The White House congratulated Egypt's president-elect Mohamed Morsi on his victory in that country's presidential election, calling it a "milestone"...
The rest of the first sentence says something about Democracy, which is another White House lie. Islam and Democracy is like trying to compare apples to oranges.
Posted by: Glomoque Floluth8718 ||
06/24/2012
18:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
#1
I never thought I would see that headline in my life. How wrong I was.
Be very careful if you get voter registration documents in the mail. They may not be what they appear to be. In this case documents looking as if they would be sent to the Registrar of Voters in Richmond, VA actually going to a Soros funded "Voter Participation Center".
One day after US Govt. warning of imminent terror activity in Mombassa, reports are that there has been an explosion. Report is via Twitter from Standard Media which does not have a story up yet other than a rotating "Breaking" banner on their main site.
Posted by: crosspatch ||
06/24/2012
15:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#3
Probably retaliation for Kenya's combined arms (naval, air, ground) actions around Kismayo, Somalia. Two other explosive devices were discovered washed ashore near Mombassa.
Calling it "Obama's Surge" is actually misdirected.
Excerpted from Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan
The day after he arrived in Kabul in June 2009, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, then the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, gathered his senior officers to discuss the state of the war. The metrics were grim, the conclusion obvious: The Americans and their NATO allies were losing.
The part of the country that concerned McChrystal most was the city of Kandahar and the eponymous province that encompasses it. Founded by Alexander the Great in 330 B.C., Kandahar city has long been the symbolic homeland of ethnic Pashtuns. In the 1990s, just as every other band of conquerors had done for the past thousand years, the Taliban used it as a springboard from which they captured Kabul and much of the rest of the nation. If the Americans were going to retake Afghanistan, they needed to start with Kandahar. The author's conclusion. But why couldn't Kandahar be the last province retaken?
But the Pentagon had not sent most of the new U.S. forces that had arrived in Afghanistan to Kandahar. The first wave -- a Marine brigade comprising more than half of the 17,000 additional troops President Obama authorized in February 2009 -- had been dispatched to neighboring Helmand province, which McChrystal and his top advisers considered of far lower strategic significance. "Can someone tell me why the Marines were sent to Helmand?" the incredulous McChrystal asked his officers. Because that was a better place to start?
The answer -- not fully known at the time to McChrystal and his officers -- would reveal the dysfunction of the U.S. war effort: a reliance on understaffed NATO partners for crucial intelligence, a misjudgment of Helmand's importance to Afghanistan's security, and tribal politics within the Pentagon that led the Marines to insist on confining themselves to a far less important patch of desert.
As Obama battles for reelection, White House aides have sought to depict the president as an engaged and decisive leader on national security matters. But the Helmand deployment also exposes the limits of his understanding of Afghanistan -- and his unwillingness to confront the military -- early in his presidency.
Just weeks after Obama took office in 2009, Adm. Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged him to approve the 17,000-troop increase before the new White House had finished a review of war strategy. Mullen said the additional forces were needed to secure the country in advance of Afghanistan's presidential elections that August. But White House officials never pressed the Pentagon for details about where the new troops -- the first major military deployment of Obama's presidency -- were heading. If they had received them, they would have learned that more than half of the forces were heading to a part of the country that was home to about 1 percent of its population. Maybe Champ was too busy figuring out how he could spin the surge.
When McChrystal presented his troop request to Obama's war cabinet -- he spoke via a secure video link from Kabul to participants in the White House Situation Room -- he displayed a map of Afghanistan dotted with blue bubbles that indicated where he intended to place the new forces. Several bubbles were in Helmand.
But in more than two hours of discussion, the 14-member war cabinet -- which included Vice President Biden, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- never asked McChrystal why he wanted so many more Marines in Helmand. The civilians didn't know enough about Afghanistan to focus on that issue. They were also concerned about micromanaging the war, of looking like President Lyndon B. Johnson picking bombing targets in North Vietnam. Besides, if the military fell flat on its face, Obama was not to blame, was he?
Nicholson insisted that the Marines could be used more effectively in Helmand for three other reasons: It was the epicenter of poppy production, the Taliban were conducting more attacks there, and Afghan officials had told commanders that foreign troops should stay out of Kandahar city, given its religious significance. But Exum thought the new troops should be closer to the largest population center in the south, not where violence was worst. The drug argument similarly made no sense to him, because Richard C. Holbrooke, the State Department's point man for Afghanistan, had just announced that to avoid antagonizing farmers, the United States would no longer participate in the eradication of poppy fields. A CIA study also claimed that the Taliban got most of its money from illegal taxation and contributions from Pakistan and Persian Gulf nations, not from drugs. More Monday-morning quarterbacking at the link. Remember, it's an except from a book.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/24/2012
13:03 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Morsi wins Egypt's presidential election
Muslim Brotherhood candidate declared the official winner with 13.2 million votes.
The Moslem Brüderbund's Mohammed Morsi has officially won Egypt's presidential election and will be the country's next president, the electoral commission has announced.
Morsi picked up 13.2 million votes out of just over 26 million, giving him about 51 per cent of the vote. His competitor, Ahmed Shafiq, the final prime minister under Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , received 12.3 million. More than 800,000 ballots were invalidated.
Farouq Sultan, the head of the election commission, delivered a long speech before announcing the results in which he defended the body's "independence and integrity" amidst what he called meddling by unnamed political factions.
The final results
Turnout: 26,420,763 (51 per cent)
Invalidated votes: 843,252
Morsi: 13,230,131 votes (51.7 per cent of valid votes)
Shafiq: 12,347,380 votes
The two candidates filed 456 complaints about the electoral process, Sultan said, most of them allegations of either forgery or Christian voters being blocked from polling stations in Upper Egypt. The vast majority of those complaints were dismissed.
Tahrir Square erupted into celebration after Morsi's victory was announced. Tens of thousands of his supporters waved Egyptian flags and chanted "God is great" and "down with military rule."
Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's military ruler, congratulated Morsi on his victory, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported. Reactions also trickled in from around the region: The governments of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the Paleostinian Authority congratulated the winner.
There was no immediate reaction from Shafiq's campaign.
Gehad el-Haddad, Morsi's campaign front man, said in an interview shortly after the results were announced that Morsi would work to be a "president for all Egyptians."
The president-elect is expected to take his oath of office later this month in front of the country's supreme court.
POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY AHEAD
Morsi's victory caps off more than a week of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Brotherhood and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). He claimed victory just hours after last week's runoff election, based on unofficial numbers tallied by the Brotherhood, but the commission delayed its official announcement until Sunday.
In the intervening days, Khairat al-Shater, the Brotherhood's political boss, met generals from SCAF at least once. Sources say they were negotiating exactly what powers the president will have.
Despite Morsi's victory, many of those questions about his power remain unanswered.
"This is not the end of the game, it's a start of a huge responsibility," el-Haddad told Al Jizz. "It comes with more challenges, turning from being the largest opposition group in Egypt to leading the country with its national front."
Shortly before the polls closed last week, the generals issued a decree sharply limiting the powers of the new president. It permitted him to declare war, for example, only with the approval of the military council.
SCAF will also keep control of legislative power, and the budget, until a new parliament is elected. Egyptians went to the polls in November to elect a legislature, which was dominated by the Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party, but it was dissolved earlier this month after a high court ruling found parts of the electoral law unconstitutional.
Saad el-Katatni, the speaker of the now-dissolved parliament, also met with officials from SCAF, and told them that the Brotherhood would not accept the court ruling or the election-night decree. But it's unclear whether the Brotherhood ultimately accepted those decisions in exchange for the presidency.
Either way, the military council - which has promised to hand over power to a civilian government on June 30, in a "grand ceremony" - will remain a powerful force in Egyptian politics, despite the election of a civilian president.
Posted by: ||
06/24/2012
12:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
finally, an Egyptian leader Obama will be proud to bow to
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/24/2012 12:48
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"An Egyptian plumber in Alexandria beat his pregnant wife to death upon learning that she had not voted for Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi, reported the Egyptian daily al-Wafd on Sunday."
#8
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Head of Egypt Military Council Field Marshal Hussein ---] TANTAWI: EGYPT READY TO DO BATTLE.
ARTIC > TANTAWI = "PEACE IS NOT ASSURED" AGZ ISRAEL, ESEPC AS PER "EGYPTIAN INTERESTS", NOR FOR ANYONE WHOM CHALLENGES OR OPPOSES EGYPT'S ARMED FORCES.
A spokeswoman says NATO's ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... governing body will meet Tuesday to discuss the Syrian downing of a Turkish plane.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday that a jet was downed in international airspace after it mistakenly entered Syria.
Oana Lungescu says the North Atlantic Council will meet in Brussels to hear Turkey's complaint. Turkish officials say the jet was on a training flight Friday when it strayed into Syrian airspace, but was in international airspace when it was shot down.
The consultations will focus on Article 4 of NATO's founding Washington Treaty.
Lungescu said Sunday that under the article, an ally can request consultations "whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
09:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
we should give Turkey all the support they showed us for the Iraq campaign, and for the Gaza flotilla
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/24/2012 12:26
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Turkey claims that, while its plane did momentarily violate Syrian airspace, it was unintentional + that it promptly left Syrian Air-Sea territory after receiving a formal warning from Syria.
SYRIA FOR SOME MYSTERIOUS REASON THEN PROCEEDED TO SHOOT IT DOWN ANYWAY, + WIDOUT ANY NEW WARNING(S) TO THE AIRCRAFT, AFTER THE LATTER HAD PROPERLY CROSSED BACK INTO INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE???
Nephew of one-time (now completely dead) leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi has joined his uncle in complete deadness. Looks like he was zapped in early May.
Posted by: crosspatch ||
06/24/2012
03:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Indian Mujaheddin
A prominent political scientist has placed the blame squarely on German leftists for complicity in Black September's murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972.
Writing in the current edition of the German Jewish newspaper Jüdische Allgemeine Wochenzeitung, Dr. Wolfgang Kraushaar sharply disputed a recent Der Spiegel article's emphasis on the role of neo-Nazis in the attack, calling the news item "blown up" and nothing new.
"It was not 'Brown [Nazi] help,' as Der Spiegel writes, but rather a joint work of German Left radicals and Palestinian terrorists."
Kraushaar, who has written extensively on the German Left's involvement in attacks on Jews and Israelis, argued in his commentary that though the Munich murders were part and parcel of a merger between German Leftists and Palestinian terrorists, Der Spiegel aimed to portray them as series of murders by the extreme Right.
#1
The National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known in English in short form as the Nazi Party.
#2
Little difference between the Nazis and the Communists (leftists). Some disagreement about who should run or direct the production capacity of a nation.
An Interior Ministry serviceman was killed when unknown assailants attacked a military unit in the Vedeno District of Chechnya, a law enforcement source reported. The source said, A contract serviceman was killed in an armed attack near the Dargo locality.
The attackers escaped and a search for them is underway.
[Tolo News] As many as 100 female students are believed to have been poisoned in Afghanistan's northern Sar-e-Pul province on Saturday, a provincial health official said.
Head of Sar-e-Pul Public Health department Mohammad Amin Altin said the reason behind the poisoning at the Emam Yahya school is still unclear, but the scores of students admitted to hospital had a fever.
This comes as hundreds of students were poisoned in the last two months in Takhar, Khost and Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. provinces, raising concerns among the families and the Afghan politicians for the future of education in the country.
Parliamentarians have called the poisoning of students a failure of Afghan security and intelligence officials and asked for immediate responses to such incidents, resulting in the capture of a several people, including a female Pak doctor who was accused of helping poison students. Recently, several students including teachers were also set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Book 'im, Mahmoud! by Afghan cops as suspects in carrying out the poisonings.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[An Nahar] Two coppers were maimed Saturday in a blast, possibly caused by an improvised bomb, in Kenya's Mandera region on the border with Somalia, police said.
"The officers were sheltering under a tree when the kaboom went off, wounding both of them," said a police brass hat in Mandera.
The two were taken to a hospital.
Violent incidents involving local tribes, who often have automatic weapons, are frequent in northeast Kenya, but the number of kabooms and hand-grenade attacks surged after the Kenyan army began hunting down al-Qaeda-linked Islamist Shebab rebels in southern Somalia in late 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Dawn] Pakistain's top judge has said that the Parliament cannot legislate any law repugnant to Constitution, injunctions of Islam and contrary to fundamental laws.
"If such law is promulgated, Supreme Court under its power of Judicial Review can review it. The underlying object of judicial review is to check abuse of power by public functionaries and ensuring just and fair treatment to citizens in accordance with law and constitutional norms."
Chief Justice of Pakistain Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry was speaking to a 50-member delegation of Youth Parliament on Saturday at the Supreme Court Building in Islamabad.
The CJ said: "The system in our country is parliamentary system. From 1973 onward there have been National Assemblies and Senate but on account of Constitutional turmoil time and again there had been intervention in Parliamentary System, therefore, the expectations of people attached with Parliament could not be fulfilled. Parliament is required to give laws in accordance with Constitution for betterment of public on the lam so that laws can be made applicable."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Yemen Post] President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... has held the Central Military Region responsible for protecting the power transmission lines and oil pipelines in the central province of Marib where most sabotage attacks take place against the public services.
In his meeting with the governor of Marib on Saturday, Hadi said the Elite Republican Guards, the Central Security Region and the leadership in Marib must work hand in hand in order to make sure that the attacks targeting the power supply lines stop, the official Saba news agency reported.
Hadi warned that he would take decisive actions if he felt that there is any sort of slackness or negligence on the part of the aforementioned government sides.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... a military campaign has headed towards Marib on Saturday with the aim of arresting the saboteurs responsible for the recent sabotage attacks that sent the Gas-run Marib power station out of commission with all of its capacity.
