Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans flooded downtown Caracas on Sunday to support opposition candidate Henrique Capriles in the biggest rally to date of his campaign to unseat cancer-stricken socialist President Hugo Chavez. Now that's not very nice to pick on Hugo, who's dying of cancer. I approve!
The athletic 39-year-old walked and jogged 10 km (6.2 miles) in the company of supporters to register his candidacy with electoral authorities, burnishing his image of physical fitness in contrast to the convalescing Chavez. Who tends to waddle and roll wherever he needs to go.
Capriles hopes to replace Chavez's state-driven socialism with a Brazil-style balance between free enterprise and social programs, and promises an end to the sectarian polarization of Chavez's 13-year rule. It's an improvement.
"On October 7th we will decide not between two men but between two different ways of life," Capriles intoned from a stage set up before a plaza jam-packed with sympathizers before entering the election's council.
"Today I'm the candidate because the people have decided, but on October 7th I'll be the next president of all Venezuelans," said Capriles, saying one million people had turned out. Unless you have a car accident or legal troubles courtesy of Hugo, who has yet to fully realize that he's mortal.
During his speech he looked up to address a group of people in a nearby government office tower that has been used to house Venezuelans who lost homes in floods - a problem that plagued Chavez for months and spurred a major home-building campaign.
"You're going to get out of there and move into a home, God bless you and your family," he shouted. Hopefully put together more on a commercial basis than social, but this kind of worries me.
The event marked a shift toward high-profile rallies to galvanize supporters after a months-long house-to-house tour of the OPEC nation in which he sought to win over new sympathizers ahead of the October 7 vote.
Marchers on Sunday swarmed the main avenues of Caracas, waving the flag of the opposition coalition and chanting slogans alongside trucks blasting Capriles' campaign pop jingle. Uh oh, too many to shoot. Might be too obvious.
Some women sported T-shirts with the slogan "Future First Lady," a nod to the good looks of the bachelor candidate, who has received many online marriage proposals during his campaign.
"We are all proud of this candidate, he is a young man who has filled us with vitality and energy," said Maria Luisa Botero, 47, a secretary who marched while pushing her 87-year-old mother in a wheelchair. "Even my mom wanted to come out." Wanted to propose the old fashioned way, did she?
Should he win, Capriles would be Venezuela's youngest president.
The registration is largely a formality, since opposition sympathizers already chose Capriles as their candidate in opposition primaries in February.
CHAVEZ LOOMS LARGE Very large.
He faces a formidable electoral battle against Chavez, whose inimitable mix of folksy charisma and torrential public spending have maintained his popularity even though his cancer has lowered his profile. Widened it, rather.
The president and his allies have since last year been handing out apartments, pensions and stipends to poor mothers in a wave of election-driven state largesse. And there are a lot of folks stupid enough to buy it, of course.
Most polls show Capriles trailing Chavez by double digits, but Venezuelan public opinion is often volatile and many voters have yet to make up their minds. And to cancel this effect, there are a lot of voter that nobody but Chavez and crew know about, too.
Capriles' victory will rest on winning over wavering Chavez supporters who have grown tired of a murder rate that rivals some war zones, sputtering public services such as electricity and periodic shortages of staple goods.
Opposition leaders in recent years have gained ground in areas once solidly behind Chavez by promising to put competent administration ahead of ideological crusades like Chavez's vow to battle U.S. imperialism or global capitalism. What US imperialism?Besides, why would they be so insecure in the face of competition?
"It's time for a change and the only man who can give that to us is Henrique Capriles," said Jennifer Ramirez, 30, an administrative assistant marching with her baby in stroller decorated as the "Bus of Progress" - a Capriles campaign slogan.
Chavez will register his own candidacy in a highly promoted ceremony on Monday, which is shaping up to be his biggest rally since he was diagnosed with cancer in 2011.
The government has offered few details about his actual condition since his diagnosis, and a relapse this year after declaring himself "cancer free" spurred rumors that he may be confined to a wheel-chair or at death's door. That's what methamphetamine is for, though.
Chavez on Saturday said medical exams showed he was in good health. But Venezuelans believe a sudden turn for the worse in Chavez's health would upend both his campaign and the governance of a country so heavily dominated by his leadership.
The United States blocked Israel's participation in the Global Counterterrorism Forum's (GCTF) first meeting in Istanbul on Friday, despite Israel's having one of the most extensive counterterrorism experiences in the world.
Israel was excluded from the meeting due to fierce objections by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Washington-based source told Globes news.
According the State Departments website, the GCTF, which was established in September 2011, aims at strengthening the global counterterrorism (CT) architecture in a manner that complements and reinforces the CT work of existing multilateral bodies.
Twenty-nine countries are participating in the GCTF, ten of which are Arab and/or Muslim countries.
"The GCTF sought from the outset to bridge old and deep divides in the international community between Western donor nations and Muslim majority nations. And it has, I think, done that quite effectively," a top US official said at the press briefing prior to the opening session.
Republican politicians claim that since one third of the GCTF's members are Muslim countries, the Obama administration is trying to deepen ties with the Muslim world at Israel's expense, Globes noted.
#1
So let me get this straight; Obama's position is that the policy of the US should be to agree with Muslim prejudice and discriminate based on "race creed color or national origin" to keep an ally out of a conference?
You couldn't make this stuff up.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
06/10/2012 17:26
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Only on Bambi's team would you willingly hand over your playbook to the other side. But it dovetails nicely with the recent intelligence secrets given away by this POS.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > CHANGE IN JORDAN - IS ISRAEL PREPARED?
ARTIC = although the overwhelming number of mass protests in Jordan, includ those in suppor of anti-Monarchy andor "Arab/Muslim/Islamic Spring" local movements, have been relatively peaceful or benign, Activists are slowly but surely trying to raise the tempo + temperature.
ALTHOUGH THE EGYPTIAN-BASED MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD [MB] IS THE LARGEST SUCH ORG OPERAT IN JORDAN, THE PLO IS ALSO PRESENT + IS WELL-INTEGRATED INTO JORDAN SOCIETY, + IS ALSO BETTER SUPPORTED LOCALLY THAN THE MB.
Well, just as "Pesky Persians are Pesky", the "Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is Egyptian", not Paleo. The MB's place is hence back in Egypt proper, not in Paleo Palestine includ Jordan.
#1
Won't work. Those robots require electric power. Obama is doing whatever he can to cause the cost of power to skyrocket at the same time China is going on a power plant building binge. Obama currently has 20% of US generating capacity to be taken off line by Jan 1, 2015. There is no way we can compete with robotic plants here compared to robotic plants in China.
#3
If you want employment to continue it's even more important to drop the attachment to things in boxes AKA manufacturing, and to free the workers from damaging employment, spending and (most)saving/investment taxation, and tax rent seeking instead. This allows workers to exchange their time enhancing things produced mechanically, without the gooseberry state interrupting.
#4
So when is the Bammer or Romney going to come out in public support of a nation-wide, NASA-suppor "NATIONAL SPACE/STAR UNIVERSITY" AGENDA to begin the intensive orientation of the entire US School, University, + Industrial-Commercial Sectors towards Space Curricula + Skills Training???
By extens, CHEAP CONSUMER NUCLEAR ENERGY OR JOINT NUKE-GREEN TECHS ["Green-Nuke" = "Gruke"?].
The Bammer or Romney shouldn't even have to think about it.
D *** NG IT, HIDE THE CAR GAS + LAST NIGHT'S DEEp-FRY CHICKEN OIL, THE GRUKIES ARE COMING, THE GRUKIES ARE COMING!
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, believes that college has become, for many, merely a "status marker," signaling membership in the educated caste, and a place to meet spouses of similar status -- "associative mating." Since 1961, the time students spend reading, writing and otherwise studying has fallen from 24 hours a week to about 15 -- enough for a degree often desired only as an expensive signifier of rudimentary qualities (e.g., the ability to follow instructions). Employers value this signifier as an alternative to aptitude tests when evaluating potential employees because such tests can provoke lawsuits by having a "disparate impact" on this or that racial or ethnic group. Is that the Glenn Reynolds?
Yes. The Instapundit himself.
In his "The Higher Education Bubble," Reynolds writes that this bubble exists for the same reasons the housing bubble did. The government decided that too few people owned homes/went to college, so government money was poured into subsidized and sometimes subprime mortgages/student loans, with the predictable result that housing prices/college tuitions soared and many borrowers went bust. Tuitions and fees have risen more than 440 percent in 30 years as schools happily raised prices -- and lowered standards -- to siphon up federal money.
The Manhattan Institute's Heather Mac Donald notes that sinecures in academia's diversity industry are expanding as academic offerings contract. UC San Diego (UCSD), while eliminating master's programs in electrical and computer engineering and comparative literature, and eliminating courses in French, German, Spanish and English literature, added a diversity requirement for graduation to cultivate "a student's understanding of her or his identity." So, rather than study computer science and Cervantes, students can study their identities -- themselves. Says Mac Donald, " 'Diversity,' it turns out, is simply a code word for narcissism." Somehow fitting, that it's linked to the 2008 election.
She reports that UCSD lost three cancer researchers to Rice University, which offered them 40 percent pay increases. But UCSD found money to create a vice chancellorship for equity, diversity and inclusion. UC Davis has a Diversity Trainers Institute under an administrator of diversity education, who presumably coordinates with the Cross-Cultural Center. It also has: a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center; a Sexual Harassment Education Program; a diversity program coordinator; an early resolution discrimination coordinator; a Diversity Education Series that awards Understanding Diversity Certificates in "Unpacking Oppression"; and Cross-Cultural Competency Certificates in "Understanding Diversity and Social Justice." You just can't make this stuff up. Who would want to?
California's budget crisis has not prevented UC San Francisco from creating a new vice chancellor for diversity and outreach to supplement its Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity and Diversity, and the Diversity Learning Center (which teaches how to become "a Diversity Change Agent"), and the Center for LGBT Health and Equity, and the Office of Sexual Harassment Prevention & Resolution, and the Chancellor's Advisory Committees on Diversity, and on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, and on the Status of Women. All the graduates in those "disciplines" have to go somewhere!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/10/2012
14:43 ||
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#1
I wonder why Males are no longer spending their time there?
#2
the time students spend reading, writing and otherwise studying has fallen from 24 hours a week to about 15
Times have changed. I was in the CLASSROOM at least 15 hours per week, with at least that much non-classroom study time (double that for science & math, which was most of my course load.) Perhaps that has something to do with being in the evil one - er, 10 - percent.
#3
Employers value this signifier as an alternative to aptitude tests when evaluating potential employees because such tests can provoke lawsuits by having a "disparate impact" on this or that racial or ethnic group.
It's not just lawsuits. It's lazy Human Resources in businesses that simply rely upon a piece of paper to avoid actual qualification and placement work. Business have defaulted to that mode for way too long.
Wizard of Oz: Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma.
If there is yet to be another productivity revolution in American business, this issue is one waiting for exploitation.
#4
It's not just lawsuits. It's lazy Human Resources in businesses that simply rely upon a piece of paper to avoid actual qualification and placement work. Business have defaulted to that mode for way too long
How true. I have had many MBA's put on my team of analyst who are dummer than a door nail. May be able to debate humanities but business since there is none. Most could not even do a simple vlookup or If statement in excel.
Posted by: Dan ||
06/10/2012 22:24
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It's lazy Human Resources in businesses that simply rely upon a piece of paper to avoid actual qualification and placement work
Because "actual qualification and placement work" are themselves lawsuits-waiting-to-happen.
But as the recall campaign progressed, the Democrats stopped talking about bargaining rights. It was a losing issue. Walker was able to make the case that years of corrupt union-politician back-scratching had been bankrupting the state. And he had just enough time to demonstrate the beneficial effects of overturning that arrangement: a huge budget deficit closed without raising taxes, significant school-district savings from ending cozy insider health-insurance contracts, and a modest growth in jobs.
The real threat behind all this, however, was that the new law ended automatic government collection of union dues. That was the unexpressed and politically inexpressible issue. That was the reason the unions finally decided to gamble on a high-risk recall.
So they fought and they lost. Repeatedly. Tuesday was their third and last shot at reversing Walkers reforms. In April 2011, they ran a candidate for chief justice of the state Supreme Court who was widely expected to strike down the law. She lost.
In July and August 2011, they ran recall elections of state senators, needing three to reclaim Democratic i.e., union control. They failed. (The likely flipping of one Senate seat to the Democrats on June 5 is insignificant. The Senate is not in session and wont be until after yet another round of elections in November.)
And then, Tuesday, their Waterloo. Walker defeated their gubernatorial candidate by a wider margin than he had pre-reform two years ago.
These public-sector unions, acting, as FDR had feared, with an inherent conflict of interest regarding their own duties, were devouring the institution they were supposed to serve, rendering state government as economically unsustainable as the collapsing entitlement states of southern Europe. Maybe the juggernaut was stopped in time.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/10/2012
14:39 ||
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And t-h-e Michelle of Michelle's Boyz is once again in the aftermath.
"WE WERE [international] SOLDIERS ONCE", UNFORTUNATELY NOT STARRING MEL GIBSON, YOUNG + FULL OF WISCONSIN CHEESE + BEER [Midwest], so methinks we should actually be called
"MICHELLE'S BRIGADE"???
Judges must stop blocking the deportation of foreign criminals from Britain because the right to family life is "not absolute", Theresa May has said.
The Home Secretary will call a vote this week allowing MPs to decide how to "balance the interests" of prisoners' and the wider general public. She told the BBC that judges must "follow or take into account" the views of Parliament before coming to decisions on whether prisoners should be deported.
The right to a family life is enshrined in under European law. The rules allow hundreds of foreign criminals to delay or prevent deportation each year.
Why not just deport the entire family? They have then have their 'family life' in Pakistan. Or Mauritania...
The Home Secretary said the Government is prepared to bring in new laws if judges ignore the views of Parliament, setting her on a collision course with the judiciary.
It came as Mrs May unveiled plans to stop people bringing their husbands or wives to live in Britain unless they have at least £18,000 in savings. For every foreign child, they must have an additional £2,400 to stop families becoming dependent on benefits.
"It is important that we say you should be able to support yourselves and not be reliant on the state," she told the Andrew Marr Show.
The new rules are aimed at helping to reduce immigration from the hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands a year.
Some think that Ohio will decide the presidential election. Others are watching Florida or North Carolina or Wisconsin. But if you really want to know who will win the White House in November, you should ask the Europeans. They aren't eligible to vote, but they may well cast the deciding ballot -- and for President Obama, it's looking grim.
For all the chatter at home, the election won't be determined by fundraising, or Bain Capital, or Obamacare, or Mormonism, or birth certificates, or even crucial issues about taxes and spending. In the end, Obama will win if voters perceive the economy to be improving -- which it was until Europe's troubles stalled the recovery in recent months. Seems like kind of a narrow view, Dana. Are you seeking a scapegoat for November? Already? Yes indeed. It's all Spain's fault. Or Italy's. Or those shiftless Greeks. If it hadn't been for them we'd be creating those 500K jobs a month Joe Biden said we'd be creating. And if this excuse doesn't fly they'll come up with another one...
On this, Obama is helpless -- Perhaps the Post didn't mean that as they wrote it...
as evidenced by the White House statement Wednesday regarding his phone calls with European leaders. They "agreed on the importance of steps to strengthen the resilience of the euro zone and growth in Europe and globally, and agreed to remain in contact," the White House disclosed.
Europeans are in a stalemate -- paralyzed by disagreement and unable to act on the dire problems all around them. The denial is palpable here in Britain, where, in response to the crisis in the neighboring euro zone, manufacturing is plunging and growth has slowed almost to zero. Britons' disposable incomes are declining for the third straight year. A report this week found that British banks are sitting on $62 billion in undeclared losses. The same public discontent that has toppled governments on the continent has forced the conservative government here to reverse various austerity measures.
