According to military sources, the test demonstrated that since delaying his planned strike on Syria last Saturday, President Barack Obama has revised his plans and instead of "a narrow, limited" attack is contemplating a broader offensive for degrading the Assad regime. The arrival of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Red Sea is further evidence of this intention.
The missile trial also indicates an updated US-Israeli consensus that Iran, Syrian and Hizballah mean business by the mounting level of the threats to fire missiles at Israel, Jordan and Turkey if the Americans go through with their strike against Syria. Such retaliation cold lead to the Syrian conflict expanding substantially into a regional war, which Moscow, Tehran and Damascus have in the last 48 hours admitted was virtually unavoidable.
Israel has been using the Ankor as the target missile for its own and US tests of their Arrow-2 .Washington has made no mention of the joint test. It is therefore not known whether American missiles took part in the test. Neither was there any word about whether the test was successful.
#1
'Twas on the TV News earlier this week, about how the kind of authorization POTUS Bammer was asking the Congress to approve is so broad or subjective as be inclusive of launching milstrike(s) agz Baby Assad himself, not just agz his ChemWar arsenal???
h/t Donald Sensing
The two leading members of the House of Representatives - Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor - will support President Barack Obama and his call for military strikes on Syria.
#2
Then the weeping wonder and Cantor own it! We are so fok'd with these people. They just can't stand it unless we're in the kak in some Godforsaken place. Absolute insanity.
#4
I'm with you Snowy. Let's do it right! Everyone of the bastids that votes 'yes' should go in on the first assault wave. Skinny legs can raise a five iron and direct them to the objective. Have at it and show us how she's done!
#5
To me this ain't a question of "is this action a good idea or not," it's a question of "are these people trustworthy or not?"
Jawn Friendly Kerry had enough blood on his hands and human flesh in his bank account _BEFORE_ he met with and talked about how nice Bashir Assad was when he was helping "the resistance" kill Iraqi civilians and American soldiers.
I think large numbers of people are going to die because these idjits are too retarded and chickenshit to stand up and say that the current executive branch can't be trusted.
#6
The only reason we have put on this Chinese Finger Trap is because Cmdr. Zero had to shoot his mouth off about red lines.
Many in D.C. are now in a lather doing all they can to rally around someone clearly out of his league in order to preserve American "seriousness." Along the way, we get to listen to (1) All manner of hoary justifications like they just happened last month; and (2) The "Moral Justification."
Such is the downside in electing a weak person for President....
#7
With a carrier battle group steaming toward the med, appears he [Champ] is going to attack with, or without the congress. So, as R. Paul says, congressional debate is little more than a convenient sham, or a delaying tactic. Boehner needs REPLACING NOW! He's already declared, and congressional debate has just begun. Give me a fok'n break.
#8
Heard a former CIA guy today, sum it up: "Russia is backing Syria.... Putin is a professional, just check his resume... Obama is an amateur" as stated by good Doc Krauthammer.
#11
Just ask Democratic Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes...she said Democratics are going to vote with the President because they don't want him to be humiliated on the national stage and out of party loyalty. wow.
As I pointed out in a 2010 post at First Things, reproduced after the page break, at last count there were fewer than 2,500 Americans studying Arabic at advanced university courses (not counting, of course, the internal training of the U.S. military). Fewer than 250 were studying Farsi. The total pool of truly competent Arab speakers coming out of American universities per year probably is in the low hundreds. How many of these can U.S. intelligence agencies recruit? If we can't recruit translators among Americans whose background is verifiable, we rely on first- and second-generation immigrants from Arab countries whose background is not verifiable. We should assume that our intelligence services are riddled with hostiles. We are Gulliver tied down by Lilliputians.
It must also be remembered that after 9/11 immigrant and 1st generation American Jews from those countries volunteered in swarms. They were turned away because the Muslim translators refused to work if the Juices were hired.
[Ynet] US President Barack Obama Why can't I just eat my waffle?... indicated in a meeting with Republican senators that a covert effort by the United States to arm and train Syrian rebels was beginning to yield results: the first 50-man cell of fighters, who have been trained by the CIA, was beginning to sneak into Syria, the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported.
So the CIA can't help but boast about training Syrian rebels. How far they've fallen from the days of Casey and Angelton...
According to the report, senators John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... and Lindsay Graham have decided to endorse a strike in Syria following the meeting.
#1
Klingons pulled out of Afghanistan and Benghazi, now at work again in Jordon and Turkey? How long do we wait until we see a few of these desperate lads captured and marched before Al Jazeera cameras? No "boots on the ground" of course.
#2
I thought they were talking about training indigenous personnel, who would swallow their cyanide molar before saying who trained them.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/03/2013 11:27
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So it's OK for the CIA to train rebels to make war against Assad...But if Assad gasses a few of these rebels it's NOT OK. I get it. But then, it was OK for Saddam to gas Iranians. Hmmmm. Now I'm confused.
The Jerusalem Post has the US/Jordanian trained rebels moving into Syria around August 17. Debka places the activity about the same time, with the rebel forces engaging in immediate operations and the sarin attack as a result.
Two weeks isn't much of a deviation, considering the Syrian war's been going on over two years and intel is spotty from there.
#13
Well, it's a good bet obooboo is "spotting" while he waits to see if congress will make him look even worse in this mess than he does right now...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/03/2013 17:07
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#14
The Palin Doctrine
On U.S. military intervention in Syria's civil war, where "both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line 'Allahu akbar' ... I say let Allah sort it out."
So said Sarah Palin to the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference. And, as is not infrequently the case, she nailed it.
Israel and the U.S. carried out a missile test in the Mediterranean sea on Tuesday, Israel's Defense Ministry said in a statement, amid rising tensions in the region over the crisis in Syria.
The confirmation came after morning reports indicated that Russia had detected two ballistic "objects" launched toward the eastern Mediterranean from the central part of the same and a U.S. denial that its navy had been involved.
So who exactly is being sent a message?
The Arrow III missile defense system was tested with a "sparrow" missile, which simulates a ballistic missile, and is launched from a plane, during the exercise.
The exercise was carried out from an Israel Air Force base in central Israel, the Defense Ministry said in the statement.
The Defense Ministry's statement contradicted those made earlier Tuesday by a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's European headquarters, who said it had not fired any missiles from ships in the Mediterranean. "No missiles were fired from U.S. ships in the Mediterranean," said the spokesman. He had no further comment.
This is not a contradiction of Israel's statement that they dunnit.
The projectiles fell into the sea, a sources in Damascus was quoted as saying by the state-run Russian news agency RIA.
Have them splash down exactly three miles off the coast of Tartus. That'll send a message...
Russia's embassy in Syria said there was no sign of a missile attack or explosions in Damascus, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. A Damascus resident told Haaretz he did not heard anything that might indicate a strike on the capital.
Syria's early warning radar system did not detect any missiles landing on Syrian territory either, according to a Syrian security source quoted by Lebanon's Al-Manar television on Tuesday.
Not that they would since the evil Joooz know how to spoof and shut down Syrian early warning radar...
The Interfax news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying the launch was detected at 10:16 A.M. Moscow time (0616 GMT) by an early warning radar station at Armavir, near the Black Sea, which is designed to detect missiles from Europe and Iran.
The agencies did not say who had carried out the launch and whether any impact had been detected. The ministry declined comment to Reuters.
"The trajectory of these objects goes from the central part of the Mediterranean Sea toward the eastern part of the Mediterranean coast," Interfax quoted the ministry spokesman as saying.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2013
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#1
Testing the Arrow III was it? Any other ground based systems go hot besides the Russians? Coordinates please.
[TheTimes] British military chiefs are being ejected from US meetings about Syria in the first direct consequence of David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... 's refusal to join military action.
The role of senior British officers based at US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, has been downgraded because they cannot be trusted with high-level intelligence about a conflict with which they are no longer involved, military sources say.
About 30 British personnel have been working alongside the Americans and French at the headquarters, fine-tuning a list of targets and orchestrating military assets as part of war planning underway for weeks.