Local sources said that they expect the campaign to be a success this time and to carry out what it came for, arguing that the tribal chiefs of Jadan showed support and solidarity with the campaign intended to put an end to the sabotage attacks that have been targeting the public utilities since March of last year.
Sahwa mobile service said that at least 2 soldiers were killed and other three maimed in the ongoing festivities with the saboteurs in al-Jadan area of Marib. It said the military campaign which included heavy vehicles such as tanks was intercepted by saboteurs, igniting festivities between the two sides.
For its part, the ministry of interior circulated around three saboteurs' names in all security units, ordering the police forces to arrest saboteurs wherever they are seen.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
On Friday's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO, panelists debated the relevance of the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal and the competence of Attorney General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder.
Maher assumed much of his audience was unaware of the details about the scandal, so he gave them a refresher before unloading his own opinion.
"[House oversight committee Chairman] Darrell Issa says this is a giant scandal," Maher said. "I've heard on Fox News this week it's worse than Watergate because 200 Mexicans have died. First of all, let me just say Republicans don't care about dead Mexicans, A. And B -- I think those 200 dead Mexicans would be dead even if we hadn't sold them guns. They would have gotten the guns somewhere else. So is it really a scandal?"
Later, Reason magazine's Nick Gillespie, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Maher debated that question, with Gillespie questioning Maddow's and Maher's reasoning behind their dismissal of the Fast and Furious congressional probe as a partisan event.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Barbara ||
06/24/2012 11:59
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Self described libertarian who made a career attempting to be impartial yet edgy who, in reality, has dumped $1mil dollars into the Obama wedding registry likely because nobody really likes him they just prefer to not be involved in his high plane pondering of profanity and quite personal remarks.
This champion of the little person in the masses recently became a part owner of the NY Mets and so is not a major dissident of Bloomberg intrusionism, showing himself to be what he would call one of the damned 1%s but also weak in his own self described value system.
So in a very personal and shallow way, he is actually a very short, small man who made a career posing as a creepy year old with a pompador hairstyle in strange senior picture poses with his girlfriend, though only one person was in the photograph. He is the same now, only 55+.
To his credit, any doubts I had about the bulk of liberal theology he dispelled for me. I'm sure after hours of deep meditation, in a flurry of creation he had this line in the starting gate waiting upon the cue. So now he has had time to think about it, perhaps a couple of questions. 1: So Mexicans just kill themselves because they can't help it? 2: The sale of automatical weapons to drug dealers is ok?
#14
Did he (selectively) overlook the dead American, perhaps?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/24/2012 14:51
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Brian Terry served in the military and joined the Border Patrol protecting our national security. I think if you did a Venn diagram between Maher and Terry you'd have to use separate sheets of paper
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/24/2012 15:24
Comments ||
Top||
#16
Remember, the left are the guys who talk about the Rethuglican War on Women and then turn around and implement a foreign policy that amounts to "Bros Before Hos."
#18
It's because F&F has been ignored by the mainstream media. No liberals have heard of it.
I think that is part of the answer, I think the other part is attempting to frame the arguement. Their mistake is that will only work for those who have solely received their news from those network shows. Yes, there are those who only get their news from Daily Show (Stewarts bit was fairly accurate especially for that show), but there are those who overhear news broadcasts from such places as airports. Expect Tyme and Newspeak articles.
Media bias, what media bias? Well case in point, where was the uproar a la Limbough NFL Team for Mahar's purchase of a share of the NY Mets? Mahar is a well documented unabashed sexist, punctuated with the Palin attacks.
[An Nahar] An kaboom went off outside a nightclub in the Nigerian capital Abuja, breaking windows and damaging cars, but no casualties were reported, the country's emergency agency said on Saturday.
"No human casualty," Yushau Shuaib, front man for the National Emergency Management Agency, said of the blast late Friday. "The explosives were suspected to have been planted on a tree opposite Kryxtal Lounge."
They killed a tree?!? The bastards!!
An AFP news hound who visited the scene saw a damaged tree and broken windows at the nightclub, a barber shop and a nearby bank.
Nigeria has been hit by scores of bombings blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , including some in and around Abuja.
A suicide kaboom on U.N. headquarters in Abuja in August killed at least 25 people, while another at the Abuja office of one of the country's most prominent newspapers left at least four dead.
On Friday, President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... fired his national security adviser and defense minister as fears mounted over spiraling unrest in the country's north, where Boko Haram's insurgency has been based.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram
#1
I hope this doesn't delay my settlement letter.
The Mae West was a common nickname for the first inflatable life preserver, which was invented in 1928 by Peter Markus (18851974) (US Patent 1694714) with his subsequent improvements in 1930 and 1931. The nickname was originated because someone wearing the inflated life preserver often appeared to be as physically endowed as the actress Mae West as well as rhyming slang for breast.[2] It was popular during the World War II with U.S. Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force servicemen, who were issued inflatable Mae Wests as part of their flight gear. Air crew members whose lives were saved by use of the Mae West (and other personal flotation devices) were eligible for membership in the Goldfish Club.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/24/2012 1:02
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Martha Sleeper aka Mary Gallagher, Patsy's mother in "The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)" aka Nancy Fairbrother in "Four Days' Wonder (1936)" aka Constance Hyde in "Rhythm on the Range (1936)" aka Elsie Summerstone in "Two Sinners (1935)" aka Julia Vivian in "The Scoundrel (1935)" aka Marcia Harper in "Great God Gold (1935)" aka Ril Lambeth in "West of the Pecos (1934)" (Died in 1983 at age 72)
by U.S. Embassy Damascus on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at 3:58pm
Standing, cheering...
For this posting, I want to address the members of the Syrian military and their role in this crisis. The role of any nations military is to defend the country and to protect the people, not to harm them. The United States believes the Syrian military should have an invaluable, integral role to play in the new democratic Syria, if it decides to fulfill its true purpose and stand with the Syrian people now.
Unfortunately, most of the Syrian military is acting as a leading destabilizing force. The pictures we see of buildings destroyed by heavy artillery in Homs are just one example. Now similar artillery is being used against residential districts in places like Douma outside Damascus. In addition, certain key members of the Syrian military have often played a leading role in President Assads campaign of torture and terror, including the attacks against Homs, Hama, Latakia, Aleppo, Deir Al-Zour, and many other areas throughout Syria. They have supported the Shabihas massacres in the cities of Al-Haffa and Haoula, by providing these armed thugs with instructions and artillery and mortar cover. Their role in these attacks and massacres is abhorrent, runs counter to international law and to the ethics of military professionalism, and enables the Assad regime to try to destroy any region of Syria that rejects Assads dictatorial rule.
I want to make it clear that the United States and the international community will work with the Syrian people to locate the military members responsible for this violence and hold them accountable. And we will support the future Syrian governments efforts to bring those people to justice. Soldiers should know that, under international law, they have a responsibility to uphold basic human rights and that they do not escape responsibility for violations simply because they are subject to orders.
There are parallels to the Syria case in the Balkans. In 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICYT) was created to bring to justice those accused of atrocities in the Balkans conflicts. The ICTY indicted 161 people military and civilian from foot soldiers to municipal employees to military officers at all levels to heads of state for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against non-combatants and combatants. The charges against them ranged from directly targeting civilians, mistreating individuals (detained combatants and civilians) in custody, terrorizing the civilian population, using disproportionate force against military objectives, and forcing the deportation or displacement of the civilian population. Trials against several defendants are still ongoing: the Bosnian Serb Army leader Ratko Mladić was on the run for 16 years, but he was captured last May and is now on trial. The United States will support accountability; it has assisted the Tribunals where possible, by providing information at the request of both prosecutors and defendants. We stand ready to do the same in the case of Syria.
Members of the Syrian military should reconsider their support for a regime that is losing the battle. The Assad regime cannot outlast the desire of Syrian people for a democratic state. The officers and soldiers of the Syrian military have a choice to make. Do they want to expose themselves to criminal prosecution by supporting the barbaric actions of the Assad regime against the Syrian people? Or do they want to help secure the role of the professional military in a democratic Syria by supporting the Syrian people and their transition to an inclusive, tolerant and representative democracy that respects human rights and equal, fair treatment for all components of the Syrian nation?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"do they want to help secure the role of the professional military in a democratic Syria by supporting the Syrian people and their transition to an inclusive, tolerant and representative democracy that respects human rights and equal, fair treatment for all components of the Syrian nation?"
The really scary thing is that USDS seem to really believe this king of bull
The Chiêu Hồi Program ([tɕiə̯w˧ hoj˧˩], loosely translated as "Open Arms"[1]) was an initiative by the South Vietnamese to encourage defection by the Viet Cong and their supporters to the side of the Government during the Vietnam War.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Liberia on Saturday extradited 41 Ivory Coast nationals for their role in last year's bloody post-electoral violence in the neighbouring West African nation.
The handover witnessed by an AFP journalist took place in the northeastern border region of Toe's Town and followed a Liberian court ruling that the men be sent back home to face justice.
A four-truck convoy escorted by heavily-armed UN troops and Liberian police brought the Ivorians from the central prison of Zwedru to Toe's Town, 45 kilometres (30 miles) away at dawn.
Grand Gedeh county attorney John Gabriel said the move had been kept quiet because relatives of the Ivorians had threatened to set up roadblocks to stop the extradition.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Jerusalem Post] Latest launches follow Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, announcement of ceasefire; IDF says quiet will be answered with quiet, fire with fire; 150 rockets fired into Israel in six days: 1 Israeli injured, 14 Paleostinians killed.
The Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted five Grad rockets ...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km.... fired from the Gazoo Strip toward Ashkelon Saturday night. The renewed rocket fire came on the heels of a declared cease fire by Hamas and an IDF response asserting that fire will be met by fire and quiet by quiet.
No damage or injuries were reported from the intercepted Grad rockets.
On Saturday, over 20 rockets were fired into Israel, amounting to nearly 150 since the beginning of hostilities on Monday. A number of rockets targeted Sderot, injuring a factory worker. One projectile also smashed into an empty school, causing extensive damage.
The Israel Air Force retaliated with a number of Arclight airstrikes late Friday night after terrorist groups in Gazoo -- although not Hamas -- fired rockets into Israel despite reports that an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire had gone into effect in the morning. IDF sources said that most of the rocket fire over the weekend was carried out by the Popular Resistance Committees and other small terror factions.
In response to the rocket attacks on Friday, early Saturday morning the IAF bombed three Hamas bases in the Gazoo Strip, wounding around 20 people. In response, Hamas fired rockets and mortar shells mostly into Sderot. The factory worker was injured in one of the attacks while seeking cover. He sustained moderate shrapnel wounds to his neck and stomach and was rushed to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
A factory manager said that the site had been hit twice before, but that on this occasion, expensive equipment worth millions sustained a direct hit. Two other civilians were treated for shock in the attack.
Also Saturday, the IAF carried out to Arclight airstrike against Paleostinians spotted preparing to launch rockets into Israel. Two Paleostinians were killed, raising the death tally to 14.
"We will continue operating to prevent the rocket fire but in general, quiet will be met by quiet and fire by fire," a senior IDF officer said Saturday night.
The officer said that Israel had received signals from the Egyptians that Hamas was interested in ending the current round of violence. He attributed Hamas's interest in stopping the fighting to the IDF's aggressive response Friday night and Saturday to the rocket fire which included bombings of several of the group's military bases.
"Hamas was surprised by the bombing of one of its bases since until now the IDF has limited its attacks to smaller outposts," the officer said. "This made Hamas understand that it is in its interest to obtain quiet."
The officer said that while Hamas was not behind most of the rocket fire over the weekend, Israel expected it to rein in the other terror factions in Gazoo and to stop their rocket attacks.
"If the attacks continue though the IDF will not hesitate to act against the terrorist launching the rockets," the officer said.
Ex-KKK leader and Louisiana congressman backs Charles Barron's Democratic primary bid, citing shared hostility to 'Zionist control'
A shared hostility toward Israel is apparently what it takes for an ex-Ku Klux Klan leader to endorse a black Democrat from Brooklyn.
David Duke, the former KKK Grand Wizard who served as a Republican state politician in Louisiana, has spoken out in support of New York City politician Charles Barron, citing his opposition to Israel. "I certainly agree with Barron that Israel is the worst rogue, terrorist state on earth," Duke says in the statement, posted Wednesday on YouTube.
"Barron is certainly right about Zionist control of our media and our government and the treason that's existed in our Congress," he later adds.
Duke, whose YouTube account describes the statement as a "qualified endorsement," goes on to criticize Barron's positions on race-related issues, but blames "Zionists" for sowing discord between white and black Americans. "The Zio-masters want constant conflict between the two groups so that they can utilize a divide-and-conquer strategy over us all," he claims.
Barron's campaign -- part of a Democratic primary for a Congressional seat representing Brooklyn's eighth district -- has distanced itself from Duke. ""We're staying focused -- and we demand respect for our campaign," the politician, currently a member of the city council, told the New York Daily News. "I don't think that's a campaign issue. I don't think it's intelligent."
Barron's opponent, Hakeem Jeffries, comes in for harsh criticism from Duke, who describes the state Assemblyman as a "complete Zionist sellout." A front man for Jeffries told the Daily News, "Hate and extreme rhetoric have no place in our society. We denounce David Duke's remarks in [their] entirety and urge the other candidate in this race to do the same."
Brooklyn voters will choose between Barron and Jeffries on June 26.
Closer than expected, the race has focused renewed attention on Barron's support for dictators such as Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... and Muammar Qadaffy ...whose instability was an inspiration to dictators everywhere, but whose end couldn't possibly happen to them... , as well as his attacks on Israel, including a description of Gazoo as a "concentration death camp."
