation. I'm not sure that will happen this time. I don't think war is likely, but I also don't see it as unthinkable.
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#1
OTOH WORLD MILITARY FORUM > CCTV: "WHAT IFF" THE US SUDDENLY ABANDONED JAPAN DUE TO THE BELIEF THAT JAPAN'S NATIONALIZATION OF THE CHINA-CLAIMED SENKAKUS/DIAOYUS ISLANDS LED TO THE PRESENT NORTH KOREAN MILITARY CRISIS?
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US NATIONAL SECURITY BRIEF:
OBAMA SCALING BACK SHOW OF FORCE ON [North]KOREA.
Once again, my bad vibes vee China-vs-Japan-vs-Debt/Sequester-ridden-US remains NOT abated.
IFF THE US "ABANDONS" JAPAN + SOKOR, ETC. BECAUSE IT CAN NO LONGER TO DEFEND ITS ALLIES IT CAN ABANDON GUAM + CNMI, ETC. FOR SAME OR SIMILAR REASON(S).
[CELINE "TITANIC" DION, BATTLESHIP USS OKLAHOMA, + HUGO CHAVEZ'S LAND, ISLAND-SINKING "TECTONIC/
EARTHQUAKE BOMBS" here].
and
* NBC NEWS > [Failed = Un-intercepted] MISSLE LAUNCH(launches?) IS NORTH KOREA'S "EXIT STRATEGY" [from Crisis], ANALYSTS SAY.
Espec iff the US-Allies fail to intercept as the DPRK's missles fly harmlessly over Japan, ALLOWING "PUDGY" TO SEEMINGLY PROCLAIM A DE FACTO, MIGHTY NOKOR "VICTOIRE" [victory] OVER THE WILY DASTARDLY US-ALLIES + FINALLY STOP THE BELLICOSITY???
versus
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Carnegie Endowment] DRAGON IN THE BATHTUB: CHINESE SUBMARINES AND [versus] THE SOUTH CHINA SEA [+ "First Island Chain" bottlenecks].
ARTIC = denotes how Chinese MilPol strategists fear Beijing's growing Navy, etc. will be hamstrung = contained widin the many barriers of the mostly anti-China "First Island Chain" in East Asia, stretching from Japan all the way southward towards the Indonesian Archipelago.
ISLAMIST-JIHADISTS THREAT [Nuclear?]? FROM ME + CENTASIA, AFPAK; versus the US ANTI-CHINA CONTAINMENT THREAT in the Pacific. Its onlya question of whether OWG Caliphate-happy Radical ISlam will attack China first in jihad before attacking the US, or vice versa.
Again, either China concedes, or the US = POTUS Obama + Admin concedes. CHINA = IRAN = the time is now before a GOP-DEM POTUS successor strong in foreign policy takes over come Jan. 2017.
THE US-ALLIES SHOULD EXPECT THE SAME OR WORSE CRISES THAN THE PRESENT AS LONG AS THE DPRK CAN NO LONGER WAIT FOR REUNIFICATION WID SOUTH KOREA, + AS LONG AS ["Mahanist"]CHINA REFUSES TO DELAY, AMEND, OR GIVE UP ITS AMBITION TO TAKE OVER FROM THE US AS WORLD #1.
#3
US and China aim for de-nuclearization of Korean peninsula? Not a bad idea ... but should have been tried while things were less volatile. ASITISNOW - does anyone remotely believe that Kim Jong-Un will allow inspectors over every square inch of his territory? And how else do people ensure a goal like de-nuclearization?
#4
The ChiComs smell SKor and Japanese awakening to nukes for their protection as the confidence of the US umbrella and sheild wanes under Champ's expert foreign policy. Speeches, fund raiders and the love of fawning adoration that are the total skill of this clown do not grow confidence in allies who see a shell of former greatness stumbling worldwide.
#5
there is no doubt that the enemies of the USA, especially those on the outer borders of the (former) empire, are exploiting weakness. Also no doubt that S. Korea and Japan probably have secret programs already for their own nuclearization. So while the USA discusses an attempt at de-nuclearization, others in the region are headed in the opposite direction.