Posted by: Paul D ||
09/03/2013 6:17
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#2
Austin would have NOT made that decision unilaterally. Champ would have had to approve such a measure.
A second grader could have surmised the location of potential Syrian targets for a 2-3 day punitive raid. This is yet another spiteful response from the regime which will produce unwelcomed future dividends.
#3
As I understand it, it wasn't Cameron but the representatives of the people who were not interested in this war. Which is, to use the dumb chant, what democracy looks like.
#4
Residents of Albion aren't the only ones with no interest in another Middle Eastern conflict. It will be interesting to see how our own elected officials vote on this matter.
#6
Certainly a nice 'thank you' for one of our staunchest wartime allies, who contributed a substantial amount of both blood and treasure in our feckless, decade-plus, Afghan cock-up. No mention of Iraq, Korea. Revenge of the Mau Mau! We've at long last retrieved the abjured trophy of perfidiousness.
#7
I'm sure the Brits have reasons for leaving their people at Central Command, but if Cameron really wanted to send a statement he'd bring them home. For 'consultation', of course.
Barack wants to go it alone: let him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2013 10:23
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#8
Hopefully the Poms won't invite us to leave the Joint Analysis Center (JAC) at RAF Molesworth, UK. They're no doubt thinking on it.
#9
My view of the real issue in Syria: Much of the world was so horrified by gas warfare in WW-1 that they wrote and signed treaties against. As time went on more definitive treaties were written and signed. For smaller nations these treaties serve another purpose ... they save them the danger and cost of spending their wealth on a stupid weapon they would never want to use. One of the problems is that these treaties were signed so long ago many of these nations have forgotten what it buys them. Now the USA jumps up and says we need to bomb Syria for using them. The unsaid part of that statement is to keep these treaties from becoming worthless paper.
We can afford to do gas if we want or nukes or whatever so for us folks using gas is just the horror of it. Perhaps we should quit being cops here and convene a meeting of all the treaty signing nations and ask them if they want to collectively protect these treaties or just tear them up!
#10
The bottomline is you have sunni jihadis on one side and Assad regime on the other.Who do u support?
Posted by: Paul D ||
09/03/2013 12:01
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#11
Regardless of non participation in any action we may take, such an affront to our closest ally can only worsen the relationship. Policy and politics are never ever separate for immature amateurs and the nasty alinskyites in the WH are the worst I've ever seen.
#12
We didn't care when Iran/Iraq were tossing chemicals at each other. We didn't care when Iraq dropped chemicals on his own people. Why should we care now? Because our President mispoke? I can't even imagine how the left would have reacted if the Bush folks floated that excuse.
#13
Ruled by a bafoon that puts his feet on the table.
When understanding of respect is lacking, how could anyone feel hurt when added to his 'not invited to the party' list.
#1
Well, at least it's a precedent in the West for those who sit and work in government that some day some one will come for you if you do despicable things because you were 'just obeying orders'.
#2
Quite correct P2k, but I've never been able to come to grips with the senseless extermination of one group of people during war, followed by the [desired] extermination of an aging wartime adversary 50, 60, 70, years following the end of hostilities. Perhaps had a lost a loved one in the holocaust or to war crimes, my bias might provoke a different view.
[Buzzfeed] Following his cancellation of a bilateral meeting with President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Barack Obama may infuriate the Kremlin further by meeting Russian human rights activists, including LGBT rights groups, during his upcoming trip to St Petersburg for the G20 summit. G20, a meaningless gathering highlighted by overpriced hotels, drunkenness, and culinary debauchery.
Four Russian non-governmental organizations told BuzzFeed Monday they had been invited to the meeting, scheduled for this Thursday at St. Petersburg's Crowne Plaza Hotel. The groups include veteran human rights activists Lev Ponomarev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, legal aid NGO director Pavel Chikov, and Coming Out, a St. Petersburg-based LGBT organization. Another local LGBT group, the LGBT Network, is believed to be attending, though director Igor Kochetkov declined to comment to BuzzFeed, saying that he had been "asked not to say anything." If they're smart, they'll decline the invite.... and live.
Election monitoring group Golos is also believed to have been invited, though BuzzFeed could not reach its director or deputy director to confirm. Russia's justice ministry forced Golos, which used to receive funding from USAID, to disband this summer under a law on "foreign agents" that many believed was created specifically to target the group. USAID, very effective in Iraq and Afghanistan, just LOOK!
Obama's trip to Russia for a summit of the Group of 20 industrialized nations comes amid a deep rift between the US and Russia, not least over the countries' competing stances on Syria. Obama was due to hold a one-on-one meeting with Putin in Moscow before heading to the summit, but abruptly called that off last month in the wake of deteriorating relations and Russia's sheltering of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Putin has repeatedly accused members of Russia's civil society as being in the pay of the U.S. State Department. Was that before or after he picked up Snowdenski's Hong Kong hotel bill ?
Thursday's meeting is not unique or unprecedented. Obama met with civil society and opposition activists during his last visit to Russia in 2009. George W. Bush met with NGOs during the G8 summit in 2006. Not his first brush with alternative lifestyles you say ?
It is believed to be the first time Obama has met with members of the Russian LGBT community. Asked about Russia's anti-LGBT law in August, Obama told Jay Leno that he had "no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgender persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them." Champ appearing on the Jay Leno forum for foreign policy again ?
A U.S. Embassy representative did not return several requests for comment. But were seen smiling broadly and holding hands.
[Daily Caller] On Saturday on the Fox News Channel, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton harshly criticized President Champ's handling of the United States involvement in Syria, calling him the weakest president since James Buchanan, Abraham Lincolns predecessor.
This is absolutely stunning, Bolton said. Ive been trying to fill in the blank of the following sentence: Champ is the weakest president since And I have to say, the best I can come up with is James Buchanan who watched the country dissolve into the Civil War. "Stunning" to some perhaps.
Were watching the collapse of American influence in the Middle East and really more broadly. I'm not at all certain we've ever had any real influence in the Middle East.
And I say that as somebody who has been opposed to use of force in Syria. I have to ask if your secretary of state, John Kerry, given the two very strong statements that he has made on this subject since the first indication of the chemical weapons used 10 days ago took place: Are you now thinking of resigning as a matter of principle, having laid out the case, whether you agree or disagree with Kerry, that the United States has to use force here, to see the president take this step. A self admitted failure, Kerry trumps diplomacy with war.
He'll have to be thrown out, he's got the job he always wanted. He's incompitent, and so what, He's protected buy Obama, and good for as long as Obama is good.
(Of course when Obama is out, so's he, But that doesn't count)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/03/2013 10:38
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#2
So is this what Obozo was planning when he said the US needed to be nicer to everyone?
[An Nahar] Hizbullah is redeploying its forces ahead of possible U.S. strikes on Damascus, witnesses said on Monday.
The reports come as the daily Al-Akhbar said that the group had "called on all its officers and members to man their positions."
Residents speaking to Agence La Belle France Presse in the southern city of Tyre said there appeared to be a general mobilization of the group's members, even if such a movement was not being publicly discussed.
Many Hizbullah fighters have disappeared from local villages in the last five days, though strict security measures around group headquarters and checkpoints have remained in place, residents said.
The situation is the same in the Bekaa Valley, a stronghold of Hizbullah.
Residents said fighters, including gunners, had left their regular posts, and switched off their mobile phones to ensure they could not be traced.
Can't cell phones be remotely turned on with the correct protocols?
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, also a Hizbullah bastion, teenagers have replaced more experienced fighters at checkpoints inspecting cars entering the district.
A party front man declined to comment on the reported redeployment of the group's forces.
On Monday, Al-Akhbar also reported that the "Syrian army has mobilized units that have not participated until now in the conflict."
"It has established an operations room... with Hizbullah and the units in charge of missiles are at an unprecedented level of alert," the daily added.
Ah yes, the missiles. Those are the ones Israel presented a detailed map of their location to the UN a few years ago, the ones whose locations have been preprogrammed into the Israel's own missiles, yes? Definitely man those babies, yeah!
"The Islamic resistance has called on all its officers and members to man their positions," the newspaper reported.
