The United States has cut funding to a popular Pakistani version of the children's program "Sesame Street" amid allegations of fraud and abuse, a US official said.
The program, run under the umbrella of the US-based Sesame Workshop by a local theater group, had been awarded some $20 million in funds from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Known as "Sim Sim Hamara" it included some of the furry puppets beloved by children in the West such as Elmo as well as local characters including Baily, a fluffy donkey who wants to be a pop star, and a crocodile, Haseen-o-Jameel, who loves words, rhymes, and songs.
But through an anti-fraud hotline set up by the US, Washington received "what we believe were credible allegations of fraud and abuse by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, which manages the 'Sesame Street' program in Pakistan," a State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said.
An investigation had been launched into the allegations and Rafi Peer had been sent "a letter that terminates the project agreement," he added.
Toner refused to go into the nature of the allegations against the project, which he said had already spent some $6.7 million of its funds.
"We do acknowledge the program is beneficial. But, we had what we believe were credible allegations. So rather than to continue to throw good money after bad, we thought it was prudent to cut off this program and wait for the results of the investigation," he told journalists.
Sesame Workshop said in a statement that it was "surprised and dismayed to learn about the serious allegations made against Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop."
Who the crap thought this was a good idea? Don't they know that the relationship between Big Bird and Snuffleupagus is really a trite parody of the relationship between mo and allan? How about the undead Ottoman Wars hero Christian running about counting things. The only thing which makes sense and would fit in would be Elmo, with his touch of teh ghey and doll who giggles and wants others to touch his places.
The wife of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has congratulated Muslim women for the role they have played in the Arab Spring and urged them to raise their children for jihad.
Which wife, and why is she speaking up in the public sphere reserved for men? And how many wives does he have, anyway?
"I congratulate all Muslim women for these blessed revolutions," Umaima Hassan Ahmed Mohammed Hassan wrote in a letter posted on the Al-Fajr website on Friday.
"I advise you to raise your children in the cult of jihad and martyrdom and to instil in them a love for religion and death," she wrote.
In doing so, "each woman would raise her child to be a new Saladin by telling him 'it is you who will restore the grandeur of the Islamic nation and you will will liberate Jerusalem.'"
Saladin was a 12th century Kurdish general who became the first sultan of Egypt and whose forces defeated Crusader armies in a battle that led to the eventual fall of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The text also counseled women to continue to wear the veil and to encourage their husbands and sons to "free the prisoners wherever they are... such as the widows of our martyr Osama bin Laden, who are languishing with their children in a Pakistani prison."
I thought his dependents had been returned to the bosoms of their families, because the bin Laden clan wasn't interested. Am I wrong?
#1
I advise you to raise your children in the cult of jihad and martyrdom and to instil in them a love for religion and death
A description of Islam in a nutshell.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/08/2012 19:38
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More proof that those whom believe the GWOT is over wid the death of Osama + the degradation of [core] Al-Qaeda leadership were at best premature or fallacious, at worst don't understand the Islamic andor Islamist mindset.
* RADICAL CLERIC = "ISLAM RULES, OR [else] ISLAM IS DESTROYED". There is no interim or compromise option, as Radical Islam Jihad = WAR FOR UNILATERAL OR MUTUAL ANNIHILATION.
As indic once again now by Ayman's Babe, IMO ANY US SUCCESS IN THE GWOT WILL BE DETERMINED, IN PART, BY HOW WELL THE US-ALLIES ARE ABLE TO DECONSTRUCT + MOVE THE ARAB-MUSLIM WORLD AWAY FROM SUPPORTING ANY + ALL CONCEPTS OF UNILATERAL VIOLENT = "MILITARY" JIHAD. Until such occurs, the US-led GWOT will never be truly "over" - the US will simply be in temporary or benign period(s) of "armistice" = "defensive peace" ala the Medieval Crusades.
Lastly, the comments of Ayman's Babe also indir shows why, within the context of perennial Islamic/Islamist Jihad agz US-West/Allies unto Total Victory or Total Annihilation, PAST
"IMPERIALISM" IS NOT NECESSSARILY A "DIRTY WORD/CONCEPT".
Iff only because ISLAM = "WARRIOR/CONQUERER'S FAITH" = itself akin to GOD-BASED/LED MILPOL
"IMPERIALISM", among other Models e.g. Theo-Socialism.
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) reported today that the inflation rate in Farvardin (21 March-20 April) compared to the same period last year was at 23.9 percent
of course just like in the US, some products will have much higher price increases and when they are things like rice and bread and fuel, it is really, really, really, bad for poor people
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/08/2012 14:57
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More accurate than the inflation rates posted by out benevolent central banks...
#2
Makes one want to support a cause that is popular among environmentalists of the Pacific Northwest - free the rivers to natural flow. (Free the Nile. Blow Aswan Dam?)
#4
Move the Copts into the Sinai as a buffer between the Egyptians and Israelis. The Copts would have a separate, sovereign state, a mutual defense treaty with Israel, and a generous start up from Uncle Sugar to include weapons and training.
Wait two generations and see who is doing better, the Copts or the Muslims.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2012 18:50
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#5
How many Copts are there as compared to Palestinians? Maybe you could move the Palestinians into the Sinai and let the Copts have the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dunno how the Egyptians would like that but I have a feeling the Israelis would like it a lot.
#6
The key line I see as per JudaeoChristianity is "CONQUEST IS COMING ...", which IMO is a direct threat agz any + all non-Muslims throughout the ME + Arab-Muslim World + Islamist MilTerr-besieged regions.
IFF THE JIHAD BE NOT "GLOBAL" OR "UNIVERSAL", THEN WHY ARE HISTOR NON-MUSLIM REGIONS UNDER THREAT???
Check out the pics at the link
A former anchor at The Weather Channel is suing the network after she said she was fired over a dispute involving her military service.
Nicole Mitchell, an Air Force Reserve Officer and a member of the "Hurricane Hunters" team, has accused The Weather Channel and NBC of discrimination and violating her rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.
Mitchell said she began to experience harassment about her military service just after The Weather Channel was purchased by NBC, Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.
Court papers allege NBC bosses made explicit complaints about her military service schedule and created a "hostile working environment" for the anchor.
Mitchell, who holds the rank of captain, was an on-air meteorologist for The Weather Channel from 2004 until 2011 -- when her contract was not renewed. She is a highly decorated officer who flies aboard a "Hurricane Hunter" and her military expertise was especially noted during the network's hurricane coverage.
But after the network was purchased by NBC/Universal, Mitchell said network executives ordered her to get clearance before agreeing to any military assignments.
"I was told in an email, 'before you agree to military duty, you need to clear it through us first,'" Mitchell told Fox News Radio. "If you don't show up for orders, you could be court-martialed."
The Weather Channel released a statement to Fox News Radio declining to comment on the specifics of the case.
Spokesman David Blumenthal said the network "is committed to creating a work atmosphere free of discrimination and in compliance with The Uniformed Services Employment Reemployment rights Act of 1994."
Blumenthal said some of Mitchell's allegations were inaccurate, but declined to provide specific examples.
"We disagree with many of the assertions in the plaintiff's press statements and intend to vigorously defend the matter in the arbitration process," he said.
Lance LoRusso, Mitchell's attorney, called The Weather Channel and NBC's behavior "deplorable."
"It is not a matter of providing lip service and saying you support the military," he told Fox News Radio. "You cannot interfere with their service. You cannot provide harassment or a hostile environment to them and if you do -- you are subject to sanctions."
An incident involving a missed hair appointment seems to be where Mitchell's career at The Weather Channel (ed added: went awry.) LoRusso said his client received a telephone call ordering her to appear for a Sunday hair consultation.
"They said quite clearly, 'this is non-negotiable, no excuses,'" LoRusso said.
But Mitchell did have an excuse -- she was on weekend military duty -- and Mitchell had given the network advance notice of her responsibilities.
"She was told that was not a good answer," he recounted. "They gave her a hard time, but she stuck to her guns."
It wasn't long before she was transferred from a Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. -- 10 a.m. anchor shift on "Your Weather Today" to a Monday-Friday, 10 p.m.-2a.m. shift.
And LoRusso believes she Mitchell was removed from her star role because she's a weekend warrior.
"Here we truly believe that the scheduling and the fact that her Reserve duty was up against a schedule of NBC and The Weather Channel -- was a motivating factor in their decision," he said. "That is illegal."
Mitchell joined the Air National Guard when she was 17-years-old -- and the network was well aware of her military commitments when she was hired, LoRusso said.
"It's not a matter of courtesy," he said. "It's a matter of obligation. Our military cannot function as a volunteer force if the individual employers can control when our service members can appear and when they shouldn't."
LoRusso noted the irony of NBC's sponsorship of a pro-military campaign called, 'Got Your 6' -- vowing to support service members.
#1
I feel a heat wave. The weather channel becomes politicized? The NPR of the weather business? Once I read that NBC was involved, that explained a lot. After all, NBC has such luminaries as Chris "I Feel A Tingling Up My Leg When I Think of Obama" Matthews, and Ed "South End of the Horse" Schultz of the Mr. Ed show, and Rachel Maddow of the Madcow Show.
#2
For many organizations, employing a military reservist is no problem because there is sufficient flexibility within the organization to accommodate the reservist. For other organizations, it is a hardship. I wouldn't judge the Weather Channel without knowing the innards, i.e., number and scheduling of the on-air workers, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/08/2012 17:09
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lord garth -- according to the article, she has worked for the Weather Channel from 2004 through 2011 and she had been in the Reserves the entire time, having enlisted when she was 17 years old.
After all those years, now it becomes and "internal" scheduling problem? I think not. She had her own show, Monday-Friday 7 - 10 am.
#6
Fired over a "missed hair appointment" [salon]???
Yokay, I'll bite, - not to argue that Femme Anchors can't have a bad hair day on live TV, but isn't it usually the Male Anchors whom are mandated to have Regular to Crew Cuts before appearing on-camera - UNLESS SHE'S A BALDIE WHOM HAD A WIG FALL OFF ON LIVE TV, I DON'T KNOW OF ANY NEWS BABES THAT HAVE JOB-THREATENING HAIR PROBS???
#1
China's "business plan" depends on being able to put all the countries that provide markets for China's stuff _out of business_, but for them to simultaneously still be able to provide a market for China's stuff.
Newark's mayor, who was gunning for a spot in President B.O.'s Cabinet, lost the chance after he shot his mouth off during a blunderingly honest TV appearance last month, sources told The Post.
