United Nations officials refuse to allow observers to read the draft agenda for the Rio+20 conference on climate change, after an earlier draft called for the economic contraction in major countries.
The first and foremost reason for any government to classify a document is to protect itself -- from embarrassment...
It seems the UN has taken the final pre-conference draft and classified it! Lord Monckton, a climate skeptic with the Center for a Constructive Tomorrow reported in an email. We were promised transparency. This is unacceptable.
A proposal within an earlier draft agenda for the conference called for the contraction and convergence for over- and under-consumers of natural resources, CFACT noted. Given President Obamas oft-repeated statistic that the United States produces 2 percent of the worlds oil but uses 20 percent, this proposal would affect the American economy significantly.
Which clearly is a goal Champ and the progressives would favor...
We aspire to nothing less than a global movement for generational change, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said earlier this year.
Another proposal would spread the cost of green investment throughout society, at an estimated cost of $1,300 per American family. We call for the fulfilment of all official development assistance commitments, including the commitments by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product for official development assistance to developing countries by 2015, the earlier draft says.
Because Bob in Zim-bob-we needs the cash more than you do...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
14:33 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As long as they keep it classified...forever...and never trouble anyone again with its contents, then I think we're OK.
U.S. intelligence agencies are closely watching Israels military for signs it will conduct strikes on Syrias stockpiles of chemical weapons, amid concerns the deadly nerve agents could fall under the control of Hezbollah or al Qaeda terrorists, U.S. officials said.
As usual, Champ and Hilde are more worried about Israel than about Pencilneck...
Syrias arsenal remains vulnerable as the result of the internal conflict currently underway in Syria between government forces and opposition rebels, one official said.
Everyone suspects Syria maintains an active chemical weapons program; and it would be dangerous not to plan accordingly, the official said.
As for concerns the weapons will be captured or transferred, the official said: Most countries that have CW stocks view it as a strategic, not tactical, tooland strategic tools are usually pretty well protected and arent given away lightly.
Which doesn't mean that it could never happen...
However, other U.S. officials said special operations forces are prepared to take action inside Syria in the event the regime falls and the country spirals further into chaos. The teams would seek to secure or destroy stockpiles of chemical arms to keep them from being taken over by terrorists. Hezbollah has been very active in Syria, and there are reports that al Qaeda terrorists have moved into Syria during the current crisis.
Whose special teams, ours or Israel's?
The exact size of the Syrian chemical arsenal is not known. The Center for Strategic and International Studies reported several years ago that Syria has stockpiled 500 to 1,000 metric tons of chemical agents. The weapons are said to include long-lasting VX nerve agent and less-persistent Sarin nerve agent, as well as mustard blister agents. Most but not all of the weapons stockpiles are known to U.S. intelligence agencies.
The New York Timesleaked reported Thursday that CIA operatives are working in southern Turkey to coordinate foreign assistance to Syrian rebel forces.
Recent statements by senior Israeli military officials prompted U.S. concerns over an Israeli strike on Syria. Senior officials in Israel told the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that if Syrias army gave chemical weapons to Hezbollah or other terrorists an Israeli attack would be needed.
That would seem to be a pretty bright red line. Why would we restrain Israel in that situation?
The newspaper reported May 31 that Israel failed to prevent Syrias transfer of M-600 rockets to Hezbollah and the weapons can now threaten central Israel. One military source was quoted as saying that mistake would not be repeated.
Israeli Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, commander of forces deployed on the Syrian and Lebanese front, was quoted in press reports expressing concerns about Syria being used as a warehouse for war materiel that feeds terrorist elements in the region.
Golan also said there were reports that al Qaeda terrorists are working against the regime in Damascus and those terrorists eventually would target Israel, perhaps in the coming months.
IDF Deputy Chief Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh also said June 11 that Israeli forces must be on alert because Syrias military has the largest chemical weapons arsenal in the region, which can reach any spot in Israel. He expressed worries that the weapons could fall into the hands of the rebels or the terrorists.
A State Department arms compliance report from 2010 stated that Syria is also believed to have an offensive biological weapons program in addition to the chemical arms.
Calls for military intervention could increase if Syrian forces begin using the deadly chemical weapons in battling opposition forces.
Daddy Bashir doesn't worry about that much when he gassed Hama...
A Syrian rebel leader, Col. Riad al-Asaad of the Syrian Free Army, told Al Jazeera June 8 that Syrian military aircraft had dropped chemical bombs that poisoned people, and that government forces had distributed gas masks to troops 10 days earlier in preparation for the use of the weapons against northern areas of the country.
State Department cables disclosed last year revealed Syria had obtained large quantities of chemical weapons precursor agents from China, Italy, and other states.
A July 10, 2008, cable said: While Syria proclaims its desire to cooperate with the IAEA in investigating serious evidence of a covert nuclear program and allowed an extremely restricted June 22-25 IAEA visit to investigate a covert nuclear program, Syria has never accounted for its [chemical weapons] stocks, refuses to join the Chemical Weapons Convention, and is modernizing its long-range missile systems in cooperation with Russia, North Korea, and other countries.
There remain suspicions Syria could be sharing missile technology with Hezbollah, the cable said, noting, Just as Washington has done in past demarches regarding Syrian WMD and missile programs, Post believes a new scrub of releasable intelligence would strengthen our arguments regarding the gap between Syrian rhetoric and actions.
A June 20, 2006, cable reported that Iran was assisting Syrias chemical warfare program with construction of four to five precursor chemical production facilities.
Iran would provide the construction design and equipment to annually produce tens to hundreds of tons of precursors for VX, sarin, and mustard, the cable said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
14:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[24 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That really should be "Obama is worried..." I have no problem with Israel turning Iran into a parking lot or a land fill.
#2
More likely, Obama doesn't want to deal with anything that might impact the election adversely for him. A complete lack of leadership ability. Amateur hour.
#4
Rather than all this theater, what is Bambi going to do about Syria now that they admitted shooting down a Turkish F-4 Phantom? since Turkey is a NATO country, all NATO membera are obligated to come to their aid if that is how things develop. Might actually force Sh!tforbrains to make a decision.
ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday Syria had admitted it had shot down a Turkish warplane in the Mediterranean and apologized, BBC Monitoring reported, citing Turkey's state news agency Anatolia.
The report could not immediately be confirmed. Turkey's military earlier announced it had lost contact with a fighter jet while it was over the sea off the southeastern coast. It did not give any further details.
Turkish media said the plane, an F-4 jet, crashed in Syria or Syrian territorial waters.
The two crew-members were found alive, CNN Turk and the Hurriyet daily said.
Earlier, eyewitnesses in the northern Syrian town of Latakia told BBC Arabic that Syrian air defences shot down an unidentified aircraft near the town of Ras al-Baseet. Navigation error? Attempted defection? Anti-Kurd action? Technically Turkey is our NATO ally... Filing as non-WoT, but that could change.
#3
Probably quick to fire thinking it was US. The fact that they actually may have shot it down should have told them it wasn't American (or Israeli)...
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/22/2012 12:54
Comments ||
Top||
#4
The fact that they could see it tells them it wasn't Israeli...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012 12:56
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Turkey is still playing with 30+ year old F-4's and inshallah maintenance? Fun stuff.
#8
KFI commute radio just a half hour ago said the pilots were NOT recovered. Interesting....
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/22/2012 20:31
Comments ||
Top||
#9
VARIOUS = ...
> Syria claims the Turkish plane was shot down inside Syrian territorial waters.
> DEFENCENET [Greece] = Turkish AF F-4E 2020 or RF-4 shot down by S-300 ADS, POSSIBLY RUSSIAN MANNED/CONTROLLED?, wid permission of the Syrian Govt. Turkish AF was allowed by Syria to conduct SAR for its then-missing Pilots.
> Despite Net Artics to the contrary, there are conflicting claims by both SYRIAN MEDIA + TURKEY that Syria has NOT apologized to Turkey for the incident???
> SPECULATION/SCUTTLEBUTT THAT THE TURKISH PLANE MAY HAD ACTUALLY BEEN SHOT DOWN BY A NAVAL VESSEL [Russian?], NOT SYRIAN SHORE-BASED AD ARTY, which could explain Erdogan's seemingly tight-lipped or panicky? behavior???
#10
Joe that's some interesting stuff.
I wonder if this is in any way related to the fighter bomber that defected to Turkey the other day. (tit for tat?)
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/22/2012 21:49
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Y'know, maybe Erdogan shouldn't have spent the last decade or so slowly dismantling his military leadership and pissing off Turkey's two primary allies.
[Guardian UK] The US policy of using aerial drones to carry out assassinations presents a major challenge to the system of international law that has endured since the second world war, a United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... investigator has said.
Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, summary or arbitrary executions, told a conference in Geneva that President B.O.'s attacks in Pakistain, Yemen and elsewhere, carried out by the CIA, would encourage other states to flout long-established human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... standards.
In his strongest critique so far of drone strikes, Heyns suggested some may even constitute "war crimes". His comments come amid rising international unease over the surge in killings by remotely piloted unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Addressing the conference, which was organised by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a second UN rapporteur, Ben Emmerson QC, who monitors counter-terrorism, announced he would be prioritising inquiries into drone strikes.
The London-based barrister said the issue was moving rapidly up the international agenda after China and Russia this week jointly issued a statement at the UN Human Rights Council, backed by other countries, condemning drone attacks.
If the US or any other states responsible for attacks outside recognised war zones did not establish independent investigations into each killing, Emmerson emphasised, then "the UN itself should consider establishing an investigatory body".
Also present was Pakistain's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Zamir Akram, who called for international legal action to halt the "totally counterproductive attacks" by the US in his country.
Heyns, a South African law professor, told the meeting: "Are we to accept major changes to the international legal system which has been in existence since world war two and survived nuclear threats?"
Some states, he added, "find assassinations immensely attractive. Others may do so in future ... Current targeting practices weaken the rule of law. Killings may be lawful in an armed conflict [such as Afghanistan] but many assassinations take place far from areas where it's recognised as being an armed conflict."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
10:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
But he has a Nobel Peace Prize! That make it OK, right?
#2
50 years of failed enforcement threatens international law. You mean all the pretense and meetings and useless declarations are being called for what they are? Quick, we need to protect our phoney baloney jobs!
#4
Hey, the UN rapp'er is just blowing smoke out the posterior. They cannot even control their own employees or contractors, much less certified and licensed terrorists.
Send them a FOAD letter, or better yet, ignore them.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/22/2012 15:05
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Or even better, fire them all and burn the place down, then demand a refund of ALL our dues and anything else we paid.
#3
When I first saw the headline, I thought I was time traveling: Read it as XB-47. Jeeze.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/22/2012 15:08
Comments ||
Top||
#4
We'll still manned AC for a while yet, as neither the USDOD nor mainstream America nor the US Econ nor even the Fed is ready for tote Unmanned-Space Techs.
Our Allies' SpaceProgs are problematic, the EU is the only OWG "Union" actually formally set up but is in various deep crises, + Bammer Solar keeps going bankrupt.
#5
Maybe, but it's going to be a while before they have the situational awareness to fight.
I'm not so sure. Anyone who has played a flight sim knows about the problem of situational awareness given the limited inputs. The other aspect, for a real pilot, is the difficulty of paying attention to everything at. Machines are great at doing everything at once (or at least faking it) and can deal with a lot more inputs than humans.
Consider the Google self-driving car. It goes on a mission from A to B, all the while maintaining awareness and spatial relationships with other traffic and politely yielding to pedestrians. Change the optimization goals of its algorithms (and provide some better weapons) and suddenly it is hunting other vehicles and mowing down pedestrians with mechanical glee.