That is true. However, he has run in both Democratic and Republican presidential primaries. He has run for various other offices but been unsuccessful; Louisiana State Senate, U.S. Senate, and Governor of Louisiana.
[Jerusalem Post] The Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leadership in Gazoo has been energized by its expectations that the Moslem Brüderbund will soon be in control in Egypt and sees itself as the vanguard of an anti-Israeli front.
This week, the Hamas rulers of Gazoo chose to abruptly shatter the fragile framework of assumptions which have governed relations between Israel and Gazoo since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead in early 2009. By taking responsibility for the launch of a barrage of Kassam rockets into the Negev, Hamas essentially announced the birth of a new phase in its long war of attrition with Israel.
Operation Cast Lead purchased a period of relative quiet for Israel, through the imposition of deterrence upon Hamas-controlled Gazoo. The movement, however, has now indicated that it considers that period to be at an end. What led it to this decision, and what may it portend? The Arab upheavals of 2011 posed particular dilemmas for Hamas and have produced significant changes in the balance of power within the movement. These changes underlie the current decision toward greater militancy in Gazoo.
Hamas can be considered both a winner and a loser from the Arab Spring. The Hamas leadership in Gazoo and in particular the leaders of the armed wing, the Kassam Brigades, however, have derived only benefit from the changes.
The movement's external leadership, formerly centered in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , has now scattered across the region.
Hamas's supposed leader, Khaled Mashaal, is in Doha, Qatar. His main rival, Moussa Abu Marzouk, is in Cairo.
Other significant former Hamas residents of Damascus are now as far afield as Istanbul and Khartoum. One important Mashaal rival and advocate of armed militancy, Imad Alami, has taken up residence in Gazoo.
A veiled power struggle between the Gazoo leaders and Mashaal has resulted. Each side holds to a particular preferred strategy which, while presented in terms of principle, would serve to maximize its own power and influence.
Mashaal's power has been much compromised by the disappearance of the Damascus base and the reduction of Iranian funding as a result of the failure to back Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... . His preferred strategy for a return to relevance has been to push for reconciliation with the Paleostinian Authority in the hope of achieving a political triumph for Hamas.
The Gazoo leadership understands that this direction would require reconciliation with the Ramallah-based PA, and therefore the ceding of their independent power base in the Gazoo Strip.
They advocate a rival strategy of holding on to "fortress Gazoo," maintaining links both with Iran and with the growing Moslem Brüderbund power in Egypt and thus enabling Hamas to play a central role in a new era of expected ongoing confrontation between Israel and an Egypt led by Hamas's natural allies in the Moslem Brüderbund.
In recent internal elections in Hamas, the Gazoo leaders scored significant gains. Very few Mashaal-associated figures in the strip attained positions on the district shura councils, the Gazoo shura council and the 15-member Gazoo Political Bureau. Senior figures within the Kassam Brigades, such as Ahmed Jabari and Marwan Issa, meanwhile, were elected to the Gazoo Political Bureau.
Mashaal's control over the budget of the Kassam Brigades is reported to have been removed.
Gazoo-based leaders have consequently felt able to simply ignore his supposed reconciliation agreement with the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... , signed in Doha in February.
Despite a flurry of recent media reports suggesting that the Gazoo leadership had begun moves to help facilitate elections, nothing concrete has happened. Informed sources suggest that the talks on reconciliation have hit stalemate again. Simply put, giving up tangible power isn't on the agenda of the ascendant Gazoo Hamas leaders.
The Iranians appear to be firmly backing the Gazoo leaders and their strategy of confrontation.
Fatah leaders have in fact alleged that the Gazoo Hamas leadership was paid by Iran to prevent reconciliation.
The Iranians are interested in tangible geographical areas from which to exert proxy military pressure on Israel. They have little use or interest for long political campaigns in which the Paleostinians debate and argue over their preferred path. They appear for now at least to have gotten what they wanted.
So a confident, militarized Hamas leadership in Gazoo has retained the support of Iran. It is looking forward to a new era of militancy, in which it will maintain a direct land link to Egypt, where it expects its fellow Moslem Brothers to soon be in control.
This will open up new possibilities in which, far from being under Israeli siege, Gazoo Hamas hopes to itself form an advance element in a siege to be imposed upon Israel.
The first confident shots in this new phase were fired this week.
The fact that the Hamas Gazoo leadership appears to have maintained the Iranian link while keeping its ties to the Moslem Brothers in Cairo should concern Israeli planners.
It should serve to dispel any easy assumption that Shia and Sunni Islamists will continue indefinitely to tear one another apart, conveniently leaving Israel to enjoy the role of spectator.
It should also be remembered that on at least one occasion in the past (in 1956), war between Egypt and Israel became inevitable as a result of a process begun by terrorist activity emerging from Gazoo.
The lull in conflict between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gazoo was made possible because of Israel's imposition of a balance of terror in Operation Cast Lead. The rise of the Moslem Brothers in Egypt and the decline of the Hamas external leadership have reset this balance.
The birth tremors of this new phase were felt in southern Israel this week.
#1
I see a potential end game to the troubles within a year or so. If Syria and Iran change leadership andnobody supports Egypts hate mongers Hamas will be left high and dry.
If Israel is smart they have plans in place to (a) displace Gaza or West Bank population (b) kill pal leaders and known hard boys so that they have a variety of escallation possibilities if the Pals jump into any Iranian conflict.
(Sh. M. Network)-At least two people were killed and one other as injured after Armed groups in Somalia have attacked on local herders locating at Miro-cowleed neighborhood located nearby Galka'yo town, some 750 kilometers north of Mogadishu, reports said.
According to local witnesses who spoke to Shabelle Media via phone that the gangs managed to escape from the area after carrying out the attack which clamed the lives of two nomadic herders.
The motive of the deadly attack is yet to be established.
Local Elders and intellectuals from neighboring Galinsor district have arrived at Miro-cowleed, the scene of the crime to bring an end a fueling tense of fighting between two tribes hails from Galmudug ...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth... and Himan and Heb administrations in centralSomalia.
Both Somali regional administrations have not released an official statement on the matter so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
Serfs, indentured servants or slaves? Or does it matter much what we call them?
China has decided to allow 20,000 North Koreans to work in the Dandong area of Liaoning Province along the Apnok River separating it from North Korea. Earlier, China permitted another 20,000 North Koreans to work in the border cities of Tumen and Huchun in Jilin Province along the Duman River.
The 40,000 include many factory workers who lost their jobs when South Korea halted trade with North Korea in 2010 after the North's sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan.
A source in Dandong said the Liaoning government and North Korea's Committee of Investment and Joint Venture signed an agreement in April authorizing the dispatch of of 20,000 North Koreans to Dandong.
Under the agreement China will issue industrial training visas to 20,000 North Korean workers a year and pay them 1,300-1,700 yuan (W240,000-310,000) a month depending on the line of work.
Of which Pudgy will take 80%...
They will work in factories that manufacture clothes, food and IT products, or in mines.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Will this be the Chinese govt response as native Chinese labor becomes more expensive?
No truce yet: Shortly after Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, announces Gazoo truce, anti-missile system intercepts five Grads fired at city of Ashkelon; more than 150 rockets explode in Israel in recent days
The Iron Dome anti-missile system shot down five Gazoo rockets Saturday evening, shortly after Hamas declared that a southern truce will go into effect gradually.
A ceasefire between Gazoo Strip factions and Israel will go into effect Saturday night following Egyptian mediation efforts, senior Hamas man Ayman Taha initially said in an interview with a Paleostinian television station Saturday evening. Later he said that the lull has no set date and will be implemented gradually.
Notably, Hamas has already violated a truce agreement reached Thursday. Before Saturday's ceasefire announcement, Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades published a Hebrew-language video, threatening to escalate the fighting and warning that the group will "crush" Israel.
"If the last rounds were not enough to deliver the message ... we are ready to crush the enemy and to curb its arrogance and to respond to aggression in a strong way," the group said in a statement earlier.
#1
I just knew it'd be there even before I opened the link:
A Child Killed and 5 Others Wounded due to the Accidental Landing of Home-Made Rockets on their Houses when Palestinian Resistance Groups Launched Rockets on Israeli Targets
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is deeply concerned about the killing of Hadeel Haddad, and the wounding of five others, as 5 home-made rockets have landed on 4 houses and an empty area of land in several parts of the Gaza Strip in the past few days. PCHR calls upon the government in Gaza to seriously investigate these incidents, and to take necessary measures to ensure the protection of civilian life and the safety of their property.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR and testimony from eyewitnesses, at approximately 07:30 on Tuesday, 19 June 2012,Hadeel Ahmed Sa'eed al-Haddad (1.5) was struck in the head by shrapnel while she was standing in the entrance of the house of her grandfather, Sa'eed Mohammed al-Haddad, in al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, when a home-made rocket landed on their house. Hadeel was transported to al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City to receive necessary medical treatment, but later transferred to Shifa Hospital due to the seriousness of her injuries. The efforts made by her doctors failed to save her life. In addition, in the same incident, Hadeel's cousin,Zaqariya Mohammed Sa'eed al-Haddad (9), was also struck in the head by shrapnel. As a result, he was transported to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where medical sources have described his injuries as moderate.
The spokesman of the Palestinian Police, Chief Ra'ed al-Batniji,confirmed with PCHR's fieldworker that Hadeeldied as a result of being hit in the head with shrapnel from a home-made rocket that landed on her grandfather's house. Al-Batniji added that the police had headed to the scene and initiated investigations.
In BeitHanoun, at approximately 22:35 on Wednesday, 20 June 2012, a home-made rocket landed on an under-construction house belonging to Mohammed AkramShabat(24). As a result, part of a wall inside the house was destroyed, though no injuries were reported.
In Deir al-Balah, at approximately 08:00 on Wednesday, 20 June 2012, a home-made rocket exploded in the vicinity of land belonging to Abu Khattab family on Salah al-Deen Street, south of Deir al-Balah. As a result of the explosion, Yahia Mohammed Abu Khattabs(16)left shoulder was wounded by shrapnel, and he was transported by a PRCS's ambulance to al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir al-Balah where he received necessary medical treatment. He only suffered from minor wounds.
In Rafah, at approximately 20:30 on Tuesday, 19 June 2012, a home-made rocket landed on the house of Suleiman Abed Rabbu Abu Shabab, in al-Nasser village, southwest of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. As a result, the house sustained damage and its 15 residents were terrified. The Palestinian police said to PCHR's fieldworker that they immediately moved into the area, where the Explosives Engineering Unit collected the remnants of the rocket.
Previously, at approximately 21:50 on Monday, 18 June 2012, a home-made rocket landed on the house of 'AzzamYusefHamad on al-Qurman Street, east of BeitHanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, 3 of Hamad's children were wounded: Bara'a(12) sustained wounds and bruises in the left arm and leg; and Jannat and May, (both 3) sustained bruises throughout their bodies. Additionally, the western side of the house, windows and water network were damaged.
In view of the above, PCHR,
1. Calls upon the government in Gaza to open serious investigations in the above mentioned incidents, and to take necessary measures to ensure the protection of civilian life and the safety of their property; and
2. Stresses the needto take the necessary steps to protect civilian life and security, and to avoid harming them in disputes, according to international humanitarian law standards.
[An Nahar] Electric car maker Huppmobile Tesla's first mass-market sedans took to the road Friday, but it's not certain whether their debut will make or break the fledgling company.
Ten of the sedans, called the Model S, rolled out the door at the company's Fremont factory during a ceremony that had the feel of a pep rally.
A crowd estimated to be in the thousands, including Studebaker Tesla employees, their relatives, and a host of local politicians, cheered for the lineup of speakers that included Caliphornia Gov. Jerry Governor Moonbeam Brown ... those who ignore history are bound to repeat it ... . They roared when the first cars left the building.
Locomobile Tesla Motors Inc. says more than 10,000 people have put down a refundable deposit for the five-seat sedan, and the Palo Alto company expects to sell 5,000 this year.
"This is another example of Caliphornia on the move," Brown told the crowd. "This is a great car. You're a bunch of great workers."
The first cars driven out of the factory were part of what Tucker Tesla Vice President George Blankenship called the carmaker's "personal delivery program."
The first two cars were heading to buyers in Chicago, while the third was going to nearby Palo Alto.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
One can't help wondering what Nicola would say.
The all-consuming hunt for donors has led President Barack Obama B.O.... 's campaign to England. And La Belle France. And China.
Obama is tapping the network of American citizens living outside the 50 states more than any other presidential campaign has before, with more than a dozen bundlers who have pledged to raise as much as $4.5 million.
The president's overseas power centers include London, where high-powered execs like Warner Bros. Josh Berger and Anthony Gardner of Palamon Capital Partners have promised to deliver as much as $500,000 each to the campaign, and Shanghai, where businessman and Technology for Obama co-Chairman Robert Roche has committed to bringing in more than $500,000.
It's all legal -- the donors are American citizens who pay U.S. taxes -- and the net income to the campaigns is paltry compared the hundreds of millions of dollars raised stateside. Presidential campaigns have long taken in campaign donations from expats and people living in U.S. territories, but Obama's campaign is focusing on those donations more than ever.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It should be illegal too get campaign contributions from over seas
Posted by: chris ||
06/24/2012 0:34
Comments ||
Top||
The poor, worthless, communist, racist, Kenyan emposter bastard and his hateful Chicago breed sow are way out of their league! I hope they do not trash the residence when they depart.
#5
"contributions from over seas" have a long history. Unions, elections, and political movements. George Soros would be a major bundler in my opinion. Funding internal conflict has been around a long time. Just my idea on how some of these outfits stay around or get partial media treatment. Obama is just too obvious.
