#1
"Breaking: convert to Islam arrested while making bombs"
Breaking, hell. More like dog bites man.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/20/2011 21:08
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#2
Muhammad, no one gets arrested here for praying too loudly or singing too loudly in the choir. Making a bomb is like saying "I wanna do 20 years the hard way."
#3
I have a feeling that the authorities have been watching him for a while, now. If someone does something questionable, a little red flag goes up. When they start getting too many little red flags...
Abdullah al-Senussi was labelled the "the executioner" by the International Criminal Court, but for the families of his victims he will always be known as "the butcher".
With the capture of Col. Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief and brother in law, it has ended the hunt for one of the most feared and obdurate men of one of the world's most repressive regimes.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, wants him for his role in attempting to violently crush the Benghazi popular protests in February this year. let the Libyans give him a LOT swifter justice
But Senussi's association with the worst excesses of the Libyan regime stretch back to the early days of Col. Gaddafi's dictatorial rule.
Most notorious for Libyans is the allegation that he gave the order for the massacre of 1,200 political inmates in Abu Salim prison in 1996.
After riots broke out over prisoner's demands for better food and sanitation, Libyans believe Senussi gave the order to guards stationed on the grated ceilings of the cells to fire, murdering the men inside. "I was just taking orders"
"weren't you in charge?"
"Yes, but if I wasn't I would be getting those same orders from some other sadistic bastard"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2011
17:36 ||
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#1
They should do something creative for this one.
The war against AlabamaÂ’s immigration law has intensified in recent weeks, with a Justice Department lawsuit, visits by DOJ officials, and a showdown over illegal alien children who have been pulled from Alabama schools. Eric Holder sued Alabama, trying to block every aspect of its enforcement provision.
As illegals have fled the state by the tens of thousands, the jobs they took – particularly in poultry processing, building trades and transportation – are being filled once again by Alabama citizens. And the unemployment rate in the state has dropped as a result.
Alabama’s unemployment rate fell a half percentage point last month – five times more than the national average of 0.1%. And the drop is not seasonal because it is also a far larger drop than in surrounding states.
Alabama House Majority Leader Rep. Micky Hammon, (R-Decatur), said the huge drop in Marshall County showed the power of AlabamaÂ’s H.B. 56:
Hammond pointed to Marshall County, which he called “a known hotbed for illegal immigrant labor.” He said the rate there was 8.1 percent for October, down from 8.8 percent in September and 10 percent in June, when the immigration law was signed.
“When Marshall County’s unemployment rate drops almost a full 2 percent since the law was signed, it’s difficult to deny the law is having a positive effect on employment,” Hammond said in his statement.
A 2 percent drop in just five months in the county highest in illegal labor shows that Arizona-style immigration laws work.
And at a time when the Federal government has completely failed to produce any programs or policies to create jobs, laws like AlabamaÂ’s H.B. 56 are by far the best solution to removing illegal foreign workers and giving jobs back to American citizens.
#2
bet you it was skipping the income taxes Nothing about this was mentioned in the source article. How does your statement connect to Alabama's situation?
#3
So the DOJ is harassing the state of Alabama to force more illegals on them, while Eric 'Place' Holder continues to protect all the Vampire Squids, who were key to forcing Alabama's Jefferson County into bankruptcy just a few weeks ago. Nice.
#6
Pay more to pick tomatoes. Farmers do not have a constitutional right to hire illegals at ultra cheap wages just so the produce can get to market.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2011 18:24
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#7
Farmers do not have a constitutional right.... I agree. All this agricultural aggravation is just being used by whatever forces are behind illegal immigration. Remember there was once a time in America where only the local population was available for work like picking tomatoes - illegals could not afford the necessary travel. The work either got done, or it didn't.
#8
Tomatoes are already imported from Mexico [check the stickers on your WallyMarts produce] thanks to NAFTA. What's the problem with producing them where the labor is rather than import the labor? Then you don't carry the subsidy that some domestic farmers get via various health and human services of the state by shifting the costs on to the taxpayers.
#10
"The idea that there are jobs which Americans won't do was always a lie."
True dat, Iblis. What they really mean is there are jobs lazy slobs the DemoncRat base don't wanna do because they require actual work, getting up early in the morning, and missing daytime TV.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/20/2011 21:14
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#11
The idea that there are jobs which Americans won't do was always a lie.
Mike Rowe has documented those Americans doing Dirty Jobs for years.
#12
It's liberals who can't imagine themselves soiling their lily white skin with such menial labor and projecting their thinking onto everyone around them. Because of course nobody in their right mind could think differently. So they import unregistered voters poor disadvantaged humans from Mexico because it makes them feel better about their inordinate wealth when they share other people's potential wages with them.
#13
Keep in mind that there is an existing temp worker visa program. It just means the workers must return home at the end of the growing/harvest season. Any shortages of farm workers mean that the farmers are not using the tools available to them.
HT to Weasel Zippers
At least two rocket-propelled grenades hit a building belonging to the ruling Baath party in Damascus on Sunday, residents said, in the first insurgent attack reported inside the Syrian capital since an eight-month uprising began against President Bashar Assad. "Syrian Free Army" - deserters and ?
"Security police blocked off the square where the Baath's Damascus branch is located. But I saw smoke rising from the building and fire trucks around it," one witness, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
"The attack was just before dawn and the building was mostly empty. It seems to have been intended as a message to the regime," he said. Should have leave a bunch of broken pencils. That would've been a "message" too
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2011
10:55 ||
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Islamic Jihad said Sunday it was considering running in Palestinian general elections after firmly boycotting all previous polls. Nafez Azzam, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, said, "Our clear positions do not prevent us from holding a debate inside the movement to study recent developments, including the possibility of running in the upcoming elections."
The final decision to stand in parliamentary elections is not yet made, he stressed.
The Islamic Jihad's position comes before a meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal. Abbas and Mashaal will try to implement a reconciliation agreement brokered by Egypt last May. The agreement envisions a technocratic government ruling Gaza and the West Bank until elections, initially expected in May 2012.
Palestinian Arab Mosab Hassan Yousef, a former spy for the Shin Bet, is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founder of Hamas. Last week, he delivered an impassioned lecture to a Canadian audience about his bumpy journey from Hamas activist to defender of Israel and admirer of the Jewish people.
