This is an audio clip of a radio interview given by Pat Caddell fingers Obama's National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon as the likely White House leaker of classified operations.
From the beginning I have speculated personally that it was either Donilon or Jarrett. This gives a picture of personality, access, past performance, etc. that leads Caddell, a liberal but somewhat "common sense" Democrat, to the conclusion that it is obviously (to him) Tom Donilon who is the White House leaker.
Most importantly, Caddell asks the question of why Donilon is National Security Adviser in the first place. That is a question I have been asking myself.
[USA Today] Doctors used a defibrillator twice on Hosni Mubarak when they could not find a pulse Monday, the latest health crisis for the ousted Egyptian president since he was sentenced to life and moved to a prison hospital nine days ago, security officials said. The officials said the 84-year-old Mubarak was slipping in and out of consciousness and was being fed liquids intravenously. Mubarak also lost consciousness several times Sunday and officials have said he is suffering from high blood pressure, depression and breathing difficulties.
Mubarak's health scare adds one more layer to Egypt's turbulent political scene with a runoff vote to choose his successor a few days away. His death would bring down the curtain on a chapter of Egypt's modern history that has divided this mainly Muslim nation of 85 million people.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2012
13:27 ||
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Worse even than the Cambodian sanctuaries we granted to the North Vietnamese - the Taliban now can take safe shelter pretty much anywhere in Afghanistan. Get our people out now.
The senior allied commander in Afghanistan has ordered new restrictions on airstrikes against Taliban fighters who hide in residential homes, coalition officials said Sunday, a move in response to a NATO attack in the eastern part of the country last week that Afghan officials say killed 18 civilians.
The joint Afghan-NATO raid last week was hunting a Taliban commander and some of his fighters who had holed up in a home in Logar Province where a wedding had taken place, according to local residents. An early-morning firefight broke out between the coalition troops and the insurgents, with the civilians trapped inside. The coalition decided to call in an airstrike, which killed the insurgents but also 18 civilians, including 9 children, Afghan officials said. In other words, we got the guys we were hunting, but also hit their invisible human shields, so now we can't go hunting anymore. Get out people out now.
After a meeting on Saturday between Mr. Karzai, General Allen and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker of the United States to discuss the issue, aides to Mr. Karzai released a statement saying that General Allen had pledged to halt attacks altogether on residential areas and homes.
#2
Agreed - it is considered a war crime to attack civilian targets. However, if soldiers hide among civilians - using them as human shields - they are the war criminals, not the attackers.
The first Americans out of Afghanistan should be Karzai's security detail. See how brave he is then.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/11/2012 18:31
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#3
...aides to Mr. Karzai released a statement saying that General Allen had pledged to halt attacks altogether on residential areas and homes.
Hmmmmmmm...so where do ya think they're gonna go?
Anybody know anything about Allen? He doesn't seem all that bright.
The United Nations is increasingly concerned at the spread in Europe of "baby boxes" where infants can be secretly abandoned by parents, warning that the practice "contravenes the right of the child to be known and cared for by his or her parents", the Guardian has learned. It probably also contravenes their right to go on vacation with their parents, too. It does save them from being tossed into a convenient river...
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which reports on how well governments respect and protect children's human rights, is alarmed at the prevalence of the hatches -- usually outside a hospital -- which allow unwanted newborns to be left in boxes with an alarm or bell to summon a carer. I guess they'd rather the kids showed up dead somewhere for whatever reasons.
The committee, a group of 18 international human rights experts based in Geneva, says that while "foundling wheels" and baby hatches had disappeared from Europe in the last century, almost 200 have been installed across the continent in the past decade in nations as diverse as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic and Latvia. Since 2000, more than 400 children have been abandoned in the hatches, with faith groups and right-wing politicians spearheading the revival in the controversial practice. I saw my first one here in the good ol' U.S. of A. here a couple of weeks ago.
Their proponents draw on the language of the pro-life lobby and claim the baby boxes "protect a child's right to life" and have saved "hundreds of newborns". There are differing opinions on this key social issue across Europe. In France and Holland women have the right to remain anonymous to their babies after giving birth, while in the UK it remains a crime to secretly abandon a child. I guess some folks think that by making baby boxes go away that whatever the problem that is resulting in their existance will magically go away, too.
However UN officials argue that baby hatches violate key parts of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which says children must be able to identify their parents and even if separated from them the state has a "duty to respect the child's right to maintain personal relations with his or her parent". In other words, socialist governments cannot afford this, and have therefore failed on their most basic responsibility.
In an interview with the Guardian, Maria Herczog, a member of the UNCRC committee, said that the arguments from critics were a throwback to the past. "Just like medieval times in many countries we see people claiming that baby boxes prevent infanticide ... there is no evidence for this." And there never will be, either. But if not infanticide, then the kid will grow up in a bad environment, whereas those who would take these children into their lives would more likely offer a much better environment. Your choice.
Herczog, a prominent child psychologist from Hungary, says baby boxes should be replaced by better state provision of family planning, counselling for women and support for unplanned pregnancies.
She likened the pro-baby box movements in Europe to the religious right in the US. "Very similar to the United States where we have the spread of the Safe Haven programme with baby boxes in 50 states since 1999. Now we have MEPs arguing for baby boxes and they just reject the convention." It's a denial thing. Sort of like death panels look bad for socialist governments, too. Except with baby boxes the kids stand a much better chance of living.
The committee wrote last year to the government in the Czech republic, which has seen 44 baby boxes set up since 2005, asking it "undertake all measures necessary to end the programme as soon as possible" because it looks bad.
The ensuing row spilt over borders with two dozen right-wing MEPs, including the current president of Hungary, writing to complain that baby boxes "offer(ed) a solution for women who unfortunately keep their pregnancy a secret and fear to approach official instructions".
In an email to the Guardian, Manfred Weber, German MEP and vice-chairman of the European People's Party -- the largest grouping on the centre right -- who signed the anti-UNCRC letter, said the issue was one of competing "rights". "Although I am convinced that a child is best raised within an intact family, the safety of children is of higher priority than their desire to know their biological parents," he said.
There is evidence that the baby box idea is popular. A Swiss poll in 2011 found 87% saying baby boxes were "very useful or useful" and more than a quarter of respondents thought every hospital should have one. And a loudmouthed minority think they shouldn't. Gee, who should we listen to?
Herczog said that the committee is undeterred. "We review countries' adherence to the convention. We did Czech Republic. Austria is coming up. I cannot say for sure but I can imagine we will do the same for Austria (as the Czech Republic)".
Her stance was backed by experts. Kevin Browne of the Centre for Forensic and Family Psychology at The University of Nottingham has just completed a two-year study into the phenomenon. He said of the 27 EU member countries, 11 still have "baby hatches" operating -- Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia.
"There is growing evidence that it is frequently men or relatives abandoning the child, raising questions about the mother's whereabouts and whether she has consented to giving up her baby," he said. "You also have to ask whether an anonymous drop allows the authorities to check whether there's a chance for the baby to remain with its family in the care of other relatives." Take DNA from each baby. Problem solved. And if someone doesn't want their relatives taking care of the baby, there's probably a reason.
Browne's research found that the Czech Republic and Lithuania both have an average of seven infants left in baby hatches per year, followed by Poland with six and Hungary and Slovakia with four -- and highlighted that baby boxes had flowered in post-Communist eastern Europe. And is therefore bad somehow?
Politicians in the former Communist bloc dispute this analysis. Miroslav Mikolaik, a Christian Democrat MEP from Slovakia, said that the "communist idea" was "to take away violently a child from a family that they considered as an enemy of regime and place him or her in a state orphanage ... If UN convention on the rights of the child's article 8 that guarantees children's right to know their own identity means the death of only one unwanted baby, it is a very wrong article and very wrong convention."
In western Europe the issue is complicated by religious practice and the law. Sari Essayah, Finnish MEP from the centre-right Christian Democrats, pointed out that in Scandinavia "two lesbians can get sperm anonymously and have children. They don't know the name of the donor. So what about the rights of the child? The UN have got it wrong here about baby boxes." Shh, you're harshing their mellow, man.
Perhaps the most taxing problem will be Germany, the powerhouse of Europe, which has about 80 baby boxes operating across the nation. The German constitution says all citizens have a right to "know of their origins" and fathers have a right to be part of a child's upbringing. Both are breached when a mother gives birth anonymously. Hatches are tolerated -- but earlier this year German ministers floated the possibility of a new "legal framework for confidential births".
In February the German Youth Institute found that the anonymous service had lost trace of a fifth of all abandoned babies -- giving ammunition to those who want to end the practice. It would be easier to just fix the paperwork problem. Unless you have other motives.
However Bernd Posselt, Christian Social Union MEP for Munich who signed the letter to the UNCRC last year, told the Guardian that "our experiences with baby-boxes here in Munich, for example organised by a monastery, have been positive. I know also the problems, but for me it is essential to protect and to safeguard the life of children in extreme situations. All other problems can be solved with good will as long as the child is alive. It is not the decision of an United Nations committee what we are doing to help born or unborn children". And the UN needs to stop intruding into matters that are not part of their charter. And to start properly taking care of matters that are part of their charter. But hey, if you can't do your job, might as well distract.
#4
Survival rates of babies left in a baby box: 100%
Survival rates of babies abandoned elsewhere: ?
Next question
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/11/2012 17:27
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#5
Easy, after the requisite study, a committee should recommend posession of a baby sized box as a crime against Humanity punishable by not less than 6 years.
Posted by: Ho Chi B. Hayes7277 ||
06/11/2012 17:31
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#6
Survival rates of babies in an abortion clinic: very close to 0%
#7
Most (all?) states here have passed "no harm, no foul" laws that say you can leave a baby at a hospital, fire station, church(?), etc., and not get into trouble. And I'm fine with that, since it beats neglecting or killing the baby.
My question is, if they didn't want the baby, why did they carry it to full term and give birth when an abortion is so easy to get? Why go through all that trouble and pain if you're planning on throwing it away? It just doesn't make any sense.
As for the Useless Nitwits, they need to engage in retroactive self-abortion. It's for the children planet!
Posted by: Barbara ||
06/11/2012 19:40
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#8
Barbara
The most powerful emotion. Procrastination.
The father of the al-Qaeda-inspired gunman Mohamed Merah went on a killin spree in France before being shot dead by police, has filed a murder suit in Paris, his lawyers said Monday.
Mohamed Benalel Merah said in March that he wanted to sue the RAID elite police unit that shot dead his son on March 22 during a shoot-out at the end of a 32-hour siege at his flat in the southern French city.
The 23-year-old had shot dead three soldiers, and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school, in a wave of killings that shocked the country.
He filmed himself carrying out the attacks and reportedly confessed to police before he was shot dead.
"This is a suit against unnamed persons for murder with aggravating circumstances concerning those who gave the orders at the top of the police" during the assault on Merah's flat in Toulouse, said lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre.
"You've got 300 to 400 heavily armed people and a guy shut up all alone in his apartment. That alone is enough to raise questions," said Ms Coutant-Peyre, who is part of Merah's legal team headed by Algerian lawyer Zahia Mokhtari.
She said the family had video evidence that would be handed over to the authorities when they requested it.
Mokhtari said in April that she had proof that Merah was "liquidated", including two 20-minute videos probably filmed by Merah himself before he was shot
Indian state-owned refiners will halt planned oil imports of 173,000 barrels per day from Iran when European sanctions take effect in July, unless the government permits them to use insurance and freight arranged by Tehran, industry sources said.
India is the world's fourth-largest oil importer and second biggest customer of the OPEC member nation, but domestic shippers have refused to transport the oil because of a lack of cover, the sources said.
Unlike private refiners, India's state-run companies need government permission to import oil on a Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) basis as federal policy requires refiners to favor Indian insurers and shippers by buying only on a Free on Board (FOB) basis.
But Indian shipping firms say they will not lift Iranian cargoes from July as an emergency plan by state insurers to provide limited cover for Iran voyages has been delayed while the insurance regulator requests more details.
"It is becoming difficult. You settle one clause of the sanctions, then you realize you are trapped in the second," said one of the sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The United States has withdrawn negotiators from Pakistan after talks failed to produce an agreement on reopening Nato supply routes into Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Monday.
The decision was reached to bring the team home for a short period of time, Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters.
The team of negotiators had been in Pakistan for about six weeks, he said, as US officials had believed they were close to a deal with Islamabad to lift the blockade on Nato convoys.
But no breakthrough was imminent and there was no scheduled time for a resumption of the negotiations, Little said.
I believe that some of the team left over the weekend and the remainder of the team will leave shortly, said the spokesman. This was a US decision.
#4
At last check, the new transit deal wid the CAR States was for "non-lethal goods" only, which IIUC translates into a lot of heavy US-NATO firepower + related Milwares staying behind in Pakistan until further notice.
As for the former SDN ...
* TOPIX > US - PAKISTAN SUPPLY ROUTE NEGOTIATORS ARE TAKING A BREAK [tempor hiatus], BUT ARE NOT STALLED.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Pak COAS]KAYANI [bitch]SLAPS THE PENTAGON, REFUSES TO MEET [US Asst. SecDef] PETER LAVOY.
IIUC, Islamabad claim is that the Kayani-Lavoy meeting was no good for them because the Pak Army's Top Eggs, etc. are usually on formal leave-of-absence.
* DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > PAKISTAN "TRASHED" + INSULTED: KAYANI WON'T MEET WID SENIOR US OFFICIAL [Peter Lavoy].
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US SECDEF PANETTA THREATENS [strongly infers]GROUND INVASION INTO PAKISTAN, as based on his coment the US will "do whatever it takes" to protect its MilFors in Afghanistan, pre- + post-2014, from violent attacks originating from various Pak-based Militant-Terrorist "safe havens", e.g. Haqqani Network, which Islamabad doesn't appear to want do anything about???
HHHMMMM, HHMMMM, well, Syria or Pakistan, the US = US-Allies amy come head-to-head wid Pak BFF IRAN, as well Pak's other BFF CHINA???
WILL SAY IT AGAIN - A US-IRAN GROUND WAR NEED NOT NECESSARILY START IN IRAN PROPER???
* SAME > [TheNews.PK = Claim] NATO SUPPLIES BREAKTHROUGH: US TO FORMALLY APOLOGIZE FOR SALALA [ + pay US$2000.0 tariff/transit fee per Container], PAKISTAN TO REOPEN SUPPLY ROUTES.
ARTIC = US, Pakistan to launch "hot talks" on Supply Routes controversy + ultimately issue a "Joint Statement"???
* SAME > NEED TO PREVENT THE RETURN OF THE TALIBAN [to Power = Prominence] POST-2014: INDIA.
Eight dead and 49 wounded in Chicago this weekend read this morning's headlines. After 178 years of occupation, it is obvious that we are unable to quell the violence in Chicago and we should bring our people home.
Week after week the carnage piles up. Memorial Day weekend saw 10 dead and more than 40 wounded with monthly death tolls usually higher than Baghdad or Kabul.
While 2011 saw a slight decline in murders from 2010 (2010 saw 431 murders through December 29, there were 432 in the same period in 2010), they soared by 60 percent during the first quarter of 2012 to 120 compared to 75 in the same period of 2011.
Americans have apparently been unable to quell the violence despite having several National Guard and Reserve military units permanently based in the vicinity. At the current pace, we are on track to see more violent deaths in Chicago than US soldiers killed in Iraq in 2003 (486).
We should simply admit that we have tried, but we have failed. We should begin the withdrawal of our people from Chicago.
#4
Chicago's population has fallen to what it was in 1910. Illinois saw an increase of about a half a million people between 2000 and 2010 while the city of Chicago and Cook County lost 200,418.
What that means is that the political influence of Chicago within the state of Illinois is falling. It has slightly less influence on elections than it had at its peak population (and thereby political influence) in 1960 because it has a declining portion of the overall population of Illinois.
#9
...in Chicago that only applies to Republicans cause someone has got to pay taxes. Donks don't care if you're alive or dead, just as long as you vote Donk.
#10
You know where the architects of Fast and Furious came from? Chicago. When it comes to seeding and tending to the "Gardens of Death", their is non better than the regime.
Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris filed suits on Monday against the two parliamentary candidates he attacked last week during a TV panel discussion.
Kasidiaris accused Liana Kanelli of the Communist Party (KKE), who he punched three times, and SYRIZA's Rena Dourou, who he drenched in water, of unprovoked verbal abuses.
The Golden Dawn representative also sued Antenna TV, which hosted the program, of attempting to hold him against his wishes and journalist Antonis Delatolas, who was on the panel, of abuse of power.
Kasidiaris claims that Delatolas called first instance prosecutor Eleni Raikou to ask her to issue an arrest warrant and alleges that the journalist was on unusually friendly terms with the judicial official.
An arrest warrant had been issued for Kasidiaris after the incident on live TV but police were not able to track him down in the 48 hours needed so he could be fastracked through the justice system.
Kasidiaris issued a statement over the weekend saying the incident had been staged with the aim of making him and Golden Dawn look bad.
Kasidiaris was due to appear in court on Monday to face charges of being an accomplice in a violent attack on a student in 2007. The neo-Nazi politician denies driving the car that carried the victim's attackers.
The case, however, was postponed until September 3.
Yemeni troops seized control of an Al-Qaeda munitions factory in the southern Abyan province on Monday as battles for control of the restive region killed 26 militants, local and military officials said.
The bodies of 12 militants were discovered inside the factory which lies on the outskirts of the Al-Qaeda stronghold of Jaar, a military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A Yemeni air raid on Al-Qaeda positions in Jaar meanwhile killed six jihadists, a local official said.
In the nearby town of Shaqra, where many of the local Al-Qaeda leadership is believed to be hiding, fierce clashes between troops and militants killed eight militants, a military official said.
Five soldiers were also wounded in the battles, the official added on condition of anonymity.
In 2003, a year before his death, Forbes Magazine placed Yasser Arafat on their list of the worlds wealthiest kings and despots with a net worth of 300 million dollars. This number was on the low end of the estimates that had been made of the fortune of the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israeli intelligence had estimated Arafats net worth at 1.3 billion dollars and an audit conducted by American accountants, authorized by the Palestinian Authority, turned up 1 billion dollars in investments. While an exact number may never be arrived at, Time Magazines report that Arafats wife had received a 200,000-dollar-a-month allowance, gave one small glimpse into the lifestyles of the rich and infamous of the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian Authority books were a black hole with billions of dollars from Western and Muslim countries, bribes and foreign aid, going to a network of secret bank accounts and investment portfolios that not only financed terrorism, but also the lifestyles of the men at the top. The audits of the PA in the twilight days of Arafat and afterward were meant to reestablish the credibility of the Authority with foreign donors, while seizing control of the assets stockpiled by Arafat for the benefit of the new bosses.
Mahmoud Abbas, Arafats successor, has been accused of hoarding a fortune of 100 million dollars and of owning palaces and property across the Middle East. Those accusations come from Mohammed Rashid, Arafats former financial advisor, who knows the ins and outs of Palestinian Authority finances like no one else, and whose own net worth is estimated at being around half a billion dollars.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/11/2012 10:37
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#2
The Palestinian Authority books were a black hole with billions of dollars from Western and Muslim countries, bribes and foreign aid, going to a network of secret bank accounts and investment portfolios that not only financed terrorism, but also the lifestyles of the men at the top.
The PLO were running a 'Stimulus Package' before there was a 'Stimulus Package'.
A man from Iran who is an associate professor in an institute in Stockholm actually cut off his wife's lips with a knife and then proceeded to consume them.
The incident occurred in Stockholm when the 52-year-old man got furious with his much-younger wife. He was suspicious of his wife's activities and was convinced that she was involved in an extra-marital affair.
The husband does not regret his actions and feels he was honour bound to attack his 'cheating' wife.
Given the extent of injury to the woman, the prosectuion was gunning for a murder attempt but toned it down to grievous injury.
The woman is suffering and is in a lot of pain, a Swedish newspaper revealed. It is still not clear if her injuries can heal or not.
#5
Convict, jail, at the end of his sentence repatriate him alone to his home country after giving all his assets to the injured wife. The principle here is that those who demonstrate inability to assimilate to the Western culture need to be required to live where they are more suited.
SNC Gets New Leader; Insurgency Grows; Foreign Jihadists Flock to Syria; Some Claim Houla Dead are Alawis
Syrian government forces shelled rebel strongholds across the country on Sunday, opponents of the government said, while the main opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council, chose a new leader .
Abdelbaset Sieda, a Kurdish professor of Arabic and philosophy who promised the organization would be overhauled.
We will expand and extend the base of the council, he told reporters at a news conference, so it will take on its role as an umbrella under which all the opposition will seek shade.
The Syrian National Council, formed last fall, has been plagued by infighting and has been criticized as ineffective, amounting to little more than a front for the long-exiled Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood with little influence inside the country. Its top post was supposed to rotate every three months, but Bourhan Ghalioun, another exiled academic, held on to it until an outcry over his most recent re-election in May, especially from inside Syria, prompted him to step down.
Council members involved in the process hailed Mr. Siedas election as proof that the Syrian opposition was committed to upholding democratic principles and the idea of a leaderless revolution. He ran unopposed.
The ideal leadership of the council is not through one person because no one is elected and has actual legitimacy, said Bassma Kodmani, a member of the executive committee. Until such time as there are free elections in Syria, she said, the choice of the president of the council should be made by consensus.
The revolution does not want to see a big leader, or one individual who leads everything, Ms. Kodmani said. Personalization leads to polarization.
A bomb hidden in a toy exploded in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing a mother and wounding three young children who had picked up the device while out playing, police said.
The incident took place in the Nasir Bagh area on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar that runs into the semi-autonomous tribal belt that US officials consider a safe haven for Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants.
"The children, including a girl and two boys, brought home a bomb concealed in a ball, which exploded with a bang killing a woman and wounding her two boys and a niece," senior local police official Shafeerullah Khan told AFP.
The dead woman was aged 32. Her wounded niece is four years old, and her two sons seven and nine, police said.
Local police official Haqdad Khan confirmed the casualties.
Pakistan is on the frontline of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda. Since July 2007, a Taliban-led insurgency concentrated in the northwest has been fighting against the US-allied government.
Europe has lit the fuse on an economic and financial bomb. The rescue package for Spain cannot plausibly be contained to 100bn once it begins, given the subordination of private creditors and collapse of global confidence in the governing structure of monetary union.
CBS News has learned the House Oversight Committee will vote next week on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. It's the fourth time in 30 years that Congress has launched a contempt action against an executive branch member.
This time, the dispute stems from Holder failing to turn over documents subpoenaed on October 12, 2011 in the Fast and Furious "gunwalking" investigation.
The Justice Department has maintained it has cooperated fully with the congressional investigation, turning over tens of thousands of documents and having Holder testify to Congress on the topic at least eight times.
However, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., says the Justice Department has refused to turn over tens of thousands of pages of documents. Those include materials created after Feb. 4, 2011, when the Justice Department wrote a letter to Congress saying no gunwalking had occurred. The Justice Department later retracted the denial.
"The Obama Administration has not asserted Executive Privilege or any other valid privilege over these materials and it is unacceptable that the Department of Justice refuses to produce them. These documents pertain to Operation Fast and Furious, the claims of whistleblowers, and why it took the Department nearly a year to retract false denials of reckless tactics," Issa wrote in an announcement of the vote to be released shortly. It will reveal the vote is scheduled for Wednesday, June 20.
Issa says the Justice Department can still put a stop to the contempt process at any time by turning over the subpoenaed documents.
If the House Oversight Committee approves the contempt citation, the matter would likely be scheduled for a full House vote.
For several weeks, there has been closed-door discussions and debate among House Republicans as to whether to move forward with contempt. Some have expressed concern that it could distract from the Republican's focus on the economy in this election year.
Led by Republicans Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Issa, Congress' investigation into Fast and Furious is now in its second year. In the ATF operation, agents allowed thousands of weapons to "walk" into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in the hope it would somehow help ATF take down a major cartel. Some of the weapons were used in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry at the hands of illegal immigrants crossing into Arizona. Mexican press reports say hundreds of Mexicans have died at the hands of the trafficked weapons. The story was exposed nationally for the first time by CBS News in February 2011.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have called the Republicans' move to find Holder in contempt a politically-motivated "witch hunt."
In 1983, Congress found EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch Burford in contempt for failing to produce subpoenaed documents.
In 1998, the GOP-controlled House Oversight committee found Attorney General Janet Reno in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena on campaign finance law violations.
In 2008, the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee found former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Chief of Staff John Bolton in contempt for failing to cooperate with an inquiry into whether a purge of federal prosecutors by the Bush administration was politically motivated.
Congress went to federal court to seek enforcement of that contempt action, but a compromise was reached with the Executive Branch before any court decision was final.
#1
Holder maintains that DOJ higher-up's emails that reference "fast and furious" are NOT referring to that "fast and furious", but "gunwalker".
really
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/11/2012 10:41
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#2
So -- what loop holes can the MSM find to NOT cover this? They have yet to say a word about it.... bet they are scrambling now --- Journolist has probably moved on to something other than Twitter, with that 140 letter constant.... much work finding the "talking points" now that this has to be covered.
I know -- It's Bush's fault --- "wide receiver, etc......"
The obituary for "Occupy," posted at the website of the geniuses who thought it up in the first place.
Our movement is living through a painful rebirth There has been a unfortunate consolidation of power in #OWS, writes one founding Zuccotti. This translates into ideological dominance and recurring lines of thought. We are facing a nauseating poverty of ideas. Burned out, out of money, out of ideas seduced by salaries, comfy offices, book deals, old lefty cash and minor celebrity status, some of the most prominent early heroes of our leaderless uprising are losing the edge that catalyzed last years one thousand encampments. Bit by bit, Occupys first generation is succumbing to an insidious institutionalization and ossification that could be fatal to our young spiritual insurrection unless we leap over it right now. Putting our movement back on track will take nothing short of a revolution within Occupy. Meet the new mob, the same as the old mob....
Posted by: Mike ||
06/11/2012
07:46 ||
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#1
Gosh, we sure missed out on them siezing control of the US government. Just imagine the great job they would have done!
George Chuck, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher whose work is literally grounded on those same 2 acres, sees it much differently.
Chuck, whose work is affiliated with UC Berkeley, said protesters have claimed the site might be used for a new Whole Foods Market but plans for that development are adjacent to the farm, on land that's already been developed.
Some protesters, Chuck said, claim research at the Gill Tract is funded by large oil and other corporate concerns. But it just ain't so.