#6
I am quite sure this will require a jaunt to cote d'azul by the executively privilaged first lady.
Tut tut, four and a half millis, well it is only the green fees, I am quite certain Uncle Oh has transmitted this information.
And to be fair, Teh Won has also marked my veterinarian and suggested quite humbly that perhaps instead of purchasing doggy treats, I donate three quid to the Mr. Obama slush fund.
#7
The poor, worthless, communist, racist, Kenyan imposter bastard and his hateful Chicago breed sow/beard are way out of their league! I hope they do not trash the residence when they depart.
FIFY
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
06/24/2012 8:51
Comments ||
Top||
#8
There is nothing wrong with soliciting donations from American citizens, wherever they might be... so long as it's only the Americans. The issue is that this president's team has been willing to play fast and lose with the rules in the past, and we had stories here at Rantburg last time round about confirmation mechanisms deliberately disabled, coupled with boasts from eg. the Palestinian Territories of bundled donations from not only non-citizens, but non-citizens who believed they were thusly purchasing an outcome. On the other hand, that particular bunch did not get what they paid for, so they may have joined the many other former donors who've reportedly closed their checkbooks. And with the campaign burn rate reported as considerably higher than is traditional, not to mention considerably higher than President Obama's opponent's, I have to wonder how much George Soros is going to have to fork over personally, just to ensure they don't run out before November.
"Just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations. So groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections. And they won't tell you where the money (for) their ads comes from."
President Obama - Oct. 7, 2010
So the narrative progresses. SuperPacs are bad. But the other guys are have 'em. And as much as we don't want to - we have to start our own otherwise we're at a huge disadvantage. Foriegn money in elections is bad. It's probably from corporations that want to outsource jobs. But foriegn money for us is fine because we will promise to disclose our donors.
#17
*I recently realized that FLOTUS is indeed on her way to London for Olympic deeds, and fine wagyu prime rib with aus juice served in fine crystal gravy boats.
[An Nahar] A leader of the ruling Hamas said Saturday the militant group had agreed to try anew an Egypt-brokered ceasefire with Israel, after six days of bloodshed in and around the Gaza Strip.
Hamas and "the Palestinian resistance factions will respect the truce as long as the (forces) of the occupation do the same and that's what we told our Egyptian brothers who demanded that we cease fire," Ayman Taha told Agence France Presse.
"The Egyptians have demanded that the (forces) of the occupation stop their aggression and have informed us that they are prepared to do so," he added.
"We told them that we shall respond to calm with calm; if the occupier stops (its attacks) there will be no further retaliation by the resistance factions."
An official close to the group said the truce would take effect from midnight (21:00 GMT).
Earlier in the day Hamas threatened to call off a previous truce attempt announced on Wednesday which was unraveling, with Palestinian officials reporting three Palestinians killed and dozens wounded in seven Israeli air strikes Saturday.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said that by Saturday evening 24 rockets had slammed into southern Israel from Gaza, with another five brought down by its Iron Dome air defense system.
More were said to have fallen at sea or inside the Gaza Strip itself.
A man in the town of Sderot was injured in one attack during the morning, Israeli police said.
The current round of Israeli attacks and Palestinian retaliation began with air strikes Monday morning, just hours after gunmen from Sinai carried out an ambush along Israel's southern border with Egypt, killing an Israeli civilian.
Israel has said its sudden spike in Gaza operations was "in no way related" to the Sinai border incident, with the military saying the air force was targeting militants poised to attack the Jewish state.
Since Monday Palestinians have reported 15 dead in Gaza strikes, with dozens wounded. At least 150 rockets and mortar shells have hit Israel, wounding five people, among them four border police officers.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
The U.N. is funneling millions of dollars worth of tradable carbon credits to corrupt nations worldwide, including Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Uzbekistan in an attempt to encourage clean energy projects in the developing world.
The U.N. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is defined in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. Western European countries fund energy projects in the developing world in order to obtain Certified Emission Reduction credits (CERs), tradable credits that enable Europeans to count foreign emission reductions towards their own domestic emission reduction targets.
The CDM started from a page and a half in the Kyoto Protocol, said David Abbass, a spokesperson for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. In the beginning they thought there would be maybe 600 projects, but now there are over 4,000 projects.
Iran, Uzbekistan, Sudan, and North Korea are among the more than 70 countries currently hosting CDM projects. Iran, with 16 separate CDM projects, brings in around 4.8 million CERs, worth about $26 million, every year, despite numerous U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Uzbekistan, dominated for the last two decades by the autocratic Islam Karimov, hosts 20 different CDM projects, with a combined annual value of over 7.5 million CERs, or roughly $40 million.
Sudan, whose president Omar Hassan al-Bashir came to power via military coup over 20 years ago and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Darfur, is on the receiving end of two different CDM projects, with a combined annual value of over 180,000 CERs, or almost $1 million.
North Korea is hosting seven hydroelectric dams, which may generate over $1 million in CERs annually.
North Korea, Sudan, and Uzbekistan are among the 10 most corrupt nations worldwide, according to Transparency Internationals 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index.
It is unsurprising that North Korea is using U.N. money to develop its own infrastructure, said Claudia Rosett, journalist-in-residence at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
One of the first questions with any U.N. program is, Who is overseeing this? said Rosett. Very often no one is.
And when it is overseen, it's by a crook...
The worldwide expansion of the CDM has been accompanied by troubling stories in various countries, said Abbass. When you have over 4,000 projects, youll have some projects in areas in dispute.
We learn by doing, he said. Were fixing as we go.
CDM support is open to any country with the appropriate bureaucratic machinery in place. Abbass maintained that the CDM is not concerned with human rights issues and that the Kyoto Protocol merely set up the systemindividual projects come from interest in the private sector.
The program was born of European self-righteousness, said Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. European governments have staked their reputations on environmental issues, but cannot meet emission reduction targets on their own, he said.
Europeans therefore buy phony reductions through the CDM, said Horner.
Europeans basically say to the developing world, Ill pay you not to treat this byproduct as a waste product, said Horner, referring to numerous CDM projects that focus on reducing perceived waste in the developing world, from natural gas flaring to the release of methane from farm animals.
More than 83 percent of CDM projects are based in Asia, while Africa and the Caribbean account for a tiny fraction of CDM projects, according to U.N.F.C.C.C. data.
CDM projects are concentrated in Asia due to the disastrous environmental effects of communism and the bureaucratic savvy of China, experts say.
Communism created the most intensely wasteful society the world has ever seen, said Horner, explaining why former Soviet states in Central Asia such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan receive substantial support from the CDM.
The Chinese government, an aggressive host for CDM projects, has manipulated the system, going so far as to re-open defunct factories in order to get Europeans to pay them to close them again.
The Chinese are adept at twisting the mandated inefficiency of CDM projects to their own benefit, said Horner.
Haiti has set up the bureaucratic mechanisms required to host CDM projects, but is currently sponsoring zero projects.
Dorine Jean-Paul, an energy specialist at Haitis Ministry of Environment, decried a lack of support from the U.N.
I believe the U.N. is not helping the countries that need it the most, said Jean-Paul. Besides some training sessions that are organized with the U.N. support in the [Latin American and Caribbean] region, we dont get assistance or funds for a specific and national identified need.
Abbass acknowledged that CDM projects are concentrated in Asia, and said the under-representation of Africa and the Caribbean might be addressed at the upcoming Rio +20 conference.
But he also noted that any substantial changes to the CDM could be a long time coming.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The new currency builds the coffers of the axis of evil while the UN funnels American dollars out of our economy--brilliant, just brilliant!Obummer has already done enough damage he can retire overseas in style, say Marbella or Michelle's luxery beach of choice...
[An Nahar] At least 40 people were killed on Saturday in violence across Syria, the majority by regime forces who shelled rebel bastions and clashed with opposition fighters in several areas, a watchdog said.
The casualties included at least 10 regime troops who had tried to desert in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The Syrian authorities transferred the bodies of 10 soldiers who tried to desert from near Jisr al-Shaaba before dawn," the Britannia-based watchdog said, quoting a local source.
In the central province of Homs, nine non-combatants were killed by gunfire and shelling by troops, including two in the rebel stronghold of Qusayr and six in Homs city, where troops have bombarded several neighborhoods, the Observatory said.
Also in central Syria, two non-combatants were killed in the city of Hama in a dawn ambush by regime forces, and a third was killed in festivities between troops and rebels elsewhere in the province.
In the town of Mahaja in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the revolt against the Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's rule, troops used tanks to storm the area.
Elsewhere in Daraa, one civilian was rubbed out in a raid by security forces.
In northern Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... province, four people, including two rebels, were killed, while Islamic fascistireleased four Kurdish troops they had captured.
In northwest province of Idlib, two people were killed in regime shelling targeting the town of Maaret al-Numan, the Observatory said.
Four non-combatants were killed in Douma by regime forces, including a man rubbed out by a sniper.
The Damascus suburb was labeled a "disaster area" by local activists, who posted videos showing deserted streets littered with debris.
Three civilians, including a child, were killed by snipers in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, the Observatory said, reporting fierce festivities between troops and rebels.
Four civilians died elsewhere in the province, including a child killed by a shell in the town of Al-Quria, the site of anti-regime demonstrations on Friday.
The latest violence comes a day after a least 116 people, including 69 civilians, 31 members of pro-regime forces, and six rebels, died across Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
In which our hero reveals that which disinterested observers realized long ago, plus a few more conventional bits of Palestinian boilerplate.
[Jerusalem Post] PA PM says Gazoo-based group avoiding elections because it is pessimistic about results; condemns Netanyahu over settlements.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has been avoiding elections because it is pessimistic about their outcome, Paleostinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad ...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either... said in an interview with The Washinton Post published Friday.
"It is a well-known fact borne out by various opinion polls that there has been a steady erosion in Hamas's standing, both in the West Bank and Gazoo," Fayyad said. "I believe that is why they have been dodging elections."
Why then, pray tell, has the PA avoided elections?
Fayyad said that it was unacceptable that elections have not been held recently in the Paleostinian Authority, calling a vote "overdue" and saying that it is "something I believe is going to happen, and I hope sooner rather than later." PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... was elected on January 15, 2005 for a four-year term, but remains in office due to the indefinite postponement of elections. The Paleostinian Legislative Council, which sits in Gazoo, was last elected to a four-year term on January 25, 2006, but also remains unable to renew its mandate.
During the interview, Fayyad spoke at length about his personal future in the Paleostinian political establishment. "I'm not going away," he said twice, adding that he "would not rule out" starting a party of his own in case a potential Fatah-Hamas reconciliation deal forces him out of the government.
A neat way to commit suicide in that part of the world, but feel free to try, my dear.
Tensions between PA President Abbas and Fayyad have continued to intensify, and calls are growing within Fatah to dismiss the sitting president and appoint a Fatah figure as head of a new government.
Turning to relations with Israel, Fayyad said he thought that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was not serious about making peace based on a two-state solution. "Going back to June 2009, Netanyahu signaled for the first time a willingness to accept a two-state solution concept. But in terms of projecting that into effective support for a two-state reality, there is a serious distance to be traveled."
And all of it must be travelled by the Palestinians.
Asked about the potential to renew unilateral action for statehood via recognition by various United Nations ...An organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... agencies, Fayyad respond that "I am for any initiative that brings us closer to the day when we are able to live as free people in a country of our own."
Fayyad added: "What is the alternative to the Paleostinian state as a solution to this conflict? There is no meaningful alternative."
That said, Fayyad was hesitant to promote diplomatic gimmicks that fail to really advance the Paleostinian cause. "I don't need another declaration of statehood," he said. "We already have one."
[An Nahar] Sudanese demonstrators staged on Saturday small-scale protests sparked by rising prices, witnesses said, the day after unrest engulfed the capital Khartoum and cities across the country.
"We will not be governed by a dictatorship!" demonstrators in the eastern town of Gedaref shouted, according to two witnesses.
They said about 200 people gathered in the main market where they denounced the high cost of food before police dispersed them with batons.
Poverty is endemic in Gedaref and the two other eastern states of Kassala and Red Sea.
In Khartoum, an Agence La Belle France Presse news hound observed the aftermath of a demonstration in a southern district of the city.
Burned tyres, stones lay in the street, and tear gas hung in the air as riot police stood by and residents clustered in alleys, the news hound said.
The unrest continued after neighborhoods throughout the capital and in key towns around the country demonstrated on Friday, in the most serious expression of discontent since student-led protests began eight days ago.
Riot police have violently dispersed a string of demonstrations since they began on June 16 outside the University of Khartoum.
The protests symbolize "mass rejection of the regime's oppressive policies and its failure in governing this country," Sudan Change Now, an activist youth movement, said.
Inflation has risen each month, hitting 30.4 percent in May, before Finance Minister Ali Mahmoud al-Rasul on Wednesday announced the scrapping of fuel subsidies, causing an immediate jump of about 50 percent in the price of petrol.
Bankrupt Sudan has lost billions of dollars in oil receipts since South Sudan gained independence last July leaving the north struggling for revenue, plagued by inflation, and with a severe shortage of dollars to pay for imports.
The country's poverty rate is 46.5 percent, the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... says.
"The government must immediately retract the austerity measures it has adopted which reflect the distortion in its expenditure which continues to prioritize defense and security at the expense of social services," Sudan Change Now said.
The current regime of President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. , an army officer who seized power in 1989, withstood earlier student-led protests by thousands objecting to high prices in 1994.
Sudan's latest demonstrations remain small compared with the mass uprising that swept neighboring Egypt last year and toppled another long-time strongman, Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... .
