[Sowetan]
The Economic Freedom Fighters will advocate the ultimate integration of the African continent by eliminating national borders, according to its founding manifesto. Appears Julius received the Zuckerberg memo.
The "protest movement" led by Julius Malema said the borders between African countries were "unnecessary", especially those between South Africa and Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Julius Malema, the consummate community organizer and protestor. Far too rad for even the ANC.
"The EFF will... advocate for the ultimate integration of the African continent through the erosion and eventual elimination of unnecessary borders, which, in the case of South Africa will entail the Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland borders in a manner that involves and includes the participation and approval of those countries," it said in its manifesto.
"This will also be encouraged in other parts of the African continent." This formed part of the EFF's policy on "progressive internationalism". The EFF said it would also advocate for free trade across the continent. "Progressive internationalism"...yes, we're quite familiar with the terms of reference.
On immigration, the movement committed itself to taking up the struggle of all immigrants, whether they were in South Africa legally or illegally. It said immigrants should be guaranteed basic rights when they were in the country. "Certain basic rights cannot be denied to any human being who is in South Africa, whether they are in possession of certain documents or not.
"Basic rights that should be guaranteed include access to health, access to education for children, protection from super-exploitation by employers, and access to burial rights in South Africa." Food stamps, housing, midnight basketball, etc.
The process of applying for citizenship should not be complicated. The EFF is holding a conference in Soweto on Friday and Saturday to work out its policies and manifesto. From Soweto to Utopia, the dream.
#4
If they were serious and not just power-hungry communists they would be working for an ever increasing free-trade zone and strong regional alliances. It does make sense for the south part of the continent to be well integrated, but I don't think any "Progressive internationalism" is going to work well for anyone except their own leadership.
#5
In simple economic terms, the inland African states would greatly benefit from free-trade arrangements. They suffer heavily by being isolated from world markets by their sea-port-possessing neighbors' tariffs, customs corruption, and regulation.
On the other hand, a relatively-well-governed country like Botswana has got to think twice about lashing itself to the roiling, gigantic mess that is today's South Africa.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/09/2013 15:47
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#6
"Borderless" Amerika under OWG come 2015 or ASAP afterward.
The Globalists + aligned need to justify extra/post-Nationalist, higher levels of governance-n-authority, preferably widout such silly things as need for popular or nationwide electoral referendum(s) or obeying the US Constitution, etc.
Zero-Sum had sex wid Chaos Theory + from their unholy union begat their kiddies "Globalism",
"MultiPolarity", + Marxist-Communitarianism/
Communist Capitalism [Commpitalism]. among other.
* E.g. see also BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Hurriyet Daily News] AS [100-year old] BORDERS EXPIRE IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
D *** NG IT, "BORDERS" + "SOVEREIGNTY" IS JUST SSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOO YEAR 2000 = POST-MILLENIAL = OBSOLETE, AKA "QUAINT".
[AnNahar] The U.S. State Department on Thursday warned Americans not to travel to Pakistain and ordered nonessential government personnel to leave the U.S. Consulate in Lahore because of a specific threat to that diplomatic mission.
In a travel warning, the State Department said the presence of several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups posed a potential danger to U.S. citizens throughout Pakistain.
None of the consulates in Pakistain or the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad were affected by the earlier closures.
The personnel drawdown at the Lahore consulate was a precautionary measure and wasn't related to the recent closures of numerous U.S. diplomatic missions in the Mohammedan world, two U.S. officials said. The consulate in Lahore was scheduled to be closed for the Eid holiday from Thursday through Sunday and no reopening had been scheduled, one of the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the order by name and requested anonymity.
Earlier this week, 19 U.S. diplomatic outposts in 16 countries in the Middle East and Africa were closed to the public through Saturday and nonessential personnel were evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Yemen after U.S. intelligence officials said they had intercepted a recent message from al-Qaeda's top leader about plans for a major terror attack.
None of the consulates in Pakistain or the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad were affected by the earlier closures.
When I was a child the following song was going around. I have no idea where it came from or the rest of it:
"Nobody wants me
Everybody hates me
Guess I'll go eat worms..."
[AnNahar] Most Paleostinians trying to go to Leb from strife-torn Syria have been denied entry over the past two days, a rights group said on Thursday.
"The Lebanese government began on August 6, 2013, to bar Paleostinians from entering the country from Syria," New York-based Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said.
"Refusing to allow asylum seekers to enter the country violates Leb's international obligations."
Which obligations specifically? I don't recall any obligation to allow your enemies to immigrate into your country...
An HRW statement said people stranded at the border included "entire families, children, the elderly and the sick."
Right next to the Zionist-bombed baby milk factory, he forgot to add...
It said Lebanese authorities "should urgently rescind its decision to bar Paleostinians from Syria from entering Leb... Leb is turning people back without adequately considering the dangers they face."
From August 6, it appears "the only Paleostinians allowed to enter Leb were Paleostinians with Lebanese wives or mothers, or who had plane tickets to leave Beirut that day," HRW said.
It said there has been no public announcement of a change in policy.
HRW said that under international law Leb must abide by the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits sending people back to places where their lives or freedom are threatened.
Syria is home to some 500,000 Paleostinians. Many lived in Yarmouk in southern Damascus, a district that has been torn apart by shelling, rendering much of it uninhabitable, residents say.
It sorta looks like Gaza...
A source in the General Security directorate told Agence La Belle France Presse that "so far we have been the country with the most open border policy for people traveling from Syria."
Leb had been granting Paleostinians coming from Syria a seven-day renewable visa.
"We dealt with the Paleostinian situation from a humanitarian point of view," said the source, adding that Leb "is not a country of asylum."
"They should not be coming here. Their files are with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Syria, not in Leb," he said of the agency tasked with registering and aiding those whose ascendants fled historic Paleostine.
The source also said Leb "has been promised help by the international community to deal with the influx. That help didn't come."
Seems like the world is tapped out when it comes to helping Paleos...
Some 675,000 people fleeing Syria's conflict -- among them 60,000 Paleostinians -- have sought shelter in Leb, the U.N. says, though the real number is believed to be much higher.
U.N. and other humanitarian agencies say there has been a major funding shortfall to help mitigate the impact of the refugee crisis.
"While the Lebanese government, like those of other neighboring countries, is struggling to meet the needs of the growing refugee population, closing the border is no answer," said HRW deputy Middle East director Joe Stork.
On July 26, the U.N. refugee agency said it is negotiating with Leb over the country's plan to enforce new border controls that could affect the flow of Syrian refugees.
"We will continue to engage with (the authorities) to ensure that refugees in need of protection will have access to Leb but also that the legitimate security concerns of the government are respected and observed," said Ninette Kelley, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Beirut.
Her statement came three days after the government announced new entry controls. Several ministers insisted that the new rules would not close the border to refugees fleeing Syria.
But they said that in the future they would recognize as refugees only those fleeing parts of Syria that have been wracked by violence.
"In order not to allow people with terrorist ties or other security problems to take advantage of the humanitarian situation, we are now being stricter and ensuring that only people with a valid ID or passport are allowed in," a General Security source told AFP in the wake of the decision.
The U.N. Development Program's Luca Renda has also warned of a range of problems in communities in Leb that are hosting refugees.
"Competition for jobs, crowding of services, scarcity of drinking water, pressure on waste collection, issues of sanitation (and) increasing tensions between communities," he said.
[AnNahar] Moscow has rejected a Saudi proposal to abandon Syria's president in return for a huge arms deal and a pledge to boost Russian influence in the Arab world, diplomats told Agence La Belle France Presse.
On July 31, President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... , a strong backer of Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad, met 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 the Soddy national face... 's influential intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, after which both Moscow and Riyadh kept a lid on the substance of the talks.
"Every two years, Bandar bin Sultan meets his Russian counterparts, but this time, he wanted to meet the head of state," said a European diplomat who shuttles between Beirut and Damascus.
"During the meeting at the Kremlin, the Saudi official explained to his interlocutor that Riyadh is ready to help Moscow play a bigger role in the Middle East at a time when the United States is disengaging from the region," the diplomat added.
Bandar proposed that Saudi Arabia buy $15 billion (11 billion euros) of weapons from Russia and invest "considerably in the country," the source said.
The Saudi prince also reassured Putin that "whatever regime comes after" Assad, it will be "completely" in the Saudis' hands and will not sign any agreement allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and compete with Russian gas exports, the diplomat said.
In 2009, Assad refused to sign an agreement with Qatar for an overland pipeline running from the Gulf to Europe via Syria to protect the interests of its Russian ally, which is Europe's top supplier of natural gas.
An Arab diplomat with contacts in Moscow said: "President Putin listened politely to his interlocutor and let him know that his country would not change its strategy."
"Bandar bin Sultan then let the Russians know that the only option left in Syria was military and that they should forget about Geneva because the opposition would not attend."
Russia and the United States have been trying for months to organize an international peace conference between Assad's regime and the opposition to take place in Geneva, but so far to no avail.
Asked about the Putin-Bandar meeting, a Syrian politician said: "As was the case before with Qatar and Lavrov (in talks), Saudi Arabia thinks that politics is a simple matter of buying people or countries. It doesn't understand that Russia is a major power and that this is not how it draws up policy."
"Syria and Russia have had close ties for over half a century in all fields and it's not Saudi riyals that will change this fact," he added.
The meeting between Bandar and Putin came amid tension between Moscow and Riyadh over the conflict in Syria, as Russia has accused the Saudis of "financing and arming forces of Evil and bully boy groups" in the war which has killed more than 100,000 people since March 2011.
While there was no official reaction to the meeting, Russian experts also said Putin had apparently turned down the Saudi offer.
According to military expert Alexander Goltz from online opposition newspaper Ejednevny, "such an agreement seems extremely improbable."
"Support for Assad is a matter of principle for Vladimir Putin," he said. "Even the bait of $15 billion, a huge sum that represents two years' turnover for Rosoboronexport (Russia's arms exporting agency), will have no effect."
Independent security expert Andrei Soldatov, who runs the Agentura.ru website said: "This disinformation is aimed more at destabilizing Assad and his entourage.
"Assad's position is growing stronger and stronger, and the Kremlin knows this. Turning against them in this situation would be very stupid ... And don't forget that in general the Saudis take years to keep their promises."