"He's dead to us," one ranking administration official said of the prevailing feelings at the White House and Obama headquarters in Chicago.
Booker had been angling for the housing secretary gig in a second Obama term, according to sources in the administration and close to the mayor.
The job was certainly a possibility, given Booker's work in New Jersey's biggest city, according to administration and Democratic Party sources.
Thinking highly of Booker, Obama's campaign asked him to appear on "Meet the Press" on May 20 to act as a mouthpiece, but he proceeded to eviscerate one of the president's key campaign themes.
Booker told a national TV audience the president's attacks on Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the presumptive Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field. On the plus side, he isn't President B.O... 's record at private-equity firm Bain Capital were "nauseating" and made him "very uncomfortable."
Mayor Booker, dump the Dem's, and come over to 'the dark side'; we have cookies. :)
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/08/2012 21:32
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Uh, uh, "BOOKER" - THE COLONEL-RANKED COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER FROM "KELLY'S HEROES"???
CARROLL "THE GENERAL" O'CONNOR = D *** NG IT, BOOKER, YOU'RE THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE ...
... I'M COMING THERE [downstairs], BOOKER!
Actually, we are not sure just what the president will discuss in his 10:15 am address on the economy, but our suggestion that the president will suggest more spending as the cause solution to all of America's problems seems like a fair guess. That or blaming Merkel for the epic NFP miss last Friday. We are not sure what the shot keyword is today (aside for thingamajig of course), but we know what isn't: $15,734,596,578,458.59. That's was US Federal debt as of close on Wednesday: another fair guess is that it will receive exactly zero prominence in Obama's latest sermon.
That is sooooo gonna hurt him. Roll it up into a nice ad, and beat the shit outta him. Remember Bush 41 "not knowing how a scanner works" buying groceries?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/08/2012 16:56
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#6
Mr. President! Mr. President!
Please explain to the plebes once again, how this is Europes fault.
Posted by: The Press Corpse ||
06/08/2012 18:10
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#7
I love how his solution to solve the economy is the throw a press conference. Thats just ducky.
Then add in government doesn't spend enough, its close to our credit downgrade anniversary.
It was very passive, back seat presentation. I mean, did he just now notice? Has he been up for two days and thought this was a good idea? If this was to capture the news cycle, something they are supposed to excel at, then how wrong are they getting the tough stuff...
#8
So I'm broke and the answer is to go out a max out my credit cards. That just doesn't make any sense.
Sure it does! If you don't intend to ever pay it off. As long as the bank can't find us, they'll just charge it off, and *poof* the debt is gone like magic. Right?
Iran's president says Iran has no intention of building nuclear weapons, but fear would not deter it if it decided to make them.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments suggest a toughening of Iran's position ahead of June 18-19 talks with world powers over Tehran's nuclear program.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany want Iran to shut down its highest level uranium enrichment facilities. Ahmadinejad's remarks suggest Iran would refuse.
Ahmadinejad made the comments during a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday in China. His remarks were posted on his website.
The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes like power generation and cancer treatment.
#1
You trust them?
I don't.
Ignore this drivel, they're still very dangerous.
Watch shipping containers.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/08/2012 15:39
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Again, as per the "Japan/Egypt Model" espec Japan, IRAN = JAPAN = desires a ready stockpile of enriched Nucmats = Plutonium enuff for 5000 NucBombs/Warheads in times of crisis.
IIRC any Iranian arsenal of 5000 producable Nukes will be larger than the US Arsenal after formal Treaty reduxes.
The Obama administration suddenly looks like a house of cards.
What happened in Wisconsin signals a shift in political mood and assumption. Public employee unions were beaten back and defeated in a state with a long progressive tradition. The unions and their allies put everything they had into "one of their most aggressive grass-roots campaigns ever," as the Washington Post's Paul Whoriskey and Dan Balz reported in a day-after piece. Fifty thousand volunteers made phone calls and knocked on 1.4 million doors to get out the vote against Gov. Scott Walker. Mr. Walker's supporters, less deeply organized on the ground, had a considerable advantage in money.
But organization and money aren't the headline. The shift in mood and assumption is. The vote was a blow to the power and prestige not only of the unions but of the blue-state budgetary model, which for two generations has been: Public-employee unions with their manpower, money and clout, get what they want. If you move against them, you will be crushed.
Mr. Walker was not crushed. He was buoyed, winning by a solid seven points in a high-turnout race.
President Obama's problem now isn't what Wisconsin did, it's how he looks each day--careening around, always in flight, a superfluous figure. No one even looks to him for leadership now. He doesn't go to Wisconsin, where the fight is. He goes to Sarah Jessica Parker's place, where the money is.
It just all increasingly looks like a house of cards. Bill Clinton--that ol' hound dog, that gifted pol who truly loves politics, who always loved figuring out exactly where the people were and then going to exactly that spot and claiming it--Bill Clinton is showing all the signs of someone who is, let us say, essentially unimpressed by the incumbent. He defended Mitt Romney as a businessman--"a sterling record"--said he doesn't like personal attacks in politics, then fulsomely supported the president, and then said that the Bush tax cuts should be extended.
His friends say he can't help himself, that he's getting old and a little more compulsively loquacious. Maybe. But maybe Bubba's looking at the president and seeing what far more than half of Washington sees: a man who is limited, who thinks himself clever, and who doesn't know that clever right now won't cut it.
Because Bill Clinton loves politics, he hates losers. Maybe he just can't resist sticking it to them a little, when he gets a chance.
#2
Fifty thousand volunteers made phone calls and knocked on 1.4 million doors to get out the vote against Gov. Scott Walker.
Apparently the good citizens of Wisconsin saw things differently. That's democracy in action.
IMO that we can't continue as a nation with public unions taking over state and the feral government. The taxpayers cannot afford the cost of government. Public unions were a mistake.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/08/2012
09:39 ||
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#1
These are a bit more expensive but they don't need to submerge to go undetected. Problem is we'll be borrowing money from the Chicoms so we can send these bad boys to patrol the coast of China.
The commander of international forces in Afghanistan has apologised for civilian deaths in an air strike on Wednesday in Logar province. It is the first time that NATO has admitted civilians died in the air strike, which had targeted Taliban commanders.
Afghan officials said 18 civilians had died in the incident.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the air strike, calling it "unjustifiable".
Gen John Allen flew to Logar on Friday to offer condolences to villagers and local leaders. He told local people that they "have my apology and we will do the right thing by the families," according to the Associated Press.
#1
As I understand what happened: There was active combat between NATO and Taliban forces. The Taliban were seen to retreat into a compound. No others occupants were seen in the compound. The airstrike was called in. It hit wat it was targetting. Unknown human shields died too.
Pakistan's ambassador to the United States branded as "unhelpful" US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's latest stab at Islamabad's failure to tackle militant safe havens, saying it would make it harder for the two countries to narrow their differences.
Panetta, speaking in Kabul on Thursday, said the United States was reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan because of the safe havens the country offered to insurgents fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.
#1
Unhelpful? As in harboring INK unhelpful? Allowing military convoys to be attacked unhelpful? Playing both sides unhelpful? Harboring the Taliban unhelpful? Spreading nuke tech unhelpful?
#4
Pakistan is again again reieterating its deamnd for formal aopology from the US before the NATO Supply routes will be reopened.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > CIA GETS [Obama Admin] NOD TO STEP UP DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN, including for strikes US command authorities may not had allowed to occur previously.
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [The Nation.PK] RELATIONS SOUR: PAKISTAN TO BAR CIA OPERATIONS FROM ITS COUNTRY/TERRITORY.
* SAME > ISLAMABAD: US HAS NOT PROVIDED INFORMATION ON HAQQANIS, ergo Pak Govt cannot authorize, + Pak Army cannot initiate, any serious Pak MilOp = offensive agz same.
The US counterargument is that it has shared info wid Pakistan vee the Haqqanis, + that the Pak Govt knows fully well the locations of the Haqqani Network + other MilTerr camps inside Pakistan.
* NEWS KERALA > US MILITARY CHIEF, LAWMAKERS BACK PANETTA ASSERTIONS OF LOSING PATIENCE WID PAKISTAN.
Lest we fergit, Pak BFF IRAN = has stated or inferred that what happens in Pakistan is widin Tehran's "core interests", + will not allow Pak sovereignty to be threatened by Zionist Crusader infidels.
-------------
As per IRAN ...
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > WSJ: UN NUCLEAR TEAM REPORTS FAILED IRAN TALKS.
* SAME > IRAN PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD [again] URGES RESTRUCTURING OF GLOBAL ORDER.
* TOPIX > A "SMALL" WORLD WAR [Regional, Trans-].
ARTIC = potens up to 25-30 international countries are or could be directly involved iff a US-Iran war = major Iran-centric Mil Crisis broke out in the Persian Gulf, andor in the ME where Iran has established strategic footholds e.g. Syria, Lebanon.
* SAME > IRAN CAN [effectively]FIGHT TWO-FRONT WAR, to its South-SW, + NW into Caucasus.
IMO Artic again shows Iran is possib "shaping the Battlefield" vee the US = US-led Coalition by attempting to make those areas of the Persian Gulf beyond the Straits of Hormuz too dangerous for US, Coalition Seapower + Amphibious Forces.
IOW, THE MULLAHS WOULD PREFER THAT ANY DETONATION OF NUKES-WMDS BY IRAN ON IRANIAN SOIL AGZ FOREIGN GROUND FORCES BE A "LAST-RESORT/
WORST-CASE" OPTION.
However, for its strategy to work, Iran cannot allow any major buildup of forces either inside the Gulf or on the Saudi side - IMO, presuming that the current Govts in Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen + Oman are NOT overthrown by the "Arab/Muslim/
Ilsamic Spring" protests, THIS INFERS IRAN MAY PREEMPTIVELY STRIKE THE US FIFTH FLEET BASE AT BAHRAIN + ANY US MILFORS IN KUWAIT + IRAQ. DITTO FOR SAUDI, GCC MILBASES ON SAUDI SIDE???
With the help of a mole, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has turned the tables on Attorney General Eric Holder.
Issa and more than a few RBers has long been exasperated with Holder, claiming that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been withholding information on a controversial gun-running operation. But through an anonymous source, Issa has obtained information about the initiative that is under a federal court-ordered seal.
Giving such information out is a federal crime, raising the question of whether the Justice Department will seek to prosecute what Republicans are calling a whistleblower. But whatever happened to transparency? Could it be that Obean has abandoned this campaign promise? And Pelosi, whatever did you mean by "the most ethical congress in history"?