Chuck's research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy - and it's far more important to society than anything the protesters are trying to do.
For the past decade, he's worked on mapping corn genes to identify which ones produce energy. His work adding corn genes to switchgrass has more than doubled the yield of biofuels produced by the hybrid crop. His findings were published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That research, which has the potential to increase alternative fuel sources sounds more important than the desires of two dozen or so people growing 2 acres worth of anything.
"What's worse is that when I tried talking to (some of) these guys, they just started spouting slogans someone else told them," Chuck said.
I've written programs that do that - probably more intelligently too! And as far as the group's efforts to grow crops on land Chuck said is not yet ready for planting, "They have no idea what they're doing," he said.
Since protesters arrived, they've managed to destroy a fruit tree that was the subject of a research project, created a waste pile, built a rickety chicken coop and left the gate open allowing wild turkeys to escape or be killed by predators that entered the unlocked facility, he added.
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Do I really have to say it? What a bunch of maroons!
I sounds like the only constructive thing they've done is create a waste pile. Kind of like Obama.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/11/2012 14:29
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#7
Burned out, out of money, out of ideas... seduced by salaries, comfy offices, book deals, old lefty cash and minor celebrity status, some of the most prominent early heroes of our leaderless uprising are losing the edge that catalyzed last year's one thousand encampments.
Well, I don't see that this actually happened, but it sounds like they sold out to THE MAN!!!
President Obama has received yet another endorsement, this time from the daughter of Cuban military dictator Raúl Castro. Mariela Castro proclaimed her support for the sitting president 10 days ago, during a visit to the United States. "I believe that Obama needs another opportunity and he needs greater support to move forward with his projects and with his ideas, which I believe come from the bottom of his heart," she said in a CNN interview in New York. I'll bet Mitt Romney is shocked, shocked and disappointed.
The dictator's daughter, who is a vociferous proponent of the Cuban status quo, Surprise again!
was ostensibly in the U.S. to discuss matters pertaining to her field of expertise, which has something to do with advocating for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights. She'll fit right in at the Democratic National Convention.
As the Cuban-born writer Carlos Alberto Montaner put it in a syndicated column last week, "Mariela is tolerant of sexual preferences and intolerant of all the rest." He added: "For her, freedom and emotional coherence are something very specifically situated south of the navel."...
Posted by: Mike ||
06/11/2012
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Of course she would endorse Obama. Communists always endorse other Communists.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/11/2012 7:53
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"I believe that Obama needs another opportunity and he needs greater support to move forward with his projects and with his ideas, which I believe come from the bottom of his heart,"
I was thinking more along the lines of the bottom of the barrel.
Caution: Either this "article" was written by a junior high student or a liberal. Or a junior high school student with liberal parents. Whatever the case, I couldn't resist.
It sounds like a silver lining. Even if the Supreme Court overturns President Barack Obama's health care law, employers can keep offering popular coverage for the young adult children of their workers.
But here's the catch: The parents' taxes would go up. Not an issue. It could only be a small amount. If it's so bad, they can decline to cover their kid. Or the kid can get a paper route for a week out of every year and pay for their own costs. Or work it off around the house or by mowing a few lawns each week. It might be easier to open a lemonade stand, but the Lemonade Stand Nazis out to save us from all the broken health regulations would shut them down and fine them.
Surely the Ay Pee journalist and his highly paid editors mean fees rather than taxes. Fees are paid to an insurance company to purchase an extra service, whereas taxes are paid to the government to provide services to others.
That's only one of the messy potential ripple effects when the Supreme Court delivers its verdict on the Affordable Care Act this month. The law affects most major components of the U.S. health care system in its effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured people. Oh my goodness. And how messy that last example was in your own mind! I can hardly stand it! But carry on, I have to see what other weak excuses you can come up with as to why we need to put up with this obvious trial balloon of federal government overreach in our lives rather than risk putting something together that works some afternoon after everyone comes back to their senses.
It seems to me the first example is simply a return to the status quo ante, the way things were before that travesty of a bill was forced through Congress. That is the point, isn't it?
Because the legislation is so complicated, an orderly unwinding would prove difficult if it were overturned entirely or in part. We don't even know what's in the stupid bill yet. Worst case: Either way will be painful. At least if it's overturned, the pain will represent the gain of getting rid of this socialist monstrosity which, by the way, also has provisions to create a "civilian" army under POTUS's control. The last thing anything with a brain wants, including my goldfish.
Better Medicare prescription benefits, currently saving hundreds of dollars for older people with high drug costs, would be suspended. Ditto for preventive care with no co-payments, now available to retirees and working families alike. If it's so great, redo the best parts of the bill and throw out the stuff that nobody likes. It's not like it's the end of the world.
Partially overturning the law could leave hospitals, insurers and other service providers on the hook for tax increases and spending cuts without the law's promise of more paying customers to offset losses. Partial? My money's on the whole thing being thrown out. How are nine justices going to be able to decide what should be kept or trashed? Would that not be legislating from the bench? The best they can do would be to indicate a few of the unconstitutional power grabs that the bill contains and hope for something that is less than 2800 pages in length and without all the anonymous "amendments" sneaked in at the last second the second time around. In either case, the concept of severability is crap IMNSHO. It can be used for bait-and-switch tactics.
If the law is upheld, other kinds of complications could result. Not really, but do blather on.
The world could come to an end next Tuesday, too, but that's not how the smart money is betting. Anything is possible -- it behooves us to spend our time thinking about things that are probable.
The nation is so divided that states led by Republicans are largely unprepared to carry out critical requirements such as creating insurance markets. Things may not settle down. Some impressive unfounded handwringing there.
Given reports that the computer programs do not yet exist to run the insurance markets -- a major dropped ball on the part of the Democrats -- it is not the unpreparedness of the Republicans that is the limiting factor, dear Ay Pee journalist.
"At the end of the day, I don't think any of the major players in the health insurance industry or the provider community really wants to see the whole thing overturned," said Christine Ferguson, a health policy expert who was commissioner of public health in Massachusetts when Mitt Romney was governor. Who cares. If it's so wonderful, they'll redo the legislation.
Ms Ferguson needs to work on her thinking skills...
"Even though this is not the most ideal solution, at least it is moving us forward, and it does infuse some money into the system for coverage," said Ferguson, now at George Washington University. As the GOP presidential candidate, Romney has pledged to wipe Obama's law off the books. But he defends his Massachusetts law that served as a prototype for Obama's. That's because it's a state's right to do so, not the fed's. The states are like 50 separate laboratories. When one of them comes up with a winner, the rest will follow. The fed can't force losing "solutions" on everyone. The feds should only get rid of unfair practices like dumping chemicals in rivers, etc..
While it's unclear how the justices will rule, oral arguments did not go well for the Obama administration. The central issue is whether the government can require individuals to have health insurance and fine them if they don't. So what could they not push through in the name of the nation's "best interests"?
That mandate takes effect in 2014, at the same time that the law would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to people with existing health problems. Most experts say the coverage guarantee would balloon costs unless virtually all people joined the insurance pool. Simple: If they choose not to buy health insurance when they are able to afford it, then they die in the street. If they go on government insurance while out of work or have too-low an income, they have to work where the state needs them to work enough to pay their premiums or until they get a good job again. Heck, maybe even make some kind of training program out of this mechanism too. Win-win.
Opponents say Congress overstepped its constitutional authority by issuing the insurance mandate. The administration says the requirement is permissible because it serves to regulate interstate commerce. Most people already are insured. The law provides subsidies to help uninsured middle-class households pay premiums and expands Medicaid to pick up more low-income people. Another one of the liberal triumphs is to redefine the meaning of the word "regulate". The word does not mean "control". It means to "make regular". There is quite a difference between the two.
The Supreme Court will soon render all those other opinions moot, one way or another, and then professional blithers like our esteemed Ay Pee journalist will move on to other topics
.The coverage for young adults up to age 26 on a parent's health insurance is a popular provision that no one's arguing about. A report last week from the Commonwealth Fund estimated that 6.6 million young adults have taken advantage of the benefit, while a new Gallup survey showed the uninsured rate for people age 18-25 continues to decline, down to 23 percent from 28 percent when the law took effect. Bravo! Please raise my rates to compensate for any additional expense resulting from this good idea.
Families will be watching to see if their 20-somethings transitioning to the work world will get to keep that newfound security. Easily fixed if Healthcare Takeover is overturned. If your politician doesn't vote your will, vote him out next opportunity and let it be known why you did so.
Because the benefit is a winner with consumers, experts say many employers and insurers would look for ways to keep offering it even if there's no legal requirement to do so. On Monday, UnitedHealth Group Inc., the nation's largest insurer, is announcing that it will continue to offer coverage to young adults even if the health care law is struck down.
But economist Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute says many parents would pay higher taxes as a result because they would have to pay for the young adult's coverage with after-tax dollars. Under the health care law, that coverage now comes out of pre-tax dollars. It will be a small amount. Stop having a cow, man. Way cheaper than trying to jam the square peg of Obamacare into the round hole of a sensible insurance plan all because of one little issue that is easily implemented in any of a thousand other ways.
Fronstin says there's no way to tell exactly how much that tax increase might be, but a couple of hundred dollars a year or more is a reasonable ballpark estimate. Upper-income taxpayers would have a greater liability.
"Adult children aren't necessarily dependents for tax purposes, but an employer can allow anyone to be on a plan, just like they now allow domestic partners," said Fronstin. "If your employer said, 'I'm going to let you keep this,' it would become a taxable benefit for certain people."
Advocates for the elderly are also worried about untoward ripple effects. Scare tactics, by chance?
If the entire law is overturned, seniors with high prescription costs in Medicare's "donut hole" coverage gap could lose annual discounts averaging about $600. AARP policy director David Certner says he would hope the discounts could remain in place at least through the end of this year. Another problem that is easily fixed.
Yet that might not be possible. Lacking legal authority, Medicare would have to take away the discounts. Drugmakers, now bearing the cost, could decide they want to keep offering discounts voluntarily. But then they'd risk running afoul of other federal rules that bar medical providers from offering financial inducements to Medicare recipients.
"I don't think anyone has any idea," said Certner. And neither do you. But that doesn't seem to slow down your handwringing one bit, does it?
A mixed verdict from the high court would be the most confusing outcome. Some parts of the law would be struck down while others lurch ahead. Won't happen.
That kind of result would seem to call for Congress to step in and smooth any necessary adjustments. Yet partisan divisions on Capitol Hill are so intense that hardly anyone sees a chance that would happen this year. Partisan divisions put there and nurtured by voting taxpayers. For a reason. Mostly centered around the triad of Obama, Pelosi, and Harry. All who live in some form of bubble or another that were formed by voters suffering from varying degrees of temporary insanity. Go ahead and vote for the idiot in your district who is in a position to pull the nation's strings as a whole and see what happens to your party as a whole. Liberals are lucky that the entire congress wasn't up for reelection in 2010.
#1
Keeping children on the insurance til 26 is no big deal for the insurers. These are the healthiest ages, and the least-likely to need care
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/11/2012 10:28
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If I could teach my Rat Terrier to type, she could write a better article than this.
The libs dumbed down education so they could run the country and now their chief water carriers are a bunch of dumb downed airheads working for AP. Tell the Dems to thank their teacher union satraps.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/11/2012 10:41
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Getting rid of slavery (aka involuntary servitude) the first time around was messy too.
#5
Surely the Ay Pee journalist and his highly paid editors mean fees rather than taxes. Fees are paid to an insurance company to purchase an extra service, whereas taxes are paid to the government to provide services to others.
It's both. I believe the parents have to pay an additional $200 premium each year, but that fee comes from after-tax money, so it might be an additional $50 or so taxes. The fee is nothing to worry about, and the taxes even less so. I have no idea why the writer is worried about this, but I'm sure someone makes a pill for this kind of worry.
Theres a lot of noise coming out of Syria and the various international chat-fests being organized around it these days. Stern warnings from the State Department, charges and counter charges of massacres and atrocities on the ground in Syria, soothing platitudes from Kofi Anan, diplomatic warnings from Russia: most of it can be summarized as blah, blah, blah.
None of this has much bearing on what will happen. It is mostly posturing the Russians are trying to look like they matter, the Turks want to look busy while minimizing their risks, the Americans want to feel good about themselves by mounting rhetorical assaults against atrocities they have no will to prevent, and so it goes. The legacy press covers this stuff because it can, and because it often buys into the establishments diplomatic narrative, but serious students of international affairs should not be misled: most of what is written about Syria these days is fluff and filler rather than news.
For insight into the future of Syria, try this story in the (paywall protected) Financial Times. Support for arming the rebels is growing, as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and wealthy Syrian expats and others step up funding for the military resistance to Assad.
The weapons being provided include light infantry arms and, increasingly, anti-tank weapons. Better armed rebels are credited with increasing the death toll among Assads soldiers as well as growing numbers of tanks destroyed.
...radical and Salafist sheikhs and organizations in the Gulf are getting into the weapons delivery act. For many jihadis, the fight against Assad is first and foremost a struggle against Alawite heretics, and the goal is to build a radical Islamic state on the ruins of Baathist, secular Syria.