#1
"Assad's position is growing stronger and stronger, and the Kremlin knows this. Turning against them in this situation would be very stupid ... And don't forget that in general the Saudis take years to keep their promises."
(a) Puti can see past next week's headlines.
(b) He learned how to tell when a ROPer is lying.
#2
Vlad telling the Saudis, "Thanks, but no thanks, as we already promised our Russian Airborne Troops a nice tour of Syria ... ... and maybe Japan + Manila"!
[AnNahar] An al-Qaeda inmate who beat feet from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison led Death Eaters who killed his own brother and 10 others overnight, a general said on Thursday.
The attack was the first attributed to one of more than 500 former prisoners, including senior al-Qaeda members, who escaped last month in a major security breach that analysts say may bolster krazed killer groups.
On Wednesday night, a group of Death Eaters went to the house of a policeman in Tikrit, north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , took him into the garden and executed him, army Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir al-Zaidi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The policeman's brother, an al-Qaeda member whose name was not given, led the group of killers, apparently in Dire Revenge™ for being informed on.
The Death Eaters then bombed the house and left a boom-mobile at the scene which went kaboom! after a crowd of people arrived, killing 10 and wounding 58.
Zaidi said a file indicated the policeman had informed on his brother, who was locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! three years ago for multiple bombings and killings and given two death sentences, but who escaped during a mass breakout in July.
Militants assaulted Abu Ghraib prison west of Storied Baghdad and another in Taji, to the capital's north, on the night of July 21.
Officials said more than 500 inmates escaped and over 50 prisoners and members of the security forces were killed in the assaults, which were claimed by al-Qaeda front group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The assaults and jailbreaks highlighted the growing reach of Death Eaters and the worsening security situation.
"The prison attacks demonstrate that the security forces are poorly resourced and unable to protect what should have been well-defended facilities," said John Drake, an Iraq specialist with risk management firm AKE Group.
"The release of inmates could also bolster the ranks of the Death Eaters and increase their capabilities, both in Iraq and in neighboring Syria."
Violence killed almost 1,000 people in July, government figures show, making it Iraq's deadliest month since April 2008.
Attacks have markedly increased this year, especially since an April 23 security operation at a Sunni Arab anti-government protest site that sparked festivities in which dozens died.
Protests erupted in Sunni-majority areas in late 2012, amid widespread discontent among Sunnis who accuse the Shiite-led government of marginalizing and targeting them.
Analysts say Sunni anger is the main cause of the spike in violence this year.
In addition to security problems, the government in Storied Baghdad is also failing to provide adequate basic services such as electricity and clean water, and corruption is widespread.
Political squabbling has paralyzed the government, which has passed almost no major legislation in years.
[AnNahar] 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 the Soddy national face... tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! two suspected members of al-Qaeda who may have been plotting against Western embassies in the Middle East, the interior ministry announced Thursday.
The two men, a Yemeni and a Chadian national, had contacts with the Yemeni branch of the terror network, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), state news agency SPA quoted ministry front man General Mansour al-Turki as saying.
The Chadian suspect had been expelled from Saudi Arabia but returned with a passport issued by another country, Turki added.
"The two suspects may have been implicated in the threats against Western embassies in the region," he said.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, at the heart of the security alert that has shut a number of U.S. and Western missions in Sanaa, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, is seen by Washington as the most active branch of the jihadist network.
It was formed in January 2009 as a merger of the Yemeni and Saudi branches of al-Qaeda and is led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal citing an anonymous U.S. official, Wuhayshi criminal masterminded the plot.
Previous reports have said that he was ordered to go on the offensive by al-Qaeda's overall leader, the late the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... 's former number two Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... But the official who briefed the Journal said that an intercepted communication had shown that Zawahiri merely approved an operation that had been drawn up in Yemen.
"Zawahiri's giving his blessing for a plot is very different from ordering that plot or being able to launch a 9/11-style attack," the official said, according to the report.
The pair were tossed in the calaboose Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in late July after they exchanged information on social media about imminent attacks, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, quoting an Interior Ministry official.
It said an investigation was continuing into the pair, who used mobile phones and encrypted electronic communications.
[Jpost] US President Barack Obama Jedi mind meld... and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone Wednesday about events in Syria and Egypt, the White House.
An exercise in pointlessness, as neither has the will nor the ability to affect events in any way whatsoever.
And yes, the above is the entire Jerusalem Post article. Really, what more need be told?
[Jpost] People infected with a deadly virus that emerged in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... last year may have caught it from one-humped camels, used in the region for meat, milk, transport and racing.
In a study into what kind of animal "reservoir" may be fueling the outbreak in humans, scientists said they had found strong evidence it is widespread among dromedary camels in the Middle East.
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia, has been reported in people in the Gulf, La Belle France, Germany, Italia, Tunisia and Britannia.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says 46 people have died out of a total 94 confirmed cases, the majority in Saudi Arabia.
#18
Funny, the Stormfront logo is missing from the site.
I guess they see themselves as 'socialists' and not 'nazis' (which is only 'national socialists.') As Bucharin said, anti-semitism is merely 'socialism for the stupid,' which if you think about it suggests that leftism is only nazi-ism for supposedly smart people. this comes full circle when it turns out they're not as smart as they think they are.
[Ynet] Iran has constructed a rocket-launching site that could be used for testing ballistic missiles, a report from a military intelligence publication said on Thursday.
Satellite imagery analysed by Jane's Intelligence Review showed extensive construction over the last three years at a site of what Jane's says is a launch tower and pad, an area to prepare rockets for launch and an administration and support section.
#1
See - clearly POTUS Carter's = POTUS Bammer's
"red lines" do work ... ... NOT!
Get ready for a Nuclear Iran, espec an Iran armed wid ASBMS, + ultimately Nuclear-armed Radical Islam = Global Nuclear Jihad.
Iran per se may not want to see Sunni or Radical MilTerrs go Nuke-WMDS, but autonomous decentalized third-party Islamic NGOS + aligned Radicals, etc. think otherwise.
[Ynet] In response to new EU guidelines to boycott settlements, Israel will not sign further agreements with Union. Israel to demand clarifications regarding expected limitations
At a cabinet meeting Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that Israel will not sign additional agreements with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , such as a scientific cooperation agreement, due to the expected EU limitations on the settlements.
At the end of the meeting, State officials said that the EU's decision significantly harms the process of renewing negotiations with the Paleostinians.
The meeting, convened by Netanyahu, was attended by Ministers Tzipi Livni , Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Ya'akov Peri, Shai Piron, Yair Shamir and Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin.
Following the meeting, State officials clarified that Israel will request further clarifications from Europe in order to better understand the meaning of the limitations of the EU on activities beyond the 1967 border lines.
Three weeks ago, the EU High Commission announced its intentions to distinguish between Israeli entities working within the 1967 border lines and those operating beyond them. The decision, which is expected to take effect in 2014 until 2020, surprised the cabinet in Jerusalem as well as the Israeli foreign Ministry.
The decision to exclude settlements from European funding was revealed on the eve of the American announcement regarding the renewal of negotiations between Israel and the Paleostinians. The EU limitations were preceded by numerous warnings, which were not well-received in Israel.
The EU decision cast a shadow on significant agreements which were supposed to be signed by Israel in the near future. According to the cabinet meeting held Thursday, the Israeli government is not expected to sign any additional agreements with the European Union as long as there is a distinction between activities within the 1967 border lines and activities in the settlements.
#3
The Europeans are teaching morals to the Jews, after the Holocaust.
As far as I know the vast majority of Europeans did not see a problem in mass killing innocents civilians.
Some people never learn ...
Posted by: Ana ||
08/09/2013 10:02
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[Iran Press TV] On Thursday, pro-Morsi protesters called for his reinstatement and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Morsi's wife, Naglaa Mahmoud, appeared among the demonstrators for the first time, urging them to continue their rallies against the ousted president's continued detention.
Egypt has witnessed non-stop demonstrations in support of the country's first democratically elected president, since he was toppled by the army on July 3.
On Wednesday, Egypt's interim Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi called on supporters of Morsi to immediately leave their protest camps in Cairo.
"We ask them now again, once again, to quickly leave to their homes and their jobs. The government's patience to bear this is nearly expired," Beblawi said in a televised speech.
"The cabinet affirms that the decision to disperse the Rabaa al-Adawiya and al-Nahda sit-ins is a final decision, on which all agree, and there is no going back on it," he added.
Beblawi also accused the protesters of inciting violence and said their sit-ins are not peaceful.
Earlier in the day, interim President Adly Mahmoud Mansour said more than 10 days of diplomatic efforts by envoys from foreign countries, including the United States, to resolve the crisis in Egypt had failed.
The protests have turned violent on many occasions, leaving large numbers of people dead.
The demonstrators have rejected repeated calls by Egypt's interim government to end their rallies.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013
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#1
The tickey-tock tolls/chimes louder for possible civil war in Egypt.
[Dawn] A Syrian rebel brigade has said it targeted Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's motorcade as he headed to a Damascus mosque for prayers to mark the Mohammedan holiday of Eid al-Fitr, but footage broadcast by state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
on Thursday showed him unharmed.
The Tahrir al-Sham rebel brigade, a unit of the Free Syrian Army, said in a statement: "After conducting reconnaissance [on] the timing and course of Bashir al-Assad's motorcade the area was hit with artillery. We pray to God and await the field report about the results."
After the statement, Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
showed what it described as footage of Assad praying at Anas bin Malek Mosque in the Malki district, where his residence is located.
Islam Alloush of the Liwa al-Islam, another rebel brigade, had told Rooters earlier on Thursday that rebels fired rockets which hit Assad's motorcade on his way to attend the prayers.
"Assad was not hit but the information we have, based from sources within the regime, is that there were casualties within his entourage," Alloush said.
Other activists also reported rockets were fired into the Malki area, which was sealed off by security forces.
Syria's information minister denied the motorcade was hit by rebel rocket fire. "The news is wholly untrue," Omran Zoabi told Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013
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#1
See also TOPIX > SYRIAN GOVT. DENIES REBEL ATTACK ON ASSAD MOTORCADE.
* SAME > [Arutz Sheva, Israel National News] LEBANON CHRISTIAN LEADER: HIZBULLAH FIRED ON [Assad's] PALACE.
versus
* GROONG > ASSAD'S DISMISSAL IS NOT ON THE AGENDA NOW - EXPERT.