Both the N. Koreans and Iranians have undertaken nuclear programs at great cost - in terms of sanctions, isolation, and destruction of their own economies. Do we seriously believe they will back off now? It seems extremely unlikely. They will see the "de-nuclearization strategy as a trick by the USA.
There might have been a time on the Korean peninsula when the de-nuclearization idea could have worked. When tensions were much lower. Even then ... it would have been a gamble because the N. Koreans can field a large army. If you take nukes out of the picture, war becomes a very possible option again.
The world is caught in an impass. No way to back out of the nuclear positions taken by the opposing sides.
The Israeli military said it fired artillery into Syria on Friday after its troops were shot at on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in the latest of a series of shooting incidents on the once-quiet front, Reuters reported.
"No soldiers were injured and no damage was caused. IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers responded with artillery fire towards the source of the shooting. A direct hit was identified," the military said in a statement.
A military spokeswoman said she did not know whether it was Syrian army or rebels who fired at the Israeli troops and whether the fire was stray or deliberate.
Austria's Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said on Friday Vienna would have to assess daily whether it was safe enough for Austrian peacekeepers, who account for around 380 of the 1,000-strong U.N. mission, to stay in the Golan. In the past three months, Japan and Croatia said they were withdrawing their troops from the peacekeeping mission and if Austria quits the operation it is unclear whether any other nation will replace them.
Israel is anxious for the peacekeepers to remain, worried the Golan will become a springboard for attacks on Israelis by jihadist groups fighting Assad.
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[Jpost] A Swedish mayor working to stop anti-Israel propaganda from being sold at a municipal cultural center was assaulted.
Mats Green, mayor of Jonkoping, was lightly maimed in an attack April 7 outside his home when two men struck him and kicked him, the news site nyheter24 reported.
Green, a politician from the center-right Moderate Party, said he could not identify his attackers. But local police suspect the background to the attack is Green's efforts to prevent the sale of T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Burn, Israel, burn" at the Socialist Book Cafe, a shop operating inside a city-owned cultural center. The shirts sell for about $40.
#1
They're charging forty bucks for a lousy t-shirt. They must be grossing 38.50 apiece. Even with Sweden's taxes, that's got to be sweet profit. I admire their capitalist audacity.
No wonder the mayor got attacked. He's cutting into a great business venture.
#6
Cradle to the grave...emphasis on the grave. Unfortunately, the sensible Swedes are severely outnumbered where almost everyone has a retard opinion and because it's an opinion, it's valid. Buncha fucking Nazis, I will be glad for them when the SHTF.
[Jpost] US Embassy also a target of al-Qaeda plot, 'New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
' reports; Turkish police arrest 12 in connection with plot.
Turkish police uncovered a plot linked to al-Qaeda to bomb a synagogue in Istanbul, the US embassy in Ankara and other targets, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
Twelve people were tossed in the slammer Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! during a raid on two houses in Istanbul and Corlu in February, according to the Times. Eight of them were Turks, two were Chechens and two were Azeris.
According to reports, the Turkish police seized nearly 50 pounds (22.6 kilograms) of plastic explosives with detonation systems, six laptops and other evidence.
Documents found on the computers, including photographs and floor plans, revealed preparations for kabooms on a synagogue in the Balat district of Istanbul, the US embassy and the Rahmi M. Koc Museum.
Turkish police said it was tracking an al-Qaeda man that arrived in the city of Tekirdag two years ago after receiving military training in Afghanistan. The surveillance on him led to the February raid.
In February, a Turkish leftist group bombed the US Embassy in Ankara and caused the death of a Turkish security guard. The attacker went kaboom! inside US property, blowing the door off a side entrance and sending smoke and debris flying into the street.
The most serious bombings of this kind in Turkey occurred in November 2003, when boom-mobiles shattered two synagogues, killing 30 people and wounding 146. Authorities said the attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has ordered the Punjab government to withdraw additional security to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The ECP has directed the government to withdraw the additional security and submit a report about it. The government was asked to provide them security according to the law. The PPP has alleged that 761 officials are deputed on security duty of Sharif brothers and their family members, against official permission. The security officials include 317 from the Elite Force, 302 from police force, 108 from Punjab Constabulary and 34 officials of the district police.