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
A 14-year-old boy was killed and 13 other people were wounded by gunfire across the city Friday night into Saturday morning, including a gang-related shooting near the Lincoln Park Zoo, authorities said.
Antonio Davis, of the 8000 block of South Eberhart Avenue, was found dead with several gunshot wounds in the 7000 block of South Union Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood about 8:40 p.m. Friday, according to the Chicago Fire Department and the medical examiner's office.
The boy was walking with at least one other person when a grey van pulled up and a passenger, a man wearing a dark-colored hoodie, exited with a gun, said police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez.
He opened fire, striking the boy. As he lay on the ground, the shooter kept firing. "He shot him while the victim was down several times,'' Perez said. The shooter then got back into the van, which was driven by another man about the same age -- between the ages of 20 and 25.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Earning his bones.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/24/2012 0:25
Comments ||
Top||
#2
my guess is the 14 yr old was probably a gang member too.
Posted by: chris ||
06/24/2012 0:32
Comments ||
Top||
#3
20 too 25 yrs old is kinda old too be "earning you bones" in street gang years he 's an OG
Posted by: chris ||
06/24/2012 0:33
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Warning! Environmental Natural Selection at work. Do not intervene.
[Al Ahram] Egypt's interim premier, Kamal El-Ganzouri, admonished journalists at a presser Saturday for "circulating rumours," strenuously denying recent media reports that prominent businessmen and governmental officials had fled Egypt out of fear the Moslem Brüderbund's presidential candidate, Mohamed Mursi, would assume power.
Some media reports said that former vice president and spy chief Omar Suleiman ... Now former Vice president of Egypt. From 1993 until his appointment to that office in 2011 he was Minister without Portfolio and Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID)... had travelled to the United Arab Emirates with his family closely following him. Many conjectured that Suleiman, who has always been at loggerheads with the Brotherhood and other Islamist forces, decided to leave the country in case Mursi assumed power. The same suspicions were raised relative to unnamed businessmen.
When asked by a news hound to comment on these reports, El-Ganzouri described them as "lies," and called on journalists no to report unconfirmed news. "As citizens you should not repeat allegations that could harm the country," he stated in an angry tone.
During the presser, El-Ganzouri, whose previous tenure as premier was under Mubarak, reiterated that his government will be relieved of its duties 30 June as the new president, set to be announced Sunday, will form a new cabinet.
El-Ganzouri was appointed by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in December 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
Mursi (MB( just won the Presidency. Great job, Champ
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/24/2012 10:47
Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] Yemeni troops took control on Saturday of the southeastern town of Azzan, a known Al-Qaeda bastion, after the group's fighters left it a week ago, an official said.
Thirty-five people, meanwhile, were killed in the southern Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province over the past 10 days in kabooms from landmines laid by Al-Qaeda gunnies before they fled from the province, officials said.
"Some 60 vehicles of army and security forces have been deployed across central Azzan," a local government official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that army warplanes were seen flying over the area.
Witnesses confirmed that Azzan, in the southeastern Shabwa province, was finally handed over to the army by a committee of tribal mediators to whom the Al-Qaeda gunnies had initially handed over the town.
On June 17, Al-Qaeda snuffies fled from Azzan, the last town in Yemen where they had established complete control.
Al-Qaeda had declared an Islamic emirate in the desert town where hundreds of fighters were believed to have sought refuge after fleeing their strongholds in the nearby Abyan province.
Taking advantage of a weakening central government control by an Arab Spring-inspired uprising last year, the snuffies had overrun most of Abyan, capturing Zinjibar, Jaar, Shuqra and several other villages.
But on May 12, Yemen's military launched an all-out offensive to recapture the lost province. The army and local forces of Evil have succeeded in taking over all of Abyan's towns except for Mahfad where jihadists still have a strong presence.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats Chumbaloni was staring into a hole that was just .45 inch in diameter and was less than three feet from his face ... landmines the jihadists had laid in Abyan before fleeing have killed at least 35 people in the past 10 days, officials said.
Twenty-seven people were killed only in the lovely provincial capital of Zinjibar, while eight died on the outskirts of the town of Jaar.
"Landmine kabooms in Zinjibar have left 27 people dead" since the army, backed by local militiamen, drove out Al-Qaeda snuffies from the capital of the province on June 13, said Zinjibar deputy mayor Ghassan Sheikh.
He said of the 27 people killed, nine died on June 14 while returning to Zinjibar from where they had fled after the snuffies seized it in May 2011, local official Mohsen Saleh said.
Sheikh said the Yemeni army has so far been unable to clear all the landmines, adding the explosives were sown in most streets of Zinjibar.
"Most of Zinjibar's residents have been unable to return yet" from the main southern city of Aden to their town which has been totally destroyed by the fighting, he said.
Eight other non-combatants were killed in similar landmine blasts on the outskirts of the nearby town of Jaar which was a major stronghold of Al-Qaeda since last year, rights activist Wahid Abdullah said.
On Friday, the new army commander for the south, Major-General Naser al-Taheri, vowed to continue the fight against Al-Qaeda.
He replaced General Salem Ali Qoton who was assassinated by an Al-Qaeda jacket wallah on Monday.
Taheri vowed that his predecessor's killing will only "make us more determined... to hunt these terrorist groups in their hideouts until the nation is cleansed from their evil," state news agency Saba quoted him as saying.
Qoton, who had led the five-week-long offensive against the jihadists in Abyan and Shabwa provinces was killed along with two of his aides, when a Somali suicide bomber threw himself on his vehicle in the regional capital Aden.
U.S. officials have repeatedly described Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the most dangerous of the jihadist network's worldwide affiliates.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
Just when you thought the Obama campaign couldn't get any more desperate, they come up with this: the Obama Event Registry, asking supporters who are getting married, having a birthday, or celebrating an anniversary to direct gift-givers to Obama's re-election website:
Got a birthday, anniversary, or wedding coming up?
Let your friends know how important this election is to you--register with Obama 2012, and ask for a donation in lieu of a gift. It's a great way to support the President on your big day. Plus, it's a gift that we can all appreciate--and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl.
Setting up and sharing your registry page is easy--so get started today.
If this should happen to you, it seems to me a 2 cent donation is about right, plus a pretty crystal vase or a single wine glass in the happy couple's pattern. The key is that the physical gift should be easily broken, when they figure out what you've done.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
I can't wait to see the published totals. My guess is only super-rich partsans would be interested in such a scheme and they (along with friends) are likely to have donated already.
The only way this makes sense is if it allows for illegal contributions in some way.
#12
Hows about foregoing the donation and getting the lucky folks a paper shredder, being sure the make sure the machine works by running a $500 check through it.
Unlike Team Obama, a gravy (sauce) boat is a sign of productivity. Think about it, it isn't really a necessity at the table, so it shows a person is above the minimum. Also, sauces do not just make themselves, and are more condiment than meal, so the sauce is also above the minimum eating. Therefore, a full gravy (sauce) boat shows, and is, success.
[Dawn] The US-Pakistain relationship appeared to be heading towards a head-on collision as an American general blamed Friday's deadly attack on a Kabul hotel on Fata-based Death Eaters and the White House vowed to take the steps needed to mitigate this threat.
Earlier on Friday, the US media reported that Washington had considered launching retaliatory attacks at terrorist targets inside Fata but concerns about destabilising Pakistain prevented it from doing so.
"We'll take steps necessary to mitigate that threat," said a White House official, while commenting on AP report.
Asked if the White House could send US soldiers across the border to chase down those beturbanned goons, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said: "I won't preview the kinds of things that are being discussed, and frankly, whether or not they're even being discussed by the administration."
But, he said, he could share with the news hounds that "this threat is something that we have talked about quite extensively both publicly and privately."
The White House official pointed out that the US had raised this issue with the Paks and remained committed to finding ways to work with them to combat the threat that these groups posed both to US forces and innocent Pak civilians.
Earlier, the commander of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces in Afghanistan said that the deadly attack on the Kabul hotel bore the signature of the Haqqani group which he said continued to operate from Pakistain. ... as opposed to, for instance, Guatamala...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Ahmadinejad repor has re-iterated that warning that Pakistan's enemies are its enemies.
(Sh.M.Network)-The African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has secured Elma'an Port and Esaley Airstrip in Middle Shabelle region from Al-Shabaab ... the successor to the Islamic Courts... bully boyz adding to the list of strategic locations the Al-Qaeda linked group continues to lose as AMISOM supports the Somali National Army (SNA) to pacify the country.
Esaley Airstrip and Elma'an Port, both over 37kms northeast ofMogadishu, were used by Al-Shabaab bully boyz to import illegal arms and shuttle imported muscle from the Gulf of Edeninto Somalia.
In 2006, Al-Shabaab banned humanitarian groups from using Esaley Airstrip thereby restricting humanitarian access to populations in Middle Shabelle,Southern Somalia.
"The successful offensive, launched by our forces, has enabled us to secure an extremely strategic entrance to Mogadishu.
Since the increase of the authorized troop strength to 17731 , AMISOM forces have been re-energized for the greater task ahead of bringing peace and stability to the rest of Somalia." Said AMISOM Force Commander Lieutenant General Andrew Gutti.
Securing the two towns will curb Al-Shabaab's recent retreat from the Afgooye corridor to key towns on the Somali coastal line. During the operation, AMISOM and SNA forces seized heavy weaponry including 9 rifles and a machine gun.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Tolo News] Two Afghan non-combatants were killed in a kaboom in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province on Saturday, local officials said.
Two others were maimed in the incident which happened around 2:30 PM in the province's main city Jalalabad, according to provincial front man Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.
The bomb appears to have been planted in a CD and cassette store which mainly sells music.
No group, including the Taliban, has grabbed credit for the blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Because music is unIslamic.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/24/2012 14:30
Comments ||
Top||
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari underlined his forces' ability to fully protect the country's security and interests not just in the regional waters, but thousands of miles away from the Iranian coasts. Yawn. Come back and look us up when you can send a battlegroup with air cover 15K miles away from home.
"We don't need foreign or trans-regional forces to establish security in the region," Sayyari said, addressing a ceremony to welcome back home the 19th fleet of warships after an 82-day mission in the high seas which would have lasted longer, but we couldn't find even one lousy liberty port where the goats weren't afflicted with STDs.
He reiterated that the Iranian Navy has proved that it can establish peace and tranquility in the region in cooperation with the regional states.
He lauded the Navy's performance in defending Iranian oil tankers and cargo ships 3,000km away from the Iranian coasts, and stated, "If necessary, we will take action 30,000 km away to defend and safeguard our dear homeland's interests and resources as well as the honor and dignity of the sacred Islamic Republic ruling system but seriously, we have a problem here. Can you send out a few fleet tugs from Norfolk?."
Iran's naval power has even been acknowledged by foes. In a Sep. 11, 2008 report, the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy also said that in the two decades since the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, the Islamic Republic has excelled in naval capabilities and is able to provide really excellent target practice wage unique asymmetric warfare against larger naval forces.
According to the report, Iran's Navy has been transformed into a highly motivated, well-equipped, and well-financed force and is suffering from serious delusions of grandeur requiring immediate professional help effectively in control of the world's oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"If necessary, we will take action 30,000 km away to defend and safeguard our dear homeland's interests and resources as well as the honor and dignity of the sacred Islamic Republic ruling system"
This I gotta see. Why not make it 300,000km and visit your moon god while you're at it?
I am soooo going to enjoy the day when our navies go head-to-kneecap toe-to-toe.
#2
Surely RADM. Sayyari + his Sailor Boyz + Mullahs must know their Navy is not that proficient yet, unless there is more to those VLCC international oil tankers Iran sent sailing around the globe than meets the eye???
#5
You know, JM raises an extremely interesting point: should it come to war, what exactly ARE those Iranian oil tankers going to do - and what's in them? For example, even if there isn't a nuclear weapon in one, could you blow it up in a harbor to make a huge mess?
#6
Seems to me there are all kinds of interesting things you could do with a platform that big. Seems to me the Japanese had an underwater aircraft carrier (albeit tiny). I'm sure someone could figure out how to make some kind of FAE bomb out of it, but testing it might be a bit of a problem. Missiles. Sink it in a shallow/narrow part of a stragegic channel. Mines. Whatever.
#7
"The Spy Who Loved Me" Bond movie. Where an oil tanker swallows an American nuclear sub. Ice burg would be a little too conspicuous. All sorts of mischief.
#8
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Iran RADM. Sayyari] IRAN NAVY TO PATROL BEYOND THE WATERS OF THE MEDITTERANEAN SEA.
and
* SAME > IRAN CAN LIMIT TANKER ACCESS [+ any Ship(s) wid Military-Commercial cargoes] TO STRAITS OF HORMUZ, KAYHAN SAYS - BUSINESS WEEK, espec iff-n-when the proposed EU Oil Embargo agz Iran occurs after 07/01st/2012.
US CVNS + Gator Boyz in the Sea of Oman + beyond, versus steady deterioration in US-PAK relations vee Salala incident + Drone Strikes.
#9
Iran in 2012 = 1990's, post-9-11 Rising China = desir to dev AYSMMETRIC = NON-TRADITIONAL TYPES OF COMBAT SYSTEMS OR ASSETS???
E.g. CHIN MILBLOGGERS = support for the PLAN to convert large, VLCC, or ULCC Merchant Ships, etc. into ARSENAL/FIRE SHIPS EQUIPPED WID VLS LRBMS [Surface -Launch] + OTHER MILSYS.
[Dawn] Two levies personnel were killed and two injured after a mortar shell hit their checkpost in Khawezai tehsil of Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency on Friday.
Officials said the shell fired from an unidentified direction hit the Kharasha checkpost in the bordering area, killing Ismail and Hameedullah and injuring Jawad and Daud.
