#2
"We are taking the best gear, the best technology on the market to date and giving it to guys known to stab us in the back," Sgt. Meyer wrote to Mr. McCreight, according to the lawsuit. "These are the same people killing our guys."
Sounds to me like MOH recipient Sgt. Meyer got it right.
#3
The Pakis would never use those sights as intended. Nor are they using those F-16 optics we sold them a few years back against the Taliban, either, I'll bet. They'll end up in Chinese and Iranian hands if anything.
#4
I have been saying for years that we need to treat the ISI for what it is: our mortal enemy in that region. If the Government of Pakistan wants to keep playing beard for the ISI then it too should be treated as an enemy, at least tacitly. No more aid, no more humanitarian help. We should be supporting India.
#5
The bad guys have patrons in every precinct of the US government. In the old days those allies were that way because of bribes. Now some of 'em are just warped idealogues...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/29/2011 21:14
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According to an Iraqi security forces, police arrested a Wahhabi woman in Sunni dominated region of Diali who has sent her 9 years old boy to suicide in a Shiite mosque.
The arrested terrorist woman, S.Alabidi, confessed that in year 2006, she and her husband have wrapped their boy, Kadhim, with explosive belt to blow up Shiite mosque in Diali province.
In the attack 9 Shia martyred and 8 others injured.
#1
Her punishment should begin with a hysterectomy, and her husband should be castrated. Then send them both to prison for life, unless they can be hanged.
#5
"who has sent her murdered her 9 year old boy to suicide in a Shiite mosque and some others"
Fixed.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/29/2011 18:08
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#6
Words are just not sufficient to describe this mother's love for her own son. Evil, vile, sadistic, hellish, hell bound, and inhuman come to mind. May the security forces give her the same consideration she gave her son.
Excerpt
Prodi: Not at the moment --Monti is too highly regarded for that. But Berlusconi won't give in. He has lost his magic, but I am convinced he will try again.
SPIEGEL: Are you afraid of that?
Prodi: You cannot imagine how I have suffered in the last years. Wherever I went, it was all "bunga bunga". In Beijing, they laughed at my wife and I. Even in Kenya, the park rangers pointed at the monkeys in the trees and said, "Look, they are doing 'bunga bunga'.
NATO and Pakistani forces may have attacked one another in a tragic case of mistaken identity — each thinking the other side was Taliban, according to the first battlefield accounts after the worst incident of fratricide since the Afghan war began.
According to the U.S. military records described to The [News Agency That Shall Not Be Named], a joint U.S. and Afghan patrol requested backup after being hit by mortar and small arms fire by Taliban militants. Before responding, the joint U.S.-Afghan patrol first checked with the Pakistani army, which reported it had no troops in the area, the military account said.
#1
If Europe does reach a financial apocalypse and economic activity there grinds to a near halt, the US will topple right behind. A third of the United States' trade is with Europe. Think we can take that kind of hit without crashing ourselves?
It's going to go down anyways. Why waste resources need here for rebuilding? /rhetorical question
America, and in combination with the other two counties of the northern continent, have enough resources and security to reboot back to growth that the Euros will not. The only thing inhibiting us now is ourselves.
#4
Eohippus,
The $87 billion is for 9 months of 2011. We are on pace to run a deficit of $115 billion for all of 2011.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/29/2011 16:30
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#5
Funny that so many of the usual suspects screeching about "sustainability" (that would be leftists screeching that the rest of us have to get by on less) don't see that the current fandango is quite unsustainable.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/29/2011 16:59
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#6
I would like to remind people that exports are merely the PRICE of imports.
(Rooters) - Iranian brownshirts briefly took six British embassy staff hostage on Tuesday when they stormed two diplomatic compounds in Tehran, smashing windows, hurling Molotov cocktails and burning the British flag in a temper tantrum against sanctions imposed by Britannia.
Britannia said it was outraged by the attacks on its embassy compounds, but had no immediate comment on the seizure of its staff who, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said, were freed by police from a leafy residential complex in north Tehran.
The attacks were launched at a time of rising diplomatic tension between Iran and Western nations who last week imposed fresh sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program which they believe is aimed at achieving the capability of making an atomic bomb.
The embassy storming is a local tradition. It is also a clear sign of deepening political infighting within Iran's ruling hardline elites with the conservative-led parliament attempting to force the hand of President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad and expel the British ambassador.
Several dozen brownshirts broke away from a crowd of a few hundred outside the main embassy compound in downtown Tehran, scaled the gates, broke the locks and went inside.
Brownshirts pulled down the British flag, burned it, and put up the Iranian flag, Iranian news agencies and news pictures showed. Inside, the regime hard boyz threw stones and Molotov cocktails. One waved a framed picture of Queen Elizabeth for some reason, state TV showed.
Others carried the royal crest out through the embassy gate as cops stood by grinning, pictures carried by the Fars news agency showed. Demonstrators waved flags symbolizing martyrdom and held portraits of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Another group of brownshirts broke into a second British Embassy compound at Qolhak in north Tehran, the IRNA state news agency said. ... and if you can't believe the state news agency who can you believe? Once the embassy's summer quarters, the sprawling, tree-lined compound is now used to house diplomatic staff.
Six embassy staff were taken hostage there, but were later freed by coppers, Fars news agency reported.
"Cops freed the six people working for the British embassy in Qolhak garden," Fars said.
A German school next to the Qolhak compound was also trashed, the German government said.
Cops appeared to have cleared the brownshirts in front of the main downtown embassy compound, but later clashed with hardline protesters and fired tear gas to attempt to disperse them, Fars said.
Protesters nevertheless again entered the compound, Fars said.
The British Foreign Office said it was outraged.
"There has been an incursion by a significant number of demonstrators into our Embassy premises, including vandalism to our property," the Foreign Office said in a statement. "This is a fluid situation and details are still emerging. We are outraged by this. It is utterly unacceptable and we condemn it."
Britannia said the Iranian government had a duty under international law to protect diplomats and urged Iranian authorities to act with "utmost urgency" to bring the situation under control.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
13:11 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Dinnerjack and the mad mullahs are trying to relive their magic moments of 1979. Buggers.
#2
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > "THREAT AGZ THREAT" IS IRAN'S NEW DEFENSE DOCTRINE: IRGC OFFICIAL.
Not certain yet as to the Doctrine's exact details, but it appears nominally to be an Iran mini-copy of Cold War Soviet strategies ala PARITY = "MATCHING" RESPONSE, COUNTER-RESPONSE wid US-NATO???
Two weeks ago
The U.S. House of Representatives passed (422-0) and sent to President Barack Obama legislation to repeal a requirement that federal, state and local governments begin withholding 3 percent of payments to contractors in 2013. The legislation also includes tax credits for companies that hire unemployed veterans. Last week, 0 signed the bill, but not only were contractors for it, so were county governments. "This is a big win for local governments. The costs to comply would have been enormous," NACo Executive Director Larry Naake said. "It would have required our nation's larger counties to reprogram or purchase new accounts payable systems, hire additional staff and essentially turn county accounting offices into IRS district offices."
The VOW to Hire Heroes Act amendment would provide up to $9,600 in tax credits to businesses who hire unemployed veterans with a service-connected disability who have been actively searching for employment for at least six months. It also strengthens employment counseling and training programs for veterans and troops about to leave the military. Wonder how it's paid for?
The tax credits are offset by an extension of current fees on Veterans Affairs home loans and a reduction of payments to some VA service providers.
In conjunction, the Obama administration has announced plans to set up an online jobs bank for veterans seeking employment, and will provide access to six months of personalized case management and employment counseling for unemployed veterans.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/29/2011
11:08 ||
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#1
Yeah, Obama signed a bill that undoes a requirement he created in the first place.
Nimrod Machani has been working as a coast lifeguard in Tel Aviv for four years. His father Shimshon, was a seaman for years and between voyages, also worked as a Tel Aviv lifeguard.
Two years ago Shimshon moved to Koh Samui, Thailand where he opened a surfboat business for tourists. At the end of the summer season in Israel, Nimrod visited his father in Thailand to help him in setting up the new enterprise.
Last week the two team went out on their daily rowing course. Shimshon explained, "The weather here is tropical. Things can change in a second. And indeed, on the way back, the weather changed all at once. The winds got stronger and the waves grew tall."
Then, they noticed two swimmers who were crying out for help. Shimshon said, "Their kayak had overturned in the storm and was swept away, they were left alone in the water. They didn't have much of a chance."
The two lifeguards rowed towards the struggling men. Nimrod noted, "When we reached them they were already at the point of exhaustion. We loaded them on to the surf boat and kept rowing towards the shore, a kilometer away."
The two battled against the weather with the swimmers on board for 45 minutes. Shimshon recalled, "When they came around and started talking among themselves I noticed they were speaking in Persian. I was born in Iran and speak the language. I told them in Persian: 'Don't be scared, you're in good hands."
When they reached the shore the two, who introduced themselves as Mundar and Ali, hugged, kissed and thanked their rescuers. Nimrod said, "When we told them we're Israelis they just got up and fled."
An official of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said Monday that they have a confirmed that renegade Ustadhz Ameril Umra Kato, head of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM), is still alive and recuperating from a stroke, though he is weak and has difficulty speaking.
Nine millimeter aneurysm?
Sounded like a popped vein. They were trying to pass it off as an asthma attack a couple days ago.
The vice chairman for Political Affairs of the MILF said yesterday, "As of 4 p.m. Sunday up to the time we are now talking to each other, we have an A-1 information that he is alive, though still weak from his illness. He can now speak a little, taking small amount of food.
"Ustadhz Ameril Umra Kato is a Muslim, our brother, a human being like us. So we wish him to recover from his illness like we wish anyone else in the same situation."
"Except for infidels..."
Jaafar denied that Kato, who split from the MILF after rejecting the peace process, has left the country. He did not reveal where the founder of the BIFM and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF-BIFM) is recovering.
Meanwhile, BIFM spokesman Abu Misry Mama, confirmed that Kato "is very much alive and recuperating." Mama appealed to those spreading rumors about Kato's supposed death to stop, saying if and when he pines for the fjords dies they will let the public know.
They should be mindful that if they dare to impair the dignity of the DPRK again and fire one bullet or shell toward its inviolable territorial waters, sky and land, the deluge of fire on Yeonpyeong Island will lead to that in Cheongwadae and the sea of fire in Cheongwadae to the deluge of fire sweeping away the stronghold of the group of traitors.
The arrival of 7 and half tons of tear gas to Egypt's Suez port created conflict after the responsible officials at the port refused to sign and accept it for fear it would be used to crackdown on Egyptian protesters.
Local news sites published documents regarding the shipment shows that the cargo that arrived in 479 barrels from the United States was scheduled to be delivered to the ministry of interior.
The reports also mentioned in the documents that a second shipment of 14 tons of tear gas was expected, making the total 21 tons, in one week.
Egypt's al-Shorouk newspaper reported that upon the arrival of the shipment, massive disagreements broke out between employees, where five employees refused to sign for the shipment, one after the other.
The five, being dubbed by activists as the "brave five", will be refereed to a investigative committee as to why they refused to perform their duties.
Soon to be known as the "Missing Five", and shortly thereafter as the "Five Martyrs"...
According to local reports and the ministry of interior, the shipment was not sent back and appears to have entered Egypt.
#5
Judging by the lack of safety equipment of the officers, the number of applications, the post-game interview of one of the protestors whose eyes were a bit bloodshot but otherwise unaffected, and how the camera people were moving closer to the chorus line after application, I think I'll pass on this product for something which works.
#7
Departmental policy doesn't permit use of same against passive resisters. A target has to be actively combatant. Disproportionatality accusations aren't merely rhetorical. The Police Commission will have to move against the sprayer.