US goal is to weaken Syria, but NOT destroy it as the US needs strong Syria to support its agenda.
* RELATED GROONG > THE US IS SYRIA'S ALLY.
The collapse or preservation of Global Order, US Agenda in ME starts wid CONTROL OF SYRIA.
* BIG BEWS NETWORK [Sify] > [Ex-] IRAN PRESIDENT [Ahmadinejad] ESCAPES ATTACK, i.e. an alleged new assassination attempt.
Its NOT Rouhani.
Iff true, despite Moud no longer being in political office, apparently someone is still out to whack him.
[THEWEEK] There are two reasons why the government would tolerate this type of leak. One: The threat was so severe that the only way to prevent it was to expose the plot completely, showing al Qaeda that the U.S. had penetrated so deeply into their organization that the big boss's double-top-secret conference call was recorded. It's the counter-terrorism equivalent of face up poker. There's an element of brinksmanship in this approach.
Two: The U.S. intelligence community might want al Qaeda to shift its communication methods because the new method al Qaeda ends up with might be more intercept-friendly in the future, or the U.S. believes that certain al Qaeda members it keeps under constant surveillance will help them quickly figure out the new method.
Note that several early articles referred to the (Yemeni) interception of a courier, which might -- might -- mean that the U.S. got its hands on a copy of the tape and does NOT have al Qaeda pinned to the wall. IF the U.S knew where the conference call took place, they ostensibly have a very good bead on Ayman al-Zawahiri's head, too.
Or, the leaks could be completely unauthorized.
If another big, bad leak investigation is soon, ah, leaked, then we'll know. Until then, let's just say that something doesn't look quite right.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Washington Examiner] In a remarkable admission that is likely to rock the Internal Revenue Service again, testimony released Thursday by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp reveals that an agent involved in reviewing tax exempt applications from conservative groups told a committee investigator that the agency is still targeting Tea Party groups, three months after the IRS scandal erupted. "Remarkable"....to some possibly.
In closed door testimony before the House Ways & Means Committee, the unidentified IRS agent said requests for special tax status from Tea Party groups is being forced into a special "secondary screening" because the agency has yet to come up with new guidance on how to judge the tax status of the groups.
In a transcript from the committee provided to Secrets, a Ways & Means investigator asked: "If you saw -- I am asking this currently, if today if a Tea Party case, a group -- a case from a Tea Party group came in to your desk, you reviewed the file and there was no evidence of political activity, would you potentially approve that case? Is that something you would do?"
The agent said, "At this point I would send it to secondary screening, political advocacy."
The committee staffer then said, "So you would treat a Tea Party group as a political advocacy case even if there was no evidence of political activity on the application. Is that right?" The agent admitted, "Based on my current manager's direction, uh-huh." The Nurenberg defense. Very impressive Might want to ask the ghost of Anton Dostler how that turned out...
#4
A father walks into a restaurant with his young son He gives the young boy 3 nickels to play with to keep him occupied.
Suddenly, the boy starts choking, going blue in the face. The father realizes the boy has swallowed the nickels and starts slapping him on the back. The boy coughs up 2 of the nickels, but keeps choking. Looking at his son, the father is panicking, shouting for help.
A well-dressed, attractive, and serious looking woman in a blue business suit is sitting at the coffee bar reading a newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee. At the sound of the commotion, she looks up, puts her coffee cup down, neatly folds the newspaper and places it on it on the counter, gets up from her seat and makes her way, unhurried, across the restaurant.
Reaching the boy, the woman carefully drops his pants; takes hold of the boy's testicles and starts to squeeze and twist, gently at first and then ever so firmly. After a few seconds the boy convulses violently and coughs up the last nickel, which the woman deftly catches in her free hand.
Releasing the boy's testicles, the woman hands the nickel to the father and walks back to her seat at the coffee bar without saying a word.
As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no ill effects, the father rushes over to the woman and starts thanking her saying, "I've never seen anybody do anything like that before, it was fantastic. Are you a doctor? "
"No," the woman replied, "I'm with the Internal Revenue Service."
#5
IRS Joke I heard years ago...
Big, burly, bigmouthed man in the bar is going around challenging people to things. Darts, Pool, whatever. Finally he takes an empty glass (and not a shot glass) and a single lemon. He squeezes the lemon over the glass - his muscles tighen, cords stick out of his neck and his face turns red but he finally manages to fill the glass with lemon juice from the single lemon.
People are astonished, "how he'd do that?" and the braggart went around challenging people to do the same - no-body takes him up on it. Finally he gets to this little wizzened old man at the end "I bet you can't fill a glass with lemon juice like that!" he challenges.
"Well I'll try...".
The burley man get another empty glass and lemon and slams it on the bar, "Lets see it. $50 says you can't do it!".
"Ok" says the wizzened old man who todders over to the bar. He takes the glass and the remains of the same lemon the big guy squeezed, positions it over the glass and gives it a slight little flex... and fills up glass easily. Everyone is flabbergasted!
"How the hell you do that?" the big guy demanded.
"Well, you see, Before I retired I worked for the IRS....".
#7
Every organization takes on the personality of its leader. At the top our leader is corrupt, unapologetic, a racist, egocentric, and disregards the constitution while holding democracy in contempt. The DOJ, IRS, State Dept., democratic party, and other agencies are a mirror the Obama soul. By the end of his presidency our economic system, legal system, tax code, health care codes, foreign policy, diplomatic processes, and political processes will be so corrupted and so fragile they might not survive. He will have proven himself to be the largest risk to national security since Stalin.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/09/2013 11:32
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#8
Well, there's another election coming up in 2014. What did you expect?
#9
This is just a trial - just wait until they start delaying approval of life-saving medical treatment based on one's 'associations' (via that huge NSA database...).
"Oh... you visited Rantburg 20 times last week.... well we'll have to route this to 'secondary screening'" (which has a 18-month backlog....)
#11
This is just a trial - just wait until they start...
Of course you know the IRS will be running ObamaCare. It is a "constitutional" tax after all. So it'll be the same people with the same database and the same lack of scruples.
More interesting is the discreet silence among all the media analysts about the obvious question: how long until the Sulzberger family follows the Graham family (who followed the Bancroft family in selling the Wall Street Journal) in selling the New York Times while it's still worth something?
If the Grahams would have sold the Post in 2002 they would have received about $2 billion. The accumulated interest today would be another billion. Compare to the $250 million they received last week.
Does anyone really think the Graham family wanted to sell the Post? Of course not. It was the cornerstone of their social status and clout.
$3 billion buys a lot of social status and clout. Ask Warren Buffett.
(As Post columnist Ruth Marcus put it without the slightest trace of self-awareness: "Their identity is so inextricably bound up with that of the newspaper, and the newspaper with that of the Graham family, it is -- or at least it was until Monday afternoon -- unimaginable to consider the two as separate entities." Also this: "My e-mail has been buzzing, my phone ringing, with family, friends, government officials, asking the same question: Are you okay? They don't mean economically. They mean emotionally. The answer: Not really." Yes, Ruth, because it's all about you. Also: sympathetic e-mails from "government officials"? Yeah, we're not cozy with our sources here at the Post, are we Ruth? That's some real adversarial journalism for ya.)
#1
Well, the libs may not have their favorite newspapers in the near future, but they have their dream president, and another dream (Shrillary) waiting in the wings.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2013 6:32
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#2
...yes, taking the rest of the country down the same road they've taken the NYTs and WaPo.
#4
Kind of surprised they didn't find some angel investers to get them through an election cycle or two so they can continue to carry water for the team.
#5
for all our sakes I hope the Grahams at least write a letter to the editor once in a while but the way things are going I may only be able to follow the Grahams on FACEBOOK and TWITTER.
#6
rj, they probably were expecting an angel in the form of a Obama bailout (like some other party broadsheets). Unfortunately, that little thing about losing the House most likely interfered with the grand plan.
Terrorists Militants in southern Thailand have threatened to quit peace talks with the government, as bloodshed during a Ramadan cease-fire dashed hopes of an end to years of fighting.
In a video posted on YouTube, three terrorists militants wearing balaclavas and combat gear and holding automatic weapons said the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) would withdraw from the talks. One of them said in the video posted Thursday, "The Thai occupiers have committed betrayal, violence, lied and slandered the Pattani people."
In the clip, terrorists militants said Thai authorities had not met the conditions of the negotiations, without detailing their complaints. It was not possible to verify who the terrorists rebels in the clip represent. But an official involved in the talks said they were from BRN, one of several rebel groups.
The official said the video is an attempt to pressure Thailand into meeting the BRN's five key demands, which include releasing terrorists prisoners and recognizing it as a liberation movement. The official said, "It sounds like there won't be any more talks, but actually that's not the case."
[Dawn] Pak military officials on Thursday said Indian troops opened fire and seriously wounding a male civilian along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmire.
Officials said Indian troops shot up around 8:30 am in the Tatta Pani sector, "seriously" wounding one civilian who was evacuated to a military hospital.
"Today (in the) morning at about 0830 hours, Indian troops resorted to unprovoked firing at the LoC (Line of Control) ... One civilian Kaka Sana Muhammad ... was seriously maimed due to the unprovoked firing by Indian troops," the official said.
"The injured Kaka Sana is being evacuated to a military hospital," said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The incident comes amid a recent spike in tension across the heavily militarised border as India accused Pak forces of being involved in an attack on one of its army posts in which five of its soldiers were killed.
"The attack was carried out by 20 heavily-armed terrorists, along with persons in Mighty Pak Army uniform," said Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony.
Pakistain rejected the allegations and reiterated its commitment to a ceasefire agreement reached in 2003.
"These are baseless and unfounded allegations. Our military authorities have confirmed that there had been no exchange of fire that could have resulted in such an incident," a Foreign Office statement on the reported LoC incident said on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Pakistain asked Indian authorities to beef up security for its diplomats and high commission staff after a demonstration outside the Pakistain High Commission in New Delhi on Wednesday over the killing of the Indian soldiers.
The military operations chiefs of the two countries also spoke to each other over the hotline in an attempt to calm down tensions.
Under the Nov 25, 2003 ceasefire agreement, Pakistain and India committed not to target each other's posts and personnel.
The agreement has largely held and was considered as one of the main successes in the grinding of the peace processor. However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... violations increased in January this year and have been holding up the third round of the resumed peace dialogue between the two countries.