The reported mobilization comes after U.S. President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... said he favored the use of military action against Syria in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in the suburbs of Damascus.
But Obama has said he will seek approval from Congress for any strikes in response to the attack, for which the Syrian regime denies responsibility.
Hizbullah is a close ally of the Syrian regime, and has dispatched fighters to battle alongside Syrian troops and against rebels seeking to overthrow Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr...
Wadah Charara, an expert on the party, says it commands around 30,000 fighters, including 10,000 with extensive combat experience.
Granted, most of that combat experience is against other Lebanese, but there it is.
Between 800 and 1,200 Hizbullah fighters are thought to have taken part in the Syrian regime's battle to recapture the town of Qusayr in central Homs province earlier this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2013
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#1
Look like IRAN is NOT far behind, albeit NOT oin the ME ....
* FREEREPUBLIC > [The Blaze] IRAN SECRETLY RECRUITING "INVISIBLE ARMY" OF LATIN AMERICAN CONVERTS [Latino-Hispanic] TO INFILTRATE US, vee the US' "soft underbelly" of the South.
For a map, click here. For a map of Sonora state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
While violence has gone down overall in the Mexican state of Sonora, in some municipalities murders have increased as much as 94 percent, according to Mexican news reports.
A new report posted Monday on the website of El Imparcial news daily said that intentional homicides statewide are down from 2012, going from 338 to 284 between January and July, a reduction of almost 16 percent.
The report came from information provided by the Sonora state Procuraduria General de Justicia de Estado or attorney general's office.
Although the overall rate has gone down, murders in key municipalities have soared, including Cajeme and Hermosillo, while Nogales and Navojoa have registered a modest year over year decline.
Cajeme's intentional homicide rate went to 94 percent with 97 murders in the first half of 2013, with 97 against 50 the same period last year.
Similarly, in Hermosillo, the state capital of Sonora murders have risen 31 percent, going from 48 in 2012 to 63 in 2013.
A total of five individuals have been killed in drug and gang violence in Sonora state.
One man was shot to death and another was wounded in a shooting in Magdalena municipality Sunday. Juceth Montero Ruiz, 27 was shot to death and Iber Montero Ruiz was shot and wounded in Villa Trento colony as they were traveling aboard a Jeep Cherokee SUV near the intersection of Calle Alberto Bello and Carretera Internacional. Armed suspects traveling aboard a GM brand SUV fired on the pair, then apparently fled the scene. Police later found the SUV, which had been hit by small arms fire.
A man was shot to death in Pueblo Yaqui Sunday. Eduardo Castro leyva, 27, was found in Heros de 47 colony wounded with packages of drugs said to be marijuana. A handgun was also found nearby. He later died at a hospital in Ciudad Obregon. News reports say the victim was a known criminal who had served time in prison for carjacking.
A man in his teens was found apparently beaten to death in Pueblo Yaqui. Jorge Alberto Mendivil Ibarra, 19, had been kidnapped last Saturday by armed suspects who forced him into a vehicle before speeding away. The victim was found near the intersection of Calle 500 and Carretera Internacional in Valle del Yaqui. Mendivil Ibarra had a prior criminal problem involving cattle rustling.
A man in his 30s was shot to death while trying to stop a burglary at his home in Esperanza Friday. Mario Alberto Castro Leyva, 30 came home with his wife to find two men leaving his residence on Ampliacion Alameda. When he tried to stop them, one of the men shot Castro Leyva in his chest and then fled aboard a bicycle.
A man was shot and wounded in Caborca municipality Sunday. Daniel Romero Martinez, 38 was shot in the backyard of his residence in San Rafael colony, where several armed suspects dismounted from a Nissan Xterra and shot him using a handgun and a rifle.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. His latest work of non-fiction, The Wounded Eagle: Volume 2 went on sale Sunday at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com.
[Al Ahram] A convoy transporting Turkey's consul general was hit by a bombing between the northern Iraqi cities of djinn-infested Mosul and Arbil on Monday causing no casualties, diplomatic sources said.
The blast, which struck in djinn-infested Mosul, damaged all four vehicles in the convoy as it was en route to the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
It was not immediately clear if the consul was explicitly targeted.
"There were no casualties, no maimed," a Turkish diplomat in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered...
"It's not clear whether they aimed at our convoy or if it was an indiscriminate attack."
The diplomat said that the convoy's cars were damaged.
A front man for the Turkish foreign ministry in Ankara confirmed the attack, and said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had called the consul general for more information.
"It's not yet clear who carried out the attack and against whom," the front man said.
"The investigation is continuing. We have contacted the Iraqi authorities immediately after the incident and asked that the culprits be found out and that the security of our missions be enhanced."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2013
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ISLAMABAD: The office of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Karachi has been closed down after it received threats from an ethnic political party in the city, sources said on Monday.
Since the last eight to nine days the staff members of the BBC instead of working in the office have confined themselves to their houses and are working from there, sources further said. South Karachi DIG Ammer Sheikh has visited the BBC office to look into the matter.
Sources further said the threats may be a reaction to the documentary on MQM chief Altaf Hussain broadcast by the BBC. The documentary sparked an unprecedented response from the MQM which termed it fake and Taliban-sponsored propaganda. Meanwhile, various journalist bodies have expressed their concern over the closure of the BBC office.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Jpost] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, W. Bank branch continues to try to execute terror in Israel.
Had the latest plot not been stopped, a bomb would have torn though the crowded Jerusalem Mamilla Mall during the peak holiday season. Traumatic scenes of blood-soaked mayhem would have returned to the capital.
Although Hamas as an entity is largely based in the Gazoo Strip, and the threat it poses to Israeli civilians is usually measured in terms of its rocket capabilities, the fact remains that its West Bank branch has not stopped trying to pull off an atrocity in Israel.
This tactic allows the regime to craftily continue its jihad against Israel, as it clings to the ceasefire in place since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense last year.
Several past investigations have documented how this tactic has been put into practice.
For example, in March this year, a Paleostinian resident of Ramallah appeared before an Israeli military court and was charged with attempting to set up a terror cell, after being recruited for the mission by Hamas in Gazoo.
The suspect, a 26-year-old attorney, allegedly worked under the instruction of the regime's military wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, and followed directives he received via Facebook and emails to set up a terror cell that would fire rockets and kidnap and kill a soldier.
In the past, some attacks that have been thwarted were linked by security forces to the Gazook interior minister, Fathi Hammad (though he has predictably denied the charges).
There have been at least three known arrests of Hamas terror cells in the West Bank this year, prior to the latest investigation.
They all form part of a broader effort by it to recover its West Bank infrastructure, which was all but destroyed by Israel's counter-terror operations a decade ago.
These incidents raise an unavoidable question: Can a future attack, one that isn't thwarted, have direct repercussions on current relative calm between Israel and Gazoo? To what extent are these two arenas interlinked? So far, these questions have not been put to the test, thanks to the lifesaving efficiency of the Shin Bet.
Arab League foreign ministers on Sunday urged the United Nations and the international community to take deterrent action against the Syrian regime over alleged chemical attacks near Damascus.
At what might those be?
But they fell short of calling for military strikes as proposed by the United States, amid divisions in Arab ranks with several countries opposed to foreign intervention in Syria.
Ah, not those deterrent steps!
The United Nations and the international community are called upon to assume their responsibilities in line with the UN Charter and international law by taking the necessary deterrent measures following the August 21 suspected chemical attacks, they said in a statement.
The ministers, meeting in Cairo, said the Syrian regime was responsible for the attacks which the United States says killed hundreds of people with the use of sarin gas.
The Arab foreign ministers said those responsible for unleashing the poison gas in Syria must be tried before an international court like other war criminals.
They also called for all forms of support needed by the Syrian people but without explicitly calling for military strikes as proposed by the United States and France.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2013
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#1
So why don't the Arabs get off their asses and do something instead of begging for others to do it?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/03/2013 11:09
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#2
Saudis are supposed to have a decent air force -- western bought, western trained, western supplied. Why not let them lob some missiles into Syria?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2013 13:23
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[BREITBART] In what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest private sector unions. The Longshoremen citied Obamacare and immigration reform as two important causes of their disaffiliation.