I'm not suggesting there are no technical challenges to unmanned air combat, but I bet it happens sooner than we think. One of the modern trends in artificial intelligence is machine learning - training programs how to solve problems that are to hard to program. I bet someone is doing this right now with air combat maneuvering. "Would you like to play a game?"
#6
OTOH CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > US PENTAGON'S BEST-KEPT SECRET - F-35 IS PROGRESSING NICELY.
> Flight tests are ahead of schedule.
> Costs per Unit-Programme going steadily downward.
> Mullah bullah Internat States becom interested in Procurement + Tech-Sharing.
Iff the F-35 = new heavyweight "F-15", F-22 Raptor = new "F-16/18", as per HI-LO SUPER-PLANE MIX???
Germany's constitutional court has delayed the creation of a new 500bn eurozone bail-out fund as Angela Merkel faces a series of legal challenges to measures seen as critical for saving the EU's single currency.
The legal block is embarrassing for the German Chancellor who expended large amounts of political capital in concessions to get the Social Democrat and Greene opposition to support the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) so it could enter into force on 1 July.
The ESM is urgently needed to fight European debt contagion over the summer and is Germany's preferred option for a bailout of Spanish banks because it is more secure for lenders than the existing, smaller eurozone fund, the EFSF.
Germany's parliament will ratify the ESM and the fiscal pact on 29 June after Chancellor Merkel was forced to offer the opposition new spending on growth and her full backing for a eurozone financial transaction tax in return for its support.
But in a humiliating setback on Thursday, judges in the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the country's constitutional court ruled that they would need "at least three weeks" to consider the "complex" ESM's legality after the vote and before it was signed Joachim Gauck, the German President.
"We assume that the president will, as he has done before, comply with this request, and that the court will therefore have enough time to conduct an examination," said a spokesman for the court, which is based in Karlsruhe.
#1
It's "embarassing" and "humiliating" when the supreme court of a sovereign federal republic bitterly clings to the rule of law, in defiance of the inevitable forward march of history? Nope, move along, no ideological bias here.
Cabbie, keep the meter running -- this robbery will be quick.
A Florida woman has been accused of making her taxi driver wait for her outside a convenience store while she went inside to coerce the cashier into emptying the register, The News-Press reported.
Cynthia Sheik took a cab to a Race Track store in Port Charlotte, Fla., and asked her driver to wait for her outside, according to deputies. "I'll be back in a flash, with tons of cash."
But while she was busy demanding cash inside, the cabbie started worrying she was beating her fare and summoned a nearby police officer, according to The News-Press.
Sheik made it out of the store with $320 -- but not before triggering the alarm, and not before the clerk ran out to tell the cop Sheik had demanded that they give her all the money, cops said. "Thanks for waiting. You can expect a heavy tip."
"We'll pay your fare, lady. You're under arrest."
"****."
Sheik was given matching bracelets and read her rights.
A sub-commander for Abu Sayyaf thought to be involved in the beheading of an American hostage in 2001, among other offenses, was arrested in Zamboanga City Thursday afternoon.
Police Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr. identified the suspect as Alawie Pasihul a.k.a Ustadz Asman, said to have been recruiting Muslim youths to the terrorist insurgent group.
Joint police and military operating units arrested Asman with an arrest warrant for kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
Pagdilao said Pasihul was involved in the kidnapping of 51 people public school teachers, a priest and school children in Basilan province; beheading of kidnapped victim Guillermo Sobero in 2001; and in the 2002 Cabatangan siege at Zamboanga City.
Pasihul is a follower of the late Abu Sayyaf leader Abdurajak Janjalani and currently involved in recruiting Muslim youths for membership with ASG-AWLIYAH Group, based in Sulu, known for their ferocious attacks on Sulu-based Philippine Marines soldiers.
Seized from Pasihul was a Moro National Liberation Front identification card under the name of BGen Habib Alawie Pasihul and a mobile phone.
Posted by: ryuge ||
06/22/2012
07:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
#1
There were not that many people there when Guillermo was killed. The Phils claim it to get the press. The guy's creds as MNLF tell more to the Phils dismantling of the MNLF, a good thing, but using the ASG to get the vis on it. Just my point of view.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/22/2012 8:55
Comments ||
Top||
At least a dozen Afghan non-combatants were killed in a large-scale Taliban attack on a lakeside hotel on the outskirts of Kabul Friday morning, officials said.
Four Talibs equipped with boom jackets and rifles stormed the hotel Spoghmai at Lake Qargha late Thursday evening, one of the busiest nights for the hotel's restaurant.
They initially killed the two guards at the gate, took as many as 40 civilians hostage in a siege which lasted about 12 hours, and ultimately saw at least 12 other Afghan civilians killed.
The last group of 13 civilians was rescued at 11am on Friday, 12 hours after the Taliban launched the attack, said Kabul police chief, General Ayub Salangi.
Of the attackers, one went kaboom!", and the other three were killed by security forces, according to officials.
The Taliban grabbed credit for the attack, in a released statement saying NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... and foreign embassies personnel and their Afghan colleagues were staying there - a place, the Taliban said, used for "prostitution and parties".
It was later determined that no foreigners were at the hotel at the time, which is frequented by middle class Afghans.
Afghan forces launched a pre-dawn operation on Friday to deal with a hostage-taking situation.
"We have to be careful and move smartly to ensure civilians aren't hurt," Gen Salangi told TOLOnews earlier.
TOLOnews news hound Wali Arian, who was at the scene, said the whole area was cordoned off from the early morning. Foreign troops were deployed to the scene too, but the operation was carried out by the Afghan forces.
"It's a pure civilian target," said Ahmad Samim, who owns a food shop by the lake. "The area is not popular for foreigners at all, especially for staying overnight. I am sure the Taliban understand that."
Helicopters of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) were flying overhead too.
Several people, including women, were maimed in the attack. An maimed woman, who didn't want to be named, told TOLOnews news hound that she couldn't imagine surviving the attack.
Some Afghans have seen this attack as a shift in both the Taliban's military tactics and broader goals.
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... condemned the attack saying in a statement from his office that it "proves the defeat of the enemy".
Afghan blogger Ahmad Shuja said it was "a turning point".
"The rationale from the Taliban sounds awfully like what they used for their notorious vice and virtue police during the glory says of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The only difference is, this attack is more sinister and has large-scale terrorist aims," Shuja posted on his blog.
#6
Net Artics sezzes the Afghan Taliban were to blame andor claiming responsibility for the attack - NATO Cdr, however, believes 'twas specifically the Haqqanis that done the deed???
A nephew of Saddam Hussein, wanted by Iraq for membership in a terrorist organization, has claimed asylum in Austria saying he fears persecution, Austria's interior ministry announced.
Terrorists usually do fear prosecution...
A spokesman for the ministry said the man, whom they named only as Bashar N., had been detained without identity documents on Thursday in the town of Traiskirchen, a well-known center for asylum-seekers since the Cold War, along with two other people.
The ministry spokesman said, "Asylum proceedings are now under way in Austria. Regardless of his origin, everyone has a right to a legal process."
Bashar N. has been on an Iraqi wanted list since 2006, he is not under arrest. His identity was established by fingerprints.
Bashar N. claimed he had come to Austria by plane from Turkey using a false passport, which was then taken away by the people smuggler who had assisted him. He is being held at a secret location for his own safety.
At least 13 people were killed and more than 100 injured today when two roadside bombs exploded in a Baghdad market in the latest attack targeting Shi'ites this month.
The first blast struck Husseiniya, a market in a predominantly Shi'ite area on the outskirts of the city. The second explosion followed soon afterwards as security forces and others tried to tend the casualties from the first.
Mudhaffar Khalaf, a policeman at the scene said, "Fruit and vegetables have been scattered everywhere. Some children were wounded. We have started to evacuate the injured people."
Labour knew that immigrants were flooding into Britain in far higher numbers than anticipated by 2005, former home office minister John Denham admitted today.
Mr Denham, who is now permanent private secretary to Ed Miliband, the Labour Leader, said it was clear seven years ago that estimates for migrants were 'vastly wrong.'
The Labour MP for Southampton said: "We were advised about 15,000 and about that came to Southampton alone in the first 18 months."
Asked when he was first aware of the problem he added: "I think for me in really 2005. It was then it became clear that the estimates we relied on were vastly wrong. What we are acknowledging today is that far more people came in far more quickly than people anticipated."
The last Labour government oversaw a liberal immigration policy that led to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of workers from eastern Europe. In 2004 when the European Union expanded to take in Poland and other eastern states, the UK decided not to impose any restrictions on the arrival of citizens from those countries.
But Mr Denham refused to say there were too many immigrants coming to Britain.
The former chair of the Home Affairs Select Committe replied: "That's not the issue we've been talking about today. I think there is a debate and a discussion still to be had about the numbers overall that you have in a country."
Today Mr Miliband will admit in a speech that Labour got it wrong on immigration. The Labour leader will say that while middle-class households benefited from mass immigration to Britain their working class counterparts suffered.
Mr Miliband will admit that the influx of cheap workers had been good for the middle classes who wanted a new conservatory but bad for the British labourers who built them.
Thereby confirming that Labour is really the party of the privileged and the upper middle class.
In no small part because virtually the entire US media share the same ideologies as the BBC and the Guardian. At least the British MSM has some non-leftist voices.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
06/22/2012 9:42
Comments ||
Top||
#4
"If the people won't elect us, elect a new people."
Syrian President Bashar Assad Thursday night, June 21, ordered his entire Air Force fleet of fighter bombers grounded, for fear that more pilots might defect after Col. Hasan Merhi al-Hamadeh flew to Jordan aboard a MiG-21.
Officials in Damascus noted that the same day was chosen by Washington to confirm that CIA officers were present in southern Turkey to help the Free Syrian Army rebels fight the Syrian government. Syrian officials are convinced that the defection of the pilot with his plane was organized by the Americans and that more are in the pipeline in an attempt to show the Syrian people and Arab world that even the Syrian air force, the part of the armed forces most loyal to Assad, was in fact slipping out of his hands.
DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report that, early Thursday, Col, al-Hamadeh flew out of the Khalkhala air base, which is situated between the southern towns of Deraa and Suweida not far from the Druze Mountain.
While his MiG belonged to the 73rd Air Brigade, he was a member of the Syrian Air Force's 20th Division and commander of the MiG-21 test squadron, which regularly inspects those aircraft at southern air bases to check if they are flight worthy.
That is why no one at the Khalkhala base saw anything amiss when this officer climbed aboard one of the aircraft and suddenly pivoted the plane at a sharp angle - even when he failed to respond to control tower signals.
But before they could catch on, the MiG-21 was gone over the border to Jordan, a flight of no more than 90 seconds.
Because the Jordanians were not forewarned about an incoming Syrian air force plane, Col. Al-Hamadeh requested permission from the control tower at Al Hussein air base in northern Jordan to make an emergency landing. As soon as the MiG came to a stop on the runway, the Syrian colonel jumped out, shed is uniform and prayed.
Our sources disclose that the defector came from the village of Meles in the Idlib district of northern Syria where he has left his wife, four children and family. This village is one of the few parts of the embattled district to remain in Free Syrian Army rebel hands. Their agents were certainly involved in helping to arrange his escape.
Our sources disclose that the defector came from the village of Meles in the Idlib district of northern Syria where he has left his wife, four children and family.
In the 2004 census by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Idlib had a population of 97,969 (2004 census). The inhabitants are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims.