#9
They need a policy change. In my old dept. pepper spray was authorized if the "passive resistance" threatened the safety of staff and/or others, such as prohibiting entrance or exit to any area.
#10
it's a good thing for these useless parasites that King Frank wasn't in charge. Just saying*
* In the unlikely event I become a public figure at some point in the future, it referred to someone else as "King Frank". In the even more unlikely event I was declared King? It was me
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/29/2011 21:04
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#11
I thought the writ of Emperor Norton still stood for something through much of the west coast.
#13
Yeah, I've had hot wingz clear a booth with the vapors.
Watching the videos it appears the officers were systematically surrounded by a crowd interlocking their arms. I call it, appropriately, passive-aggressivel opposed to passive resistance, the former being that though not violent in a hurling items sense what happens is a situation is purposefully created which forces violence as a solution. When this circle was completed the officers were essentially detained against their will which is a violent act. If the officers had stayed there until a prisoner exchange was negotiated the mob would have won over order. Credit to the officers (guessing campus PD, never heard for certain) for being professional, patient, deliberate...I mean damn I wish my ball team had that coolness on the free throw line for real.
Remember when those goblins got to beating their drums in WI and chased that lawmaker into the corner, that is the thing about mobs, they are unpredictable, and even if there was enough room to effectively draw sidearms (which they didn't) they would have been swamped, armed only with sticks and paintball guns. That, uhem, pepper spray was a low-level option which allowed both parties to retire with face.
The screaming and such remind me of that scene from Memphis Belle, where the shrapnal hits and cockpit and blows blood and flesh all over the interior, pilot and co-pilot screaming about how bad the other had been hurt, then find out it wasn't blood but tomato soup.
Psychiatrists have found that Anders Behring Breivik was insane at the time of the crime.
But of course. This is Scandinavia; evil doesn't exist there. Unless you're a Lutheran or a Lapplander...
The finding by the two forensic psychiatrists will help determine whether Breivik is sentenced to prison or psychiatric care. Prosecutor Svein Holden says the report shows Breivik was "psychotic" during the attack.
If that assessment is upheld by the court then Breivik cannot be sentenced to prison for the attacks.
"The conclusion is ... is that he is insane," Holden told a news conference. "He lives in his own delusional universe and his thoughts and acts are governed by this universe."
The two psychiatrists, Synne Serheim and Torgeir Husby, delivered their finding to the Oslo district court on Tuesday morning.
"We have no doubt when it comes to our conclusions," Husby told reporters as he submitted the report.
#1
Oh I think he was, this is just more convenient for the state (and forcing a sane man onto psychotics is much worse punishment than a Danish prison).
#3
By "counterrevolutionary" standards, what he did was well planned, well executed, and accomplished his goals.
I read an excellent analogy, which compared Utoya Island, and the "Workers' Youth League"(*) to a Hitlerjugend ideological training camp. The HJ was formed in 1922, and many of its graduates went on to become doctrinally pure party functionaries. Had such an incident taken out a large number of HJs, it would have stripped the Nazi party of much of its core management when it was ascending to power eleven years later, in 1933.
So unless there is clinical evidence, not just observation and opinion, Breivik is being judged insane at the behest of the government, the Red-Green Coalition, to try and limit discussion and debate it doesn't want to have.
However, the political hard left has been substantially crippled.
(*) The Workers' Youth League took its current form in April 1927, following the merger of Left Communist Youth League and Socialist Youth League of Norway corresponding with the merger of its mother parties. Many former leaders of AUF have later become significant figures in Norway's political life.
#4
Deliberation is patently obvious. He has plead not guilty, and declared an intent to put Norway's immigration policy in the docket. Let's not forget that one day before the atrocity, Norway's Foreign Minister appeared on Utoya with paleo propagandists and attacked Israel. The insanity finding manifests an intent to prevent the murderer from getting a platform that would embarass the government.
A diagnosis of paranoia hardly fits a case where the murderer had cause for protest but not to commit mass slaughter. Let's not forget the "islamophobia" smears against anyone who doesn't want jihadis in their neighborhood.
#5
I have long joked that the best thing that Carter did was be so weak the Soviets overextended themselves grabbing up everything they could just in time for Reagan's buildup.
Hopefully there is another Reagan out there. I don't really see him in the primaries though.
h/t Gates of Vienna
Imagine what would happen if America barged its way into a developing country, buttered up its homicidal dictator and agreed a back-of-the-envelope deal in which he signed over his nation's mineral wealth in return for roads, railways and sports stadiums. Everyone would benefit, no?
No. The problem is that the infrastructure turns out to be worth a hell of a lot less than the minerals. Fortunately, Washington has had the foresight to top up the dictator's Swiss bank account. Problem solved! As for the mining operation, the Americans really don't want to be bothered by minimum wages or trade unions. They're banned. And no complaints from the workforce, please, because no one wants a repeat of that "misunderstanding" in which an American mine supervisor opened fire on stroppy employees.
If the United States embarked on this sort of colonial experiment, it would produce a furious "Occupy Grosvenor Square" camp outside the US embassy and a withering play by Sir David Hare at the National. But since these things are actually being done not by America but by the People's Republic of China across the entire African continent, the "anti-colonialist" Left just yawns.
h/t Gates of Vienna
The head of Elstat, GreeceÂ’s new independent statistics agency, faces an official criminal investigation for allegedly inflating the scale of the countryÂ’s fiscal crisis and acting against the Greek national interest. How, why does this sounds familiar?
h/t Gates of Vienna
China is looking to buy EU factories and railways instead of wobbly government bonds as prices fall amid the eurozone crisis.
Minister of commerce Chen Deming articulated the strategy at a business congress in China on Monday (28 November).
"Next year, we will send a delegation for promoting trade and investment to the European countries ... Some European countries are facing a debt crisis and hope to convert their assets to cash and would like foreign capital to acquire their enterprises. We will be closely watching and pushing forward the process," he said.
#1
Makes sense, Hard Currency where the currency isn't.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/29/2011 6:44
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#2
Always a risk. The US has long had a proud reputation of ripping off foreigners who tried to speculate here.
One favorite tale on the subject was when the English tried to speculate in a US longhorn drive, even sending a Scottish accountant to Texas to ride with the cowboys. When they left Texas they had a huge herd, but by the time they reached KC, there was nary a longhorn to see for miles around.
#5
Fire sale prices. Looks like barter. So if they have hyperinflation, China is sitting pretty. Value of EU factories, railways, resources go up and the money value given goes down.
#6
...I'm not sure the Chinese are interesting in obtaining 'industries' that have heavy doses of employee entitlements that don't directly contribute to productivity and often act counter to productivity. They seem to put stock in the old adage 'he who will not work will not eat'.
#7
If you HAVE to, you can always dismantle it, and haul it away.
I'm sure China is hurting for Railroads.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/29/2011 13:21
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#8
..now just guessing, it is indeed a good opportunity to loot technology and large industrial equipment stocks avoiding 'start up costs' back home. Sort of like corporate raiders stripping a buy of its non-essential assets and turning around and trading the core elements that had value.
#10
China doesn't need to dismantle anything. From the industries they will look to reverse engineer / take home intellectual property and manufacturing processes.
I have a bunch of bearings on my desk, that were made in China. They were made in a factory China bought lock stock and barrel in Japan and shipped to China. The boxes even have "Made in Japan" printed on them, above the "Made in China" sticker glued on below.
They probably don't have to do it, but... they've done it before.
The IDF returned fire on the source of at least three rockets fired into northern Israel from Lebanon overnight Monday.
Three rockets fired from Lebanon landed in the Western Galilee, with police searching for a possible fourth rocket. No injuries were reported in the attacks.
#1
I've been surprised that Pencilneck hasn't used his puppets in Leb to provide a distraction from Syria's civil war via Da Jooooz. Perhaps he just remembered that tactic?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/29/2011 10:01
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#2
It's probably taken a while for Assad's goons to find anyone willing or greedy enough.
Hesb'allah is likely a tad leery right now of starting anything with the IDF. They'd have their turf locked down and an eye out for troublemakers.
[Al Ahram] Syria has withdrawn almost all of its assets from Arab countries, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Monday, a day after the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... slapped sanctions on Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... for its refusal to halt a protest crackdown. "I reassure you that we have withdrawn 95 or 96 per cent of Syrian assets (from Arab countries)," Muallem told a news conference. "We must protect the interests of our people."
A teensy question that must now be niggling at non-Syrian Arab minds, not to mention the rest of us: 95% of what number leaves how many Syrian assets doing what kind of mischief?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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#1
We're taking our toys and we're going home.
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/29/2011 9:30
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Nigeria's Islamist Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... sect was responsible for a string of weekend bombings targeting government buildings and churches in Geidam in the northeast, its purported front man said Monday.
Abul Qaqa, who claims to speak for Boko Haram, said in an emailed statement that the sect carried out Saturday's attacks to protest the "continued arrests" of its members.
"We are responsible for the attacks in Gaidam and such attacks will continue as long as our members placed in long-term storage by the Nigerian authorities remain in detention," he said.
Witnesses said sect members armed with Kalashnikov rifles hurled explosives at Geidam cop shoppe, freed suspects and stole arms. The gunnies then rampaged through town attacking six churches, a high court, a shopping complex, a local government secretariat, and robbed a bank. They also bombed an abandoned beer parlour and looted shops, according to a Nigerian Security and Civil Defence official in the town.
At least three coppers and a civilian were maimed in the attacks, according to a security source.
Geidam is the hometown of the Yobe state governor Ibrahim Geidam, and is close to the border with Nigeria's northern neighbour, Niger.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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[An Nahar] President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... proposed that Hizbullah not attend Wednesday's scheduled session so that the cabinet approves the funding of the Special Tribunal for Leb, al-Liwaa newspaper reported.
The daily said on Monday that Suleiman is exerting efforts to resolve the crisis that is threatening to collapse the cabinet.
Prime Minister Najib Miqati had warned to resign if the funding of the STL wasn't approved by the cabinet; however, Hizbullah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... has openly opposed Leb paying its annual share.
Sources told the newspaper that the President held a meeting behind closed doors with Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, who is Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri's Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... top aide.
Suleiman discussed with Khalil the possibility of holding Wednesday's cabinet session without the attendance of Hizbullah ministers, where the funding of the STL would be approved without causing embarrassment to any party.
Leb is responsible for meeting 49 percent of the costs of the STL, which has charged four Hizbullah members in the February 14, 2005 liquidation of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others.
Suleiman suggests that this solution will safeguard Leb, as it confirms Leb's commitment to the international resolutions, according to al-Liwaa.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... Hizbullah refused the president's proposal, stressing that its ministers will attend all the cabinet's sessions.
The cabinet is expected to witness a heated debate on Wednesday as the funding of the STL has deepened the rift between the cabinet members.
Hizbullah and its allies in the cabinet, the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... and AMAL, refuse to fund the STL, while Miqati and his allies stress on the importance of committing to paying Leb's dues.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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[Al Ahram] The "moderate Islamist" Wasat Party accuses the Moslem Brüderbund of stealing ballot papers in Damietta. Neither the Brotherhood nor its Freedom and Justice Party are yet to comment on the accusation. Needless to say
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] President Barack I inhaled. That was the point Obama sees the deaths of 24 Pak soldiers in a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... raid as a tragedy, the White House said Monday, but argued that crisis-wracked US-Pak ties were vital to both sides.
White House front man Jay Carney said Obama believed Saturday's attack which threw US-Pak ties into turmoil was "a tragedy," adding that "we mourn those brave Pak service members that bit the dust." "We take this matter very seriously," said Carney, adding that two inquiries by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and US Central Command would examine what took place.
"As for our relationship with Pakistain, it continues to be an important cooperative relationship that is also very complicated," Carney said.