Given his notoriety, security was extremely tight. People who had bought tickets for the event were required to show photo IDs twice before being admitted.
Yousef said, "I was born as a son of a Hamas leader and dedicated myself to Islam. I have a very good understanding of what Islam is all about."
Asserting that Hamas is a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood with the goal of destroying Israel and building an Islamic state on the rubble, Yousef said he developed a hatred for Israel after his fatherÂ’s arrest when he was 10 years old.
Having himself been arrested and imprisoned by Israel, Yousef agreed to work for the Shin Bet. "I had a hidden agenda. I wanted to take revenge."
But in jail, he discovered that his fellow Hamas inmates were brutal, were quick to murder Palestinians deemed to be collaborators and did not care about sacrificing the lives of ordinary Palestinians to reach their objectives.
Introduced to Christianity by a British missionary in 1999, Yousef found himself and continued spying for Israel, getting a reputation as one of its most useful agents. He said, "I donÂ’t believe I did anything wrong working for Israel. You canÂ’t go wrong saving human lives."
Yousef suggested that Palestinians should be satisfied with self-rule, saying that a Palestinian state would not fit into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "It would be like fitting an elephant into the eye of an eagle."
He claimed that the creation of a Palestinian state would bring war and destruction to the Middle East. "I want my people to recognize IsraelÂ’s right to this historic land," he declared, saying Palestinians should learn from "the Jewish nation" that life is more important than death or vengeance.
Yousef asserted that further that western civilization will fall if Israel fails, said that God will "protect" Israel, urged the international community to stop IranÂ’s nuclear program, denounced Hamas as a duplicitous organization and claimed that Arab culture is underpinned by shame, fear and intimidation.
#1
A few years ago the Dept of State was set to deport this guy to the West Bank (where he would have been killed).
Israel tried (per their comments) to tell the US privately not to do this but the Dept of State persisted. Then Shin Bet was forced to come out in public and describe the work he had done for them (which compromises some ongoing work).
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/20/2011 8:58
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#2
He spoke in Toronto. I get the impression he is still subject to deportation by the USA, correct me if I'm wrong. He's a marked man.
One of the recent popes issued a formal teaching that the Old Covenant is still in effect. From that point of view, the people of Israel will never fail but will persist until the end of the world. Regardless. Other Christians hold very similar ideas, from Genesis 12:3. I don't know about 'western civilization' though.
Asma Assada, the wife of the Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, was described by the fashion magazine Vogue as a "rose in the desert." In 2008, she was even awarded the Gold Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic in recognition of her leading role and continued "humanitarian efforts" for the economic growth in the Arab world in general, and Syria in particular.
The West apparently needed to see a revolution and young Syrian people savagely killed in streets by Syria's army to understand that Bashar Al-Assad is a cruel dictator and that Asma is no rose, but a heartless first lady. Vogue had to see cutting off food, water and electricity to the the Syrian population, to remove from its website the article where Asma describes how loving Bashar is, playing with their three children at home.
As long as the Syrian government was sponsoring the killing of Israelis it was fine. Asma, the Syrian "Marie Antoinette," was considered a "reformer," as some media in the West labeled her. All the anti-Israel commentators were so happy to honor the Syrian first lady, who showed her deep concern about Gazoo and the Paleostinians. So concerned was the ruling couple, that Bashar Al-Assad recently attacked a Paleostinian refugee camp near the Syrian port city of Latakia, causing an undisclosed number of victims and obliging 10,000 refugees to flee.
Finally, when the Syrian population itself rose up, the international community reluctantly had to admit that Asma was no "element of light in a country full of shadow zones," as Gay Paree Match wrote, but rather the condescending wife of a tyrant. For the last decade, she has just used her position to promote herself, while offering an alluring façade to her husband's regime. In the meantime, she enjoyed a stylish life, buying expensive, labeled dresses (she apparently loves French designed Christian Louboutin shoes and Chanel sunglasses), without wondering where her money came from.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sought cooperation from professionals in holding war crimes trials saying that it would free Bangladesh from another stigma. She said, "No area of the country was spared from their [the war criminals'] atrocities during the Liberation War in 1971 and the people of the country who were subjected to their tortures can never forget that."
The premier was addressing a convention in Bangabandhu on Sunday. She said Bangladesh needs to be freed from the grip of evil forces and that the trial of war criminals is the popular demand.
After the 2001 election, Hasina said, Bangladesh had turned into a land of militancy and terrorism under the leadership of BNPÂ’s ally Jamaat-e-Islami. Since assuming office, the present government has freed the country from the stigma of militancy and thus brightened its image abroad, she added.
Hasina said the leader of the opposition is spreading lies favoring the war criminals and urged professionals to help foil Khaleda Zia's propaganda.
The Arab League has rejected a Syrian request to change plans to send a monitoring mission to Syria. The League rejected Assad's approach in a letter from its Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby to Syria's foreign minister. The League wants to send 500 monitors to Syria to assess the situation there.
The League's letter stated, "The additions requested by the Syrian counterpart affect the heart of the protocol and fundamentally change the nature of the mission."
An Arab League source said the mission's visit is now "in question" because it cannot take place unless the Syrian government signs a protocol with the League. It is not clear what action the League will now take.
#1
Muslim migratory patterns to non-Muslim nations are still too new to see if they fit the pattern of typical immigration.
First generation immigrants are typically "old world" in their traditions and behavior. They set the stage for the speed in which their group integrates, in that if they disperse, they integrate much faster than if they ghettoize.
Second generation immigrants are the most problematic to society, neither old world or new world yet, forming gangs, and feeling oppressed in their ghettos, which are starting to decay with the older, first generation running out of steam.
Third generation are far more integrated, and want to leave the ghetto for better opportunities. They know how the system works and no longer have more than a nostalgic connection with the old world.
Islam will invariably slow this process down, as it tries to retain and reinforce ghettoization, but it cannot truly compete with secularization and the advantages of integration, when confronted with a side-by-side comparison of what amounts to primitivism vs. modernity.
Of course, it will try, which is why Islamists are so desperate to try and force "Sharia enclaves", so they can coerce members to stay in the ghetto and not integrate, though they want to leave.
Right now, in much of the western world, it is at a particularly nasty stage, with families trying to enforce old world rules, such as "honor killing", which are seen as loathsome and intolerable by the rest of society. But such things can only exist and be effective if the government encourages, or at least tolerates them.