Obama has begun to blame weak employment reports in the United States on Bush the troubles in Europe, arguing that the growth will resume once there is a "sense of stability in the world economy." Unfortunately for Obama, there's no sign here that Europeans will come to grips with their problems before November.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/10/2012
13:59 ||
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Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/10/2012 14:27
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#2
building the blame game early on. It couldn't possibly be that voters reject his message and program
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2012 14:27
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#3
Our previous Narcissist Grodon Brown said "It started in America" in order to blame anyone but himself, It doesn't work. Give a (credible*) plan to fix it and show a bit of leadership and you might get more support than you think from your polling groups.
Apparently the post-modern Govt's love of perpetual or permanently upward-sloping straight lines in all things POLECON, aka "LALA-LAND" WHERE CHAOS + MISTAKES + PROBS, ETC. NEVER EXIST, OR AT LEAST ARE NEVER ADMITTED OR ACKNOWLEDGED, GOES ON.
It's vaguely amusing how the same Sunni Arabs who simultaneously (1) say that 9/11 was an inside job instigated and planned by Jews, none of whom were harmed during the attack, and (2) are proud that Arabs were able to carry the attack successfully, are now to be taken at their word when they allege any given atrocity by the Alawite regime. We've let our journalists', politicians' and think tanks' irrational faith in the essential goodness of Sunni Arab man-troglodyte-in-the-street to cloud our judgment. It's one thing for Sunni Arabs to be prejudiced against Alawites, given that anti-heretic/-apostate/-non-Sunni hatred is their schtick. What's our excuse, given our long experience with Sunni Arab duplicity, love for the mass murder of civilians as recreation and their sheer wickedness, to use a term that is now rapidly going out of fashion? When was the last time you heard of an Alawite suicide bomber killing Americans?
It looks like in Syria, the Sunni Arabs are getting yet another propaganda coup like 9/11. They not only get to kill infidels and blame the killings on infidels - they also get to recast the infidel victims as poor, persecuted Sunnis.
According to eyewitness accounts, the FAZ report continues,
the massacre occurred during this time. Those killed were almost exclusively from families belonging to Houlas Alawi and Shia minorities. Over 90% of Houlas population are Sunnis. Several dozen members of a family were slaughtered, which had converted from Sunni to Shia Islam. Members of the Shomaliya, an Alawi family, were also killed, as was the family of a Sunni member of the Syrian parliament who is regarded as a collaborator. Immediately following the massacre, the perpetrators are supposed to have filmed their victims and then presented them as Sunni victims in videos posted on the internet.
The FAZ report echoes eyewitness accounts collected from refugees from the Houla region by members of the Monastery of St. James in Qara, Syria. According to monastery sources cited by the Dutch Middle East expert Martin Janssen, armed rebels murdered entire Alawi families in the village of Taldo in the Houla region.
Already at the beginning of April, Mother Agnès-Mariam de la Croix of the St. James Monastery warned of rebel atrocities being repackaged in both Arab and Western media accounts as regime atrocities. She cited the case of a massacre in the Khalidiya neighborhood in Homs. According to an account published in French on the monasterys website, rebels gathered Christian and Alawi hostages in a building in Khalidiya and blew up the building with dynamite. They then attributed the crime to the regular Syrian army. Even though this act has been attributed to regular army forces . . . the evidence and testimony are irrefutable: It was an operation undertaken by armed groups affiliated with the opposition, Mother Agnès-Mariam wrote.
It looks like the one thing that you can rely on Sunni Arabs to do is kill the infidel remorselessly and then joyously blame the killings on the infidels themselves. And why not? A good chunk of the world believes that Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks, thanks to Sunni Arab propagandists like Thierry Meyssan.
#2
The problems with believing that Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks are manifold. For example, you can't believe that Bush was both amazingly competent in pulling off such an attack yet supremely incompetent in everything else. Also, those attacks were in the works long before Bush was elected. You would also have to assume that Bush knew he was going to be elected. If you believe he only started "plotting" after election, then you would have to believe that the entire thing was done within 9 months of taking office.
It is more likely that the plotting for 9/11 started during the Clinton administration immediately after the first WTC attack failed.
There are too many Sunni Arabs to have one voice. Not all are anti-American.
The Syrian regime stills backs Hezbollah/Iran and I still blame them as the masterminds behind the 1983 Beirut bombing of 299 Americans and French and the liquidation of PM Harari.
#4
There are too many Sunni Arabs to have one voice. Not all are anti-American.
There are probably 100x more anti-American Sunnis in the world than there are Alawites combined. Some Sunni Arab regimes are pro-American. But the vast majority of the Sunni Arab populace does not simply hate the US - it would pay good money to watch our nuclear destruction on pay-per-view (in the areas where this is available). The Saudi royal family doesn't have a problem with us - the Saudi people do. And that's the problem with encouraging the Sunni Arab troglodyte-on-the-street to take power via democracy. The neo-conservative view that hostile foreigners have been duped into their hostility by their leaders is wrong - in reality, the Arab rulers resemble the Roman consuls and emperors - they must make some concessions towards anti-American popular opinion or be defenestrated. The rapid spread of democracy throughout the Arab world is bad for American interests because it will lead to a dozen Irans. Except the Sunni Arab Islamist masses (a redundant phrase, really) did not need a single Iran to bring down the World Trade Center. Imagine what they could do with the resources of entire countries.
#6
Unfortunately there have been several Houla Massacres; the latest of which was the May 25 2012 massacre. The massacre was not just one killing event but several. It's possible that the Syria army was responsible for an early event, then the pro Assad Shabiba did their thing, then the Sunni Shabiba did their thing.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/10/2012 17:03
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#7
The rebels in Syria aren't probably any better than the government forces. Just like Libya.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/10/2012 18:01
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#8
They will mostly just destroy those resources.
The worry is that they'll take down a few of our cities in the process of doing so. Why give these troglodytes the equivalent of doomsday buttons, when we already know that the vast majority of the Sunni Arab masses share the views of people like bin Laden and Zawahiri, thanks to Pew surveys on global attitudes?
#9
The problems with believing that Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks are manifold.
My point exactly. And yet Sunni Arabs not only accept these lies and advertise their acceptance of the lies, they spread them on an ongoing basis. Thierry Meyssan is merely the most famous Sunni Arab to do so. Why would we believe the word of a Sunni Arab on anything at all?
Prasannan Parthasarathi is an economic historian with a rich record of publications that focus on India's relationships with the West and other countries. In Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600-1850 Parthasarathi marshalls the whole body of his detailed research to enter a major ongoing debate: how and why did the economic prosperity of Europe diverge so greatly from that of China and other regions after 1600 AD?
Theories about the Great Divergence generally fall into one of two camps: those that cite cultural differences and those that focus on natural resource advantages. The former school says, in effect, that European rationality as demonstrated in science, the stability provided by entrenched rule of law as demonstrated in the English common law tradition that underlies the US Constitution and related cultural characteristics (see: Weber on Protestant work ethic) came to the fore in the Enlightenment, led to the Industrial Revolution (tellingly, in Britain first) and hence to economic prosperity.
The opposing view focuses on natural resource availability as a key determinant, citing e.g. the massive flow of silver from the New World to Spain and the exploitation of the new continent by Europeans which fueled the success and expansion of industry in the 18th century until recent times when, it is said, that advantage is now disappearing and China is rising once more.
Parthasarathi enters the lists on the second side, with a difference: he extends the scope of natural resources to include certain governmental mechanisms and to technologies themselves. For example, after Indian calico cloth began to be exported to Britain under the Raj, it became all the rage with British, American and continental consumers. British weavers were able, says Parthasarathi, to exploit Indian inventions and know-how to launch the industrial textile industry at home - the first real step in the Industrial Revolution - while simuultaneously using control of India to prevent competition. The growing use of coal and team to !power factories gave a considerable cost advantage to Britain over India and consequently major textile-exporting centers began migrating there from the subcontinent. The result was that Europe grew richer and richer while India fell behind.
It is not possible to cover the detailed discussion of this book in a short review, but a few comments are in order. First, this is not (despite the title) a book about Europe and Asia - it is primarily a book about Britain and India during the period in question. Moreover, several of the author's claims are very controversial, among them the claim that Indians had developed science and technology to a level equivalent of that in Britain in the 17th-18th centuries only to have them appropriated or suppressed economically by the British under colonial rule. Here Parthasarathi cites Chinese texts which informed Indian techniques of dying and textile management, techniques which the Indians developed beyond those in the Chinese sources. Simiilarly, he details coal mining and early steam technologies developed in India prior to British rule.
While there is no doubt that the Indians had a much greater familiarity with cotton textile production of a traditional sort than did Britain, the author ignores the deep expertise of British and continental textile industries with similar techniques for fibers common to those regions, specifically wool and linen, plus imported silk, all of which played key roles in major textile production throughout the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Moreover, he ignores broad and deep Western developments in earlier periods that underlay industrial techniques - monastic development of reliable clockworks, for instance, during the Middle Ages, along with exploitation of water for powering mechanical devices which informed later steam-driven machinery.
Rantburg readers might be most interested in the later chapters of this book which detail tax and import/export duty polices of the Raj which, the author argues, significantly distorted competitiveness of the two competing textile industries in Britain's favor. A dissenting opinion is presented in a scholarly review on the website of the Economic History Association. For instance, that review notes that due to low labor productivity, Indian textile production was at a disadvantage to that of Britain quite without tax or duty issues.
The EH site review, which I discovered after reading this book, illustrates how scholarly peer review process can and does often work well. Only after citing detailed differences of evidence and interpretation by other scholars does the reviewer sum up his assessment:
By blaming the Raj squarely for everything that went wrong with India's nineteenth century development, Parthasarathi offers us a warmed-up old nationalist chestnut, and his waving at the post-colonial literature does not add much credibility to his case. While he is surely right that one can easily overstate the weaknesses of the Indian economy on the eve of the Industrial Revolution, his cherry-picking of examples (there are only a few tables in the book and only one of them pertains to India) simply does not persuade. Had Britain and India been at the same level of economic and institutional development in 1750, why was there no "Western Europe Company" set up in Delhi that would have exploited the political divisions within Europe, established an Indian "Raj" based in London and forced Europe to accept Indian calicoes without tariffs? Moreover, there were Asian nations, from Persia to Siam, which were never controlled by European Imperialists, yet they never seem to have developed much modern industry either. Neither, for that matter, did Imperial China, which poses a logical problem for anyone trying to blame imperialism for economic backwardness in Asia....
Parthasarathi is a learned and well-read historian, and he is no-doubt correct in pointing out that scholars have underrated the vitality and strength of the Indian economy in the eighteenth century. There were enclaves of highly skilled craftsmen and craftswomen in India, and it is easy to overrate the advantage that Britain and Europe enjoyed over Asian countries such as India and China. But in his justifiable indignation over the disrespect shown by "Eurocentric" scholars to Indian civilization, he lets his rhetoric get the better of him and so hopelessly overstates his case as to undermine the credibility of those corrective elements he provides to the standard story that are most valuable.
I recommend Parthasarathi's book and the EH review, both, to Rantburg readers willing to go through detailed discussions of particular cases in order to consider just what factors are at work in generating national wealth. Parthasarathi is right to say that import duties, tax levies etc. can stimulate or crush an economy over time. But that is not, by far, the only factor involved in national competitiveness. Natural resources also matter but today, in particular, a whole raft of cultural and legal structures matter just as much: reliable intellectual property protection, a well-grounded educational system, access to capital for investment, whether and in what way a country encourages immigration - these will play a critical role in our own future wealth or loss thereof. In addition to presenting a good deal of information that is not well known in the West, this book provides an illustration of just how complex international economic relationships and the growth or loss of national advantage has always been.
#1
The whole geographic determinism thing, Jared Diamond's conceit, was put to rest with authority by Victor Davis Hanson a decade ago.
Why is this Indian guy even desirous of beating this dead horse?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/10/2012 12:51
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Diamond is easy to put to rest, since his claims are so very sweeping and general.
Parthasarathi does an excellent job of documenting a much greater pre-industrial sophistication in India than is usally recognized in the West. fWIW, I find his book interesting for that reason, for the specifics of economic policies etc. he documents and in general as a springboard to contemplate just how complex and intertwined culture, law, economy and use of military power can be ....
My field is cognitively informed computing, so I watch e.g. related Chinese publications with much interest. For a long time, they were pretty derivative. But lately they have taken the lead in some areas.
It interests me to speculate why and how that might have come about and what we might want to do in response.
#4
The United States (aka the 13 colonies) revolted from GB largely because of economic issues. So given that the economic policies of the time were not remotely even handed it is fair to say that India was operating under an econoimic handicap.
But on the flip side, India had access to western technology, education, and markets. Also, the caste system disenfranchised a large portion of the population. Blaming the whole thing on resource imbalances strikes me as odd; didn't most of the cotton come from India by the time of the US Civil War?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
06/10/2012 16:22
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One after another, they spoke their minds, telling the president what he had done or not done that bothered them. They warned that he was losing credibility with a crucial constituency that had put its faith in him.
Obama's body stiffened, according to several witnesses, and he started to argue with them. If they wanted meaningful change, he said, they should focus their pressure on the Republicans in Congress who opposed reform, not on him. He was with them but could only do so much. "I am not a king," he said. I'm a demi-god, you fools!
The Barack Obama who spars with liberals in private seems far different from the man most Americans have come to know for his even-keeled, cerebral presence. He drops the formalities of his position and the familiar rhetoric of his speeches, revealing a president willing to speak personally and candidly to his allies, and also one who can be thin-skinned, irritable, even sarcastic and hectoring if his motives or tactics are questioned. He talks about his own ethnicity, his immigrant roots, his political high wire as a black president with a Muslim middle name -- and then seems surprised when advocates who took deep inspiration from his election nevertheless question his commitment to their causes. But Mr. President - you promised!
Obama has often lectured activists on what he considered their misguided gripes. Senior aides have called activists to reprimand them for disrespecting the president. White House officials have dismissed the pressure tactics as old-fashioned protest politics -- irrelevant at best, counterproductive at worst. What got me elected is not gonna get me re-elected!
"He's been out there leading a demonstration and an advocate for those who were feeling left out, so he completely understands their strategy," said Valerie Jarrett, a White House senior adviser. But "a more constructive strategy with him is: How do we get from A to Z, because I'm already there. You don't have to convince me. And every hour [you're protesting or complaining] is an hour you're not working with the president and his team on what are the series of steps we should be taking collectively to move the ball forward." Get out there and blame the Trunks, you morons!
But it is that attitude from Obama -- the I-know-better-than-you approach to the relationship -- that has ruffled many advocates. What part of his attitude is new to everyone? He's always been the smartest guy in the room. Just ask him...
"It became clear the president had gone from being an amazing campaigner to somebody governing from the ultimate bubble," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, who would attend multiple tense meetings with Obama in addition to being arrested in one action at the White House gates. "The only way for us to break through that bubble was to confront the administration." The Politics of Confrontation, learned in 20 years of Sunday sermons.
The White House, meanwhile, was still dealing with the sputtering economy, and the next big legislative showdown would be over Wall Street regulation. The rise of the tea party -- and polling numbers showing a growing anti-Washington wave threatening the Democratic majorities in Congress -- added to a desperate sense among activists that their window of opportunity was slammed shut on their clutching, scrabbling, greedy fingers closing fast.
The meeting had been scheduled to talk about potential paths to passing a comprehensive immigration bill. Activists felt that Obama had not thrown himself fully into the fight. Now, new, even more emotional issues were cropping up, among them a steady rise in the number of deportations. The deportees included students, parents and others who had been in the United States long enough to develop deep roots here.
The president grew visibly frustrated as each successive advocate spoke. He said that the advocates, too, should be pressing Republican lawmakers, that he sympathized with their concerns but that he did not have the legal authority to stop deportations. I can direct the EPA to ruin the coal industry, but I need to create a Department of Deportations Czar.