"It is very much in America's national security interest to maintain a cooperative relationship with Pakistain because we have shared interests in the fight against terrorism," Carney said.
Pakistain earlier vowed no more "business as usual" with the United States but stopped short of threatening to break the troubled alliance altogether.
NATO and the United States are trying to limit fallout from the attack but Islamabad has shut vital supply routes to the 140,000 foreign troops serving in Afghanistan.
Pakistain called the strike "unprovoked," worsening US-Pak relations which were already in crisis after the killing in May of the late Osama bin Laden ... Maybe his Mom misses him... north of Islamabad by US special forces.
The Wall Street Journal, following a similar report by Britannia's Guardian newspaper, cited three Afghan officials and one Western official as saying the air raid was called in to shield allied forces targeting Taliban fighters.
NATO and Afghan forces "were fired on from a Mighty Pak Army base," the unnamed Western official told the Journal. "It was a defensive action." An Afghan official said the Kabul government believes the fire came from the Pak military base -- and not from Death Eaters. Afghan-Pak relations suffer from routine mutual recriminations.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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#6
Looks like neither Pakistan nor the USA is in a reconciliatory mood just yet ...
To wit,
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > US [Top Commander] REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE FOR FOR PAKISTAN AIR STRIKE THAT KILLED 24 SOLDIERS.
JCS Chair General Martin Dempsey.
* SAME > PAKISTAN [has]DECIDED NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN BONN CONFERENCE, as chaired by the Afghans.
* SAME > KARZAI URGES PAKISTAN TO RECONSIDER BONN BOYCOTT.
* SAME > [Polling Positions survey] MOST AMERICANS [55%] SEE PAKISTAN AS AN ENEMY, as per PP Poll taken one day after deadly NATO air strike.
Approximately 26.0% are neutral while 7.0% see Pakland as a friend of the US.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTAN ARMY OFFICERS CANCEL US VISITS [ + UK] - US OFFICERS NOT WELCOME IN PAKISTAN.
* SAME > LASH BACK: JD ["Jawatuud Dawa" Group] VOWS TO TURN PAKISTAN INTO TALIBAN STATE, + recruit + train Pak youths to wage Jihad agz the US + India, + apostate pro-Zionist, Crusader Pakistani Govt. iff it fails to punish or kick the US out of Pakistan because of the NATO air strike agz Pak troops.
versus
* NEWS KERALA > AFGHANISTAN TO APPEAL TO WEST NOT TO ABANDON IT LIKE THE SOVIETS IN 1980's.
POst-2014, the Afghan Govt-State believes it will need a minima of US$10.0Bilyuhn a year from foreign donors [Average = US$15.0Bilyuhn now].
Lest we fergit, AFGHANISTAN + EVEN PAKISTAN [AFPAK] = AMERICA'S "POTUS TEDDY ROOSEVELT" MOMENT, ee IFF THE US CAN'T DEVELOP SAME INTO MODERN PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATIC STATES, NO ONE CAN.
[WILL SMITH = "WILD WILD WEST" MOVIE here].
FYI the OIC, Pak BFF China, Russia, + Iran are throwing their support behind Pakistan in this incident.
E.g. IIRC DAILY TIMES.PK > US FANNING TERRORISM, FLOUTING INTERNATIONAL LAWS: CHINA.
[Washington Post] The latest U.S.-Pakistain peeing contest threatened Monday to undo months of efforts to placate the Paks, and to undermine the Obama's administration's strategy for dumping Afghanistan.
Administration officials did not respond to Pak demands for an apology for the cross-border U.S. Arclight airstrike that killed at least 24 Pak soldiers early Saturday morning. Instead, they expressed condolences for the loss of life while saying the facts about what happened were still under investigation. ... and increasingly looking like a setup...
Both sides said they believed they were attacking gunnies along the border. A senior Pak defense official acknowledged his troops fired first, sending a flare, followed by mortars and machinegun fire, toward what he said was "suspicious activity" in the brush-covered area below their high-level outpost barely 500 yards from the border.
Continued on Page 49
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#1
ION NEWS KERALA > DEATH OF ZAWAHIRI, LIBI MAY DEFEAT AL-QAEDA: US OFFICIALS.
#2
We really do need to hit Pakistan with a full-fledged ARCLIGHT strike on Rawalpindi/Islamabad, just to get their attention, and let them know they're a chihuahua attacking a pair of Great Danes. They'll keep playing both sides until we stomp the living sh$$ out of them once, and let them know we can do it again any time we choose. Duplicity is ingrained in the Pakistani/Islamist character, and the only thing they fear is a bigger stick. Until we show we have that stick, they'll continue to snip at us from the shadows, knowing we won't respond. They really need to learn there are consequences to bad behavior, and we have the means to impose those consequences. Of course, the current moron in chief doesn't have the WILL to impose those consequences, so American service members will continue to die from Pakistani duplicity.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/29/2011 13:46
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Duplicate from yesterday, but keeping anon1's comment:
More at the source, Northern Territory News, main newspaper for Darwin Australia where there will be a new placement of 2500 US Troops. This is a big deal for the region, it is changing the regional shift of power. The Aussies love the US and are glad they are coming. The Indonesians and Chinese are not happy. This small-seeming move signals a HUGE shift in geopolitical priorities of the US towards the Pacific. US President even visited Darwin a small city of 100,000 people who have never seen a world leader in their lives.
#2
See also TOPIX > [USA = Ten Plausible] REASONS TO GO TO DARWIN.
The one I found most interesting is that the overcommitted, undersized-n-getting-smaller US 7th Fleet is likely unable to effectively cover the SCS to the satisfaction of ASEAN allies + neutrals, hence the need for the US to set up Marines in AUS???
versus
* WORLD MIL FORUM > PLA GENERAL LIN ZHUO: CHINA SENDS MORE PLAN WARSHIPS THROUGH OKINAWA-TAIWAN STRAITS TO TEST/MEASURE US + JAPAN ATTITUDES, espec as vee the encirclement of China.
* SAME > "DEUTSCH WELLE" GERMAN MEDIA: CHINA TO BEGIN BUILDING "BEIJING" CLASS LARGE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS IN 2014, SECOND "BEIJING" CARRIER TO BE NUCLEAR-POWERED + OPERATIONAL AFTER 2020.
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > [Asia Times] CHINA HAS TAKEN CONTROL OF SEVERAL US SATELLITES.
* SAME > {AUS Liberal Party Chief]TURNBULL CALLS FOR BROAD ALLIANCE WID CHINA.
ARTIC = Australia better served by seeking multi-polar Regional POWER BALANCE, NOT [US-style = unilateral/asymmetric?] POWER ENFORCEMENT, espec vee Rising China.
[Yemen Post] Tens of thousands of women marched nationwide calling the international community to hold the Saleh regime accountable for the crimes it committed against unarmed protesters.
Women were present in large numbers around Yemen mainly in San'a, Taiz, and Hodeida. Carrying their children in their arms, they insisted on coming up and supporting the call for change.
"I am marching in support for a better future for my kids who are next to me now," said Afrah al-Shuja, a housewife who was surrounded by three of her children.
Women in Yemen have played leading roles in ensuring change in the country. Some are going to the extreme and saying that the Yemen revolution is also a women's revolution.
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Some are going to the extreme and saying that the Yemen revolution is also a women's revolution.
And then butterflies flew out of their collective keisters.
[Dawn] The US military will press ahead with its war effort in Afghanistan despite Pakistain's decision to cut off supplies to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... -led forces after lethal air strikes, the Pentagon said Monday.
Pakistain promptly sealed its border with Afghanistan to NATO supplies after allied strikes killed 24 Pak soldiers near the border on Saturday.
"The war effort continues," press secretary George Little told news hounds.
Asked how long US and coalition forces could operate without supplies from routes running through Pakistain, he said: "I don't have a time line to share. But the important point to focus on is the war effort will continue. Everyone realizes we have an enemy to engage in Afghanistan and the US military is prepared to carry on." Nearly half of all cargo bound for NATO-led troops runs through Pakistain.
Roughly 140,000 foreign troops, including about 97,000 American forces, rely on
supplies from the outside for the war in Afghanistan.
But the United States also depends on Islamabad's tacit cooperation to wage war against al Qaeda and Talibs inside Pakistain, with the CIA carrying out an intense campaign of air strikes using unmanned drone aircraft.
The top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, has asked US Central Command to lead an investigation into the air strikes, Little said.
The American military's Central Command oversees US forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) sent an initial assessment team over the weekend to the border to collect facts surrounding the incident, he said.
Both Allen and the military's top-ranking officer, General Martin Dempsey, spoke to the Mighty Pak Army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... about the incident, he said.
"Obviously they did express their condolences and regrets but I think everyone realizes the facts need to be collected, analyzed and that the investigation needs to unfold," he said.
The Pentagon front man also said he could not confirm reports that Pakistain had banned US government aircraft or ordered the CIA out of the Shamsi air base, which has reportedly been used for US drone strikes against thugs.
"I'm not aware of any US military personnel at that base," Little said.
After the air strikes, Pakistain's cabinet ministers and military chiefs ordered the United States to leave the Shamsi air base within 15 days.
The remote desert outpost in southwest Pakistain is reportedly used as a hub for covert CIA drone strikes, which Islamabad previously told the United States to leave in June.
The role of the air base remains unclear as the CIA also uses air fields in neighbouring Afghanistan to stage missile attacks with unmanned robotic planes against suspected al Qaeda and Talibs.
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I'm not aware of any US military personnel at that base," Little said.
A political press secretary who can actually say the right thing? I'm shocked - knock me over with a feather.
[Dawn] Two workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... who hailed from Gilgit-Baltistan, were rubbed out in a Gulshan-i-Iqbal locality, police said on Sunday.
They said the bodies of the two men were found late on Saturday night at around 12.45am in Gulshan-i-Iqbal's Block 4 near a private hospital.Gulshan-i-Iqbal SHO Dost Mohammad told Dawn that initially it appeared that the victims were killed somewhere else and the bodies were dumped at the scene. However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the police found two spent bullet casings at the crime-scene, which suggested that they were killed at the same place where their bodies were found. The two men were shot in the head, he added.
A memory card found on one of the victims helped the police in establishing the identities of the victims, said the police, adding that they were identified as Sikandar, son of Hamza, and Naseer, son of Kaseer Ahmed, both in their late twenties.
The police said that Sikandar was the MQM's sector-in-charge for Gilgit-Baltistan and had arrived here about a week back.
They said a paternal uncle of Sikandar lived in Soldier Bazar No 2 and the victims were living there.
The bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.
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[An Nahar] Egyptians flocked to the polls on Monday for a first post-revolution election, making a mostly orderly and joyous start to their transition to democracy after a week of violence and political crisis.
Ten months since the end of 30 years of autocratic rule by Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , ousted by popular protests in one of the seminal events of the Arab Spring, up to 40 million voters are being asked to choose a new parliament.
"It was no use to vote before. Our voices were completely irrelevant," Mona Abdul Moneim, one of several women who said they were voting for the first time, told Agence La Belle France Presse in the Shubra district of Cairo.
Voting for the lower house of parliament is taking place in three stages beginning in the main cities of Cairo, Alexandria and other areas, with the moderate Islamist group the Moslem Brüderbund expected to triumph.
The highly complex procedure to elect a full assembly will end in March.
The backdrop was ominous after a week of protests calling for the resignation of the interim military rulers who stepped in after Mubarak's fall, with 42 people killed and more than 3,000 injured.
Voting passed off peacefully and the polling booths closed at the extended time of 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) to enable the thousands who waited for hours in long queues to cast their ballots.
"We were surprised that people turned out to vote in large numbers, thank God," Abdul Moez Ibrahim, who heads the High Judicial Elections Commission (HJEC), told news hounds, adding that there had been no security problems.