Issa has asked the DOJ for the documents wiretap applications it used in the botched federal gun-tracking Operation Fast and Furious for months. The California lawmaker has taken preliminary steps to move contempt-of-Congress citations against Holder, but it remains unclear if GOP leaders support that move. This new controversy could help Issa attract more Republican support for a contempt-of-Congress resolution.
If Holder does launch an investigation into where the leak originated, the powerful Republican could paint the move as an attempt by the DOJ to hide the documents contents. It would also raise the possibility that DOJ investigators will seek information from Issa, who has been trying to determine who approved the gun-walking tactics used in Fast and Furious along the U.S.-Mexico border. Go for it. They only have about four more months then they're going to be too busy shredding evidence for the next two months than to worry about going after you.
On the other hand, not launching a probe would mean turning a blind eye to a criminal breach and could lead Issas source and others to reveal other information sealed by a judge.
Issa told Fox News on Wednesday that he has no intention of shining the light on his source: Were not going to make our whistleblower available. Thats been one of the most sensitive areas, because some of the early whistleblowers are already feeling retribution. Theyre being treated horribly. Probably part of Obean's transparency program.
Asked earlier this week where he got the wiretap applications, Issa told The Hill, You can ask, but you should have no expectation of an answer. By the way, if I asked you where you got yours, would you give me your sources?
Of course, there is some political risk for Issa. The Obama administration could point out that he is stonewalling federal authorities after complaining throughout this Congress of being stonewalled by DOJ. Hey, if Holder isn't stonewalling, then neither would Issa be.
As the lead congressional investigator of Fast and Furious, Issa says the documents show top-ranking DOJ officials signing off on the condemned gun-walking tactics used in the failed operation. Senior DOJ officials have repeatedly denied that they approved the botched initiative.
The documents have not been made public, and Issa has apparently broken no laws by being given the information.
Regardless, the DOJ is not pleased.
Chairman Issas letter makes clear that sealed court documents relating to pending federal prosecutions being handled by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California have been disclosed to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in violation of law, wrote Deputy Attorney General James Cole to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Issa this week.
This is of great concern to us, the letter added. Even greater than Black Panthers denying voting rights to American citizens?
A spokesman for the DOJ declined to comment about whether it was planning to launch an investigation into the leak. That's what happens when you're making decisions based on politcal fallout vs. what's right and wrong.
Democrats say that Issa is exaggerating what he has. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member on Issas panel, reiterated this week that top-ranking DOJ officials didnt personally review any of the six wiretap applications related to Fast and Furious. Issa sent Cummings the information he received from his source.
In the past, the DOJ has justified not turning over the wiretap applications to Issa by saying that doing so could jeopardize the current criminal cases it is prosecuting.
Two former prosecutors for the DOJ, who were not familiar with the details of this article, independently told The Hill that defense lawyers could use an instance of documents being leaked in violation of a court-ordered seal to justify seeking a mistrial. Too bad you can't ask for a mistrial before everything goes public.
It is unlikely that the DOJ, if it does investigate the leak, will have grounds to go after Issa for accepting the documents. In past instances of court-ordered seals being broken, it is the actual breaker of the seal who is held responsible, which in this case could mean criminal contempt proceedings and possible jail time.
The battle between Issa and the DOJ has escalated over the past month, with House Republican leaders writing a letter to Holder asking him to hand over information about who was responsible for Fast and Furious. The letter also asked whether the DOJ misled Congress on when officials, including Holder, became aware of the program.
Issa is set to square off against Holder on Thursday when the attorney general is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. The Republican lawmaker will appear on a panel to discuss oversight of the DOJ.
Under the now-defunct Fast and Furious initiative, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is under the DOJ, authorized the sale of firearms to known and suspected straw purchasers for Mexican drug cartels, but lost track of many of the weapons. I'd sure like to know how they planned to track those guns. Maybe ballistics on the bullets pulled out of dead children?
Some of those guns might have contributed to the December 2010 shooting death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Is it OK to say "might" when you mean "surely"?
#5
"The California lawmaker has taken preliminary steps to move contempt-of-Congress citations against Holder, but it remains unclear if GOP leaders support that move"
Really? Seems to me the crickets emenating from Boner's office tell mountains of stories about the 'support' of the GOP 'leaders.' Boner is almost as useless as Bambi.
Leaving the situation alone would mean abandoning the existing diplomatic and economic initiatives (granted they are, even in sum, pretty feeble compared to military action).
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/08/2012 7:59
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The death this week of Al Qaedas deputy leader, Abu Yahya al-Libi, is likely to accelerate a shift in power from the groups dwindling leadership in Pakistan to its increasingly autonomous franchises, particularly the branch in Yemen, whose focus on attacking American interests is sure to continue, according to United States counterterrorism officials.
Mr. Libi had played a pivotal role as the organizations theological traffic cop, enforcing a unified message and ensuring that younger fighters in the affiliates did not go off the rails.
For now, Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaedas nominal leader, still holds the broad influence that he has consolidated since Osama bin Ladens death last year. But the hierarchical structure of global jihad may be loosening a bit. Mr. Libis death in a drone strike has torn at the connective tissue between the groups embattled leadership in Pakistan and its far-flung affiliates across the Middle East and Africa.
#1
Must'va been using the Injustice Department's standards for colleges in employing preponderance of evidence [he's male] rather than beyond reasonable doubt to convict an accused.
#2
This doesn't sound right. The word of a man, by sharia law, is worth twice that of a woman. Therefore the women are routinely punished and the men set free. Either this guy is not a Muslim or he did something else wrong.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/08/2012 19:46
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North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un during a children's rally on Wednesday made his second public speech since taking power in December.
North Korean state media said Pudgy Kim told some 20,000 children they will "lead the most powerful country in the future, where every home will be full of laughter."
Pundits say that Suet Face Kim's two public speeches in only six months in power show that he is trying to differentiate himself from his reclusive father Kim Jong-il, who uttered only a single sentence in public during his 17 years in power.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2012
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#1
While the children where rewarded with bark-chip treats, recently sprayed with malathion, on the down side a number of parents complained of the short notice and overcrowding, and, unfortunately, they had to be put down.
Pyongyang, June 5 (KCNA) -- The Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League and the Korean Children's Union issued on Tuesday a joint statement denouncing the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors for letting loose a spate of invectives about the celebrations of the union through its paid trumpeters.
Wonder what you have to smoke to come up with this stuff
The statement says:
There are many countries and children on our planet, but there is no such country as the DPRK where children enjoy all blessings as its king.
The most splendid celebrations of the 66th anniversary of the union can be called another legend about love as they are fruition of the warm loving care the dear respected Kim Jong Un has shown by carrying forward the noble outlook on the younger generation and future of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il who embraced all the children and bestowed all sorts of care and solicitude upon them.
But the Lee Myung Bak group set in motion its paid trumpeters to launch a smear campaign over the events.
What enrages the Korean people is that the group malignantly hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK, likening it to Nazi tyrant of Germany.
This is an intolerable provocative act of hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK which its people regard as more valuable than their own lives and an unbearable insult and mockery of the Korean school youth and children who have grown with nothing to desire more in the world under the care of the peerlessly great persons of Mt. Paektu.
The Lee group, as fellow countrymen do, should have hailed the celebrations envied and admired by the world. But the group ran the whole gamut of vituperation against the celebrations to hurt the pure mind of the Korean children. This was an act against humanity and a reckless act of treachery.
The Korean school youth and children's resentment and hatred against the group are running high.
The school youth and children in the DPRK are ardently calling on the Korean People's Army to deal heavy blows in revenge upon the despicable provocateurs as early as possible as already declared in the open ultimatum.
They will also turn out as human bullets and bombs in the do-or-die sacred battles for punishing the provocateurs.
All the servicepersons and people in the DPRK will clearly show how they will take revenge on the Lee Myung Bak group that hurt the dignity of its supreme leadership and insulted the school youth and children.
The group of traitors will not be able to escape the most miserable punishment unless it makes apology for the hideous provocations.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/08/2012
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#1
We need a poll. Rank in order of their lunacy:
KCNA
Iran TV
Baghdad Bob
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Tokyo Rose
Lord Haw-Haw
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/08/2012 8:20
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1. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
2. KCNA
3. Iran TV
4 & 5. (tied) Baghdad Bob; Lord Haw-Haw
6. Tokyo Rose
[Yemen Post] The Yemeni authorities have refused the visit of two placed in durance vile You have the right to remain silent... Belgians, Ebraheem Bali and Ezz-Adeen Tuhairi, in a prison of the Political Security, a spokeswoman of the Belgian Foreign Affairs Ministry told an Online Marib Press newspaper.
She said that they are suffering of severe fatigue after they were put in cells that are exposed to light around the clock, pointing out that the Yemeni authorities allowed to visit the detainees only one time.
She said that no charges were the Yemeni government did not make any charges against the detainees or refer them to justice, urging the government to apply Yemen's laws and ensure a fair trial to the detainees or deport them to their home.
A Yemeni human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... group, Hood, had criticized the imprisonment conditions of the Belgian arrestees, accusing the Political Security of torturing them.
Hood had said that the seizure of the two Belgians contradicts the Yemeni laws that provide the arrestees must be referred to prosecutions during 24 hours, indicating that Bali and Tuhairi were tossed in the clink Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! on April 4 in Sana'a International Airport.
Hood sent a letter to Yemen's Attorney General, stressing that this seizure violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the article 48 of the Yemeni Constitution, stressing that this arrest is a breach punishable by Yemen's penal laws
It further demanded the Attorney General to swiftly order the prosecution to visit their prison, and release them or refer them to specialized courts, asking to hold those persons responsible for this illegal seizure accountable.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2012
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(Sh.M.Network)-The B.O. regime will offer up to $33 million in rewards for information about top members of an Islamist thug group in Somalia linked to al-Qaeda, US officials said on Wednesday.
The rewards for seven leaders of the al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... militia movement will be announced on Thursday by the State Department, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... ahead of the announcement.
The bounties will be administered by the department's Rewards for Justice Program. It will be first time the programme has offered rewards for members of al-Shabaab, which is accused of terrorist attacks in Somalia,Uganda and Kenya.
The programme will offer up to $7 million for al-Shabaab's founder, Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamed; up to $5 million each for his associates, Ibrahim Haji Jama, Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, Bashir Mohamed Mahamoud and Mukhtar Robow; and up to $3 million for Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi and Abdullahi Yare, according to the officials.