Tensions mounted when Obama argued that his administration's policy was to focus on deporting criminals and others deemed to be security threats.
"No, Mr. President, that's not what's happening," interjected Angelica Salas, the head of the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. She was seated directly across the table from Obama and leaned toward him as she spoke, her hands trembling and her voice rising. "You're deporting heads of households, mothers and fathers." She said that "young people are sitting in detention centers when they should be sitting in the best universities in the country," according to meeting participants.
Obama looked taken aback by the direct confrontation from Salas and then turned to aides seated against the wall, according to several participants. The aides affirmed that, yes, criminals were the priority.
Turning back to Salas, Obama asked: "What do you want me to do, not enforce the law?" He explained that he could not just ignore laws he didn't like. Actually, he can't ignore laws you don't like. He can ignore the laws he doesn't like. On the other hand...
Since 2009, the Obama administration had been removing immigrants at a rate of nearly 400,000 a year -- more than under any previous president. Administration officials have said the rise in removals resulted from sharp spending increases on enforcement passed by Congress before Obama took office, while the advocates argued that the administration could take many steps on its own to limit the threat to otherwise law-abiding people.
On the Tuesday after the Senate failed to pass the Dream Act, Obama hosted a few Hispanic lawmakers, including Gutierrez and Menendez, in the Oval Office.
The president conceded that the new Republican-led House would never pass the immigration legislation they all wanted. So the president told the lawmakers that they should all "put our thinking caps on," according to two people familiar with the meeting. "What can we do to work together?" the president asked.
Eventually, the administration would enact a policy of "prosecutorial discretion," calling on immigration officials to focus on deporting serious criminals, repeat border-crossers and others considered security threats rather than students, veterans or seniors. See, he can ignore the law when he wants to...
The policy, which would later include a case-by-case review of deportation cases, seemed like a potential victory for immigrant advocates. But so far, they have found the results to be disappointing. Only a fraction of cases would be closed under the review, and advocates remain wary.
For Gutierrez, the frustration reflected a profound evolution in emotions. He had felt great hope back in 2006, when he and then-Sen. Obama first discussed the prospects of a presidential campaign and what winning the White House might mean for immigrants. The hope turned to anticipation on Election Day, then frustration through months of protest and tense encounters, and then hopefulness again with the Oval Office embrace.
But seven months after the hug, with few signs of the progress that he and others had pushed for, Gutierrez was feeling desperate. So on a steaming July day, the congressman returned to the White House -- as a protester once more. He was arrested with other advocates as they sat beneath a banner reading, "One Million Deportations Under President Obama." Another feature the media never covers, brought to you by the Washington Post.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/10/2012
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#1
Can't wait until obooboo gets invited back to the White House for the unveiling of his presidential portrait and is chagrined to find that Peggy Joseph is in the picture with him...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/10/2012 13:37
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#2
hit back twice as hard.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2012 14:20
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In 410 AD, the city of Rome was overrun and sacked by Germanic tribes. If you're of a certain age, you will have been taught that these and other tribes attacked a decadent empire, bringing to an end the Classical period in history and launching the Dark Ages -- centuries during which the mechanisms of civilization were absent, standards of living collapsed and which ultimately gave rise to feudalism and the Middle Ages. The evidence seems clear: after about 400 AD, archaeological evidence shows a much lower standard of living, a much less rich and robust economy and interruptions of civic mechanisms in the Roman heartland itself. Rome's legions were withdrawn from Britain and elsewhere in Europe and the empire decayed rapidly.
In Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisted: The History of a Controversy Emmet Scott says it didn't happen that way. Scott picks up, extends and broadens a competing theory: namely, that the Empire as a whole -- whose center had long since moved to Constantinople and the bulk of whose citizens lived in the East, not the West - prospered after the sack of Rome, that Germanic and other tribes were eager to adopt Roman ways and that the sudden collapse of the Empire was due to the effects of militant Islam on a richly interdependent trade economy across the Mediterranean.
Scott cites detailed examples of 5th and 6th century Frankish, Gothic and other tribal leaders who explicitly adopted Roman administrative methods, appointed officials to offices defined in Roman law and acknowledged the emperor's authority. He notes evidence that Classical authors were well known and cited by Western (and not just Byzantine) writers during this period, illustrating that Classical learning was alive and well in the western portions of the empire. And he documents the role of the Catholic church and monasticism in not only preserving but also in advancing science and technology throughout these and later centuries.
So if Roman civilization was thriving, what happened to cause a collapse? Scott cites detailed evidence for a major collapse around 620 AD all across the Mediterranean world. Sophisticated agricultural infrastructure in the form of irrigation and field use suddenly become silted and inperable. Coins are no longer minted. Luxury goods that once were commonly imported no longer appear in the archaeological record. New building projects cease and old infrastructure crumbles rapidly.
Scott says the answer is clear. Muslim piracy and constant attacks on key economic centers destroyed the web of trade in the Mediterranean world. Islamic conquests resulted in rule by Arabs who neither knew nor cared about agriculture, so that countries like Egypt -- once the breadbasket of the Roman empire -- turned to sand. Slave trading became prevalent and skilled workers from the empire were forced into servitude in Muslim courts.
Sometimes a technology becomes critical to an entire civilization. In the Roman empire, that technology was, arguably, papyrus and written documents. Official activities, day to day business transactions and the education of the young -- all depended on the availability of papyrus as the medium for record keeping and writing in general. The Arab conquest of north Africa resulted in a total embargo on papyrus exports to the empire and, says Scott, as a result the sophisticated, complex empire was unable to recover from and respond to the piracy and physical attacks launched by the Muslims. A millennium-old civilization collapsed nearly overnight.
Scott's account is an important corrective to the narrative established in the 19th century, which promoted Islam as a tolerant and sophisticated society who invented and transmitted knowledge to the backward West. Scott insists, for instance, that while some transmission did occur, such inventions as the use of zero in mathematics came from India, with whom the Roman empire had had open trade for centuries that was subsequently interdicted by the Muslims.
Scott's account will be welcome to many Rantburg readers and contains a good deal of useful information. I am cautious about whole heartedly embracing his account, however, for several reasons. First, he has a repeated tendency to cite some information and then assert that we can make no other interpretation of that information except his own. When accounting for complex events that happened long ago and for which we have only fragmentary and indirect evidence, sweeping hand waves are not enough to convince me that the evidence has been carefully weighed and evaluated.
And that brings me to Scott himself. Although the book cover describes him as a "historian specializing in the ancient history of the Near East" I have not been able to find any corroborating evidence of his training, any prior publications or any institutional affiliation. Historians tend to publish less often, and with longer papers, than is common in scientific or technical fields, but they do publish and their publications are peer reviewed with often trenchant commentary from the unconvinced. So far as I can tell, Scott has only written this one book, which was published by the New English Review Press. Editors for the New English Review include Theodore Dalrymple, Ibn Warraq and several of the writers for the JihadWatch website -- in other words, people who have in common a belief that Islam is a major and destructive threat to our own civilization. They may well be right, but this book needs to be taken with a certain skepticism. Scott cites many sources, but he has a tendency to greatly oversimplify a number of relevant theories and facts along the way. Historians have since the 1950s seen the interaction between the various tribes, both IndoEuropean and Hun, and the Roman empire as a complex dance in which they are now allies, now military enemies. Moreover, there is strong evidence that the empire did indeed suffer for two centures from significant internal political, economic and demographic problems which would have made it much more susceptible to Muslim attack in the 620s. Scott neither acknowledges these nor generally speaking seems to understand the complexity of issues at work in the period. An historian trained at the doctoral level would, I think, at a minimum address 60 years of scholarly work in these areas, if only to refute it.
The question of Scott's training and experience matters specifically because he advances a position with sweeping claims. If he had trained at the doctoral level, we would know under whom and therefore with what bias. If he had published before, we could fill in the gaps in his argument from shorter, more detailed works and thereby accept or reject his argument with reference to those works. As it is, the book appears out of a vacuum, sponsored by people who themselves are not historians and who, furthermore, have a very specific political and cultural position they seek to advance. Caveat lector - let the reader beware.
I would like, though, to note one interesting speculation that Scott reports. Just how was it that the Arabs were able to so rapidly conquer and control vast areas of the Mediterranean region, especially since they lacked maritime expertise of their own? Scott briefly proposes that some members of the Persian elite converted to Islam specifically because of their hatred and envy of the West and out of enmity to the Romans with whom they had fought a number of inconclusive wars. Frustrated at their inability to expand into Europe and at their loss of influence with e.g. Egypt, they saw the Arabs and this new ideology as a means to reassert Persian influence across the ancient world. It was, says Scott, Persian-allied fleets that gave the Arabs the means to control shipping, launch raids and attack the West. Worth thinking about today.....
Some readers will also be interested in Scott's assertion that the holy war mentality exhibited by the Crusades was adopted by the Church in response to the effectiveness and justifications for Muslim jihad.
#1
Just keep in mind that while the Western Empire was dealing with the Muslims in the south, they were also dealing with Saxons in the north. The sea faring raiders game their name to the Litus Saxonicum, a military command of the late Roman Empire in Britannia, centuries before. The depredations by the Saxons of Britain after the withdraw of the legions was not much different with the degradation of 'civilization' as attributed to this thesis. It's the Arthurian myth and history of the island that recalled a brief moment of recovery before the proverbial deluge.
#4
Thank you GG, it reminded me. An anthology of both views are in The Barbarian Invasion:Catalyst of a New Order, ed. Katherine Fisher Drew; Robert Kreiger Publishing Co., Huntington NY, 1977. Google if interested.
#5
Procopius2k, your book is available at Amazon.com, though not in Kindle form. :-).
Glusoger Gruter1463, good catch. Mr. Scott talks about Henri Pirenne's work as being key to his own thoughts in the free sample chapters available at the link lotp gives in the article.
#3 This seems to be a replay of the exact theory of famed Belgian historian Henri Pirenne, who wrote in the early 20th century.
Posted by: Glusoger Gruter1463 2012-06-10 11:29
#6
It is indeed Pirenne, extended with evidence beyond the Italian penninsula and with a strong focus on the economic impact of Islamic attacks.
However, as I noted, Scott's more sweeping claims fail to take into account internal issues which had endangered the empire for centuries before Islam came along. For instance, Diocletian imposed massive wage and price control in 301AD in an attempt to counter currency devaluation among other problems.
Moreover, there were serious cultural issues facing the empire as well - for instance, a major demographic drop among native Romans due in good part to deliberate use of effective abortion and contraception. Roman inheritance and tax laws did not particularly favor having children, and raising them got in the way of having fun. Similarly, participation in public affairs required one to invest a good deal of private money in pulic works, so over time Roman elites withdrew from leading the state while retaining their privileges. Legalizaion and later adoption of Christianity addressed the demographic but not the leadership problem.
Well before the sack of Rome, tribal groups were being paid to patrol the boundaries of the empire - or paid off to avoid attacks. Over time they were integrated more formally into the Roman armies, but usually without the discipline and structure of the legions. The results were mixed, to put it mildly .....
A bit early. Muslim expansion to Africa really began only 20 years later. And pirates in the Mediterranean existed well before the Muslims took over. Rome seems to have coped with them for centuries.
Also Africa didn't turn into a wasteland after Muslim conquest. North Africa was actually only conquered in a second wave from 665 to 689.
The loss of Egypt dealt a heavy blow to the Byzantine empire, but it managee to stay alive for another 800 years. The Western Roman Empire had become disfunctional well before Mohammed was even born.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/10/2012 14:50
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#8
"Islamic conquests resulted in rule by Arabs who neither knew nor cared about agriculture"
Also doubtful. This may have been true for the beduins of the Arab heartland, but the conquest of Mesopotamia changed all that. The early Arab success did not just rest with military exploits but with the ability of the conquerors to secure allies and adapt themselves quickly to their new surroundings. They did not destroy old Roman and Persian irrigati0n practices, but rather perfected them as evidenced in Andalucia.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/10/2012 15:06
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#9
Later, perhaps. But there is a distinct layer in the archaeological remains, consistent throughout the Mediterranean and dated to about 625 or so, in which all of the irrigation and other infrastructure becomes heavily silted and non-functional.
That could be due to an environmental/weather disaster - but no records exist to suggest such, including in e.g. China. FWIW
#10
So if Roman civilization was thriving, what happened to cause a collapse?
Might not have been Islam but the Byzantine Empire, specifically Justinian's attempt to reconquer the western Empire. He laid waste to Italy a couple times over the time period ~ 530 to 550 CE trying to seize and hold it against the various Ostrogoths. In the process the accumulated wealth of the western Roman Senators, which had previously survived the collapse of the western Empire, was devastated. Similar results were seen in north Africa as Justinian took those, and his successors had to try and hold them against Vandals, Goths, military insurrections and finally the Muslims.
This pre-dates Islam by about a hundred years, but both the western Mediterranean empire and the eastern Byzantine Empire suffered because of Justinian's overly ambitious plans to reconquer all of what was formerly Roman territory.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2012 17:19
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#12
Steve White is correct. Justinian actually prepared the grounds for Muslim rule in North Africa which was seen as more benign (and to a point actually was) more benign than Byzantine rule.
Sure dhimmis had to pay a special tax but could still practice their faith and could rise to very high positions. Islamic "tolerance" very much depended on the respective Muslim ruler. Córdoba must have been one of the most civilized places in Europe, but let's not forget that the Islamic society in Andalucia depended a lot on slaves. Yet all this was not much different from the rest of serfdom in Europe. In the 11th century fanatics from Morocco took over and while they also adapted to a refined lifestyle, tolerance waned. Reconquered Christian Toledo shone brightly.
It's important not to interpret history with an ideological eye. Christians and Muslims weren't that much different in the Middle Ages. But the Muslim civilization stalled and turned backwards and never saw Enlightenment.
It still can, but this will change religion forever like it happened with Christianity. And a lot of blood will flow before hopefully success can be achieved.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/10/2012 17:47
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#13
There was also a major Roman Persian war from about 582-602 AD which was supposed to have caused enormous damage to both the Sassaniod and the Roman empires.
Furthermore, both empires made use of Arab mercenaries, which had the effect of training the Arabs in various military tactics, while weakening the Byzantines and Persians and making them vulnerable to Arab conquest.
#15
There are/were Muslims and Muslims. The much-touted liberal and sophisticated Islamic states in Spain were conquered by a bunch of non-sophisticated,non-liberal Muslims, another wave from North Africa.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
06/10/2012 23:35
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Gunmen opened fire on a church in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday, spraying the congregation with bullets and killing and injuring many of them, according to witnesses.
Hamidu Wakawa, who was at the church in Biu Town, Borno state, said, "Three gunmen came to the premises of the church and started firing at people outside the church before going into the main building to carry on their killings ... Many people have been killed and wounded."
Police said they did not yet have any details on the attack.
#1
it's time to arm the churches and Christian militias
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2012 12:18
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#2
Franf G. Done.
A large Southern Baptist church in Texas is sending missionaries to Libya, Kenya, etc. to rebuild churches. They have approval to have armed guards go with them.
Kenyan cabinet Minister George Saitoti and his assistant Orwa Ojode were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday morning. Officials at the scene said the crash occurred soon after the helicopter took off from Nairobi's airport. They said that the bodies of the two government officials and four others on board the police helicopter were charred beyond recognition.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga cancelled all his engagements in Nakuru to rush to the scene and said he received the news with shock and disbelief. He said, "It is particularly poignant and a bad coincidence that the deaths of Saitoti and Ojode have occurred on the fourth anniversary of the death of the late Minister Kipkalya Kones and the late MP for Sotik Lorna Laboso who also perished in plane crash in the same area."