The Flame computer virus is not only capable of espionage but it can also sabotage computer systems and likely was used to attack Iran in April, according to a leading security company, Symantec Corp.
Iran had previously blamed Flame for causing data loss on computers in the country's main oil export terminal and Oil Ministry. But prior to Symantec's discovery, cyber experts had only unearthed evidence that proved the mysterious virus was capable of espionage.
Symantec researcher Vikram Thakur said on Thursday that the company has now identified a component of Flame that allows operators to delete files from computers.
#1
Obvious. But even more fun than espionage and deleting stuff would be to subtly alter the files or data. "The daily report says everything is fine! Continue operations"
(Sh.M.Network)-Senior Kenya Defence Force officers are concerned al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... gunnies are escaping intoKenyaas the operation to rout the snuffies from Somalia gains momentum.
Intelligence reports indicate the al Qaeda-linked snuffies have been seen heading to Dadaab refugee camp and towards Kiunga, Kiwayu and Lamu islands.
"They are escaping to Kiwayu and Lamu and they are being accommodated by the locals before those who have passports board flights and escape from the country.
We also have information that some are heading towards Dadaab where they lay down arms only to mingle and disappear within the refugee camp.
But that is an internal matter that has to be dealt with by the Internal security organs," a senior military officer said.
The concern comes as after reports revealed most imported muscle within the al-Shabaab ranks have been fleeing toYemen.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... 11 Kenyans are among recruits inducted into and fighting for the Ras Kamboni Brigade led by Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Islam, aka Madhobe, in the Juba area.
Abdinasir Sheikh, a Garissa resident, is one such recruit who has been fighting with the brigade for the last nine months.
The lanky young man, who dons the jungle green tunic of the Ras Kamboni brigade and can pass for a Somalia national, comfortably mingles with KDF soldiers as he chats to journalists in sheng and Kiswahili.
Abdinasir, who tried to join KDF and the administration police thrice and failed in 2003, resolved to join Ras Kamboni brigade.
He said many Kenyans have been dragged into the conflict, some of whom have been killed especially in the Elwak area.
"There are many Kenyans fighting in al-Shabaab and within Ras Kamboni and TFG. There are about 10 Kenyans who are with Ras Kamboni Brigade in this area but i also know that several others are in al-Shabaab.
TFG has several Kenyans who were recruited in Mandera and trained in Manyani before they were deployed in Somalia," Abdinasir said in an interview in Afmadhow last week.
The young man, whose mother and brother live inNairobi, said he was recruited and trained by Æthiopians for four months before being deployed to fight against al-Shabaab in Bardere, Jaldas and Dhoble.
Abdinasir said he earns enough to cater for his two children who live with their aunt.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
01:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[An Nahar] A South African couple seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean and held for 18 months in Somalia was freed overnight, with relatives saying a ransom was paid while authorities spoke only of a raid by security forces.
Family members said they had paid money for the release of Debbie Calitz and Bruno Pelizzari but Somalia's Defense Minister Hussein Arab Isse insisted the two were freed in a rescue operation that lasted throughout the night.
"We definitely paid something for their release," Pelizzari's younger sister Dora Hunt told a television interview, without elaborating.
"The rescue started last night (Wednesday) and lasted until this morning and you can see that the pair were freed safely," Isse told a joint presser with the couple, who appeared with sunken eyes and ashen faces.
Isse said the raid was a joint operation by security forces and the army and that the couple had been freed from "al-Qaeda-affiliated" myrmidons.
It was not immediately clear whether this meant that the pirates who captured the couple had sold them on to Somalia's Shebab rebels, a group linked to al-Qaeda.
Hunt said she was grateful the couple were "back and healthy" but said they had "aged" whilst in captivity.
Sources said the two were freed in the lower Shabelle region of southern Somalia, close to Mogadishu.
Calitz and Pelizzari were sailing in the Indian Ocean in 2010 when their yacht was hijacked by 12 pirates who set course for Somalia and took the couple ashore at Baraawe.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
Isse said the raid was a joint operation by security forces and the army and that the couple had been freed from "al-Qaeda-affiliated" myrmidons.
Rubbish! Dora Hunt is reg, "they paid" ...probably in gold. Plenty of security on hand during the "raid" to ensure host nation and the ANC got their cuts as well.
[An Nahar] Violence has halted the evacuation of trapped civilians from Syria's Homs region, the Red Islamic Thingy said on Thursday, adding it was in negotiations for a deal that would allow them to safety.
"Negotiations are still underway with the parties concerned to evacuate civilians, in cooperation with the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Thingy)," the Red Islamic Thingy's Khaled Erksoussi said.
"The teams on site are awaiting the green light to evacuate civilians from the parties who control the dangerous neighborhood," the operations chief told Agance La Belle France Press.
"We need to reach an agreement with them to ensure our security," he said, referring to regime and rebel forces, while adding that "We hope to reach a positive outcome soon."
The ICRC said on Wednesday it was ready to evacuate civilians stranded in Homs city and bring in relief aid and medical supplies with the help of the Red Islamic Thingy, after regime and opposition forces gave their approval.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] The speaker of the Iraqi parliament said on Thursday that he had ordered a halt to all work at the legislature until concrete blast walls removed in recent days are put back.
Osama al-Nujaifi said that if the government were confident that the security precaution was no longer necessary, then all of the protective barriers around the entirety of the Green Zone, Storied Baghdad's ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... fortified government and embassy compound, should be removed.
"I suspended the working hours... and we requested the return of all the blast walls," Nujaifi told a news conference at the parliament building inside the Green Zone.
"Removing the blast walls at this time is very dangerous for the employees of parliament," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
[An Nahar] A Tunisian military plane destroyed three cars loaded with weapons that were driving just north of the country's southern border with Algeria and Libya, the official TAP news agency said Thursday.
The plane attacked the vehicles after their occupants opened fire on it as it patrolled the southern zone of Satah al-Hassan 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the triple border overnight Wednesday, TAP reported.
The defense ministry would not immediately comment on the report when contacted by AFP.
Tunisian news sites reported that the cars were loaded with arms from Libya and were crossing Tunisia to get to Algeria.
Arms trafficking has went kaboom! in the region since the 2011 conflict in Libya that toppled dictator Muammar Qadaffy ... who had more funny outfits than Louis XIV...
Tunisia's large desert south has proved difficult to police.
In September last year, the Tunisian army clashed with an gang that crossed the border from Algeria in the south, killing six of the infiltrators, according to a Western diplomat.
The commander-in-chief of the United States' Africa Command, General Carter Ham, warned during an April visit to Tunisia of the increase of illegal weapons in Africa and the threat of terrorist groups on the continent, particularly al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[An Nahar] At least 143 people were killed in violence across Syria on Thursday, among them 100 civilians and 43 government troops, activists and a rights group said.
"This has been one of the bloodiest days in Syria since the anti-regime revolt broke out in March last year," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces killed 100 people across the country, among them more than 10 children.
Thirty-two people were killed in Homs, 24 in Daraa, 24 in the Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... suburbs of Douma, Daraya and Sirghaya, seven in Idlib, four in Hama, three in Deir Ezzor, three in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , one in Latakia and one in the capital Damascus, the LCC said.
The Observatory told Agence La Belle France Presse that at least 13 non-combatants were killed in the central city of Homs and another two unidentified people died in nearby Qusayr.
Streaming video from Homs on the bambuser.com website showed smoke billowing from a residential district amid automatic gunfire and mortar blasts.
The bombardment aborted two attempts by the International Committee of the Red Thingy and the Syrian Red Islamic Thingy to evacuate trapped civilians, but the agencies vowed to try again on Friday.
"Unfortunately, a second attempt, which we carried out in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Thingy, has failed," the Red Islamic Thingy's Khaled Erksoussi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Some of the govt troops killed were probably shot while trying to defect.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/22/2012 7:58
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yet another un-civil war we would be wise to observe from a great distance.
[An Nahar] Syria that calls on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... to leave power and go into exile was not workable because he would not quit.
"A scheme according to which President Assad should leave somewhere before something happens in terms of a cessation of violence and a political process, this scheme does not work simply from the very start," the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying. "It is infeasible because he will not leave."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Mama Russia doesn't want any regional explosions vee Iran + espec the Caucasus - iff that means keeping Baby Assad in power so be it.
versus
* WAFF > KREMLIN ORDERS PLANS DRAWN UP FOR EVACUATION OF RUSSIAN ADVISORS + CITIZENS FROM IRAQ.
ARTIC = there are potentially up to 100,000
Ex-Soviet Mil Advisors, Engineers, etc. whom had married Syrian locals + chose to stay, reside in the country.
* SAME > [Turkey] MILITARY CHIEF: WE CAN DESTROY KANDIL [PKK base in Iraq] ON THREE CONDITIONS.
> ANKARA must give consent.
> US must give consent.
> PUBLIC willing or ready to accept high Mil, Civilian? casualties = losses???
#2
OOOPPPSSS, forgot DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IRAN OPPOSITION SUSPEND NUKE NEGOTIATIONS | IRAN TO SUSPEND NUCLEAR TALKS UNTIL SANCTIONS ARE LIFTED: WEBSITE.
Website is repor close to influential Moderates widin the Tehran Govt.
IMO the real news here is notsomuch Iran's decisions but the pressures that must be mounting on the USA = POTUS Bammer + Admin to take major action agz Iran's Nucprogs above + beyond what has already been done???
[Wall Street Journal] Prosecutors in the trial of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik called for him to be considered insane and asked the court to sentence him to compulsory psychiatric care, prompting Mr. Breivik to smirk and raise his fist in a defiant right-wing salute.
Judges in the trial will have until July or August to deliver their verdict, after the defense finishes its closing arguments on Friday. The defense attorneys are expected to argue on Friday that Mr. Breivik is sane, and demand a prison sentence. Mr. Breivik has asked he be declared mentally fit and released.
Anders Behring Breivik has asked the court to declare him mentally fit and to release him.
Prosecutor Svein Holden told the Oslo District Court on Thursday that he wasn't entirely convinced Mr. Breivik was insane, but that there were enough doubts over his sanity to send him to psychiatric care rather than to prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
smirk and raise his fist in a defiant right-wing salute.
Those Olympian medal winners of ours in Mexico City would be surprised to learn they engaged in right-wing behavior.
(Xinhuanet) -- A Syrian fighter pilot who flew his MiG-21 warplane to Jordan has been granted political asylum. This is the first defection with a military aircraft during 15-month conflict.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense said the breakaway fighter pilot is a traitor to his homeland and his military honor. The ministry said that communication with the Jordanian government was underway to retreive the aircraft. It added that penalties would be imposed on the defected pilot in accordance with the law.
The pilot, identified as Colonel Hassan Hamma-deh, allegedly removed his Syrian air force tag and kneeled on the tarmac in prayer after landing his plane at King Hussein Air Base in Ma-fraq, Jordan. Jordan already has taken in 125-thousand Syrian refugees, including hundreds of army and police defectors, and Syria is seeking their return.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
(CBSMiami) -- A 400-pound woman decided to strip down to her birthday suit while she sat on a bus bench in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday afternoon.
Patricia McCollum was arrested and charged with exposure of sexual organs in public and was initially held on a $100 bond, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The 52-year-old, who is currently homeless, was sitting buck naked on a bus bench at 3900 N. Ocean Blvd. She claims she was only trying to put on a different outfit.
"That's why I was changing my clothes on the bus bench. I don't have anywhere else to stay but bus benches," McCollum said during a first appearance court hearing Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:49 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[19 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
School bus monitor position now available. Must be willing to ignore undiciplined taunting youth (who should now be forced to use their leather Cadillacs to and from school), feckless parents, and a powerless school administration. Excellent retirement benefits.