Al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda formally joined organizations earlier this year, though the ties between the groups already were strong. Al-Shabaab counts hundreds of imported muscle among its ranks, including fighters with experience in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
In April, the US government warned that it continues to receive information about potential terrorist threats aimed at US, Western and Kenyan targets inside Kenya.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2012
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#1
Trying to calculate the number of takers.. how comparable are these awards to the pirate ransoms...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/08/2012 2:12
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#2
"We promise not to release your names for political purposes."
#3
Water, from Newsmax today: "An estimated $80 million has been paid by shipping companies since the beginning of 2009. The 2008 take is estimated at $180 million" for piracy ransom payments..
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/08/2012 6:36
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Sudan has urged the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... to move its July summit from Malawi to its Addis Ababa headquarters after the host nation's refusal to welcome President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. , the foreign ministry said Thursday.
Sudan informed the pan-African bloc of its request on Wednesday after Malawi announced that Bashir "would not be welcome at this summit, upon a claimed adherence of Malawi to its obligations to the so-called 'International Criminal Court'," ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... the ministry said in a statement.
Sudan's president is wanted by The Hague-based ICC on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the country's troubled Darfur region.
Malawi's new president, Joyce Banda, said in May that she wanted Bashir to stay away from the summit in Lilongwe on July 9-16, to avoid straining ties with key donors for her impoverished country.
Sudan's foreign ministry said Khartoum accorded "the upmost importance" to the July summit, which required the participation of the country's leadership, given that the strained relations between Sudan and the South were on the agenda.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has sought to increase pressure on the international community to arrest Bashir, telling the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the failure to detain him and other Sudanese officials accused of war crimes and genocide was "a direct challenge to the council's authority."
He said the council should consider calling on all 193 UN member states and regional organizations to carry out the arrest warrants.
Under current rules only ICC members, of which Malawi is one, have a duty to arrest Bashir, who has visited several countries, including some court signatories, without any action being taken.
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06/08/2012
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[Dawn] PAKISTAN'S top rights activist Asma Jahangir has added to the feeling of fear in the country by speaking out about a plot to murder her. She says she has reason to believe the scheme is not an invention of an individual mind but a conspiracy whose origins can be traced to security operators of the state. Ms Jahangir is respected the world over for taking tough positions in the most trying conditions and reporting on difficult situations at considerable personal risk. As a lawyer she has stood by the principle that every accused has the right to defence in court. Hers has been a journey replete with many dangers, but she is not known for raising too many alarms about her personal safety. That she has done so now is significant and cannot be ignored or speculated upon. This is a serious enough charge for the authorities to undertake an investigation, and an urgent one.
But this is not just about the safety of one person, however valuable she is to the causes she has been pursuing and the people to whom she has given a voice. Ultimately, it is about pluralism and safeguarding the dissent that is vital to all human endeavours. Ms Jahangir vows the progressives in this country shall continue to fight. It will be tragic if those who are opposed to her creed resorted to violence instead of committing themselves fully and infallibly to the interplay between thesis and anti-thesis for forward movement. Since dialogue needs to be the preferred mode, some of the signs following Ms Jahangir's allegations are positive. Political parties including the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... , MQM, PML-N, PTI and PPP have all slammed the reported threats to Ms Jahangir as have members of civil society. They now need to take the debate to other forums including the media and the elected assemblies.
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06/08/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Ghana's former President-for-Life Jerry Rawlings ... former lieutenant in the Ghanian air force, then military dictator for 11 years. He thought he was elected President-for-Life of Ghana in 1993, but was forced to step down his at the end of his term-limited second term when his proxy was defeated ... has given the first hint yet that his wife, former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings might enter the Presidential race in December.
But it is not clear whether she would do so as an independent candidate or form a new party.
Speculation has been rife but, she has consistently refused to confirm or deny her candidature.
But, last Sunday, President Rawlings told a rally at Aflao, on the country's eastern border with Togo that Nana, "must be given the chance to rescue the country from the current leadership crisis."
He pleaded with the people to consider giving her the needed support to rule.
Ms Nana Agyeman-Rawlings was rejected by delegates of the ruling National Democratic Congress when she stood against President John Evans Mills at the party's primary to elect a leader.
She had only three per cent of the votes and it was expected that she would give up her ambition.
The position taken by Mr Rawlings has finally pitted him against President Mills in the contest to win the hearts and souls of the entire members of the NDC some of whom have openly criticised Mr Rawlings for working against the party he founded and the man he chose as his successors.
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[Yemen Post] Thousands of people on Wednesday erupted into the streets in Yemen's capital Sanaa to affirm the determination of the protesters to stay in the change and freedom squares and not to leave until all goals of the popular uprising which erupted in early 2011 were met.
In the past two days, protesters started to remove their tents from the change square outside Sanaa University and came back to their provinces.
Reports have emerged parties and the revolution organizational committee have started to order protesters to leave the square to spread the popular revolution and reopen roads in downtown Sanaa. The reports, however, were denied though protesters are continuing to remove tents, especially those on the edges of the several-km change square.
Today's demonstration originated at the change square passing through Street 60th and the Assir area where tens of protesters were killed in last year's crackdown.
Demonstrators carried photos of deaders, who were killed last year, and affirmed they will continue their revolution and their refusal to leave the squares until their demands were met.
They also carried Syrian flag and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud in support of the Syrian people who have been cracked down by the Assad regime for more than one year, and demanded trials for and departure of relatives of ex-leader, who continue to hold senior military and security positions.
The Yemeni parties signed in November a West-backed power-transfer deal after the mass protests, which has been facing obstruction including rebellion of some military commanders.
Army commanders, including relatives of the ex-president, President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , have been resisting to give up their posts under decrees by the new president.
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(Sh. M. Network)-Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, The president ofSomalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), has on Thursday held a meeting with the Traditional Elders of Somalia in Mogadishu.
During the meeting Somali president called upon the Elders to convene in a little while the newly established committee to manage conflicts in Somali Traditional tasked to select the constituency assembly that will also expected to approve the draft constitution and appoint a new parliament of Somalia before next august.
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[Tolo News] The mother of an 18 year old girl who was repeatedly raped in Afghanistan's eastern Kunduz province has threatened to self-immolate if those responsible are not prosecuted.
"We will burn ourselves if the rapists are not prosecuted," the mother said.
The 18 year old girl was allegedly raped multiple times by men from a local police unit in the province
Her mother named the men, who she said entered their family home to kidnap the daughter.
"One ranger with four [men] came to our house and took the girl with themselves. Sakhidad, Khudadad, Abdul Razeq and Akhtarak took the girl in a military car," the mother told TOLOnews.
"If the government doesn't help us, we will burn ourselves."
The father of the victim also said that a military ranger took his daughter.
"They beat me up, I fell on the ground, they took my daughter and took her away with themselves. They took her to Khudadad's house," he said.
The military attorney office in the province rejected the allegation against the police unit saying that the gang was not made up of the local police, but confirmed they were still investigating.
General Mohammad Sharif Safi, head of the Kunduz military attorney, said that several people including the commander of the local police unit, Ishaq, are under police investigation.
Meanwhile, ...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind... commander of 303th Pamir zone General Baba Jan rejected the gang rape accusation saying that two local police were accused of the rape and were placed in long-term storage Please don't kill me! by police.
"The gang rape case is not true, two people were accused of this case and have been incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... by Kunduz police," he said.
This comes as 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... ordered the Ministry of Interior to arrest and disarm the local police unit accused of raping an 18-year-old girl, New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... wrote this week, quoting government front man Aimal Faizi.
The newspaper reported that a shepherd girl was in jug of the Afghan local police for days and was reportedly raped several times by the members of the unit.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2012
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MORONS, if the accuser is dead, all charges will be dismissed.
The Rapists will escape punishment.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/08/2012 16:23
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The Arab Spring was kicked off when a Tunisian man set himself on fire to protest harassment by officials.
#3
Might be a smidge more effective to burn the rapists rather than yourself, doncha think?
Posted by: Barbara ||
06/08/2012 18:36
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I'm a bit behind with my Islamic Math thingy, but as there were 5 men involved , there must be 4 times that many female witnesses for a case to be made. All witnesses to be disfigured with acid and then hung by the neck until dead. Next.
[Bloomberg] Russia, China and other countries received a request from the Syrian government to investigate last month's massacre in Houla, according to a senior politician in the Russian ruling party.
"There's no proof of either the involvement of pro- government or opposition forces," Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign-affairs committee in the lower house of parliament in Moscow, said in a telephone interview today. "If you listen to Western media, you hear witnesses who say pro-government militia carried it out, but if you listen to Syrian media, you hear witnesses who say that it was opposition fighters."
The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Human Rights Council called for a probe into the May 25 massacre of more than 100 people, including dozens of children, which it said was carried out by "pro- regime elements" and government forces. Syria blamed hard boyz for the killings.
The timing of the Houla massacre, as well reports yesterday by opposition activists of the killing of 78 people, more than half of them women and kiddies, in a village in Hama province, point to the involvement of rebel fighters, said Pushkov. The first massacre happened a day before United Nations envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... visited Syria and the latest on the eve of UN Security Council discussions on Syria, he said.
"To carry out such acts on the eve of such events is absolutely counterproductive for the Syrian government," Pushkov said. "To the contrary, I can see that for rebel fighters, especially Islamist rebel fighters for whom blood is cheap, as shown by experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and many other places, there is a direct political benefit."
Syria has found evidence that fighters from Libya and Tunisia with ties to al-Qaeda are among the rebels and some of the Houla massacre was filmed, Syria's ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad, said in a June 1 interview.
"The main aim is to cause failure of the Annan plan and to provoke foreign military interference," he said.
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06/08/2012
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[Bloomberg] Russia is urging 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... and Qatar to halt help for Syrian rebels, a senior politician in the Russian ruling party said.
Russia and China yesterday proposed a meeting to support peace efforts by United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... . The two nations, along with the U.S., the U.K., La Belle France, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , the Organization of Islamic Conference and Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... States, Turkey and Iran should take part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Beijing yesterday after talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... and Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao ...Hu has been involved in the Communist party bureaucracy for most of his adult life, meaning his viewpoint has a lot more theory than it does practice. He espouses a Harmonious Society approach, suggesting everybody should play nice or they'll be shot... "Boats carrying weapons are being dispatched and they are getting financing too because Saudi Arabia and Qatar are paying salaries to members of the Syrian Free Army," Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign-affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, said in a telephone interview today. "Instead of supporting the armed actions of the opposition, we want them to exert a restraining influence."