That is, the family might kill the eldest daughter, but they can't kill, or even control the younger daughters, if the murderous adults are all in prison for decades.
#2
Islam ... cannot truly compete with secularization and the advantages of integration
The problem in Europe is the "progressive" elites are not defending the larger culture. In fact, they are trying to destroy it. The Progressives have entered into a defacto alliance with the Islamists to destroy British society, with the expectation that they can then manipulate the Muslims into obediance. The assumption is that Muslims are stupid.
This is the same assumption that Christian Spaniards made in 711 when they invited Moorish troops in. It took them more than 700 years to get them out.
I believe the progresives are a greater threat to the West than the Muslims are. If the West had better leadership and more selfconfidednce, the Muslims would be integrating mush more successfully.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/20/2011 9:51
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#3
Western 'progressive' elites and jihadi Islamists have this in common: They exemplify the defects of their respective civilizations and have absurdly extended them. No future for either. That's why they are working together, because they have so much in common.
Time will tell.
#4
Christian Spaniards invited Moors in? First I've heard that version. I'd always understood the Sword of Islam swept across North Africa and swept through the Iberian peninsula until Charles Martel stopped them. Unfortunately Charles didn't roll them back so the Spanish fought for the next 700 years to free their peninsula bit by bit.
#1
The biggest dilemma is probably the anti-conversion laws that prohibit Muslims from becoming Christians. If some way can be devised to get around the repulsive blasphemy law, and the anti-conversion laws, Christian churches would probably become extremely popular to those who wanted out of Islam.
Such a situation exists in Africa, in the divide between Muslims and Christians, and Islam is just hemorrhaging followers. Some of the Anglican archbishops are almost like benevolent princes in power and stature.
A classified booklet containing President Obama's Australian itinerary down to the minute, as well as details of his security convoy and the mobile phone numbers of dozens of senior US and Australian officials, was found by The Age on a Canberra street yesterday morning. The booklet, Overall Program and Orders of Arrangements, for the president's visit, was found by a reporter in a gutter about 100 meters from the front entrance to Parliament.
Alan Dupont, one of Australia's top national security analysts, said the find was a "significant security breach".
"If that had got into the wrong hands, it would certainly put the President and some of his entourage at risk if someone could respond quickly enough to having the information. Even if you were an ordinary crim, there would be a market for that kind of book, so it's not good news," said Professor Dupont.
The 125-page booklet is labeled "In-Confidence" and its cover says the information it holds "is not to be communicated either directly or indirectly to any person not authorised to receive it".
Over 120 pages are dedicated to a minute-by-minute description of Obama's schedule, and it even discloses which limousine door the President will use at events.
"On a signal from the Presidential Advance Agents, the Prime Minister, [Australian ambassador to the US Kim] Beazley and [US ambassador to Australia Jeffrey] Bleich alight from their vehicles," the booklet states for the event at the Darwin air force base yesterday.
It also details "seating arrangements" for the presidential motorcade, the world's highest-security convoy. It lists the exact breakdown of Obama's Secret Service presidential protective division, including its "Counter Assault Teams" a "comms vehicle", an "intel car" and the "Hammer Truck" (Hazardous Agent Mitigation Medical Emergency Response).
Then there are dozens of mobile-phone and landline numbers for senior Australian and US military and civilian staff. The phone numbers included the mobiles of the US deputy ambassador and the US consuls-general in Victoria, Sydney and Perth; a marine major who is an embassy attache; three Australian air force wing commanders in Canberra and Darwin; and the Federal Police co-ordinator for foreign dignity protection.
Professor Dupont said, "It's incredible. It could be exploited down the track because it's got all sorts of numbers in it. And if you are somebody who could exploit that or sell it to someone who could exploit that, it could be serious because you could listen in to the telephone calls of people who are very senior."
#1
end of someone's career - if they are Secret Service. If they are a political appointee/entourage, it's just more of the same incompetence we've come to expect from these clowns
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2011 9:23
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#2
...and if it's a cold drop from the Aussie team?
#9
ION BHARAT RAKSHAK > INDONESIAN PRESIDENT SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONA SAID HE HAD RECIVED ASSURANCES FROM BOTH THE US + AUSTRALIA THAT [US Marine] MOVE WILL NOT THREATEN HIS NATION'S INTEGRITY OR SOVEREIGNTY.
Gaaaawwdd, that was a long one!
versus
* SAME > AMERICAN MARINES IN DARWIN ARE NOT TO "CURB" CHINA [in Asia-Pacific], SAYS SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON.
HILLARY = The USA WAS, IS, + WILL REMAIN A PACIFIC POWER [in 21st Century], which I interprete to also directly mean or infer that the US per se will remain mucho interested + involved in Asian affairs.
* PACIFICNEWSCENTER [Guam K-57] > VIDEO: WHITE HOUSE SAYS MARINE ROTATION THRU DARWIN WILL NOT TAKEAWAY FROM MARINE BUILDUP ON GUAM; + WHITE HOUSE: DARWIN MARINE DEAL SEPARATE FROM + WON'T AFFECT FUTENMA REALIGNMENT.
* TOPIX > TAIPEI: JAPAN TO DEPLOY [SDF = Military] FORCES NEAR DISPUTED TAOYUTAI ISLANDS [close to Taiwan].
Besides as per Taiwan, Artic also read, NIPPON DETERRING + PROTECTING THE SENKAKUS; + PUSHING CPLAN OPERATIONS SOUTHWARD.
First Mama Russia, now Nippon = FLYING FISH/DRAGON ISLE.
* NEWS KERALA > CHINA COULD OVERTAKE US ECONOMY BY 2027 [or earlier], SAYS GOLDMAN-SACHS' JIM O'NEIL, whom also argues that the formerly "emerging" BRIC economies should properly be considered "growth" economies now.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > CHINA REBUFFS US, ASIA PRESSURE IN SEA DISPUTE.
ARTIC = WEN JIABAO = 'Twas NOT proper for POTUS Obama to bring up the South China Sea issues at the East Asia Summit in Bali.
CMF BLOGGER = believes that the US Marines are mainly there in AUS to watch/monitor INDONESIA.
IIUC, SINO-INDONES Diplomatic + PLA activities, + Radical Islam's threat of jihad vee Indonesia agz the Philippines + SE Asia.