Klik
Mosab Hassan Yusef has a knack for controversy. The son of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, founder Sheikh Hassan Yusef, he has already broken every taboo in the Paleostinian book. He has worked for Israeli intelligence and converted to Christianity. Now he is developing a new film which is sure to be no less sensational: a biography of the life of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.
Yusef, 33, broke ranks with Hamas in 1997 and began working for the Israeli internal intelligence service Shin Bet. Ten years later, after helping Israel thwart dozens of terror attacks and arrest many members of his former movement, Yusef left for the United States where he sought political asylum and later converted to Christianity.
Today, he says, he is back in Israel for the first time on a personal visit to inspire a new generation of Paleostinians.
I love Israel because I love democracy, Yusef told journalists in Jerusalem
I love Israel because I love democracy, he told journalists in Jerusalem Tuesday. I am here to protest religions absolute control of peoples lives.
Standing next to his retired Shin Bet handler, Gonen Ben-Itzhak, Yusef refused to answer questions in Arabic. He said he was on a mission to educate the public about the true nature of his former religion.
Islam is not a religion of peace. Its a religion of war, he said. Moslems dont even know the true nature of their own religion.
He saved many lives and stopped many attacks, Ben-Itzhak says. I think that we, as Israelis, must show our gratitude to people like him
To that end, Yusef decided to produce a film about the touchiest subject of all: the revered prophet of Islam, Muhammad. He says the film is based on a traditional biography of Muhammad written by the eighth-century Moslem historian Ibn Ishaq.
He said the film is unique in that it will be produced by Moslems, or people of Moslem background, unlike recent European attempts to tackle the complex historiography of Muhammad. With a written screenplay, guaranteed funding, and a celebrity actor (whose name he would not divulge) in the lead role as Muhammad, Yusef said he hoped filming will commence next year.
Muhammad is still untouchable, Yusef said, noting that controversial as it was, Mel Gibsons 2004 film The Passion of Christ touched many people worldwide.
Another film, expected to be produced before Muhammad, is a cinematic adaptation of Yusefs 2010 autobiography Son of Hamas, in which he recounts the tale of his cooperation with Israeli intelligence. Yusef said the book was already translated into 25 languages and is available for free download in Arabic on his personal website.
When asked what he would tell his father if he were in the room, Yusef said only: Leave Hamas. You have created a monster.
Gonen Ben-Itzhak, Yusefs handler who appears in the book under his operational pseudonym Captain Luay, said he considers Yusef his brother and has become his close friend after their professional paths parted in 2004.
He saved many lives and stopped many attacks, Ben-Itzhak told The Times of Israel. I think that we, as Israelis, must show our gratitude to people like him. Even while working for us he was always against bloodshed, on both sides.
Ben-Itzhak noted that Israeli officials voiced their concern about Yusefs arrival in Israel as his life is still under threat, but added that Yusef was allowed into the country with neither visa nor passport.
His story is very unusual, Ben-Itzhak added. I cant recall the last time an asset came out like this.
#1
How in the name of all that's holy is this dude still alive?????
Having read about him before I don't think that this is an extended Taqiya performance. But boy if nothing else will do it a movie about Mo-ham-head???? Hope he's not planning on visiting Holland anytime soon.
#2
With a written screenplay, guaranteed funding, and a celebrity actor (whose name he would not divulge) in the lead role as Muhammad, Yusef said he hoped filming will commence next year.
Muslim educated? A friend of Hollywood elite? Loves golf? Currently embroiled in a nasty Mexican weapons scheme? Available for....on-site work next year?
#3
When asked what he would tell his father if he were in the room, Yusef said only: "Leave Hamas. You have created a monster."
Secretly his father is already aware he has created a monster.
In a UN peace talk meeting in Jerusalim with the founder of Hamas, Israelis, etc., a Christian negotiator was given the opportunity to make one last statement like everyone else in that room that afternoon. And he said, "If all the people of this world would accept the fact that not far from this room, God's own son came and not far from here died for the sins of us all, if all the world would realize that, our children would no longer be dieing in wars for the percieved greavances of our so called enemies."
The room went silent.
He said the Hamas founder, big, hard looking man followed him outside the building and the negotiator at first feared for his life, but when he got to the car, the big man caught up with him, put his arms around him, and said, "You are a good man, a very good man."
Despite the incentives to buy now -- namely that average rates on a 30-year mortgages are now 3.7% -- sales of single-family existing homes slipped 1.5% in May from a month earlier, according to data released today by the National Association of Realtors. Experts say the drop, which came during the historically busy spring season, suggests the housing market has a way to go to recover. If anything, the ranks of American homeowners are dwindling. The homeownership rate in the U.S. fell slightly from 66% to 65% during the first quarter of 2012 -- the lowest in 15 years, according to the latest data by the U.S. Census. (It peaked at just over 69% in 2004.)
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
(It peaked at just over 69% in 2004.)
I thought the peak in ownership was just before the crash, no?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/22/2012 5:40
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The one thing I like about things slowing up is the urban sprawl has stopped. They always took prime productive farmland and cut down all the trees. Unique wildlife gone also. I'm old so I can see the before and after. Hiking and paddling areas harder to reach and many areas charge fees.
Not to mention weekend kids party trash. I suspect people are moving into group homes. Forget childcare it's too expensive for most young people. So extended families is the best choice with limited resources. Like it was in the depression times.
[Dawn] Over half a dozen persons, including a Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... worker and a CID police official, were killed on Thursday mainly in the western parts of the city, said police.
They added that the CID official had played an active role in the arrest of suspected assassins involved in political and ethnic killings. Police constable Mohammad Khan, 40, was returning home on his cycle of violence after night shift when he was attacked close to his home in Kunwari Colony, said an official at the Manghopir cop shoppe.
The official added that Mr Khan was intercepted by two men riding a motorbike near Al-Saif Marble Shop. One of them fired shots at him and fled with his accomplice, leaving the victim dead on the spot.
He said the body was later shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.
The police Sherlocks, meanwhile, collected several spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the scene of the crime.
Associated with the CID police for the past six years, Mr Khan had been instrumental in several operations that led to the arrest of suspected bully boyz and assassins who had targeted people on political and ethnic grounds, according to the police Sherlocks.
"We don't see any other reason behind his killing," said SP Fayyaz Khan of the CID.
"We have conducted raids and rounded up more than half a dozen suspects. The pace of our investigation indicates that we will soon trace and arrest the killers," he hoped.
Only a few hours earlier, a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker was bumped off in the parking lot of his apartment building, said the police. They added that gunnies riding a motorbike targeted 35-year-old Asif aka Buddha at the Noman View Apartments situated near Jauhar Morr in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.
Quoting eyewitnesses, an official at the Sharea Faisal cop shoppe said: "Two men on a motorbike entered the apartment building and found Asif in the parking lot. They fired at him and sped away."
The incident spread fear and tension in the area before the body was moved to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for medico-legal formalities.
The police confirmed to Dawn that the victim was associated with the MQM, but were unable to tell about the killers or a motive for the murder.
Strangled to death
A gunny bag containing the body of a young man was spotted in Liaquatabad, said police who felt certain that the victim had been kidnapped before being tortured and strangled to death.
"The body was found at an isolated area near the Liaquatabad No 10 overhead bridge," said DSP Wajahat Hussain, the area's sub-divisional police officer.
"The victim had been trussed up with rope and there were several torture marks on the body. But we couldn't find any clue to his identity." The body was moved to the Edhi morgue after medico-legal formalities at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for want of identification, added the DSP.
Man found rubbed out
A man was found rubbed out in Qasba Colony, said the police.
They added the victim had been shot thrice from a close range.
"The body was found by a side of the road in Qasba Colony Sector 2 ½," said an official at the Pirabad cop shoppe.
He said the police were making efforts to trace family of the victim.
Two killed in Orangi
A resident of Lea Market and a resident of Landhi were rubbed out in separate acts of firing during their visit to Orangi Town, said police.
The officials added that Syed Ali Shah, 24, had come from Landhi to meet his relatives in Orangi. On his way back, he was bumped off dead near Kala Maidan in a drive-by shooting in the early hours of the day, said Orangi Town SHO Inspector Naeem Shah.
"We don't think that it was a mugging attempt because the killers did not deprive him of any valuables. In fact the two attackers riding a motorbike did not stop for anything."
He said the police were questioning his relatives and also contacted his family to connect the dots before arriving at a conclusion.
After a few hours, a young man was rubbed out within the remit of the same cop shoppe.
Kamran Baloch, 35, was going to see his paternal uncle in Sector 7-C of Orangi Town when he was rubbed out at Qatar Morr.
"The victim was a watchman in the Lea Market area," said an official.
The police later registered an FIR (136/2012) under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistain Penal Code against unidentified persons on a complaint of the victim's father.
Trader killed
A trader, who was chairman of the Liaquatabad No 10 furniture market association, was sprayed with bullets in Sharifabad in a drive-by shooting, said police.
They suspected that the killing might be the result of a land dispute but said it was too early to arrive at a conclusion.
Ali Hasan Jafri, 52, was rubbed out while he was walking home after regular business at his furniture shop, said DSP Wajahat Hussain, the area's sub-divisional police officer.
The victim sustained gunshot wounds to his chest, shoulder and head and was struck down in his prime, said the officer.
"The attackers were seen speeding away on a 125cc motorbike after executing the job," he said, adding that the police Sherlocks later collected spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol.
He said he was not sure about the motive for the murder as there could be multiple causes. "There was a serious dispute of land between the victim and another party. The family also has serious doubts over the same issue," added the officer.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under:
[Dawn] The adversarial style of women Punjab Assembly members went a step ahead on Thursday as members of either side traded blows and fisticuffs with each other.
Violence broke out when Pakistain Mohammedan League-Q politicians protested ban on their colleague, Seemal Kamran, from attending the session. They gathered in front of Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal's rostrum and interrupted the proceedings, when he began proceedings for the approval of the Punjab Finance Bill 2012.
Opposition members of the Pakistain People's Party also joined the protest and began chanting 'Lathi goli ki sarkar nahi chale gi'. The fierce protest forced the assembly staff to leave their chairs. Later, these moveable chairs were used as weapons by the members who hurled them at each other.
A PML-N politician also slapped a PML-Q member. PPP's Amjad Meo and Sheikh Mumtaz exchanged the fisticuffs for a while.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Suspected snuffies blew up two high power transmission towers here at Surizai Mera area in the limits of Badhber cop shoppe in the small hours of Thursday, police said.
A police official said that several blasts were heard in the area after midnight. Police tried to reach the spot but feared ambush and visited the area in the morning, he added.
The official said that the area was located close to Khyber Agency where snuffies could easily carry out any sabotage act.
To a query, he said that involvement of local residents in the blasts could not be ruled. He said that investigations were underway and police were trying to get a clue to the terrorists.
Beautiful Downtown Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) spokesperson Shaukat Afzal, when contacted, said that snuffies blew up tower No.318 and 319 of 500KV transmission line by planting several bombs.
The blasts, he said, destroyed the Tarbela-Sheikh Mohammadi transmission line towers, which were supposed to provide electricity to different districts of the province including Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Kohat and Hangu.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Dawn] A bomb on a donkey cart killed three people at a Sufi shrine in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar and a blast at a mosque in the southwest killed two on Thursday, officials said.