Its been a classic Saudi ploy to keep the radicals quiet at home by letting them fight and support fighters abroad; this dates back at least as far as the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan and has been a pattern in many conflicts since. It seems likely that in this case, when the Saudi state interest in weakening Iran and strengthening the Saudi voice in both Lebanon and Damascus coincides with the jihadi hunger for a Syrian religious war, that Saudi authorities will see radical enthusiasm for Syria as an asset. IMO, the most important thing to remember re Soodia vs. MM is that here enemy of my enemy is not my friend
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A large collection of individuals with long held plans to kill everyone they disagree with.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/11/2012 6:34
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Let's see now, Ali was killed in 638 AD(?) correct me if the date is wrong. The murder is the basis for the Sunni avs. Shia conflict.
Imagine fighting over a disagreement on succession to a ruler lasting over 1300 years and causing the creation of numerous backward, brutal, repressive rulers, all in the name of one side of the dispute or another.
I actually believe the Muslim antipathy for Christians is just a sideshow and a diversion for the main event, the Sunni vs. Shia war.
The only time we really come into the picture is a diversionary tactic used by incompetent repressive rulers such as Assad to turn people's attentions away from the misery at home. The Soviets did the same thing with the US during the Cold War and Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for the excesses of his regime.
The US is the boogey man in the closet. The Sunni/Shia down the road is the real enemy.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/11/2012 10:29
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IMO, the most important thing to remember re Soodia vs. MM is that here enemy of my enemy is not my friend
IMO, the Syrian regime isn't really our enemy. And it isn't even Israel's enemy either. What we are seeing there is the beginning of the end of Arab nationalism. Good riddance - it unified Syrians in opposition to the West, whereas now, its core of Sunni Arab irredentism will have to stand alone, stripped of its claim as a force that binds all of the Middle East together. The Alawites, Christians, Kurds and so on will now each go their own way. Is the Alawite faith irrevocably bent on global conquest against non-Alawites, the way the Sunni faith is bent on world conquest against non-Sunnis? When was the last time you heard of Alawites conducting terrorist attacks against non-Alawites?
Iran, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said women are highly respected, has barred women from watching public live screenings of Euro 2012 games because men might become rowdy. Rowdy men? Who would have thought? Sports and rowdy men...... In western societies men are under the obligation to control themselves...
"It is an inappropriate situation when men and women watch football in (movie) theatres together," said Bahman Kargar, Iran's deputy police commander in charge of social affairs, according to the Iran Student News Agency. "Commander in charge of social affairs." Wonder if he has read Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette?
He explained that the "inappropriate" environment could cause men to become rowdy because "men, while watching football, get excited and sometimes utter vulgar curses or tell dirty jokes." He added, "It is not within the dignity of women to watch football with men" and said "women should thank the police" for the ban. I thank you, my sir, for never letting the word F**k pass these sensitive ears. I have to admit, I never did like that word, even as an expressions of a moment in time, so thanks for providing protection for me from that word. Now a good "dirty joke?" You will deprive me of them?
Iran state television is airing the Euro games being held in Poland and Ukraine, and the games also are being shown in movie theaters. Being shown for "date night?" I guess not.
Women are strictly segregated in Iran's Islamic society, and the country's laws demands that women dress according to the religious code. This is news.... in a news report? Iranian reporters are much like our own MSM. That little "aside" that must be added in the article.. "demands that women dress according to the religious code."
Iran has a seat on the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad previously has argued that Iranian women are "highly respected" while claiming that 70 percent of European women are physically abused. And this is to persuade me of what???
A senior Iranian cleric has declared women whose clothes are too revealing are to blame for earthquakes, which are common in the country. Hummmmm --- all pictures I see, women are covered from head to tail. And yet, Iran continues to have earthquakes? Seems a hypothesis that is hard to prove. But what do I know? I'm just a women, one with senior years.
PARIS - Socialist President Francois Hollande looked set to consolidate his grip on power with a left-wing majority in parliament after a first-round vote on Sunday, and may be able to govern without relying on hard leftists hostile to closer European integration.
Initial projections by polling agencies based on a partial vote count suggested his core Socialist bloc could win 283 to 329 seats in the 577-member National Assembly in next Sundays runoff, shifting the lower house to the left for the first time in a decade.
With Greens allies, the left would have 295 to 347 seats, the CSA polling institute forecast, well ahead of the mainstream conservatives with 210 to 263 seats, and more than the outright majority of 289 needed to give Hollande a free hand.
Give Hollande every opportunity to do what Champ did when he had a majority in the Congress: screw it up so royally and openly that everyone can see it. Then the socialists won't have any excuses in the next election.
The Ipsos institute drew similar conclusions from its own projections based on a partial vote count, while TNS Sofres was the only pollster that put the Socialists and Greens just short of an absolute majority in a worst-case scenario.
The vote was another symbolic advance for the left after it took control of the Senate in 2011 and won the presidency in May for the first time since 1988. A low turnout of less than 60 percent, which analysts say plays against the left, could still curb what might have been a bigger triumph for Hollande as he seeks to steer France through the euro zones debt crisis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2012
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"without relying on hard leftists hostile to closer European integration."
Darn, once you need a hard leftist he isn't there
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/11/2012 0:11
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ION ASIAN AGE > EUROZONE BREAK-UP COULD HIT US [India] HARD, WARNS BASU Chief Econ Advisor.
ARTIC > BASU also warns that ...
> Situation will be worse for Indjuh than 2008 Wall Street Bank Crash in US, from which the Global Economy is still recovering.
> Probs from any slowdown in Growth will hit US + CHINA ALMOST IMMEDIATELY.
> Approximately 800 Banks will have to pay up to US$1.3Trilyuhn to the ECB's LRTOS due in December 2014 + February 2015.
[Tolo News] The National Security Council (NSC) on Sunday accused powerful Jihadi commander Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... of undermining national interest, saying he has prevented the extraction process of an oil basin in Sar-e Pul province, one of his strongholds in northern Afghanistan, an official said.
The NSC has asked the Attorney General's Office to investigate this accusation against Gen Dostum, a key member of the National Front opposition party, a senior government official told TOLOnews on condition of anonymity.
The official said local warlords related to Gen Dostum were preventing engineers of the Chinese National Petroliam Corporation (CNPC) to work on the oil project, demanding "illegal financial benefits".
A Sar-e Pul MP and a member of the Dostum-led Junbish-e Mili Party, Sayed Anwar Saadat, dismissed the allegations and called it a "government conspiracy" to defame his leader.
A delegation of intelligence agency and the Attorney General's Office will travel to the province to investigate the case, the official said. The Attorney General's Office will arrest Gen Dostum if the allegations were found true.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2012
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Karzai wants his beak wet, Dostum wants his.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/11/2012 9:56
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Gen Dostum Accused of 'Undermining National Pashtun Family Interests'
BAGHDAD: Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki called for a national dialogue yesterday after President Jalal Talabani said his rivals lacked the votes to oust him, but a protracted political row looked set to drag on.
Opponents of the prime minister have for months accused him of monopolizing decision-making and a political crisis that began in December has worsened in recent weeks, with open calls from a raft of political parties to pull the plug on Maliki's national unity government.
But late Saturday, Talabani said groups opposed to the premier lacked the 163 parliamentary votes required to sack him, after which Maliki issued a call on political leaders to unite to rebuild the conflict-racked country.
"I take this opportunity to renew a call for all political partners to sit at the table for negotiations, and to be open to discuss all disagreements," the prime minister said in a statement.
"I am sure we will be able to overcome all challenges and difficulties that are in our way," he added, while also thanking Talabani for his "constructive" role.
On Saturday, Talabani's office issued a statement saying there was insufficient backing to pass a vote of no confidence against Maliki.
"Due to a lack of (support), the letter of his excellency the president of the republic, although its text was prepared, was not given to the parliament," the statement said.
It said more than 160 lawmakers had originally supported the motion to unseat Maliki and, by extension, his government. They included members of the secular Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, the main Kurdish faction, and the movement loyal to powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. All three of those parties are members of Maliki's national unity government.
It added, however, "Later, 11 of the signed lawmakers informed the office of the presidency of the withdrawal of their signatures, while two others requested to suspend their signatures."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2012
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It sounds like they don't think he'll be reelected, making it safe to publicly diss him, poor man.
A group of Mossad agents speaking with Haaretz's Yossi Melman on condition of anonymity have said that the Mossad - and not the Bush administration - developed Stuxnet, and that President Obama is now trying to take credit for it in a bid to help his reelection campaign. Please recall the David Sanger piece in the New York Times about Stuxnet, which I blogged last week, which claimed that the Bush administration had begun developing Stuxnet, that President Obama had ordered it accelerated, and that Israel had only joined in later. Now, look at what Melman has to say about it.
The Israeli officials actually told me a different version. They said that it was Israeli intelligence that began, a few years earlier, a cyberspace campaign to damage and slow down Iran's nuclear intentions. And only later they managed to convince the USA to consider a joint operation -- which, at the time, was unheard of. Even friendly nations are hesitant to share their technological and intelligence resources against a common enemy.
Melman, and his writing partner Dan Raviv, promise more details on Mossad - CIA cooperation in their upcoming book which is due out next month. But they do give a hint as to the timing of the New York Times article.
Yet my Israeli sources understand the sensitivity and the timing of the issue and are not going to be dragged into a battle over taking credit. "We know that it is the presidential election season," one Israeli added, "and don't want to spoil the party for President Obama and his officials, who shared in a twisted and manipulated way some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of the success of cyberwar."
There's nothing Obama won't do to be reelected. Nothing at all.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2012
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"HIS NAME IS BOND [Stein] - BARACK BOND[Stein]" ...
versus
* DAILY TIMES.PK > IRAN URGES WORLD POWERS TO "ACCEPT OUR DEMANDS", as Iran's cause is righteous, + the burden anyway is on the US-World, UNO to surrender.
IRGC Spox Ali Saeed for Iran EL Supremo the Ayatollah Khamenei.
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FYI WORLD NEWS > [Yahoo News]IRAN: ISLAMIC WORLD MUST HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS, to effec confront the wily dastardly Zionist-Crusader-Imperialist aggression of the US, Israel, + their Allies.
IRAN = D *** NG IT, EVEN OUR BFF SUNNI MUSLIM PAKISTAN, WHOM IS A "WATER-CARRIER" [read, Servant-Slave] FOR THE US-NATO, HAS NUKES = NUCLEAR WEAPONS, SO WHY CAN'T WE HUH, HUH, HUH - WELL, I'M W-A-I-T-I-N-G!?
[Dawn] Pakistain's decision to suspend NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... supply routes has earned it the ire of the United States as US President Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... approved an increase in CIA drone strikes in Pakistain's territory on the same pretext, according to a report published in the LA Times, DawnNews reported.
The US has been mounting pressure on Pakistain to take effective action against the Haqqani network and snuffies in the South Wazoo region.
A US-based newspaper claimed that the B.O. regime frustrated with Pakistain, over its hesitance to take action against the Haqqani network, suspension of NATO supply routes and refusal to conduct an operation against snuffies in the South Waziristan region, has decided to direct the CIA to step up the drone strikes in Pakistain's territory.
The CIA has launched eight Predator drone attacks since the May 20-21 NATO summit in Chicago.
It is noteworthy that the US has yet to declare the Haqqani network as a terrorist organization, itself.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2012
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#1
More presure on Islamabad, given among other ...
* WAFF > PAKISTAN MAY BE SPENDING 31% OF ITS [Federal = National] BUDGET PN DEFENCE. + another 35% on Interest Payments.
ARTIC > PAK GOVT OFFICIAL-SOURCE = instead of spending Rs$545.0Bilyuhn on Defence, Islamabad may actually be spending Rs$913.0Bilyuhn on Defence from next year's Rs$2.96Trilyuhn Pak Federal Budget.
POSTER = opined that iff this Artic is correct, STARVING NORTH KOREA = JONG-UN + PYONGYANG BOYZ ARE BETTER AT GOVT. BUDGETING THAN PAKISTAN???
Adrienne Barbeau aka Stevie Wayne Bruce in "The Fog (1980)" aka Maggie in "Escape from New York (1981)" aka Alice in "Swamp Thing (1982)" aka Wilma Northup in "Creepshow (1982)" aka Vanessa Melon in "Back to School (1986)" aka Dr. Kurtz in "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989)" aka Suzanne Stanwyck in "General Hospital (TV 2010-1011)" (age 67)
Luciana Paluzzi aka Fiona in "Thunderball (1965)" aka Dr. Lisa Benson in "The Green Slime (1968)" aka Julie in "Muscle Beach Party (1964)" aka Mala in "Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969)" aka Eva Lalli in "The Italian Connection (1972)" aka Elena Carli in "The Two Faces of Fear (1972)" (age 75)
Ameesha Patel [Bollywood] aka Jwala in "The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005)" aka Ammu in "Teesri Aankh: The Hidden Camera (2006)" aka Pinky in "Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007)" aka Malaika in "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (2008)" (age 37)
[Jerusalem Post] A website that posts messages from bully boy Islamist groups said on Sunday that it would reveal a video message from Abu Yahya al-Libi , the al-Qaeda number 2 who Washington says was killed in a drone strike in Pakistain last week.
"Soon, God willing: a visual message from the virtuous Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi, may God preserve him," a notice posted on an Islamist forum said, without elaborating on when the message was recorded.
"He's just pining for the fjords."
The US government called the killing of Abu Yahya al-Libi, who had survived previous attacks, a serious blow to a group in which it said he played a key role forging links with young potential recruits.