Reports on Egyptian web sites Sunday morning said that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had died Saturday night. The story was reported on the official web site of Egypt's state broadcasting company, quoting reports on other web sites and in social media. The reports are uncomfirmed, the web site stressed.
In recent days, there have been wildly varying reports on Mubarak's health. According to sources in Egypt, Mubarak's wife has not been permitted to visit him since he was taken to prison last weekend.
More of the usual Sunni Arab tolerance for minority faiths. Non-Sunnis and non-Arabs should expect a Rwanda-scale massacre when the Sunni Arabs take over behind the aegis of the NATO air forces. The message sent out by the military chief of the armed opposition has spread panic and lead to a Christian exodus
An exodus of Christians is taking place in Western Syria: the Christian population has fled the city of Qusayr, near Homs, following an ultimatum issued by the military chief of the armed opposition, Abdel Salam Harba.
This is what local sources told Vatican news agency Fides, pointing out that since the conflict broke out, only a thousand of the city's ten thousand faithful, were left and they are now being forced to flee immediately. Some of the city's mosques have issued the message again, announcing from the minarets: "Christians must leave Qusayr within six days, ending Friday." The ultimatum therefore expired on 8 June and spread fear among the Christian population which had started to regain hope as a result of the presence of the Jesuit Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio, who stopped off in Qusayr for a week to "pray and fast in the name of peace, right in the midst of conflict."
The reasons for this ultimatum remain a mystery. Some say it is necessary in order to protect faithful from further suffering; other sources reveal "a continuity in discrimination and selective repression." Others still claim that Christians have openly expressed their loyalty to the state and this is why the opposition army is chasing them away. Now Christian families in Qusayr have begun their exodus as displaced persons, towards the surrounding valleys and rural areas. Some have taken refuge in parents' and friends' homes in Damascus. Very few families have courageously decided to stay behind in their birth city but who knows what fate will meet. Fides sources have reiterated that groups of Salafi Islamic extremists within the armed opposition consider Christians as "infidels"; they confiscate their belongings, carry out mass executions and are ready to declare a "denominational war".
#5
its sad to say it but the Christians really, really, really should leave Syria
the West can't protect them; in fact even if we had an administration honest enough to admit the problem we still could do little about it
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/10/2012 7:26
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#6
its sad to say it but the Christians really, really, really should leave Syria
Or we could stand aside as the Alawites encourage the Sunni Arabs to emigrate to a country more friendly to their intolerant views, such as Saudi Arabia or Egypt.
#7
Resettle the Christians on the Syrian part of the Golan Heights, and give them Israeli protection. Make that new region an independent, sovereign state with UN membership (that'll really cheese off the Paleos).
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2012 11:33
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#8
I like that one, Dr. Steve
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2012 11:43
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#9
Making Pencilneck look good is a tough job but I believe these rebels are up to it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/10/2012 14:34
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#10
This dovetails nicely with the new reports on the Houala massacre where it seems to be that mostly non-Sunnis were the victims. And that the Sunni rebels were the perps.
[An Nahar] Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... television broadcast on Saturday a video of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims who were kidnapped in Syria on May 22.
They announced: "We are the guests of the Syrian rebels and we support the Syrian people."
The video, recorded on June 5 or 6, showed the 11 pilgrims seated in a room as each of them identified themselves to the camera.
One of the abductees, Abbas Shoaib condemned the recent Houla massacre in Syria that was committed at the hands of "oppressors", voicing his support to the Syrian people.
He reassured that the pilgrims were all doing well, stressing that they were not at all pressured at gunpoint to make their remarks.
Addressing the Lebanese people, he stated: "Rise against oppression as the Syrian people did."
At the end of the video, the abductors denied in a statement all remarks that had been made by alleged spokespeople for the group, except for the call on Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... to apologize for his remarks on the kidnapping.
The kidnappers said that the "guests will be released after being handed over to the civil Syrian state, which will in turn examine their case at the new democratic parliament."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2012
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#1
these are the Hiz'ballah stooges, right?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2012 12:20
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[An Nahar] Gunmen in Nigeria's troubled north killed two coppers and a customs officer, while two civilians maimed in the separate attacks died later, witnesses said Saturday.
In the region's largest city Kano, two gunnies on Saturday rubbed out an official of the secret police, Aminu Isa, and fled, a resident told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Isa's companion was shot in both legs and later died in the hospital, said the witness, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... Two gunnies riding on a cycle of violence also rubbed out a customs superintendent, Abubakar Muhammad, outside his house in Tinshama district of Kano on Saturday, his neighbors told AFP.
Muhammad, on a weekend visit to Kano from Lagos, was shot three times in the head by his attackers who expeditiously departed at a goodly pace immediately, they said.
Late Friday, gunnies also rubbed out a police constable outside his house in Boriya district on the outskirts of Potiskum, a major city in northeastern Yobe state, a neighbor told AFP.
"A nearby drug vendor was also hit and injured by the attackers' bullet," the neighbor said, adding that the vendor died later.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2012
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[Iran Press TV] At least four Pak coppers have been rubbed out in a orc attack in troubled southwestern Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province, Press TV reports.
The coppers were guarding a railway track on the outskirts of Quetta on Saturday when they came under attack from gunnies riding a cycle of violence.
The attackers managed to escape from the scene. The bodies of the slain coppers have been transferred to a local hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2012
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[Tolo News] At least one civilian was killed in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... as about 20 rockets were fired into its Khas Kunar district on Saturday, local officials said.
Kunar provincial governor Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi blamed the Pak military for launching the attack from across the border and called on the Afghan government to resolve the ongoing attacks.
"We reported to the government about these rocket attacks which are being launched from that side of the border. Our investigations show that rockets were fired by Pak military," Wahidi said.
"We are in negotiations with tribal elders, but we ask the government to solve this through diplomatic ways."
Residents of eastern Kunar province believe that Pakistain is trying to foment insecurity in the country.
Parliamentary members from the neighboring province of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. joined the cause Kunar residents, saying that according to Afghanistan's long term strategic agreement with the US and other western countries, it was their duty to help defend Afghanistan against outsiders' attacks.
"We have agreements with the US and other countries. One of the articles mentioned in these agreements is that if Afghanistan comes under attack from any other nation, they will defend Afghanistan," Zabiullah Zmarai, Nangarhar MP, told TOLOnews on Saturday.
"Unfortunately, the Afghan government has not done much to stop these attacks. The government should summon Pakistain's ambassador and ask him questions in this regard."
Last month at least 20 families fled their homes in Kunar after one civilian was killed in a hail of rockets on the Dangam district.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2012
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[Iran Press TV] The exacerbating unrest in Syria stems from an imperialist agenda aimed at eliminating the Middle Eastern governments unfavorable to the US interests in the region, a political analyst tells Press TV.
"It is an agenda for replacement of governments that are not acceptable to American imperialism," said political commentator Ralph Schoenman in a Friday interview, alluding to the Syrian crisis.
"It is not only in Syria this project... it is intended for Iran. It was implemented in Libya; it is the nature of imperial intervention in the region. That is the underlying reality here; everyday confirms it," he added.
Schoenman pointed out that Washington has not scrupled to conceal its real agenda, saying, "From the beginning the US spokespersons and the secretary of state and the US representative to the UN have made it explicit that their objective is to remove the government in Syria."
The political analyst questioned the reliability of the UN peace plan in Syria and argued that such "punitive peace plans" merely accuse the government of violating the peace deal, while they give a free hand "to financed and armed terror instruments of the Qataris of the Saudis of the Turks of the Libyans under the direction of imperialism."
Violence rages on in Syria despite a UN-brokered ceasefire, which is part of the peace plan proposed by 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... Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011 and many people, including hundreds of security forces, have been killed in the country over the past 15 months.
While the West says the government is responsible for the killings, Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... blames "outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups" for the unrest and insists that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
This article starring:
Ralph Schoenman
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After a spate of cases, one of Britannia's top prosecutors, Nazir Afzal says it is impossible not to notice 'that the perpetrators were Asian and the victims were not'
In the last year several gangs have been prosecuted for targeting young, vulnerable white girls and abusing them
Home Affairs Select Committee to take evidence on the issue next week after urgent hearing called
More unpleasant details about the fates of the throwaway girls and the Pakistani men who abused them at the link. We've followed the story here at Rantburg as it developed, and there is little new except Mr Afzal's admittance of the pattern.
#8
So what happens when the society as a whole knows what's going on, knows the authorities are ignoring it, and, further, arresting anyone who speaks about it as speaking "hate"?
I think it starts with loud noises.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
06/10/2012 16:30
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#9
It tends to start with big leaks to the press about those trying to censor things...
#10
Of course, the authorities being ineffectual in dealing true justice will recoil and take real firm action when society falls back upon vendetta, which is perceived as a direct threat to their power and legitimacy. Got to protect our phoney baloney jobs.
[An Nahar] China will launch a spacecraft this month to conduct its first manned space docking, state media said Saturday, the latest step in a plan aimed at giving the country a permanent space station by 2020.
The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and its carrier rocket have already been moved to the launch platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, the Xinhua news agency said, quoting the country's manned space programme.
The launch -- China's first manned space mission since September 2008 -- would occur "sometime in mid June", it said.
Officials said the mission would involve three astronauts manually docking with the Tiangong-1 module currently orbiting Earth.
In March state media said China may send its first woman into space this year after including female astronauts in the team training for its first manned space docking.
Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of the manned space programme, has said that the Shenzhou-9 crew may include female astronauts, Xinhua reported.
China sent its first person into space in 2003 and has since conducted several manned missions, but has never included a woman.
After the space rendezvous, two of the astronauts will move temporarily into the Tiangong-1 (Heavenly Palace), where they will perform scientific experiments.
One of crew will remain on board the spacecraft as a precaution in case of an emergency, according to the official quoted by Xinhua.
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#4
Good luck to them. The corruption is so bad in China who knows what they are working with. Cheapest parts and technology with most of it being information stolen from other countries.
#6
"robbed of its high-pressure pure oxygen environment" no that can't be correct. It had to be a mix of gases. Pure oxygen would burn the lungs. Oxygen supports combustion only. Procopius2k, Apollo seems so long ago now.
[Iran Press TV] A UK UFO expert has warned about the possibility of sudden alien appearance in London skies during the upcoming Olympic Games in the British capital.
"With the summer of mass events we are all on high alert for terrorism. But we must also cast our eyes further afield and be prepared for even the most seemingly unfathomable," said Nick Pope, who has worked with the Ministry of Defense for more than two decades.
Pope who investigated UFO reports between 1991 and 1994, says his studies convinced him that the sightings raised important defense for national security and air safety issues.
"It has been a widely held belief in Ministry of Defense circles that "aliens" have been able to detect us for decades via TV and radio broadcasts," he said adding that mass summer events would be a prime time for alien crafts to present themselves to mankind.
"If aliens have studied our psychology, they may choose to appear in our skies on a significant date - the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games is one date being widely circulated by conspiracy groups."
Pope said aliens would come in a spirit of warmth, friendship and shared learning, but the government was also prepared for the worst scenarios such as alien attack and invasion.
"If UFOs came into our atmosphere, RAF jets such as the Eurofighter Typhoons, and missiles such as the Rapiers guarding the Olympic Games would be well equipped to enter the fray," he said.
Pope is known as the person "working on the X-Files of the UK," and has given lectures and TV interviews about his views on the existence of UFOs since he left MoD in 2006.
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#1
Clearly its time to set up SHADO, i.e. SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, ALIEN DEFENCE ORGANIZATION!
#4
Even if they hyperspaced through several peaceful galaxies and had no link to Britain, I'm sure any aliens that land would be given lots of houses, money and other goods looted from the British serfs.
[Al Ahram] Egyptian state TV stopped airing controversial anti-spying ads Friday night. The ads have been widely condemned as being xenophobic and painting all foreigners in the country as spies.
Many have voiced fears that the ads would negatively affect tourism.
Social networks have been abuzz since the ads first appears, with activists accusing the government of wanting a situation wherein no one trusts anyone.
The ads warned Egypt's youth against friendly looking foreigners who could be spies. It particularly warned against sharing personal information with strangers.
Anti-foreigner sentiment has grown in Egypt since the January 25 Revolution. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces alleged several times that "foreign hands" have incited protests across the country.
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#1
The ads have been widely condemned as being xenophobic
[Bangla Daily Star] New fighting broke out yesterday in southern Libya between members of the Toubou minority and government forces, the two sides said, with unconfirmed reports that at least five people were killed.
Tribal chief Issa Abdelmajid said the Toubou quarter of the town of Kufra came under shelling at 3:00am by the Libya Shield Brigade, former rebels under government control sent to quell previous ethnic fighting.
Abdelmajid said at least five of his people were killed and 10 maimed, and that a number of houses in the quarter had been burned.
Brigade commander Wissam Ben Hmid confirmed the fighting, saying his men had responded to a Toubou attack on one of their checkpoints. He said three of his men had been maimed.
In February, festivities pitting the Toubou against the rival Zwei ethnic group in Kufra cost more than 100 lives and displaced half the population, according to UN figures.
Libya's nascent army intervened by sending the brigade from the eastern city of Benghazi to uphold a hard-won ceasefire.
Kufra, a town of about 40,000, is located in a triangle where the borders of Egypt, Chad and Sudan meet.
In April, fighting between the Toubou and the brigade killed 12 people.
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[An Nahar] Elections in Libya for a constituent assembly, originally set to be held by June 19, are to be postponed for logistical reasons, electoral commission members said on Saturday.
One commission member, on condition of anonymity, said the postponement until July or later had been decided mainly to allow time for appeals from candidates who had been ruled out of the contest.
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Beijing believes militants train in Pakistan before crossing the border and launching attacks in Xinjiang
During his recent visit to Islamabad, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi asked the Pak government to take action against ethnic Uygur Islamic cut-throats present in its lawless tribal areas.
Pakistain and China have enjoyed friendly ties for six decades, but Beijing has recently expressed reservations over alleged links between Pak cut-throats and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Chinese authorities are said to be concerned about presence of the ETIM cut-throats in Pak territory, where they say the fighters are being trained before they cross into Xinjiang to carry out beturbanned goon attacks. But they did not discuss the issue publicly to ensure they don't embarrass Pakistain. The ETIM is also described as the Turkistani Islamic Party (TIP).
In an April 5 statement, Chinese Ministry of Public Security published a list of six beturbanned goons with their profiles, saying they were operating in South Asia, without naming Pakistain. According to the Chinese list, Nurmemet Memetmin, who was described as the "commander of the ETIM", was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a "South Asian country", but he escaped in 2006 and has been planning new attacks against China, including the late July attacks on civilians in Kashgar. After the Kashgar attacks, Chinese authorities had invited then Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen (r) Ahmed Shuja Pasha to Beijing in August and told him the cut-throats had allegedly been trained in Pakistain's tribal areas.
The ETIM network has weakened significantly in recent years after a crackdown by Pak authorities and killing of many of its top leaders in drone strikes
In March, Xinjiang governor Nur Bekri had warned China was facing a network of cut-throats entrenched in neighboring countries, Chinese media reported. Asked about the ETIM's Pakistain connection, Bekri said: "We have certainly discovered that East Turkistan [Islamic Movement] activists and beturbanned goons in our neighboring states have a thousand and one links". In the past, China blamed Xinjiang's violence on ETIM, Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT), and World Uyghur Congress leader Rebia Kadeer, but it never implicated other countries, especially not its all-weather friend Pakistain.
Xinjiang, which borders Pakistain and Afghanistan, is home to ethnic Uygurs, a Turkic-speaking and largely Moslem people who make up about 40 percent of the region's population. Founded in 1997, the ETIM is fighting to liberate the Moslem-majority Xinjiang province (also called East Turkestan) from China. The Chinese government says such groups - linked with Al Qaeda -are responsible for unrest in the province.