The explosives in the Peshawar blast were planted near the Panj Peer shrine on the outskirts of the city, which runs into Pakistain's tribal belt strongholds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda Death Eaters.
"Three people have died and 21 are maimed," police official Asif Iqbal told AFP.
The dead included a five-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl who had come with their parents, he added.
"The bomb was planted in a donkey cart parked near the shrine," he said.
The donkey, whose front legs were tied with a rope, was blown to pieces, he said.
The device was fitted with a timer and carried between eight and 10 kilograms of explosives, he said.
Worshipers had gathered for a weekly event at the shrine, normally held on Thursday evenings, when the bomb detonated.
"It appears that the target was the worshippers who were gathered here,"another police officer, Tahir Ayub, said.
The shrine houses the graves of several Sufi saints. The tomb of popular Pashto poet Rahman Baba is also near the Panj Peer shrine.
Almost simultaneously another bomb went kaboom! in a mosque in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing two worshippers and wounding 13 others, local administration chief Ahmed Ghilzai said.
"The home-made device was placed in the courtyard of Farooqia mosque. It went off when people were saying their afternoon prayers," he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Islamic fascistisuch as the Taliban vehemently oppose Sufi worshippers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam.
According to an AFP tally, attacks blamed on Death Eater bombers have killed more than 5,000 people in Pakistain since government troops raided a mosque (Lal Masjid) in the capital Islamabad five years ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
the reverence for Sufi 'saints' is considered by many Sunni as a form of polytheism
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/22/2012 13:01
Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] Pakistain Mohammedan League- Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... said on Thursday that Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... 's sacrifice was not for any noble cause but it was to cover up six billion rupees corruption money illegally deposited in the foreign banks, DawnNews reported.
The PML-N chief was speaking to the media representatives in Lahore.
Referring to the recent disqualification of Yousuf Raza Gilani from the premier's office by the Supreme Court, Sharif said that the impression that Gilani has given sacrifice for the rule of law was wrong.
Criticising the present government for its incompetency, Sharif said "on one hand there are people who are disturbed by load-shedding on the other hand there is corruption of the government, bad economy of the country and Pakistain's isolation in the world.
Advising the media-representatives, the PML-N chief said that media should unveil those elements which are obstructing the solutions to common man's problems.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
$10,000?
Posted by: chris ||
06/22/2012 11:29
Comments ||
Top||
Federal prosecutors dropped all terrorism charges against one member of a South Florida family accused of sending tens of thousands of dollars to the Pak Taliban terrorist group, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Miami.
No reason was given in prosecutors' one-paragraph filing dismissing the charges against Irfan Khan, 39, of Miami.
Terrorism charges are still pending against his father Hafiz Khan, 77, and his younger brother, Izhar Khan, 25. Both have pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to the allegations. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Izhar Khan was a soft-spoken, popular leader of the moderate Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen mosque in Margate before his arrest last year. His congregation said he only preached love and tolerance there. Hafiz Khan led the Miami Mosque, known as the Flagler Mosque.
Irfan Khan was released from the Federal Detention Center in Miami in April after a federal judge agreed he could be freed on a combined bond package totaling about $700,000. His father and brother remain locked up in the detention center in downtown Miami and are forbidden from having contact other than when they see each other at court hearings.
Trial for the remaining co-defendants is currently scheduled to begin Nov. 5, though it could be postponed because of the complexity of the case and the voluminous amounts of evidence in dispute. If convicted, they face punishment of up to 15 years in prison per count.
Defense attorneys have said in court that they are working their way through enormous amounts of evidence, including recordings of calls that have to be translated by professional interpreters, in order to prepare their clients' defense. Much of the evidence in the case was obtained from wiretapping and was collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is frequently used in terrorism cases.
[Dawn] During a search operation against Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in Ladah Tehsil of South Waziristan agency, a security convoy was targeted by the militants, which left one soldier dead and seven injured. The security forces targeted the miscreants with jets and helicopters killing 11 militants and injured scores of others.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Dawn] The United States on Thursday named three alleged leaders of the Nigerian bad boy group 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... as "foreign terrorists", the first time it has blacklisted members of the Islamist group blamed for attacks across Africa's most populous nation.
The State Department identified the three as Abubakar Shekau, who it called the "most visible" leader of the group, and Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi, who it said were tied both to Boko Haram and to al Qaeda's north African wing.
"Under Shekau's leadership, Boko Haram has grabbed credit for numerous attacks in northern Nigeria, its primary area of operation. In the last 18 months, Boko Haram or associated gunnies have killed more than 1,000 people," the State Department said in an announcement.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[Times of Israel] Serving envoy, trusted by Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , has detailed how Iran arms Hezbollah via Syria, according to TV report
A serving Syrian diplomat, trusted by the Assad regime, has been passing intelligence material to Israel and to the United States, an Israeli TV station reported on Thursday night.
The information that has reached Israel includes details of the means by which Iran has been channeling arms on land and sea via Syria to Hezbollah in Leb, Channel 10 News reported.
The intelligence information is being transferred via a reliable intermediary, the report said. Israeli recipients include a minister in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a Knesset member with a background in the security establishment, it added.
Though trusted by Damascus, the diplomat is actually a firm supporter of the Syrian opposition, the report said, and his activities are part of wider efforts at contact between Syrian opposition figures and Israel.
The TV report came on the same day as a far more overt display of disloyalty to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... : A Syrian fighter pilot on a training mission flew his MiG-21 warplane to Jordan and asked for political asylum, the first defection of an air force pilot with his plane during the 15-month uprising against Assad.
#1
Last night's night news stopped just short of reporting CIA operators in Turkey had been training the Syrian opposition on the ground in Syria. The opposition weapons pictured in the broadcast were of Soviet or Eastern Block manufacture and all appeared to be very new.
Appears to be another Obama "good war" distraction in the making.
At least three snuffies armed with rockets and automatic weapons have launched a suicide kaboom on a hotel at a popular Kabul beauty spot with reports Friday that bully boyz were holding numerous hostages.
At least four people have been killed in a Taliban assault on a hotel at a Kabul beauty spot, the Afghan interior ministry said on Friday.
Three hotel guards and at least one policeman were killed in the attack at Qargha lake on the outskirts of the city, ministry front man Sediq Sediqqi told AFP.
Afghan cops and coalition troops are responding to the assault at the site at Qargha Lake on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, a front man for NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... 's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) told AFP.
The target appeared to be Afghan police and civilians, Isaf said, adding there were reports of police and civilian casualties.
The assault, claimed by the Taliban, came just hours after President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... warned that attacks against local police and soldiers were increasing as they prepare to take over security when NATO combat troops leave in 2014.
Mohammad Zahir, the head of Kabul police criminal investigation department, said the attack began around 11:30 pm on Thursday, when suicide attackers armed with rockets and Kalashnikov rifles stormed a gathering at the Spozhmai Hotel.
At least one of the attackers detonated his explosive boom jacket, Zahir said.
Kabul deputy police chief Daoud Amin said that according to hotel guards, there were three attackers inside the hotel, as well as numerous civilians.
Witnesses fleeing the scene said the attackers were holding hostages.
Security forces began an operation to end the assault around 5:30 am, police said, and an AFP photographer at the scene heard automatic gunfire and saw two NATO helicopters overhead.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a front man for the Taliban, said in a text message that fighters had launched strikes on two hotels used by foreigners. However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... police and security officials have only confirmed one hotel was attacked.
Qargha lies around 10 kilometres from central Kabul and its pleasant weather and greenery make it a popular picnic spot for daytrippers from the capital. The lake is surrounded by hotels, restaurants and wedding halls.
Taliban violence has surged in recent days with a series of attacks on Afghan-NATO military posts.
This week's biggest attack came on Wednesday when a jacket wallah on a cycle of violence rammed a joint Afghan-NATO patrol in the eastern city of Khost, close to the Pakistain border, killing 21 people including three US soldiers.
The hotel attack will heighten fears about security as NATO prepares to hand responsibility to Afghan forces and recall the vast majority of its 130,000 combat troops.
Karzai on Thursday admitted his government and its Western allies had failed to bring peace to Afghanistan, which has suffered almost continuous conflict for the past three decades, saying "our land has not been secured, our homes, our people are not safe".
In April snuffies launched coordinated attacks on government offices, embassies and foreign bases in Kabul in the biggest assault on the Afghan capital in 10 years of war.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012
00:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[Tolo News] A trilateral forum, which brings the United States and India in a new arrangement with Afghanistan, is not directed against Pakistain, says a senior US official.
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake said that the main goal of this forum is to bring stability and economic development to Afghanistan and it is not in any means against Pakistain.
"On the contrary, it's to talk about the situation inside Afghanistan but also how we continue to support Afghanistan," Blake added.
"This is certainly not in any way seen as directed against Pakistain."
This comes as US top Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... believes that US cannot cut off its relations with Pakistain because it could have greater challenge as Pakistain is a nuclear state.
"The US cannot afford to "cut off all relations with Pakistain because then it could become even more unstable and we could have even greater challenges since they have a nuclear inventory, among other things", as Senator McCain said.
Policy makers in Washington believe that the Indians will not send their troops to Afghanistan even if the Americans want them to. And therefore, the US will have to deal with Pakistain if it wants long-term stability in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... Afghan military expert believes that US, Afghanistan and Indian relationships can boost intelligence for either countries even for Pakistain.
"The trilateral forum of Afghanistan, US and India is beneficial for intelligence purposes for all three countries including Pakistain." General Abdul Wahed Taqat said.
The relations between Pakistain and the United States strained more when a deadly NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... air strike killed as many as 24 Pak soldiers near Afghan border.
#1
"New arrangement ... not directed at Pakistan" > perhaps it should be reconsidered ...
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > ZAID HAMID ENDORSES IRAN-STYLE GOVERNANCE FOR PAKISTAN.
Here's the fun part - the majority of Posters-Bloggers AGREE, opining that Iran's form of Govt. is much more efficient or effective than Pakistan's corrupt + chaotic current model???
#2
opining that Iran's form of Govt. is much more efficient or effective than Pakistan's corrupt + chaotic current model???
That's because it's Iranians doing it instead of Pakistanis, JosephM, not because it's a theocratic oligarchy with trappings of representative democracy.
Pakistain has captured an "important" al Qaeda leader, Naamen Meziche, during an operation near the Pakistain-Iran border, officials said on Wednesday.
Meziche is believed to have links with cut-thoat groups based in Europe, and media reports say he may have played a role in the 9/11 attacks.
French 'al Qaeda' man held in Pakistan, official says
A French krazed killer linked to an al Qaeda leader who plotted attacks against the West has been placed in durance vile Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in Pakistain, just months after his associate was held, a Pak official said Wednesday.
The security official described Naamen Maziche as "an important leader of al Qaeda" and "among the very close associates" of Younis al Mauritani, but declined to say whether he was wanted in connection with a specific plot.
He added Maziche was jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! by "intelligence agencies" close to the Iranian border, but did not say when or whether Western agents took part in the raid.
Mauritani, a senior al Qaeda leader believed to have been responsible for planning attacks on Australia, Europe and the US was jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! Sept. 5.
He was cooled for a few years You have the right to remain silent... with two other ranking operatives in the suburbs of Quetta, the main city in Pakistain's Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Province that borders Iran.
The Pak official said Maziche was jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! after Mauritani told interrogators that the Frenchie had entered Pakistain from Iran and intended to travel on to Africa.
"The intelligence agencies have been tracking Maziche since then, and at last, after a successful operation he was jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! . At the moment he is being questioned about his purpose for entering Pakistain," the official said.
This article starring:
Naamen Meziche
Posted by: ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
Meziche must have fell woefully behind in his Zakat.