Saudi Arabia and Qatar, ruled by Sunni monarchies that are at odds with Syria's mainly Shiite ally, Iran, have publicly voiced support for arming the rebels. Syria's ambassador to Russia said last week that the two countries are sabotaging a UN plan to end the 15-month conflict in his country by continuing to arm rebels in violation of a cease-fire agreement reached in April.
"Weapons are entering Syria through its borders with Leb and Turkey," Riad Haddad said in a June 1 interview. "And these are heavy weapons."
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06/08/2012
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[Al Ahram] An air raid struck the eastern outskirts of the Yemeni town Jaar in the Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province that is controlled by Al-Qaeda on Thursday, killing five Islamist hard boyz and wounding three others, a local official stated.
Two other Al-Qaeda gunnies were killed in festivities with local Islamic fascistibelonging to the Popular Resistance Committees, who are fighting alongside the army, in the village of Batis, north of Jaar, the official said.
The festivities erupted when the hard boyz attempted to return to the village which they had controlled until they were chased out by the army last week.
And five more jihadists were killed in an ambush near Batis, the official added.
He said the ambush by pro-army Islamic fascistiwas led by a former Al-Qaeda beturbanned goon, Abdullah al-Sayed, who defected last year in protest at the presence of "foreigners" in the ranks of the Islamists group.
Yemeni forces launched an all-out offensive on 12 May aimed at reclaiming the Abyan picturesque provincial capital Zinjibar and other towns and cities lost to Al-Qaeda during the past year.
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[An Nahar] From testicle-biting police dogs to sonic cannons capable of inducing involuntary urination, Polish anti-hooligan squads have an array of weapons ready for potential trouble-makers at Euro 2012.
A suggestion: deploy the dogs before the cannon. The dogs will be happier that way.
The English-language Krakow Post newspaper asserted in an editorial that local law enforcement agencies were more than ready to tackle any hooligan threat at England's southern Poland base camp.
"The Polish police are going to come down on troublemakers like a bag full of anvils and you don't want to be there when it happens," the paper warned.
"Krakow has a long history of hooligan violence -- the local police have seen it all before and they will ruin your day if you try it on.
"These lads' mums and dads rioted under Soviet machine guns -- a few chairs thrown by beered-up fans is not going to intimidate them.
"Do not expect softly, softly police tactics.
"Poland's anti-hooligan squads are armed with: Shotguns firing baton rounds that probably won't kill you as long as you're 30m away, a truck-mounted water cannon affectionately known as 'the typhoon', a high-tech sonic cannon that can make you wet yourself on its lowest setting, dogs trained to bite you directly in the testicles."
English fans are not expected to arrive in Krakow in significant numbers, with England's Group D games all taking place in Ukraine.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2012
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This has all the makings for Big Fun. I hope it's on pay per view or DVD. And no, I don't mean the game.
NEW DELHI: India is not going to give up its tactical and strategic advantage over Pakistan in the Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge region anytime soon, even though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may still want to convert it into "a mountain of peace".
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by the PM, on Thursday cleared the "brief" for the 13th round of the defence secretary-level talks to be held with Pakistan in Islamabad on June 11-12.
Sources said the Indian delegation, led by defence secretary Shashikant Sharma, will insist Pakistan first agree to the three sequential "pre-requisites" of authentication, delineation and demarcation of the respective troop positions on the Saltoro Ridge before any military pullback plans can be discussed.
While there has been some recent buzz of "a breakthrough" on the long-festering Siachen dispute, the Army has cautioned the UPA government against any concessions in the face of Pakistani intransigence in providing iron-clad guarantees for even verifying the 110-km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL).
Defence minister A K Antony himself told Parliament in May that "dramatic decisions" should not be expected from the talks slated for next week. Sources said India will tell Pakistan to first "authenticate" the respective troop positions on the AGPL along the Saltoro Ridge since Indian soldiers occupy almost all the "dominating" posts there and Pakistani soldiers are three to seven km away from the glacier.
Second, the authentication process will have to be followed by proper "delineation" both on the map as well as on the ground. This, in turn, will lead to the final "demarcation" of the agreed border. India will only then "consider" the proposed "disengagement" and "redeployment" of troops from the heights varying from 16,000 to 22,000-feet.
With better infrastructure and supply lines in place, the Army is no longer haemorrhaging like it did in the early years after its "Operation Meghdoot" in April 1984 pre-empted Pakistan's `Operation Ababeel' to occupy the icy heights.
Pakistan, which lost 139 soldiers in an avalanche that hit one of its Army camps there in April, is desperate to resolve the dispute since it is bleeding more. Over 3,000 of its soldiers have died in the region since 1984.
India, too, has lost many soldiers. Although the casualty rate has steadily dipped in recent years, the toll stood at 26 last year. Extreme weather and terrain cause more casualties in the icy heights, where temperatures even dip to minus 50-60 degrees, rather than exchange of fire. The guns have largely fallen silent in the world's highest and coldest battlefield since the ceasefire came into force in November, 2003.
"India has all the advantages now...why give them up without any gains?" asked a senior officer. If India was not holding the heights on the Saltoro Ridge, the highest watershed in the area, Pakistani and Chinese armies could link up to bring the Karakoram Pass under their control and threaten the Ladakh region. "The increasing Chinese presence in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan is a fact of life," he added.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/08/2012
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SIACHEN GLACIER ...
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IFF PAKISTAN WITHDRAWS ITS SUPPORT FROM US, WAR WILL BE FOUGHT THERE [in Pakistan]: SALAHUDDIN. Top Kashmiri Militant Leader upset at seemingly new Indo-Pak strategic rapprochement.
[Dawn] A member of the team sent to Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... on the orders of the Supreme Court to ascertain the status of the five women suspected of having been murdered confirmed on Thursday that four of the women were alive, DawnNews reported.
The court had been hearing a suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notice on the issue since reports came up that holy mans had allegedly issued orders for the killing of four women and two men after a mobile phone video emerged of the six singing and dancing at a wedding in a remote village in Kohistan.
According to allegations levelled by Mohammad Afzal, a relative of the women, the four women seen in the video and another woman had been killed by their relatives in the village of Pales.
Speaking to media representatives from Kohistan, rights activist Farzana Bari said that four of the women were alive.
Bari is a member of the fact-finding delegation sent to the northwestern region in the case.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... Bari said that it would not be possible to produce the women before the court on Thursday.
Bari said she had personally met at least two of the women who she said were well. She further said that their bodies bore no marks of physical torture.
The activist said that the team had also recorded a video of the women.
Mohammad Afzal reiterates claim
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... Afzal, a brother of one of the men in the video, reiterated that the women had been killed.
Speaking to media representatives outside the Supreme Court, Afzal again said that the women had been killed and their throats had been slit.
He said the women were killed on May 30 on the orders of a holy man who led a 40 to 50-member tribal jirga.
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[Al Ahram] The Islamist 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... has grabbed credit for the killing of a former Nigerian deputy police chief in the northern city of Kano and vowed more of such attacks.
"Yesterday God gave us victory and we succeeded in killing a former DIG (deputy inspector general)... in Kano city," the sect said in an email statement to news hounds late Wednesday.
The group also vowed to carry out more of such killings of senior government officials.
"By God's grace very soon top government officials will have no peace as we will intensify attacks on them wherever they are," it said.
Two gunnies on a cycle of violencerubbed out Abubakar Saleh Ningi, his driver and a bodyguard in Kano on Tuesday, where Boko Haram has carried out a wave of attacks.
Ningi and other top coppers were relieved of duty in January following coordinated bomb and gun attacks in Kano, northern Nigeria's largest city and commercial centre, that killed at least 185 people.
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[Al Ahram] UN monitors trying to get to the scene of a new massacre in Syria were shot at, UN leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said Thursday, calling the latest atrocity "shocking and sickening."
Ban told of the attack on the UN monitors in a speech to the UN General Assembly when he said that Syria's Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... had "lost all legitimacy."
Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashir al-Assad "massacred" about 100 people including women and kiddies, the Syrian opposition said on Thursday, as the US demanded a full transfer of power in the country.
If reports of the killings in the central province of Hama prove accurate they will rank among the worst atrocities in Syria's 15-month uprising against Assad's embattled regime.
We have 100 deaths in the village of Al-Kubeir, among them 20 women and 20 children," Mohammed Sermini, front man for the exiled opposition Syrian National Council, told AFP.
The Syrian government denied responsibility, saying in a televised statement: "What a few media have reported on what happened in Al-Kubeir, in the Hama region, is completely false."
"A terrorist group committed a heinous crime in the Hama region which claimed nine victims. The reports by the media are contributing to spilling the blood of Syrians," the statement said.
Analysts said Syria risks descending into a long and bloody civil war with the Annan plan at a stalemate, the opposition badly fragmented and fierce resistance to any real changes by the Assad regime.
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For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of 14 unidentified individuals were found dead in an abandoned vehicle in Ciudad Mante municipality in southern Tamaulipas state, according to Mexican news reports.
An article posted Thursday evening on the Milenio news daily website said that the victims had been butchered and stacked inside a vehicle. The find was made due to an anonymous citizen's complaint.
The total dead included 11 men and three women. A narcomanta or painted message was left as the scene, but its contents were not disclosed. Twitter accounts say the find was made on Calle Hidalgo, near the Ciudad Mante's mayor's office.
Tamaulipas state is in the grip of a macabre competition between Los Zetas, who maintain a river crossing into the US at Nuevo Laredo, and their rivals in the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels. The competition includes kidnapping individuals, butchering them and leaving the bodies for authorities to find along with a warning to rival groups.
The campaign has been ongoing and nearly a constant in Tamaulipas since last March with many of the victims having little if any connection with organized crime.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
President B.O.'s ambassadorial nominee to Iraq appears to have conducted a lascivious extramarital affair with a Wall Street Journal news hound while the duo were stationed in Iraq, according to a collection of often-explicit emails posted on the website Cryptome earlier this week.
Reporter canoodled with the source, eh?
The emails raise questions about the administration official's fitness for the ambassadorship and whether he may have traded access to sensitive information for sexual favors.
The 2008 emails between Wall Street Journal news hound Gina Chon and former National Security Council member Brett McGurk, Obama's nominee to be the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq, expose a torrid love affair that unfolded over a period of several months.
Chon did not respond to request for comment. The State Department had no comment.