Libi, a holy man whose real name was Mohamed Hassan Qaid, beat feet from US custody in Afghanistan in 2005 and on at least one previous occasion was prematurely reported to have been killed in a US drone strike.
Belgian prosecutors on Thursday charged a high-profile Islamist radical with stoking hatred and violence during racial disturbances in Brussels last week.
According to AFP Fouad Belkacem, a 30-year-old Belgian man of Moroccan origin, was picked up at at his family home in the northern city of Antwerp early Thursday morning, and was placed in jug in a city jail.
Antwerp prosecutors' front man Paul Van Tigchelt told AFP that Belkacem was charged with "incitement to hatred and violence against a group of people because of their beliefs," a charge that could carry a sentence of between one month and one year behind bars.
Belkacem is being pursued after posting an 11-minute video on YouTube, the day after the controversial detention of a woman wearing a niqab, the Moslem veil which is banned under Belgian law.
Police had said the woman assaulted officers, but Belkacem, a front man for a group called Sharia4Belgium, said at the time that "the devil's servants who held our sister want to wage war on Moslems, but they won't win in Belgium."
Belkacem was sentenced in May to two years in prison, AFP reported, for incitement to racial hatred, but pending an appeal had yet to do time. He will go before a magistrate next week.
Previously, the report said, Belkacem had publicly urged Belgian Moslems to join armed jihadists.
[An Nahar] A gunfight during the night between two feuding tribes in Egypt's south has killed 12 people, a police official said on Sunday.
The official said the battle in the southern Aswan province, in which automatic weapons were used, left three wounded. The gunfight erupted as a dispute over land, he said.
Police and soldiers moved in with armored vehicles to end the fighting, he said.
Family feuds in the impoverished south may go on for months or even years, and often end in government sponsored reconciliations.
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TEHRAN: Irans cyber police force is poised to launch a new crackdown on software that lets many Iranians circumvent the regimes Internet censorship, media reported on Sunday.
A new target for Stuxnet and Flame: Iran's cyber police...
The operation will target VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, which use a secure protocol to encrypt users data, foiling online blocks put in place by Irans authorities, according to the head of the specialized police unit, Kamal Hadianfar.
It has been agreed that a commission (within the cyber police) be formed to block illegal VPNs, he was quoted as saying in a report originally published by the Mehr news agency. About 20 to 30 percent of (Iranian Internet) users use VPN, or more than seven million people out of the countrys 36 million web users."
Legal VPNs would only be used by the likes of airlines, ministries, (state) organizations and banks, he said and even they would be monitored by the commission.
Iran has long tried to stop its population accessing millions of foreign websites authorities see as undermining the Islamic regime, including Facebook, Twitter, the online pages of the BBC and CNN, many torrent sites, blogs, and pornographic hubs.
Some websites are obscene and others are officially hostile toward the Islamic republics system. (Thus), in the interest of the people and in order to prevent the collapse of families... there is blocking of the Internet, Hadianfar said.
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[Dawn] At least seven people bit the dust in separate incidents of firing in the violence-ridden port city of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on Sunday, DawnNews reported.
According to police, four people were killed and another two maimed in an exchange of gunfire between two criminal groups near Hawk's Bay in the city's Musharraf Colony area. SSP Police West Amir Farooq said that a man named Shahzad aka 'Charlie', who was also killed in the incident, was wanted by the police for over three years.
Police further claimed that both groups were involved in local gang wars.
Earlier, two bodies were found dumped at Liaquatabad No 2. Both victims, identified as residents of Liaquatabad's B-1 area, were reported to have been kidnapped and later rubbed out.
Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!... another body was recovered from near Lyari's Dua Hotel. The victim, identified as a police officer's nephew, was also kidnapped and rubbed out.
Bloody Karachi is Pakistain's commercial hub and is home to approximately 18 million people. The politically volatile port city is ripe with ethnic and sectarian tensions, and is also home to several political parties allegedly with armed wings accused of extorting citizens and feuding among themselves.
Last week, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain (HRCP) said at least 740 people in Bloody Karachi have bit the dust to ethnic, sectarian and politically-linked violence in the first five months of the year.
The figures include the liquidation of 107 political activists, while the rest of the victims were people with no political affiliations, said the HRCP.
Last year, a total of 1,715 people were killed in violent flare-ups in the city, said the human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... organization.
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ABUJA - Nigerian officials say the bombing of a church in Bauchi State has killed 15 people and wounded 42.
The chairman of the state emergency operations team, Muhammad Inuwa Bello, says a suicide bomber attacked the Living Faith Church outside the state capital Sunday morning, but the agency cannot yet comment on who it thinks was responsible. Witnesses say the church collapsed after the blast, trapping worshipers, killing civilians and security personnel, and leaving others with gruesome injuries.
Angry local residents say the government is failing to protect the people from attacks and sectarian violence that have ripped through northern Nigeria in the past three years.
That's most certainly true. The correct response is for the locals to start defending themselves. Turning the other cheek doesn't apply to crazed fanatics who are doing their level best to kill you and yours.
In some towns in northern Nigeria, local demographics now resemble the national population, with mostly Muslims in the north and predominately Christians in the south. After Sunday's bombing, some infuriated residents illustrated increasing sectarian tensions by saying that if the killings do not stop, Christians and Muslims should no longer live together.
"We are not happy about it. We are not happy. If the government cannot find a solution, let the country tear into two," said a witness.
We've seen partition schemes in the past. Most don't work very well. Ask Sudan and South Sudan, and India and Pakistain...
To be fair, India ended up doing much better after partition. Come to think of it, so did Bangladesh...
The Islamist terrorist militant group known as Boko Haram has in the past claimed responsibility for similar attacks, like coordinated church bombings that killed dozens of people last year on Christmas Day.
Boko Haram has been blamed for hundreds of deaths this year, mostly in the north. The terrorist group says it wants to enforce Islamic law, and demands the release of imprisoned members.
So that they can join in the killing...
Islamic law does forbid unbelievers sitting in judgement over Allah's Own.
Hussaini Abdu heads anti-poverty organization ActionAid in Nigeria. He says Boko Haram attacks are increasing existing tensions between religious and ethnic groups in Nigeria, making it harder for the nation to agree on what to do to stop the violence.
I vote for rows of Boko Haram heads on pikes, but I am a bit old-fashioned about such things. Admittedly, so are they.
"Boko Haram situation is fitting more perfectly into the national fissures, the national divisions. It is fitting into it. So the commentary, the examination of the issue, your response to the issue is based on your ethnicity. Where you come from," said Abdu.
Human Rights Watch says the group has killed more than 1,000 people since it began violent operations in 2009, attacking security forces, churches, markets, newspaper offices and the local U.N. headquarters in the Nigerian capital.
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(Sh. M. Network)-Columns of Ethiopian troops and pro government Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a ASWJ fighters backed by armored vehicles have on Sunday pulled out completely from the main town of Al Bur in Galgadud region, central Somalia, local residents said.
Residents say the Al Qaeda-linked Al shabab militants recaptured the town ofEl Burshortly after pro-government forces arrived on Sunday, accompanied by members of the moderate Islamist ASWJ militia, which is fighting alongside Somalia's UN-backed government.
"We woke up this morning seeing Ethiopian armored personnel carriers withdrawing from the town, and Al shabab fighters pouring into the city without a single shot," El Bur residents reported.
Questions rose about the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from El Bur town, which lies just about 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of the Ethiopian border. Ethiopian troops re-entered Somalia last year to help Somali government war on Al shabab and have taken positions in south-central Somalia.
Al Shabaab still controls some of southern and central Somali regions, but is under increasing pressure from Somali, Kenyan forces and African Union (AU) forces in the south and Ethiopian forces in the West and central.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2012
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#1
Pulled out? Ethiopia should annex Somalia, not pull out of Galgadud.
But maybe the Ethiopians have some tactical necessity..
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/11/2012 5:51
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Israel Radio reported late Thursday that the lead suspect in last weekend's anti-Semitic attacks in Lyon, La Belle France has turned himself in to police.
The suspect and 10 others attacked three people as they left the Beit Menachem Jewish school on Saturday night.
The French Interior ministry said the assailants wielded a hammer and an iron bar.
One victim sustained an open wound to the head, and another suffered a neck injury. Both men wore Jewish skullcaps.
La Belle France's national agency tasked with fighting anti-Semitism said the attackers were likely of North African extraction. Bet you didn't see that coming...
The agency said the attackers shouted anti-Semitic insults at the victims before attacking them.
Five of the suspected assailants are now in police custody.
La Belle France, home to western Europe's largest Jewish community, estimated at about 500,000 people, was shaken in March when a radical Islamist rubbed out a rabbi and three Jewish children in southwestern Toulouse ...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France...
Training is currently underway for operators of a new fleet of nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates.
A Korean consortium is building four reactors at Braka, near the Saudi border. The operator, Enec, expects to employ more than 2000 workers by 2020 and it is hoped that 60% of those will be Emiratis.
One can only hope the reactors are both tightly sealed and insh'allah-proof.
The controversial Muslim preacher who calls homosexuals evil and advocates their death is scheduled to speak at an upcoming event in Calgary. Dr. Bilal Philips, a Canadian-born Muslim preacher reputed to have links to terrorism and has been ousted from several countries, is to be a speaker at the Power of Unity Conference.
The event, being held by the Muslim Council of Calgary June 29 to July 1, aims to celebrate multiculturalism and more than a half-century of Islam in Canada.
Aren't those mutually exclusive?
Pride Calgary spokesman Doug Hass is disappointed Philips has been invited to spread his "hatred". He said, "It is a disappointment. We respect freedom of speech and religion. But I believe religion is about peace, love and tolerance, not wishing death against any community."
Saying the organization isn't planning any protests,
Why the hell not, Doug?
Hass wouldn't be surprised if some people show up to voice their opinion at the event.
It seems to me that advocating death and the treatment of homosexuals in some Muslim countries might be a more urgent cause for advocates than the focus on gay marriage in Western countries. I guess, for some, privleges for first world gays take precedence.
Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart said Philips' track record raises concerns, but he will be monitored during his visit to ensure he doesn't cross the line from freedom of speech to pushing hatred. She said, "I absolutely believe in freedom of speech. We have a police service that takes hate crimes extremely seriously and a police chief that is very committed to tolerance. On the other hand, the chief also respects freedom of speech ... You can march, you can be free to say whatever you want to say -- your views and beliefs end where my rights begin."
Colley-Urquhart says it is "somewhat ironic" Philips is invited to speak at a conference designed to unite people. She said, "I guess every time one of these characters comes to town and espouses extreme divisive views there is always a chance to stand up and say it doesn't define our city."
And nothing stops evildoers like telling them "You don't define me."
Philips was kicked out of Kenya earlier this year amid security concerns. Britain and Australia have barred him and Germany kicked him out last year.
TRIPOLI - Libyas first election in more than half a century will take place 18 days later than planned because of the logistical challenges in a country still recovering from last years revolt, the electoral commission said on Sunday.
The election, for an assembly which will re-draw the autocratic system of rule put in place by ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, will now take place on July 7 instead of the previous date of June 19.
We never planned on postponing the election, we worked hard for the election to be on time, Nuri al-Abbar, head of the electoral commission, told a news conference. I dont want to blame anybody for the postponement, I just want to make sure the elections are transparent.
He said that crucial pieces of preparation for the election - including voter registration and vetting candidates to make sure they had no links to Gaddafi - had run over schedule, making it impossible to hold the vote on the planned date.
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A military official has reported that at least three Muslim terrorists rebels were killed and hundreds of families have fled in a clan war on Saturday in the southern Philippines.
Regional military spokesman Col. Prudencio Asto said the fighting began after Abas Kudanding, a Moro Islamic Liberation Front commander, and his followers attacked the group of Renz Tukuran, village chieftain of Lumopog in the township of Midsayap, North Cotabato. A running gun battle ensued, killing three on Kudanding's side. Asto said the incident has to do with feud over land.
Troops were alerted to intervene as both sides were heavily armed.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Murad Ebrahim is optimistic about the signing of a peace deal with the government, his group said on its website Sunday. Murad was quoted by the rebel-controlled website as saying, "This document serves as the guide in the discussion over the negotiating table on the details of a peace accord between the two parties."
He acknowledged as a "breakthrough" an agreement signed in April where both sides pledged to create a new autonomous political region in the restive south.
Murad's remarks were the first since the agreement was reached in April. He said no dates had been confirmed for the next round of talks. He added that both sides now had to decide on the "transitional mechanism and authority" of the proposed autonomous region for the talks to move forward.
Meanwhile, the Philippine military says communist rebels have raided two mining companies in the country's south, disarming guards and burning equipment.
On Saturday, Army Lt. Col. Lyndon Paniza said that New People's Army guerrillas late Friday attacked the Philex Mining Co. compound in Compostela Valley province. They torched two backhoes, two trucks and a drilling machine.
BEIRUT: Syrian forces on Sunday unleashed a new round of heavy shelling and sent reinforcements to a mountainous area near the coastal city of Latakia where hundreds of rebels have set up base and which has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent days, activists said.
The fighting between government troops backed by helicopter gunships and armed groups in the area of Haffa began on Tuesday. An opposition group said at least 58 soldiers have been killed and more than 200 wounded in the operation there since.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the heavy losses indicate the seriousness of the challenge in the mountainous area where "hundreds" of rebels are entrenched. His estimated death toll could not be independently verified.