DAMASCUS: A Syrian pilot sought asylum after landing his MiG fighter jet in neighboring Jordan on Thursday, in the first such air force defection in a 15-month revolt against President Bashar Assad's regime.
"The pilot asked for political asylum in Jordan," Information Minister and government spokesman Samih Maayatah told AFP, after a government source said the MiG-21 had made an emergency landing at an air base in Mafraq in northern Jordan near the Syria border.
Emergency landing to defect or because the MiG-21 was falling apart?
Syria's state television said the warplane, flown by Col. Hassan Merei Al-Hamade, was flying near the southern border when contact was lost around 0734 GMT, and Jordan's armed forces said it landed across the frontier minutes later.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have defected from Syria's armed forces since a revolt erupted in March last year, thousands of them joining the the rebel Free Syrian Army, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... calls pilot a "traitor to his country and his military honor," in contact with Jordanians to retrieve MiG-21 fighter plane.
Opposition sources said pilot Hamada is a 44-year-old Sunni Moslem from Idlib province and he had smuggled his family to Turkey before his dramatic defection.
His hometown Kfar Takharim has been repeatedly shelled in the past several months and suffered intense artillery and helicopter bombardments in the last few days, opposition campaigners who spoke to his family said.
Many air force personnel and well as army soldiers are from Syria's Sunni majority, although intelligence and senior officers are largely Alawite, the minority sect to which Assad and his family belong and which forms their power base.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies says the air force has 365 combat capable aircraft, including 50 MiG-23 Flogger and MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and 40,000 personnel - a reflection of the overwhelming military advantage Assad has over his poorly-equipped foes.
The most prominent defection so far in the conflict was that of Colonel Riad al-Asaad last July, who helped set up the rebel Free Syria Army after taking refuge in Turkey.
Last week Brigadier General Ahmad Berro, head of a tank unit in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... province, fled with his family to Turkey.
Though a boost to Assad's foes, the pilot's defection could complicate the international scenarios of a conflict that many governments fear could spill over Syria's border and spread though the already volatile Middle East.
Ties between Jordan and Syria were already strained - Jordan has criticized Assad over his crackdown on the uprising but has been restrained in its rhetoric.
Amman is nervous over a possible Syrian military reaction after months of border tension as thousands of Syrians flee the violence to Jordan.
A Jordanian official, who asked not to be named, said the incident with the pilot was "difficult to handle".
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The good news for Baby Assad is that Syria's Air Force isn't India's.
WASHINGTON: The US government has asked a federal court to reject lawsuits demanding the release of documents on CIA drone strikes targeting suspected militants abroad, saying the entire subject is classified. Shortly before a midnight deadline on Wednesday, US government lawyers filed a brief to the district court in New York defending the veil of secrecy around the drone campaign, which has killed numerous Al-Qaeda figures and associates in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Whether or not the CIA has the authority to be, or is in fact, directly involved in targeted lethal operations remains classified, the government brief stated.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the New York Times had filed lawsuits after having requested papers on the drone bombing campaign under the Freedom of Information Act.
Why didn't the NYT just ask their favorite leaker for the documents? They could have offered to do a special Sunday edition for Champ and his campaign on the subject...
The organizations had requested documents explaining the legal basis for the raids and the killing of terror suspects who are US citizens, such as the US-born cleric Anwar Al-Awlaqi who was taken out last year in a drone strike.
The government not only ruled out releasing documents related to the drone strikes, but argued that merely referring to the number or categories of documents posed a threat to national security.
Even to describe the numbers and details of most of these documents would reveal information that could damage the governments counter terrorism efforts, it said.
The ACLU called the governments argument absurd, saying the drone war was an open secret that government officials have boasted about to reporters.
Senior officials have discussed it, both on the record and off. They have taken credit for its putative successes, professed it to be legal, and dismissed concerns about civilian casualties, Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the ACLU, said in a statement. The public is entitled to know more about the legal authority the administration is claiming and the way that the administration is using it.
He's got a point. Once you start leaking secret information to score political points on the campaign trail, you really can't come back with an argument about national security. The proper thing for Champ and his administration would have been to keep their mouths shut from day one about the drones, and blame it all on the Ruritanians.
The Obama administrations brief to the court acknowledged the use of lethal force is undoubtedly of the utmost public concern but said it had to take into account legal prohibitions against the release of classified information.
So when will you discipline the ones who leaked the rest of this to the press on behalf of your campaign?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The NYT is looking for FOIA cover for documents it already has via Obama's "White House leadership and advisors"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/22/2012 11:35
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Why didn't the NYT just ask their favorite leaker for the documents?
[Tolo News] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... warned Thursday that attacks against local police and soldiers were increasing as they prepare to take responsibility for security when NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... combat troops leave in 2014.
His remarks are likely to heighten doubts about the Afghans' ability to take over when the bulk of 130,000 US-led combat troops withdraw.
Karzai was speaking to a special session of parliament a day after a Taliban suicide kaboom on a joint Afghan-US patrol that killed 21 people in the east, close to the Pak border.
"I have noticed that these days, in the past one, two or three months, attacks on our soldiers, police and intelligence officers have increased," Karzai said. "Every day we have at least 20 to 25 casualties, every day at least 20 to 25 of our youths are making the sacrifice for this country and are being killed."
Taliban-led gunnies typically deployed jacket wallahs and roadside kabooms in the ten-year insurgency since being toppled from power by the 2001 US-led invasion.
This week alone bully boyz have staged three major suicide attacks on Afghan-NATO military posts in the troubled east and south of the country.
Karzai admitted his government and its Western allies had failed to bring peace to Afghanistan, which has suffered almost continuous conflict for the past three decades.
Since the Taliban were tossed, Afghanistan has been flooded with billions of dollars in Western aid, but the country is awash with graft, and Karzai admitted the problem was worse than ever.
CAIRO: Egypt yesterday braced for a showdown between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood as the electoral commission delayed announcing the winner of a presidential poll claimed by the Islamists.
See why it was important to run out the American NGOs who were watching the vote?
A delay in announcing the results from the run-off, which had been due on Thursday, heightened Brotherhood fears of a soft coup by the ruling military, which has already disbanded the Islamist-led parliament and granted itself sweeping powers.
A senior Brotherhood official warned the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) that it risked a confrontation with the people if Hosni Mubaraks last premier Ahmed Shafiq was declared the winner over Mohamed Morsi. Another Brotherhood leader, Khairat El-Shater, said Islamist supporters would rally peacefully if Shafiq was declared the winner, because the Brotherhood had evidence that Morsi won, the groups website reported.
Returning officers had handed stamped results to representatives of the rival candidates after completing their tallies, which Morsis campaign has made public. But only the electoral commission can declare the official result.
The commission said late on Wednesday it would delay its announcement while it studied allegations of fraud from both candidates that might affect the final outcome of the June 16-17 run-off. Shafiqs campaign team, which insists he won despite the Brotherhood claims of victory within hours of polls closing, accuses the Morsi camp of printing almost a million false ballots, the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.
Morsis campaign, which has published the results from counts across the country, denies the allegation and accuses Shafiqs team of bribing voters.
The newspaper of the Brotherhoods political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), ran a large red banner on its Thursday edition saying: Sit-in, above an announcement of an open-ended protest until Morsi is sworn in.
The military has pledged to transfer power to the winner by the end of the month, but Brotherhood members who set up tents in Cairos Tahrir Square, the hub of protests that overthrew Mubarak last year, say they are not convinced. They cite the militarys assumption of legislative powers after a court ordered parliament dissolved, and decrees giving the army powers of arrest and a broad say in government policy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
That way he doesn't have to walk as far to withdraw the Krugerrands...
Britain and the United States have discussed offering Pencilneck Syrian President Bashar al-Assad immunity from prosecution if he steps down as part of a political transition package, reports said Thursday. Britains Foreign Office said there was no new offer on the table when asked to comment on the reports in several UK newspapers, which cited anonymous British government officials.
Discussion of a possible initiative came after US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron received encouragment from Russian President Vladimir Putin in talks at the G20 in Mexico, The Guardian reported.
Britain was ready to discuss clemency for Assad if it meant a Yemen-style transition of power conference could be arranged, possibly in Switzerland, reports said.
After all, look how well Yemen's turned out...
Those of us who had bilaterals thought there was just enough out of those meetings to make it worth pursuing the objective of negotiating a transitional process in Syria, the Guardian quoted a senior British official as saying.
The Daily Telegraph said Assad could be offered safe passage to take part in talks in Switzerland. The Independent newspaper said the peace conference could take place in Geneva at the end of this month, and said a clemency offer could involve Assad being allowed to flee to another country.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: There is no new offer. The longer the killing goes on, the fewer options Assad will have. But it is for the Syrian people, including the opposition, to decide the details of a transition including the options for Assad.
The spokesman added we continue to do everything we can to bring an end to the violence in Syria. The way forward is to implement the Annan plan, to have international support for it in order to reduce the number of killings and the violence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Transition of power to whom?
Posted by: European Conservativ ||
06/22/2012 8:58
Comments ||
Top||
#2
That is indeed the big question, European Conservative.
A Syrian man infiltrated Israel via the northern Golan Heights and was caught near the border after touching the fence. IDF forces turned him over for questioning with security forces.
Sources in the defense establishment said this is not the first time this year that a Syrian citizen tries to infiltrate Israel via the Golan Heights.
Defense officials recently estimated that festivities in Syria could spill over to the border area and conjectured that Syrians may seek refuge in Israel.
The estimate was partly based on the violent protests on Nakba and Naksa days which saw Syrian and Lebanese citizens killed by IDF after breaching the border.
[Tolo News] Three men in Afghan police uniforms killed a soldier with the US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... coalition, the coalition said Monday, in the latest so-called "green-on-blue" attack.
The three attackers fled after the killing and are being sought, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
The death takes the toll this year in "green-on-blue" attacks -- in which Afghan forces turn their weapons against their Western allies -- to 23, in a total of 17 such incidents.
"The International Security Assistance Force confirms that three individuals in Afghan police uniforms turned their weapons against coalition service members in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing one ISAF service member," ISAF said.
A police source in southern Kandahar province said two NATO soldiers were killed when the police opened fire on them.
Following its normal policy, ISAF gave no further details of the incident or the soldiers' nationalities.
Monday's attack is the first time men in Afghan uniforms have killed NATO soldiers since two Afghan coppers killed two British soldiers in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province in May.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... an increasing number of Afghan troops have turned their weapons against NATO soldiers, who are helping Kabul fight a decade-long insurgency by hardline Taliban Islamists.
Some of the assaults are claimed by the Taliban, who say they have infiltrated the ranks of Afghan cops, but many are attributed to cultural differences and antagonism between the allied forces.
ISAF has taken several security measures in response to the shootings, including assigning "guardian angels" -- soldiers who watch over their comrades as they sleep.
NATO has about 130,000 soldiers fighting alongside some 350,000 Afghan security personnel against the Taliban-led insurgency, but they are due to pull out of the country in 2014.
DUBAI: Pirates armed with guns and rocket propelled grenades shot a liquefied natural gas tanker off the coast of Oman on Wednesday, the International Maritime Bureaus anti-crime arm said.
Pirates in a dhow armed with guns and RPG fired upon a LNG tanker under way. The dhow closed to 50 meters from the ship and fire shots of which three hit the vessel, according to the IMB piracy report.
It said the ship was not boarded by the pirates but did not say whether it was hit by any grenades.