The two sides are now preparing to restart the round and dates for talks on Wullar Barrage and Sir Creek have been proposed by Pakistain.
Analysts say the attack has also complicated efforts to arrange a meeting between India's veteran Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pak premier 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...
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#1
"civilian" = "we recovered his arms"
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/09/2013 10:07
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[Al Ahram] The Salafist Nour Party spokesperson Nader Bakkar said in a televised interview with CNN on Thursday that his party will reconsider the new political roadmap if the "Islamic identity of the state" in Egypt's constitution is amended.
In the 2012 constitution, Article 221 of the draft charter states that the term "principles of Islamic Sharia" -- mentioned in Article 2 of the constitution as the "main source of legislation" -- basically refers to the Islamic jurisprudence followed by the four main schools of Sunni Islam.
The Nour Party successfully campaigned for changing Article 221 from how it was formulated in the 1971 constitution, which left the "principles of Islamic Sharia" more vague and did not limit it to the four main schools of Sunni Islam.
Bakkar confirmed during the interview that all those participating in setting the new roadmap have agreed that the Islamic identity of the state will be preserved.
On July 3 military commander-in-chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi unveiled a new roadmap for Egypt's political future proposed by the opposition, which included the removal of President Mohamed Morsi to make way for prompt presidential elections.
The new roadmap was announced in the presence and approval of several political figures, including a member of the Nour Party. The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayeb and Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II were also present.
The roadmap also involved empowering the head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court (HCC) with presidential authority until a new president is elected via early presidential elections, forming a new government and a committee to amend controversial articles of the temporarily suspended constitution.
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[Al Ahram] At least 4,420 people were killed in Syria violence during the Mohammedan fasting month of Ramadan, some two thirds of them fighters on both sides, a monitoring group said Thursday. So happy holidays, y'all!
Compared with August last year, when the majority of the dead were civilians, fewer ordinary people were killed this Ramadan.
"More than 4,420 were killed over the past month," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Of the total, 1,386 were civilians, 64 defectors who joined the rebels and 1,172 civilians who had taken up arms on the opposition side.
Of the civilians killed, 302 were children, said the watchdog.
A further 485 were foreign jihadists who joined the rebels, the Observatory said.
Another 1,010 of the dead were loyalist troops, while 211 were members of the pro-regime paramilitary National Defence Force, it said.
Ninety-two others remained unidentified.
"What we see is that the majority of those killed were fighters," Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The toll contrasts sharply with that of August 2012, which had been the deadliest month in Syria's conflict until then. In that month, 5,440 were killed, among them 4,114 civilians.
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#1
the 4400 killed in ramadan is only about 10-15% the long term monthly average
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/09/2013 0:11
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#2
Hold a sec lord garth. A 100000+ for (approx) 2 years works to 4000 - 5000 a month. A regular month then.
Political analysts believe that in appointing his Cabinet, Mugabe will try to balance his appointments along tribal and factional lines.
Zanu-PF has two main factions, one led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru and the other by outÂgoing Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, although both deny leading any factions. Nearly nose-snorted my rooibos. Those M&G political analysts, minds like steel traps.
[Al Ahram] Two blasts that maimed four Israeli soldiers on the border with Leb were in fact an "ambush" set by Hezbollah, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on Thursday.
The kabooms hit the patrol on Wednesday when the troops ventured 400 metres (yards) into south Leb, parts of which are controlled by the powerful Shiite movement.
"The enemy blundered when they violated the border with Leb, and fell into a trap that only the resistance could set," said the newspaper, which has links to Hezbollah.
"Only Hezbollah can make bombs that blow up Israelis" when they pass by, it said.
Hezbollah, which has close ties to Iran and the regime in Syria, is considered Israel's arch-foe, and the two fought a brief but bloody summer war in 2006.
"The Israeli unit fell into a well-set ambush and the enemy found itself faced with a difficult question: 'How did Hezbollah know we were there?'" the daily wrote.
"The ambush is a dangerous failure for the enemy because it shows that Hezbollah has an intelligence structure that allows it to know when a patrol arrives, its route and to set a trap for it," it added.
"That means the resistance is prepared for every eventuality, in case of confrontation on a wider scale or in case of a general conflict."
The Lebanese army said four Israeli soldiers were maimed by kabooms 400 metres inside Lebanese territory.
Israel's military confirmed the toll without specifying what side of the border the soldiers were on as they were "carrying out nocturnal activities in the Lebanese border area when the kaboom occurred".
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[Dawn] Prime Minister 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... tried Thursday to ease tensions with India by urging both sides to work swiftly to shore up a 10-year ceasefire threatened by recent attacks.
Sharif said that it was imperative for both India and Pakistain to take effective steps to ensure and restore ceasefire on the Line of Control (LoC), the heavily militarized border dividing the disputed Kashmire region.
The prime minister expressed these views during a briefing by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials at the Foreign Office in Islamabad.
He made the remarks after a Pak civilian was injured by firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmire.
The remarks also come shortly after the Indian government for the first time directly accused the Mighty Pak Army of involvement in an ambush that killed five Indian soldiers on Monday in Kashmire. Pakistain denied any part in Monday's incident.
India's Defence Minister A.K. Antony alleged that specialist Pak troops had been involved in the attack and hinted at stronger military action.
But Sharif, who was elected in May and who backs rapprochement with India, said he was looking forward to meeting his Indian counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September.
In remarks and released by his office, he said existing military channels could be more "optimally utilised" to prevent the situation from escalating further.
Pakistain, he said, is prepared to discuss steps with India for further strengthening of existing mechanisms both at the political and military levels.
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[Dawn] Pak authorities will hang four convicts on death row later this month, ending a five year stay on the execution of death sentences ordered by the outgoing president, officials said Thursday.
Inspector General Sindh prisons Nusrat Mangan told Dawn.com that four condemned prisoners, including two members of the banned sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... (LeJ), would be executed at the Sukkur jail and Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Central prison on August 20, 21 and 22.
Mangan said none of the four prisoners had approached the superior courts for a review of their sentences and would therefore be executed as per the orders of the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC). He said one of the condemned bully boyz was awarded the death sentence in six cases, while another was awaiting the death penalty in four cases.
The executions will be the first to be carried out in Pakistain in five years. The Sukkur jail has not carried out a death sentence in 11 years.
Under the previous government led by the Pakistain People's Party (PPP), no one except a soldier convicted by court martial was put to death since 2008. The Pakistain Mohammedan League - Nawaz (PML-N), which came to power in the May 11 general elections, ended the moratorium imposed by President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... in 2008.
The PML-N led government in July had announced there would no longer be any general amnesty for the convicts awaiting execution, raising concerns from human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... activists and opponents of capital punishment.
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Take two examples. The then foreign minister of Pakistain was visiting Delhi in November 2008 when the Mumbai terror attack was staged. Now it turns out the Indian and Pak prime ministers were preparing to meet in New York next month when a mysterious incident occurred on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmire on Monday.
Not for the first time Indian soldiers were reported to have been killed in a bizarre attack that, relying only on Indian headlines, throws up a familiar, overdone narrative.
It is not unusual for terror attacks to come at a moment when mutual bonhomie looks nigh in South Asia. Is Pakistain's deep state the only beneficiary of these disruptions?
Or is there someone rejoicing in the Indian establishment too when militarism, buoyed by terrorism, is accorded the front row in our daily lives regardless of the prohibitive costs?
It is of course a given that Pakistain's army has a stake in keeping several quarries off balance. These may include the Americans and the Indians, but they do not exclude the civilian rulers at home.
The deep state, as the army and its intelligence apparatus is often called in Pakistain, is self-confessedly anti-Indian. That is the nature of the beast.
Therefore, it is plausible that the men from whichever Islamist bad turban outfit are said to have attacked the Indian patrol this week, were not hindered by the security establishment.
One likely trigger for the LoC incident could be that the country's civilian commanders are more ready to give India a greater role in Afghanistan than the generals may be willing to grant.
In an interview to Voice of America, Pakistain's foreign policy adviser Sartaj Aziz uncharacteristically stressed and also welcomed India's role in Afghanistan's future reconstruction.
Is that what was shot down, or was sought to be derailed, on the LoC? Or, as some news reports suggest, the killing of five Indian soldiers may be linked to a recent incident in which a clutch of Pakistain-based bully boyz were ambushed by Indian forces as they tried to sneak into Indian Kashmire.
In the big picture too the Pak security establishment gains from any windfall of tensions with India, but increasingly this has less to do with its traditional interests in reheating the Kashmire issue. Its current drive is tethered to the elusive "strategic depth" in Afghanistan, if Afghans will permit such a concept.
Who are the Indians that benefit from, say, a Mumbai-like attack or from the latest LoC incident? I think at the current count, perverse though it may sound, there are more political beneficiaries in India from any incident involving Pakistain than Pakistain can ever have.
As of now, to the best of my knowledge, there is hardly a political group in Pakistain -- from Prime Minister 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... 's party to the PPP, from Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... 's group to the MQM -- to benefit from whipping up anti-India sentiments. In India, on the other hand, even the leftist parties are often seen following right-wing jingoists in the nationalist pursuit.
Take Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh with his unflinching support of Indian Moslems. He rarely spares an opportunity to berate Pakistain. As a former defence minister he may have other constituencies to look after too.
The fact that harmless-looking Rahul Gandhi can readily recall, apropos of little electoral gain, how his grandmother, the late Indira Gandhi, broke Pakistain into two, reflects his eagerness to keep pace with the holy cow called the national interest.
The other day he was applauding the paramilitary forces for keeping democracy alive in India, insisting it was they that crushed the Sikh militancy in Punjab.
The communist-led Left Front on its part has been so badly trounced in recent village-level elections by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerji, the lady who has pulled the Moslem vote from under the Left's feet, that the Marxists seem to have surrendered their traditional tempered tone on Pakistain. Count it as an erroneous attempt to compensate for the electoral losses.
The irony is that the best chance that peace ever had with Pakistain came from the Hindutva banner of India's Bharatiya Janata Party.
True to form though, it was Hindutva's recklessness that was equally eager to start a dangerous war with Pakistain in May 2002. Atal Behari Vajpayee sought peace but he also nearly led us to a nuclear exchange.
The wide spectrum of political support that India thus offers to unbridled jingoism is matched by its largely opaque intelligence set-up. This aspect of India's own 'deep state' is just getting to be somewhat discussed in the newspapers. Still, very few Indians see their external or internal spy agencies, much less the military, as a source of concern.