The ECP has directed the Punjab caretaker government to withdraw the additional security and submit a report about it. When the Daily Times contacted the spokesperson of the CCPO office, he said that the city police has not reduced the security of Sharif brothers or their family members. He said that the city police had provided them security according to law as former prime minister of Pakistan and former Punjab chief minister. When asked about the actual number of security personnel deputed for their security, the official did not give a figure and reiterated that the security protocol has been provided to them according to law.
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[YemenPost] Several Saudi-based newspapers reported on Monday that Arwa Baghdadi, a female Saudi national believed to have links with al-Qaeda hard boyz would have fled to Yemen after a court convicted her on terror charges.
Although a Saudi court established that Arwa had indeed joined up al-Qaeda upon the death of her brother, Mohammed Baghdadi, she was subsequently released back into the family fold, under the strict authority of her father and brother, who became her legal guardians and guarantors of sort.
Arwa was jugged Please don't kill me! by the Saudi authorities in December 2010, in Wadi al-Dawasir after she opposed the security sources and appeared as a threat to public order.
On Monday, Arwa's mother, Huda al-Adhal made a distraught appeal to the press, asking for her daughter who bravely ran away accompanied by her brother, to return home to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... , where she said they would be treated with clemency.
Al-Hayat newspaper quoted on Monday her mother as saying "The authorities here are tolerant and forgiving. So please come back!"
Arwa explained that her son informed her of him and Arwa's plan to join Yemen al-Qaeda over a phone call.
The Saudi authorities are now searching for Arwa and her two children, two-and-a-half-year-old son Osama and four-months old daughter Khadijah, Anas Baghdadi, his wife, Afnan, Mohammed's widow and her four-month-old daughter Huda. (Mohammed Baghdadi died right before Arwa allegedly joined al-Qaeda).
Family members have appealed to both Arwa and Anas family loyalty, asking them to surrender themselves to the authorities and ask for forgiveness. An uncle, Hesham Baghdadi told the press that the state had shown clemency to repentant terror hard boyz in the past and had even provided them with tools to reintegrate society.
If indeed it is established that Arwa Baghdadi escaped to Yemen to join al-Qaeda, she would be the thirds female Saudi national to willingly cross the border to follow the terror group.
An Iraqi journalist commemorates the tenth anniversary of American troops toppling an Arab despot.
Now it's time for Americans to stop feeling guilty about Iraq. The United States went to war in good will and wanted to spread democracy. But the Iraqis were not, and are still not, ready for democratic government. The fact that the whole Middle East has devolved into a Sunni-Shia war tells us that the chaos in Iraq that followed the U.S. invasion was only a small reflection of the problems in a region that was on fire long before 2003. We should also recognize that the United States still has a large role in influencing events in its interests, and shaping them according to its ideals.
#2
Unlike Korea, we've pretty much cleared out a problem that anchored military forces in the immediate region for nearly a generation. Korea still festers. Iraq is pretty much an Iraqi problem. Korea has become the problem for far too many to ignore anymore, yet even more dangerous because idiots with good intentions allowed the situation to develop to potential horrors that no one really wants to contemplate.
#3
Korea is the textbook illustration of what happens when you leave a job half-done. See also Gulf War, 1991.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/13/2013 12:01
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#4
I am continuously puzzled by why the world community will rend and tear their robes over a US drone strike but will allow a horror beyond horrors occur in NORK or Darfur, or Rwanda.
The situation in NORK is a classic example of putting playing the party line ahead of doing the right thing.
We should have gone into NORK years ago, when I say We I mean China, Russia, US, WE should have put boots on the ground in Rwanda, and that psychopath Bashear in the Sudan should be in chains in the Nederlands...a long time ago.
How can anyone take the US or any western power, talking "humanitarian efforts", seriously when we have known for years about these obscenities to go on and on.