In the most serious incident of violence in decades, 197 people were killed and about 1,700 others injured on July 5, 2009, when riots between Uygur and Han ethnic groups erupted in the regional capital of Urumqi. Analysts say the riots shattered the authoritarian Communist Party's claims of harmony and unity among dozens of ethnic groups in China.
Experts on militancy confirm the presence of cut-throats of the ETIM in Pakistain's North and South Wazoo regions where several other foreign and international beturbanned goon groups, such as the Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... Union (IJU), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the Islamic Army of Great Britannia and Ittehad-e-Jihad Islami also operate.
"There are dozens of Central Asian cut-throats living in the tribal region," said a beturbanned goon associated with Hafiz Gul Bahadur. "But it is very difficult for us to distinguish between the Uzbeks, Tajiks and Uyghurs because of similar facial features."
After Al Qaeda and the IMU, the ETIM is the third strongest foreign beturbanned goon outfit operating in Pakistain's tribal areas, says Aqeel Yousafzai, a Beautiful Downtown Peshawar-based analyst. "The number of ETIM cut-throats present in Pakistain has always been kept secret because it may hurt ties between China and Pakistain," Yousafzai wrote in his book 'Talibanisation'. According to his estimates, the number of Chinese cut-throats in FATA was 50 to 300 during 2007-08.
The influence of ETIM among jihadi groups is so strong that the movement's leader Abdul Shakoor Turkistani was rumored to be the late Osama bin Laden ... who was laid out deader than a mackerel, right next to the mackerel... 's successor after his death in May 2011, said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of Pak Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad-based think tank.
Rana said that the ETIM split into two factions last year. One concentrates on the separatist movement inside China, while a hard-line faction believes in a global jihad. Chinese cut-throats are also present in northern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, he added.
But the ETIM network has weakened significantly in recent years after a crackdown by Pak authorities and killing of many of its top leaders in drone strikes. Last year, Pakistain handed over to China a handful of Uyghur cut-throats who were incarcerated Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! by the security forces in the tribal areas.
ETIM chief Hassan Mashom was killed by Pak security forces in 2003. His successor, Abdul Haq Turkistani, was killed in a drone attack in May 2010. Abdul Haq, who is also known as Memetiming Memeti, became a member of Al Qaeda's executive council in 2005, according to the United States Treasury Department, which declared him a global terrorist in 2009.
"We believe the ETIM is not only an enemy of China but also an enemy of Pakistain," Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. told media when Haq was killed.
#1
HHHHMMMMMMM, intehwesting, the "Islamic Army of Great Britannia"?
* ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > ISLAMIC RULE [Sharia Law] IN INDIA WILL END VIOLENT CRIME, COMMUNAL VIOLENCE: MUSLIM SCHOLAR [prominent] | DEATH PENALTY FOR MUSLIMS IN INDIA: SCHOLAR.
* TOPIX > MUSLIM LEADERS REPEAT CALL FOR SHARIA LAW IN INDIA.
Reminds me again of certain old dreams-visions from my childhood, where I see an Asian = Oriental Man wearing a Muslim or Hindu Head Turban wid a Commie = Red Star.
[Pre, Post-9-11 COMMIE-MARXISTS-MAOISTS COLLUDING WID RADICAL ISLAMIST-JIHADIST GROUPS here].
#3
Your [sic]welcome to your new friends China LOL
Guess you missed the line "Pakistan and China have enjoyed friendly ties for six decades" in the posted article.
Pakistan has a long history of playing 'Bulgaria' to the Chinese 'USSR' (Cold War history - feel free to research it). And like the Bulgarians, Pakistan has been good for simple tasks requiring muscle and not much brainpower. Long on ambition, rather short on skill and money. And you're right in that they resent China for it.
Apparently that's reflected here, where the ISI's pet projects of training its own minions seems to have side-effects.
[Dawn] A man said to be a member of the Kuchhi Rabita Committee (KRC) was rubbed out in a Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... locality on Friday evening, police said.
They said that the killing occurred in Moosa Lane where Irfan Soomro, 37, who was sitting outside his residence, was targeted by three men who reportedly came there on foot.
Baghdadi SHO Ghulam Nabi Afridi said: "They [assailants] might have used a cycle of violence to escape from the scene, but initial reports suggest that they were on foot when they carried out the killing".
The victim was rushed to the Civil Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He's dead, Jim! on arrival, the police said.
He suffered bullet wounds in the head and chest.
The area SHO said that the victim was said to be a member of the KRC.
Karim Kuchhi, a KRC front man, told Dawn that the victim was not only a member of the KRC but also an office-bearer of the Pakistain People's Party (city area).
He said that on Friday morning the PPP took out a small rally in support of setting up of reverse osmosis (RO) plants in Lyari and the victim was present in the programme.
Man found rubbed out in Korangi
The body of a man, stuffed in a gunny bag, was found in Korangi early on Friday morning, police said.
They said the victim had been shot in the head.
The body was found in Mehran Town, they added.
The victim was identified as Noor Rehman, 30, at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre with the help of some documents
found on him.
A duty officer at the Korangi Industrial Area (KIA) cop shoppe said that the victim was a resident of Kunwari Colony,
Manghopir and originally hailed from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... It appeared that the victim had been kidnapped and rubbed out somewhere else and the body was thrown at the scene, the
police said.
Police were immediately not sure about the motive of the murder. Till late in the night, no case pertaining to the killing was
registered at the KIA cop shoppe.
The victim was a nephew of a local leader of the Awami National Party, Anwerzeb Musakhel, according to a party press
release.
The funeral prayer was held in Kunwari Colony and he was buried in the Manghopir graveyard.
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Libya has placed in durance vile Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! a female Australian lawyer from the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... for trying to pass "dangerous" documents to Seif al-Islam, tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! son of slain leader Muammar Qadaffy ...a proud Arab institution for 42 years, now among the dear departed, though not the dearest... , the ICC's Libyan representative have said.
"During a visit (to Seif on Friday), the lawyer tried to deliver documents to the accused, documents that have nothing to do with his case and that represent a danger to the security of Libya," Ahmed al-Jehani said.
The lawyer, named as Melinda Taylor, was part of a four-member ICC delegation that received permission from Libya's chief prosecutor to visit Seif in Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... where he is jugged.
Jehani said she is "under house arrest in Zintan, not in prison," and is being questioned by the authorities.
Seif, 39, has been in jug in Zintan since his arrest on November 19 in the wake of the uprising that toppled his father's rule after more than 40 years in power.
The ICC wants both Seif and his late father's spymaster, Abdullah Senussi, tried for crimes against humanity committed while crush last year's bloody revolt.
Jehani did not say what the documents were, except that they had been sent by Mohammed Ismail, Seif's former right-hand man, who has been on the run since the revolt.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Tuareg rebels who have declared a separate state in northern Mali have met for the first time with the West African mediator in the Malian crisis, Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now... President Blaise Compaore.
An AFP journalist saw three unidentified officials of the National Liberation Movement of Azawad (MNLA) go into talks with Compaore, the mediator appointed by the Economic Community of West African States, and his foreign minister, Djibrill Basole.
The meeting came after festivities were reported near the regional capital Kidal between fighters of the MNLA and others from the Islamist Ansar Dine, following the collapse of efforts by the two groups to join in setting up a breakaway state.
The rebels seized control of the north while a military coup was unfolding in Mali's capital Bamako in March.
The MNLA, calling itself "resolutely secular," declared the independence of the north in April but said last Friday it had rejected a deal with Ansar Dine because of that group's insistence on implementing sharia, or Islamic law.
Meanwhile on Thursday residents of Timbuktu said they had launched an gang to kick out the Islamists currently controlling the ancient city in the far north of Mali.
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... on Thursday called for UN backing for military intervention in the north. On Friday, Malian government front man Hamadoun Toure said "all options are possible, national and international."
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[Iran Press TV] The head of Iran's cyber police says the perpetrators behind the recent cyber attack on the Iranian Oil Ministry have been traced to the US.
Kamal Hadianfar told news hounds on Saturday that two suspicious American IP addresses were identified in the cyber attack.
He said that the issue has been pursued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Interpol, adding that the US needs to disclose the identity of the hackers to Iran.
He said that the cyber attack on the Oil Ministry was successfully neutralized.
On Monday, April 23, the Iranian Oil Ministry front man said a cyber attack targeted the ministry and the National Iranian Oil Company, adding, however, that it had failed to damage any key data.
"The cyber attack has not damaged the main data of the Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Company since public servers are separate from the main ones; they have different [network] wirings and are not connected to the Internet," Ali-Reza Nikzad said.
Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Hamdollah Mohammadnejad said later that the attack was "in the form of a virus that aimed to steal and damage data", adding that "those who designed the malware "pursued certain objectives."
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Sunday evening's Mexican presidential debate, the second since the campaign began, may the the last chance the three main contenders for president of the republic will have to lay out their case to the Mexican public before the July 1st election.
Several news events could shape the upcoming debate, including a surprising if disappointing endorsement of Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) candidate Enrique Pena Nieto from former president Vicente Fox, current Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojona's immediate predecessor.
Fox's explicit endorsement earlier last week was probably in response to a poll published by Reforma news daily a week before that placed leftist candidate Andres Manual Lopez Orbador within four percentage points of Pena Nieto, despite every other nationwide poll giving Pena Nieto at least 20 percentage point over his rivals.
Fox's endorsement was followed by calls within Partido Accion National (PAN) to expel the former president from the party. Fox has in the past been given to outrageous comments on Mexican national politics. He has also expressed personal misgivings about the candidacy of PAN candiate Josefina Vazquez Mota.
Later in the week Fox walked back his comment a little by saying the bad old PRI could not wreak the kind of havoc that they had in the past explicitly because of the numerous reforms passed by himself and President Calderon. The walkback seemed to temper the controversy somewhat for the third place PAN.
Between the time of Fox's comments and the eve of the second presidential debate, however, polls have come out which, rather than redefine the race, have sharpened the distinctions among the candidates enough so the Reforma poll was tagged an outlier. Every presidential poll nationwide including GEA/ISA, Consulta Mitofsky and minor polls run by individual news outlets have Pena Nieto by as much as 20 percentage points, a lead which has held eerily without changing for 10 weeks, despite numerous and recent gaffes by Pena Nieto.
Not giving up. Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) leader José de Jesus Zambrano Grijalva announced late last week that his own internal polling has Lopez Obrador leading Pena Nieto by four points. Zambrano was quick to point out the respondents were mostly urban dwellers, a voting block also hotly contested by PAN. PRI's strength lies in unions and peasant political organizations as well as urban dwellers.
PRD has been busily organizing demonstrations against the return of PRI to Los Pinos, the first being an anti Pena Nieto protest march two weeks ago in Mexican city. That gathering drew 22,500 protesters, many of them likely PRD militants and radical socialist elements such as the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) or Mexican Electricians Union.
Three weeks ago a protest movement sprang up on several Mexican universities calling itself Yo Soy 132, which is a Mexican reference to the American "I am the 99 percent", like Yo Soy 132 an astroturf socialist organization attempting to democratize a republic.
Some of the agenda of Yo Soy 132 matches the agenda of PRD and its leader, Lopez Obrador including support for violent armed "resistance movements", presumably including the Ejercito Zapatista Liberacion Nacional (EZLN), which started and lost the Chiapas conflict in early 1994, as well as other armed Marxist guerilla movements which are still operational in Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas states.
The SME is a supporter of EZLN as is Javier Sicilia, leader of the Movement for Peace Justice and Dignity. Sicilia was among the Mexican Catholic Church team which negotiated the January 1994 ceasefire. Many of the leaders of Sicilia's movement have been drafted onto at large slates of deputies. Far from maintaining the original mandate of his organization, Sicilia's only response to the news was to encourage his own supporters not to vote at all as a protest.
How much influence Yo Soy 132 will have on the current presidential contest is unclear, but the Mexican independent left has its fingerprints all over it including information operations. Since Yo Soy 132 became known, a second Pena Nieto love child has emerged, as have stories about his sexual preferences, the second of which was published a week ago in a Los Angeles Spanish language newspaper.
Pena Nieto is currently married to one of Mexico's most beautiful women, Mexican soap opera actress Angelica Rivera Hurtado.
This is taking a page from the PRI playbook. Many PRI politicians have used foreign Spanish language press to smear electoral opponents with planted news stories likely to affect voters' preferences.
The presidential debate, thanks to the efforts of Yo Soy 132, are to be televised by the Mexican Televisa media giant. The debate will also be live fed through many Mexican newspapers websites including Milenio. The debate begins at 1800 hrs.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
At least six terrorists militants were killed in a special operation in Dagestan Friday, according to the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAC). They said, "One of the militants was eliminated when he tried to break through a police cordon. The other militants were killed in a shootout after they refused to lay down arms and surrender."
The NAC added that there were no casualties among law enforcement officers or civilians and the terrorists militants were being identified.
One man was killed and eight people were wounded in two separate incidents in Pattani province on Saturday.
Two monks and six policemen were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Muang district on Saturday morning. The Buddhist monks, escorted by police, were collecting alms on foot on the road in front of Prince of Songkla University when the home-made bomb buried at the side of the road exploded.
The two monks and the six policemen were hurt and admitted to Pattani Hospital. Police blamed separatist terrorists militants.
In Panare district, a gunman shot and killed a local administrator at a teashop. Witnesses said that Arsi Madae, 48, was drinking tea at the shop when a gunman walked up to him and shot him several times at close range with 9 mm pistol. The assailant then fled. Arsi was hit several times in the torso and died on the spot.
A British journalist has claimed that Syria's armed rebels were trying to get him killed in order to use his death to fuel the West-led propaganda against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... Channel 4's journalist, Alex Thomson, claimed that Syrian rebels had set him up to die "in the middle of no-man's-land" near the Lebanese border after he and UN officials met at al Qusayr, a city in western Syria.
Thomson said the rebels did not accept that he had a visa from the Syrian government and deliberately gave them incorrect directions writing on Channel 4's website, "We are led another route. Led in fact, straight into a free-fire zone."
Nevertheless, despite Thomson's claims that they could be shot at by the Syrian army, they got out of what he called "a free-fire zone" safe and sound.
Moreover, while remaining suspicious that Syria's armed rebels set them up to be killed by the Syrian army, Thomson did not mention the possibility that they could be killed by the armed rebels themselves in a propaganda against the Syrian government as in many cases like the recent Houla massacre.
"I have no doubt in my mind what happened, nor independently, does the very experienced cameraman I was with, and, perhaps more importantly than that, neither does the driver or the translator we were working with have any doubt at all that we were deliberately led out of that town, which the rebels knew was dangerous," said Thomson in an interview with Russia's English news channel Russia Today.
This article starring:
Alex Thomson
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The body of a khasadar ...a rural policeman in Pakistain or India... , who was kidnapped few days ago, was found in Ingeer Khura area of Hangu district ... Hangu is famous for its greenery, hills, beauty and water. Most of the people of this area are Bangash & Orakzai Pashtuns. Part of the Bangash are Shia. The Orakzai and the Sunni Bangash are determined to kill them... on Friday.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain grabbed credit for the kidnapping and killing of the khasadar, Ghulam Rasool.
The dear departed was serving in Khasadar Force in Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... and had come to Hangu for some personal work from where he was kidnapped few days ago.
Taliban sources said that they killed the khasadar because he was a government servant and fighting against them in the tribal area.
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... police and security forces tossed in the clink Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! 28 suspects and recovered weapons from their possession during a search operation in Hangu district on Friday.
The search operation was carried out in the areas near the border of Orakzai Agency. The security forces seized one light machine gun, four pistols one gun and hundreds of cartridges during the operation.
The jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! persons were shifted to their respective cop shoppes for investigations.