In an August 29 letter to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, ILWU President Robert McEllrath cited quite a list of grievances as reasons for the dissolution of their affiliation, but prominent among them was the AFL-CIO's support of Obamare.
"We feel the Federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along," McEllrath wrote in the letter to Trumka.
The ILWU President made it clear they are for a single-payer, nationalized healthcare policy and are upset with the AFL-CIO for going along with Obama on the confiscatory tax on their "Cadillac" healthcare plan.
The Longshoreman leader said, "President B.O. ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, you stated that labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits." But, regardless of that promise, the President has pushed for just such a tax and Trumka and the AFL-CIO bowed to political pressure lining up behind Obama's tax on those plans.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
You shall know them by their works.(Or lack thereof)
Screw The corrupt O' Crat AFL-CIO. What movement uses acronyms anyway.
#3
If national Repub's were intelligent (big if, I know), they'd capitalize on this; use Obama's divide & conquer against him, or am I just being too logical?
#4
The ILWU President made it clear they are for a single-payer, nationalized healthcare policy and are upset with the AFL-CIO for going along with Obama on the confiscatory tax on their "Cadillac" healthcare plan.
#6
Took them long enough to wake-up from the "Kool-Aid" treatment, didn't it ? We still have 3 years and two months left of the Big O, wonder what other "union" organizations will wake up in the next few months ?
Posted by: Au Auric ||
09/03/2013 11:58
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#7
Wait until you go from Cadillac version to Chevy Vega version of healthcare before complaining.
#9
These are all beer, cigarette, cheesesteak and baloney sandwich 400 pounders. No health plan, on anybody's dime, can overcome their chosen lifestyle...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/03/2013 18:05
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Moscow - Russian authorities are planning to send a parliamentary delegation to the United States for talks with the Congress over Syria, in a move publicly endorsed on Monday by President Vladimir Putin.
"The initiative is very timely and correct," Putin told speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament Valentina Matviyenko and speaker of the lower house of parliament Sergei Naryshkin.
"Holding direct dialogue with the US parliament on the Syrian problem" will be a significant contribution to Russian-American relations, Putin said.
The carefully choreographed Kremlin meeting comes after US President Champ stunned the world on Saturday by delaying military action against Syria and saying he would seek authorisation from the Congress.
The latest Kremlin initiative appears aimed at persuading the US Congress to vote down Champ's request, although it is unclear what sway the Russian delegates could have over US lawmakers.
"We would like to address the Senate and the Congress," said Matviyenko, noting the delegation would try to travel to the United States before 9 September when US lawmakers return from their summer recess.
Russia has supported the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the two and a half year conflict and has repeatedly blocked any attempts to punish his regime at the UN Security Council.
Champ's regime says Assad's forces used nerve agent sarin to kill more than 1 400 people in a Damascus suburb on 21 August.
#1
I say, bring on the communist mentors and advisors, they'll feel right at home. Probably won't be too well received by the CBC, or the LGBT crowd, but perhaps other Democrats and a few French Republicans will follow the Snowden model, and use this as an opportunity to defect to Mother Russia.
#2
"Holding direct dialogue with the US parliament on the Syrian problem" will be a significant contribution to Russian-American relations, Putin said.
"US parliament"??? He knows better than that. This is blatant disrespect. But then, maybe it's what our politicians deserve.
MOGADISHU -- unidentified assailants killed an immigration department officer in landmine attack in Mogadishu's Shibis district on Sunday evening, Garowe Online reports.
Qasim Hassan Takow was reportedly on his way to home when the remote-detonated bomb targeted his car. Witnesses reported that AMISOM and Somali government forces sealed all nearby roads for security operation shortly after the landmine went off.
As usual, security officials said investigations are underway to identify the perpetrators of such heinous acts.
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[Al Ahram] Nearly 90 rebels were killed near the Syrian capital over the past 48 hours, a watchdog said Monday, as fighting raged ahead of possible foreign military action against the regime.
At least 29 of those killed, among them non-Syrians, died in an army ambush Monday in Adra, northeast of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The group, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers on the ground for its information, said security forces were also among those killed and injured, without giving numbers.
State news agency SANA, meanwhile, said an army unit had killed "mostly" members of the Islamist group Al-Nusra Front, which has many foreign recruits.
Adra, an industrial city 35 kilometres (20 miles) from Damascus, is a key entry point to Eastern Ghouta, an agricultural area where rebels and regime forces have frequently clashed.
Rebel-held Eastern Ghouta was one of the Damascus suburbs targeted in an alleged chemical weapons attack on 21 August that caused worldwide outrage and triggered calls for US-led military retaliation against the regime.
The Observatory said another 46 rebels had died on Sunday around the town of Rouhayba, also northeast of the Syrian capital, in air raids and fighting that came when regime forces retaliated for an attack on army positions.
Another 11 rebels died Sunday in different areas near Damascus, it added.
According to the Observatory, more than 110,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011, including at least 40,146 civilians.
Hundreds were reportedly killed in the alleged poison gas attack on 21 August that some Western and Arab countries have blamed on the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... -- a claim it denies.
US President Barack Obama Because I won... decided on Saturday that he would seek the approval of Congress before launching any military strikes on Syria over the attack.
That pushes back any intervention until next week at the earliest, as politicians only come back from summer recess on September 9.
Syria's UN representative Bashar al-Jaafari has asked the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... to try to "prevent any aggression" against the regime, insisting that his government has "never used chemical weapons."
But Washington says it has proof Syria used sarin gas and La Belle France on Monday was set to provide what it claims is clear evidence that the regime was behind the alleged chemical attack.
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[An Nahar]Three people were charged on Monday with firing rockets from Lebanon against Israel on August 22, reported the National News Agency.
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged Lebanese national Youssef Mohammed al-Fleity and Omar Abdul Mawla al-Atrash and a fugitive with firing the rockets from southern Lebanon against Israel.
The Lebanese suspects were arrested on Saturday and confessed "Owww! I confess! I killed JonBenet! Make him stop!"
to transporting rockets from the Gaza region in the Bekaa to individuals in the southern region of Tyre.
The rockets were since fired from al-Hawsh-Tyre region towards Israel on August 22. Four Katyusha rockets were fired in the incident and Israel's Channel 2 said one landed in the town of Nahariya.
The Israeli army said its Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted one of "three or four rockets fired from south of Tyre." The other rockets did not land in Israeli territory. "Whose territory did they hit?"
"One hit Turkey. Two hit Bulgaria. And one hit Cyprus. The others went in the drink."
The attack prompted Israeli warplanes the next day to strike a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) base in a valley in Naameh that lies 16 kilometers south of Beirut. The strike did not cause any casualties or material damage. The PFLP-GC denied it was involved in the rocket attack.
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#1
The strike did not cause any casualties or material damage.
With the price of fuel, maintenance, tower time and political loss how can a retribution sortee NOT cause damage?
[Dawn] Two persons including a runaway prisoner of D.I. Khan jail were killed in a firing incident in Burghu Adamzai village here on Saturday night.
Police said that Azizullah and Sajjad Ali came across their rivals in a musical concert arranged in connection with the marriage of a villager.
The rivals opened indiscriminate firing on them and killed both of them on the spot, they added.
Police said that the accused managed to escape after committing the crime while local people shifted the bodies to a nearby hospital.
They said that Azizullah had beat feet from D.I. Khan jail on July 29 when Death Eaters attacked the prison to release their jugged You have the right to remain silent... colleagues. He was imprisoned for 25 years in a murder case.
The bodies of both the dear departed were handed over to their relatives for burial after postmortem, police said.
Paperwork was started but nothing else was done against the alleged killers including Khursheed, Begu Khan, Ammal Khan and Abdul Razzaq on the complaint of Rizwan, a relative of the dear departed.
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[Jpost] Syria cancelled an urgent tender to buy sugar on Monday, two weeks after cancelling a bid to buy wheat, the latest signs that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's government is losing its ability to buy food as civil war destroys its harvests.