The Congress party, led by then head of the opposition Manmohan Singh, had asked some searching questions of the Hindutva rulers when parliament was mysteriously attacked in December 2001. But the party chose to remain silent when the war drums came on.
Today the Congress' defence minister is on the mat for suggesting that the men who attacked the Indian soldiers on the LoC may have been Islamist bully boyz in army fatigues.
The BJP wants his head for not directly naming the Pakistain Army. The truth is that, with the nod of the intelligence set-up, the BJP is trying to nip any peace talks with Pakistain before the coming elections.
The prime ministers of India and Pakistain plan to meet in New York to discuss many issues.
Do they have the courage to take on their respective deep states though? At least then we can know the real truth about terrorism and its strange beneficiaries.
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[Breitbart] As we near the October 1 implementation date of ObamaCare, it is becoming increasingly clear that the federal government isn't prepared. Late last week, HHS quietly reduced by one-third the number of hours of training required for "navigators," individuals tasked with helping the public enroll in the program. Hurry! The Congress and staffers have opted out already ! Get them deployed immediately, HUD can give you the Chicago Zipp codes. The ACORN folks being hired as staffers will be allowed to move their lips in the reading comprehension test...
The decision to cut training adds to already existing questions about how effective the "navigators" can be. Should have tasked the Dept. of Agriculture, they've got 48,000,000 enrolled in the Food Stamp program. Enrollees are eating, gaining weight, and happy. No bitc*ing so far.
"Navigators" are tax payer federally funded community organizers activists who are supposed to help the public navigate the insurance exchanges and apply for any qualified subsidies. By design, individual navigators can have no ties with the health insurance industry, raising the question of how well they can help individuals select the best coverage option. Farming Insurance be hard ?
Originally, HHS required navigators to undergo 30 hours of conversational English training. That requirement has been reduced now to just 20 hours of training. Even the original requirement seemed insufficient to understand such a complex multi-thousand page program. Hopefully the weapons qualification block of instruction was not deleted.
With less than two months until the health exchanges are supposed to open, more problems are coming to light. Expect more decisions like the cut in training over the coming weeks. Navigators will no longer be required if amnesty is approved. We'll be well over the hump and have achieved a Robert Mugabe-Lite, one party system by then.
#1
20 hours of training to win the prized Silver Sextant? Outrageous! The bad hands people have taken over, we endure much out-of-pocket in this bizarre exercise.
#5
In related news, I received a phone call from what sounded like a snotnosed 19 year old from Brooklyn agitating for dick durbin. His sales script was horrid, but off script he couldn't shit a kernal of sense if he had eaten corn for a straight week.
#9
FYI see DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Russia Today] US DEBT SIX TIMES GREATER THAN DECLARED - STUDY.
'Tis actually US$70.0Trilyuhn due to unreported debt obligations + servicings.
versus
* DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND > US WARNS AGZ EMMINENT-DOMAIN MORTAGE SEIZURES.
The Govt-Public Sector seizing any + all Private Personal-Commercial Properties AMAP ASAP ALAP in order to use as collateral for Govt-Public Debt-servicing = re-financing.
[POST-1917 SOVIET BOLSHEVIKS + LENIN + STALIN "COLLECTIVIZATION" POGROMS here].
Move along, people, clearly there is no such thing as "Sovietization" + "Collectivization" + related taking place in Amerika!
* SAME > NEW YORK CITY MAY DECLARE BANKRUPTCY AFTER DETROIT - MAYOR.
* BIG NEWS NETWORK > [News on Japan]Y$1.000000000000000 [Y$1.008QR], THE SIZE OF JAPAN'S NATIONAL DEBT, asof end of June 2013.
Equivalent to EU$7.8Trilyuhn = US$11.40Trilyuhn.
UC-San Diego Economics Professor James Hamilton.
Iff Japan = 245%, + US = 101%, clearly the US can pork-spend another 144% to catch up wid Japan JUST BECAUSE WE CAN!
[Ynet] State Department says negotiations will be held in Jerusalem, Jericho; stresses Washington 'does not accept legitimacy of continued settlement activity'
Israeli and Paleostinian negotiators will resume peace talks in Jerusalem on Aug. 14, the US State Department said on Thursday.
"Negotiations between the Israelis and Paleostinians will be resuming Aug. 14 in Jerusalem and will be followed by a meeting in Jericho (in the West Bank)," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a briefing.
Despite the fact that the presence of any Jews in the Palestinian Territories is flatly illegal.
The sides held their first peace negotiations in nearly three years in Washington on July 30 in US-mediated efforts to end the conflict of more than six decades.
Nothing was accomplished, but the canapes were lovely.
Psaki said US envoys Martin Indyk and Frank Lowenstein will travel to the region to help facilitate the negotiations.
She signaled that no major breakthroughs were likely at the meeting, saying: "Secretary Kerry does not expect to make any announcements in the aftermath of this round of talks."
At least nobody will have to overcome false expectations...
The announcement came as Israel said it had given preliminary approval for the construction of more than 800 new homes in Jewish settlements on occupied West Bank land, a move that would complicate peace negotiations.
How can they complicate a no-outcome situation?
Psaki said Washington had taken up the issue with the Israelis.
"The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity and opposes any efforts to legitimize settlement outposts," Psaki said.
That's nice, dear. If you hold your breath much longer your face will turn blue, after which you will pass out in the usual manner. You might want to sit in that nice chair in the corner so you don't fall and bump your head -- repeated minor concussions have been demonstrated to cause brain damage, and you can't afford to lose any more brain cells.
This is actually a policy shift: the U.S., and all previous presidents, had in the past refused to condemn the settlements as 'illegal'. We even vetoed a U.N. resolution that called them illegal. By saying that they are 'illegitimate' they're doing the next best thing as far as the Paleos are concerned. Champ once again (and I'll bet without thinking) has given away an important chip.
"The Secretary has made clear that he believes both the negotiating teams are at the table in good faith and are committed to making progress," she added.
He also believes in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy.
Kerry has said the sides have given themselves about nine months to try to reach an agreement.
And if anything is actually resolved, Israeli voters will deal with it in a thoroughly democratic referendum. Clever move on Prime Minister Netanyahu's part, but then negotiation strategy was a key part of his pre-politics experience.
The United States is seeking to broker an agreement on a two-state solution, in which Israel would exist peacefully alongside a new Paleostinian state created in the West Bank and Gazoo Strip, lands partly occupied by Israel since a 1967 war.
Not the Gaza Strip. Israel left the Gaza Strip in 2005 or so, after Egyot refused to take it back, and got a rain of missiles in exchange.
The latest direct talks collapsed in late 2010 over Israel's building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
That was the excuse, anyway. It'll be something similar this time, too.
#1
That's too bad. But American State Department was Israel's enemy from day one---regardless of what elected officials said or even wanted. Now they finally got themselves a POTUS sympathetic to their goals.
#2
One of the challenges we've faced for a considerable period of time g(r)om, is the State Departments self appointed role as a global outreach organization for the UN. Just my umble opinion.
[LATIMES] Santa Ana has hired away Phoenix's city manager and has agreed to an annual salary and benefits package of more than half a million dollars, instantly making him one of the highest paid city employees in California.
David Cavazos, a longtime Phoenix employee who rose through the ranks from intern to city manager during his 26-year tenure, would have a total compensation package of $558,625 in his first year in Santa Ana.
If they hired a person who was 80% as good for half the pay, wouldn't they be ahead?
Only the city manager in tiny Indian Wells is listed as having a higher salary and benefits package at $677,172, according to the state controller's office, which most recently released data for 2011. That paycheck included a severance payout to the city manager, who was stepping down .
In Santa Ana, Cavazos will earn a base salary of $315,000, the same basic salary he made as the chief executive in Phoenix, which has a population of 1.47 million. Santa Ana has a population of about 330,000.
With benefits, the city expects to pay Cavazos $558,625 in the first year of his contract, with the figure dropping to $515,000 in his second and third year, according to a report prepared for the City Council. Among the benefits Cavazos will receive are $36,000 for housing in the first year and $24,000 per year after that. In addition, he will receive $7,500 in moving expenses, several sick and vacation days, and insurance benefits.
In an interview with The Times, Cavazos said he doubts he'll reap all of the benefits allotted to him in his contract.
"I haven't taken a sick day in 10 years. Some of those costs are not going to occur," he said. "I'm not leaving for the money. I'm not going there for the money. Just like I came here for an opportunity, I'm going to Santa Ana for an opportunity."
Though much smaller than Phoenix, Santa Ana is the county seat in Orange County and a political power base. But the densely packed city has struggled with budget problems in recent years.
Cavazos noted that he helped Phoenix emerge from a $277-million budget deficit and that it now has "the highest contingency fund in city history."
Santa Ana leaders praised Cavazos for his experience and said they believe he will help bring in economic development and federal dollars.
"You get what you pay for," Councilwoman Michele Martinez said. "We wanted the best and we didn't want to shortchange our city. He's very qualified; we didn't want to nickel and dime."
Phoenix officials gave Cavazos a $78,000 pay raise late last year, boosting his base salary to $315,000. The raise sparked controversy there. Defenders argued it would help retain a talented manager and put his pay in line with cities similar in size to Phoenix.
Worked well...
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#1
I'm not leaving for the money. I'm not going there for the money....'
#2
For perspective, an installation commander, usually a colonel(O6), on a military post fills most of the same demands that a city manager does. The monthly pay is about $7,898, throw in housing (not something new and fancy), and medcare (military Tricare). That's a hell of a lot cheaper than 500K a year. Somebody doesn't know how to shop. Actually, they don't care. It's not their money. Play it safe, pay premium.
#4
We're talking installation commander. Whether the installation (vice city) or higher command (vice state/fed) are additional factors are applicable to any perspective. Those costs are 'sunk' and are generally not negotiable in individual hiring and firings.
#5
Marine Corps installation, it's also a Colonel. Same thing: base housing, Tricare, etc. Not called an installation commander here; actually the senior non-star on the commanding general's staff.
The difference between an installation commander and a city manager is that the former's authority stems from ability, rank and position. The latter is based on ability, resume, and connections (social and political.)