The poll was endangered last week as unrest gripped the country, but military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi stuck defiantly to the schedule and called for a large turnout.
Much remains unclear about how the new parliament will function and whether it will be able to resolve a standoff with the armed forces over how much power they will retain under a new constitution to be written next year. The formerly banned Moslem Brüderbund, a moderate Islamist group, is widely expected to emerge as the largest power but without an outright majority when results for the lower parliament are published on January 13. Hardline Islamists, secular parties and groups representing the interests of the former Mubarak regime are all expected to win seats, raising the prospect of a highly fragmented and ideologically split legislature.
"I'm voting for the future of Egypt," declared Youssef, a 25-year-old software engineer in the al-Raml district of Alexandria, Egypt's second biggest city and a major Mediterranean port.
"This is the first free election in our country. I hope it will be the first fair election," he told AFP.
The stakes could not be higher for Egypt, but the conduct and results of the election will also have repercussions for the entire Middle East at a time of wrenching change.
"For most Arabs, the primary examples of democratic processes in the Arab world are in Iraq and Leb," said Bruce Rutherford, a Middle East specialist and author on Egypt at the U.S.-based Colgate University.
"In both cases, elections produced weak, fragmented, and largely ineffectual governments.
"If Egypt produces the same result, then the appeal of democracy in the region may be weakened. However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... if the Egyptian experience is positive ... the effect could be very powerful."
Egypt, with a fast-growing population of more than 80 million, is a former British protectorate ruled by military leaders for most of its history since independence in 1922.
The fresh protests last week stemmed from fears that Tantawi and his fellow generals, initially welcomed as a source of stability in the days after Mubarak's fall, were looking to consolidate their power. Critics say they have also been too quick to resort to the repressive techniques of the Mubarak regime, jailing dissidents and unleashing deadly violence on dissent.
The leading new civilian powers -- a pro-democracy movement in iconic Tahrir Square, the Moslem Brüderbund and future presidential hopefuls Mohammed ElBaradei and Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who has been head of the Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... -- have been caught in the uncertainty.
The Tahrir movement, named after the square where protests began against Mubarak, is deeply divided over whether to take part in the elections and lend legitimacy to the military rulers. By contrast, the Moslem Brüderbund has supported a poll from which it expects to capitalize.
"We expect to win. We've been working with the people for a long time," one volunteer, Fayiz Mohammed Shaarawi, told AFP outside a polling station in the Manian district of Cairo.
After two days of voting in the first stage of the elections for the lower parliament, other cities and regions will follow on December 14 and January 3. After these, another round of voting will take place from January 29 for the upper house of parliament, and presidential elections are to be held by no later than the end of June.
Mubarak, who is on trial for murder and corruption along with his two sons, is expected to be following events from a Cairo military hospital where he is reportedly being treated for cancer.
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[An Nahar] An Iraqi member of parliament was maimed and at least two other people killed on Monday in a mortar attack near parliament in Storied Baghdad's ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... heavily fortified Green Zone, an MP and security officials said.
"A mortar round landed near parliament's car park. One colleague, (MP) Muayid al-Tayyeb, was maimed," MP Ali al-Shila told Agence La Belle France Presse.
An interior ministry official said two people were killed when a mortar round hit the car park, and a defense ministry official said three people were killed and four maimed by an kaboom in a parliament parking area.
According to the Iraqi parliament website, 185 MPs attended the session held on Monday.
The shelling came after 15 people were killed in bombings near and in the Iraqi capital.
Violence has declined nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 258 people were killed in October, according to official figures.
General Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has warned of "turbulence" on the security front as American forces depart and bad turban groups including al-Qaeda seek to take advantage of the vacuum.
U.S. troops are set to depart by year's end.
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[An Nahar] The Phalange Party The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology. on Monday warned that the current political bickering in the country might lead to a "dangerous power impasse" and called for forming a "salvation government."
"The domestic arena needs to be immunized in the face of the storms lashing the region," the Phalange Party's political bureau urged after its weekly meeting, calling for the formation of a "salvation government enjoying the necessary sense of responsibility and disregard of personal interests."
The party noted that the thorny issue of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb must not only revolve about whether to finance or not finance the court, but rather about Leb's "approach towards justice."
"The (2007) U.N. resolution on the tribunal was passed under Chapter 7 and it became in the custody of the Security Council; hence, the Lebanese situation cannot influence it anymore," it added.
The Phalange politburo called on everyone to "show responsibility, first towards the dozens of deaders who must be served justice through the unveiling of their killers, and second towards the international community which is helping Leb leave behind the principle of impunity from prosecution and join the ranks of countries enjoying deep-rooted democracy."
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[An Nahar] French military forces are training armed Syrian rebels in Turkey and Leb to fight the government of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , a Turkish newspaper has reported.
In Lebanon? Does Hizb'allah know?
According to Milliyet, as cited by The Islamic Theocratic Republic News Agency, IRNA, the French forces are training the so-called Free Syrian Army to wage war against Syria's military.
The report said the French, British, and Turkish authorities "have reached an agreement to send arms into Syria."
The three countries have also informed the U.S. about the training and arming the Syrian opposition, it said.
The rebel army has stepped up attacks on regime targets in recent weeks in a bid to topple Assad's government which has waged a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters since mid-March.
The Free Syrian Army claims to have some 20,000 deserters in its ranks. The group's chief, Riad al-Assaad, is based in Turkey.
The report came after the media also revealed that the British and French intelligence agencies have tasked their agents with contacting Syrian dissidents based in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli to help fuel the unrest in Syria.
Reports also said that French agents have been sent to northern Leb and Turkey to build the first contingents of the Free Syrian Army out of the deserters who have decamped Syria.
This article starring:
Riad al-Assaad
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[Dawn] Around 300 heavy vehicles -- 200 container-mounted trailers and 100 tankers -- on an average had been setting off from the city port for Afghanistan daily to transport supplies meant for the US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces fighting the Taliban until the operation suddenly came to a halt on Sunday.
The enormous vehicular traffic was taken off the Bloody Karachi-Qandahar route stretching across the National Highway into Chaman and further onward into Kabul via Khyber Pass after the NATO attacked Pakistain Army's outposts in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency, killing and wounding many soldiers.
Responding to Dawn queries, Khyber Transport Association chief Shakir Afridi said that one oil tanker having a capacity of around 50,000 to 60,000 litres cost between Rs4 million and Rs5 million and the transport fare was charged at a rate of around Rs12 per litre. "It takes 15 and 20 days for a return trip depending on the situation, which usually remains fluid," he added.
Similarly, he said, a trailer carrying a 40-foot container cost between Rs3.5 million and Rs4.5 million and charged a fare between Rs200,000 and Rs250,000. Each of the vehicles normally had a two/three member crew -- a driver and his support staff, claiming a monthly salary of around Rs35,000 and Rs20,000, respectively.
Mr Afridi said that each member organization of his association owned around 2,000 oil tankers and 3,500 trailers and handled between 85 and 90 per cent of the Afghanistan-bound supplies for the allied forces.
Regarding compensation for losses in the transportation process, he said the amount varied between Rs3 million and Rs3.5 million for each oil tanker destroyed in a blast or an arson attack which did not cover the entire loss and was paid three to four months after the incident. The situation for trailer-owners was worse as they did not get any compensation, he lamented.
He said the poor crew of the vehicles was fully exposed to all sorts of risks as they were not only vulnerable to armed attacks but only to accidents and other hazards. "Not a single penny is paid to them as compensation for death or injury," he said.
Ready to sacrifice
livelihood
Mr Afridi, whose business totally depends on handling of allied forces' supplies, appeared very clear on Pakistain's response to the Saturday raid.
Condemning the allied forces, he said that Pakistain should put its foot down and accept no apologies in this regard. He expressed his dismay over Pakistain's response against similar incidents in the past. "Every time they violated the Pakistain border and killed Paks in attacks, Islamabad restricted its response to registering protests and briefly suspending the transportation of supply."
He was of the view that Pakistain must take a tough stand over such attacks to settle the issue once and for all so that the allied forces did not dare repeat such acts.
In reply to a question that he might also lose his business for good once the supplies were stopped for good, Mr Afridi said he did not care about the livelihood as he believed that "Almighty Allah is the provider".
He said his association was with the government and the army and it would fully support any decision taken by the country's leadership.
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#1
Around 300 heavy vehicles ... oil tanker having a capacity of around 50,000 to 60,000 litres charged at a rate of around Rs12 per litre. ... a 40-foot container charged a fare between Rs200,000 and Rs250,000.
That comes to $430-503 million/year paid to Paki truck transport costs alone. That doesn't take into account stolen merchandise or destroyed trucks/drivers. With US aid over $4 billion last year, the Paki economy relies on keeping the Afghan war going and Obama tripled down on it.
[An Nahar] Syria's military and security forces have committed crimes against humanity in their deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters, U.N.-appointed Sherlocks said on Monday.
State forces have murdered, raped and tortured demonstrators since the beginning of protests in March this year, according to evidence gathered by the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria.
The panel interviewed 223 victims and witnesses, among them security force defectors, who told of shoot to kill orders to crush demonstrators and cases of children being tortured to death.
"The commission is gravely concerned that crimes against humanity have been committed in different locations in the Syrian Arab Republic during the period under review," it said in its report, while concluding that military and security forces were behind the acts.
"The sheer scale and consistent pattern of attacks by military and security forces on civilians and civilian neighborhoods and the widespread destruction of property could only be possible with the approval or complicity of the State," the panel said.
Defectors from military and security forces told the commission that they received orders to shoot at unarmed protesters without warning.
They, together with militias, had conducted joint operations with "shoot to kill" orders, notably in Latakia in early April and in a suburb of the city in August.
"The protesters called for freedom. They carried olive branches and marched with their children," a witness was quoted as saying.
"We were ordered to either disperse the crowd or eliminate everybody, including children. We opened fire."
The panel heard of sniper attacks on people leading marches and on those trying to rescue the maimed.
Torture and killings reportedly took place in the Homs Military Hospital by security forces dressed as doctors and abuse of detainees was described as "rampant" at the detention facilities of the Air Force Intelligence Branch at Mazzeh airport near Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
The report highlighted the case of 14-year-old detainee Thamir al-Sharee from the town of Sayda whose postmortem showed injuries consistent with torture.
A 40-year-old man told the panel he witnessed the rape of an 11-year-old boy by three security services officers.
The commission said Syria had violated the right to life, to peaceful assembly and to freedom of movement among others.
It called on the government to put an "immediate end to gross human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... violations" and launch an independent investigation into the violence.
The report also acknowledged the existence of the "Free Syrian Army," a group of defectors it said had grabbed credit for armed attacks against military and security forces and in its list of recommendations the panel urged opposition groups to respect international human rights law.
The Human Rights Council set up the commission in August to investigate human rights violations in Syria where the U.N. estimates at least 3,500 people have been killed.
The panel met with regional organizations including the Organization of the Islamic Conference OIC is an international organisation with a permanent delegation to the UN, with 57 member states. It represents all countries with substantial Moslem populations (as opposed to the Arab League, which excludes members not of the Master Race) except those which member countries block from joining. These include India, which has more Mohammedans than does Pakistain, whose membership is vetoed by Pakistain... and the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... as it gathered evidence from the end of September to the middle of November but was not allowed to carry out its work inside Syria.
The council will study the report by the three experts, Karen Koning AbuZayd from the United States, Turk Yakin Erturk and Paulo Sergio Pinheiro from Brazil, at its 19th session taking place in March.
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[Dawn] Though former president Gen (retired) Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... had claimed to organise his All Pakistain Mohammedan League in all districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... he has failed to nominate provincial office-bearers of his party so far.