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06/10/2012
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When Hina Khar embarrassed Zardari
Writing in Express Nusrat Javeed narrated that when a high level American person came to see President Zardari in connection with foreign policy and Pakistain's attendance of the Chicago Conference on Afghanistan the president was favourably disposed to consider the invitation when it came. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was also there but she threw in a monkey wrench by intervening (phat pareen) and telling the American guest that Pakistain could not commit to Chicago until Parliament had issued the new guidelines on Pakistain's foreign policy. President Zardari was shaken by this and thought he had to deal with another Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi. This could have ended her prospect of becoming prime minister in case Gilani had to go.
Moinuddin Chishti jihadi saint
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that the famous saint of Ajmer Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was reputed to be a saint of peace but in his day he was known to favour jihad in the name of Islam. When he saw that the Hindu Rajputs were becoming too cruel he called in the Moslem invader Shahabuddin Ghauri from Afghanistan. Ghauri came and trounced Prithvi Raj Chauhan. This gave rise to the naming of missiles by India and Pakistain. India named its missile Prithvi (not after Prithvi Raj but as one of the elements of nature) and Pakistain retaliated by naming its missile Ghauri. (India's other bigger missile is Agni which proves that Prithvi was not named after Prithvi Raj.)
Zardari was a 'munshi' of America
Leader of PPP Bhutto Shaheed, Ghinwa Bhutto was quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt as saying that those who are demanding more provinces are speaking the language of America. She added that Zardari was a 'munshi' (clerk) of America. She asserted that Bilawal was not the rightful heir of the Bhutto legacy. Her children are from the son of Bhutto therefore the rightful heirs of the Bhutto Legacy.
Some graves give off nice smell
Daily Jang reported from a popular GEO TV programme in which a soul expert Allama Shabbir and a group of gravediggers discussed the experience of soul (ruh) after separating from human body. They all agreed that after death the soul of the dead person does not reside in the house as some people believe. But they agreed that some graves belonging to good and pious people start giving off perfume.
Not even food allowed on Nato route
Leader of the Defence of Pakistain Council of holy manal parties Maulana Samiul Haq said in Express that his followers will spill blood to stop the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... supplies when they resumed. He said he would not allow even the supply of food to NATO forces through the Pak route. Ex-ISI boss Hameed Gul said America was coming next to Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... and he was unhappy that Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... had changed his stance on the NATO supply route.
Saudis don't oppose gas pipeline
The Foreign Office was forced to say in Jinnah that 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... was not opposed to the Iran Pakistain gas pipeline and that the visit of the deputy foreign minister of Saudi Arabia had not visited Pakistain to force Pakistain to abandon the project. The rumour was that Saudi Arabia was opposed to the project because that would lighten the sanctions on Iran and make it strong enough to make the bomb and threaten the Arab states.
Attacks on Kandahar and Bannu prisons
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that two important jailbreaks were achieved by the Taliban in the month of April. In April 2011 they attacked the big prison of Kandahar in Afghanistan and easily took away 500 of their dangerous member terrorists. In April 2012, they attacked the big prison in Bannu in Pakistain and walked away with 286 hardened criminals including a number of their members held there. At Bannu over a hundred of Taliban came across a number of security checkposts in their vehicles and no one could stop them because of fear of being killed.
America's discriminatory apology policy
Daily Jang had Hamid Mir saying that when India's actor Shahrukh Khan was held at the American immigration for two hours the Americans apologised to India but America would not apologise to Pakistain after killing Pak troops at Salala Checkpost in November 2011. But America was forced to use the Pak route for its supplies because the Russians and Central Asians had asked for too much money for passage through their territory.
'Karant' pir of Jhelum
Reported in Jinnah a spiritual guide called Saeen Abid called 'Karant Pir' in Sarai Alamgir in Punjab was raping innocent women by promising to solve their domestic problems. Women called on him at his home where he used live electric wire in his doorway to render them senseless after which he raped them. He used electric current to stage his miracle and was therefore called 'karant' Pir.
Jamaat accepted Zia rule
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir started that after General Zia imposed his military rule and tried to validate it through Islam, a number of religious leaders opposed him. They were: Allama Ehsan Elahi Zaheer who was killed during a rally of his party, Ahle Hadith. Allama Ariful Hussaini of the Shia faith too opposed him and he was killed in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar. But Jamaat Islami decided to join his government and live under his Shariat Bill.
Sughra Imam almost became minister of state
Reported in Mashriq daughter of PPP leader Syeda Abida Hussain almost became minister of state in the Foreign Office after being appointed by President Zardari. But incumbent minister Hina Rabbani Khar opposed the appointment and threatened to resign if Sughra Imam was inducted.
Shabasha, Pasha!
Famous columnist Major (Retd) Mehmood Abbasi wrote in Jinnah that General Pasha head of the ISI was true soldier and loyal to Pakistain and only those people were happy over his final retirement because he had not done them any favours. He became disliked by those who took bribe from America after he opposed America's infiltration of Pakistain with spies like Raymond Davis and talked back to the bullying US officials. He also unmasked the treasonable conduct of Ambassador Haqqani who was working for the Americans by allowing spooks to enter Pakistain without checking. Pasha did not forgive Haqqani and because of his sincerity also persuaded General Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... to honestly tell the Supreme Court what had transpired in the 'memo' case.
'Nuclear father' speaks out!
Dr AQ Khan told Nawa-e-Waqt that PM Gilani was continuing to insult the Supreme Court which was not right while the Supreme Court was not able to come up to the expectations of the people by not deciding some major cases. He said Reko Diq was given in the hands of Chief Minister Raisani who could not tell the tail of a frog from its head.
Judges should not threaten lawyers!
Quoted in Mashriq lawyer and human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... worker Asma Jehangir stated that the courts should not threaten lawyers when they give their valid views about the running cases. She said Memo Commission had no law under which it could suspend the practice of a lawyer. The judges should remain within the ambit of law while deciding.
Yes. The current Al Qaeda Number One is a Muslim Brotherhood graduate, a perfect example of impatient Ikhwanism run amok.
Since the fall of the Mubarak regime and the rise of political Islamism following the electoral victories of the Moslem Brüderbund, a new potential menace has resurfaced in the security vacuum -- the rise of cut-thoat jihadist groups. These groups embrace an extreme Salafist interpretation of Islam, which accepts violence as a legitimate means of realising their demands.
"Sometimes violence is the only way to achieve your objectives!" a young Salafist jihadist from Al-Arish told Ahram Online, preferring to remain anonymous.
So true, though not nearly so often as young enthusiasts are willing to believe.
For decades, former president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... and his National Democratic Party (NDP) asserted its legitimacy via the Islamist threat, forewarning of what has now become the political face of post-revolution Egypt: an Islamist political landslide and the rise of extreme jihadist Islamist groups.
To be followed by the murder of minorities, rapine, plunder, famine and disease... in short, the riding forth of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. One can only hope that this time the Muslim world will learn the lesson they have thus far avoided.
Today, the media, along with moderate Islamist and secular political forces and minority groups, maintain that Islamist jihadist groups are posing a mounting threat to Egypt's security and regional stability. Some experts believe scare tactics are being used to deter the possibility of an Islamist president, which seems likely given the victory of Mohamed Mursi, the Brotherhood's candidate recent in the first round of presidential elections.
"Scare tactics are typical of electoral polling. Fears of jihadists in Egypt are exaggerated," said Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a noted human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... and democracy activist. This opinion was echoed by the general advisor to the grand mufti of Egypt's prestigious Al-Azhar religious institution, Ibrahim Negm. "I don't think there is a tangible threat in the immediate future, even if Mursi loses." He added: "Though there are of course jihadist elements and pockets."
Voicing the opposite view, Henri Wilkinson, head of intelligence and analysis at the Risk Advisory Group, believes that threat is likely to intensify with time. "I'd say there is genuine potential for this threat to grow and become a much bigger issue than it is now."
There is also genuine potential that I might cross the 5' barrier I have been approaching from underneath my entire life. After all, I am only fifty in people years. Come sir, live dangerously and pronounce a probability.
This notion is supported by some grassroots observers who claim the jihadist threat is much bigger than many like to admit. "After the revolution, jihadist groups are stronger. More people joined, because they no longer fear the consequence of jihad," claimed Mohamed Sabry, a 26-year-old and journalist from Al-Arish. "I believe they are strong enough to fight if elections don't go their way and are forged by the SCAF [Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces]."
The journalist from Al-Arish, a coastal city in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula renowned for its jihadist elements, has befriended many jihadists. He told Ahram Online that such groups do not recognise democracy as a means of change.
"We do not believe in democracy; we do not vote. Democracy is atheism!" confirmed a young Salafist jihadist from Al-Arish who preferred to remain anonymous.
Some Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... nonetheless accepted disqualified presidential candidate Hazem Abu-Ismail as the only "real" Mohammedan candidate, and were distraught by his elimination from the race, staging a sit-in in Al-Arish's Al-Horaya Square.
Observers believe there are two principal jihadist movements in Egypt, both based in Sinai but with countrywide influence: Takfir Wal Hijra and Salafist jihadism, whose adherents are known as Salafist jihadists. Both factions adhere to an extreme Salafist interpretation of Islam, following Al-Qaeda's philosophy and goal of re-establishing an Islamic Caliphate.
But experts believe that Al-Qaeda itself does not exist in Egypt.
So? If other organized groups with the same objectives and access to the Internet think globally but reapply best practices to work locally, does it matter if the front man is not Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri?
"I guarantee there is no Al-Qaeda presence in Sinai, but the Takfiris ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... are in the thousands," the head of North Sinai security was recently quoted as saying. North Sinai Governor Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, who also denied the presence of Al-Qaeda, also affirmed the presence of cut-thoat religious groups.
"We often don't have a name for jihadist groups, so we put them all under the same 'Al-Qaeda' umbrella to simplify matters," explained Mohamed Kadry Said, a military specialist with the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
Takfir Wal Hijra is one of the initial radical Islamist groups founded by Shukri Mustafa to have emerged in Egypt in the 1960s as an offshoot of the Moslem Brüderbund. According to the group's radical ideology, even Mohammedans that do not share its beliefs are infidels.
Most of its followers live in the desert, maintains Sabry. It is believed to have grown smaller following a security crackdown on the heels of the murder of an Islamic scholar and former government minister in 1977. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... locals claim the group's influence has grown in northern Sinai in the last year, since the revolution, and some allege it is allied to Al-Qaeda.
"I feel they may be planning to do something with Al-Qaeda in the future. Our intelligence is most likely watching them very closely," asserted Said.
Sabry and the Salafist jihadist, however, believe Salafist jihadism poses a bigger threat to national security. "Takfir Wal Hijra are not a threat; they just label atheists; they do not employ violence. We, on the other hand, do!" professed the Salafist jihadist.
Salafist jihadism, as termed by renowned scholar Gilles Kepel, was first identified as a threatening phenomenon in the mid-1990s. Experts claim Salafist jihadists are in the thousands and constitute the largest jihadist force in Egypt, openly embracing violence as a means to reach political goals.
"In order to get freedom, innocent people must die," said the young Salafist jihadist. The young jihadist claimed his movement's following was much larger than experts suggest. "Check out our Facebook page: we have 100,000 likes! In Sinai, we have about 10,000 followers and in Egypt around one million." Experts, nevertheless, deny these figures.
"These jihadist groups are too small and too few in number to represent a real threat," reassured Saber Taalab, director of the Islamic Research Centre in Nasr City.
Notably, some Salafist jihadists were tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! on charges of participating in the Sinai attacks in 2004 and 2005 that killed some 125 people at the Red Sea beach resorts of Sharm Al-Sheikh, Dahab and Taba. No evidence of their involvement in the attacks, however, was ever produced.
The group staged a sit-in last year to demand the release of its members. In response, the current interim government of Kamal El-Ganzouri released them. Many believe this amnesty would not have happened before the revolution.
Salafist jihadists were also accused last year of launching an attack on a cop shoppe in Al-Arish in which five Egyptian security personnel were killed.
When questioned about Salafist jihadism's ideology and goals, the primary issues listed include liberating Paleostine and establishing an Islamic emirate in Sinai, which many believe has been partially realised in some areas.
"We're following Al-Qaeda's strategy for establishing an Islamic Caliphate by 2020 designed by the late Osama bin Laden ... who had a brief but splitting headache... , God rest his soul," said the young jihadist. "The plan predicted the Arab uprisings, out of which an Islamic state will be born."
In the small town of Sheikh Zuweid, located only a few kilometres from Gazoo, such aspirations appear to be a reality, as slogans dubbing Sinai an "Islamic state" cover the local cop shoppe.
The town was left terrorised last year after a local Sufi shrine was blown up by five jihad boy jihadists. Locals from Sheikh Zuweid believe that the increase in jihadist extremism is a direct result of state neglect and the collapse of traditional tribal structures.
"The jihadists and groups who declare society apostate have infiltrated the tribes, taken up arms and threatened the structure of social custom," declared Ahmed El-Eiba from the Azazna tribe, an activist from Sinai.
Sheikh Zuweid is known as a hub for exporting weapons to Gazoo, and Al-Hasna and Nakhl are markets for local weapons where tribes buy and compete.
El-Eiba explained how the Libyan uprising had served to create a vibrant arms market. Weapons are purchased for personal use, or to accumulate an arsenal, such as in Syria or in larger operations that would alter regional security balances.
Islam Qwedar, a young activist from Sinai blamed former security officers in the Mubarak regime for introducing tribes to the lucrative arms trade, which has led to dwindling security. "They were the first to introduce this lucrative trade," he stressed. The rising number of luxury cars in and around Al-Arish reflects the prosperity brought about by this nascent arms trade.
"The security vacuum after the revolution led to the establishment of a black market for weapons from Libya, which was taken over by Bedouin. The situation is beyond control and can only be redressed through security measures adopted by the state," Qweder affirmed.
While the normal arms trade through Sinai tunnels to gangs in Gazoo continues, both Qwedar and Mohamed Ibrahim Hamad, the son of a tribal leader in Bir Al-Abd, are preoccupied with the recent influx of weapons from Libya and their effects on national and regional security. "Weapons markets in Egypt are now controlled by cut-thoat groups who are beyond the control of the tribe," said Hamad.
One of the root causes behind the rise of extremism in Sinai, many believe, relates to the state's refusal to recognise Bedouin rustics. A government report in 2010 said a quarter of all Sinai's population of some 600,000 did not carry national ID cards. The Bedouin account for the majority of this number; they are not allowed to own land or serve in the army and do not benefit from local tourism revenue.
"We don't feel like Egyptian citizens," said Sheikh Ahmed Hussein of the Qararsha tribe, one of the biggest in southern Sinai. "The Mubarak regime created this problem; intensified the problem of jihadist groups by not giving the people of Sinai their rights," stated Essam Durbella of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya.
Sensing the urgency of the problem, the El-Ganzouri government has granted amnesty to some tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! hard boyz and called for the revival of several local development projects, including a railway and canal to supply water to central Sinai.
With what funding? Egypt can only feed her people now because of loans from Saudi Arabia, et al, and even that will run out as oil prices fall.
Abdullah Abu-Ghama, a member of parliament from Sinai, says this cannot come too soon. "The state has to speed up the process of development," he said. "If not, the mother of all problems will occur and hard boyz will increase in number."
Another fundamental issue plaguing Bedouin and jihadists in Sinai concerns Israel, as they see themselves as Egypt's first line of defence against Zionist expansion.
Those juices have been crowding in on the the borders of Cairo, have they, driving up property prices? Or are they referring to military expansion -- against which they were such a staunch defence in the last several wars?
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... in Tel Aviv, there are intense research and policy efforts aimed at addressing Sinai as a potential flashpoint.
Israel is visibly concerned, and is making plans to revise security agreements based on military experts' claims concerning missiles being horded or traded in Sinai -- missiles that they say are more advanced than SAM, Fateh and Grad missiles, which can be used for large-scale operations. Israel's Begin-Sadat Centre has drafted a plan for the partial reoccupation of the border zone and intervention in Sinai, which has been ruled out -- for the time being -- by the right-wing Netanyahu government.