In the failed transactions, Syria offered to pay for the food with funds held in frozen bank accounts abroad. The failures suggest those offers have been rejected by international traders, raising questions over how Assad's government can pay for food imports in the future.
The United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in July that a fifth of Syria's population was unable to produce or buy enough food, and farmers were short of the seed and fertilisers needed to plant the next crop.
In Monday's failed purchase, Syria's General Foreign Trade Organization (GFTO) cancelled a bid to buy 276,000 tonnes of white sugar after receiving only one offer. The tender was a repeat of a smiliar one in July, which also failed.
[An Nahar] Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... said Monday that Congress' failure to authorize military action in Syria would be "catastrophic" because it would undermine U.S. credibility.
"It would undermine the credibility of the United States of America and the president of the United States. None of us want that," he said after meeting with President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it...
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#1
"Catastrophic" Like John McCains run against an 8th grader in 2008?
#4
Translation...They diss the man. We got to get the posse together and do a drive by cause we can't afford to lose respect.
"It would undermine the credibility of the United States of America and the president of the United States. None of us want that,"
However, that's what you have.
John, given who is head of these Crips, we don't deserve respect. Votes have consequences. You had an opportunity to pull the knives out and actually run an election campaign, but choose to do a 'kinder gentler' high school debate approach. You are part of the problem. You have little credibility yourself.
#9
I have found people who were puit away "by that ignorant, stypid woman Sarah Palin" and given McCain's age fered she could end becoming Preside,t after his death. Actually she was the learned, smart memebr of the ticket.
#12
He's useful, for the moment, to the media again. His dry cleaner will have to put on an overtime shift to deal with the stain down the pantleg of his suit...
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09/03/2013 18:00
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#13
You really don't have to be Nostradamus to have predicted this.
Another autographed pair of Obama knee pads for McCain...
[An Nahar] Investigators in Kazakhstan were on Monday probing how a glitzy concert at an upscale shopping center by a wildly popular heartthrob Kazakh singer led to riots that left dozens wounded.
More than 160 people were arrested after the unrest, which broke out late on Saturday night at the concert by pop singer Kairat Nurtas at the Prime Plaza shopping center in the country's largest city Almaty, the local city hall said in a statement.
Investigators said they had launched criminal probes into possible hooliganism and also neglect of duties by the organizers of the event.
Local media reports said that the disorder broke out when Nurtas, 24, ended his concert prematurely after fans broke through a police cordon to get closer to him on the stage. They then jumped onto the stage and started throwing stones and bottles in apparent frustration, the reports said.
The boyish singer has a particularly avid female following.
Some 90 people were injured in the scuffles that followed the concert and nine of them were hospitalized, a spokesperson for the regional health authority told Agence France Presse.
The shopping center had organised the appearance of Nurtas, who has a huge following in Kazakhstan for his sentimental love ballads, to mark the end of a long-running karaoke competition. They blamed the disturbances on the singer himself, accusing him of letting down his fans by only singing one song.
"He took the decision to leave the stage after clearly getting scared of his own fans. This aroused dissatisfaction among the audience and led to the mass riots," the Prime Plaza statement said.
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[Dawn] Unidentified persons rubbed out a member of a village defence committee in Matta area of Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... on Saturday night.
According to police, Akbar Ali, a resident of Dureshkhela area, was rubbed out by person or persons unknown outside his residence. He was a member of a local village defence committee.
Police said that the dear departed was going home late in the night after parking his car when the attackers targeted him. He was struck down in his prime.
In Kohat, two men were kidnapped at gunpoint near Ustarzai on Hangu Road on Sunday.
According to police, a driver and his helper were carrying goods in their truck to Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... when they were kidnapped. The kidnappers left the vehicle and took the two men to an unspecified place. Police were trying to ascertain names and whereabouts of the victims.
Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38... the bodies of a man and woman were found in Kata Kanri area on Hangu Road on Sunday.
The Ustarzai police said that the dear departed were identified as Dilawar and his sister-in-law Payao Bibi. Police said that both had been shot in their heads with a pistol, however, reason behind the double murder couldn't be known.
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[An Nahar] Former high-ranking U.N. officials urged the United States and others Monday to refrain from bombing Syria over a devastating chemical attack, and instead work harder to broker a political solution in the war-torn country.
Former deputy chief of the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... Hans-Christof von Sponeck launched the appeal in Swiss daily Le Temps' online edition, with support from his former U.N. colleagues Denis Halliday, Said Zulficar, Samir Radwan and Samir Basta.
"True courage does not consist in sending in cruise missiles, ... it consists in radically breaking from this murderous logic," wrote von Sponeck, who coordinated the U.N.'s humanitarian actions in Iraq from 1998 to 2000. Because I'm an old fart and my mind is mostly gone, that statement doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm trying to recall the instance when the Pencilneck regime talked instead of gassing. One side can radically break from the murderous logic all it pleases, but if the other side continues to kill people, they'll continue to be dead forever. The statement would thus seem to lack any vestige of the concept of justice or accountability. But nobody listens to me. I'm just an old crank.
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#1
Well, Fred we don't hear the Arab nation screaming in indignation now do we?. Why are we the only nation that is crying that is a sin against humanity.? Maybe the Brits and or the French, but why not any other countries in the region?
#2
Because Moslem Values don't have any problem with gassing civilians or anybody else, for that matter. Its a Culture thing.
Sort of thing you expect from the religion of piss thingy.
Well,,, hhmmm don't you? It seems THEY do.
Moslems really don't have a problem with poison gas...Nasser even used it. Remember?
#3
Its really a problem with this neo-liberalism, like a drug dealer using the product, at some level they think they can turn cordite into pollen with a song and meditate a fire out of a hay bale.
I don't know of Hansy or any of these people actually believe it, but that is the call and appeal they choose to tack, and it implies a real passive fatalism, as opposed to letting the fire burn out or putting the gloves on and getting in the soot, it is looking at the fire and wishing it could not have caught fire.
[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... on Monday said that national security is the top most priority of the present government and all resources would be utilised to ensure it.
He was chairing a high level meeting here to review the overall security situation of the country.
The meeting discussed issues pertaining to national security including the internal and external threats being faced by the country.
The prime minister further said that all political forces must rise to the occasion so that national consensus is evolved to address the problems faced by the country.
He said that broad based national consensus among all stakeholders would enable the government to find enduring solutions to the problems being faced by the country.
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BAIDOA, Somalia -- At least seven people including five civilians were reportedly killed in a fierce fighting between Somali Government forces aided by Æthiopian troops and Al Shabaab fighters on Saturday night, Garowe Online reports. The battle erupted when allied forces attacked Al Shabaab positions in Koranbod vicinity which situates some few KMs south of Qansaxdere district, according to residents.
Witnesses confirmed that other 15 persons were wounded during the battle, "Heavy mortars exchanged by both sides left several houses and some business centers destroyed," added an eyewitness.
Local reports say that Al Shabaab militants still control the area but hundreds of allied forces are advancing towards Koranbod. Ethiopian troops established temporary military bases near Bay regional district of Qansaxdere in southern Somalia.
Separately, AMISOM forces have conducted cleanup operations in Lower Shabelle region by inflicting heavy losses on Al Shabaab fighters, officials said.
Heavy clashes between AMISOM forces and Al Shabaab militias were reported from Yaqbari-weyne village of Lower Shabelle region but the number of casualty figures was not verified.
Ten persons including two civilians and eight others from the opposing sides died in El-Barde town of Bakool region after Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group attempted to seize its control on August 30.
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[An Nahar] The First Military Examining Magistrate called on Monday for the release of the head of the pro-Syria Islamic Tawhid Movement-Command Council ...The Tawhid party is divided into two parts, one led by Sheikh Bilal Shaaban, a close ally of Hezbollah who is said to be financed by Iran, while the other is headed by Sheikh Hashem Minkara, a staunch Syria supporter... but he issued arrest warrants against two other suspects in connection with twin bombings in the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
Judge Riyad Abu Ghida ordered the release of Sheikh Hashem Minkara after questioning him, and referred back his file to State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr.