One source on Capitol Hill with knowledge of the nomination confirmed that the State Department had acknowledged the emails came from their system. The explicit details contained in the missives indicate that McGurk, who was married at the time, dangled unprecedented access and information before Chon in return for a series of increasingly intimate sexual encounters. McGurk is now married to Chon.
That doesn't fix the problem. Who's he sleeping with now, and with what favors in return?
McGurk was nominated by Obama in March to be the next U.S. envoy to Iraq. He served as an adviser to the last three U.S. ambassadors to Iraq, and later played the role of chief negotiator in the 2008 agreement that permitted U.S. troops to remain in that country.
In 2011, he led failed talks aimed at prolonging the U.S. troop presence.
A ringing endorsement!
The recently unearthed emails reveal that McGurk's extramarital relationship with Chon began during the arduous 2008 negotiations over the U.S.-Iraq security agreement--the sensitive details of which McGurk often hinted at over his unclassified exchanges with Chon.
Perhaps if he had put more effort into his work...
McGurk expressed pride in the clandestine relationship more than four months after the fact, when he resends to Chon the series of sexually charged emails and brags about his prowess.
"Cleaning out my emails and this is my all time favorite--from my first message to you through our Chinese dinner to the blue ball banter and then my coming over to hook up with you for the first time on June 23, [2008]--a night the world should celebrate!" McGurk wrote to Chon on December 13, 2008. "I am so fucking smooth!"
The news hound-source relationship began in earnest on June 20, 2008, after the pair met at a dinner party and traded a set of flirty emails.
"Thanks again for the dinner conversation," McGurk wrote to Chon. "I'll tell you what I know, if you can teach me something about cars."
Chon responded in kind, attempting to lure McGurk away from his State Department handlers for a one-on-one schmooze session.
"It would be good to get together on a more casual basis without public affairs people, if you know what I mean," wrote Chon.
From that point, Chon and McGurk engaged in an increasingly erotic back-and-forth in which Chon attempts to extract insider information and McGurk pontificates about his "blue balls," a term that refers to sexual frustration.
McGurk--who is rumored to be the senior U.S. official caught on video receiving fellatio on the rooftop of Saddam Hussein's presidential palace--offers to throw his weight around in order to get Chon into a high level powwow with U.S. and Iraqi political bigwigs.
"Turns out I totally have rank to get you in here, but it would not be fair for a master negotiating tactician like me--to intimidate and inexperience and innocent negotiator like you," McGurk writes. "My strategy is to break you down (day by day) until Friday when I will have achieved maximum leverage. Plan on dinner tomorrow around 8."
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#1
Reporter canoodled with the source, eh?
Nothing new there. CNN was blowing Saadam pretty much forever.
#2
Images of the actual e-mail messages available at http://cryptome.org/2012/06/mcgurk-chon/mcgurk-chon.htm
I have no real problem with a horndog Alpha male being posted to a shithole like Iraq - maybe a jerk is exactly what you need in dealing with an entire nation of jerks.
The questions are:
1. Can he recover his gravitas after his awkward missives have been publicized?
2. Dose he have the emotional maturity to subordinate his own demon urges to the needs of his diplomatic mission?
3. Did he display an outright pattern of dishonesty in his prior official roles?
This guy was appointed to the National Security Council by George W. - so he appears to be a professional bureaucrat, not a completely political hack.
#7
The explicit details contained in the missives indicate that McGurk, who was married at the time, dangled unprecedented access and information before Chon in return for a series of increasingly intimate sexual encounters.
And that's the real issue here, IMO. Anyone willing to do such a thing needs to be kept far away from sensitive information and from access to other sources.
[An Nahar] State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Thursday members of the Syrian army for killing al-Jadeed TV cameraman Ali Shaaban in the northern area of Wadi Khaled two months ago.
Saqr also charged the unknown soldiers with the attempted murder of Shaaban's colleagues, news hound Hussein Khreiss and cameraman Abed Khayyat, after opening fire on them from the Syrian side of the border near Wadi Khaled on April 9.
The three men were hit with a volley of machine gunfire that al-Jadeed said was intentional.
But Syria blamed a clash between Syrian border guards and "armed terrorist groups" for Shaaban's killing, saying the crew happened to be in the area where the fighting took place.
Shaaban's killing sparked widespread condemnation across Leb with the March 14 forces calling for the summoning of Syrian Ambassador to Leb Ali Abdul Karim Ali.
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#1
Also from STRATEGYPAGE > KOREA: THE GREAT HUNGER 2.
Methinks China recognizes the dangerous geopol fallout in NE Asia which could stem from a de facto DPRK state collapse - add to its continuing failure to procure PLA Milbases throughout the "First island Chain" + Taiwan stall + SCS disputes, thus ...
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINESE COAST GUARD TAKES CONTROL OF DAOYUS ISLANDS FROM JAPAN.
Another CCG maritme foray into the sovereign waters of Japan around the Daoyus Islands [Japan = Senkakus].
* FYI DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > US REOPENING WWII BASES IN PACIFIC [Tinian = CNMI] | [DefenseTech] "AIR-SEA BATTLE" + OUR BUILDUP IN THE PACIFIC.
[Guardian UK] The US defence secretary has raised the pressure on Pakistain over turban bases along its border with Afghanistan, saying Washington is running out of patience.
"It is difficult to achieve peace in Afghanistan as long as there is safe haven for Orcs and similar vermin in Pakistain," Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... said on a visit to the Afghan capital, Kabul.
"It is very important for Pakistain to take steps. It is an increasing concern, the issue of safe haven, and we are reaching the limits of our patience," Rooters quoted him as saying.
Panetta is on his fourth trip to Afghanistan since taking up his current role, to get an assessment of progress in the war from the top US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... commander, General John Allen, and to discuss plans for the withdrawal of US troops.
About 23,000 American soldiers are due home by the end of September, leaving 68,000 still in the country. NATO combat troops are due home by the end of 2014, but the pace of the next phase of the withdrawal has not yet been decided.
It depends in part on progress in training Afghan troops and holding off the turbans. The Afghan defence minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, said Pakistain would play a key role in that, and he appealed for more help from his neighbour.
"If that co-operation starts, we will be able to disrupt their command and control, disrupt their training, disrupt their weapon recruitment and also will be able to eliminate or capture their leadership," he said at a joint news conference with Panetta.
"Without doing that, I think our endeavor to achieve victory will become much more difficult," the News Agency that Dare Not be Named quoted him saying.
Insurgent groups fall back across the border to escape bitter weather or heavy offensives, to rest and pick up extra supplies of weapons, food or cash. They have strong bases despite regular forays by US drones into Pak airspace.
The explicit and repeated criticism of Pakistain, after similar complaints during a visit to India, could signal US willingness to up the tempo of the drone strikes. A recent increase in strikes on cut-throats in Pakistain was due in part to frustration with Islamabad, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named said, citing an unnamed senior US official.
Panetta arrived after a day of violence that emphasised the vulnerability of Afghan civilians in the decade-long war. At least 21 people were killed by Taliban suicide kabooms on a bazaar in southern Kandahar city, and another 18 by a pre-dawn NATO air strike on a house where members of a wedding party were staying in the east, Afghan officials said.
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... , the Afghan president, cut short a trip to China to deal with the aftermath of the attacks, and issued a strong condemnation of the bombardment, which he said claimed 18 innocent lives.
"NATO operations that inflict human and material losses to civilians can in no way be justifiable, acceptable and tolerable," Karzai said in a statement. NATO has said only that it is looking into reports of civilian deaths.
The president has long criticised NATO for not doing enough to prevent the killings of civilians. His critics in turn say he should be stronger in his condemnation of the Taliban's role in pushing up the country's civilian casualty toll. Insurgents are now responsible for more than three-quarters of these deaths, according to UN figures.
Karzai said he was "deeply grieved" by the deaths caused by the Taliban bombing in southern Kandahar city, but he did not condemn the cut-throats or the attack.
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#1
"And we really mean it this time.... why are you laughing?"
#2
See also RELATED TELEGRAPH.UK > LEON PANETTA SAYS US"REACHING THE LIMITS OF OUR PATIENCE" WID PAKISTAN, for Pakistan's failure to repeatedly take serious action agz Taliban "safe havens", e.g. the Haqqani Network.
* SAME > US DEFENSE CHIEF SHRUGS OFF ALL OBJECTIONS TO DRONES [US Drone strikes protect both the US + Pakistan].
* SAME > US SENATE LINKS CSF DUES WORTH US$1.75BILYUHN TO NATO SUPPLY ROUTES, SHAKRIL AFRIDI RELEASE.
* SAME > DEMPSEY VOICES US FRUSTRATIONS WID PAKISTAN OER HAQQANI NETWORK INACTION.
* SAME > PANETTA STATEMENTS REDUCE SPACE FOR NARROWING OF BILATERAL DIFFERENCES [bwtn US + Pakistan]:SHERRY REHMAN. Pak Amb to the US.
* SAME > MILYUHNS [+ Dilyuhns + ...] OF DOLLARS OF US GEAR TO COMBAT IEDS WASTED [unused] IN PAKISTAN. Warehouse-Depot fodder, whose expensive storage fees the US must also pay for to make sure its equipment lies unused.
#6
"Sorry about that, guys, but some of those crazy Tea Partiers got ahold of a couple of fully-loaded B52s somehow, and it being a week-end we didn't notice right away..."
(Sh.M.Network)-The International Police (Interpol) has joined the hunt for terror suspects suspected to be in Uganda.
At least four suspected snuffies are believed to have sneaked into Uganda recently, prompting the security agencies to issue security alert.
The Police have circulated photographs of the suspected snuffies and heightened security in the Capital Cityas well as other urban areas including Mbarara where the national Heroes' Day celebrations will be held this weekend.
The measures include manning security at some of the shopping centres and high-rise buildings.
The terror suspects, some wanted inKenya, include Martin Muller alias Ahmed Khaled Andreas; Emrah Erdogan Alias Imraan AL-Kurdy Alias Salahaddin AL-Kurdy and another who is believed to have sneaked into the country on board a Kalita bus fromKenya.
Whereas Muller is German, Erdogan is German of Turkish origin.
Last weekend, the security agencies cooled for a few years Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! another terror suspect only identified as Hussein, who was described as a high value target.
The director Interpol and International relations, Asan Kasingye said Interpol has sought for vital information including the finger prints of top 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... terror suspects, wanted byUganda.
A formal request by theLyonbased body was made on Wednesday to the Uganda National Central bureau, recently turned into a directorate.
"Internationally they are wanted andLyon(Interpol headquarters) has made a formal request for their finger prints," the director Interpol and International relations Asan Kasingye said.