State-run news agency SANA said "terrorist groups" in Haffa attacked public and private institutions on Saturday and committed "heinous" crimes against civilians, setting fire to the national hospital and forcing people to leave their homes. It said troops killed a number of them and arrested several others, adding it was still pursuing gunmen and working to restore security to the area.
Six children were among 10 people killed by a shell that exploded in a house where they had taken cover during the fighting in the region on Saturday, the Observatory said.
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Hosni Mubarak may suffer acute cirrhosis a stroke at any time, according to an official in the Torah prison where the Egyptian ex- president is presently serving a life imprisonment, Xinhua reported.
According to MENA news agency, the official said that Mubaraks health was seriously deteriorating, and he was having irregular heart beats and difficulties in breathing.
Mubarak is suffering a breakdown and has been put on the ventilator for long hours, the source said, adding that he is likely to be transferred to a military hospital.
Put on a ventilator for 'long hours'? That's not good. That suggests that he's been intubated or has a tracheostomy.
The Egyptian former president was put in prison last week after a criminal court in Cairo sentenced him to a life imprisonment for charges of complicity in killing protesters opposing his rule.
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HHHMMM. HMMMMMM, so Mubarak's heart attack from last week is now a "breakdown" wid high risk of stroke???
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/11/2012 5:55
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And thus Mubarak refutes Milton and Khan:
Have you ever read Milton, Captain?
Yes.
I understand.
Lieutenant Marla McGivers.
Given a choice
of court-martial or accompanying them there...
It will be difficult.
A struggle at first,
even to stay alive, to find food.
I'll go with him, sir.
A superior woman.
I will take her.
And I've gotten something else I wanted--
a world to win,
an empire to build.
This hearing is closed.
It's a shame for a good Scotsman to admit it,
but I'm not up on Milton.
The statement Lucifer made when he fell into the pit. "It is better to rule in hell
than serve in heaven."
(Sh.M.Network)- The interior minister of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Abdisamad Mo'allin Mohamud, on Sunday assured the people of Mogadishu to restore peace and security in city amid killings have been on the rise in the past few months.
While addressing crowds at a ceremony meant people's integration held in Mogadishu's Howlwadag district, Mr. Mohamud stated that there are ongoing plans to deal the insecurity activities and bring back law and order in the conflict-ridden capital.
"I urge people in Mogadishu to cooperate with each other and help the security forces of Somali government to handle the overall security in the city and protect attacks and killings against civilians as soon," said Somali interior minster Abdisamad Mo'allin Mohamud.
Al shabab militants withdrew from their fixed positions in Mogadishu in on 6 August,2011 after major push by Somalia and AU forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A Russian state security service officer died of multiple wounds after attackers blew up his car in the North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria.
After the blast in the town of Baksan late Saturday, the officer with the FSB security service was sent to the hospital with multiple injuries and had his legs amputated. In a statement, Moscow-based investigators said, "He died despite medical assistance being rendered."
Police later engaged in a shootout during a security sweep after some men opened fire when asked to provide documents. One attacker was killed and three police officers were injured. Regional police said that two suspected terrorists militants managed to flee.
ABIDJAN: Thousands of civilians in Ivory Coast have fled their homes after seven UN peacekeepers and eight civilians were killed in raids near the Liberian border, a UN official and residents said.
The wave of unrest prompted Liberia to announce it was shutting its border with its neighbour, although it said the move would not affect humanitarian work in the area.
The peacekeepers were killed Friday while they were patrolling an area between two villages after hearing rumours of an imminent attack on communities there. At least one Ivorian soldier was also killed in the ambush.
A series of simultaneous raids on several villages near the southwestern town of Tai sparked an "immediate" exodus, UN spokeswoman Anouk Desgroseilliers told AFP.
The raids came just days after a Human Rights Watch report blamed recent attacks in southwest Ivory Coast on fighters loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo, who is currently awaiting trial on war crimes charges.
The authorities in Abidjan have said those behind Friday's attacks came from Liberia. Desgroseilliers, of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said at least eight civilians, including a woman, had been killed in Friday's attack, along with the seven peacekeepers from Niger.
"Hundreds of people have arrived in Tai, and one can imagine that thousands of others are on the road," he said, adding that 35 families had crossed the border into Liberia to seek safety there.
"It's real panic here," mayor Desire Gnonkonte told AFP by phone from Tai. "People are taking little bundles and fleeing on foot."
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[An Nahar] The government of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... is on its "last legs" and has lost control of several cities, the new opposition Syrian National Council leader, Abdel Basset Sayda, told Agence La Belle France Presse on Sunday.
"We are entering a sensitive phase. The regime is on its last legs," Sayda said a few hours after he was named as the new SNC president.
"The multiplying massacres and shelling show that it is struggling.
"According to reports, the regime has lost control of Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... and other cities," he asserted. Fighting between regime troops and rebels has intensified recently in the capital, which remains the city most protected by regime forces.
Asked about his ambitions as SNC leader, Sayda said the opposition bloc "would focus its efforts on the international community to take a decisive move against the regime, which continues to carry out massacres."
"The Annan plan still exists but it has not been implemented. We will work for this plan to be included under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, to force the regime to implement it and to leave all options open" he said.
Chapter VII allows for sanctions and, in extreme cases, military action. Russia and China, infuriated by 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... campaign in Libya last year, have vowed to oppose any military intervention.
"We want to strengthen links with activists on the ground and the Free Syrian Army, who we will support with all our means", he said.
Sayda's predecessor, Burhan Ghalioun, stepped down last month after being criticized for ignoring the Local Coordination Committees, which spearhead anti-government protests on the ground, and for giving the Moslem Brüderbund too large a role.
"There are great challenges ahead... We will work towards the restructuring of the SNC and the implementation of reforms," he said.
Sayda, who has lived in exile in Sweden for two decades, is seen as a consensus candidate capable of reconciling the rival factions within the SNC and of broadening its appeal among Syria's myriad of ethnic and confessional groups.
Sayda, 55, is not familiar to many Syrians but SNC officials say he is a "conciliatory" figure, "honest" and "independent."
Later on Sunday, Sayda called on all members of the Damascus regime to defect amid raging violence that has claimed thousands of lives.
"We call upon all officials in the regime and in the institutions to defect from the regime," Sayda said in a joint presser with outgoing SNC chief Burhan Ghalioun in Istanbul.
"We wanted the revolution to remain peaceful but the brutal regime insisted on genocide and the Syrian people chose resistance," he added.
Sayda called on Russia and China to "carefully observe the dangerous situation in Syria," urging them to join international efforts to pressure the regime.
He also called on Syria's key regional ally Iran to "respect the choice of the Syrian people."
Sayda also reached out to minority groups in Syria, following criticism of the SNC for failing to represent the country's full array of ethnic and religious groups including Arabs, Kurds, Sunni Moslems, Alawites, Christians, Druze and others.
"We would like to reassure all sects and groups, especially Alawites and Christians, that the future of Syria will be for the all of us," he said. "There will be no discrimination based on gender or sects. The new Syria will be a democratic state."
Sayda also urged Syrians abroad to stage protests outside Syrian embassies around the world.
He also stressed that the SNC "will work as one, unified team for the sake of the revolution."
"I salute the souls of Syria's deaders. I salute the men and women who are locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! in the cellars and prisons of the oppression regime and I salute the Free Army for defending our people," added Sayda.
For his part, Ghalioun said "there won't be a major change in the general approach and the political stance (of the SNC) and we will work according to new bases."
"We must put the council in the service of the Syrian revolution and provide all means of support to our people in Syria to help them stand their ground in the face of this criminal, killer regime," added Ghalioun.
"We will offer all kinds of support and aid to the cities invaded by the forces of this fascist regime," he vowed.
He said the change in the SNC's leadership "reflects the strong cohesion of the National Council and it's a strong practical response to those who questioned this council's ability to survive."
"This election confirms the unity of the council which aims to turn Syria into a democratic state," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2012
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#1
That's what the previous SNC leader said, five months ago. Maybe the next SNC leader will get to say it again, five months later...
Bradley Manning has failed to persuade a military judge to throw out half of the counts against him in a pre-trial hearing before his court martial for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of state secrets to WikiLeaks.
Colonel Denise Lind, presiding over the proceedings at Fort Meade in Maryland, rejected a defence motion that 10 of the 22 counts against the US soldier should be dismissed. The decision leaves Manning facing a possible sentence of life in military custody for allegedly having been the source of the WikiLeaks publications that included war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq, video footage of a US helicopter attack on civilians and diplomatic cables from around the world.
The ruling came at the end of the third day of hearings at Fort Meade that have been dominated by complaints from Manning's lawyers that he is not being allowed a fair trial. The soldier's lead civilian lawyer, David Coombs, told the court that Manning's military prosecutors had been lapse in their obligation to hand over evidence that could help him defend himself.
As a result of the legal tussles, the judge ordered extra pre-trial hearings to be scheduled and made it clear to the prosecution that they had to step up their efforts to provide full disclosure of materials to the defence that could help Manning prove his innocence or reduce any sentence. As a result, the full court martial will be delayed from September to November or possibly January.
That's about all Manning can hope for. What it does mean is that President Romney, and not President Obama, will be hearing his plea for clemency...
But Lind refused to meet a request on the part of the defence to throw out many of the charges against Manning. Two of the 10 that Coombs had asked to be dismissed related to the soldier's access to closed military computers.
Manning was employed as an intelligence analyst at the Forward Operating Base Hammer outside Baghdad between 2009 and 2010. His job was to pore over databases relating to insurgent activity in Iraq and search for patterns of behaviour that would aid his military commanders in the framing of strategy. In the pursuit of that work, Manning was authorised to enter the closed computer network known as the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, or SIPRNet.
Yet he is charged with having "exceeded authorised access when he accessed those classified government computers for an unauthorized or expressly forbidden purpose."
Manning's defence team objected to that more expansive interpretation of the term "authorised access", arguing that he was clearly permitted to use the computer network and that his purpose for doing so was irrelevant to the charge. The judge agreed with that legal interpretation, but said she did not have sufficient evidence to dismiss the two counts.
Her nuanced ruling, however, puts the onus on the prosecution to up its game in pressing these two counts at trial.
It does nothing to the other 20 charges.
Lind also rejected a defence motion to dismiss a further eight counts. The defence argued that the charges, that all relate to unauthorised possession and disclosure of classified information, were so vaguely worded as to be unconstitutional. In these cases, the judge disagreed and allowed the charges to stand.
The delay in the preparation for trial means that by the time Manning does finally face a jury he will have already been in custoy for almost three years. He was arrested on 26 May 2010 and is now being held at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
That won't matter given that he's looking at 20 to life when he is finally sentenced. He is going to have a trial; no slick defense lawyer is going to get him out of that. He's going to be convicted (I'm convinced) since the charges are damning and the evidence that has hit the public realm is robust. Have the trial this summer, this winter or in 2020; the result and the sentence will be about the same.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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As I've said many times before, I would cheerfully be called out of retirement to sit on this piece of sh*t's court martial.
No, it wouldn't exactly be a "fair" trial. So what?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/11/2012 7:51
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What it does mean is that President Romney, and not President Obama, will be hearing his plea for clemency...
Actually, he's better off with Romney. The Narcissist-in-Chief is the only one entitled to leak like a sinking ship and tolerates no others.
[An Nahar] Al-Qaida's chief has urged Tunisians to rise up to demand the rule of Islamic law, slamming the ruling Ennahda Islamist party for "violating" sharia law, in a message posted online on Sunday.
"O, honest and free Tunisians. The masks have dropped. Rise up to support your sharia," said Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message entitled "People of Tunisia, support your sharia," posted on Islamist websites.
"Call for a popular campaign advocating support for sharia and Islam and the rule of the Koran," the Muslim holy book, he said.
"Don't settle for any alternative to sharia," he added.
Zawahiri criticized the ruling moderate Ennahda party for not calling for Islamic rule in the North African nation where demonstrations led to the flight of its long-serving president Zine El-Abidine bin Ali in December 2010, triggering Arab Spring uprisings across the Arab world.
"It is astonishing to find a leadership claiming to belong to Islam saying that it does not want to rule with it," he said, denouncing what he called Ennahda's wish to have a "consensual constitution."
He accused the Ennahda of ignoring Islamic rules in order to appease the West and Gulf states.
"They are inventing an Islam that pleases the U.S. State Department, the EU, and the sheikhdoms of the Gulf. It is an Islam upon request, that permits gambling clubs, nudist beaches, usury and secular laws," he said.
The moderate Ennahda party, legalized in March 2011, has refused to adopt fundamental sharia law, but some have voiced fears Islamist movements within the country, emboldened by the Ennahda victory, may try to restrict free expression and secular values.
Zawahiri became Al-Qaida's chief after its founder Osama bin Laden, who was the world's most wanted man, was killed in a U.S. raid on a Pakistan hideout in May last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2012
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#1
More deadly attacks agz Christians + Churches repor in Ghana.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US ARMY TO DEPLOY MORE THAN 3000 TROOPS TO AFRICA NEXT YEAR, AS PART OF the USDOD'S new "Regionally Aligned Force(s) Concept" where Brigade -sized units will be deployed to different regions around the World.