#8
Unless its an installation with line troops, the post commander has security (MPs etc), facilities engineers, etc, the full community requirements. The difference that the uniform operator has over the civilian is the ability to administratively 'kick off post' destructive influences before they become a UCMJ issue (or federal law if you dealing with civies).
#9
Unlike most installation commanders he will not be taking over a normally well run organization. He's taking on poorly run, in debt, politically created city. If he manages to turn it around he will have earned every penny. If not, I suspect there is a performance requirement for his employment.
Wonder how long it will take the politicians that hired him to start squealing about and resisting the measures he will have to take?
#10
total compensation package of $558,625 in his first year in Santa Ana.
I'm giving him 15 days of vacation plus 4 legal holidays by California law - includes Cesar Chavez Day (Mar 31) and Black Friday ( day after Thanksgiving )
works 242 days in a year.... does not take sick days ... "I haven't taken a sick day in 10 years. Some of those costs are not going to occur," he said.
So works say 50 hour work week - 5 days a week @ 10 hours a day.
He is paid 2308.37 per day or 230.83 an hour or
3.84 a minute.
[Al Ahram] An Egyptian presidential aide rejected statements by US Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... describing the popularly-backed military overthrow of Mohamed Morsi as a coup d'etat.
"John McCain is distorting facts. His clumsy statements are unacceptable in form and substance," presidential aide Ahmed El-Moslemani told Ahram Arabic website Monday evening.
McCain, who made the comments at a presser in Cairo on Monday, is the first US official visiting Egypt to refer to the removal of Morsi as a military coup. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said last week that the Egyptian army had "restored democracy" and averted civil war by deposing the Islamist president.
A source from Egypt's foreign ministry told state news agency MENA that Egypt's interim foreign minister Nabil Fahmy was dismayed at McCain's statements and that the ministry is preparing an official response.
McCain expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... s during a news conference in Cairo earlier on Monday over the country's political process, saying the US "cannot support Egypt that is not moving to a democracy."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013
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#1
His mind's on vacation but his mouth is working overtime.
/channeling Mose Allison
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/09/2013 13:26
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#2
His clumsy statements are unacceptable in form and substance,"
The problem with the US is that this phrase is appropriate for virtually all our politicians and gov't officials. (not to mention celebrities of all shapes and sizes)
A man thought to be the leader of the Islamic insurgency in the regions of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia has been killed by security forces.
Authorities in Kabardino-Balkaria told reporters on August 7 that Khasanbi Fakov, his wife Irina Ortanova, and two of their associates were killed in a shoot-out in the republic's capital, Nalchik. Both Fakov and Ortanova were wanted for terrorist activities. One policeman was injured during the special operation and later died in the hospital.
From TFA:
So Monday she sold the paper -- gave it and a handful of other properties away, really -- to Jeff Bezos for $250 million cash money. Not to Amazon, which Bezos founded in his garage and turned into a marketing and publishing powerhouse, but to Bezos himself, personally. I guess the One Percent really is the personification of all evil and inequality in this country -- until it comes time for one of them to bail out a liberal institution.
Anyway, talk about instantly disposable fishwrap. The liberal fantasy world, media division, that the Times and the Post both inhabit and limn: "media-politico-Hollywood love fest," check; socialite, check; power dinner, check; airy Craftsman home, check; single mother of three, check; lawyer, check; Harvard and Stanford degrees, check; cameo appearances by Vernon Jordan and Lally Weymouth, check; obligatory reference to the Hamptons, check -- has come crashing down. With the fire sale of the Boston Globe and some other media properties by the Times, the euthanizing of Newsweek, and now the sudden heave-ho given to the flagship enterprise of the Washington Post Co., the old order indeed passeth. The new order being: Do you want fries with that?
#1
"With the fire sale of the Boston Globe and some other media properties by the Times, the euthanizing of Newsweek, and now the sudden heave-ho given to the flagship enterprise of the Washington Post Co., the old order indeed passeth".
[Dawn] A prominent elder of Haleemzai tribe was injured in a roadside blast in Mohmand Agency ... 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 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... on Wednesday morning, officials said.
They said that Malik Aurangzeb was on going from his home to Ghalanai on foot when he was targeted with a remote-controlled bomb. He was injured in the blast, they added.
The injured tribal elder was shifted to Leady Reading Hospital in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. for treatment. The security forces launched a search operation in the area after the incident and enjugged Please don't kill me! scores of rustics.
In Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... , a pro-government tribal elder and close relative of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... governor escaped unhurt when a remote-controlled bomb went kaboom! near his car in Neeiage area on Tuesday evening.
Officials said that Malik Dawood Khan along with his son and gunman was going in a car from Khar to his village Neeiage when a remote-controlled bomb went off near his car. He narrowly escaped the attack.
People of the area, members of peace committees and Bajaur Levies rushed the spot soon after the incident and launched a search operation but the saboteurs managed to escape. Malik Dawood, 44, is a close relative of Governor Eng Shaukatullah Khan. He has survived several attacks by Death Eaters in the past.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hoedown, the fiddler suddenly struck a sour note. The dancing stopped abruptly. Everyone looked at Bob... security forces and Bajaur Levies arrested several suspected persons in different areas of Khar during a search operation on Wednesday.
An official said that the search operation was conducted in the areas after receiving information from members of village defence committee about presence of suspected persons.
In Mansehra ...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south... , police seized three improvised bombs (IEDs) and other material, which could be used in carrying out an act of terrorism in the district.
The residents of Hafiz Bandi village informed police that someone had placed two bags full of explosives and other material at the roadside.
A police party along with bomb disposal squad reached the spot and defused two hand grenades and seized the explosives and other material.
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[Ynet] Temporary closure of southernmost city's airport most likely linked to smuggling of shoulder-launched missiles into Sinai
The temporary closure of Eilat's airport on Thursday apparently stemmed from a terror threat emanating from Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
It is safe to assume that the warning related to the possibility that forces of Evil belonging to one of the Islamist groups operating in Sinai will fire shoulder-launched missiles at airplanes. Some of these forces of Evil are directly linked to al-Qaeda , but most belong to Bedouin Salafist groups whose members are Egyptian citizens who live in Sinai.
These groups have received large amounts of weapons from Iran and Libya over the past two years, mainly with the purpose of transferring the arms to Gazoo through the Philadelphi Route's underground tunnels. Some of the weapons remained in Sinai, hidden, and are used by Islamist groups, mainly Ansar Bayt al-Maqdes (Supporters of Jerusalem), to carry out terror attacks against the Egyptian authorities and military, as well as against Israel.
Among the weapons smuggled from Libya into Sinai are old Russian-made SA7 "Strela" anti-aircraft missiles. Most likely, the Islamists in Sinai also received more advanced models of the missiles -- SA18 and SA16. One of these more advanced missiles was fired two years ago at an Israeli helicopter during the terror attack in the Ein Netafim area -- carried out by a Salafist group based in Sinai.
Planes en route to Eilat's airport arrive from the south and are in the range of shoulder-launched missiles, if they are fired from Sinai. The mountainous terrain would make it very difficult to detect anyone trying to fire missiles at Eilat-bound aircraft.
It is very possible that Israeli intelligence agencies obtained information regarding a plan to open fire on Eilat-bound civilian aircraft and therefore ordered the temporary closure of the southernmost city's airport. It is safe to assume that such an attack, if it was in fact in the works, would not be directly linked to the warning that led to the closure of American embassies in the Middle East.
The jihadist and Salafist Bedouins in Sinai are currently engaged in a violent confrontation with Egyptian security forces trying to rein in the terrorists. The Egyptian forces have caused heavy casualties among these groups, which are looking to further deteriorate the relations between Cairo and Jerusalem, this in addition to their continued attempts to kill Israelis and disrupt daily life and the economy in Israel. In this case, they are trying to hurt tourism in Eilat. In light of this, Israel plans to have all Eilat-bound planes land at the airport in Ovda, located dozens of kilometers to the north. Plans for the long term include closing the airport in Eilat and building a new one north of the city, in the Arava. The order to shut down the airport in Eilat was most likely based on credible intelligence.
HT: Aos
"As is made clear by everything from campaign donations to the IRS jihad, the bureaucracy is the Left, and the Left is the bureaucracy. Elections will be held, politicians will come and go, but if you expand the power of the bureaucracy, you expand the power of the Left, of the managers and minions who share Barack Obama's view of the world. Barack Obama isn't the leader of the free world; he's the front man for the permanent bureaucracy, the smiley-face mask hiding the pitiless yawning maw of total politics.
#2
He is a man with a first-class education and a business-class mind, a sort of inverse autodidact whose intellectual pedigree is an order of magnitude more impressive than his intellect.
Fits right in there with the elitist eastern establishment describe in the WaPo article above.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/09/2013 9:28
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[Al Ahram] Satellite images suggest North Korea may have doubled uranium enrichment capacity at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, a US think-tank that tracks North Korea's nuclear weapons programme said Thursday
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said the images showed the building housing the gas centrifuge plant at Yongbyon had been expanded to twice its original size over the past four months.
When North Korea revealed the existence of the facility to visiting scientists in 2010 it contained 2,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium.
Assuming that the recent expansion would allow the doubling of that number to 4,000 centrifuges, the facility could produce as much as 68 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium a year -- enough for three nuclear bombs with a little left over, ISIS said in a report.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013
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#1
Are they consuming the nation's total electrical capacity to refine their Uranium? How fast can the peasants pedal their bicycle-powered generators?
Philippine troops battled Abu Sayyaf gunmen in a clash on Thursday that killed 7 militants and left one soldier dead in Basilan province on Mindanao.
Colonel Carlito Galvez said seven Abu Sayyaf gunmen and a soldier were slain in fierce firefights in the town of Al Barka. The fighting also left three soldiers injured. He said they stormed the area after intelligence units confirmed the presence of terrorists in the village of Macalang.
Galvez said troops raided an Abu Sayyaf encampment and clashed with the group's leaders - Nurhassan Jamiri, Isnilon Hapilon, Puruji Indama and Khair Mundos - who have links with Indonesian rebel Jemaah Islamiya. He said troops recovered improvised explosives assembled from mortar bombs in the encampment.
Galvez said the Abu Sayyaf leaders are hiding in areas where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is operating and using them as a shield from pursuing soldiers. Abu Sayyaf militants also attacked an MILF camp in Al Barka town in an effort to drag them into the fighting.