Owing to lack of strong organizational structure at the centre and provincial levels, the party could not attract people. The central leader of APML, Barrister Saif, at a presser, had assigned duties to some people about one year ago to organise the party in the province but no practical step had been taken since then.
In the beginning few former nazims ...small time big shot, the chief elected official of a local government in Pakistan, such as a district, tehsil, union council, or village council... wished to join APML, but owing to delay in nomination of its provincial office-bears they avoided joining it.
Advocate Moazam Butt, who joined the party few months ago, was assigned the duty of its provincial front man but now he has formed a separate party 'Qayum League' and is carrying out activities from the new platform. Though he claims that he is still associated with APML, provincial organiser Aurangzeb Mohmand, ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... says that Mr Butt is no more member of the party.
On the other hand, most of the politicians in the province use to criticise the policies of Musharraf's government when they have nothing to say in the public meetings.
The provincial leaders of Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz, Pakistain People's Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... Pakistain Tehrik-i-Insaf and Jamiat Ulema-i- Islam often mention the name of Musharraf in their public gatherings.
"A few days ago we held a meeting at Dubai and discussed all these issues. Pervez Musharraf directed all the organisers to find reasonable personalities to be named as office-bearers at different levels," Mr Mohmand told Dawn.
He claimed that several big shots of different political parties, including PML-Q, and former nazims in the province had promised to join APML. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... Moazam Butt had no association with the party and a suitable person would be made front man very soon, he added. "We are looking for committed people to be inducted in the provincial cabinet," he said and added that Mr Musharraf had promised to make him provincial president of the party.
Mr Mohmand claimed that Mr Musharraf would return to the country in January to strengthen the party before the next general elections. He said that they were in contact with different political parties including PTI for electoral alliance in the next general elections. He said that his leader was ready to face all kinds of cases and he would arrive in January despite all problems.
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[Al Ahram] The first day of the maiden post-revolution parliamentary elections witnessed several drawbacks and violations across the nation, most of which were reportedly committed by the Moslem Brüderbund. Yet, it is fair to say that, on the whole, the ballot opener turned out to be way better than initially expected.
The elections got underway on 28 November as scheduled, in spite of political turmoil and further deteriorating security in Egypt in the wake of severe festivities that took place between protesters and Central Security Forces, and lasted for days in Tahrir Square and surrounding streets this month.
Last week's bloody festivities, which saw over 40 killed and several thousand injured, significantly intensified revolutionaries' calls for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to immediately hand over power to a national salvation government led by presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee.
The anti-SACF demonstrators believe a parliament under the ruling SCAF would have no real constitutional authority and insisted the military rulers had to step down before elections. Subsequently, they joined the current Tahrir Square sit-in that up until yesterday consisted of many thousands, boycotting the polling.
As police forces used batons, tear gas and even live ammunition against pro-democracy demonstrators during the confrontations, many also demanded the postponement of the ongoing elections, saying security has to improve first in order to ensure transparency and safety of the ballot. Nonetheless, protests against SCAF and worries about the stuttering security status seem to be negligible the next day as elections got underway as schedules, with the overwhelming majority of Egypt's voters casting their votes against all odds. And meanwhile, numbers in Tahrir dramatically decreased.
The numerous electoral committees, which were primarily stationed at school buildings, saw incredibly long queues of voters as the voting process lasted, at least theoretically, for over 12 hours.
The scene evoked memories of March's nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments proposed by SCAF, which was approved by most of the voters. It was widely regarded as Egyptians' first experience of democracy. The first day of elections was similarly acclaimed by many.
"For weeks, I have been planning to boycott elections and was even trying to persuade the people I know into following suit," Wafaa Abou Ouf, a 63-year-old senior citizen, told Ahram Online. "But after I saw the lines on TV I changed my mind and will go to vote Tuesday."
The elections' opening day was far from violation-free though, with the Moslem Brüderbund, who are tipped to comprise the majority of the coming parliament, accused of several breaches. The Brotherhood were already slated by many from across the political for boycotting the latest Tahrir Square sit-in. Their critics said they are only pursuing their own interests by making sure the elections would be held. Now, they are facing a new wave of criticism.
Leafleting
Egyptian law stipulates electoral candidates and political parties must halt leafleting 48 hours before polling. This particular law was repeatedly broken today, especially by the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) who reportedly committed other infringements throughout the day. Reports of intensive FJP and Brotherhood campaigning, including leafleting, have intensively come in from Ahram Online news hounds and elsewhere around the country. Social network sites have also been publishing dozens of photos and videos showing FJP supporters campaigning before polling stations.
In the Abrahimya district in Alexandria, for instance, FJP and Salafist ...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't... Al-Nour Party volunteers were heavily leafleting polling stations, claiming ignorance when told their actions were in violation of the law.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... Ahmed Abu Baraka, one of the leaders of the FJP, denied reports that the party is violating electoral rules and handing out campaign flyers in front of polling stations. Abu Baraka accused the media of "systematically" spreading these rumours, which he says are completely false.
"None of the members of FJP has committed any violations of the rules, and what is happening now is a systematic media campaign against us by our competitors who own satellite channels and are violating the rules of ethical journalism," Abu Baraka said.
In the meantime, the Islamist Wasat Party filed a complaint in Fayoum against the FJP for breaching election laws by leafleting outside electoral polls and using microphones to call on people to vote for their candidates. Other non-FJP candidates were also campaigning.
The Amira Fawzia School in Maadi saw journalist Moustafa Bakry, one of the candidates, has been leafleting at the polling stations too, causing arguments among the voters as many objected that this is in violation of the ban on campaigning during the ballot. In Assiut, a car with an amplifier was reportedly calling voters to vote for one of the independent candidates, which is also against the law but on the bright side not threatening the welfare of voters, unlike thuggery.
Thuggery
As promised by SCAF, joint troops from the army and CSF heavily secured the electoral committees and voters. Security forces kept acts of thuggery to a minimum, contrary to initial fears that candidates from the now-defunct National Democratic Party (NDP) would stoop to violence in order to rig elections.
The 2010 elections, the last parliamentary ballot in the 30-year tenure of toppled president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , were blatantly orchestrated by the then ruling NDP who eliminated almost all the opposition forces. The electoral scandal was one of the catalysts that triggered the January 25 Revolution.
The ongoing elections are nowhere near as chaotic and manipulated as last year's poll, or those previous ones to it. Nevertheless, thugs were not completely ruled out this year. The Egyptian Coalition for Electoral Observation said in an official statement that it "found thuggish acts in some voting stations".
"In El-Zawia El-Hamra Voting Centre, thugs prevented people from reaching the polling stations. The civil society organizations' observers were prevented from reaching the voting stations, too," read the statement, which mentioned many other violations that were spotted on the elections' opening day.
"The coalition observers monitored thuggish acts in front of El-Salam Primary School, in El-Zawya El-Hamra and El-Abedin School in Downtown Cairo. In Assiut, thugs in El-Badary Village prevented the voters from reaching the polling stations," the same statement added.
What's more, angry voters in Mattariya have taken hostage the election judge at the polling station in Ahmed Shawki School. They locked him up in protest for making them wait for long hours, for no apparent reason. Several disputes took place for what appeared to be lack of organization.
Delays
Polling, on paper, should have started at 8:00a.m., but practically many electoral committees in different districts started to receive votes nearly at 1:00p.m., leaving many voters bemoaning while waiting for hours to reach the ballot boxes.
The Operations Room of the National Council for Human Rights has received many complaints pertain to delays in opening polling stations across the country, with many putting the delay down to lack of organization. At the Amira Fawzeya school in Maadi, a wealthy suburb in southern Cairo, poor organization saw one of the polling stations open at 12:00p.m., four hours later than scheduled as frustrations initially boiled over in the first parliamentary elections, according to an Ahram Online news hound.
"I decided to be positive and come and vote, I did my duty but they are forcing me to hate the whole process," an angry man, who arrived early in the morning to take a leading position in what turned out to be a very long queue, shouted after one of the judges failed to show up on time, an Ahram Online news hound said.
The Egyptian Coalition for Electoral Observation said there were no ballot papers in some of the committees, such as in Dawedar, El-Kawmia, Ibn Khaldon Schools and Helmia Industrial School in Nasr City, Cairo, which was cited by many as a possible reason for the delay.
With less than half an hour to go before voting finished, the Egyptian Current Party also revealed that peripheral polling stations in the Ain Shams district of Cairo have yet to take delivery of their ballot papers, with voters running out of patience.
Bribes and other complaints
Buying off votes has always been one of the most infamous drawbacks in the parliamentary elections that were held throughout Mubarak's rule, and that people were hoping not see during the ongoing ballot. That was not the case unfortunately. Some political forces have reportedly resorted to bribes in order to win votes. Once again, the Brotherhood's name was brought up in this accusation.
According to El-Badeel news website, several political parties are engaged in buying votes in Cairo and Alexandria. Evidence, if there was any, is yet to emerge to substantiate the allegation. Election observers have told El-Badeel that among the offenders are the Brotherhood's FJP, the Salafist Nour Party, established liberal party Wafd, and members of the dissolved NDP who have all been buying off voters with mobile phone credit and meat in various impoverished neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea... there were other concerns that ballot papers have not been stamped by the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC). The Egyptian Coalition for Electoral Observation documented that problem, highlighting that the same setback occurred during the constitutional referendum in March.
In other complaints cited by the Egyptian Coalition for Electoral Observation, some independent candidates were transporting voters to vote for them El-Ashraf Primary School, which is also against the law.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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The lower house will be holding elections and runoffs through Jan 2012. Then the Upper house will have elections and runoffs through Mar 2012.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/29/2011 7:50
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[Dawn] Pakistain vowed no more "business as usual" with the United States after NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... strikes killed 24 Pak soldiers, but stopped short on Monday of threatening to break the troubled alliance altogether.
NATO and the United States had sought to limit the fallout of Saturday's attack as Pakistain shut vital supply routes to the 140,000 foreign troops serving in Afghanistan and ordered a review of its US alliance.
Washington has backed a full inquiry and sent its condolences, while NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Sunday voiced regret over the "tragic, unintended" killings, but did not issue a full apology.
In response Pakistain has dug in its heels, reacting furiously to what it called an "unprovoked" strike, worsening US-Pak relations already in crisis after the killing in May of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones... north of Islamabad by US special forces.
In an interview with CNN, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... said incidents such as at the NATO cross-border attack further alienated the Pak masses, leaving his government isolated in its unpopular alliance with the US.
"Business as usual will not be there, therefore we have to have something bigger so that to satisfy my nation, the entire country," he said in English.
Asked whether the US-Pak alliance can continue, he replied: "That can continue on mutual respect and mutual interest", adding that both were currently lacking.
"If I can't protect the illusory sovereignty of my country how can we say it's a mutual respect and mutual interest?"
It remains unclear what happened at the dead of night in some of the most hostile terrain on Earth. Afghan and Western officials reportedly said the Paks opened fire first. Pakistain insists the attack was unprovoked.
NATO and Afghan forces "were fired on from a Mighty Pak Army base", a Western official told the Wall Street Journal. "It was a defensive action." An Afghan border police commander, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... as officials have been told not to speak to media before an investigation is completed, said NATO troops hardly ever open fire unless they are attacked.
"To me it's almost clear that they (Isaf) came under fire from that area. Without that they would have not returned fire," he told AFP.
He said Taliban, Afghan cops as well Pak security forces have posts very close to each other due to the rugged, mountainous terrain.
"This is not true. They are making up excuses. And by the way, what are their losses, casualties?" Major General Athar Abbas ... who is The Very Model of a Modern Major General... , Pakistain's chief military front man, wrote to AFP in a text message.
He later told Pak television channel Geo that 72 Pak soldiers have been killed and 250 maimed by fire from across the Afghan border over the last three years.