The checkpost came under attack many times in the past.
In Landi Kotal, a pro-government peace group in Zakhakhel area of Khyber Agency on Friday killed one of its activists for disloyalty.
Officials said Ghazi Khan was bumped off in Mastak area of Tirah valley after he was caught red-handed planting an bomb in the group's base.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Islamic fascistiblew up a bridge on a canal in Malikdinkhel area of Bara tehsil. The destruction of the bridge suspended water supply to Nala and Miangano Kali.
Security forces cordoned off the area soon after the incident but no arrest was made until the last reports came in.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Yemen Post] The energy ministry on Friday decided to shut down the Marib gas-fired power station until all power supply lines are well protected, amid widespread outraged due to long blackouts across the republic, Almasdar Online reported, quoting a source.
"The ministry said it will not re-operate the station except after President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi orders suitable protection of all power supply lines," the website said.
"Hadi should send a military mission to arrest the saboteurs behind plunging the country into darkness and protect power lines and stations from more attacks," the ministry said in a letter to the president, according to the website.
The ministry has said that power lines and stations have suffered about 33 attacks this year so far, leading to electricity disruptions, serious damages to the stations and billions of Yemeni riyals in losses.
The latest attack was reported two days ago sending all gas and stream power stations out of commission and plunging the whole country in 24-hour darkness, the ministry said.
The attack affected the whole national power grid, the ministry, urging immediate measures to punish those involved.
The Marib gas-fired station generates 400 megawatts and it supplies several cities with electricity including the capital Sanaa.
Earlier this year, Hadi ordered to take legal procedures against all saboteurs who attack public facilities including power supply lines and oil and gas pipelines. The orders including filing immediate lawsuits against those involved and the authorities have blacklisted some suspects so far.
Coinciding with the unrest last year, Yemen experienced long blackouts throughout the year, in most cases more than 20 hours a day.
Meantime, youth-led people have called for a massive demonstration in the capital Sanaa Saturday to protest the absence and bad basic services, including the 24-hour blackouts in the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
[An Nahar] The identities of two Iranians whose arrest in Kenya this week preceded a U.S. alert of a planned "terrorist attack" in the country are not yet known, authorities in Tehran said on Saturday.
"The identities of these persons are not yet known to us and the Iranian embassy in Nairobi is seeking to obtain information and a consular visit," foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.
"As long as the identities of these persons are not obtained, we cannot make any comment about this matter," he said.
"But given the good and brotherly relations between Iran and Kenya, it appears that certain circles and foreign media are trying to undermine them (the relations) by evoking such information and accusations," Mehmanparast added.
Kenyan police said they cooled for a few years Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! one of the Iranians last Wednesday and the other on Thursday. "They are being interrogated to establish their involvement in terrorism activities," said Aggrey Adoli, police chief for Coast province.
Kenyan officials did not identify the two but said they had led police to two stashes of chemicals believed to be used to make bombs.
The U.S. embassy in Kenya on Saturday warned it had received information "of an imminent threat of a terrorist attack in Mombasa," Kenya's second-biggest city and a popular coastal destination.
The embassy said all U.S. government employees were barred from travelling to Mombasa for the next week. The French embassy in Nairobi also warned its citizens to be "extremely vigilant" in Mombasa and the surrounding area.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...What's Farsi for, "Should you or any of your team be caught or killed, the Ayatollah will disavow any knowledge of your actions."...?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/24/2012 17:04
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"They are being interrogated ..."
Might not need that Consular visit.
The White House on Friday rebuked two visitors who were photographed last week at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue flipping the middle finger below a portrait of the late President Ronald Reagan. When I was a teenager, back in the Upper Paleolithic, my Mom used to tell me that you knew about a person by the people they hung around with. I know all about President B.O.
The guests had been invited to a reception last Friday marking gay pride month. The images of them -- with both middle fingers raised, pointing up toward Reagan -- were first published by Philadelphia Magazine. Mr. Reagan, y'see, was neither a homosexual nor a Democrat. In fact, he was pretty much the kind of person I wouldn't have minded my mother knowing I hung around with.
The White House did not approve. My Mom wouldn't approve of most of the guys hanging around the White House, I think...
"While the White House does not control the conduct of guests at receptions, we certainly expect that all attendees conduct themselves in a respectful manner. Most all do," Shin Inouye, a White House front man, said. "These individuals clearly did not. Behavior like this doesn't belong anywhere, least of all in the White House." No doubt they'll be better behaved the next time they come back.
Photographer Zoe Strauss and Matty Hart, national director for public engagement at the group Solutions for Progress, had posted the images of themselves to Facebook. And what are we Progressing toward?
Hart, under his, wrote simply: "F--- Reagan." Apparently we're progressing toward neither civility or good taste, nor the kind of language I didn't use around Mom.
He later posted a link on his Facebook page to the Philadelphia Magazine piece about their gesture. Because he's proud of it.
Neither Strauss nor Hart have responded to FoxNews.com for comment. Fox News is the enemy of that kind of Progress.
Hart, though, defended his gesture in the Philadelphia Magazine article. "Ronald Reagan has blood on his hands," he said. "The man was in the White House as AIDS went kaboom!." Yasss... I remember the stories about how Reagan had the CIA develop the virus for some nefarious reason that escapes me...
Hart said he doesn't care if he's not invited back to the White House. But he probably will be. That's Progress, after all...
A third guest, Philadelphia publisher Mark Segal, was also photographed next to George W. Bush's portrait, but used a more tasteful thumbs-up in his picture. He told Philadelphia Magazine he has friends in the White House and "I'm not going to do something that could embarrass them."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
conduct themselves in a respectful manner. Most all do
Why should guests act any differently than Zero and the cow?
Have there ever been two more disrespectful occupants (including Clintons) than these?
A 14-year-old Phoenix boy shot an intruder who broke into his home while brandishing a gun as the teenager watched his three younger siblings, police said. The teen and his brothers and sisters were at home alone at their residence at 55th Avenue and Baseline when a woman rang the doorbell Friday. The teen didn't open the door because he didn't recognize her, Police Officer James Holmes said Saturday.
Soon after, the teen heard a bang on the door, rushed his siblings upstairs and got a handgun from his parent's bedroom. When he got to the top of the stairs, he saw a man breaking through the front door and point a gun at him.
The boy shot the 37-year-old man, who is in critical condition but expected to survive and be booked into jail.
One shot and the perp is bleeding out? Nice shooting, kid...
Holmes said the suspect did not get a shot off. He declined to release his name until he is booked into jail.
The woman who rang the home's doorbell got away.
Holmes hailed the teen's actions and his parents for teaching the kids to never open the door to strangers.
"The police and indeed our community does not ever want to see a situation where a teenager of that age has to take a weapon to protect his family ... but this young man did exactly what he should have done," he said. "I'm not sure he gave full thought about what he had to do. He just acted."
Holmes said that the gun the teen grabbed was his father's, but did not know whether the boy had been trained to use it.
He said the family, whose names were not released, is declining to speak to reporters about the ordeal, saying that they "are all pretty traumatized."
"The dad was pretty much out of his mind with distress, officers couldn't even talk to him," Holmes said. "It's going to take them a while to recover mentally."
He said police don't yet know what the suspect's intentions were and that will be one of the first questions they ask him when he is well enough to talk.
"This was mid-block in a neighborhood, at 4:30 in the afternoon in summertime and children are there," he said. "They just took a heck of a gamble for this particular house, and we've got to try to figure out why."
Holmes added that the family is lucky that the teen acted so swiftly and effectively.
Not just to shoot the perp but also to get his siblings out of the way and safe as he could in the limited time he had.
"As ugly as this is, and as much as this family is going through, we don't have injured children on our hands," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
good for him!!!! Wonder how long the MSM starts yelling for charges too be filed against the young man? Like they wanted too do with the man in texas who killed the an molesting his daughter but they didn't want too come right out and say it.
Posted by: chris ||
06/24/2012 0:31
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Chris, more likely charges against the parents for leaving a gun where children could get it.
#8
A gun levels the playing field between a 14 year old and a 37 year old intruder, but:
"did not know whether the boy had been trained to use it."
Have they not seen the Combat computer games 14 year olds play these days for hours? One intruder/one shot is not uncommon in Combat Mission:Shock Force.
Greece's new coalition government has proposed an extension to the deadline for it to reduce its budget deficit by at least two years, to 2016.
In a policy document, the government said its aim was for the fiscal target envisaged by the bailout deal to be met without further cuts to salaries and pensions.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Dawn] Gunmen on cycle of violences on Saturday rubbed out eight men at a laundry in the restive southwestern city of Quetta, police said.
The gunnies were riding two cycle of violences when they struck at the laundry in a busy area of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , before fleeing, they said.
"At least eight men were killed and another man was maimed," senior police official Iskandar Tareen told AFP.
Initial investigations indicated that the victims were "settlers," he said, referring to people who have settled in Balochistan but come from other provinces of Pakistain.
Police officer Salim Shahwani told Rooters that the victims were from Punjab province and were inside the laundry at the time of the attack.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Balochistan suffers from ethnic tensions, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Mohammedans and a separatist insurgency which also targets non-natives.
Small separatist groups in impoverished Balochistan often target Paks from other parts of the country. The separatists want autonomy and a greater share of the money derived from the province's natural resources like gas and oil.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Baloch Liberation Army
[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... is set to pay the salaries of the rebel Free Syrian Army to encourage mass defections from Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's The Scourge of Hama... forces, Britannia's Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.
The payments would be made in either U.S. dollars or euros -- which would mean a rise in salaries as the Syrian pound has fallen sharply in value since the revolt started 16 months ago, the broadsheet said.
The idea was first proposed to Saudi Arabia by Arab officials in May, the Guardian reported, citing sources in three Arab states and adding that the plan has also been discussed with U.S. officials.
The Guardian also claims that Turkey has allowed the establishment of a command center in Istanbul coordinating the supply of weapons to the rebel fighters in Syria, staffed by more than 20 mainly Syrian nationals.
The report comes amid a crisis between Turkey and Syria after Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... confirmed that it shot down a Turkish fighter jet that it said had violated Syrian airspace.
The Guardian said Turkey sees weapon supply lines as crucial to the defense of its border with its former close ally Syria, with Syrian forces edging closer in an attempt to stop guns crossing the border into the hands of rebel fighters.
The Guardian says its news hounds witnessed weapons being transferred across border from Turkey into Syria in early June.
On Friday, Ankara denied allegations in a New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... report, citing U.S. officials and Arab intelligence sources, that Turkey was among a number of countries shipping weapons to Syrian rebels over the border.
"Turkey does not ship weapons to any neighboring country, including Syria," foreign ministry front man Selcuk Unal said.
The neighbors' relations are already strained over outspoken condemnation by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Syria's bloody crackdown on protests against Assad's government.
Turkey is hosting more than 30,000 Syrian refugees living in camps near the border, according to foreign ministry figures, as well as army defectors including 12 generals.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Dawn] Three people, including two seminary teachers, on Friday fell victim to the ongoing wave of assassinations on sectarian and political grounds in the city, police said.
The officials added that both seminary teachers were rubbed out on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road as they were returning to the seminary, Idara Maroof-ul-Koran, on a cycle of violence after attending a Nikah in the early hours.
"Maulana Jamil Qasim, 38, and Anwar Anjum, 30, were intercepted and targeted near Paradise Bakery by gunnies riding a motorbike," said Sachal SHO Inspector Azhar Iqbal.
"The victims sustained gunshot wounds and died on their way to hospital," he said.
Police Sherlocks later collected nearly a dozen spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol from the scene of the crime.
The intense firing sowed fear in the locality, where several roadside outlets and teashops usually remain open round the clock, compelling traders to pull down shutters.
A heavy contingent of Rangers and police later cordoned off the area.
The police Sherlocks found no reason other than sectarian for the assassination. "So far that's [sectarian] the only reason we have determined. Colleagues and friends of the victims also suspect the same motive and the investigations are expected to move forward along the same lines," said Inspector Iqbal.
He added that the bodies had been sent to their hometown in Azad Kashmire.
Later during the day, the killing of a Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... worker near Jodia Bazaar led to the closure of the city's one of the busiest commercial areas.
Police said Gulraiz Jamal, in his late 20s, was sprayed with bullets in Chaba Gali of Jodia Bazaar.
"The victim was a resident of the same area," said an official at the Kharadar cop shoppe. "He was returning home when two men riding a motorbike targeted him. He was hit by six bullets and was struck down in his prime."
The police said the victim before joining the MQM was associated with the Sunni Tehrik ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... SSP South Asif Ajaz Sheikh confirmed to Dawn that it was an act of assassination.
Tension gripped the old city area soon after the killing, causing closure of shops and turning traffic on roads thin. The situation started returning to normality after the sunset.
Body found
The tortured body of a young man was found by a side of Qayyumabad road close to the Korangi Industrial Area in the early hours of Friday, said police.
The victim, in his mid-20s, had been trussed up before being strangled to death, they added.
"The victim was wearing shalwar kameez," said Korangi Industrial Area SHO Inspector Malik Ayub. "The body has been shifted to the Edhi morgue after medico-legal formalities at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for want of identification."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Dawn] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... issued a decree to form a new government on Saturday, shaking up many cabinet posts but keeping the heads of the interior, defence and foreign ministries, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
The reappointment of Defence Minister Daoud Rajha will quash widespread rumours, previously denied by the government, that he had been assassinated by rebels who are struggling to bring down President Bashir al-Assad's rule.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... an Arab diplomat has said that Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... and Qatar are paying salaries to rebel forces fighting in the Syrian revolt against President Bashir al-Assad.
"The payment has been going on for months and the agreement was made on April 2 by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with logistical organization from Turkey where some Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions are based," said the source, who requested anonymity.