Of course, Mugabe is another story.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/13/2013 13:32
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#5
Of course, Mugabe is another story.
Posted by Bill Clinton
And there you have it. Mugabe was and is a Western creation that no one talks about. Bashear and the rest little different.
There is serious shortage of emergency shelters near the inter-Korean border, especially in Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, and Gangwon Province.
Emergency management authorities on Tuesday said that the country needs a total of 380 shelters in the border regions, but by the end of last year only 62 had been completed. The government hastily built more shelters after the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010. At the time, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security spent W53 billion (US$1=W1,139) to build new shelters in the five islands in the West Sea off the North Korean coast.
The National Emergency Management Agency also conducted a study from April to August in 2011 to establish how many shelters are needed in the border regions and arrived at the figure of 380. It built 56 of them the same year but only another 17 in 2012. This year it plans to build another 20. At this rate it would take over a decade to build all 380.
The agency cites budget constraints for the slow progress. Each shelter costs W600 million, so all 380 would cost W170 billion. An NEMA official said this would be "unrealistic." "There could well be population and landscape changes in these areas that could alter demand in few year's time," the official added.
South Korea started building evacuation shelters in 1975, but the project was virtually suspended in the late 1990s since rapid urbanization and industrialization meant many buildings had their own underground facilities.
Instead, the government designated underground car parks, basements of apartment buildings and subway stations as evacuation points.
But critics say even purpose-built shelters cannot guarantee the people's safety since they cannot be perfectly sealed against chemical attacks and lack gas masks.
An NEMA official said, "The shelters we are building in the border areas are just for temporary evacuation from bombardment. They cannot protect people from chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks or accommodate them for longer periods."
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[La Belle France24] Blamed for empty shop shelves from Europe to Australia, networks of baby formula traffickers are shipping milk powder to Chinese parents fearful of local products, and working ever harder to meet demand.
Chinese parents haunted by scandals involving poisoned baby milk will pay premium prices -- three or four times as much as domestic brands -- for formula from Europe, where stores are limiting sales in the wake of the shortages.
Even the Chinese buyers are complaining. "Its getting harder to find milk powder, for each box I have to walk further," said a woman surnamed Shao, who lives in Germany and advertises baby formula online.
She is one of a small army of vendors working from homes across Europe, emptying shelves and causing shops to impose limits on purchases.
China's equivalent of eBay, Taobao, has more than 4,000 listings for milk powder products from Germany, with a similar number from Britannia and nearly 3,000 from La Belle France.
"I started off sending the powder to family and friends," said Shao, a stay-at-home mother who says she makes a "small amount" from the business.
"Mothers usually order six to eight boxes at a time, because it takes a month to arrive and they want to keep a constant supply," she told AFP.
Other vendors contacted by AFP ran larger-scale operations, with one Chinese company owner surnamed He boasting that he employs 10 German staff.
Demand is driven by memories of a 2008 scandal over Chinese baby formula tainted with the industrial chemical melamine which killed six children and affected more than 300,000 others.
Distrust was fortified last year when another domestic manufacturer's formula was found to be contaminated with carcinogens, despite official pledges to clean up the industry.
Breastfeeding rates in China are low -- only 28 percent according to a 2012 UNICEF report -- due to time limits on maternity leave and aggressive marketing of formula.
But buyers are sceptical of any products sold in China, including foreign brands packaged for the Chinese market.
China is "by far" the world's largest market for formula, says consumer research group Euromonitor.
"Chinese young parents perceive international brands, especially imported brands in original packaging, to be healthier," said analyst Vera Wang.
The Chinese websites charge hefty mark-ups, sometimes approaching 100 percent, on the retail price, such as German brand Aptamil advertised at around 220 yuan ($35) for a 600g (21 ounce) box.
Shipping fees can double those prices again, while customs checks and import duties in China can add another 30 percent, according to Chinese reports.
In contrast, a central Beijing supermarket sells Chinese-made Yili formula at 150 yuan for 900g.
The rising Chinese demand has led to shortages across Europe.
One German exporter posted a picture of empty supermarket shelves online writing: "I counted with the shop manager, there were eight metres of empty shelves... all bought by Chinese people."