* SAME > OBAMA'S PACIFIC TOUR: SOUTH CHINA SEA CHANGE. COMPETITION STOKES NATIONALISM IN BOTH SIDES OF AN OCEAN.
ARTIC > JAPANESE ANALYSTS = By its actions per the disputed South China Seas + elsewhere in East Asia, China desires to develop + build up its POWER OF INTERVENTION [unilateral] UP TO THE "SECOND ISLAND CHAIN", includ agz the US Territory of Guam.
* SAME > ASIA-PACIFIC: AMERICA'S ANTI-CHINA ALLIANCE.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > THE [US] ASIAN SURGE CONTINUES.
[Al Ahram] Iraq now has a Shiite-led government, but was ruled by members of the country's Sunni minority for most of its history. Syria is ruled by minority Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while protesters demanding reforms are largely from its Sunni majority.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in the conflict, according to UN figures.
Iraq has trod carefully in its response to the violence, and was the only country to abstain from a November 12 vote to suspend Syria from 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... . "Our country is deeply confessionally divided, and the Shiites voted for (Syrian President) Bashir al-Assad," reacting along sectarian lines, said Hamid Fadhel, a professor of politics at Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... University.
"Sectarian divisions are already a reality here, with the desire of politicians to create Sunni and Shiite regions," Fadhel said of moves by Sunni-majority Salaheddin province, and earlier by Shiite-majority Basra, to form autonomous regions.
"The same thing that is happening here will arrive in Syria. Syria will be like Iraq and Leb," he said.
Various Iraqi Shiite leaders have said they support the freedom of the Syrian people, but at the same time condemned the vaporous Arab League suspension of Syria on Wednesday.
"Suspending Syria's membership in the Arab League came in an unacceptable way," Iraq government front man Ali al-Dabbagh said on Iraqiya television.
"We want complete freedom for (Syrians), but not in this forced way that moves the Syrian issue... to internationalisation," he said. "This issue is very dangerous."
Iraq's anti-US Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... said in a recent statement on Syria that "we support your demonstrations to show your opinion."
But at the same time he asserted that there is "a big difference" between events in Syria and other Arab states that have seen anti-regime protests this year, as "Bashir al-Assad is against the American and Israeli presence and his attitudes are clear."
Ali al-Saffar, an Iraq analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, said Iraqi leaders fear instability in Syria spilling over into Iraq, but that Storied Baghdad's position on Syria risks increasing domestic sectarian divisions.
"I think they (Iraqi leaders) to some extent fear Assad being tossed will empower the Sunni majority, and that if there was any instability, that that could spill over... into Iraq," Saffar said.
Syria and Iraq share a 605-kilometre (375-mile) border, and Sunni-majority provinces along the frontier were strongholds of resistance against United States forces and the Shiite-led Iraqi governments that have followed the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
Saffar noted that Storied Baghdad's position on Syria is at odds with its strong condemnation of a crackdown by Bahrain's Sunni government on protests led by the kingdom's Shiite-majority in March.
"The Iraqi government took a very strong stance against the violence in Bahrain, or at least it made the right noises back then," Saffar said, which contrasts sharply with its stance on Syria.
"It's going to be very difficult for the Iraqi government to venture, actually, that this is not a sectarian move, and that there are actually internal security implications that they're taking into consideration," he said, referring to Iraq's stance on Syria.
And if the government "is not managing to convince the Iraqi Sunnis that... this isn't a sectarian issue," he said, "then I think it's going to spread the (division) along Iraqi sectarian lines."
Political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari, meanwhile, said he believes Iraq is concerned by the stances of Sunni-ruled Gulf countries.
"Concerned that certain movements that are hostile to the political system in Syria and linked to Gulf states are becoming predominant, Iraq wants to impress upon those countries that it oppose their desire to intensify the crisis in Syria," Shammari said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011
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[Iran Press TV] Head of Iran's High Council for Human Rights Mohammad-Javad Larijani says Israel is a "renegade" entity and a "racist regime."
In a heated television debate aired on the American channel MSNBC, he further noted that the Tel Aviv regime is "source of all tension in the [Middle East] region."
Larijani also added that Washington is the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism.
"The United States of America is the largest and the greatest country supporting terrorism," he added, noting that "the record of terrorist activity which is supported by tax money of these people is enormous."
Turning to the latest report of ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano on Iran's nuclear program, Larijani said the IAEA allegations were "laughable" and "based on a document put to us four years ago."
Larijani said that the whole issue was closed at that time because of "totally inconclusive evidence."
The Iranian human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... official stressed that Iran's transparency on its nuclear program exceeded that of Western nations and there was "no single secret activity" concealed from international inspectors.
Larijani added that Iran was not interested in producing nuclear weapons because that would be "against the Islamic code."
He called nuclear weapons "more liability than asset for us" and said the country's "military muscle is strong enough to repel or deter any imminent threat."
Larijani said the US is just trying to demonize Iran because Tehran has "fantastic relations" with all of its neighbors.
Regarding the nuclear issue, the Iranian rights official went on to highlight Iran's nuclear transparency and pointed out that despite possessing nuclear weapons Israel discloses no details of its program.
The debate followed adoption of the latest anti-Iranian resolution by the IAEA Board of Governors on Friday which voices "deep and increasing concern" over Tehran's nuclear program."
The resolution, however, stopped short of reporting Iran to the UN Security Council or setting Tehran a deadline to comply.
The US, Israel and their allies accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program and have used this allegation as a pretext to convince the UN Security Council to impose four rounds of sanctions on Iran.
Tehran has categorically refuted Western allegations, saying that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it has the right to acquire and develop atomic technology for peaceful purposes.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011
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#1
Over the years I came to the conclusion that the only way for Israel to survive is to start doing some of the things that we're, routinely, accused of.
#2
You have a point, but it needs to be clarified.
In its, what can best be described as a "guilt-ridden" attitude of government behavior, Israel does not follow "international norms."
And I do not mean "international norms" in any good sense. I mean that when faced with problems like an intransigent, hateful, violent and murderous minority, almost every other country in the world would respond in kind, either driving out the repulsive minority, or so heavily punishing it that it cannot continue its bad behavior.
But Israel will give just the current combatant Palestinians a gentle slap and ask them to behave. This is as annoying to the rest of the nations of the world as a parent who refuses to discipline their young child's tantrum in a restaurant.