* WAFF > [Yahoo News] US, PAKISTAN BEGINNING TO LOOK MORE LIKE ENEMIES.
Neither Friend or Frenemies.
ARTIC = Possibility or scenario exists that even iff the closed NATO Supply Routes are formally re-opened in Pakistan, that US-PAK RELATIONS will continue to seriously deteriorate???
* BHARAK RAKSHAK > NIGER SAYS AFGHAN, PAKISTANI JIHADIS IN NORTHERN MALI, working as Jihadi Training Cadres for new recruits.
[Dawn] US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta while giving an interview to a US television channel on Saturday said that the United States(US) is fighting its own war in the tribal areas of the Pak-Afghan border region and that military safe havens in Pakistan would not be tolerated, DawnNews reported.
During the interview, the US defence secretary without specifying any further said that the US would take every possible step to protect its troops.
While reiterating the stance against military safe havens in Pakistan's tribal areas, he said that the US would continue to pressurise Pakistan to act effectively against the Haqqani network.
He warned that incidents of militants' cross-border movement between Pakistan and Afghanistan resulting in attacks that kill US troops stationed in Afghanistan would not be tolerated in any case.
Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson while rejecting Panetta's remarks said that certain complicated matters were being viewed lightly by the US and that the Nato supply route through Pakistan would not be restored without a US apology.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2012
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[An Nahar] North Korea Sunday criticized the arrests of two men in South Korea for allegedly collecting military secrets for Pyongyang and accused Seoul of staging a "fascist crackdown."
A 74-year-old South Korean man surnamed Lee and another with New Zealand citizenship were tossed in the clink Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! in May for allegedly collecting information on army equipment capable of disrupting global positioning system (GPS) signals.
Seoul police said the pair obtained the military secrets after meeting a suspected North Korean agent last July in China's northeastern border city of Dandong.
Lee was sentenced to life in prison for espionage in 1972 and was released on parole in 1990 but still retains allegiance to Pyongyang, police said after his arrest in May.
The North's newspaper Minju Joson Sunday called the latest accusation a political smear campaign against Pyongyang to shore up sagging support for Seoul's conservative government.
"Whenever they are faced with an extreme ruling crisis, the dictators... resort to the trite method of cooking up shocking cases including 'spy case'," it said in an editorial carried by the state-run KCNA.
It accused police of arresting "innocent people" as part of a "heinous plot" planned with Seoul's conservative media outlets.
The arrests followed Seoul's accusations that Pyongyang had jammed the GPS systems of hundreds of civilian aircraft and ships in South Korea from April 28 to May 13.
Seoul said the signals originated from the North's border city of Kaesong, forcing sea and air traffic to use other navigational equipment to avoid compromising safety.
The North rejected the South's accusations as "sheer fabrication" aimed at slandering the communist state.
The latest flare-up comes amid high cross-border tension as the North, under the new leadership of its young ruler Kim Jong-Un, increases hostility towards Seoul.
Pyongyang has for months heaped insults on South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and other conservative leaders, branding them "rats" and "human scum".
Last week Pyongyang's army threatened rocket attacks on the Seoul offices of seven media outlets in Dire Revenge for critical coverage of an event in which the North's children tearfully vowed loyalty to Kim.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2012
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Egyptian prosecutors plan to investigate a Salafi MP whom police say was caught in his car "violating public decency" with a woman. He denies the allegation and Islamists say the case is aimed at defaming them ahead of upcoming presidential runoff elections.
The incident, much discussed in the local media, comes at a crucial time for supporters of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi, who is set to face former regime figure and ex-military man Ahmed Shafiq in a June 16-17 vote.
The accused politician and sheikh, Ali Wanees, ran for parliament on a coalition led by the Salafi-led Nour Party, which controls a quarter of the seats in parliament. Salafi leaders back Wanees, and call the police report "fraudulent."
According to officials with access to the police report, four policemen say a vehicle was parked in a dark area along an agricultural road on Thursday evening.
The officers say they approached the car and saw a woman in a full face veil sitting on top of a man who was touching and caressing her. They say that when they tapped on the car window and told the man to show his national ID and car registration, he yelled back, "I am Ali Wanees, member of parliament, you sons of dogs."
Wanees was briefly detained before police realized he was an MP and has parliamentary immunity. The police officers filed a report against Wanees, saying that he was caught "violating public decency."
In a video posted on his website, Wanees says the 23-year old woman is his niece and that the two had been running errands when she became ill, forcing him to pull the car over. He said, "I was surprised to find someone knocking on the car window. I opened the door and was surprised to be asked for my ID and I unfortunately had really forgotten my ID, the car registration and my parliamentary ID."
He says there was a dispute at the scene and that after around 30 minutes the police allowed him to leave.
[An Nahar] Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq on Sunday claimed a suicide car bombing against the Baghdad headquarters of an Iraqi Shiite foundation that killed 25 people, in a statement posted on jihadist forums.
"One of the passionate sons of the Sunnis came out in a quick attack against this evil lair that is called the Shiite endowment," the Islamic State of Iraq said, according to a translation of the message by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group.
"Our heroic martyrdom-seeking brother, with the facilitation and granting of success from Allah, managed to ... detonate his car in the inner courtyard so that most of the internal structure and a large part of the external structure of the building were destroyed," the statement said.
The June 4 attack on the Shiite endowment, which manages Shiite religious sites and mosques across Iraq, left 25 people dead and at least 65 wounded.
Shortly after what was Baghdad's deadliest blast in over four months, an explosion struck near a Sunni religious foundation's headquarters in the capital, causing no casualties.
The attacks came amid a dispute between the two Muslim endowments which manage Iraq's religious landmarks over a shrine north of Baghdad.
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[Tolo News] Reacting to President Hamid Karzai's call on MPs to convene for a meeting to discuss fighting corruption, several MPs on Sunday said he should start this process with cleaning up his own office.
Kandahar MP Mohammad Naim Lalai accused the family of President Karzai and the Vice Presidents of being involved in corruption, saying meetings with MPs would be "symbolic moves".
President Karzai has called the MPs to cut short their 45-day summer recess and convene in Kabul for an advisory meeting to discuss mechanisms for fighting corruption.
The meeting is scheduled to take place ahead of the major international conference in Tokyo early next month where the international community is expected to discuss conditionality of their funding to the Afghan government.
"I call on the President to start fighting corruption from his own office," said MP Naim Lalai of Kandahar. "Such meetings with us would be symbolic ones."
Another MP from Kandahar, Abdul Jabar Qahraman, said fighting corruption requires a political will and commitment which, he said, doesn't exist in the current government.
However, several others, including Mahiuddin Mahdi of northern Baghlan province, welcomed the move, saying there is still a chance to start tackling corruption.
"I think it's good to start at any time and we still have a chance," concluded Mr Mahdi.
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The second Mexican presidential debate concluded late Sunday evening with Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota the overall winner, but with the polls showing very little movement away from the front runner.
Unlike the first debate, very few surprises distracted from the discussion, which were somehow more muted than the first, given how steadily frontrunner Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) Enrique Pena Nieto has held such a large lead over all his rivals since the very start of the campaign.
Not that Pena Nieto's rivals haven't tried to close the gap: In a published report report by the Guardian UK news daily last Thursday, documents reportedly emerged which alleged that the Latin American media giant Televisa had received money and contracts, presumably from PRI and PAN politicians including Pena Nieto for favorable coverage and to fund smear campaigns against their political rivals.
This latest foreign press report comes on the heels of another report last week which alleges Pena Nieto carried on an illicit homosexual affair while governor of Mexico state. That report appeared last week in a Los Angeles Spanish language newspaper.
The Guardian report said the publication obtained computer files downloaded and sent to them by Yessica de Lamadrid, another purported former lover of Pena Nieto, then an employee of Televisa subsidiary Radar Servicios Especializados, which purports to show transfers of funds between PRI and PAN politicians and Televisa dating back to the start of Pena Nieto's term as Mexico state governor in 2005.
The report also shows that not only did Pena Nieto pay Televisa for its services, but Televisa was also paid to sabotage the Mexican presidential candidacy of Andres Lopez Obrador in 2006 in a smear campaign.
Despite the scandalous tone of the report, the principal source obtaining the computer files downloaded and sent to the Guardian, Yessica de Lamadrid, disclaimed the documents as forged, adding yet another strange layer to the story.
Televisa has denied the story, pointing out numerous inconsistencies in the narrative by the writer, Jo Tuckman, and the fact that no wrongdoing had been uncovered.
The documents were originally obtained by leftist journalist Jenaro Villamil and published in 2005 in Proceso news weekly, so it is hard to see how the Guardian report is more than a rehash of old news, other than another clumsy information operation by the Mexican independent left gone awry.
The fact is the Mexican politicians usually maintain public relations budgets, and lavish ones at that. Pena Nieto did, as did the leftist candidate Andres Lopez Obrador while governor of Distrito Federal. Each of their public relations budgets became, albeit briefly, issues in the first debate and for a very short time afterwards.
That is probably why Vazquez Mota was first out of the gate with a proposal to "eliminate the political class", as she put it, first by eliminating the at-large slates in both houses of the Mexican national legislature. The irony is not lost on either her supporters or her detractors that Vazquez Mota herself was an at-large federal deputy, and may well have never reached her high status in PAN without that position, as well as the gratitude for some of the help as a political fixer she rendered to Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa.
Pena Nieto also came out in favor of eliminating the at-large slates, prompting PAN president Gustavo Madero Munoz to wag on Twitter (paraphrasing), "Hallelujah! [PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto] read the PAN proposal presented in 2009 by [President Felipe Calderon] to reduce the at-large 100 deputies and 32 senators."
Not to be outdone, Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) candidate Lopez Obrador weighed in also approving the reform, adding later he would take money saved from austerity and transfer it to food and income aid for the poor.
Lopez Obrador continued with a familiar theme in the debate by insisting that were he elected president, he would eliminate Mexico's flat tax known as Impuesto Empresarial a Tasa Unica (IETU). Lamenting Mexico's growth has been half of other countries,he also proposed an annual growth rate of six percent, warning, darkly that without jobs there is no growth and without welfare there can be no social peace.
Throughout the evening, given the format of the debate, Pena Nieto dodged barbs from his rivals. The worst barb came from Vazquez Mota when she accused Pena Nieto of hiding from students, a reference to the Universidad de Iberoamericana fiasco a few weeks ago in which unruly university students raucously reminded Pena Nieto of his first year as governor of Mexico, when the San Salvador Atenco protest took place, during which two lives were taken at the hands of Pena Nieto's state police. Numerous complaints were also registered concerning sexual abuse by Pena Nieto security forces in the aftermath.
Pena Nieto calmly protested he faced the students and did not run. The charge was rather odd, because in no reports this writer read did Pena Nieto do anything but face up to the protesters. PRI president Pedro Caldwell had made demands for an investigation into the protest, but those calls were later and quickly muted.
The second Mexican debate resolved little in the political arena except for the status quo with Pena Nieto holding a near insurmountable lead with less than three weeks to go.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
By Nicholas D. Kristof
IN THE NUBA MOUNTAINS, Sudan
There's the ring of authority right there...
WHEN a government devours its own people, as in Syria or Sudan, there are never easy solutions.
The solutions may not be easy but they can be straight-forward...
That helps explain President Obama's dithering, for there are more problems in international relations than solutions, and well-meaning interventions can make a crisis worse.
As Champ amply demonstrated in Libya...
Yet the president is taking prudence to the point of paralysis.
As in Libya, but we repeat ourselves...
I'm generally an admirer of Obama's foreign policy, but his policies toward both Syria and Sudan increasingly seem lame, ineffective and contrary to American interests and values.
Since even Mr. Kristof is reluctant to cozy up to murderous thugs. He should have a conversation with his colleague Tom Friedman sometime...
Obama has shown himself comfortable projecting power -- as in his tripling of American troops in Afghanistan.
Followed by his yanking the rug out from under those very same troops, which the world watched and interpreted correctly -- for Champ it's about a favorable headline, never about staying to get a tough job done.
Yet now we have the spectacle of a Nobel Peace Prize winner in effect helping to protect two of the most odious regimes in the world.
Let us not quibble between 'helping' and mere dithering...
Maybe that's a bit harsh. But days of seeing people bombed and starved here in the Nuba Mountains have left me not only embarrassed by my government's passivity but outraged by it.
Other than writing a column, what will you do about it?
The regime of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is dropping anti-personnel bombs full of ball bearings on farming villages. For one year now, Bashir has sealed off this area in an effort to crush the rebel force, blocking food shipments and emergency aid, so that hundreds of thousands of ordinary Nubans are now living on tree leaves, roots and insects.
What should I tell Amal Tia, who recently lost a daughter, Kushe, to starvation and now fears that she and her four remaining children will starve to death, too? "We'll just die at home if no food comes," she told me bleakly.
Perhaps I should tell her that Nuba is an inconvenient tragedy, and that the White House is too concerned with Sudan's stability to speak up forcefully? Or that Sudan is too geopolitically insignificant for her children's starvation to matter?
You reap what you sow, Mr. Kristof. You and the Left hammered Dubya for his willingness to depose odious thugs. Is what Sudan is doing to its people any worse than that Saddam did to the Iraqis? What Pencilneck is doing in/to Hama?