Kasingye said they were working with other the security agencies in the region to gather the necessary data on the wanted terrorists.
Another suspected snuffies security agencies are seeking for is Abubarker Nur Hussein, a top commander of the Somalia based gun-hung tough guys who travelled through Entebbe International Airport undetected by airport security.
Kasingye said even though Abubarker Nur Hussein's passport was seized by AMISOM forces inSomalia, getting his finger prints has proven an odious task.
The passport was recovered early this year from Al-Shabaab hideouts in Al fitri, 12kms, north of Mogadishu by the UPDF and indicates that Abubarker Nur Hussein, a Somali national, aged 61 entered Uganda in July last year.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... there is no evidence in the form of aUgandavisa to show that he exited the country.
Kasingye said that although Nur Hussein claims to have been born in 1951 he looks younger than 61 on his passport picture.
Uganda, Kasingye said, has not requested Interpol to issue red notices for the terror suspects, because they are not Ugandan nationals.
"If the suspect is not a Ugandan but has been committing cross border crimes, it is the country from which the suspect hails to write to Interpol requesting for the notice to be issued," he said.
A red notice is issued for arrest or provisional arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition.
Kasingye said they have also acquired more equipment to reinforced their unit to send out pictures of the suspects to all 12 members states in theEastern Africa arrangement so as to shrink the space for the suspects, with the view of having them cooled for a few years Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, the SWAT team had finally arrived... Police have taken over the security of high rise buildings in the city in the wake of renewed threats from the Somali outfit-the Al-Shabaab. Police took over the security of many of the buildings in the city centre on Monday.
"We have reinforced security on high rise buildings and vital installations in the city," Deputy Kampala police spokesperson Ibin Ssenkumbi said yesterday. "Where security was not reliable we reinforced and where it was no there at all we took over," he added.
The deployments, he said, will remain in place until such time when the management of the buildings improves the security of the structures.
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[Dawn] Escorted by the security forces and officials of political administration, health teams administered anti-polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... drops to children in Sipah area of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency.
That's one way to demonstrate these are legitimate medical missions, rather than traitors seeking to reveal internationally wanted terror masterminds to their hunters...
Local sources said that a Bara-based cut-thoat organization had warned the residents of the area against vaccinating their children.
The political administration also deployed its officials on Tuesday and Wednesday to help the polio teams to reach those areas, which were inaccessible for them during the previous vaccination campaigns.
Agency Surgeon Dr Azam Wazir said that they were still faced with some resistance in few localities of Akkakhel like Fort Salop and Zaodin.
He said that local administration was making every effort to access maximum number of children in Bara under the age of five years.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... some officials feared that despite all those efforts, about 30,000 children could not be vaccinated and they would be at risk of contracting polio virus.
They said that Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency was the only place in the entire country where they had found both Type-3 and Type-1 polio virus that had so far infected six children since start of the year 2012.
Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!... the Walikhel rustics of Landi Kotal on Wednesday refused briefly to vaccinate their children as a protest against power outages in their area.
Officials said that a handful of residents of Qayum Kallay stopped health workers from carrying out door-to-door vaccination drive to register their protest against power suspension.
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(Sh. M. Network)- Tense of fighting and military exercise reportedly rose high in several villages near Afmadow town, southSomaliaas TFG forces along with Kenyan army advance on Al shabab controlled areas in lower Jubba region.
Mohammed Omar Gedi, a Somali MP told Shabelle Media that Al shabab fighters are regrouping in the vicinity of Afmadow town, 620 kilometers south of Mogadishu, to attack the town which is now under Somali and Kenyan forces.
"They [Al shabab] are arming local residents; especially young ones to take part the fighting against TFG and Kenyan forces in Afmadow town. I urge people in that area not to except such mistaken actions and send their youth with Al shabab fighters," said Gedi.
TFG officials have previously promised to recapture the port town of Kisamyo, 500 kilometers south of Mogadishu from Al shabab jihad boys.
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(Reuters) - Russia would accept a Yemen-style power transition in Syria if it were decided by the people, Russia's deputy foreign minister said on Thursday, the latest statement seemingly aimed at distancing the Kremlin from Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... The United States is seeking Russia's support in getting Assad to step aside but Mikhail Bogdanov said the president's fate was "not a question for us" but for the Syrian people.
"Application of the so-called Yemen scenario to resolve the conflict in Syria is possible only if the Syrians themselves agree to it," Bogdanov said, according to the Interfax news agency.
"The Yemen scenario was discussed by the Yemenis themselves. If this scenario is discussed by Syrians themselves and is adopted by them, we are not against it."
Street protests against Assad that began 15 months ago have evolved largely into armed insurgency as he stepped up efforts to crush dissent. Two reported massacres of civilians by pro-Assad forces since May 25 have heightened Western calls for Assad to make way for a democratic transition.
Russian Foreign Ministry front man Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday that Russia "most decisively condemns the barbarous acts of violence", referring to a reported massacre in Mazraat al-Qubeir that killed 40 women and kiddies.
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[Dawn] At least 14 people were killed and more than 40 maimed in a powerful IED kaboom outside a seminary in Satellite Town area on Sariab Link road of the metropolis here on Thursday, DawnNews reported.
The bomb exploded outside the gates of the seminary as a degree ceremony for students was being held inside, police told news hounds.
Around five to six kilogrammes of kaboom was used in the bomb, police sources said.
The maimed were taken to Quetta's Civil Hospital, while 13 people who had serious injuries were shifted to Combined Mlitary Hospital (CMH) hospital.
Emergency was imposed in all the hospitals of the city.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Qazi Abdul Wahid said, unknown men planted kaboom in a bicycle and parked it outside the gate of a religious seminary Jamia Islamia Miftahul Uloom, Satellite Town, Sariab.
The DIG operations said that the bicycle was loaded with flower garlands and the police personnel deployed for security outside the seminary and other people took it as they were brought for the students who would get certificates in the ceremony inside the seminary.
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
how's that Pak Sovereignty taste now?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/08/2012 8:15
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[An Nahar] Expressing horror at the latest massacre in Syria, U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... told the major powers on Thursday that it was time to threaten "consequences" if Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... does not halt the strife.
Annan and U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... condemned the reported slaughter of dozens of people in the village of al-Qubeir on Wednesday, telling the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly it was time to increase pressure.
Annan expressed "horror and condemnation" at the al-Qubeir killings, which Ban called "shocking and sickening."
"For many months, it has been evident that President Assad and his government have lost all legitimacy," said Ban.
"The trail of blood leads back to those responsible."
Annan, who secured Assad's agreement to a six-point peace plan, grimly told the assembly: "I must be frank and confirm that the plan is not being implemented."
He called for stronger international action to back his peace plan, which includes demands for Assad to pull troops and guns out of cities and halt violence so that political talks can start. But a cessation of hostilities that officially started on April 12 has now all but collapsed.
Annan said the international community had united behind the peace plan "but it now must take that unity to a new level."
"Individual actions or interventions will not resolve the crisis. As we demand compliance with international law and the six-point plan, it must be made clear that there will be consequences if compliance is not forthcoming."
The U.N. envoys for Germany and Britannia and Arab League secretary Nabil al-Arabi said that the "consequences" must be sanctions. The United States has called several times for strong sanctions against Assad.
Annan warned that without change in Syria, "the future is likely to be one of brutal repression, massacres, sectarian violence and even all-out civil war."
U.N. leader Ban also called for more determined international action to halt the crisis which Syrian activists say has now left more than 13,000 dead in 15 months of conflict.
"In view of the deteriorating situation, I would welcome further international discussion on how we can act more effectively," he said.
"No one can predict how the situation in Syria will evolve. We must be prepared for any eventuality. We must be ready to respond to many possible scenarios."
Annan was expected to call on the U.N. Security Council later Thursday to set up a contact group bringing together the Western powers and Russia and China in a bid to force Assad into talks.
The envoy could even call for Iran and other key Middle East nations to be let into the group, diplomats said.
With the peace plan floundering, Annan wants the west, Russia and China to join together to increase pressure on Assad to start talks on a process that would eventually force him out of power, according to diplomats.
Annan is considering proposing that Iran, Turkey and 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... join the permanent members of the Security Council -- Britannia, China, La Belle France, Russia and the United States -- in the group, The Washington Post and Le Monde reported.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for a meeting on similar lines.
Russia, Syria's major international ally, has protected Assad from action at the U.N. Security Council and most western nations see President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... as the key to applying any effective pressure.
Russia and China have vetoed two council resolutions that merely hinted at sanctions.
"We need to bind Russia into some sort of transition strategy on Syria," said one U.N. diplomat, who highlighted the growing contacts with Russia.
Putin has been in Gay Paree, Berlin and Beijing in the past week. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Abel P. Upshur ... has had talks with Lavrov, and Britannia's Foreign Secretary William Hague has also been to Moscow.
Key leaders are expected to hold a meeting on Syria on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico on June 18-19.
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[Tolo News] Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq has accused government men of being involved in an liquidation attempt on his life on Wednesday night while he was at his office.
Mohaqiq, a member of the opposition group National Front and the head of the National Unity Party, said that a group of gunnies attacked the National Unity office in Bamyan province while he was talking to news hounds.
Mohaqiq accused the government for planning the attack on his life, saying it feared the plans of the National Front.
"The government fears the National Front's plans so it wants to launch a mental war against adherents of to the National Front," he said.
He said there was a clash between his security guards and the attackers for some thirty minutes, but he did not mention any casualties.
"We have right to speak on the shortcomings and defects of the government," Mohaqiq said. "We have our own programme but we should not be answered with accusations and armed attacks."
National Front front man Faizullah Zaki said: "[Former parliamentary member] Najibullah Kabuli himself has said that the National Front must be set on fire, the National Front must be killed, attack the homes of National Front members. Kabuli himself has used such words, so Kabuli is a device of the bully boy circles and these circles were involved in the Bamyan attack."
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[Guardian UK] Greek talk shows are by nature combustible affairs. But rarely have they witnessed anything quite as shocking as the moment when a leading member of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party launched a physical assault on two female politicians.
Ten days before the debt-stricken nation goes to the polls in an election that will not only decide Greece's fate but quite possibly the course of Europe too, the attack, captured on live TV, involved Ilias Kasidiaris, a high profile member of Golden Dawn, lashing out at two prominent leftwing MPs -- all part of a seven-strong panel attending the popular Good Morning Greece TV show.