Asked about expressions of regret by NATO he said: "We do not accept it because such kind of attacks have been taking place in the past... Our leadership will decide about further reaction." British newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Monday quoted maimed survivors of the raid, who insisted they were victims of an unprovoked attack.
In retaliation, Islamabad has blocked NATO convoys from crossing into Afghanistan, ordered a review of its alliance with the US and is mulling whether to boycott a key conference on Afghanistan next month.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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#1
They are just about as upset as when the US offed Osama. I wonder if it is for similar reasons?
#3
The other report posted on Rantburg said that (a) the Americans took fire from the Pak position (b) the Pakistani said they had no troops in the area.
My guess is someone knows it is easier to ride the anti-American bandwagon than confront the folk in Pakistan with their screw up.
#5
DAILY TIMES.PK > US MUST APOLOGIZE IFF PAKISTAN STRIKE IN ERROR: SENATOR [Diane Feinstein].
Also from SAME > PAKISTAN BASE [Shamsi AB] NOT CRUCUAL FOR US DRONE STRIKES.
* SAME > PAKISTAN EXPECTED [anticipated]MOHMAND-STYLE ATTACK, post-Abbottabad + given well-reported US desires to make increasing use of CIA + SpecFors assets as it begins to downsize its overall military presence. HOWEVER, PAKISTAN EXPECTED SUCH AN ATTACK TO OCCUR AT LEAST SIX MONTHS [or more] FROM NOW.
HHMMMM, HMMMM, so IIUC, the post-Osama Pak Govt. was expecting or anticipating an eventual future armed or violent clash/confrontation between US, NATO? + PAK Army military elements???
IS IT JUST ME, OR IS PAKISTAN ROUNDABOUTLY = PDENIABLY ADMITTING THAT IT DID + WAS PROTECTING OSAMA AT ABBOTTABAD, ANDOR SPONSORS REGIONAL TERROR, INCLUDING TERROR WIDIN ITS OWN BORDERS???
Posted by: Fred ||
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Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Anna Faris aka Cindy Campbell in "Scary Movie (1-4)" aka Lashawn Malone in "Brokeback Mountain" aka Samantha James in "Just Friends" aka Hannah Lewis in "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" aka Shelley Darlington in "The House Bunny" aka Nora Flannigan in "Mama's Boy" aka Wendy Franklin in "Take Me Home Tonight" (age 35)
Gloria Grahame aka Rosemary Bartlow in "The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) AW for Supporting" aka Ado Annie in "Oklahoma! (1955)" aka Violet Bick in "It's a Wonderful Life (1946)" aka Laurel Gray in "In a Lonely Place (1950)" aka Debby Marsh in "The Big Heat (1953)" aka Zama Cernik in "Man on a Tightrope (1953)" aka Vicki Buckley in "Human Desire (1954)" (Died in 1981 at age 57)
[Tolo News] A 12-member turban group laid down its weapons and surrendered to Afghan forces in western Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province on Sunday, the National Directorate for Security (NDS) said in a statement.
"Twelve armed beturbanned goons under Mullah Abdul Salam Dilawar handed over their weapons to security authorities in Adraskan district today and joined the grinding of the peace processor," the statement said.
Now these men have joined the grinding of the peace processor, security will be improve more in Adraskan district, it added.
The turbans' surrender comes as Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces conduct clearing operations around the country in advance of handing over responsibility for providing security to local troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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[An Nahar] The Internal Security Forces jugged on Monday a gunman, who along with another accomplice shot up the office of al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... movement MP Mohammed Kabbara in the northern city of Tripoli, Voice of Leb radio (93.3) reported.
Kabbara confirmed to VDL the attack, saying the security forces opened an investigation into the incident that occurred at dawn Sunday.
"Nothing scares us," Kabbara said.
VDL reported that the security cameras at the scene spotted two assailants whom it identified as Mustafa Tarsha and Khodr Fayyad.
Security officers were able to detain Tarsha, while the whereabouts of Fayyad, also known as al-Limby, are unknown, according to VDL.
"I don't accuse anyone, and the investigation will reveal who are behind these assailants," Kabbara said.
The army released a statement later on Monday saying that the assailants used a hunting rifle in their attack.
The statement added that it was an "individual incident."
The army urged the media not to "exaggerate in (reporting) the individual incidents that tend to happen from time to time to prevent its exploitation."
On Sunday, the MP joined a rally organized by al-Mustaqbal in Tripoli. He was among the speakers of the gathering.
Kabbara said that the rally was a continuation of the Cedar Revolution in 2005, which forced the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Leb following the liquidation of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February that year.
The MP denounced the role of the resistance in Leb and the Syrian regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] A Kenyan court issued an arrest warrant Monday for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. , wanted by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... on genocide charges.
Though Kenya has ratified the founding the ICC's founding Rome statute, it failed to arrest the Sudanese leader when he visited the country in August 2010.
Monday's high court ruling means that his arrest "should be effected by the Attorney General and the Minister for Internal Security should he ever set foot in Kenya," Judge Nicolas Ombija said.
Bashir is the subject of two arrest warrants issued by the ICC for atrocities committed in Darfur in western Sudan. The first was issued in March 2009 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The second was issued in July 2010 on charges of genocide.
The Sudanese President in August 2010 attended a ceremony in Nairobi to mark the adopting of Kenya's new constitution.
As a signatory of the ICC's founding treaty, Kenya was theoretically obliged to arrest Bashir when he entered the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Syrian regime forces and cut-throats loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... killed nine civilians across the country on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Among the dead were six civilians killed in the flashpoint central province of Homs, one in Hama and two cut down by powerful machineguns in Rankuss near Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... , said the London-based Observatory.
The U.N. estimates that more than 3,500 people have been killed in the violence that has shaken Syria since mid-March.
The armed and political wings of the Syrian opposition also took a step Monday toward increasing their cooperation.
A delegation from the opposition Syrian National Council headed by its leader Burhan Ghalioun met with the Turkey-based leader of the rebel Free Syrian Army, a group of army defectors who have recently been fighting back Assad's forces.
The SNC said the two sides agreed to form a joint committee tasked with coordinating movements on the ground.
The Syrian opposition has struggled to overcome infighting and disagreements over the country's future in order to present a unified, credible alternative to Assad. If the groups coalesce, they could persuade more Syrians to abandon the regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Ahram] All indicators in Alexandria show that Islamists parties are likely to win a large share of the seats in the parliamentary battle in the second the largest governorate in Egypt.
Alexandria will send 24 out of 498 representatives to the People's Assembly. 16 members will be elected on the basis of proportional representation from party and coalition lists across 2 large constituencies, while 8 seats will be filled by independents elected through 4 constituencies.
New eligible voters' lists that were prepared by the Supreme Electoral Commission after the January 25th revolution show that Alexandria has 3,024,000 voters; more than 40% of these voters are under the age of 30. Alexandria voters are expected to cast their ballots in 3349 poll stations.
The Mohammedan brotherhood (MB), which enjoys a mass base in Alexandria, announced a strategy to win more than 30% of the seats in the new parliament.
In the 2000 and 2005 parliamentary elections, the MB won more than half of the seats in Alexandria cashing on their popularity among the middle and upper middle classes in the governorate, but failed to win seats in the 2010 elections after widespread rigging by Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) in that year's contest.
Both the MB's Justice and Freedom party and Salafist ...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't...s' Al Nour Party are competing with full electoral lists and on all independent seats. The moderate Islamist Wassat party, a 1999 split from the Brotherhood, are only running through lists.
The MB are fielding some of the same candidates who scored a sweeping victory over the NDP in 2005 such as Hamdy Hassan and Sobhi Saleh. The well-known reformist Judge Mahmoud el-Khoudariy who is running on the MB's Freedom and Justice ticket as an independent in the Ramel constituency is battling Tarek Taalat Mostafa, a former leading member of ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's defunct National Democratic Party (NDP) member and one of the wealthiest construction tycoons in the country.
Some political experts believe that MB could win at least 11 out of the 24 seats in the governorate; six out of electoral lists and five independents. The Salafist Al Nour party, experts predict, might collect five or six seats, and finish second behind the MB in Alexandria.
Meanwhile, ...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to an abrupt and watery end... observers think that Wassat party, facing an uphill battle against the MB and salafists, might be unable to pick up any seats in the governorate.
Other Some observers here believe that the MB's chances of winning a majority of the seats might not be as strong as some predict becauseof the heavy voter turnout -- expected to reach 50% of eligible vote compared to only 23% in the 2005 contest -- might work against the Brotherhood.
Alexandria has a long history of tilting towards Islamists in elections. Both Salafists and the Brotherhood have performed well in parliamentary elections in the governorate since 1987.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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#1
I hope the Alexandrian's take to heart the threat by the radicals to destroy the new Alexandrian Library, because it is "un-Islamic". Those who espouse such ideas should be thrown off high cliffs onto jagged rocks below.
#4
We have to respect the wishes of the Egyptian people...Actually to hell with that. Islamonazis hardly respect the wishes of non-muz peoples. Popular nazis were still the enemy in WW2.
BHO: do you understand the concept "political Frankenstein?"
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Deadly violence rocked election day in the Democratic Republic of Congo Monday as polling stations in the giant central African nation came under attack from gunnies and voters angry at long delays.
Two coppers and a woman voter were killed and two soldiers were maimed when gunnies staged an assault on a voting station in the flashpoint city of Lubumbashi in the southeast of the country, a military front man said.
Armed men also swooped on a convoy of jeeps carrying election materials in Lubumbashi, while in the central town of Kananga voters torched a string of polling stations, amid complaints of undelivered ballots and long delays.
The run-up to the presidential and parliamentary votes had already been marred by violence pitting supporters of President Joseph Kabila against those of his chief rival, the veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi.
The 40-year-old Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, is tipped to win the single-round poll and secure another five-year term against a divided opposition field of 10 challengers.
The elections are just the second since back-to-back wars from 1996 to 2003 in a country that remains one of the world's poorest despite an abundance of cobalt, copper, diamonds and gold.
Logistical headaches in organising the vote in a nation two-thirds the size of western Europe -- and whose roads network is crumbling and limited after seven years of war and decades of under-development -- had raised fears the polls could be postponed.
In the most serious incident Monday, a military front man said two coppers were killed at point blank range and a female voter was hit by a deadly stray bullet in Lubumbashi, DR Congo's second largest city and its mining hub.
Posted by: Fred ||
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For a map, click here. For a map of Sonora state, click here. New information, including press statements from the Sonora attorney general's office.
By Chris Covert
A member of Javier Sicilia's Movement for Peace Justice and Dignity was found shot to death in Hermosillo, Sonora Monday afternoon, according to Mexican news accounts.
Nepomuceno Moreno Nuñez, 56, was shot as he was driving his Chevrolet pickup truck near the intersection of avenidas Reforma and Pesqueira in Centenario colony of Hermosillo near the Sonora state government palace where he had met with officials numerous times before to discuss the disappearance of his son in Cajume, Sonora.
Moreno Nuñez was hit by several 9mm rounds fired by individuals from another moving vehicle.
Moreno Nuñez's son, Jorge Mario was reportedly kidnapped last summer in Cajeme in Sonora while he was with several friends. Moreno Nunez maintained it was Sonoran state police agents who abducted and killed him.
The Procuradoria General del Estado (PGE) or attorney general of Sonora state, Jose Larrinaga Talamantes, released a statement Tuesday afternoon disputing elements of Moreno Nuñez's accusations against Sonora state security apparatus.
Larrinaga Talamantes said that Moreno Nuñez never filed a report on his missing son with any authority, and that Moreno Nuñez and his son were likely murdered by groups associated with organized crime.
Larrinaga Talamantes also said that Moreno Nuñez had previously served time in prison for smuggling heroin 1979, and had reported being kidnapped in 1997 by Ambrosio and Ramon Vazquez Villagrana, two individuals who had alleged links to drug trafficking and organized crime.