"The point of this is to encourage as many factions of the Syrian army to defect and to organise the FSA, control it and prevent any bad turban organizations from joining it."
A front man for Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said on Saturday he was not aware of reports that the kingdom was funding Syrian rebels.
The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... says more than 10,000 people have been killed since violence broke out after Syrian government forces began a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters over a year ago.
Syria says at least 2,600 members of its military and security forces have been killed by what it calls foreign-backed "Islamist terrorists".
Western and Arab states, meeting on April 1, called on Syrian President Bashir al-Assad to adopt a peace plan brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... , withdraw his troops from Syrian cities and allow access for humanitarian aid.
They made no mention of arming the FSA but said they would "continue to work on additional appropriate measures with a view to the protection of the Syrian people".
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another James Baker ... said her government was supplying "communications equipment that will help activists organise, evade attacks by the regime and connect to the outside world" and was "discussing with other nations how best to expand this support".
The 16-month uprising, which has faced a brutal government crackdown, is increasingly being termed a civil war by foreign observers. Assad argues he is pursuing reforms even as he fights a revolt he says is led by foreign-backed bad turbans.
But critics say Assad's appointment of Riyad Hijab as prime minister earlier in June was a sign the president was turning to hardline loyalists. Hijab formed the new government given Assad's approval, Syria TV said on Saturday.
Hijab, a former agriculture minister, is a committed member of Assad's Baath Party, which has ruled Syria for nearly four decades since his father Hafez al-Assad took power in 1970.
Most of the top government posts were given to Baathist loyalists. Critics consider the cabinet to be largely symbolic and say power in Syria remains in the hands of Assad and his close inner circle of family and security force elites.
The new cabinet follows a May 7 parliamentary election which Assad said was part of the path to reform but the opposition boycotted as a sham, insisting the president must step down.
Other than Rajha, the ministers to retain their post were Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar and Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.
Several new ministries were created in the new cabinet.
The moderate Qadri Jamil, a centrist who has said he is speaking both to the government and to rebels, was appointed minister of internal commerce and consumer protection. The post is newly formed and likely to be mostly ceremonial.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Time to give Syria back to the French, I think. Let them handle it.
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/24/2012 5:34
Comments ||
Top||
The UN need not worry, the EU is going full tilt in this direction despite the qualms of some of its ordinary citizens...
The EU should "do its best to undermine" the "homogeneity" of its member states, the UN's special representative for migration has said.
Peter Sutherland told peers the future prosperity of many EU states depended on them becoming multicultural.
He also suggested the UK government's immigration policy had no basis in international law.
I'd like to see the 'international law' he quotes; it's likely that it doesn't exist anywhere except in his head and the heads of people at Amnesty and HRW...
He was being quizzed by the Lords EU home affairs sub-committee which is investigating global migration.
Mr Sutherland, who is non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former chairman of oil giant BP, heads the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which brings together representatives of 160 nations to share policy ideas.
See, he's got his. Great houses, yachts, cars, likely a plane or two, a chateau in Switzerland and another one in Vail. It's easy for him to tell EU countries how they should be composed, he can leave whenever he wants.
He told the House of Lords committee migration was a "crucial dynamic for economic growth" in some EU nations "however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens of those states".
An ageing or declining native population in countries like Germany or southern EU states was the "key argument and, I hesitate to the use word because people have attacked it, for the development of multicultural states", he added.
They're aging because the native population doesn't see the point in having kids these days. State policies combined with the incessant browbeating of the last six decades makes simple things like children, family, patriotism, etc all icky and untenable. So now to support the social welfare system the EU needs to bring in lots of foreigners who will gladly work and pay high taxes to support all the graying Europeans who want to retire at 58...
...yeah, right.
"It's impossible to consider that the degree of homogeneity which is implied by the other argument can survive because states have to become more open states, in terms of the people who inhabit them. Just as the United Kingdom has demonstrated."
The UN special representative on migration was also quizzed about what the EU should do about evidence from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that employment rates among migrants were higher in the US and Australia than EU countries. He told the committee: "The United States, or Australia and New Zealand, are migrant societies and therefore they accommodate more readily those from other backgrounds than we do ourselves, who still nurse a sense of our homogeneity and difference from others.
We also demand that our migrants become native -- at least, we used to. You might be born elsewhere, but you can be an American -- but your kids had better learn about and accept as their own history Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and baseball.
"And that's precisely what the European Union, in my view, should be doing its best to undermine."
But he's not arguing that the new immigrants would become British, he wants the British to become like the immigrants...
Mr Sutherland recently argued, in a lecture to the London School of Economics, of which he is chairman, that there was a "shift from states selecting migrants to migrants selecting states" and the EU's ability to compete at a "global level" was at risk.
In evidence to the Lords committee, he urged EU member states to work together more closely on migration policy and advocated a global approach to the issue - criticising the UK government's attempt to cut net migration from its current level to "tens of thousands" a year through visa restrictions.
Because the average Brit has figured out that the average immigrant from Pakistan isn't really interested in becoming a Brit, and indeed believes the average Brit to be an infidel...
British higher education chiefs want non-EU overseas students to be exempted from migration statistics and say visa restrictions brought in to help the government meet its target will damage Britain's economic competitiveness.
But immigration minister Damian Green has said exempting foreign students would amount to "fiddling" the figures and the current method of counting was approved by the UN.
Committee chairman Lord Hannay, a crossbench peer and a former British ambassador to the UN, said Mr Green's claim of UN backing for including students in migration figures "frankly doesn't hold water - this is not a piece of international law".
Mr Sutherland, a former Attorney General of Ireland, agreed, saying: "Absolutely not. it provides absolutely no justification at all for the position they are talking about."
He said the policy risked Britain's traditional status as "tolerant, open society" and would be "massively damaging" to its higher education sector both financially and intellectually.
"It's very important that we should not send a signal from this country, either to potential students of the highest quality, or to academic staff, that this is in some way an unsympathetic environment in which to seek visas or whatever other permissions are required... and I would be fearful that that could be a signal."
Perhaps you could work on having Brit kids become educated enough to hold their own at the highest circles...
Mr Sutherland, who has attended meetings of The Bilderberg Group, a top level international networking organisation often criticised for its alleged secrecy, called on EU states to stop targeting "highly skilled" migrants, arguing that "at the most basic level individuals should have a freedom of choice" about whether to come and study or work in another country.
There's a potentially valid argument. An immigrant who comes to Britain (or the USA), gets a great education (e.g., a doctor) and decides to stay is inadvertently robbing the old country of his talent. By 'targeting' the 'highly skilled', one could argue that we're simply practicing a new form of colonialism -- a century before we stole the natural resources of the colonies, now we're stealing the human resources. But that argument only works until you start to argue, as Sutherland does, that the less skilled should also be allowed to immigrate. That just creates misery everywhere. The correct solution is to fix up the third world countries so that a person who immigrates isn't hurting either the country he leaves behind or the country to which he immigrates.
Mr Sutherland also briefed the peers on plans for the Global Migration and Development Forum's next annual conference in Mauritius
Which has hotels, food and fabulous beaches, darling...
in November, adding: "The UK has been very constructively engaged in this whole process from the beginning and very supportive of me personally."
Asked afterwards how much the UK had contributed to the forum's running costs in the six years it had been in existence, he said it was a relatively small sum in the region of "tens of thousands".
Plus the boodle and the graft. And the jobs for all his kids...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Undermining of homogeneity" nearly complete in Harare. Well underway and progressing nicely in Johannesburg. Very well done Albion!
'undermine national homogeneity'
Not going to happen. Too much hate exists just crossing into another country. Historical hatred.
There will always be pure bloods. Multicultural idea doesn't happen. They don't mix but find their own area of people like themselves. Socialist democrat and communist left fantasy dream.
#3
He told the House of Lords committee migration was a "crucial dynamic for economic growth" in some EU nations "however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens of those states".
PPP and establishment
Writing in Jang Irfan Siddiqi stated that it was not correct to say that IJI was formed in 1909s to prevent Benazir from getting into power. Major Amir who was once an ISI officer has become a political thinker (mudabbir) after taking part in the famous Midnight Jackals scam. He has said that while IJI was meant to stand against the PPP its target was to make Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi of the PPP the next prime minister in place of Benazir. After she was ousted from power in 1990 and Jatoi was promptly made caretaker prime minister to 'manage' the next general election in favour of the IJI. The establishment preferred Jatoi to Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... to avoid problems from Sindh.
General Kakar's secret link with Benazir
Columnist Irfan Siddiqi wrote in Jang that it may not be correct to say that the establishment is always hostile to PPP because in 1993 Benazir was secretly connected with Army Chief General Waheed Kakar. She was brought to Islamabad in a special plane and Nawaz Sharif was sent home by the general.
Establishment against Nawaz Sharif
Revealing that establishment was anti-Nawaz Sharif columnist Irfan Siddiqi revealed in Jang that in 1993 before kicking out the Nawaz Sharif government President Ghulam Ishaq Khan had reached a secret understanding with the PPP. Before this President Ghulam Ishaq Khan had a special cell in the presidency collecting cases against Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... but the next cabinet under Prime Minister Balakh Sher Mazari featured Zardari as a minister.
Hindu girls as false brides
Daily Mashriq reported that parents of the Hindu girls who converted to Islam and then married Mohammedans men protested in front of the Supreme Court in Islamabad that their daughters were unfairly allowed to go with the Mohammedan husbands. They said that the girls while away from the Mohammedan husbands told them they did not want to be false brides because they were kidnapped by a PPP leader and MNA Mian Mithu.
Islam cannot be enforced because of sects
Quoted in Jinnah Ahle Hadith leader Hafiz Zubair Zaheer stated that Islam could not be enforced in Pakistain because of sectarian differences. He said rulers, politicians and civil military bureaucracy were not in favour of a pure Islamic system.
Pakistain helped US kill Osama!
Quoted in Jang Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar stated that Pakistain government and Army had a part in the death of the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing... . After that opponents of government may want to use Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... Commission to trap the government and unseat it but Allah will save! Jang also reported that in a TV discussion PPP and the PMLN both thought that the Abbottabad commission was nothing but a farce (topi drama).
Taliban victory will dangerous
Quoted in Mashriq General Khalid Rabbani of 11 corps on the Afghan-Pakistain border stated that a victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan will be dangerous for Pakistain because it will strengthen the Tehrik Taliban Pakistain and inflict more terrorism on Pak people. He also said that if the drones did not involve civilian casualties they could help in putting an end to terrorism.
Baloch ministers as criminals
President PPP Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Sadiq Imrani was quoted in Jang as saying that the ministers in the Balochistan cabinet were involved in crimes. When the bureaucracy did not give their share from the money made through corruption they got gangs to fire on their houses. He said there was no such thing as government in Balochistan.
Dr AQ Khan on Nawaz Sharif
Writing in Jang father of the Pak nuclear bomb Dr AQ Khan stated that right after Nawaz Sharif became the chief minister of Punjab his Ittefaq Foundry swelled into 30 big industrial establishments making steel, sugar, paper, textiles, etc, with an annual income of $400 million. Then the Motorway was made at the cost of Rs20 billion. Then at the cost of $700 million about 50,000 cars were imported in Yellow Cab Scheme by borrowing money from one bank and placing orders for cars at another bank. People linked to the party bravely ran away with cars including Mercedes cars causing a loss of $500 million to the banks but the Sharif family got $60 million from it according to revelations made by the next PPP government.
Rasheed on Nawaz Sharif
World famous columnist Haroon Rasheed write in Jang that during the Bhutto period the Sharif family came under attack of nationalisation and lost all its assets as industrialists during the decade of the 1970s. But today their assets are strewn all over the world and only in London they have invested millions of dollar and no law can convict them.
About Governor Syed Masud Kausar
Writing in Jang Saleem Safi stated that Khwaja Muhammad Khan Hoti (now in Tehrik Insaf) had once thrown a party for PPP friends while General Musharraf as president was also in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar. Present in the party was also the current governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Barrister Syed Masud Kausar (after whose appointment FATA is today subject to chaos or loot-maar) who said that Musharraf was just like a PPP jiyala in having a good time but was not responding to his overtures.
Azam Hoti and Nasim Wali's sacred sugar
Columnist Saleem Safi wrote in Jang that the father of the present chief minister and brother of Wali Khan's wife Nasim Wali Khan - Azam Hoti - fell foul of the brigadier in charge of Peshawar after the takeover of General Musharraf in 1999 and was hauled before a court. Azam Hoti's lawyers appealed to the court for mercy because of his ill health while Nasim Wali Khan was putting scared sugar (with special prayers breathed on it) in Azam Khan Hoti's mouth.
End this internal fight!
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang to tell General Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... that he should end the war against the Taliban as soon as possible because Pakistain's enemy is not internal but external and Pakistain has to unite against the external enemy. For that to happen all aspects of difference that cause internal festivities should be removed and the nation should stand up as one to face the enemy from without.
Kick out politicians, bring in technocrats!
Famous father of Pak bomb Dr AQ Khan wrote in Jang that politicians were destroying the country and now technocrats should be brought in to save it. He said he did not cry at the death of his father but cried at the separation of East Pakistain. Bhutto never called him, he offered his services to Bhutto. He told Pak Army that if you don't make the bomb you will be finished in ten years. He said India nearly died (jaan nikal gayee) after he successfully tested his Ghauri missile.