Yet you excoriated Mr. Bush for putting American prestige, soldiers and money into stopping Saddam, and even stopping the Taliban in Afghanistan. You did everything you could to lower the man in the world's eyes, to lower him in the eyes of your fellow Americans, to tear down his presidency in order to advance your own partisan agenda.
And now with Champ in charge, you wonder why he and others in government today are unwilling to go after odious thugs who are murdering their own people. Perhaps they understand the lesson of 2002-2008 even better than you?
You thought you were lowering Dubya's prestige. But what you really were doing was lowering America's. Now there's a new debt to pay and our present government doesn't have the will or the means to do so.
Nothing moved me more than watching a 6-year-old girl, Israh Jibrael, tenderly feed her starving 2-year-old sister, Nada, leaves from a branch. Israh looked hungrily at the leaves herself, and occasionally she took a few. But, mostly, she put them into her weak sister's mouth. Both children were barefoot, clad in rags, and had hair that was turning brown from malnutrition.
Their mother, Amal Kua, told me that the family hasn't had regular food since the Sudanese Army attacked their town five months ago. Since then, she said, the family has lived in caves and subsisted on leaves.
One most sincerely hopes Mr. Kristof didn't visit them empty handed. A nice box of chocolates, a bottle of multivitamins and another of high protein wafers would not go amiss under the circumstances.
Yet the Obama administration's special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Princeton Lyman, generally a smart and hard-working diplomat, said in a December newspaper interview: "We do not want to see the ouster of the regime, nor regime change."
That's pretty much in line with the rest of the civilized world, isn't it? Are the French demanding intervention? The Germans? The Chinese? Please. They're all lined up to do business in Khartoum.
Huh? This is a regime whose leader has been charged with genocide, has destabilized the region, has sponsored brutal proxy warlords like Joseph Kony, has presided over the deaths of more than 2.5 million people in southern Sudan, in Darfur and in the Nuba Mountains -- and the Obama administration doesn't want him overthrown?
Nor does anyone else. Though we at the Burg wouldn't mind a few well placed rounds...
In addition, the administration has consistently tried to restrain the rebel force here, led by Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu, a successful commander who has lived in America and projects moderation. The rebels are itching to seize the South Kordofan state capital, Kadugli, but say that Washington is discouraging them. In an interview in his mountain hide-out, Abdel Aziz noted that his forces have repeatedly been victorious over Sudan's recently.
"Their army is very weak," he said. "They have no motivation to fight." He seemed mystified that American officials try to shield a genocidal government whose army is, he thinks, crumbling.
He would say that; it's in his interest to portray Khartoum as weak. They may very well be but that doesn't make the rebels strong...
Likewise, in Syria, the United States has not only refused to arm the opposition but has, I believe, discouraged other countries from doing so. Yes, there's an underlying logic: the Syrian opposition includes extreme elements, and the violence is embedded in a regional sectarian conflict.
There are also the examples of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt...
Nonetheless, the failure to arm the opposition allows the conflict to drag on and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to massacre more people. The upshot is that the violence spills over into Lebanon, and sectarian poisons make Syria less and less governable.
In both Syria and Sudan, the Obama administration seems stuck behind the curve.
No, they're just stuck in the worldview that you've advocated over the last two decades...
So what could be done? In Syria, we should make clear that unless the security forces depose Assad in the next 30 days, our Middle Eastern allies will arm the Syrian opposition. We should work with these allies, as well as with major powers like Russia and China, to encourage a coup, or a "retirement" for Assad.
Oh snicker: 'work with these allies'? What makes you think they want to work with us? And Russia has already made clear their intent: they're in with Pencilneck all the way. They're shipping the Syrian government weapons. They and the Chinese are helping the Syrians evade sanctions. Oh enlighten us, Mr. Kristof: how exactly would we 'work' with Russia and China?
Clueless git.
In Sudan, we should disable the military runways that bombers take off from to attack civilians in the Nuba Mountains, or destroy an Antonov bomber and make clear that we'll do the same to others if Sudan continues to bomb its people. Then we should support efforts by private aid groups to bring food and seed into the Nuba Mountains, by airdrops in this rainy season when roads are impassible.
The United States and other powers are helping to pay for the Yida refugee camp in South Sudan. But without the bombings, the Nubans would be able to farm and feed themselves and wouldn't need a refugee camp.
If we armed the Nubans, and the South Sudanese, Khartoum would rapidly find something else to do. If we helped South Sudan build a pipeline to ship their oil to (say) Mombasa, the Khartoum government would rapidly find a way to 'moderate' itself.
As Andrew Natsios, a former special United States envoy to Sudan, has argued in The Washington Post, we should also provide South Sudan with a modest antiaircraft capability. That would prevent Sudan from escalating its air war on South Sudan.
We should also provide the South Sudanese with arms and training.
These measures may or may not work.
That covers all the possibilities.
Stopping a government from killing its own is an uncertain business.
Unless you're willing to take out that government. Then it becomes certain but bloody...
But our existing policies in Syria and Sudan alike are failing to stop the bloodshed, and they also are putting us on the wrong side of history.
I thought the 'right side of history', as explained by that famous American philosopher Cindy Sheehan back in 2005, was for us to bring all our troops home and leave everyone alone. When did that change for the Left?
Obama was forceful in demanding that President George W. Bush stand up to Sudan during the slaughter in Darfur, so it's painful to see him so passive on Sudan today.
He was forceful because he knew for certainly that Dubya was so constrained by the Democrats, the MSM, and most of the rest of the world that he couldn't act on Darfur. It was cheap theater.
When governments turn to mass murder, we may have no easy solutions, but we should at least be crystal clear about which side we're on. That's not too much to expect of a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
It's not enough to be 'crystal clear' about which side you're on. You have to do something about it, or else it's all just talk.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
I seem to remember this being an important cause for George Clooney and a number of friends. Hear anything from him lately? No? Oh, that's right he's been busy orchestrating $35,800/plate parties.
I gotta ask: where does that number come from? Thirty or forty thousand would not seem unusual (ok, extravagant, but not unusual). Even $36,000. But where does the 35.8 factor come from? Taxes? Handling charges? Miscellaneous beak-wetting?
[An Nahar] Violence in Syria killed at least 12 people on Sunday bringing the corpse count since the start of the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's The Scourge of Hama... regime to more than 14,100, a monitoring group said.
Those killed since March last year comprised 9,862 civilians, 3,470 soldiers and 783 army deserters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britannia-based watchdog counts rebel fighters who are not deserters from the army as civilians.
The violence has intensified in Syria despite the presence of 300 United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... observers charged with monitoring a truce that was supposed to take effect from April 12.
On Saturday, at least 111 people -- 83 civilians and 28 soldiers -- were killed, according to revised figures from the Observatory, representing one of the heaviest single-day corpse counts since the nominal start of the ceasefire.
On Sunday, shelling of the town of Qusayr on the border with Leb killed an activist and five civilians, the Observatory said.
Three non-combatants were killed in a similar bombardment of the town of Talbisseh, 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border, the Britannia-based watchdog said.
Several districts of the central city of Homs also came under artillery and heavy machinegun fire by government forces, which left one person dead in the Khalidiyeh neighborhood, the watchdog added.
Surveillance aircraft were seen flying over the city, where 12 non-combatants were killed on Saturday.
In the southern province of Daraa, at least two soldiers were killed in festivities with rebel fighters, which broke out at dawn near the village of al-Sanmin, the watchdog said.
Hundreds of rebel fighters meanwhile remained holed up in Latakia province, a loyalist stronghold on the Mediterranean coast.
The army sent troop reinforcements to the mainly Alawite province where rebels have grouped in a Sunni Mohammedan enclave around the town of al-Heffa, the Observatory said.
Loyalist forces bombarded the town and surrounding villages for a sixth straight day, it said.
Nearly 60 soldiers have died since June 5 in battles with opposition fighters in the enclave, which lies some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Turkish border. At least 46 civilians and rebels have also been killed.
"The army is suffering its worst losses now in l-Heffa, as hundreds of rebels are holed up in this area of steep mountains," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said that the resistance being put up in a province where the majority of the population are members of Assad's Alawi minority showed that the uprising against his regime was truly nationwide.
"The coast is no longer a safe area, and the whole country is now involved in the revolt," Abdel Rahman said.
In Idlib province, a rebel stronghold province in the northwest, thousands took part in a funeral procession in the town of Maaret al-Numan for nine of 13 civilians killed in shelling on Saturday, the Observatory said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
The term "civilian" obviously means just what the Syrian opposition chooses it to mean neither more nor less:
Those killed since March last year comprised 9,862 civilians, 3,470 soldiers and 783 army deserters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based watchdog counts rebel fighters who are not deserters from the army as civilians.
It wouldn't surprise me if they've been staging massacres and blaming them on the Syrian regime - these are Sunni Arabs, after all. Remember the Muhammad Al Durrah incident?
#4
But it's violence, you see, and not a civil war. I know because I read right here a week or so ago about how UN officials are concerned that it might become a civil war if the violence isn't stopped, ie., if Pencilneck isn't a good boy and just gives up his power to whoever these rebels turn out to be. Surprising how these dictators fight to stay in power isn't it? Some of those civilian casualties must have been surprised.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/11/2012 12:28
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The main Syrian opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, elected Abdelbasset Sida as its leader at a meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, a council statement said.
Sida, who has been living in exile in Sweden for many years, was the only candidate for the presidency of the SNC at a meeting of 33 members of the councils general secretariat. The 56-year-old succeeds Burhan Ghalioun, a liberal opposition figure who had presided over the council since it was formed in August last year.
Sida said his priority would be to expand the council and hold talks with other opposition figures to include them in the council.
The main task now is to reform the council and re-structure it, Sida said.
That's too bad. If your main task was to dump Pencilneck and unite Syria into a peaceful country you might get some support...
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Iran Press TV] At least six people have been killed and 38 others wounded when two mortar rounds struck a square in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, police and hospital sources have said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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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.
Doctors used a defibrillator twice on Hosni Mubarak when they could not find a pulse Monday, the latest health crisis for the ousted Egyptian president since he was sentenced to life and moved to a prison hospital nine days ago, security officials said. The officials said the 84-year-old Mubarak was slipping in and out of consciousness and was being fed liquids intravenously. Mubarak also lost consciousness several times Sunday and officials have said he is suffering from high blood pressure, depression and breathing difficulties.
The father of the al-Qaeda-inspired gunman Mohamed Merah went on a killin spree in France before being shot dead by police, has filed a murder suit in Paris, his lawyers said Monday. 
Eight dead and 49 wounded in Chicago this weekend read this morning's headlines. After 178 years of occupation, it is obvious that we are unable to quell the violence in Chicago and we should bring our people home.
Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris filed suits on Monday against the two parliamentary candidates he attacked last week during a TV panel discussion.
PARIS - Socialist President Francois Hollande looked set to consolidate his grip on power with a left-wing majority in parliament after a first-round vote on Sunday, and may be able to govern without relying on hard leftists hostile to closer European integration.
[Tolo News] The National Security Council (NSC) on Sunday accused powerful Jihadi commander Gen Abdul Rashid 
Pakistain's decision to suspend 
Belgian prosecutors on Thursday charged a high-profile Islamist radical with stoking hatred and violence during racial disturbances in Brussels last week.
A gunfight during the night between two feuding tribes in Egypt's south has killed 12 people, a police official said on Sunday.
At least seven people 
The controversial Muslim preacher who calls homosexuals evil and advocates their death is scheduled to speak at an upcoming event in Calgary. Dr. Bilal Philips, a Canadian-born Muslim preacher reputed to have links to terrorism and has been ousted from several countries, is to be a speaker at the Power of Unity Conference.
BEIRUT: Syrian forces on Sunday unleashed a new round of heavy shelling and sent reinforcements to a mountainous area near the coastal city of Latakia where hundreds of rebels have set up base and which has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent days, activists said.
Hosni Mubarak may suffer 
(Sh.M.Network)- The interior minister of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Abdisamad Mo'allin Mohamud, on Sunday assured the people of Mogadishu to restore peace and security in city amid killings have been on the rise in the past few months.
ABIDJAN: Thousands of civilians in Ivory Coast have fled their homes after seven UN peacekeepers and eight civilians were killed in raids near the Liberian border, a UN official and residents said. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Bradley Manning has failed to persuade a military judge to throw out half of the counts against him in a pre-trial hearing before his court martial for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of state secrets to WikiLeaks.
Al-Qaida's chief has urged Tunisians to rise up to demand the rule of Islamic law, slamming the ruling Ennahda Islamist party for "violating" sharia law, in a message posted online on Sunday.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta while giving an interview to a US television channel on Saturday said that the United States(US) is fighting its own war in the tribal areas of the Pak-Afghan border region and that military safe havens in Pakistan would not be tolerated, DawnNews reported.
North Korea
Egyptian prosecutors plan to investigate a Salafi MP whom police say was caught in his car "violating public decency" with a woman. He denies the allegation and Islamists say the case is aimed at defaming them ahead of upcoming presidential runoff elections.
Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq on Sunday claimed a suicide car bombing against the Baghdad headquarters of an Iraqi Shiite foundation that killed 25 people, in a statement posted on jihadist forums.
Reacting to President Hamid Karzai's call on MPs to convene for a meeting to discuss fighting corruption, several MPs on Sunday said he should start this process with cleaning up his own office.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
At least six people have been killed and 38 others wounded when two mortar rounds struck a square in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, police and hospital sources have said.