A barrier is also being built along Israel's 266-kilometre (165 mile) border with Sinai in an attempt to ease tensions between Israel and Egypt. Israeli government front man Mark Regev claimed that the barrier is aimed at preventing illegal border crossings, and may also diminish the likelihood of large-scale security threats from Sinai.
One of Israel's stated fears relates to the possibility of Paleostinian factions in Gazoo using Sinai as a launch pad for attacks on the self-proclaimed Jewish state.
Before it was self-proclaimed it was voted into existence by the entire United Nations. That was the first war the Ummah lost to the Jews, establishing the habit and demonstrating Allah's will in the matter.
The Paleostinian group Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin (formerly known as Al-Tawhid Wal Jihad) based in Gazoo reflects this fear, as it is said to be linked to Al-Qaeda and closely aligned with Egyptian jihadist groups similar to those that allegedly murdered president Anwar Sadat after the signing of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.
Experts also believe that the puritanical Islamic ideology sweeping Sinai today poses a grave security threat, not only regionally, but also to Egypt and Paleostinian resistance faction Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, which itself has been confronting Al-Qaeda-type militancy in Gazoo. Views on how to tackle the problem vary.
Following the trend of past Islamist waves in Egypt, some experts claim that heavy-handed police crackdowns have only aggravated the problem. Others believe the situation will only be quelled once a president has been elected in Egypt.
"With the new president and government, security will be restored," affirmed military advisor Kadry Said.
Egypt's new president and government will undoubtedly need to manage this high-priority issue tactfully," Sinai MP Abdullah Abu-Ghama warned.
Rifaat Said of the leftist Tagammu Party speculated: "If [the Moslem Brüderbund's] Mursi becomes president, jihadist elements in society may be pacified, as they might accept Mursi as the best alternative who will apply Islamic Law."
This may not, however, pacify everyone, as the young Salafist jihadist described current Islamist politicians -- including Mursi -- as "liberal."
"The Salafists and the Moslem Brüderbund in parliament are liberals with beards who are going to be the next NDP. They will just use Islamic slogans, but will not enforce Islamic Law," he said. "The Moslem Brüderbund will work with the SCAF, just like Hamas works with Israeli intelligence!"
Reassuringly, Ibrahim remains adamant -- after considerable personal and academic exposure to Salafist jihadists -- that the jihad boy jihadist problem in Egypt will be mollified with the coming of the country's next president.
How nice for him.
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Saudi and Pakistan will be proud of a new jihadi ally.
[Tolo News] Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior sacked the Sar-e-Pul police chief and the prison director after the jailbreak on Friday in which as many as 30 Taliban gunnies escaped, the ministry said in a statement Saturday.
The pair, Sar-e-Pul police chief Abdul Yaqoob Zabuli and prison director Colonel Mohammad Aslam, were also summoned to Kabul for questioning, according to the statement.
Nearly 30 inmates managed to break out of the jail in Afghanistan's northern Sar-e-Pul province after a bomb near the wall of the prison exploded on Friday. Although the guards began to shoot at the escapees and those assisting them, many still managed to flee.
Deputy provincial governor Akhtar Mohammad Khairzada told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Friday that 14 were re-captured but 16 others are still under police pursuit.
He also added that three inmates were killed in the gunfire following the kaboom and 28 others were maimed during the clash between the security forces and the attackers.
The Taliban grabbed credit for the attack and said more than 170 inmates managed to escape the prison.
"As a result of the attack, 170 prisoners beat feet from the prison. The mujahideen took them to a safer place. The escaped detainees include Taliban's district chiefs and other commanders," Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, a front man for the Taliban said.
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(Sh. M. Network)-Hundreds of fresh Æthiopian troops have on Saturday crossed into Somalia to join the ongoing regional battle against Al Qaeda-affiliated gunnies of Al shabab in South-western Somalia, residents and officials said.
Reports said about 50 battlewagons carrying Æthiopian soldiers entered in the border town ofLuuqin Gedo region where Somali government troops are based and battling with Al shabab fighters for years.
In an attempt to verify this report, Shabelle Media contacted on the phone with Somali military commanders in the region, but the commanders declined to comments, saying they were not authorized to speak to the Media.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... Al shabab fighters in Gedo region are reportedly began military exercises and reinforcements to defend an offensive fro Somali and Æthiopian troops massing in the areas near their strongholds.
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Point of information: what is a battle wagon? And are fifty of them, fully loaded, a large or small force, given they're going into Somalia rather than invading Iraq?
[An Nahar] A suspected Islamist stabbed two coppers Friday at an underground station in a Brussels neighborhood where scuffles broke out a week earlier, local media reported.
The two victims, a man and a woman who were attacked during a routine check, did not sustain life-threatening wounds, the reports said.
The attacker was quickly subdued and was found to be carrying documents connected to Shariah4Belgium, an thugMoslem group active in Belgium, public television said.
"He confessed to wanting to attack the police because of Belgium's attitude towards Moslems," television said.
Clashes broke out last week in the same Molenbeek neighborhood between police and Moslem youth over the arrest of a young woman wearing a full veil.
The Shariah4Belgium group had then posted a video on the Internet defending the tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! woman. The group's leader was subsequently placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! .
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[Dawn] Hundreds of families were forced to flee when Taliban launched a fresh offensive against Kukikhel ...a tribe of primitives inhabiting Khyber Agency. They are a branch of the Afridi tribe. Traditionally they have been migratory, tromping between Jamrud and the Rajgal valley with the seasons. The tribe has had mustache-cursing relationships with several other tribes, including the Zakkakhel and Kambarkhel, and with the Mullagori. They make welcome most anyone with a turban and automatic weapons, but every once in awhile they get together a tribal lashkar to mollify the government... tribe in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Friday.
Sources said that about 500 families, belonging to Maniya Khel and Sra Vela localities of Tirah, reached Ghundi village of Jamrud while around 300 more temporarily settled down in Ali Masjid area.
Saifullah, a resident of Maniya Khel, told Dawn that they left behind every thing as they were forced to flee their houses.
"Taliban came in a large number. They were heavily armed," he said. He added that Kukikhel volunteers could not offer any resistance as they had exhausted all their ammunition and also vacated most of their bunkers.
Saifullah said that Taliban were also supported by Ansarul Islam, a local myrmidon group headed by Mulana Mehboobul Haq. He alleged that the local myrmidon group was affiliated with Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... -Fazl.
Noor Zahir, another Kukikhel volunteer, also said that his tribe, which had earlier vowed to expel Taliban from their soil at any cost, lost most of their areas to Taliban fighters of Tariq Afridi group.
He said that Taliban started consolidating their position in the areas, which the Kukikehl volunteers vacated after the offensive was launched.
"Taliban occupied our houses and seized most of our belongings including household items, cattle and stocks of edibles, which we use to keep for winter," he said.
Mr Zahir said that poppy crop cultivated on hundreds of acres of land was also left behind. He said that poppy was one of the major crops on which most of the Kukikhel families relied.
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[An Nahar] Army shelling and gunfire killed at least 70 civilians in protest towns on Saturday, including women and kiddies, a watchdog said.
According to the Syrian Local Coordination Committee, 29 were killed in Homs, 26 in Daraa, 20 in Latakia and one person in Hassaka, Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... and Daraya in Reef Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... Nine women and three children were among 17 people killed in a pre-dawn bombardment of a residential neighborhood in the southern city of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Dozens more were maimed, some of them seriously, in the city which was the birthplace of the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's rule, the Britannia-based watchdog said.
In nearby Jordan, hundreds of Syrian refugees demonstrated in the border town of Ramtha to protest against the deaths in Daraa, Jordan's official Petra news agency reported.
Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system... U.N. observers who visited the village of Al-Kubeir, where at least 55 people were killed earlier this week, said they saw blood on the walls and "a strong stench of burnt flesh."
The Al-Kubeir incident prompted Western governments to launch a push for tough new sanctions against Damascus. But Russia, along with China, has already vetoed two Security Council resolutions against Assad.
In central Syria, government forces on Saturday pounded several rebel neighborhoods of Homs city with artillery and mortar fire, killing six civilians, the Observatory said.
It said the army killed at least 29 civilians nationwide, while three soldiers died in festivities in the north and four rebel fighters were also reported killed, taking Saturday's corpse count to at least 36.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse that dozens of regime troops were killed or maimed in fighting at Al-Heffa in Latakia province, but was unable to give exact figures.
Diplomats in New York said Britannia, La Belle France and the United States would quickly draw up a Security Council resolution proposing sanctions against Syria following a grim report from the monitors on their visit to Al-Kubeir.
"We will move fast to press for a resolution," one U.N. diplomat told AFP.
More than 20 unarmed U.N. observers were allowed into Al-Kubeir on Friday, a day after monitors were shot at and prevented from entering the village.
"Inside some of the houses, blood was visible across the walls and floors. Fire was still burning outside houses and there was a strong stench of burnt flesh," U.N. front man Martin Nesirky said in New York.
U.N. officials have made clear they believe government forces and their allies were behind the attack on the mainly Sunni Moslem village surrounded by an Alawite population loyal to Assad.
Damascus denied responsibility and blamed foreign-backed "terrorists."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2012
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#1
Proably won't get the same reaction because it's spread out. But Pencilneck is pushing it pretty hard here.
[Tolo News] Foul play is being suspected as the cause of a school fire in Kabul city's District 7 on Thursday night, school officials said.
While most of the school desks and scaffolding remain, the canvas structure Ghazi Abdullah khan Achakzai school was burned away in a blaze which is being treated as deliberate.
School director Azimulldin Fayez told TOLOnews that the enemies of Afghanistan are trying to stop the development of education.
"Of course, it is clear that the enemies of Afghanistan and religion have done all this - they are not allowing the Afghan people to get an education," Fayez said.
The blaze happened when it was already late in the evening, it was dark, and no one was present at the school, he added.
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06/10/2012
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[Iran Press TV] Spain's Economy Minister Luis de Guindos has announced that his country has asked for European financial aid for banks.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2012
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#1
This round of bailouts is now official: Rooters reports that Spain has been offered up to 100 billion euros in loans by the euro zone finance ministers.
(Sh.M.Network)-A ransom of at least $4 million was paid for the release of a Greek-owned chemical tanker with 21 Filipino crew members seized by pirates six months ago, a Somalia news site reported early Saturday (Manila time).
Somalia Report said the pirate gang that released the "Liquid Velvet" claimed getting $4 million in ransom for the vessel, which they released last June 5.
"They released the vessel on the 5th of June. We were not aware that they released the vessel because the negotiation failed two times before Tuesday, and this group moved from Buq village to the miles in the sea, and after they released they return to the land with speed boats," it quoted Faysal, a pirate in Garacad area, as saying.
It added local pirate Aw-Kombe and his gang, who come from the Bari region, were heavily involved in the hijacking of Liquid Velvet.
Somalia Report said the commander of the gang is one Cabdule Gabobe of the Omar Mohamud sub-clan of Majerteen.
The Liquid Velvet was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on October 31 last year, while transiting from Suezto India.
It carried 21 Filipino crew members. The 17-year-old tanker has a gross tonnage of 5,998 tons and is Marshall Islands-flagged, owned by Athens-based Elmira Tankers.
Somalia Report said the pirates initially demanded $8 million in ransom.
On Friday, Foreign Affairs front man Raul Hernandez said the tanker was released earlier this week.
Hernandez said the families of the crew members were already informed by the local manning agency about this development.
The DFA has instructed the Philippine Embassy inMuscatto provide assistance to the crew members once the vessel docks at the Portof Salalah.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2012
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#1
Glad they were talked down from $8m to $4m but even that seems a bit steep.
On the other hand, human cargo of 21 plus the chemicals... yeah, maybe $4m sounds about right.
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/10/2012 8:05
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#2
claimed getting $4 million in ransom
"claimed"
well, even if it was $100,000 it was too much. I wouldn't trust their claims - they won't tell you a real low amount because that lowers the market price
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2012 9:50
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[Iran Press TV] Pakistain has rejected US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's ...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.... recent allegations regarding beturbanned goons as "safe havens" in its territory, a move that could intensify tensions between the two troubled allies.
"We feel that the Secretary of Defense is oversimplifying some of the very complex issues we are all dealing with in our efforts against extremism and terrorism," Pakistain's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
"We strongly believe that such statements are misplaced and unhelpful in bringing about peace and stability in the region," the statement added.
On Thursday, Panetta said stabilization efforts in Afghanistan would be difficult as long as beturbanned goons have safe havens in Pakistain.
"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," Panetta said.
The foreign ministry added that Islamabad will "follow its own timeline" and strategy on operations against beturbanned goons and "will not allow its territory to be used against any country, nor will it allow any safe havens on its territory."
The Pakistain-US relations experienced particularly serious strains in 2011 after a CIA contractor killed two Paks and a US team infiltrated the Pak territory under the pretext of killing al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden. ... who has made the transition back to dust...
This was topped by US air strikes in November which killed 24 Pak soldiers at two army outposts on the Afghan border.
The last incident prompted Islamabad to shut down supply routes to US-led foreign military forces in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2012
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#1
Safe havens? Don't be ridiculous. No where in Pakistan are terrorist safe. Nor should ISI members that try to make it so.
Thank you drone zappers.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
06/10/2012 13:27
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[Al Ahram] Parliamentarian Mostafa Bakry has filed an official complaint with the public prosecutor against the Moslem Brüderbund leading figure, Mohamed El-Beltagi, accusing him of inciting his murder.
In his complaint Bakry asked for further investigations. He claims that Al-Beltagy has made several statements against Bakry on various websites, including Ikhwan (Brotherhood) Online, some of which encouraged someone to take him out because of his anti-Brotherhood stands.
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[Iran Press TV] Media reports say two British nationals and one Qatari citizen have visited senior Syrian refugee figures in northern Leb reportedly gathering information on how to smuggle arms into Syria.
Leb's Almanar TV network has reported that the Western and Arab spies are using the northern borders of Leb as their base for carrying out covert operations and facilitating arms smuggling across the border into Syria.
The Lebanese news agency also reported that two British nationals and a Qatari citizen had visited the Akkar district in northern Leb last month meeting with Syrian rebels and collecting information about routes to smuggle arms into Syria.
This comes as The Washington Post reported last month that Syrian Islamic fascistihad "begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks."
Moreover, The Daily Star reported earlier this month that Britannia's Special Air Service (SAS) troops and MI6 agents were setting up camps in Syria so that they would be able to help Syria's armed rebels in case a civil war would broke out in the country.
Even as early as February, a report published by Israeli intelligence outfit DebkaFile showed British Special Forces were operating with Syria's armed Islamic fascistiin the Syrian city of Homs directing ammunition deliveries and tactics in the terrorists' bloody battle against Syrian civilians.
Furthermore, after the massacre at Houla, the state-run BBC published a photo of dead Iraqi children to illustrate the Houla slaughter and the UK government expelled Syrian diplomats from London while evidence issued by the Syrian government showed that the massacre was committed by the very armed rebels Britannia itself is supporting.
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[Dawn] QUETTA has been plagued by continuous acts of violence for the past several months. On Thursday, a bomb went kaboom! outside a madressah killing at least 16 people. Though relatives of a JUI-F leader were among the victims, with no group claiming responsibility it is unclear if a rival group was behind the blast as the police too remained in the dark; in fact a number of religious parties protested against the killings on Friday. Such acts of violence -- along with regular assassinations -- in the scenic provincial capital make it clear that Balochistan's ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... administration has failed to do its job. Of course, there are several shades of violence in the troubled province. While on one end security agencies are accused of killing Baloch activists and then dumping their bodies, separatists are also alleged to be committing atrocities. Among the victims of Quetta's violence have been personnel of the Balochistan Levies as well as regular coppers, some of whom were investigating sectarian murders. Non-Baloch civilians have also been bumped off, while members of the Shia Hazara community are targeted on a regular basis. Some Sunni holy mans have also been killed. Such is the tangled web of violence in Quetta.