Although relatively low-lying crude oil tankers have been targets of piracy and at least one has been hijacked, so far no high-sided LNG tankers are known to have been pirated.
The report does not say which tanker was involved but the incident took place on a route mainly sailed by Qatari LNG tankers taking fuel to Europe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Experienced plinkers know that when shooting at flammable containers (old spray paint cans, propane tanks, liquefied natural gas tankers, etc) it is best to be out of the blast radius.
WASHINGTON: Irans uranium enrichment effort has picked up speed in the past three years and has not been crippled by cyber sabotage from the Stuxnet virus, experts told US lawmakers on Wednesday. As a result, Iran could produce enough fissile material needed for a nuclear weapon within four months, if the leadership decided to go ahead, the experts told the House Armed Services Committee.
Based on the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), its clear that Iran could produce a nuclear weapon very quickly should it wish to do so, said Stephen Rademaker of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank.
Iran has produced 3,345 kilos of uranium enriched to 3.5 percent, according to the IAEA, which if it was enriched further would provide enough uranium for at least two atomic bombs, Rademaker said.
If the Iranian leadership made the decision to produce an atomic weapon, it would take them 35 to 106 days to actually have the fissile material for a weapon, he said.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), told the same hearing that it would take Iran at least four months in order to have sufficient weapon grade uranium ... for a nuclear explosive device.
Uranium 235 must be enriched close to 90 percent for use in an atomic bomb.
The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has said that it was technically feasible Tehran could produce a nuclear weapon in one or two years.
More than 9,000 Iranian centrifuges are churning out 158 kilograms of 3.5 percent enriched uranium a month, three times the production rate compared to mid-2009, when the Stuxnet virus struck the program, Rademaker said.
The enrichment rate is three times the rate of production prior to the Stuxnet virus, which many people have suggested somehow crippled their program.
So Stuxnet may have set them back, but not by very much, at least not sufficiently, he added.
According to leaks provided toThe New York Timesby the Obama campaign, President Barack Obama, and his predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush, approved the use of the Stuxnet virus to disrupt Irans nuclear program, in the first known sustained US cyber attack.
Stuxnet a complex virus developed jointly with Israel sowed confusion at Irans Natanz nuclear plant, the Times reported, but the virus later accidentally spread outside of Iran, appearing in computer systems in other countries.
Some analysts and former US military officers have touted cyber attacks as a more effective weapon against Irans nuclear ambitions than bombing raids, which they say would carry big risks without causing permanent damage to the program.
US intelligence agencies believe Irans leadership has not yet decided to pursue nuclear weapons, even as the regime presses ahead with uranium enrichment and other activities that could provide the capability to create an atomic arsenal.
We really dont know if theyre going to decide to build a nuclear weapon, but the indications are at least that theyre on a trajectory to do so, Albright said.
If Iran decided to start producing weapons-grade uranium, either the UN nuclear watchdog or US intelligence likely would detect the move within one to three weeks, he added.
Oh yeah, the UN nuclear watchdog, that's a fierce bunch...
Wednesdays congressional hearing came after two days of tense talks between world powers and Iran in Moscow that failed to produce a breakthrough over Tehrans disputed nuclear program.
Former US senator Chuck Robb, who also testified at the House hearing, said diplomacy could only succeed if Iran believed there was a genuine threat of military force if they failed to compromise. Robb said it is a credible threat of force when pursued together with diplomacy and sanctions that proves the best hope for peace.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It seems that everyone thinks that once they have one bomb that they are untouchable. Better to hit them before they got a second one.
Once they have one, they can hardly claim it is for "peaceful purposes".
Oh, nevermind. Mad Mullahs and all. I suppose they need the bomb for peaceful purposes - to keep safe from the Big Bad Satan.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/22/2012 5:50
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Not to worry...
would take them 35 to 106 days to actually have the fissile material for a weapon
and
If Iran decided to start producing weapons-grade uranium, either the UN nuclear watchdog or US intelligence likely would detect the move within one to three weeks
Assuming those timelines are precise, what's anybody gonna do in the ten days between discovery and deployment?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/22/2012 5:53
Comments ||
Top||
The editor of a pro-Israel magazine from Iraqi Kurdistan went missing 11 days ago and his peers suspect he was kidnapped by Iran.
Mawlud Afand, who was born in Iran, has lived in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq for several years. His paper, Israel-Kurd, promotes closer relations between Iraqi Kurdistan and the Jewish State.
Diyari Mohammed, a writer for Israel-Kurd, told AFP that Afand went missing June 8 after leaving for an appointment in Sulaymaniyah alone.
"He called in the afternoon the next day and told us that he was on a private visit and would return back after a week," he said.
A woman who spoke Persian answered Afand's phone on June 13, but it had been switched off since then, Mohammed said, adding that Afand's colleagues had raised the possibility that he had been kidnapped by Iranian intelligence.
The magazine's publisher, Dawod Baghestani, told the Point of No Return blog that he suspected that Sherzad Omar, an Iranian intelligence agent in Iraqi Kurdistan, had drugged Anfand, kidnapped him, and taken him across the Iranian border to Kermanshah. Baghestani said he had tried to contact Afand on his cell phone, but it was constantly busy.
"We fear the worst and we urge the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government's authorities to do everything possible to find Mouloud Afand," Reporters Without Borders said. "And we therefore call for an immediate investigation into this journalist's disappearance."
DUBAI: Al Qaedas Yemeni wing has claimed responsibility for the assassination this week of a military commander credited with driving back allies of Al-Qaeda who had seized large parts of southern Yemen.
The killing of Major General Salem Ali Qatan in a suicide bombing in Aden was a reminder that government control of the south remains tenuous, despite a month-long US-backed assault that has driven militants out of all the towns they held.
In a statement posted on Islamist Internet forums on Thursday, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said the attack was a message to the leaders of the joint American-Yemeni campaign.
The message ... consists of the blood and body parts of the martyrdom-seekers who swore to pluck your rotten heads, which agreed to be a vehicle for America in its war against the Muslims in Yemen, the group said. It did not identify the bomber.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
[Ynet] Egyptian daily releases information on terrorist who executed attack on security fence; Khaled Saleh belonged to al-Qaeda linked organization, participated in Libyan revolt. 'He was determined to die a martyr,' says friend
Egyptian independent daily al-Masry al-Youm released on Thursday new information on the terrorist who executed the terror attack against Said Pashpashe near the Israel-Egypt security fence on Monday.
detonated an improvised bomb and then opened fire on two vehicles carrying construction workers. Following the attack on Israel's southern border, Golani soldiers who were scrambled to the area engaged the cell, killing Saleh and one other terrorists.
Prior to the attack, Saleh was filmed in a video clip
...which can be seen at the link. Click on the article title to go there.
which was later released by a jihadist organization calling itself the Mujahideen Shura Council.
Iraq used to have one of those, back when Al Qaeda in Iraq was actually scary.
The organization is most likely linked to al-Qaeda.
Saleh lived in Egypt's Matrouh region and visited Libya just after the full-scale revolt against the country's leader Muammar Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years until he was ejected from the gene pool by his indignant citizens... which began on February 17, 2011.
The newspaper further reported the Saleh, 25, joined one of the Libyan jihad organizations that took part in attacks against Qadaffy's forces.
Saleh remained in Libya for five months following a bullet wound to his right leg. He then returned to Egypt where he received further medical attention.
One of Saleh's friends said that "he was determined to die a martyr."
"Saleh disappeared for four months. No one had heard from him up until we saw him in the video, where he declared his intention to execute an attack in Israel," he added.
The Egyptian daily attempted to contact Saleh's brothers but the two refused to speak with the press. Sources close to the family said that the notice of his death has not yet been confirmed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, Zebulon finally found just the friend he'd been looking for... the jihadist organization's video, which also grabbed credit for the border attack in Israel, is currently being examined in 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... Mansour al-Turki, a front man for the Saudi Interior Ministry said on Wednesday to the Saudi newspaper Ukaz, that the country is currently investigating the involvement of a Saudi citizen in the shooting attack against Israelis on the Egyptian border on Monday morning.
Ummm... That's 88 years from now. More or less.
[Ynet] Netanyahu addresses Presidential Conference, ponders whether Arabs, Mohammedans will be able to partake in global progress
Unable to attend Shimon Peres' Presidential Conference due to a leg injury, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the conference's closing panel via video conference on Thursday.
Among the other speakers were President Peres, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky.
Discussing the "infinite possibilities of progress and technology," Netanyahu said that "Israel is number one in the world per capita in producing more conceptual products than any other nation -- by far more than any other nations."
"The real question in our time is: will the Arab peoples, will the Islamic world, will the Islamic-Arab world and the Islamic-Iranian world all be able to partake in this bounty of progress?," he said.
"I have no doubt that by the end of the century, myrmidon Islam will be defeated. I don't think you can cloister young minds.
"The question is: can we get the devices of freedom, that is these technological breakthroughs, literally in the hands of young Mohammedans and young Arabs. I think the answer is: yes. That will happen. "
The 2012 Presidential Conference lasted three days and addressed various issues relating to economics, technology, security and politics. In the conference's opening event, Peres bestowed veteran US diplomat and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with the Presidential Award of Distinction.
#2
IMO Artic ....
> Again shows or infers the GWOT is N-O-T over by a long shot.
> Iff Perts are correct about global temps going up as per GWCC = potentially dangerous-to-humanity changes in Solar Activity(s), 'tis more lead time + opportunity, etc. for the non-Muslim World to adopt certain Lifestyle habits or traditions of Muslims by sheer necessity, "Muslims" being aka Peoples whom by definition survive in difficult or very harsh. arid or humid natural terrain/environs wid relatively few or no modern amenities.
* OTOH DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > AMERICANS LEAST LIKELY TO VOTE FOR ATHEIST, MUSLIM PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES, [new Gallup] POLL FINDS - ABCNEWS.
SON? - D ***NG IT, WOMAN, I THOUGHT HE WON THE PRESIDENCY??? There's Democrats in the Family, Democrats I tell ya!
ARTIC = the good news for the Muslims is at least they're not Mormons.
#8
Ooooh, I'll bet Fred didn't think of the Jewish calendar when he commented in the article, any more than I did. That's a heartwarming thought, to be sure.
#10
Jewish or Gregorian, it doesn't matter. The religion is designed to twist its followers to be militarized at the whim of the mullahs. It will never happen because someone will position themselves to take advantage of the resources it offers. Nothing to see here, folks. Unless you count the display of naivete.
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza militants continued to fire across the border into Israel on Thursday but the intensity was sharply down on the previous day, as a truce declared by Hamas's Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades military wing appeared to be taking hold.
The Hamas extra-special definition of truce being "You stop while we don't."
By mid-afternoon, nine rockets had hit southern Israel, causing no casualties, a military spokeswoman told AFP. Another was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system.
No word on how many Gazan rockets hit the Egyptian Sinai or Jordan or came straight back down on Gaza itself.
There had been no Israeli raids.
On Wednesday, police logged 58 rocket and mortar strikes during the day.
Late that evening, the Hamas military wing said it had agreed to an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Israel, after three days of bloodshed in and around Gaza.
The latest round of Israeli attacks and Palestinian retaliation began with air strikes on Monday morning, just hours after gunmen from Sinai carried out an ambush along Israel's southern border with Egypt, killing an Israeli civilian.
Israel has said that its sudden spike in Gaza operations -- three deadly air raids in just over 12 hours -- was "in no way related" to the border incident, with the military saying the air force was targeting militants about to attack the Jewish state.