Osama fired from Al Qaeda in 2003
Talking to Mashriq Brig (Retd) Shaukat Qadir said that Osama was laid off by Al Qaeda in 2003 after which he was living as a retired gentleman. He came to Kohat in 2002 (the year he got a kidney implant) and then went to Shangla and Haripur in 2003 and to Abbottabad in 2005. He fathered four children in Haripur and Abbottabad. Daily Mashriq also reported from Abbottabad that like the people of Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... people there also did not believe that anything unusual had happened. They believed Osama's dead body was brought to Abbottabad and a drama was staged.
[Bangla Daily Star] BNP has accused the government of using intelligence agencies to create a rift in the party and the BNP-led 18-party alliance to make sure that some opposition leaders participate in the next general election if BNP boycotts the polls.
Party insiders said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... already alerted party's big shots about the "conspiracy" and hinted at getting tough on any party leaders if found involved in "the conspiracy to divide the party and the alliance."
Some big shots of the BNP-led combine have informed the BNP chairperson that they have been "under pressure to quit the alliance" and a few of them even received "different types of offer", said party insiders. They, however, did not elaborate on the matter.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a top BNP leader alleged that a former party leader, who quit BNP recently, has been trying to persuade certain leaders to leave BNP.
Acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the government is out to split BNP and the 18-party alliance to prevent them from forging a tougher movement for election under a non-partisan administration.
"We are aware about the conspiracy, and BNP knows how to tackle it," he told The Daily Star.
BNP has accused the government of using intelligence agencies to create a rift in the party and the BNP-led 18-party alliance to make sure that some opposition leaders participate in the next general election if BNP boycotts the polls.
Party insiders said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia already alerted party's big shots about the "conspiracy" and hinted at getting tough on any party leaders if found involved in "the conspiracy to divide the party and the alliance."
Some big shots of the BNP-led combine have informed the BNP chairperson that they have been "under pressure to quit the alliance" and a few of them even received "different types of offer", said party insiders. They, however, did not elaborate on the matter.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a top BNP leader alleged that a former party leader, who quit BNP recently, has been trying to persuade certain leaders to leave BNP.
Acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the government is out to split BNP and the 18-party alliance to prevent them from forging a tougher movement for election under a non-partisan administration.
"We are aware about the conspiracy, and BNP knows how to tackle it," he told The Daily Star.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
(Sh. M. Network)-At least three Somali army commanders have sustained injures after a coffee shop in southwestern Somalia hit by a coordinated kaboom, according to witnesses and a hospital official.
Now eating is haram?
Eyewitnesses said many people were drinking tea at a popular cafe in the heart of Qansah Dheere district, when the bomb went kaboom!. Three Somali government officails, Hussein Isac, Garabey, and Hussein were killed in the attack.
The attack is the latest of a series of suicide kabooms staged by the Al-Qaeda-linked group in Bay region -- after being pushed out recently several strategic towns in Bay and Bakol regions by the hapless Somali government and Æthiopian troops.
Security forces have reached the bomb site and conducted a manhunt operation, killing four people in suspicion of the attack
Ali aden, Somali MP in Baidoa town, the capital of Bay region, who spoke with Shabelle Media by phone denied reports of TFG officials killed the blast occurred Saturday in Dheere district, saying only a soldiers got hurt in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Tolo News] Ten cut-throats who worked together renounced violence in western Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province and surrendered their weapons to government authorities, local officials said.
The group of men were involved in insurgency across the Guzara district and Herat-Kandahar highway, occasionally attacking 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... convoys across the highway and shooting rockets on Herat airport.
With the group's change, stability in Herat province and Kandahar highway is expected to improve, according to the provincial security officials.
The commander of the group said that the transfer of responsibility for security to Afghan cops indicated it was time to help strengthen the abilities of the Afghan forces to defend the country from foreign invaders.
Nearly 600 cut-throats in Herat have renounced violence in last six months, with this gang being the 11th group in the past three months, officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
'It was jihad at home,' says prosecutor of al-Qaeda inspired plot
(JTA) -- A Mohammedan couple in Manchester, England, allegedly purchased items for homemade bombs to be used against Jewish targets, a court in that city was told.
"It was jihad at home," prosecutor Bobbie Cheema told the Manchester crown court on Thursday, according to the Guardian. "Between them they acquired substances, common or garden, that can be purchased in supermarkets, equipment and information that would help them to make explosives, and began the process of assembling an improvised bomb.
In addition, the couple took "multiple reconnaissance" trips to Jewish neighborhoods, according to the Guardian.
British citizens
Born where -- Devonshire? Coventry? Highlands?
Mohammed Sajid Khan, 33, and his wife, Shasta, 38, allegedly were inspired by al-Qaeda propaganda on the Internet, the court was told, the newspaper reported.
The couple's alleged intentions were discovered when a police officer was called to their home during a domestic dispute. "She took it as an opportunity to spill the beans about the activities Sajid Khan had been undertaking," Cheema reportedly said.
The Transportation Security Administration already shares intelligence it collects with airports. Now a House bill would expand TSA's intel sharing to local mass transit systems as well. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), the bill's sponsor, said the legislation is a "common sense approach" to fighting terrorism. The House passed the bill May 30 and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is now considering the bill.
I'm comfortably certain they wouldn't make the Chicago Transit Authority any worse; but every time I think the CTA can't get worse the CTA proves me wrong...
In an interview with The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp, Speier said the bill creates "fusion centers," where TSA can provide intel to local law enforcement and emergency management officials.
I'm waiting for the screeners and the X-ray machines on every L platform...
"We have put in place through TSA a very elaborate system [in airports]. We all go through those metal detectors and those secondary searches. And we've put a lot of focus on the airlines for good reason. But we have neglected the mass transit components, generally speaking," she said.
For which America thanks you. Now go back to sleep...
Speier said 2 million people fly each day, compared with more than 5 million who ride the subway each day in New York City alone.
And about 100 million car rides in NYC each day. Are they going to screen each car? Wait, let me pull that back...
She pointed out that the most recent terrorist attacks have been on mass transit. Also, when U.S. Special Forces raided Osama Bin Laden's compound last year, intelligence gathered revealed the next attack was intended for mass transit.
"The writing is on the wall. We need to be better prepared than we are right now," Speier said.
Transit riders probably won't see more TSA agents in subways or bus stops, though, Speier said. The expanded TSA role falls more on analysts, she said.
Unless they can get away with putting the TSA into the subways and busses...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You gonna hafta get strip searched before you can get on da bus.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/24/2012 14:40
Comments ||
Top||
[Al Ahram] The powerful "Flame" computer virus is not only capable of espionage; it can also sabotage computer systems and was likely used to attack Iran in April, according to a leading security company, Symantec Corp.
Iran had previously blamed Flame for causing data loss on computers in the country's main oil export terminal and oil ministry. But prior to Symantec's discovery, cyber experts had only unearthed evidence that proved Flame could spy on conversations on the computers it infects and steal data.
Symantec researcher Vikram Thakur said Thursday that the company has now identified a component of Flame that allows operators to delete files from computers, which means it can cause critical programmes to fail or completely disable operating systems.
"These guys have the capability to delete everything on the computer," Thakur said. "This is not something that is theoretical. It is absolutely there."
Flame was deployed at least five years ago and is the most sophisticated cyber spying programme ever discovered. Researchers have been racing to better understand its capabilities ever since the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab uncovered Flame last month after the security firm was asked by a United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... agency to look for a virus that Iran said had sabotaged its computers, deleting valuable data.
Last week, researchers at Kaspersky Lab linked some of the software code in Flame to the Stuxnet cyber weapon, which was widely believed to have been used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear programme. Symantec later also said Stuxnet and Flame shared some code.
Current and former US and Western national security officials told Rooters this week that the United States played a role in creating Flame. The Washington Post reported that the US and Israel jointly developed Flame and used it to collect intelligence to help slow Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran complained about the threat of cyber attacks again Thursday, saying it had detected plans by the United States, Israel and Britannia to launch a "massive" strike after the breakdown of talks over Tehran's nuclear activities. It was not clear if the cyber attack referred to Flame or a new virus.
Symantec declined to comment on who the firm believes is behind Flame.
Infrastructure at risk
If Symantec's conclusions are validated, it means Flame could be used as a weapon to attack computers that run critical infrastructure systems, including dams, chemical plants and manufacturing facilities, security specialists said.
Boldizsar Bencsath, an expert on cyber warfare with Hungary's Laboratory of Cryptography and Systems Security, said there was at least a 70 per cent chance that Flame was used to attack Iran in April.
"Of course it can be used for sabotage," said Bencsath, who began investigating Flame several weeks before it was first reported to the public. "It may have been used to attack critical infrastructure and it may be used in the future."
Sean McGurk, a former Department of Homeland Security official who helped direct the US effort to protect critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, said that Flame was not the first piece of malicious software designed to sabotage systems by deleting data.
What makes it unique, he said, is that the data-wiping module works alongside a suite of other programmes including espionage tools that have previously been identified.
"It could render computing devices useless," said McGurk, who is now chief executive of a consulting firm NExt Generation Micro LLC.
That presents a threat, he said, because computers are used in all sorts of industrial control systems, affecting everything from critical processes at manufacturing plants to the pressure inside water networks. "Cyber elements can have catastrophic impacts," he said.
Neil Fisher, vice president for global security solutions at Unisys, said Symantec's findings -- if verified -- mean that Flame could be "highly dangerous."
"Many of our utilities have connected their operational management to the Internet to save costs," he said.
"Water, gas, electricity certainly constitute the critical national infrastructure," he added. "Dysfunction of those ... systems could have uncomfortable consequences for a large number of people."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] The International Committee of the Red Thingy on Saturday condemned the killing of a Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy volunteer, in the fourth such incident in the country's deadly unrest.
Bashar al-Youssef, 23, was shot and fatally maimed on Friday in Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria, the two organizations said in a joint statement.
"The Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy and International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) strongly condemn the shooting" as "further evidence of an extremely disturbing disregard for life-saving medical services in Syria," they said.
"This comes at a time when the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy are virtually the only organizations able to work in areas affected by the violence in Syria," said Alexandre Equey, deputy head of the ICRC's delegation in the country.
Since the start of 2012, "the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy have assisted some 400,000 people in dire need of life-saving aid, in some of the most hard-hit areas in Syria," the statement reads.
"All their activities have been entirely impartial and neutral. This humanitarian work must be respected by everyone and at all times."
The organizations said Youssef was shot while on first-aid duty, although he was wearing a uniform clearly marked with the Red Islamic Thingy emblem, and died of his wounds a few hours later.
"This is the fourth killing of this kind since September 2011," it said.
The ICRC said "health-care personnel, particularly Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy volunteers, must be able to provide aid unhindered and in safety. The Red Thingy and Red Islamic Thingy emblems must be respected by all sides."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The 
[Tolo News] As many as 100 female students are believed to have been poisoned in Afghanistan's northern Sar-e-Pul province on Saturday, a provincial health official said.
Pakistain's top judge has said that the Parliament cannot legislate any law repugnant to Constitution, injunctions of Islam and contrary to fundamental laws.
[An Nahar] An 
Goodluck Jonathan
Newly-elected Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf formally took charge of the Prime Ministers office on Saturday, DawnNews reported.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
(Sh. M. Network)-At least two people were killed and one other as injured after Armed groups in Somalia have attacked on local herders locating at Miro-cowleed neighborhood located nearby Galka'yo town, some 750 kilometers north of Mogadishu, reports said.
Jerry 
The all-consuming hunt for donors has led President 
[An Nahar] A leader of the ruling Hamas said Saturday the militant group had agreed to try anew an Egypt-brokered ceasefire with Israel, after six days of bloodshed in and around the Gaza Strip.
At least 40 people were killed on Saturday in violence across Syria, the majority by regime forces who shelled rebel bastions and clashed with opposition fighters in several areas, a watchdog said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Sudanese demonstrators staged on Saturday small-scale protests sparked by rising prices, witnesses said, the day after unrest engulfed the capital Khartoum and cities across the country.
A 14-year-old boy was killed and 13 other people were wounded by gunfire across the city Friday night into Saturday morning, including a gang-related shooting near the Lincoln Park Zoo, authorities said.
Yemeni troops took control on Saturday of the southeastern town of Azzan, a known Al-Qaeda bastion, after the group's fighters left it a week ago, an official said.
The US-Pakistain relationship appeared to be heading towards a head-on collision as an American general blamed Friday's deadly attack on a Kabul hotel on Fata-based 
Mohmand
The energy ministry on Friday decided to shut down the Marib gas-fired power station until all power supply lines are well protected, amid widespread outraged due to long blackouts across the republic, Almasdar Online reported, quoting a source. 
The identities of two Iranians whose arrest in Kenya this week preceded a U.S. alert of a planned "terrorist attack" in the country are not yet known, authorities in Tehran said on Saturday.
Greece's new coalition government has proposed an extension to the deadline for it to reduce its budget deficit by at least two years, to 2016.
Three people, including two seminary teachers, on Friday fell victim to the ongoing wave of 
[Dawn] Syrian 
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
PPP and establishment
Nawaz Sharif
Asif Ali 
BNP has accused the government of using intelligence agencies to create a rift in the party and the BNP-led 18-party alliance to make sure that some opposition leaders participate in the next general election if BNP boycotts the polls.
Khaleda Zia
(Sh. M. Network)-At least three Somali army commanders have sustained injures after a coffee shop in southwestern Somalia hit by a coordinated 
[Tolo News] Ten 
The Transportation Security Administration already shares intelligence it collects with airports. Now a House bill would expand TSA's intel sharing to local mass transit systems as well. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), the bill's sponsor, said the legislation is a "common sense approach" to fighting terrorism. The House passed the bill May 30 and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is now considering the bill.
The powerful "Flame" computer virus is not only capable of espionage; it can also sabotage computer systems and was likely used to attack Iran in April, according to a leading security company, Symantec Corp.
The International Committee of the 