German media have seized on photos of shop shelves stripped bare, with Bild, Europe's highest circulation newspaper, announcing in January: "Angry mothers stand in front of empty Aptamil shelves... because Chinese buy up our milk powder!"
Milupa, which makes Aptamil, apologised for the shortages, citing "exports to Asia" as the reason.
"We don't encourage these exports and we don't sell to Asia. These customers buy directly from German supermarkets," it said on its website.
Closer to mainland China, anger about visitor purchases in Hong Kong saw the city ban travellers taking out more than 1.8 kilograms of formula, with banners at the border warning of HK$500,000 (US$64,000) fines and two-year jail sentences for offenders.
European stores have also begun to limit sales, with German pharmacy chain DM banning customers from buying more than three boxes of Aptamil at a time.
In Britannia, major supermarket chains are reportedly limiting customers to two cans of formula per day at manufacturers' requests, with Milupa's parent company Danone saying the move was to prevent bulk-buying for "unofficial exports to China".
A Chinese customer was recently forced out of a branch of a British supermarket after staff said he had bought more than 100 boxes of formula in a single week, according to the 21st Century Business Herald, a Chinese newspaper.
In Australia, a major run on Karicare formula reportedly linked to an influx of Chinese tourists over Christmas saw some supermarkets and pharmacies introduce rationing and purchase limits in January.
In Germany, a vendor based near Frankfurt echoed others across the country when he told AFP: "It's becoming much harder to buy milk powder. Last time I went shopping I could only buy 12 boxes, so I've stopped trading."
But Shao said the shortages and restrictions would not stop her.
"If one supermarket is sold out, I'll walk to another," she said. "I do it for the mothers, and for the children. As a mother myself, I know how important milk powder is."
If the NORKs get crazy and those deadly isotopes really do hit the fan, iodine-131, strontium-90, and other radioactive contaminants can also be transferred through human milk. Buying pre-incident powdered milk really is the way to go.
#3
Back in the old days of capitalism, someone might actually take advantage of the opportunity provided here by hawking the diligence of the American Prue Food and Drug Act in providing quality products to leverage a market in China. Sort of like the quality control the Japanese were able to leverage over Detroit when it came to autos.
#4
Nestle has a couple of baby formula plants in Eau Claire Wisconsin that would gladly crank up three shifts a day to solve that problem.
Not to mention Enfamil and Semilac...Procopious2k has it right when he says the US should jump into this opportunity with both feet. Heck, we could fix the economies of at least four states with the increased demand for milk, soy, corn syrup, and white grape juice, not to mention the additional employment with these companies running knuckles to the firewall at three shifts.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/13/2013 13:37
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#5
And a truly enterprising Chinese person could make a fortune by ripping off the labels of the Chinese formula and slapping on labels that say "Hergestellt in Deutschland"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/13/2013 17:08
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Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh, a platform of Islamists, on Friday threatened to immobilise the country on May 5 if daily Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman was not freed and the groups 13-point demand not accepted. It also gave the government until Sunday to release Mahamudur Rahman or face a tougher action programme.
A longer, bloodier hartal...
The Hefajat issued the threat while staging demonstrations across the country as part of its scheduled programme on the day.
The Islamist group has already announced it will besiege Dhaka city on May 5 to press for its demands, including enactment of a blasphemy law with a provision for maximum punishment for insulting Islam.
It also held a rally at Brahmanbaria on Friday as part of its announcement from the April 6 grand rally at Shapla Square in Dhaka, that it would hold nine rallies throughout the month of April at different places of the country to mobilise support for the May 5 Dhaka siege programme.
Dhaka city unit of Hefajat also organised a rally at Paltan in which its leaders alleged that Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman had been arrested as he had sided with Islam and stood in opposition of the atheists.
They threatened to immobilise the whole country during its Dhaka siege on May 5 if Mahmudur was not released and Hefajats 13-point demand was not accepted.
They also alleged that certain quarters were trying to create misgivings about its 13-point demand.