"Now sweetie pie, it's not nice to throw food and tableware at people. Please settle down and stop screaming, and I'll give you some more nice food. Ow! Snookums, you stabbed me in the knee with your knife, at that hurt! I'm very disappointed in you. Waitress, would you give my little one a new knife? Where did you get another lighter? It's not nice to set people's clothing on fire, I wish you would stop doing that!"
And all the time, all of "snookums" little friends are banging on the picture window of the restaurant, egging "snookums" on.
A leading South African newspaper has blacked out several columns in its latest issue, echoing censorship of the apartheid era, after being threatened with criminal prosecution by a presidential aide.
The weekly Mail & Guardian was forced to pull a front page story about Mac Maharaj's possible involvement in a shady arms deal. Maharaj, a former Robben Island prisoner who helped smuggle out Nelson Mandela's autobiography, is now spokesman for president Jacob Zuma. The newspaper said it received a legal letter from him just before its Thursday evening deadline, warning that its journalists could face prosecution, carrying up to 15 years in jail, if it published details of a police investigation into a mid-1990s arms deal that led to convictions of other government officials for bribery.
The dispute comes as South Africa's parliament debates a new law on state secrets that would see whistleblowers who divulge classified information, and journalists who publish such documents, facing possible imprisonment. Critics said the penalties were draconian and the bill aimed at intimidating media outlets trying to expose corruption. The Mail & Guardian described Maharaj's intervention as a "chilling forewarning of what may happen if the protection of state information bill is adopted in its current form."
The 30bn rand (£2.4bn, or $3.65bn) contracts to buy European military equipment has been described as the "original sin" of South Africa's young democracy. Zuma himself was implicated but not convicted.
[Al Ahram] Attacks on Saturday the town of Shezar in the central province of Hama and the restive Jabal al-Zawiya region near the Turkish border came a day after Syria agreed in principle to allow Arab observers into the country to oversee a peace plan proposed by the 22-member 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... The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said that land and cellular telecommunications as well as electricity have been cut in the Jabal al-Zawiya region where army defectors have been active for months.
Syria's acceptance came on Friday after surprisingly heavy pressure from the vaporous Arab League, which brokered the plan and this week suspended Syria from the 22-member organization for failing to abide by it. On Wednesday, the league gave Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... three days to accept an observer mission or face economic sanctions.
The latest attacks came amid building international pressure on Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... An official at Britannia's Foreign Office said Foreign Secretary William Hague intends to meet opposition representatives in London on Monday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called on the U.N. Security Council to strengthen sanctions against Assad's regime. However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... Russia, which holds veto power in the council, urged caution in moving against Damascus.
In Washington, State Department front man Mark Toner said the U.S. has seen no signs that Syria's government will honor the Arab League proposal. Violence has escalated in Syria over the past week, as army dissidents who sided with the protests have grown more bold, fighting back against regime forces and even assaulting military bases. Activist groups said security forces on Friday killed at least 16 anti-government protesters.
Also Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, commenting on the deteriorating relations between his country and its southern neighbor, accused Syria of not fulfilling promises for reform or to stop the bloodshed. "In the past nine years, it was Syria and the Syrian people -- rather than Turkey -- that had benefited from the Turkish-Syrian friendship," Erdogan said. "Unfortunately, the Syrian administration has acted in a reluctant and insincere manner in keeping its promises."
"If there is a change of policy, it is not by Turkey but by Syria. Syria has not kept its promises to Turkey, to the Arab League or to the world. It made promises but did not fulfill them. It has not acted in a sincere trustworthy manner," he said.
The attacks on Jabal al-Zawiya came two days after an army force in the nearby area of Wadi al-Deif came under attack by army defectors, a clash that lasted four hours and left an unknown number of casualties among troops loyal to Assad, said an activist said.
The activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said troops fired from heavy machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers on the attackers.
The Arab League observer mission aims to prevent violence and monitor a cease-fire that Damascus agreed to last week, but has been unwilling -- or unable -- to implement.
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[An Nahar] Syria's president has reached "a point of no return" and faces the same fate as former despots in Libya and Iraq, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Saturday.
"I think that he went beyond the point of no return, no way that he will he resume his authority or legitimacy," Barak told a defense summit, predicting Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Despoiler of Deraa... regime could fall within months under growing international pressure.
"And it's clear to me that what happened a few weeks ago to Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... ... and what happened ultimately to Saddam Hussein, now might await him," he said.
Former Libyan strongman Moammar Qadaffy was killed on October 20 when forces of Libya's new regime captured his hometown of Sirte. Saddam Hussein was hanged in December 2006 after being sentenced for the deaths of 148 Iraqi Shiites deaths in the early 1980s.
The U.N. says a crackdown in Syria has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.
Across the country on Saturday, at least 17 people were killed, according to activists, as an 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... deadline for Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... to stop its lethal crackdown on dissent was set to expire.
Syria has been told by its Arab peers to stop the lethal repression against protesters by midnight (22:00 GMT) on Saturday or risk sanctions, and the vaporous Arab League has already suspended it from the 22-member bloc.
With rebel troops inflicting mounting losses on the regular army, Turkey and the United States both raised the specter of civil war and Russia called for restraint.
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[An Nahar] Contacts between Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... and the parliamentary majority have not been severed, stated a source from the majority to al-Joumhouriya newspaper in remarks published on Saturday. Didn't offer him enough, huh? It's not worth it, seeing as how he wouldn't stay bought...
It added however that contact between the Druze leader and Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... has been severed for the time being.
Furthermore, it stressed that the positions of some National Struggle Front ministers and MPs "don't necessarily reflect those of Jumblat."
It revealed that the MP is currently focusing on the ongoing regional and international developments and ways to fortify the Lebanese internal scene against them.
Ministerial sources told the newspaper that the MP will not withdraw his ministers from the government or leave the parliamentary majority.
"It's true that his position on Syria does not coincide with the rest of the majority, but he has not changed his stand on the resistance or the majority," they noted.
In addition, sources closed to Jumblat said that the PSP leader supports keeping Najib Miqati as prime minister and for providing the appropriate conditions for keeping him in his role "due to a lack of alternatives at the moment."
They voiced his fears of security repercussions taking place in Leb because of the developments in Syria, "especially since he believes that the crisis in Syria will take some time."