The sheikh had been accused by the military prosecution of withholding information from the authorities. But Saqr ruled against Abu Ghida's judgment and kept him in jug pending the ruling of the Military Court of Cassation.
Also Monday, Abu Ghida ordered the arrest of Sheikh Ahmed al-Gharib and informer Mustafa Houri following their interrogation.
Saqr on Friday charged the three men for forming an armed gang and undermining the authority of the state.
They were also charged with forming a terrorist network and planting explosives and booby-trapped cars.
Forty-five people were killed and at least 800 maimed in the Tripoli bombings that targeted two Sunni mosques as worshipers were performing weekly prayers.
Saqr also charged Syrian Khodr al-Arban and a Syrian Captain identified as Mohammed Ali with killing people and moving car bombs.
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[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday the evidence for climate change was beyond dispute but it was not too late for international action to prevent its worst impacts.
The poor man has neither the training nor the capacity to think about anything more difficult than where to go for dinner.
"The science is clear. It is irrefutable and it is alarming," Kerry told a climate conference in Majuro in the Marshall Islands in a video address from Washington.
They really oughtn't let him try to do anything more challenging than christen ships and open public libraries. He must have bought his exam answers back at school.
"If we continue down our current path, the impacts of climate change will only get worse."
According to Drudge Report, it was 15F in Alaska on Saturday, an August record for that location.
Kerry said without strong, immediate action, the world would experience threats to critical infrastructure, regional stability, public health, economic vitality, and the long-term viability of some states.
Washington's top diplomat was addressing climate experts meeting on the eve of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in the Marshall Islands, a low-lying nation where rising seas threaten to swamp many atolls.
Though they haven't yet, much to the disappointment of the locals.
"I stand with you in the fight against climate change," he pledged, adding the issue was a global crisis that was beyond one country to fix and needed urgent global action.
"If we act together, there is still time to prevent some of the worst impacts of climate change," he said. "But the people of the Pacific Islands know as well as anyone that we also need to prepare communities for the impacts that are already being felt."
Kerry is not attending the PIF, with Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell representing the United States instead.
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#1
With all the real problems, he focuses on this fraud?
#4
It's a sad state of affairs when Sen. Kerry represented a better quality of Massachusetts Senator over our current batch, the fake Indian and Dead Ed Markey...
#7
Have you ever wondered what there is about the United States that it has men like Kerry as the finest examples of Leadership it can produce?
And I seem to remember him groping John Edwards on stage at one time. Yeah Breck Boy and Kerry, those were the days. By the way what ever happened to John Edwards?
#8
Have you ever wondered what there is about the United States that it has men like Kerry as the finest examples of Leadership it can produce?
Don't be ridiculous. Mr. Kerry is merely a secretary of state, executing his president's will. People like Governor Scott Walker and temporarily former Congressman Col. Allen West are considerably finer examples of leadership, among many, many others. Do remember that Mr. Kerry could't get himself elected to anything other thaa Massachusetts senatorship, specifically because his lack of leadership qualities were so obvious beyond the state where his relatives own the ballot boxes.
#10
He's a notional head, an appointed mouthpiece and unprincipled useful idiot, sans portfolio. All decisions are made by the WH Shadow Gov't central committee.
#11
Any science which is irrefutable is not science. Science is the process of constantly disproving everything. Revealed, incontrovertible truth belongs to another realm...
#18
newc, the fact that the establishment can conceive of powers it does not now exercise is a real problem (for them), and calling for control of climate change is an excellent tool for acquiring those powers. Not stupid at all, especially if our attention is focused elsewhere.
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09/03/2013 21:04
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[Al Ahram] Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, has pledged an additional $2 billion aid comprising deposits and grants to support Egypt, state's Al-Ahram Arabic-language news website reported on Monday.
That's $2 billion that won't be flowing toward Al Qaeda & Friends...
Al-Ahram has quoted anonymous sources in Egypt's Cabinet as saying that the Emirate's prince vowed to support the country in several fields through making new investments in the domestic market.
Al-Nahyan, who is also the deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, arrived in Cairo on Sunday to discuss ways of supporting Egypt with the interim figures after the 30 June uprising that led to the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
Egypt's Central Bank said in July that it received $3 billion in aid from UAE, part of the $12 billion pledged by Gulf Arab states after Morsi's removal.
The UAE has also sent seven shipments of fuel worth $225 million in the same month.
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Health authorities in North Waziristan tribal areas recently confirmed five new polio cases there and suspect there are many more.
It's usually 20-30 cases of infection for every case of paralysis...
It's one of a series of outbreaks this year in parts of the country where security threats have kept out vaccination teams.
Officials worry these outbreaks -- inflamed by militant threats and attacks on vaccination teams -- could worsen and spread to other parts of Pakistan, especially since the country is entering the high season for virus transmission.
This doesn't happen in more civilized countries...
My Mom used to be afraid to let us go swimming in August, the "dog days," when polio transmission was at its highest levels for the year. That was only sixty years ago. The sugar cube I eventually got didn't make me sterile. I don't think I could memorize the Koran, though, so maybe there's something to it.
"It's not like a pot of boiling water where you see bubbles coming from everywhere, but there is steam coming out from specific areas," said Dr Elias Durry, emergency coordinator for polio eradication in Pakistan for the World Health Organisation. "Our fear is that the virus from these areas can go out and seriously jeopardise the success in fighting polio that has been achieved in the past couple of years."
Pakistan -- one of only three countries left where polio is endemic -- had 198 confirmed cases in 2011, the highest number of any nation in the world. Pakistan was able to bring that number down to 58 in 2012 through a vaccination program that is supported by the United Nations.
But the militant threats could reverse that progress. There have been 27 confirmed polio cases in Pakistan so far this year -- the third highest total in the world after Somalia and Nigeria. Seventeen of them have occurred in the country's semiautonomous tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taleban and Al Qaeda militants, Durry said. Two powerful Pakistani Taleban militants have banned vaccinators from North and South Waziristan over roughly the past year because of their opposition to US drone strikes. Gunmen have also killed over a dozen vaccination workers and police guards in different areas of the country. Many suspect the Taleban of carrying out the murders, although the group has denied the allegation.
Militants have claimed the vaccine is meant to sterilise Muslim children and accused health workers of being US spies. The allegation gained traction after the CIA used a Pakistani doctor to try to confirm the presence of Osama bin Laden in 2011 under the guise of an immunisation program.
Some families couldn't afford to make the six-hour journey to get the vaccine from Peshawar even if they wanted to take the risk. Health workers have stationed themselves at two checkpoints protected by the army in North Waziristan, where they are vaccinating children riding by in vehicles. But many people are afraid the militants will find out if they vaccinate their children at the checkpoints.
Durry, the WHO official, said authorities have confirmed five polio cases in North Waziristan and three others in the nearby district of Bannu this year. The five cases in North Waziristan were confirmed since the beginning of August, two of them on Wednesday, said a local health official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Officials are still investigating 20 suspected cases, he said.
There have been a total of 12 confirmed cases since the militant ban, the official said. Tribal elders sent to ask the militants to change their minds haven't been successful, said Jahan Mir, a senior government health official in Miran Shah.
There also have been confirmed polio cases this year in the Khyber tribal area and the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab, Durry said. Health officials had planned to immunise 34 million children across the country, but 1.5 million have not received the vaccine because of security threats, he said.
Threats by Al Qaida-linked militants also have hampered vaccination efforts this year in Somalia, which has suffered the worst polio outbreak in the world. The country has confirmed 108 cases so far, more than all other countries combined, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative website. There have been at least 192 confirmed cases worldwide in 2013.
Somalia isn't even one of the three countries where polio is considered endemic. Those are Pakistan, its neighbor Afghanistan and Nigeria, where militants killed polio vaccinators in the northern city of Kano in February.
Irfan Khan, a father of two young children in North Waziristan's Mir Ali town, said he hoped authorities succeed in appealing to the militants to protect the local population.
"The government and the militants should both compromise to allow children to get the vaccine," he said.