The Balochistan government often makes tall claims about initiating 'operations' against 'terrorists', yet these have failed to translate into reality as violence in Quetta keeps escalating. Even the prime minister's recent visit to the scenic provincial capital has had little effect on the situation. If the administration cannot maintain order in the scenic provincial capital, we wonder how it would be able to do so in other militancy-hit areas in Balochistan. It is convenient for the rulers to blame 'terrorists' and 'foreign agents' for fomenting trouble in the province. But beyond the blame game solid action needs to be taken so that people's lives are secure. The police as well as other provincial and federal law-enforcement agencies need to come up with a comprehensive plan to neutralise violent elements in the province and prevent further bloodshed. The writ of the state is largely absent from Balochistan. It is high time the authorities in Quetta and Islamabad took measures to change this.
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[Dawn] Chairman Tehrik-e-Insaaf Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... has said that the revelations coming out in Arsalan Iftikhar case clearly show a deliberate attempt to undermine the Supreme Court.
In a statement, the PTI chief said that the sequence of events clearly shows that the target of the entire conspiracy was the Chief Justice of Pakistain, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
"Unnerved by the courageous decisions of the Supreme Court, the ruling mafia decided to damage his image. Since the CJ himself is incorruptible and a man of high integrity," he said. Khan stated that those wanting to weaken him chose to target his son.
"While much of the evidence is yet to come out, said the PTI chairman, it has been admitted by Riaz Malik according to newspaper reports that he paid for vacations and shopping sprees of Arsalan Iftikhar.
Why did he do this, asked Khan? CJ's son was not working for Riaz Malik and had no business relations with him. The only reason this was done was to entrap him and then blackmail or undermine the integrity of the Chief Justice, said Imran Khan.
"This is further established by the fact that all the receipts of the transactions and reportedly some video clips were carefully retained. If there was no ulterior motive," said Chairman PTI, "then why was this incriminating evidence against the CJ's son being collected?"
He said that there is little doubt that this was a well thought out conspiracy to defame the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court and Malik Riaz played a central role in it.
"Arsalan Iftikhar also has much to explain," said Imran Khan, and that if evidence establishes that he accepted favours by making promises of influencing his father, then he must bear the consequences.
"The Chief Justice has done the right thing by deciding not to hear the case himself. The truth will surely come out. But, facts reported in the media clearly show that Riaz Malik's intent was not to buy influence but only to compromise the Chief Justice's son and use this later to defame the judiciary," said the statement by the PTI chief.
"We know who are the real instigators behind Riaz Malik's conspiracy. He is just a pawn in the hands of the corrupt Zardari/Gilani cabal ruling the country that is threatened by an independent judiciary. It has long been seeking to undermine it in whatever way possible," he said.
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#1
Arsalan Iftikhar, english translation Billy Bob.
(Sh. M. Network)-Somalia Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohammed, has strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! World Bank report issued at the Somalia conference in Istanbul, Turkey that the TFG has not accounted for most of the revenues and donations it received in 2009 and 2010.
After returning home on Friday, Somali PM Abdiweli Mohhamed Ali, told news hounds in Mogadishu that his government has not received the $130 million donated funds and he called to probe where such money has been spent.
"It is baseless that Somalia government has committed fraud and has not accounted for revenues and donations it received in 2009 and 2010,"said Somali premier.
Mr. Ali disagrees with World Bank report publicizes that huge corruption in Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
The report which caused a big buzz amongst delegates at the Somalia conference inIstanbul shined a light on the mismanagement of funds allocated to the TFG for the 2009 and 2010 year.
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[Iran Press TV] An Iranian politician has lashed out at insistence of ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano to visit Iran's military site in Parchin, saying that "Western spies" will never be allowed to visit the military sites.
Iran and IAEA held a new round of talks in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Friday, ahead of the forthcoming multifaceted negotiations between Tehran and the P5+1 - the US, La Belle France, Russia, China, and Britannia plus Germany - in the Russians capital, Moscow.
The IAEA is pressing Iran for an agreement to give its inspectors immediate access to the Parchin military complex, where the agency claims explosive tests related to development of nuclear weapons have taken place.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2012
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#1
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > MOSCOW TALKS [P5+1, Iran] WILL [most?]DEFINITELY FAIL, [Western-led] BULLYING INEFFECTIVE [+ to blame for Talks' failure]: IRAN MP.
and
* SAME > IRAN NOW ONE OF WORLD'S TOP [Five or]SIX MISSLE POWERS. Iran Assistant DM Ali Shamshiri.
IIUC, IOW by Iran's scope one of the historical. post-WW2 "BIG 5" + INDIA has de facto lost its MISSLE MOJO-not-Jojo-not-Lolo-not-Rolo ... ...???
I'll go out on a limb here for Moud + Iran and say BRITAIN due to the presently much-reduced, post-2012 to be smaller still, pre-CVF QUEEN LIZ ROYAL NAVY = ROYAL EVERYTHING + BTW the MoD???
As opposed to FRANCE + FNS CV CHARLE DE GAULLE'S WILY PROPELLERS.
D *** NG IT, MAYBE THATS WHAT THE PROPELLERS WANT IRAN + US, WORLD TO THINK - WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT???
[Dawn] Eight civilians died in southwestern Ivory Coast in the attack that killed seven UN peacekeepers, the United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... said Saturday.
"As per our information, at least eight non-combatants were killed, including a woman," Anouk Desgroseilliers, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AFP.
She added that Friday's simultaneous raids on several villages near the town of Tai close to the Liberian border sparked an "immediate" exodus.
"Hundreds of people have arrived in Tai, and one can imagine that thousands of others are on the road," she said. "Thirty-five families have crossed the border" into Liberia, she added.
The UN peacekeepers from Niger killed in an ambush on Friday had been patrolling in an area between two villages after hearing rumours of an imminent attack on communities in the region.
Ivory Coast's west, by far the most unstable part of the country, has been plagued by deadly attacks since a political and military crisis that started at the end of 2010 and left some 3,000 people dead throughout the country.
It was the biggest loss suffered by the 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast since it was first deployed in 2004 in the country divided following an unsuccessful coup against then president Laurent Gbagbo. ... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker... Desgroseilliers said aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Thingy, the Danish Refugee Council and local groups were on site to assist those displaced, including supplying food and water.
OCHA was trying to coordinate the response to the situation with local authorities, she added.
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[Dawn] Chief of the inquiry commission on 'missing persons' Justice (R) Javed Iqbal said that baseless propaganda was being done pertaining to the number of missing persons in the country, DawnNews reported.
"For the past decade, authorities have been unable to compile the complete details of those on the list of missing persons," Iqbal said.
He claimed that that foreign intelligence agencies were involved in the issue of missing persons.
The inquiry commission's chief further said that the list also contained the names of those living abroad and also those who have been involved in terrorism-related cases.
Addressing a news conference in Quetta, the retired judge said that the chief minister of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... had sent a list of 945 'missing' persons to the commission. Iqbal moreover said that complete details of even 45 persons on the list had not been made available.
"We sent the list back to the ministry for correction but it never came back," he added.
He further claimed that there was concrete evidence regarding the involvement of foreign agencies in the country.
The commission's chief said that in the past week 12 people who had been missing were recovered from Balochistan. He claimed that some of the missing persons were in Afghanistan but they could not be recovered because they were in US-controlled territory.
Iqbal said the federal government had taken the missing persons' issue seriously but trust on the state's institutions was imperative in order to resolve it.
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[An Nahar] Bahraini police maimed several people on Saturday morning when they fired sound bombs, tear gas and bird shot to disperse dozens who protested across several Shiite areas, witnesses said.
"Down Hamad," chanted dozens of supporters of the youth group of the "Revolution of February 14," referring to Bahrain's Sunni monarch. "The people want to overthrow the regime."
"We have the right to choose our destiny," they chanted, waving the kingdom's red and white flag.
An exact toll of those hurt cannot be obtained, as maimed protesters are treated in homes from fear of being placed in long-term storage Please don't kill me! in hospital.
Hundreds took part in similar protests near Manama on Friday calling for the release of opposition detainees, witnesses said.
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Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2012 12:19
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#3
Compare wid DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > POSTER OPINION: SHOULD SAUDI SHIAS GET THEIR INDEPENDENCE?, espec as most of the KSA's oil is widin Shia-dominated/majority local areas.
Not unlike Rising China in the East-South China Seas, as regional Shia Muslim unrests continues + escalates?, THE US-WORLD SHOULD EXPECT RISING IRAN TO EVENTUALLY STOP USING "SOFT" OR MIXED "SOFT-HARD" POWER + INSTEAD BECOME STEADILY, INCREASINGLY "HARD" = MILITARILY/
MILPOL "AGGRESSIVE" IFF NOT ABSOLUT BELLICOSE???
[An Nahar] Russia will not approve the use of force against the Syrian regime at the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... , Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday at a briefing in Moscow.
"We will not sanction the use of force at the United Nations Security Council," Lavrov said in televised remarks as he gave a briefing on Russia's proposal for an international conference on Syria.
He acknowledged that U.N.-Arab 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 tattered peace plan for Syria was stalling but stressed the Kremlin saw no alternative to it.
"The settlement plan has begun to seriously falter," Lavrov said. "We do not see an alternative to the implementation of this plan."
Russia, which is pushing for a conference on Syria to include Iran despite U.S. protests, said that to deny Tehran a role in helping negotiate an end to the crisis would be "thoughtless".
"To say that Iran doesn't have a place because it is already to blame for everything and it's part of the problem and not part of the solution ... this is thoughtless to say the least," said Lavrov.
He said that Russia would be "only glad" to support the departure of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... if Syrians agreed on it, without wanting to impose the process from the outside.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IRAN: SYRIAN INTERVENTION [by Foreign Powers]"WILL BE [resisted +] DEFEATED".
and
* TOPIX > IRAN WILL RESIST FOREIGN INTERVENTION IN SYRIA.
Once again, looks like alleged "neo-Persianist" Iran = Rising Iran wants its land-based strategic access into the Mediterranean + beyond, + ISN'T TAKING "NO" FOR AN ANSWER???
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > THEY EVEN ADMITTED THEY ARE SENIDNG TERRORISTS TO SYRIA | DOZENS OF KUWAITIS "FIGHTING SYRIAN REGIME".
ARTIC = Kuwaiti Fighters claims that there are "large numbers" [Kuwaits? Other?] from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, + Pakistan whom are ready to fight the Assad regime - PERSONALLY, IN THE ABSENCE OF NEW INFO YET TO THE CONTRARY I WILL PRESUM THAT THESE LATTER ARE NOT KUWAITIS, BUT OTHER MUSLIMS IN GENERAL.
#2
OOOOPPSIES, forgot CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > IRANIAN GENERAL: OUR FINGER [is] ON WAR TRIGGER, "ENEMIES ARE ALL WIDIN RANGE OF OUR RESISTANCE FIRE". IRGC Senior Commander BGEN. Massoud Jazaeri.
ARTIC > Iran "Resistance Front" as defined or meant by Iran refers to the axis of Iran, Syria, + Hezbollah in Lebanon; HEAD OF BASIJ MILITIA = IRAN WILL NOT TOLERATE FALL OF ASSAD REGIME.
ARTIC also reminds that IRAN'S MULLAHS = believe that any foreign attack on Syria + Iran, + consequent Iran military counter-response, WILL TRIGGER THE RETURN OF MAHDI = 12TH IMMAM.
[An Nahar] Sudanese rebels seized control of an area in war-ravaged eastern Darfur after deadly festivities with government militias, their front man said on Saturday, adding that the army continued to bombard the area.
"Justice and Equality Movement forces seized the Um Ajajah region in eastern Darfur on Friday, destroying a mobile contingent of government militias and capturing 20 small vehicles and large trucks loaded with military equipment," JEM front man Gibril Adam Bilal said.
"There were casualties on the side of the government troops and we also took a number of them as war prisoners," he told AFP in English by phone, without specifying how many troops were killed or captured.
"We expect more fighting today. The Sudanese air force is still bombarding the Um Ajajah area," he added.
But army front man Sawarmi Khaled Saad denied that Sudanese troops were in the area, claiming instead that JEM forces were seizing civilian property in the region.
"The rebels attacked civilians in this area and looted their properties. They also looted the property of a company building roads there," he said.
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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.
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans flooded downtown Caracas on Sunday to support opposition candidate Henrique Capriles in the biggest rally to date of his campaign to unseat cancer-stricken socialist President Hugo Chavez.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, believes that college has become, for many, merely a "status marker," signaling membership in the educated caste, and a place to meet spouses of similar status -- "associative mating." Since 1961, the time students spend reading, writing and otherwise studying has fallen from 24 hours a week to about 15 -- enough for a degree often desired only as an expensive signifier of rudimentary qualities (e.g., the ability to follow instructions). Employers value this signifier as an alternative to aptitude tests when evaluating potential employees because such tests can provoke lawsuits by having a "disparate impact" on this or that racial or ethnic group. 
Some think that Ohio will decide the presidential election. Others are watching Florida or North Carolina or Wisconsin. But if you really want to know who will win the White House in November, you should ask the Europeans. They aren't eligible to vote, but they may well cast the deciding ballot -- and for President Obama, it's looking grim.
By lotp
By lotp.
Gunmen opened fire on a church in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday, spraying the congregation with bullets and killing and injuring many of them, according to witnesses.
Reports on Egyptian web sites Sunday morning said that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had died Saturday night. The story was reported on the official web site of Egypt's state broadcasting company, quoting reports on other web sites and in social media. The reports are uncomfirmed, the web site stressed.
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
At least four Pak 
...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...
China will launch a spacecraft this month to conduct its first manned space docking, state media said Saturday, the latest step in a plan aimed at giving the country a permanent space station by 2020.
[Iran Press TV] A UK UFO expert has warned about the possibility of sudden alien appearance in London skies during the upcoming Olympic Games in the British capital.
Egyptian state TV stopped airing controversial anti-spying ads Friday night. The ads have been widely condemned as being xenophobic and painting all foreigners in the country as spies.
Beijing believes militants train in Pakistan before crossing the border and launching attacks in Xinjiang
Wazoo
A man said to be a member of the Kuchhi Rabita Committee (KRC) was 
International Criminal Court
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Tuareg rebels who have declared a separate state in northern Mali have met for the first time with the West African mediator in the Malian crisis, 
The head of Iran's cyber police says the perpetrators behind the recent cyber attack on the Iranian Oil Ministry have been traced to the US.
At least six 
One man was killed and eight people were wounded in two separate incidents in Pattani province on Saturday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Orakzai Agency
When Hina Khar embarrassed Zardari
Mehmood 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
[Tolo News] Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior sacked the Sar-e-Pul police chief and the prison director after the jailbreak on Friday in which as many as 30 Taliban 
(Sh. M. Network)-Hundreds of fresh Æthiopian troops have on Saturday crossed into Somalia to join the ongoing regional battle against Al Qaeda-affiliated 
Army shelling and gunfire killed at least 70 civilians in protest towns on Saturday, including 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
(Sh.M.Network)-A ransom of at least $4 million was paid for the release of a Greek-owned chemical tanker with 21 Filipino crew members seized by pirates six months ago, a Somalia news site reported early Saturday (Manila time).
Pakistain has rejected US Secretary of Defense 
Media reports say two British nationals and one Qatari citizen have visited senior Syrian refugee figures in northern 
Chairman Tehrik-e-Insaaf 
[Iran Press TV] An Iranian 
[Dawn] Eight civilians died in southwestern Ivory Coast in the attack that killed seven UN peacekeepers, the 
Chief of the inquiry commission on 'missing persons' Justice (R) Javed Iqbal said that baseless propaganda was being done pertaining to the number of missing persons in the country, DawnNews reported.