He is also concerned that the crisis will take on a violent turn with the eruption of sectarian disputes, which will affect Leb.
"This is why he is keen on introducing political calm in Leb and ease the tensions order to keep Leb away from the Syrian events," they stressed.
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[Dawn] Pakistain Mohammedan League -- Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... threatened to contact the Supreme Court in case a transparent investigation was not carried out into the memo controversy, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to media representatives here on Saturday, Sharif said an inquiry commission should be established with the consent of the opposition so that the issue could reach a logical conclusion.
He suggested that retired judges could be among the members of the commission or the national assembly could also hold an investigation.
Answering a question on the Senate elections, Sharif said he was not afraid of the elections and said they should be held on time.
Moreover, he said there was a need to curb the role of intelligence agencies in politics.
The PML-N leader expressed his concern over the progress of the Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... commission and said the inquiry appeared to be approaching a dead end.
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[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. on Saturday advised Taliban to furnish the children with pen and book, instead of preparing them for suicide kabooms and asked them to surrender by disarming themselves and refrain from playing into the hands of the enemy.
He said the government had taken various steps to curb tendencies of extremism and terrorism in the country.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the passport office in Islamgarh town of Mirpur district, he said "We want the youth of Pakistain to carry book and pen instead of the suicide jackets."
AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed and others also addressed the ceremony.
The Interior Minister said suicide incidents had reduced considerably and law and order had improved to a great extent.
The minister said that following the reconciliatory policy of President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... , the country succeeded in achieving speedy progress, stability and prosperity.
Malik recalled that the country was on the verge of destruction when the PPP came into power. The law and order situation was worsening and the economy was in bad shape, he added.
He said the PPP government focused on improving the law and order situation. After relentless efforts of the law enforcing agencies, the terrorism was brought under control, he added.
The minister said efforts were being made to eliminate extremism and terrorism not only from the country but in the region as well.
He reiterated the present government's resolve to take all political parties along while dealing major national issues in the national interest.
He advised the PML-N not to be anguished with the federal government as it was people who had confined it to a province.
He said that those talking of staging 'long-march or short march' will be able to evaluate their position in the coming March (referring to Senate election.)
Expressing solidarity with the people of Jammu & Kashmire on behalf of the people and the Government of Pakistain, Rehman Malik said that Pakistain would continue to extend moral political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris struggle for the right to self-determination.
Earlier the Minister inaugurated the passport office at Islamgarh, the constituency of AJK Prime Minister Ch. Abdul Majeed.
The office will benefit thousands of UK-based Kashmiri expatriates hailing from Islamhgarh and rest of the adjoining areas.
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[An Nahar] Afghan elders Saturday endorsed a long-term strategic partnership deal with the United States while insisting on a string of binding conditions.
Their declaration came at the end of a four-day loya jirga or traditional meeting which also supported holding talks with members of the Taliban who renounce violence, despite the murder of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani. ... the gentlemanly murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan...
President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... told the jirga, which united around 2,000 elders from around Afghanistan, that he accepted its conditions and recommendations.
Its stipulations included emphasizing that U.S. nationals who commit crimes in Afghanistan would not be immune from prosecution and the U.S. must side with Afghanistan if a third country tried to attack it.
The strategic partnership deal will govern the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when all NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... -led foreign combat forces are due to leave.
The jirga's findings on the deal, which is still being negotiated by Kabul and Washington, are non-binding.
But they are likely to be used as Karzai to claim he has a general mandate from the Afghan people for his strategy in the ongoing negotiations.
"The jirga has decided that the strategic partnership, for better security in the country, is needed," said the declaration, read out to the meeting of around 2,000 elders in Kabul by jirga spokeswoman Safia Sediqi.
"With regards to the national interest of Afghanistan, the strategic partnership is considered very important."
Other conditions stipulated by the jirga on the partnership deal were that it should be for 10 years initially, although that could be extended, plus that Afghan cops should take the lead in all military operations.
The jirga also called for the Afghan parliament to approve the strategic partnership deal and said that the U.S. should not play out regional rivalries on Afghan soil.
A number of leading Karzai opponents boycotted the loya jirga while some analysts accused the president of seeking to manipulate the meeting to gain backing for a deal which many Afghans strongly oppose.
"The aim of the jirga appears not to be to deliver fresh policy but to get political cover so the president can cite it as evidence that the people supported a deal with the Americans," Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network wrote this week in a blog.
The jirga also voted to endorse peace talks with Taliban members who turn their backs on violence after Rabbani's killing, which badly stalled any hopes of a political settlement with the jihad boys.
"The door of peace should be kept open with the armed opposition who wish to abandon violence and return to a peaceful life but we must ensure that the bitter experience of the past is not repeated," the declaration said.
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#1
10 years
NATO is leaving in 2014
No protection of Americans from AFG persecution
A defense against 3rd party intervention
A prohibition against regional focus
AFG cops on every mission
Hug the Taliban
Pretty much a guarantee of crap from every direction. What does the US get out of this?
[Al Ahram] Thousand of activists keep descending onto Tahrir Square to overwhelm police who bombarded a small group of protesters with tear gas this morning: each side escalated in numbers and police escalated with violence
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[Dawn] IT`S immaterial whether Pakistain`s ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani is still in office when you read these lines.
A more fundamental issue facing us is the one we haven`t been able to resolve for pretty much our entire life as a nation: civil-military relations or more accurately whether in matters of the state the men in khaki have precedence or elected civilian public officials.
All indications are that the country`s military leadership has told the president that nothing short of the ambassador`s head will suffice for his alleged role in `memogate`. In fact, Article 6, which deals with high treason, is also being mentioned in the media.
The military hasn`t talked about Article 6 but this was done by a journalist during a TV programme. Since he appeared to have a window to the military`s thinking on the matter, the statement seemed significant.
Despite military coups and instances of blatant military interference in matters solely in the civilian domain, Article 6 has never been invoked. And this is not counting the use of the infamous Article 58(2)(b), sanctioning legal cover for such interventions.
So much is in the public knowledge about what columnists are calling memogate that there is no point detailing it here. It`s what triggered the controversy after US businessman Mansoor Ijaz`s claim.