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#1
"Mo didn't have vaccines, neither will you"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/03/2013 10:42
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[Al Ahram] Egyptian security forces locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! Moslem Brüderbund leading figure Saad El-Husseini on Monday, as part of an ongoing crackdown on the Islamist group's members, following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi amidst mass popular protests.
El-Husseini was located and taken from a house in the district of New Cairo on the outskirts of the capital on Monday evening.
Fifty-four year old El-Husseini is a member of the Moslem Brüderbund's Guidance Bureau -- the group's highest administrative board -- and a senior member in the group's Freedom and Justice Party.
He is also the former governor of the Delta governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh.
Dozens of leading Brotherhood figures, including the group's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, and hundreds of members have been arrested since security forces dispersed two large pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo on 14 August, during which hundreds were killed.
Most of the Brotherhood leaders who have been arrested over the last few weeks have been accused of 'inciting violence' during festivities that broke out in the wake of the ouster of Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood.
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Follow-up of yesterday's story. The Eyptians seem rather serious in their disdain of the Gazooks...
[Al Ahram] Egypt's military bulldozed 13 homes along the Gazoo Strip border and caved in tunnels beneath them as a prelude to the possible creation of a buffer zone to reduce weapon smuggling and illegal myrmidon crossings, angering residents who said they were evicted with no compensation, security officials and residents said Sunday.
The military envisions creating a building-free zone with no trees 500 meters (1,640 feet) wide and 10 kilometers (6 miles) long starting at the Rafah border crossing and ending at the Mediterranean Sea, Northern Sinai government officials said. The homes were knocked down over the last 10 days as a test of the buffer zone idea in an area called el-Sarsoriya, a few kilometers (miles) from the Rafah crossing, while explosives were used to collapse the tunnels. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The move comes as Egypt's interim government and military attempt to assert more stringent state control over the largely lawless northern Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic snuffies have turned large areas into strongholds from which they have waged repeated attacks on security forces, Christians and tribal leaders -- compounding the country's security woes following the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July. Homes and trees along the Gazoo border have been used as a cover for snuffies to fire at border guards.
Ehab Ghussein, a front man for the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, government in Gazoo, said he feared the creation of a buffer zone would be a step toward imposing "a new blockade on Gazoo and increase the suffering of its people."
"Buffer zones are not needed between neighboring countries that have historical and social relations," Ghussein said, calling instead for the establishment of a free trade zone at the Egypt-Gazoo border.
The Egyptian military has closed much of the once-bustling tunnel system, but some remain along the 15-kilometer (9-mile) stretch of border. Residents angered by the past days' bulldozing staged a sit-in protest in Rafah Sunday.
One tribal leader claimed that many more homes were demolished and that the bulldozers showed up without notice, giving people little time to leave with their belongings. And the government has offered no compensation, he added, to residents who lost their homes. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution from authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2013
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#1
It was okay when the weapons and 'militants' were flowing into Gaza...
[Jpost] Computer hackers aligned with Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... struck an Internet recruiting site for the US Marine Corps on Monday, urging troops to "refuse your orders" if the United States attacks Syria.
The attack appeared to be the work of the Syrian Electronic Army, which also recently targeted the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... ' website and Twitter.
The hackers posted a message and images on the website www.marines.com, signing it "delivered by SEA," a reference to the Syrian Electronic Army. A Defense Department front man said the site, on commercial network rather than the Defense Department network, had been restored after an outage of a few hours.
The seven-sentence "Message to the United States Marine Corps," said the Syrian Army "should be your ally, not your enemy" against "a vile common enemy" of terrorism.
"Refuse your orders," said the message which included six photos of people in military-style uniforms, their faces obscured and holding hand-written messages, such as "I will not fight for Al Qaeda in Syria."
I've seen similar photos circulating on Facebook, tagged, "Support our troops." Interesting.
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] Police in Michigan have broken up a shocking 'drug-fueled orgy' being hosted at a secretive Masonic Lodge - and this wasn't the first time it's happened, authorities warn. "Dat's right! I seen it before!"
Officers were called to the prominent building in downtown Battle Creek, Michigan - which sits across a park from police headquarters - about 2.15am Sunday. They found five women dancing on stage naked. Whoa! Nekkid wimmin? Across the street from the cop shoppe?
They also reportedly discovered a couple having sex in the lodge and several men standing around filming the action. "Lemme see your marriage license and registration!"
"Didja get that for YouTube, Ted?"
"Put the smart phone down and step away with your hands up!"
WWMT-TV reports that authorities believe the Masonic Lodge, which is home of the secret society called Freemasons, has been used for such activities before and are working to shut the operation down. George Washington was a Mason, too, but I don't think they had nekkid bewbie dancers at his lodge. But the proceedings are secret, so maybe they did.
Police sources told WWMT that officers found a 'drug-fueled sex party' in the building and sent the revelers home. "G'wan! Get outta here!"
"Offisher! I losh my pants!"
"That guy's got two pairs! See if one of 'em fits! Then beat it!"
The Battle Creek Freemasons refused to comment on camera for the TV station, but insisted that the orgy was not part of the secret society's rituals. "No orgies. Sorry. We lean more toward funny hats and secret handshakes!"
"Darn! Can I have my initiation fee back?"
"We have a Miley Cyrus show scheduled, though."
"Can I please have my initiation fee back?"
They said the party was not sponsored by their group at all. "Darn those Rotarians, anyway! Giving us a bad name!"
"Shriners, I could understand..."
Instead, they say, a party promoter paid $900 to rent the space for the night. Easy enough. Whose name's on the check?
'Charlie,' a Freemason spokesman, "Call me Chuck!"
said the man renting the lodge told the Freemasons he would be hosting a dance party. The nekkid babez were dancing, weren't they?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2013
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#1
The fact there are no photographs in the article or video might indicate the involvement of secret Amish Templars and democrats.
#2
The Battle Creek Freemasons refused to comment on camera for the TV station, but insisted that the orgy was not part of the secret society's rituals.
No, no, no. If you want to increase membership, you're doin it wrong...
#3
Grew up in next county over and dad worked in BC. Now that Kellogg's is gone, all that is happening there is a window boarding up drill and crumbling buildings. And drug fueled orgies of course. but then we had the beer fueled version out at scenic Gull Lake during formative years...
#4
Sorry to hear about Kellogg's being gone. 50+ years ago they gave out variety packs of breakfast cereal when you toured the plant. I can still remember the smell of the processing ovens.
#5
Yeah B that was a real good smell, but when Purina was cooking cat food, Dad decided to work out in the field that day ( county health dept, next door to Purina)
#2
The dim bulbs at Foggy Bottom and our academia can't grasp that what is going on now is what the ME would look like without Israel to divert mussie attention away from their own cultural, political, and economic structural failures.
#3
Islam needs to have its equivalent of the Thirty Years War.
Unfortunately, they would have to do it with today's technology, not muskets, pikes, swords, and crossbows. A lot more possibility of collateral damage to the rest of the world now than in the 1600's.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/03/2013 5:47
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#4
Yet if Erdogan has charmed President Obama, he has alienated almost everyone in the Middle East.
Like twin sons of different mothers.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/03/2013 6:25
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#5
Like twin sons of different mothers.
Posted by Bobby
ISLAMABAD: Police on Monday registered murder charges against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in connection with the death of a radical cleric during the siege of a mosque in 2007.
It is the latest in a series of charges dating back to Musharrafs 1999-2008 rule, which the retired general has faced since returning from self-imposed exile in March.
Perv's gonna wish he stayed in Oman...
Radical cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi was one of more than 100 people killed after troops stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad on July 10, 2007. Ghazis brother, Abdul Aziz, escaped in a burqa. The operation opened the floodgates to a Taliban-led insurgency that has killed thousands of people in Pakistan.
The High Court ordered Islamabad police to register murder charges against Musharraf on a petition filed by the son of Rashid Ghazi, said Tariq Asad, a lawyer who represented Ghazi in court.
The court ordered police to register the case earlier as well but their instructions were not followed. Today, the court made Islamabad police officials write the case inside the court room and comply with the orders right there, he said. Police confirmed that the charges had been registered.