The nation that triggered Europe's debt drama is now a boiling cauldron. In the third year of its worst crisis since the second world war, it has reached the point where fury becomes violence.
Within hours of a state prosecutor issuing an arrest warrant for Kasidiaris, word of the unprecedented punch-up had travelled across the country. And in the tavernas and cafeneia of villages and towns, on radio and TV channels, the overarching question was: is this the beginning of something worse to come?
In an atmosphere bristling with the discordant feelings of anger and fear, the assault on Rena Dourou and Liana Kanelli, deputies with the radical Syriza and KKE communist parties, has added an explosive element to an election campaign that is already electric and has also illuminated the dark role of Golden Dawn.
Kasidiaris, the party's 31-year-old front man, first turned on Dourou, hurling a glass of water into her face, for daring to suggest that Golden Dawn "would take the country back 500 years" if they were elected.
He then turned his fists on Kanelli when the communist MP stood up in protest. Within minutes of the talk show's presenter, Giorgos Papadakis, intervening to break up the brawl, the MP had fled.
Across Greece's deeply divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... political landscape there was agreement that the extraordinary incident, replayed on TV channels throughout the day, had unmasked Golden Dawn for what it really is: a group of intolerant faceless myrmidons who resort to violence to make their point.
Across the political spectrum, politicians said that the party, voted into parliament in last month's inconclusive poll for the first time since the collapse of military rule, had revealed its true colours. From garnering a mere 0.46% three years ago, the extreme rightwing party captured 7% of the vote in what was widely interpreted as a protest against mainstream parties enforcing unpopular austerity measures in return for EU-IMF funds keeping the moribund Greek economy afloat.
"Now that they have seen what this party is really about, Greeks will have no alibi to vote for them again," said Prokopis Pavlopoulos, a former conservative New Democracy minister who also participated in the talk show. "I, personally, will never take part in a debate with a member of Golden Dawn again."
Several hours after the incident, with the group still resolutely refusing to apologise, two MPs with the socialist Pasok party were attacked by Golden Dawn supporters as they campaigned in northern Greece.
In a statement KKE, the communist party of Greece, appealed to "workers, young people and pensioners" who voted for Golden Dawn to abandon the krazed killers. A front man said the stridently xenophobic group had used its anti-immigrant, anti-bailout platform to hoodwink Greeks into voting for it.
Led by Nikos Michaloliakos, and attracting an eclectic mix of soldiers, shepherds, workers and low-income professionals, Golden Dawn has fiercely denied No, no! Certainly not! any association with neo-Nazism -- despite its embrace of Third Reich paraphernalia and its symbol bearing an uncanny resemblance to the swastika.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The comment about divisiveness vs principled reminds me of the "conjugation of irregular verbs" that was popular a few aeons ago, e.g.:
"I am firm"
"You are obstinate"
"He is a pig-headed fool"
Does seem to fit the political discourse these days....
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Its Friday! I think us Rantburg natives should all go down to the saloon and celebrate our Wisconson political win. :-)
Posted by: Caesar Shains9023 ||
06/08/2012 0:07
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#2
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Julianna Margulies aka Alicia Florrick in "The Good Wife (TV 2009-2012)" aka Nurse Carol Hathaway in "ER (TV 19942009)" aka Claire Miller in "Snakes on a Plane (2006)" aka Epps in "Ghost Ship (2002) " aka Joyce Rizzo in "City Island (2009)" aka Topsy Merritt in "Paradise Road (1997)" (age 46)
[Dawn] The UN human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... chief on Thursday called for a UN investigation into US drone strikes in Pakistain, questioning their legality and saying they kill innocent civilians.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay made the remarks at the end of a four-day visit to the country, where US drone strikes have on average targeted snuffies once every four days under US President Barack Obama. The Cambridge police acted stupidly... Islamabad is understood to have approved the strikes on Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in the past. But the government has become increasingly energetic in its public opposition as relations with Washington have nosedived.
"Drone attacks do raise serious questions about compliance with international law," Pillay told a news conference in Islamabad.
"The principle of distinction and proportionality and ensuring accountability for any failure to comply with international law is also difficult when drone attacks are conducted outside the military chain of command and beyond effective and transparent mechanisms of civilian or military control," she said.
She said the attacks violate human rights.
"I see the indiscriminate killings and injuries of civilians in any circumstances as human rights violations."
The UN human rights chief provided no statistics but called for an investigation into civilian casualties, which she said were difficult to track.
"Because these attacks are indiscriminate it is very, very difficult to track the numbers of people who have been killed," she said.
"I suggested to the government that they invite the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Special Rapporteur on Summary or Arbitrary Executions and he will be able to investigate some of the incidents."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2012
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#1
"Because these attacks are indiscriminate "
No, these attacks are VERY discriminating.
However it probably is difficult to tell casualties from 'work accidents' from those who were drone-zapped.
[Dawn] A regional group led by Russia and China said Thursday it opposed military intervention in the Middle East, a day after the Syrian opposition accused forces loyal to the regime of massacring 100 people.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) statement called for a "peaceful resolution of the Syrian problem through political dialogue", adding the use of force against Iran -- an ally of both Beijing and Moscow -- was "unacceptable".
"Member states are against military intervention into this region's affairs, forcing a 'handover of power' or using unilateral sanctions," said the declaration, issued at the end of a summit in Beijing attended by the leaders of Russia, China and Iran, among others.
Moscow and Beijing have consistently opposed international intervention in Syria, but they face growing pressure to change their stance after 15 months of conflict in which more than 13,500 people are said to have died.
On Wednesday, an exiled opposition group said forces loyal to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... had "massacred" about 100 people including women and kiddies -- a claim the regime denied -- as the US demanded a full transfer of power.
The call by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry Kissinger ... set the stage for a renewed diplomatic stalemate.
Russia and China have vetoed two Security Council resolutions against Assad's regime, but backed UN-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... 's blueprint to end the conflict.
The Annan plan was supposed to begin with a ceasefire from April 12, but doubts have emerged about its effectiveness as violence has raged on despite the deployment of nearly 300 UN observers.
The SCO statement also expressed "serious concern about the situation around Iran", which is an observer nation to the organization that groups together China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
"Any attempts to solve the Iranian problem with force are unacceptable and could lead to unpredictable circumstances that threaten stability and security in the region and the entire world," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2012
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#1
Ditto the SCO as per interventionism agz IRAN.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PUTIN TO AHMADINEJAD: RUSSIA HAS ALWAYS SUPPORTED IRAN'S RIGHT TO CIVIL NUCLEAR ENERGY.
IMO Artic read, as per Iran's desired "Japan/Egypt Model", PUTIN SUPPORTS IRAN = JAPAN = HAVING ENOUGH PLUTONIUM NUCMATS IN RESERVE TO QUICKLY PRODUCE 5000 NUKE BOMBS/WARHEADS IN TIME OF CRISIS???
#2
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > DAWNING OF NEW AGE SEES RUSSIA + CHINA SET REALPOLITIK [not idealist] AGENDA.
Stability of sovereign Govts-Societies has priority over Human Rights + Democracy.
and
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > WEST FEARS "ISLAMIC" IRAN. NOR A "NUCLEAR" ONE: LEADER. Ayatollah Khamenei.
* PRESS TV - IRAN TODAY IS MORE POWERFUL THAN EVER: LEADER. Again the Ayatollah Khamenei.
versus
* DEFENCEPK/FORUMS > ROGOZIN: POST-2015 [2015-2018] US HYPERSONIC WEAPONS A THREAT TO RUSSIA.
* TOPIX > "NIXON OPTION" FOR IRAN COULD BREAK STALEMATE, ALLOW US TO STRENGTHEN SECURITY WIDOUT WAR.
POTUS Bammer + Michelle? should visit Iran for "one-on-one" wid Ahmadinejad andor Khamenei???
[FORREST GUMP PLAYING "PING-PONG" SCENES here].
STAR TREKS'S MR. SPOCK > OLD VULCAN SAYING = "ONLY NIXON COULD GO TO CHINA"!
The Bammer just has to make the USDOD has one or more Drones or SATS assigned to Gump so that ole' Forrest doesn't skedaddle away back home wid the Paddle = aka US Govt. Property.
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.
With the help of a mole, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has turned the tables on Attorney General Eric Holder. 
[Yemen Post] The Yemeni authorities have refused the visit of two 
International Criminal Court',"
[Dawn] PAKISTAN'S top rights activist Asma Jahangir has added to the feeling of fear in the country by speaking out about a plot to murder her. She says she has reason to believe the scheme is not an invention of an individual mind but a conspiracy whose origins can be traced to security operators of the state. Ms Jahangir is respected the world over for taking tough positions in the most trying conditions and reporting on difficult situations at considerable personal risk. As a lawyer she has stood by the principle that every accused has the right to defence in court. Hers has been a journey replete with many dangers, but she is not known for raising too many alarms about her personal safety. That she has done so now is significant and cannot be ignored or speculated upon. This is a serious enough charge for the authorities to undertake an investigation, and an urgent one.
[Yemen Post] Thousands of people on Wednesday 
(Sh. M. Network)-Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, The president ofSomalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), has on Thursday held a meeting with the Traditional Elders of Somalia in Mogadishu.
[Bloomberg] Russia, China and other countries received a request from the Syrian government to investigate last month's massacre in Houla, according to a senior 
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
An air raid struck the eastern outskirts of the Yemeni town Jaar in the 
[An Nahar] From testicle-biting police dogs to sonic cannons capable of inducing involuntary urination, Polish anti-hooligan squads have an array of weapons ready for potential trouble-makers at Euro 2012.
[Al Ahram] The Islamist group 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Guardian UK] The US defence secretary has raised the pressure on Pakistain over
(Sh.M.Network)-The International Police (Interpol) has joined the hunt for terror suspects suspected to be in Uganda.
[Dawn] Escorted by the security forces and officials of political administration, health teams administered anti-
(Sh. M. Network)- Tense of fighting and military exercise reportedly rose high in several villages near Afmadow town, southSomaliaas TFG forces along with Kenyan army advance on Al shabab controlled areas in lower Jubba region.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
At least 14 people were killed and more than 40 
[Tolo News] Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq has accused government men of being involved in an 
Greek talk shows are by nature combustible affairs. But rarely have they witnessed anything quite as shocking as the moment when a leading member of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party launched a physical assault on two female politicians.
[Dawn] A regional group led by Russia and China said Thursday it opposed military intervention in the Middle East, a day after the Syrian opposition accused forces loyal to the regime of massacring 100 people.