Moreno Nuñez was also arrested in 2005 for his role in a murder in the Los lagos colony in Hermosillo. He was later acquitted of that crime and for illegal possession of firearms.
Larrinaga Talamantes also noted another son of Moreno Nuñez, Gilberto Moreno Leon, has been arrested in the past for armed robbery, a crime for which he is still serving time.
In the abduction of Jorge Mario, reports are that a ransom was demanded and transmitted to Moreno Nuñez's by his unidentified daughter for MP $30,000 (USD $2138.73). The ransom was collected, but apparently never paid. The unknown number of friends with Jorge Mario were later also disappeared.
Moreno Nuñez had attended the Movement for Peace Justice and Dignity's October 14th meeting with Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa held at Castillo Chapultepec in Mexico City, where he denounced Calderon for his son's disappearance.
It transpired at the meeting that Moreno Nuñez had received death threats just before his trek to Mexico City.
Sicilia and a Universidad Nacional Automoma de Mexico professor and human rights activist , Emilio Alvarez Icaza told a Mexican publication Tuesday they would seek an audience with Sonora governor Guillermo Padres, saying the responsibility for the murder of Moreno Nuñez rests with the governor and the prosecutor (Larrinaga Talamantes).
Alvarez Icaza later characterized the PGE press conference as "shameful for criminalizing Moreno Nuñez." He also urged the Sonora PGE to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Moreno Nuñez's murder.
The Moreno Nuñez shooting is the second deadly shooting of a member of Sicilia's peace movement in less than two months.
Leiva Pedro Dominguez was shot to death October 8th in Santa Maria Ostula in Michoacan state. He did not attend to meeting in Mexico City.
Pedro Dominguez was involved in a civil conflict with landowners in La Placita. About 300,000 hectares of land had been transferred to Pedro Dominguez's indigent group in 2009 which had been previously granted other landowners.
Pedro Dominguez was a Nahuatl, one of several Mexican Indian tribes directly descended from the Aztecs. His group was also one of the few indigenous groups with the legal right to carry heavy firearms to defend and police their land, including AK-47 assault rifles. To read the Rantburg.com report on the murder of Leiva Pedro Dominguez click here
[An Nahar] Somalia's Islamist Shebab rebels ordered 16 international aid agencies shut Monday in areas they control after armed raids on several offices, and warned more would follow if they did not toe the line.
"Any organization found to be supporting or actively engaged in activities deemed detrimental to the attainment of an Islamic State, or performing duties other than that which it formally proclaims, will be banned immediately without prior warning," the Shebab said in a statement.
Witnesses and aid workers reported that Shebab gunnies stormed the offices of several aid agencies in apparent coordinated raids in rebel-controlled regions of Somalia, an area gripped by what the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
"Three armored vehicles with gunnies surrounded the offices, including the office of UNICEF," said Adulahi Idle, a resident in the city of Baidoa. "I saw many cut-throats go inside the places and force the people there to leave and the men took control."
The al-Qaeda linked group accused the agencies of "lacking complete political detachment and neutrality... thereby intensifying the instability and insecurity gripping the nation as a whole." The Shehab also said the groups were working to "foster secularism, immorality and the degrading values of democracy in an Islamic country."
The United Nations has warned that nearly 250,000 people face imminent starvation in southern Somalia, the main base for the hardline Shebab, with several areas under famine or emergency conditions.
Six U.N. organizations were ordered closed by the Shebab, including the agencies for refugees (UNHCR) and children (UNICEF), as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA). It also barred the U.N. Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU).
A regional security source said the raids in south and central Somalia were well planned and coordinated, with gunnies seizing computers, telephones and other equipment from aid workers. No arrests were reported.
"It was a surprise, but something that was clearly planned," said an aid agency official working in Somalia.
Other aid agencies affected include the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Concern, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and the Italian Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI). It also shut down the Swedish African Welfare Alliance (SAWA), the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ), Action Contre la Faim (ACF), Solidarity and Saacid.
The orc Shebab imposes draconian rules on humanitarian workers and has blocked international staff working for aid agencies in its areas, but has allowed limited operations by Somali nationals.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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[An Nahar] Three people were maimed in a suspected kaboom inside the main hospital in the war-torn Somali capital, officials and witnesses said Monday.
The kaboom occurred late Sunday inside a room near one of the main meeting halls of Banadir hospital.
"We were informed about a bomb kaboom that occurred inside Banadir," said Dahir Adan, a government security official said.
"We are still investigating the reason but the initial reports indicate that several people were maimed in the kaboom."
The hospital in central Mogadishu provides life-saving care for severely malnourished children struggling from ongoing famine in the city's crowded camps for displaced people.
"I heard a large kaboom which shook the whole building, it occurred inside one of the hospital rooms in the hospital and three people were slightly injured," said Sadiq Ali, a witness.
"There was nobody inside the room where the kaboom occurred, this kaboom has really shocked patients," said Shamso Mumin, another witness.
Many high ranking international officials have visited the hospital in recent months to draw attention to what the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Several roadside kabooms and grenade kabooms have rocked Mogadishu since al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels abandoned fixed positions there in August and switched to guerrilla attacks against the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
Nothing wins the hearts and minds of common folk like deliberately bombing a hospital.
Of course this is Somolia.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/29/2011 8:40
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[An Nahar] The Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... has offered to review its sanctions on Syria if Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... agrees to a plan to send observers to the restive country, a league official told Agence La Belle France Presse on Monday.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi has also indicated that the 22-member organization, which agreed a raft of sanctions on Sunday, would be willing to slightly modify the observers' mission.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Arabi made the offer in a letter to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem "to review all measures taken" by Arab foreign ministers.
The ministers agreed on Sunday in Cairo to impose sweeping sanctions on the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... over its refusal to allow in observers during his deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests.
Arabi offered to allow closer coordination between the observers and the Syrian regime, according to the letter.
The sanctions include an immediate ban on transactions with the Syrian government and central bank and a freeze on Syrian government assets in Arab countries.
They also bar Syrian officials from visiting any Arab country and call for a suspension of all flights to Arab states to be implemented on a date to be fixed at a meeting next week.
Assad's regime has already been subjected to a raft of Western sanctions, led by the United States and European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
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11/29/2011
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[Tripoli Post] Abdel Hakim Belhaj ...nom de guerre Abu Abdallah Assadaq, emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and a commander of the Tripoli Military Council in the Libyan civil war... might have his critics and perhaps many believed him to be more of an obstacle than an ally to the cabinet of prime minister Abdurrahim el-Keeb as the new Libya transitional government tries to find its feet. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... he has said he is ready to back the government.
Belhaj seemed to be overlooked for the post of defence minister after being regarded as a front runner, but he has once again been reported saying, this time by Rooters, that said he had not put his name forward for any cabinet post. He said he had even been consulted about appointments for the most powerful jobs.
"I hope that it (the new government) will be granted all the support needed for it to carry out its tasks. I am aware of certain opinions accusing it of being imbalanced in terms of representing all regions, but we hope that it would be allowed to carry out its duties to render the country stable and secure," Belhaj told Rooters.
He went on to say: "As revolutionaries, we are concerned with supporting this government and all the ministers including the defence minister. We will coordinate and cooperate with the defence ministry ... Our relationship with the defence minister is good."
Despite the fact that even his supporters were overlooked for top posts, and that the defence minister's post in the new government was handed to the head of a rival militia, his is focussing on helping to put the country on its feet after an eight-month long armed conflict.
Having said that however, Belhaj, who heads the Tripoli Military Council, reportedly made up of a heavily-armed force of about 25,000 men, he would not commit to a date for the forces under his control to hand over their weapons to the government.
Last week tensions between the rival groups surfaced when Belhaj was briefly jugged at Tripoli International Airport as he set off on a trip abroad, with airport officials, controlled by fighters from Zintan, saying he had a problem with his passport. The problem was resolved with the intervention of National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil who ordered his release.
In the interview with Rooters Belhaj refused to answer questions about the airport incident, and asked about tensions between rival groups, he did not answer directly, saying only that opposing views were "very normal in ... (the) democratic atmosphere that the Libyans are living in nowadays."
He said he will work with the defence and interior ministries on a mechanism for his forces to hand over their weapons and amalgamate into new government institutions. "You can see that the military presence has receded and this is a positive sign," Belhaj said, adding that it was too early to give a timetable for the handover, and that it was down to the government to create the right conditions for this to happen.
He said: "It is not on our agenda right now. This is a two-sided solution ... We call on the government to recruit the revolutionaries into the ministries and public institutions."
"We have to wait for the plans and programs of the relevant ministries and the corresponding plans and programmes to be initiated by the revolutionaries," he said.
"When the two reach a meeting point (we need) to draft a comprehensive plan, then it would be done."
Though speculation is rife that Belhaj is planning to form an Islamist political party that will compete for power in the elections scheduled to take place around the middle of next year, he failed to give details about his plans.
"Of course I am also interested in the coming elections just like any other Libyan who is interested in and follows Libyan affairs. We are preparing and are getting ready for the future political project," he said.
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11/29/2011
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[Bangla Daily Star] The International Crimes Tribunal has dismissed Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi's ...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami... plea that its chairman Justice Nizamul Huq can become biased against him in the ongoing war crimes trial.
In its order yesterday the three-member tribunal called Sayedee's petition against its chairman "contemptuous, outrageous, and unheard of".
Sayedee, Nayeb-e-Ameer of Jamaat, is the first to stand trial from among the seven Jamaat and BNP leaders facing charges of crimes against humanity such as genocide, murder, rape, arson and torture during the Liberation War.
The ICT charged Sayedee with 20 counts of crimes by the tribunal on October 3. The charges include genocide, killing, rape, arson, abduction and torture of civilians during the war, which Sayedee denies as "politically motivated".
The tribunal has drawn international attention in its enormous task to bring to justice those who killed or raped innocent civilians and collaborated with the Mighty Pak Army during Bangladesh's nine-month War of Liberation against Pakistain in 1971.
The Mighty Pak Army and its local collaborators are accused of killing 30 lakh civilians and raping 2 lakh women in one of the history's worst genocide.
Welcoming the trials, international war crimes experts and rights groups have, however, called for ensuing that the proceedings are fair and transparent. The prosecutors have promised free and fair trials.
On November 16, Sayedee petitioned the tribunal expressing doubt about the impartiality of Justice Nizamul. He cited the judge's involvement with the non-government People's Enquiry Commission that investigated war crimes allegations against Sayedee and some others in 1993-94.
Sayedee's lawyers earlier urged Justice Nizamul to step down as chairman of the tribunal to ensure what they said a fair trial.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam disagreed with the defence saying
Sayedee's petition is tantamount to contempt of court as he himself is an accused.
The tribunal headed by Justice Nizamul said yesterday the defence failed to prove bias and partiality of its chairman during the proceedings against Sayedee.
The defence also failed to prove that Justice Nizamul was involved in investigating war crimes allegations as a member in the secretariat of the commission, which has no legal standing, the tribunal said.
Sayedee, the tribunal observed, did not say anything against the chairman at the start of the trial proceedings against him.
It pronounced the order for more than one hour, saying that Justice Nizamul Huq is a judge of the Supreme Court, and all the judges remain neutral and impartial after taking oath as per provisions of constitution.
The court also observed that submitting such a petition seeking explanation on a judge's continuing to discharging functions is unprecedented in the history of judiciary in the country.
Sayedee's counsel Barrister Tanvir Ahmed Al Amin refused to make any comment on yesterday's order.