He claimed a memo was written at the behest of Husain Haqqani and implicitly approved by President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... , in which the Pak government sought Washington`s help as it feared a military coup, following the killing of the late Osama bin Laden ... who went titzup one dark and stormy night... in a US forces raid in Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... .There was allegedly also talk of replacing the current military leadership, of pledges to abandon support to all myrmidon groups and also offers of a `transparent` and secure handling of nuclear assets among others.
The memo allegedly written on May 10, a few days after the OBL raid, was addressed to the then US chairman of the joint chiefs Adm Mike Mullen who, till his retirement later in the year, was the main interlocutor in negotiations with the Pak military and its chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... Husain Haqqani has categorically denied a role in matter as did the government earlier. The military may not have gone on the record, but the historically ominous `rift and coup` rumours and suggestions have started surfacing.
We have the versions of the various parties named in the controversy but don`t have the means to verify any. So, what`s the truth? We can only speculate. In the worst of cases, Ambassador Haqqani tried to be too clever by half, failed and will have to fall on his sword as he couldn`t manage the fallout.
Fallout because Mansoor Ijaz`s `intergalactic ego` (a phrase I borrow from a Tweet) couldn`t handle the denials and being the butt of jokes after he`d `broken` the story (in a few lines) in his long FT.com piece in October this year which itself was largely (and paradoxically) focused on a harsh critique of the Pak military and its agencies.
In the best-case scenario for the ambassador, memogate was a figment of its author`s imagination (which seems pretty fertile anyway) or Ijaz was party to a conspiracy -- Haqqani is able to demonstrate this and the president stands by his man in Washington.
But whatever the ambassador`s fate, will it be enough to curtail the military`s unwarranted influence in matters of the state and its desire to call all the shots despite its various failings? I doubt it.
WikiLeaks blew the lid off how the military was party to all our policies towards the US, even as it made sure the government was getting a bad name whether it was for acquiescing in the CIA-run drone attacks or quiet cooperation in other security areas such as issuance of visas.
In the past, about which he is open, Haqqani was aligned with the country`s military leadership and it benefited from his brilliance, wit and deft media handling. In the run-up to the 1988 elections and afterwards, he was said to be one of the key people helping the Sharifs bolster their political credentials.
Sharifs` anti-establishment rebellion was still some 10 years away as they danced to the military`s tune in destabilising Benazir Bhutto`s first government and Haqqani, apart from the then director-general of military intelligence Gen Asad Durrani, was `briefing` the media on the `evils` of the PPP.
One has personally witnessed his evolution from the Bloody Karachi University students union president elected on an Islami Jamiat-i-Tuleba ticket, to a journalist, media manager-political campaigner who may have thought the military`s dominance was in the country`s interest, to being a well-read scholar-credible author, to his realisation that only democracy was viable.
The establishment didn`t say a negative word about him in his early career as he was on the `right` side. Then he moved over to the democratic forces. Enticement appeared as ineffective as coercion to change his loyalties. His sharp mind was made up.
This was when his patriotism started to become suspect. As he started to use his good offices to convince the leaders of his host country of the need to alter their historic reliance on Pakistain`s military and engage with the civilian government, all GHQ`s suspicions about him were confirmed.
Was Haqqani too ambitious in his goal and failed? Is the US now again signalling to Rawalpindi who its preferred ally in Pakistain is, as it needs the latter`s help for an Afghanistan exit?
Or does Adm Mullen`s confirmation a memo was sent to his office merely mean that the US sees Mansoor Ijaz as a `key asset`, not an unstable man with delusions of grandeur, and couldn`t see him discredited? We don`t know.
What we do know is if the government keeps thinking good governance is an alien concept, the opposition continues to remain entangled in an acrimonious and impatient game to capture power through extra-parliamentary means, they`ll both lose. And the military will remain at ease to hunt the wrong Haqqani(s).
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[Iran Press TV] A large number of Yemeni army personnel have joined anti-regime protesters amid the cheers of revolutionary forces in the capital, Sana'a, Press TV has learned.
The troops defected from the Republican Guard and the Central Security forces to join the popular revolution that has been demanding the ouster of President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
The anti-government protesters welcomed the troops and called on all other regime forces to join the revolution.
Army defections continue as embattled Saleh refuses to step down despite mounting pressure at home and from the international community.
On Saturday, Saleh stated that he would hand over power to the military if he had to heed opposition demands for his resignation.
The United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... Security Council is scheduled to discuss Saleh's refusal to loosen his three-decade grip on power under a plan proposed by the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council.
The initiative gives Saleh immunity from prosecution in return for quitting power, a plan which has infuriated demonstrators demanding Saleh's prosecution.
Protesters want the Saudi and US-backed dictator to stand trial in an international court for the killing of hundreds of protesters since the outbreak of the anti-regime demonstrations in the country in late January.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... tens of thousands of Yemenis once again erupted into the streets over the past two days to demand an end to the deadly crackdown on popular protests.
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Ethiopian troops have crossed the border into Somalia in significant numbers, eyewitnesses say.
They say they saw at least 20 vehicles carrying Ethiopian troops.
A few hundred soldiers were seen in Gurel town in Galgudud region and there were other sightings around Beledweyne.
Ethiopian authorities have denied the incursion. Their soldiers have not been in Somalia in large numbers since 2009 when they withdrew after a controversial three-year presence.
These reports come as Kenyan troops continue their efforts to defeat fighters of the Islamist group al-Shabab in the south of Somalia.
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[Al Ahram] Blogger and feminist Aliaa El-Mahdy has begun to face a backlash in Egyptian society after a nude photo she took of herself and posted online spreads and catches local and international media attention. Lawsuits against her have been filed.
A group of Islamic law graduates reported Aliaa El-Mahdy and her boyfriend, blogger Karim Amer, to the general prosecutor on Thursday, accusing them of spreading immorality and debauchery along with contempt of religion, demanding that they be punished according to Islamic law.
Another lawyer, Nafisa Abdel Fatah, reported El-Mahdy and Amer to the general prosecutor Friday, also accusing them of spreading immorality. Abdel Fatah told Youm7 website that El-Mahdy and Amer encouraged the spread of the nude photo, aside from being lovers outside of wedlock in defiance of religious and social traditions.
Liberal powers and parties in Egypt expressed their concern at the backlash, which comes shortly before parliamentary elections where liberal parties are facing stiff competition from Islamist parties.