In reference to statements of several ruling Awami League leaders, including its general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, that the Hefajat had retreated to Chittagong, the Islamist leaders said the May 5 Dhaka siege would show who pulls back.
The government has gone mad after watching the peoples upsurge on April 6, said Hefajat joint secretary general Abdur Rab Yusufi. He vowed to free Mahmudur Rahman by breaking the jail locks.
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CARACAS - The late Hugo Chavez's self-declared socialist revolution will be put to the test at a presidential election on Sunday that pits his chosen successor against a younger rival promising change in the nation he polarized.
Reuters would like to call this one for Nick the Mad already...
Most opinion polls give his protege, acting President Nicolas Maduro, a strong lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles thanks to Chavez's endorsement and the surge of grief and sympathy over his death from cancer last month.
The candidates closed out official campaigning on Thursday with dueling rallies, both drawing hundreds of thousands of boisterous supporters. Taking a page out of Chavez's playbook, a fiery Maduro marched through the streets of the capital draped in a Venezuelan flag and called on voters to follow "commander Chavez as the spiritual guide of the fatherland."
Capriles, an energetic 40-year-old state governor, wrapped up his second presidential campaign in seven months - he lost to an ailing Chavez last October - in the nearby city of Barquisimeto, pledging to end the divisive politics of the late president's 14-year rule and the rampant crime that is the top concern of Venezuelans.
"Those who govern today have never done anything for your security. Sunday we're going to choose between life and death," Capriles roared to the crowd. "If you want a future, you have to vote for change, for a different government."
At stake is control of the world's biggest crude oil reserves, economic aid to a host of left-leaning governments around Latin America, and the legacy of what Chavez liked to call "21st century socialism" - a mix of hard-left politics, heavy government spending on the poor, and growing state control over the economy.
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US President Barack Obama authorized the release Thursday of up to $10 million in food and medicine for rebels in Syria, saying the war there had reached a critical point. Obama, who discussed the worsening humanitarian crisis with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the White House Oval Office, said they would be working together to try to improve conditions in Syria and lay the foundations for a political transition.
Secretary-General Ban and I shared the view that we are at a critical juncture, that it is important for us to bring about an effective political transition that would respect the rights of all Syrians and that, in the interim, its important for us to try to eliminate some of the carnage that has been taking place directed at civilians and non-combatants, Obama said.
Ban said he had asked Obama to demonstrate and exercise his stronger leadership in working together with the key partners of the Security Council, where Western powers have been at loggerheads over Syria with Russia and China.
The aid, which will take the form of medical kits and military food rations, had been announced by Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting of the Friends of Syria in Rome on February 28, but the amount and means of funding it had not been disclosed at the time.
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the funding was in addition to $117 million in non-lethal aid already being provided to the Syrian opposition to help it organize inside the country.
The United States is also providing $385 million in humanitarian aid for the estimated four million people displaced by the conflict inside Syria and the 1.2 million refugees who have fled the country.
But like other western countries, the United States has refused to supply the rebels with weapons, fearing they will fall into the hands of extremists.
In Congress, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator Robert Menendez added his voice to growing calls for military aid to the rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Shaddup and go back to your Dominican hooker, Bob...
I believe the time has come to consider providing in some form military aid to the opposition because unless we change the dynamic and put our finger on the scales to change the tipping point, Assad will continue to believe he can hold on to power, he said.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Elizabeth Jones responded that the administration is firm in its belief that a political solution would be the best way to avert further destruction in the country.
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#1
but the amount and means of funding it had not been disclosed at the time.
I'll tell you this much for sure - it didn't come out of Kerry's pockets (estimated net worth, excluding Nurse Fuzzy Wuzzy's stash, at approximately $180 million); he throws quarters around like they were manhole covers.
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.
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
ISLAMABAD: Former president Pervez Musharraf acknowledged his government secretly signed off on US drone strikes, reports the CNN.
Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh, a platform of Islamists, on Friday threatened to immobilise the country on May 5 if daily Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman was not freed and the groups 13-point demand not accepted. It also gave the government until Sunday to release Mahamudur Rahman or face a tougher action programme. 