We have booked Musharraf under section 302/119 of the law, which deals with murder charges, Qasim Niazi, a senior police official, told AFP.
An anti-terrorism court last month charged Musharraf with the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who died in a gun and suicide attack after a political rally in December 2007.
Musharraf also faces murder accusations over the 2006 death of Baloch rebel leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2013
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[Dawn] Syria has asked the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... to try to "prevent any aggression" against it, state news agency SANA said Monday, as the United States weighs military action against Damascus.
"The Syrian government calls on the UN secretary general to assume his responsibilities ... and to make efforts to prevent any aggression against Syria," the agency said, quoting a letter from Syria's UN representative Bashar al-Jaafari.
The letter also urged the United Nations to help seek a "peaceful political solution to the crisis" in Syria, where more than 110,000 people have been killed in violence since an uprising against the regime began in March 2011.
US President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... is seeking approval from Congress for military action against Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack on Damascus suburbs on August 21 that killed hundreds.
Much of the international community, including the United States, Britannia and La Belle France, has accused the Syrian regime of carrying out the attack, a charge that the government in Damascus denies.
US 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... on Sunday said Syria used sarin gas and La Belle France on Monday was set to provide what it says is clear evidence the regime was behind the alleged chemical attack.
"The Syrian government repeats once again that it has never used chemical weapons," Jaafari wrote in the letter.
"The world was expecting the United States to play its role as a sponsor of peace... by preparing seriously for the Geneva conference on Syria, and not as a country that uses military force against those who oppose its policies," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2013
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[Telegraph] One fifth of applicants to US intelligence agencies who had suspicious backgrounds were found to have links to al-Qaeda or other hostile groups, according to a CIA review revealed today.
The discovery, reported by The Washington Post, has heightened fears that America's intelligence community is being targeted by terrorist and other bad turban organizations for infiltration, as well as by foreign governments' own spies. All such US agencies are investigating thousands of their own employees to counter the threat.
The classified budget document which revealed the extent of the CIA's efforts was itself passed to the newspaper by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, now a runaway in Russia under temporary asylum after leaking thousands of secret documents.
Although the file did not describe the nature of the jobseekers' bad turban or hostile ties, it cited Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Hizbollah and al-Qaeda and its affiliates most often.
The fear of infiltration is such that the NSA planned last year to investigate at least 4,000 staff who obtained security clearances. It detected potentially suspicious activity among staff members after trawling through trillions of employee keystrokes at work.
Suspect behaviour is said to have included staffers accessing classified databases they do not usually use for their work or downloading several documents, two people familiar with the software used to monitor staff told the Post.
But serious delays and uneven implementation have hit the multimillion-dollar effort, and the spy agencies did not detect Mr Snowden's own copying of a wide range of the NSA's highly classified documents.
The runaway leaker is wanted by Washington on espionage charges linked to media disclosures about US surveillance programs.
"Over the last several years, a small subset of CIA's total job applicants were flagged due to various problems or issues," one official told the Post.
"During this period, one in five of that small subset were found to have significant connections to hostile intelligence services and or terrorist groups."
The NSA is also creating a huge database known as WILDSAGE to help share sensitive intelligence among cybersecurity centers, according to the budget document. But the move has raised concern that the database could be infiltrated.
Intelligence agencies have stepped up scrutiny of insider threats following the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic files by WikiLeaks in 2010.
Army Private Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst now known as Chelsea Manning, had leaked the documents to the anti-secrecy group.
In 2011, Congress ordered Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to set up an "automated insider threat detection programme" to prevent further such leaks, stop possible abuses and identify double agents.
But the project was apparently delayed several times as the intelligence community dealt with the aftermath of Manning's leaks.
President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... 's administration has cracked down on insider threats. In November last year, Obama issued a National Insider Threat Policy that defined the threats as coming from "espionage, terrorism (or) unauthorised disclosure of national security information".
The policy places whistleblowers, spies and "terrorists" in a single category, and critics say the three are distinct groups which should regarded separately.
According to US classified budget document leaked by US whistle-blower Edward Snowden, individuals with past connections to al-Qaida, Hezbollah and Hamas, have attempted to obtain employment within the CIA, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
#3
Forcing Equal Opportunity on 'clandestine' services at the expense of nationalists was a bad idea. Manning and Snowden didn't have formative role models and lost their way.
[An Nahar] Norway's center-right opposition, including a populist anti-immigration party, holds a strong lead over the ruling center-left coalition one week ahead of a general election, two opinion polls indicated on Monday.
A survey published in the online edition of daily Verdens Gang credited the Conservative party, led by Erna Solberg, and its prospective allies, the populist Progress Party and two smaller center-right parties, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, with 55.6 percent of voter support.
If that score were to be confirmed on voting day September 9, the center-right would obtain 98 of 169 seats in parliament, much more than the 85 seats required to hold an absolute majority.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ... incumbent Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's Labor Party and his two coalition parties, the Socialist Left and Center parties, were seen garnering just 38.4 percent and 68 seats.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2013
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Forty-nine inmates escaped from a Tunisian prison after overpowering guards, a senior official said on Monday, in a further sign of faltering security as a political crisis over popular discontent with Islamist rule festers.
Prisons director-general Habib Sboui said 49 inmates broke out of the prison in the town of Gabes on Sunday evening, and that 12 were recaptured a little later.
"They escaped in an ambush in which guards were assaulted, without any shooting," Sboui said in a statement. It was believed the escapees were all common criminals, he said.
Still, the breakout attested to deteriorating security that has been exploited by Islamist militants with a series of attacks, two of which resulted in the killing of two opposition secular politicians that triggered the political crisis. Tunisia has jailed hundreds of Islamist militants over the past year in connection with attacks.
In 2011, thousands of prisoners escaped in Tunisia during the nationwide disorder that followed the fall of autocratic president Zine Al Abidine Ali to a popular revolt.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2013
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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.
John 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Jpost] 
MOGADISHU -- unidentified assailants killed an immigration department officer in landmine attack in Mogadishu's Shibis district on Sunday evening, Garowe Online reports.
[Al Ahram] Nearly 90 rebels were killed near the Syrian capital over the past 48 hours, a watchdog said Monday, as fighting raged ahead of possible foreign military action against the regime.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar]Three people were charged on Monday with firing rockets from Lebanon against Israel on August 22, reported the National News Agency.
[Dawn] Two persons including a runaway prisoner of D.I. Khan jail were killed in a firing incident in Burghu Adamzai village here on Saturday night.
[Jpost] Syria cancelled an urgent tender to buy sugar on Monday, two weeks after cancelling a bid to buy wheat, the latest signs that 
[An Nahar] Investigators in Kazakhstan were on Monday probing how a glitzy concert at an upscale shopping center by a wildly popular heartthrob Kazakh singer led to riots that left dozens wounded.
[Dawn] Unidentified persons 
Kurram Agency
Nawaz Sharif
BAIDOA, Somalia -- At least seven people including five civilians were reportedly killed in a fierce fighting between Somali Government forces aided by Æthiopian troops and Al Shabaab fighters on Saturday night, Garowe Online reports. The battle erupted when allied forces attacked Al Shabaab positions in Koranbod vicinity which situates some few KMs south of Qansaxdere district, according to residents.
[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday the evidence for climate change was beyond dispute but it was not too late for international action to prevent its worst impacts.
Health authorities in North Waziristan tribal areas recently confirmed five new polio cases there and suspect there are many more.
[Al Ahram] Egyptian security forces 
[Jpost] Computer hackers aligned with Syrian 
ISLAMABAD: Police on Monday registered murder charges against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in connection with the death of a radical cleric during the siege of a mosque in 2007.
[Telegraph] One fifth of applicants to US intelligence agencies who had suspicious backgrounds were found to have links to al-Qaeda or other hostile groups, according to a CIA review revealed today.
Forty-nine inmates escaped from a Tunisian prison after overpowering guards, a senior official said on Monday, in a further sign of faltering security as a political crisis over popular discontent with Islamist rule festers.