Since Monday, 130 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired at Israel, of which three have been brought down by Iron Dome, an army spokeswoman told AFP. One rocket slammed into an Israeli border police post, wounding four people.
The Hamas military wing said in its statement on Thursday that it had fired 120 rockets, a rare show of force from the Islamist group that had been observing a de facto truce.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
[Tolo News] The United States government has decided to give 146 planes to Afghanistan's National Army air force by 2016, a front man for Afghan Ministry of Defence (MOD) said Wednesday.
The ministry praised the decision adding that more warplanes should be given to Afghanistan in order to protect the country from any kind of threat.
"There is an agreement that US would give us 146 warplanes but we are not satisfied with this, the number should increase. The planes would be used in any kind of situation." General Mohammad Zaher Azimi, MOD front man said.
Don't we still have some Brewster Buffaloes available?
Strengthening the abilities of Afghanistan's Air Force could play a vital role in combating insurgency through the country and protecting the nation from any outside threat.
According to Mr Azimi, a clearing offensive named 'Omid' will be launched by Afghan National Army aimed to clear bully boyz throughout the country. The operation will focus on southern and eastern provinces which have witnessed insurgency throughout the year.
He also added that more than 85 percent of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are being brought to Afghanistan from the neighbouring countries.
#1
you're not satisfied with 146 free planes? that more than likely we will be paying too maintain and train you're cave men too fly! God why haven't these assholes been nuked repeatedly yet?
Posted by: chris ||
06/22/2012 0:23
Comments ||
Top||
#8
#6 There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, about a commandant of a Soviet Flying school training Arab pilots. Every time he'd get drunk (2,3 times a week---it's Russia) he'd fill forms requesting a transfer to the command of a dog training school.
#17
I believe that this refers to the Light Attack aircraft contract that will provide either a variant of the Brazilian Tucano or the AT-6. The original selection was the Tucano, but politics is forcing a recompete.
#19
You know rwv, I did a little reading and the AT-6 wouldn't actually be a bad first plane for the Afghanistan airforce. It's robust, easy to fix, and has seen combat time in Pakistan. The Afghan Air Force could use them to shoot the heck out of the Taliban (and the like), but they would be pretty much useless against any other regional power, including Pakistan. That would be a *lot* less destabilizing than giving them F-15s!
The speaker of Iraqs parliament declared on Thursday that lawmakers are prepared to oust the nations prime minister if he refuses to share authority with his political opponents and break a deadlock that has all but paralyzed the government.
The threat by the speaker, Osama al-Nujaifi, a leader in the Iraqiya political coalition, counters a claim last week by Iraqs president that there is not enough support in parliament to call a vote to push Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from power. Speaking to reporters Thursday, al-Nujaifi said he personally believes al-Maliki should step down from the job that he barely won after national elections in 2010 failed to produce a clear winner.
Since then and particularly after US troops left Iraq last December critics have accused al-Maliki of sidelining his political opponents and violating agreements to share power within a unity government.
The political deadlock has all but brought Iraqs government to a standstill so far this year. Bickering between the government in Baghdad and the self-rule Kurdish region in Iraqs north threatens to stunt vital foreign investment in the countrys lucrative oil industry. Political lethargy, combined with red tape, has delayed improvements in many areas, including the nations electricity system, job creation and rooting out government corruption.
This is a dangerous matter that if continued would lead to catastrophic consequences, al-Nujaifi said as parliament prepared to return to work after a six-week recess.
He said al-Maliki would be summoned for questioning in front of parliament within days. And if there is a parliament majority that is not convinced with the results of the questioning, then the no-confidence vote will take place, al-Nujaifi said. He called the process an attempt to put the country on the right track again.
Last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said a preliminary count of lawmakers who want al-Maliki to step down fell four short of the 164 votes needed to force the issue. Al-Nujaifi denied that, saying that while a few lawmakers backed off, the number is still enough.
Responding, the prime ministers media adviser, Ali al-Moussawi, said al-Maliki will answer parliaments questions and respects his opponents rights to call for the no-confidence vote. But we are confident that they will fail to secure the needed 164 votes, al-Moussawi said Thursday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
Every indication is the Obama's Organizing for America and Media Matters for America are behind the astroturf anti free speech movement to kick Rush Limbaugh off the air.
More disturbing is the apparent willingness of the individual in this recording, Matt Edelman, to discuss the matter freely when he hears that 500 Twitter sock puppet accounts have been used to harass companies who advertise on radio stations that feature Rush Limbaugh.
The recording is a discussion between Edelman and a Texan identified only as Randy about those Twitter accounts. It is clear Randy set up the Twitter sock accounts, but is also clear that Edelman either knew in advance of the socks, or knew and did nothing to shut them down.
MOGADISHU: Somali security forces have rescued a South African couple kidnapped by pirates in the Indian Ocean and held for 18 months, Defense Minister Hussein Arab Isse said yesterday.
"The rescue started last night (Wednesday) and lasted until this morning and you can see that the pair were freed safely," Isse told a joint press conference with the couple, Debbie Calitz and Bruno Pelizzari, who appeared with sunken eyes and ashen faces.
Isse said the raid was a joint operation by security forces and the army and that the couple had been freed from "Al-Qaeda-affiliated" insurgents. It was not immediately clear whether this meant that the pirates who captured the couple had sold them on to Somalia's Shebab rebels, a group linked to Al-Qaeda.
Sources said the operation took place in the lower Shabelle region of southern Somalia, close to Mogadishu.
Calitz and Pelizzari were sailing in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya in 2010 when their yacht was hijacked by 12 pirates who set course for Somalia and took the couple ashore at Baraawe.
The Somali defense minister made no mention of any ransom payment. He told journalists that more such raids may be staged.
"We know the whereabouts of the rest of the hostages, including the French agent, and if the kidnappers fail to free them, we will forcefully rescue them," he said, referring to a French intelligence agent seized in Mogadishu in July 2009 and detained since.
Calitz, aged around 50, and Pelizzari, in his early fifties, were working as crew on the yacht Choizil as it sailed from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania toward South Africa when the hijacking occurred on October 26, 2010.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
The Iranian navy has announced plans to build more warships and increase its presence in international waters at a time of growing tension in the Middle East over Tehran's nuclear programme, IRNA reported.
Navy commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said the deployments would protect Iranian cargo ships around the world, in particular in the Gulf of Aden and the northern part of the Indian Ocean, according to IRNA. State-owned Press TV quoted Sayyari as saying: "Our presence in international waters is aimed at safeguarding the interests of the Islamic Republic and strengthening military power to defend Iran."
"So we will multiply our efforts to enhance our military might and have a presence in international waters," he said.
The navy's deputy chief for technical affairs said the force planned to build 10 more vessels, including destroyers and missile-launching frigates, Press TV said. Work on building the ships would start after construction of "Velayat" a Mowj-2 class destroyer is completed.
It's a frigate, but whatever...
Iranian military officials often talk crazyboast wildlysay stupid stuff assert their military strength in the region, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil transit channel carrying supplies from Gulf producers to the West.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
JAKARTA: An Indonesian court convicted bombmaker Umar Patek yesterday for his role in the 2002 Bali attacks that killed 202 people and sentenced him to 20 years jail, ending a decade-long probe into the atrocity.
20 years or the next round of pardons for Ramadan...
Patek was found guilty of premeditated murder and bombmaking in connection with the suicide bombings on a nightclub and bar on the resort island, Indonesias deadliest act of terror.
Hes been proven to have committed an evil conspiracy by bringing in firearms and ammunition for terror acts, chief judge Encep Yuliardi told the West Jakarta district court after an 11-hour hearing. He hid information about acts of terror and he is found to have taken part in premeditated murder. We sentence Umar Patek to 20 years in jail.
Patek was found guilty of all six charges against him, some of which related to Christmas Eve bomb attacks in 2000 on churches in Jakarta. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Patek, sparing him the firing squad which has executed three other key players in the Bali bombings because he had shown remorse and apologized to victims and their families.
Patek maintained over the four-month trial that he played only a small role in the bombmaking and that he had tried to stop the operation, most of whose victims were foreigners, at the 11th hour.
After more than eight years on the run, he was arrested in January 2011 in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where US commandos four months later killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden in a raid.
Wotta coincidence...
Patek is the last key player detained in Indonesia to be tried for the attacks and the verdict closes the chapter on a long legal process.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under:
Two Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,forces of Evil died Thursday after inhaling gas in a tunnel which was bombed by Israel on Tuesday, the Paleostinian Islamist movement reported.
According to recent reports, the two forces of Evil went to inspect the bombed tunnel in northern Gazoo and suffocated to death from an unidentified gas.
More than half of Kuwaits members of Parliament have resigned in protest at a courts decision to annul an election that had given the conservative-led opposition a majority. The resignations deepen the political crisis in the major oil exporter.
Wednesdays ruling effectively dissolved the Parliament elected in February and reinstated its predecessor, but the resignations by many lawmakers who were in the previous Parliament deprives the 50-seat Assembly of more than half its members, making it difficult to function. The number of resigning lawmakers had risen by yesterday to at least 26, parliamentary sources said.
It does us no honor to be part of the 2009 assembly which was brought down by the nation, said Jamaan Al-Harbish after Wednesdays ruling, speaking on behalf of several lawmakers.
We thus tender our resignations, he added.
Some parliamentarians and analysts compared Wednesdays court ruling to Egypts constitutional courts decision to annul the conservative-dominated Parliament earlier this month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
The US policy of using aerial drones to carry out 
Cabbie, keep the meter running -- this robbery will be quick.
Syrian President Bashar Assad Thursday night, June 21, ordered his entire Air Force fleet of fighter bombers grounded, for fear that more pilots might defect after Col. Hasan Merhi al-Hamadeh flew to Jordan aboard a MiG-21.
The Flame computer virus is not only capable of espionage but it can also sabotage computer systems and likely was used to attack Iran in April, according to a leading security company, Symantec Corp.
We also have information that some are heading towards Dadaab where they lay down arms only to mingle and disappear within the refugee camp.
[An Nahar] A South African couple seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean and held for 18 months in Somalia was freed overnight, with relatives saying a ransom was paid while authorities spoke only of a raid by security forces.
[An Nahar] At least 143 people were killed in violence across Syria on Thursday, among them 100 civilians and 43 government troops, activists and a rights group said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Prosecutors in the trial of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik called for him to be considered insane and asked the court to sentence him to compulsory psychiatric care, prompting Mr. Breivik to smirk and raise his fist in a defiant right-wing salute.
(Xinhuanet) -- A Syrian fighter pilot who flew his MiG-21 warplane to Jordan has been granted political asylum. This is the first defection with a military aircraft during 15-month conflict.
(CBSMiami) -- A 400-pound woman decided to strip down to her birthday suit while she sat on a bus bench in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday afternoon.
Over half a dozen persons, including a 
The adversarial style of women Punjab Assembly members went a step ahead on Thursday as members of either side traded blows and fisticuffs with each other.
Nawaz Sharif
The United States on Thursday named three alleged leaders of the Nigerian
cycle of violence
John 
Pakistain has captured an "important" al Qaeda leader,
DUBAI: Pirates armed with guns and rocket propelled grenades shot a liquefied natural gas tanker off the coast of Oman on Wednesday, the International Maritime Bureaus anti-crime arm said.
The editor of a pro-Israel magazine from Iraqi Kurdistan went missing 11 days ago and his peers suspect he was kidnapped by Iran.
DUBAI: Al Qaedas Yemeni wing has claimed responsibility for the assassination this week of a military commander credited with driving back allies of Al-Qaeda who had seized large parts of southern Yemen.