Posted by: ryuge ||
08/09/2013
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[MAGHAREBIA] Jebel Chaambi in Kasserine province is no longer the only theatre of operations.
Residents of the Tunis suburb of Ouardia were awakened Sunday (August 4th) at dawn by the arrival of security units there to arrest six terror suspects.
One was killed, another was maimed and the rest surrendered. The maimed suspect had been a doctor before he joined the terrorist group, while one of those tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! was a former police agent who resigned in 1998. He was involved in the Solimane terrorism case. He is also a suspect in Chokri Belaid's liquidation.
"The security agencies and competent authorities are proceeding with their crackdown on the bully boyz to dismantle and eliminate them once and for all," Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said on Sunday.
He also demanded that bully boyz turn themselves and weapons in, telling them, "You will have no future in this world or in the afterlife."
A day earlier, the coastal city of Sousse witnessed confrontations between security elements and a terrorist group fortified in a flat.
The festivities ended with the arrest of two bully boyz while a third, believed to be involved in the liquidation of politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, managed to escape.
There are about 50 terrorist cells in Tunisia, according to Attounissia, "including active cells and other sleeper cells. The number of members of such cells is about 600, mostly radical elements."
Some of the bully boyz tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! by security forces might belong to the Oqba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, which seeks to join al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou said on Saturday.
There have been several scenes of blasts, arrests, and explosives found around the country in the last few days.
On Monday, the National Guard arrested a salafist allegedly involved in the attack on the US embassy in Tunis, Tunisie Numerique reported Monday.
Furthermore, there is information indicating that government officials are threatened with liquidation, Ben Jeddou told Mosaique FM last Tuesday.
"I'm personally threatened by Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... 's leader in Tunisia Abou Iyadh, and we have a list of people threatened with liquidation, including intellectuals and journalists," he said.
On her blog, researcher Olfa Youssef commented on the death threats against her: "There have been many warnings recently urging me to be cautious," she wrote. "These are perhaps the advantages of simple spiritual faith, to always remember what God Almighty said, 'And if Allah should afflict you with harm, then there is none to remove it but He; and if He intends good to you, there is none to repel His grace'."
"I will continue to resist the exploiters of religion until the last drop of my blood and ink," she added.
Nessma TV political analyst Sofiene Ben Hmida was provided with tight security protection like his colleague Sofiene Ben Farhat and blogger Lina Ben Mhenni.
"Death threats haven't changed any of my positions," Ben Hmida told Magharebia. "I'm proceeding with my work as usual, but my life style has changed because of the security protection I'm now receiving."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013
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A state in Australian has put forward a new law which would require Muslim women to remove their burkas to prove their identity to the police. The new law was introduced in Western Australia following public outcry over a case of burka-wearing woman Carnita Matthews, who had a conviction of knowingly making a false statement quashed.
Matthews received a six-month jail sentence after she was found guilty of falsely accusing a senior constable of forcibly trying to remove her burka when she was pulled over while driving in June 2010. However, she was later acquitted on appeal after the prosecution could not prove she was the woman who signed the statement while wearing the burka.
The bill will require "a person remove headwear or do other things to facilitate the officer being able to confirm a person's identity". In addition, officers will also get explicit powers to detain a person while they comply.
#1
I've stopped watching the local news on TV, but it doesn't seem to have had much publicity here. Burkas are rare here in Perth. I've only seen a couple.
#2
Girl I'm sure I caught you red handed,
lying through the burlap pouch.
You told me what was you was you,
Though you looked like a dorm room couch.
Thought I saw you in the curtains
Wasn't me
Weren't hiding in the bedsheets
Wasn't me
Crawled underneath the floor rug
Wasn't me
Curled up in the deep shag
Wasn't me
Quick jaunt in a girl bag
Wasn't me
[Al Ahram] EU's Bernardino León is the latest diplomat to leave Egypt as the presidency on Wednesday declared negotiations over the Egypt crisis a failure
Posted by: Fred ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian Foreign Minister Othman Jarandi wrapped up his two-day visit to Algeria on Wednesday (August 7th) with agreements to enhance security co-ordination.
The move came after a spate of attacks in Tunisia's Jebel Chaambi region tied to al-Qaeda-linked militants, just across the border from Algeria.
Algeria and Tunisia stressed the need to expand such co-ordination to include Libya and the Maghreb as a whole by establishing strategies to confront the scourge of transnational terrorism.
The two sides also agreed to update operational procedures and enhance intelligence co-ordination.
In a joint press conference with his Tunisian counterpart, Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said the security co-operation between the two countries was "not just a hope for the future, but a reality".
Medelci spoke about red lines that Algeria would not cross, namely military intervention on Tunisian soil. He also confirmed that Algeria was concerned with what is happening in Tunisia, but said the Tunisian government retains full responsibility for ensuring the country's security.
Meanwhile, Medelci stressed the need to involve Libya in the security equation, adding that he discussed Libya's contribution in talks with his Tunisian counterpart and stressed the importance of trilateral cooperation to face challenges in the region.
For his part, Jarandi confirmed that Tunisia needed Algeria's counter-terrorism expertise.
"The Algerian experience is of interest to us, and there is consultation between the security agencies in the two countries," he said.
He added that co-ordination has existed for a while and was not just the result of recent events. But he admitted to the difficulty of controlling Tunisia's southern border to monitor arms smuggling, noting that it would require huge capabilities.
The Tunisian official confirmed that his country was determined to preserve its relations with Algeria, which he said "some people want to undermine". He noted that the security situation in Tunisia forces the two countries to work together to confront terrorism.
With regards to bringing in Libya on the security co-operation, Medelci pointed to last January's tripartite meeting in Ghadames. The top Algerian diplomat also talked about a Maghreb plan approved one year ago on security co-ordination "in its broad sense".
The Tunisian foreign minister arrived in Algiers on Tuesday heading up a senior delegation. He was received the following day by Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, and the two sides evaluated bilateral relations in many fields, a government statement said. While highlighting the special, historical relations between the two peoples, Sellal expressed Algeria's willingness to make every possible effort to further enhance co-operation between the two brotherly countries.
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[CNN] Two young British women were injured in an acid attack carried out by two men on a motorcycle on the east African island of Zanzibar, local police said Thursday. Five-to-one it's a Pak or a Bangla.
The women, who were attacked in Stone Town, the island's historic center, had been working as volunteer teachers on the island, travel firm i-to-i Travel said.
Stone Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site popular with tourists.
The Zanzibar government and a spokesman for the women's families identified the victims as Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup, both 18.
The attack occurred Wednesday night as the women were walking unaccompanied along a street, said police Cmdr. Muccadam Khamis. The attackers, who did not take anything from their victims, left the scene on the motorbike, he said. Three-to-one. Another sad case of the cycle of violence...
Eyewitnesses said the acid was splashed on the women's faces, chests and hands. Just like back home in Olde Karachi...
The government condemned the attack and vowed to find the perpetrators.
"The event is a great tragedy, and an attack of this nature against a foreign citizen, has never happened here before," the Zanzibar government said in a statement.
"The government is appealing to the general public to assist in the arrest of the offenders and is offering a reward of 10 million shillings (about $6,000) to anyone providing information leading to an arrest," the statement continued.
The government also said it would regulate the purchase of acid and other related products, and warned that such attacks could seriously damage the island's tourism industry, one of its main sources of funds. Police patrols will be stepped up in major tourist spots, officials promised.
The women were given first aid treatment at a local medical center before British consular officials helped them reach a hospital in the city of Dar es Salaam, on the Tanzanian mainland, Khamis said.
The UK Foreign Office is providing consular assistance and is in contact with the Tanzanian authorities, a spokesman said.
The women, who were in the final week of their trip when they were attacked, have been discharged from the hospital in Dar es Salaam, i-to-i Travel said in a statement.
"The motive for the incident is as yet not known ...they know but they can't say...
and we will await the report from the local authorities in Zanzibar before any comment can be made," a company statement said.
"The safety of our customers is of paramount importance to us and our own investigation will be launched as soon as it is possible to do so."
Gee and Trup, both from London, are expected to fly out from Zanzibar on Thursday evening bound for the United Kingdom, the agency said.
The women's families asked for privacy until they're reunited with their daughters.
"Both families are extremely upset and distressed about this completely unprovoked attack on their lovely daughters who had only gone to Zanzibar with good intention," relatives said in a joint statement.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but it comes against a backdrop of rising extremist Islamist sentiment in the area.
Last month, Tanzanian media reported that a businessman of Arab origin who had built a mall close to the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam was also injured in an acid attack. He is believed to be in South Africa for treatment.
According to the Jerusalem Post, they are two nice Jewish-English girls from Manchester, active in a Zionist youth organization and with a family tradition of charity work. The Jerusalem Post adds:
A friend of Trup's, Oli Cohen, 21, told the Jewish Chronicle, "Katie was attacked two weeks ago by a Muslim woman for singing on Ramadan. She was shocked as it just came from out of the blue - but she wasn't scared enough to come home she stayed out there to finish her trip and volunteering.”
The police, however, described the attack as "an isolated incident", refusing to link it to rising religious tension on the island between majority Muslims and its Christian population.
The Britons were expected to fly home on Thursday.
The attack came during the tourist season in the historic town and after a Zanzibar Muslim leader, Sheikh Fadhil Suleiman Soraga, was hospitalised with acid burns in a November attack.
Two Christian leaders were killed early this year in separate attacks.
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Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/09/2013 10:03
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#3
The police described the attack as "an isolated incident", refusing to link it to rising religious tension on the island between majority Muslims and its Christian population.
I have never been to Zanzibar. Do they have Bayesian Probability there?
The men who attacked Katie Gee and Kristie Trup with acid in Zanzibar were part of a radical Islamic group that wants to impose stricter Muslim laws on the Indian Ocean island.
Five men have been arrested by police in relation to the attack - two men threw acid in Gee and Trup's faces before speeding off on a moped.
Religious leaders cited by the Telegraph say the men were followers of Uamsho, which wants Zanzibar to become independent of Tanzania and to impose stronger sharia laws.
The men were taken in for questioning late yesterday and early this morning in Stone Town, the old part of Zanzibar city where the attack took place. Three of the men arrested have been released, while two have been detained by police.
One of the men being questioned was the shopkeeper who is reported to have had an argument with the women while they shopped for groceries a few days ago.