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... prosecutor Sayed Haider Ali told news hounds that they will decide about filing a contempt of court case against Sayedee and his counsels after getting the copy of the order.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2011
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
Politicaly Motivated or not, were the charges valid?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/29/2011 6:39
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[Dawn] SINCE the reasons behind the rise of militancy are multifarious, an analysis utilising any single variable would be misleading. Poverty levels tend to decrease in inverse proportion to land holdings. Poverty virtually disappears with holdings of 55 acres and above, indicating that poverty and landlessness are directly related in Pakistain`s rural areas.
In 2001-02, the upper-income brackets registered a gain in income share to the richest 20 per cent at the expense of the poorest 20 per cent and middle 60 per cent, which increased poverty levels in the lower and middle brackets. This projection shows that the richest one per cent who got 10 per cent of the total income in 1984-85 in Pakistain were getting almost 20 per cent in 2001-02. The trend continues till 2011. The Jihadi Mindset
There have only been a few indigenous studies investigating links between extremism and poverty. Sohail Abbas has utilised his experience as a psychologist in his treatise . The Pakistain Institute of Peace Studies has also documented a similar study. Abbas`s sample consists of 517 men interred in Haripur and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar jails in Pakistain after they had attempted to re-enter Pakistain following the Taliban`s 2001 overthrow in Afghanistan.
He compares them with a `control` group of individuals of similar socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds who had not joined the jihad. The study limits itself, however, to men inclined to join the jihad. It does not attempt to correlate the drivers of violent terrorist behaviour; there is no indication given in the book that the sample population attempted any terrorist acts. The study is nevertheless an insight into how prone segments of the population are to join jihadi organizations.
Abbas tends to conclude that the jihadis were drawn largely from mainstream Pak society, and hailed from marginalised tribal societies only to an insignificant extent. The majority were not educated in madressahs but in public schools in Pakistain. Surprisingly, their mean literacy level as a group was higher than the Pak average for education. The Peshawar group had an almost nil unemployment rate. Most had worked as tenant farmers, the next set comprised labourers, while skilled labour and students were equally represented. Those operating businesses were at a very low level. This study negated the popular notions of Pak jihadis as being illiterate, unemployed youth.
Based on Abbas`s study, the PIPS document also attempted to factor poverty into the research variables by trying to ascertain the average income level pattern of the jihadis. The Haripur sample reported a huge 35.7 per cent of the respondents with no income of their own. The Peshawar sample yielded comparable results, though respondents without any income stood at around 26.3 per cent.
This puts the majority of the respondents at the lowest income percentiles in Pakistain in terms of their individual earnings. However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the majority was employed in one form or the other, though the dividends of their occupation appear meagre.
The study does not address the issue that many individuals in Pakistain draw support from the joint family system in which income is distributed amongst the less gainfully employed by other family member/s. Similarly, the average income of the jihadis` families was not factored into the calculation. Global Crime
One of the latest scholarly studies to focus on links between poverty and extremism in Pakistain has been published in an international journal, , by a joint group of British researchers. This was a supply-side study designed to document the increased incidence of radicalised ideas amongst Pakistain`s impoverished; it cannot be seen to correlate poverty with extremism. Global Crime
The plethora of literature on studies on bad turban labour in Pakistain have provided vague empirical assessments of the proposed links between education, poverty and other aspects of socioeconomic status and popular support for terrorism, which are only hypothetical indicators. The study in was a link in this chain in an attempt to contextualise the support for radical ideas amongst the less privileged classes in Pakistain.
The data was collected between October 2008 and March 2009 and drew upon a World Food Programme study. Four of the poorest districts in each province were chosen as samples along with the richest four districts in the same province. It is worth mentioning that 60 per cent of the districts which ranked amongst the top one-third more affluent percentiles were from Punjab and 19 per cent were from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... . Similarly, amongst the bottom one-third percentiles 47 per cent were from Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... and 34 per cent from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Not a single district from Punjab lay in the poorest percentiles. The poor districts` samples in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan tended to display a more radical worldview than their more affluent Punjabi and Sindhi counterparts. The study does not contend that poverty alone is to blame; there are a number of factors which interact on the individual within the ambit of society to produce a radical outlook.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... the results of the survey do suggest that poverty by itself cannot be dismissively shrugged off as a minor determinant variable of radicalisation in Pak society. As other research has shown, there are different trajectories for variables of terrorism in different theatres.
Even employed persons may be facing crippling poverty in some areas of Pakistain, particularly the tribal areas. It seems that a majority of young men from rural backgrounds can find only menial jobs. The private sector`s already constrained capacity to accommodate the youth is shrinking even more. This demands a fresh look at contextualising how poverty operates to radicalise the poor in Pakistain; macro-level sociological overviews will not do.
Continued on Page 49
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[An Nahar] Pakistain on Monday denied provoking NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... air strikes that left 24 Pak soldiers dead, raising tensions over the lethal cross-border attack that has plunged U.S.-Pak relations to a new low.
NATO and the United States have sought to limit the fallout from Saturday's attack, which has seen Pakistain close a vital lifeline to the 140,000 foreign troops serving in Afghanistan and order a review of its U.S. alliance.
Washington has backed a full inquiry and expressed condolences. NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has spoken of regret over the "tragic, unintended" killings, but stopped short Sunday of issuing a full apology.
The crisis erupted months after the fraught U.S.-Pakistain alliance was plunged to its lowest point in years by the killing in May of al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who went shovel-ready... north of Islamabad by U.S. special forces.
But few questions have been answered about what exactly happened at the dead of night in some of the most hostile terrain on Earth, following reports that Pak soldiers opened fire first on U.S. and Afghan forces.
The Wall Street Journal, following a similar report by Britannia's Guardian newspaper, cited three Afghan officials and one Western official as saying the air raid was called in to shield allied forces targeting Taliban fighters.
NATO and Afghan forces "were fired on from a Mighty Pak Army base," the unnamed Western official told the Journal. "It was a defensive action."
An Afghan official said the government in Kabul believes the fire came from the Pak military base -- and not from Islamic fascistiin the area.
An Afghan border police commander said NATO troops hardly ever open fire unless they are attacked.
"To me it's almost clear that they (ISAF) came under fire from that area. Without that they would have not returned fire," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said the area is very rugged, mountainous and heavily wooded. He said Taliban, Afghan cops as well Pak security forces have posts very close to each other due to the rugged terrain.
Pakistain insists the attack was "unprovoked." There has been no official U.S. response to the report.
"This is not true. They are making up excuses. And by the way, what are their losses, casualties?" Major General Athar Abbas, ... who is The Very Model of a Modern Major General... Pakistain's chief military front man, wrote to AFP in a text message.
British newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Monday quoted maimed survivors of the raid, who insisted they were victims of an unprovoked attack.
Amirzeb Khan, 23, was quoted as saying that the area around the checkpoints, about three kilometers (two miles) from the border, had been cleared of Islamic fascistiand the night had been quiet before the attack.
In retaliation, Islamabad has blocked NATO convoys from crossing into Afghanistan, ordered a review of its alliance with the U.S. and is mulling whether to boycott a key conference on Afghanistan next month.
Hundreds of enraged Paks erupted into the streets Sunday, burning an effigy of President Barack The Cambridge police acted stupidly Obama and setting fire to U.S. flags across the country of 167 million where opposition to the government's U.S. alliance is rampant.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar telephoned U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Woman to Call at 3 a.m. and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Tallyrand ... on Sunday to convey a "deep sense of rage" as a joint funeral was held for the dead soldiers, their coffins draped in the national flag.
On the Fox News Sunday talk show, U.S. politicians vented frustration over Pakistain, with Republican Senator Jon Kyl demanding Islamabad cooperate with the United States in order to maintain billions of dollars in financial aid.
Senator Dick Durbin, ...Senator-for-Life from Illinois and Democratic Party Whip. In April 2006, Time magazine identified Durbin as one of America's 10 Best Senators, so what's that tell you? He was the first United States Senator to support the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, then the junior senator from Illinois.... a top Democrat, offered condolences but said U.S. troops were caught in a "diplomatic morass between the incompetence and corruption in Afghanistan, and complicity in parts of Pakistain."
But John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... laid bare the dilemma for Washington in handling nuclear-armed Pakistain.
"While it is tempting for many people to say we ought to throw the Paks over the side... as long as that country has nuclear weapons that could fall into the hands of beturbanned goons and be a threat worldwide, they have incredible leverage," he said.
The United States in 2009 approved a huge five-year, $7.5 billion civilian assistance package for Pakistain, but some U.S. politicians want to cut civilian aid due to concerns over extremism.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
huge five-year, $7.5 billion civilian assistance package for Pakistain
Forget to put the check in the mail. Mil assistance too, which came to $2.7 billion last year.
[An Nahar] Tens of thousands of Syrians demonstrated in the capital Monday against the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... decision to impose crippling sanctions on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... 's regime, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent reported.
Protesters waved Syrian flags and carried giant portraits of the embattled leader as they belted nationalistic songs in Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... ' central Sabaa Bahrat square.
"The people want Bashir al-Assad... We are your people Bashar," chanted the protesters.
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
broadcast footage of the pro-regime rallies and slammed the vaporous Arab League describing it as an "instrument for implementing the Western and American plan against Syria."
The sanctions, voted on Sunday as violence in Syria claimed 23 new lives, will affect "all Syrians" not just target the regime, it said.
"The Arab League is punishing the Syrian people for their positions," added the ruling Baath Party's newspaper Al-Baath.
Many schools were closed Monday to allow students to attend the rallies and the official SANA news agency said protests also took place in Syria's second city and economic hub Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... and in Hasake, also in the north.
The Arab League on Sunday announced sweeping sanctions against Damascus to punish Assad's regime for failing to bring an end to the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests that began in mid-march.
The U.N. estimates that more than 3,500 people have been killed in the violence.
The sanctions include an immediate ban on transactions with the Syrian government and central bank and a freeze on Syrian government assets in Arab countries.
The Arab bloc also banned Syrian officials from visiting any Arab country and called for a suspension of all flights from Syria to Arab countries to be implemented on a date that will be fixed at a meeting next week.
Nineteen of the Arab League's 22 members voted for the sanctions, but Iraq abstained and said it would refuse to implement them, while Leb "disassociated itself," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani.
Syria was suspended from the Arab League earlier this month.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who has denounced the sanctions as an Arab League attempt to "internationalize" the Syrian crisis, was expected to hold a presser later Monday to formally address the issue.
State television said in a terse statement after Sunday's vote that the Arab League's against a member state was "an unprecedented measure."
This is the first time the Arab League enforces sanctions of this magnitude on one of its members.
The Arab League sanctions are likely to be crippling for Syria, which already faces a raft of EU, U.S. and Turkish measures.
The Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of Syrian activists, welcomed the move on Sunday but warned that Damascus could get around the sanctions.
"Economic sanctions will have no impact on the Syrian regime unless there is a mechanism by which the implementation of sanctions can be strictly monitored and leave no opportunity for their circumvention," it said in a statement.
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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.
(
Mahmoud 
"This is a big win for local governments. The costs to comply would have been enormous," NACo Executive Director Larry Naake said. "It would have required our nation's larger counties to reprogram or purchase new accounts payable systems, hire additional staff and essentially turn county accounting offices into IRS district offices."
Nimrod Machani has been working as a coast lifeguard in Tel Aviv for four years. His father Shimshon, was a seaman for years and between voyages, also worked as a Tel Aviv lifeguard.
Najib Miqati
[Dawn] President 
[Dawn] The US military will press ahead with its war effort in Afghanistan despite Pakistain's decision to cut off supplies to 
[Dawn] Two workers of the 
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
[An Nahar] An Iraqi member of parliament was 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Mohmand
Pervez 
handed over their weapons
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] The 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Bangla Daily Star] The International Crimes Tribunal has dismissed 
Punjab
[An Nahar] Pakistain on Monday denied provoking 
Hillary Clinton
Senator 