#6
I think what Grom is trying to say is that after the attack after the singing, they should have high-tailed it out of there.
I think that's a little harsh, though they should have been armed. From the article is seems this is a more recent turn of events in the area, and being foreign it's possible they were insulated from most of the local-politics. Tourist money and all that being important I'm sure.
Now if they were teaching in Pakistan, or any 'stan for that matter, then they'd have to be idiots not to know the risk. Though considering some teachers I've had the pleasure of being acquainted it's a distinct possibility.
Posted by: Charles ||
08/09/2013 12:59
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#7
Zanzibar is off the bucket list. Novaya Zemla is next.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/09/2013 13:01
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#8
No Charles, I object to charity for Third World. My objections are squared when the suckers are Jewish.
#9
Introduce the perps private parts to generous dousing of acid.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
08/09/2013 19:56
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#10
Islamists reminding non-Muslims who rules or makes the rules.
"THE FIVE'S" BOB BECKEL WAS DEMANDING THAT RADICAL MULLAHS-CLERICS PUBLICLY COME OUT AGZ THESE KINDS OF MUSLIM-LED ATTACKS AGZ NON-MUSLIMS, OTHERWISE THEY WILL PROVE THAT THEY ARE NOT BE DESERVING OF ANY KIND OF US OR WESTERN SUPPORT OR SYMPATHY.
[Al Ahram] The Salafist Nour Party took a bold step in supporting the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi, standing against fellow Islamists the Muslim Brotherhood. Why?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013
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#3
(a) Their Saudi paymasters told them to.
(b) Brothers tried to hog all the loot.
(c) Brotherhood is too moderate.
(d) They're Arab: backstabbing allies, before they can back stab you, is the national sport.
[An Nahar] The Lebanese army on Thursday placed in durance vile Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! three gunnies who were trying to infiltrate the Bekaa border town of Arsal and found weapons and a "boom jacket" in their possession.
"As part of the mission of controlling the land borders, army troops arrested three gunnies who were trying to infiltrate the Arsal area this afternoon," an Army Command statement said.
"Two of them are Paleostinian nationals, one carrying a European passport, and the third is a Syrian," the statement added.
"In addition to personal firearms, an armed boom jacket and a number of hand grenades and fuses were found in their possession," the statement said, adding that the gunnies and the seized arms were referred to the relevant authorities and that an investigation got underway.
On July 14, the army arrested a number of individuals for transporting weapons in Arsal.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] A bomb planted in an Afghan graveyard killed 14 women and kiddies on Thursday, many of them present at the graveside of a family member during the Mohammedan Eid al-Fitr holiday, officials said.
The bomb went kaboom! in a rural district of 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, said the provincial governor's front man, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.
Nangarhar and its capital, Jalalabad, have been racked by a series of bombings and suicide kabooms over the last week.
It is common in Afghanistan on the first day of Eid for people to pay their respects at the graves of loved ones. The victims were mainly from one family, Abdulzai said.
Three women and one child were maimed, he added.
Three Afghan bodyguards for the Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province police chief, Mohammad Hakim Angaar, were killed on Wednesday in a suicide kaboom, the provincial governor's front man, Omar Zwak, said.
In June, a jacket wallah rammed a boom-mobile into the former Helmand police chief's convoy, wounding three.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013
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From TFA:
The reaction of Post staffers to the stunning news that the Graham dynasty has gone the way of the Habsburgs and Romanovs, not to mention the Shah family of Nepal,
Goodness. Somebody is taking themselves a good deal too seriously.
is a good example of how American "journalists" destroyed their own business. Ruth Marcus, with exquisite lack of self-awareness, pens a paean to her own grief at the fall of the monarchy: How great were the Grahams? Why, Ruth's book group selected Mrs Graham's autobiography to read, and Ruth summoned up the courage to ask Mrs Graham if she'd kindly consider the possibility of deigning to grace them with her presence while they discussed how marvelous her book was, and Mrs Graham's assistant called back to say that that week didn't work, but she could do the following week! Amazing!
Through good times and bad, and it has mattered most in the bad times, the Graham family has understood itself as having been entrusted with the care of a special institution.
That's the problem right there. A newspaper is not an "institution," and its proprietors are not curators. It exists in the present tense, reborn every dawn. A good example of the ossification that occurs when you think of yourself as Ruth Marcus does is her opening paragraph.
#2
How long will the aristocracy last before the peasants rise?
We've been doing that right here at Rantburg since 9/12/2001, AlanC. The bloggers, agglomerators like Drudge Report, and professionals like The Blaze and PJ Media are the new media outlets who are replacing the traditional outlets like The Washington Post, et al.
#3
Sorry TW. I've been a 'burger for almost that long, not to mention a 'punditeer and an EU Ref dude.
We the peasants are muttering but I haven't seen much rising. The treatment of Palin et al by the aristocracy, whether Rino, Demo or bureaucrat, has not yet been effected.
I just hope I live long enough, I'm keeping my pitchfork sharp, just in case.
#8
"You mean there is no limit beyond which they won't go?"
Well, duh.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/09/2013 13:33
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#9
You mean there is no limit beyond which they won't go?
By any means necessary, the end justifies the means. Never forget this. We have to stop playing by the rules they make for us. We need to be ruthless and determined.
Posted by: Eohippus Scourge of the Platypi2917 ||
08/09/2013 14:18
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#10
You mean there is no limit beyond which they won't go?
The problem with this bon mot when applied to these vermin is that the implication that they object to the means.
These vile things (can't think of a real animal low enough) revel in the most gruesome, ghastly and perverted means of achieving their ends.
[BOSTON] Two former UMass-Dartmouth students with ties to Boston Marathon terror bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were indicted today on obstruction of justice charges for allegedly trying to impede the Boston Marathon terror bombing investigation.
Kazakhstan nationals Dias Kadyrbayev, 19, and Azamat Tazhayakov, 19, are accused of helping to get rid of incriminating evidence that Tsarnaev left behind in his college dorm room on April 18, three days after the terror bombing killed three and maimed 260 in Boston.
The two face charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. They are to be arraigned at 2 p.m. Tuesday in US District Court in Boston.
According to US Attorney Carmen Ortiz's office, the two acted after Tsarnaev sent them a text message telling them they could go to his dorm room and "take what's there.'' The indictment, unsealed today, includes the text of the message Tsarnaev sent.
"If yu [sic] want yu [sic] can go to my room and take what's there but ight [sic] bra [sic] Salam aleikum,'' Tsarnaev texted to his friends.
The two students allegedly collected Tsarnaev's laptop, fireworks, and a backpack and took them to their apartment in New Bedford.
Later that night Kadyrbayev, with what prosecutors called Tazhayakov's "knowledge and agreement,'' put the items in a garbage bag and put them in a dumpster at the apartment. They were later recovered by law enforcement after several days of searching a New Bedford dump.
The two were already in jug, facing a May 1 criminal complaint charging them only with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian forces captured a "dangerous" terror suspect in the Kef region, Tunisie Numerique reported on Wednesday (August 7th). The unidentified man, said to belong to the al-Qaeda's Okba Ibn Nafaa brigade, was apprehended in his Tajerouine home late Tuesday. His son was also arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] A suicide kaboom at the funeral of a slain police officer in Quetta killed 30 people on Thursday, including at least 21 coppers, said 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... police chief Mushtaq Sukhera.
"So far we can confirm 21 police personnel, including senior police officials, have been killed. Nine other victims are yet to be identified," Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhera told a presser. "I can confirm 40 people have been injured."
Sukhera confirmed the attack was carried out by a jacket wallah. "The corpse count may rise because the condition of most of the injured is critical," he said.
According to reports, the suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside the mosque in Quetta's Police Lines area where the funeral procession of station house officer Mohibullah was being held. The bomb went off as senior officers prepared to offer prayers for their colleague.
The injured were shifted to the Civil Hospital and the Combined Military Hospital.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Police Operations Fayyaz Sumbal, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Headquarters Shamsuddin and Superintendent Ali Mehr were among the senior police officials killed in the bombing.
Sukhera said among the bigwigs killed were one DIG and three DSPs. "Our brave officers embraced martyrdom but we will continue sacrificing our lives for the security of our motherland," he said.
The blast was the second targeted attack on Thursday on police personnel in the thriving provincial capital, which has been under high security the entire day. SHO Mohibullah was rubbed out by unknown gunnies earlier this morning when he was reportedly taking his family for Eid shopping.
Eyewitnesses said fear and chaos spread among the people attending the funeral following the blast. TV channels broadcast live footage from inside the mosque of frightened mourners scrambling for cover as they heard the loud kaboom.
"All my colleagues are gone. The DSP, SP, DIG... they're all gone," said one emotional eyewitness reduced to tears.
Some described the horror after the kaboom. "I was inside the mosque and we were lining up for the funeral prayers when a big blast took place. I came out and saw injured and dead bodies," policeman Mohammad Hafiz told news hounds. "I have no words to explain what I've seen. It was horrible."
Shahidullah Shahid, a front man for Pakistain's umbrella Tehrik-e-Taliban faction, grabbed credit.
"We did it and soon you see another big attack in the next coming days," he said.
"We are at war with police and other security agencies. They are attacking us and we are targeting them," Shahid said.
"Anywhere and whenever we get the chance, we will target security forces, government officials and police," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Zawahiri
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The agreement has largely held and was considered as one of the main successes in the 
[Al Ahram] At least 4,420 people were killed in Syria violence during the 
President Asif Ali 
[LATIMES] Santa Ana has hired away Phoenix's city manager and has agreed to an annual salary and benefits package of more than half a million dollars, instantly making him one of the highest paid city employees in California.
John 
A man thought to be the leader of the Islamic insurgency in the regions of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia has been killed by security forces.
Mohmand Agency
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south...
North Korea
Philippine troops battled Abu Sayyaf gunmen in a clash on Thursday that killed 7 militants and left one soldier dead in Basilan province on Mindanao. 
A state in Australian has put forward a new law which would require Muslim women to remove their burkas to prove their identity to the police. The new law was introduced in Western Australia following public outcry over a case of burka-wearing woman Carnita Matthews, who had a conviction of knowingly making a false statement quashed. 
[BOSTON] Two former UMass-Dartmouth students with ties to Boston Marathon terror bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were indicted today on obstruction of justice charges for allegedly trying to impede the Boston Marathon terror bombing investigation.