Renowned liberal writer Siyad El-Qamni slammed what El-Mahdy had done, describing her as a mentally disturbed girl. El-Mahdy fired back at on her Twitter account, describing him as a "coward" who backed off from his liberal opinions when he received threats from radical Islamists.
El-Mahdy, a 20-year-old mass communications student at the American University in Cairo posted the nude photo on her personal blog, "A Rebel's Scream," last month. They caught attention when retweeted on the Twitter social network, creating intense debate among Egyptian and Arab Twitter users.
Not less than 2,500,000 have visited El-Mahdy's blog after the post was initially spread on Twitter.
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#4
The young woman really hit a home run with that picture. It reminds the secularists that everything they enjoy in society is under threat from the Islamists, and it reminds women that if the Islamists win, their freedoms are gone and they are reduced to living like property, slaves, and farm animals again.
Under the heel of ignorant, peasant "Arabs", not the more elite, urbane and sophisticated Egyptians they imagine themselves to be.
The ugly secret of the Islamic world is that they are utterly obsessed with pr0nography, and are some of its biggest per capita consumers. Given that, the knee jerk reaction to her picture is the height of hypocrisy, and they know it is.
[An Nahar] Yemen's embattled President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... said on Saturday he would hand the country over to the military if he were to step down as demanded by the opposition. ... the army being controlled by his kids...
"We... are ready to make sacrifices for the country. But you will always be there, even if we step down," Saleh told loyalist troops, in statements carried by the official Saba news agency.
The news agency said Saleh made the remarks during an inspection of the Elite Republican Guards, an elite army corps led by Saleh's son Ahmed.
Saleh, who has been in power in Sanaa since 1978, has come under mounting domestic and international pressure to step down in line with a Gulf-brokered peace blueprint.
Saleh has welcomed the plan but has yet to formally endorse it.
His remarks came ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting due on Monday to discuss Saleh's refusal to hand over power under the Gulf plan in return for immunity from prosecution.
The council unanimously passed Resolution 2014 on October 21 condemning attacks on demonstrators by Saleh's forces and strongly backing the Gulf Cooperation Council plan.
Several hundred demonstrators have been killed in Yemen since anti-government protests broke out in late January.
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[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... said on Saturday that the war is ongoing in Syria because the stated demands for reform are not the real motives behind war.
"It is important to respond to the international media outlets that are reporting incidents opposite to the facts on ground," Aoun said during a meeting with a European Catholic delegation.
He discussed with the delegation, which spent a week in Syria between Homs, Banias and Hama, the latest developments in Syria.
According to a statement by the FPM media relations department, the delegation slammed the satellite channel al-Jazeera for "publishing incorrect reports," suggesting to "establish a television network to refute all the lies."
The revolt in Syria has deepened the rift between the March 8-dominated government and the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... -led opposition.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in the Syrian regime's brutal crackdown on dissent, the U.N. human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... office said, deploring the slaughter that went on despite a peace plan.
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[An Nahar] At least 17 people were killed across Syria on Saturday, activists said, as an 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... deadline for Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... to stop its lethal crackdown on dissent was set to expire.
Among the dead were four intelligence agents killed by gunnies who raked their car with gunfire and two mutinous soldiers who died in festivities with regular troops as the military raided the central town of Shayzar after a heavy shelling, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The latest bloodletting came just hours before the 2200 GMT deadline from the vaporous Arab League as world pressure mounted on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's regime to stop the violence which the U.N. says has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.
With rebel troops inflicting mounting losses on the regular army, Turkey and the United States both raised the specter of civil war and Russia called for restraint.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague was to meet rebel leaders in London on Monday.
After talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... in Moscow, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said: "It is indispensable to increase international pressure.
"We have tabled a resolution at the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... . We hope it will find as wide support as possible."
Russia has staunchly resisted any attempt to internationalize the crisis, fearing it could clear the way for a Libya-style military intervention under a U.N. mandate.
In October, both Russia and China vetoed a Western-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution that would have threatened Assad's regime with "targeted measures" over its crackdown.
"We are calling for restraint and caution. This is our position," Putin said a day after his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had likened the situation in Syria to a civil war.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Charles Evans Hughes ... and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu both warned that the risk of civil war was real, amid growing losses among regular troops at the hands of mutineers.
"I say there is a risk of transforming into civil war," Davutoglu told Agence La Belle France Presse, pointing to the upsurge in attacks by army defectors.
Clinton told NBC news: "I think there could be a civil war with a very determined and well-armed and eventually well-financed opposition that is, if not directed by, certainly influenced by defectors from the army."
The Arab League said it was examining a Syrian request to make changes to a proposal to send 500 observers to Damascus to help implement a peace deal agreed earlier this month.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi was to meet aides at 16:00 GMT and later issue a statement concerning sending an observer mission to Syria, Arab officials said.
Syria has been told by its Arab peers to stop the lethal repression against protesters by midnight (22:00 GMT) on Saturday or risk sanctions, and the Arab League has already suspended it from the 22-member bloc.
As the clock ticked, there was further bloodshed in Syria and troops pressed on with their repression, activists said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 non-combatants were killed in violence on Saturday, seven of them in Kfar Kharim in Idlib province in the northwest, close to the Turkish border.
It quoted a mutinous officer as saying that two army deserters "were killed in festivities with regular troops in Qusayr" in the restive central Homs province.
Also in central Syria "deserters raked with gunfire a car carrying four members of the air force intelligence near the village of Al-Mukhtara on the Salmiyeh-Homs road killing everyone on board," the Britannia-based watchdog said.
Earlier, troops stormed the central town of Shayzar, the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition umbrella group, reported.
On Friday, government forces killed at least 15 people as protesters defied a massive security force presence to urge nations to expel Syrian ambassadors to further isolate Damascus, activists said.
The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation said it will convene an emergency meeting next Saturday at its Saudi headquarters to urge Syria to "end the bloodshed."
OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said he "rejects foreign intervention in Syria" but warned that further unrest threatens regional stability as well.
Elsewhere, dozens of people rallied outside the U.S. consulate in west Jerusalem in support of the Assad regime, denouncing what they called a "conspiracy" against Syria.
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[Dawn] Security forces killed a suspected krazed killer in North Wazoo Agency, while a girls school was blown up in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central and a college damaged in Swabi on Friday.
Officials in Miramshah said a suspected krazed killer was killed and another injured during a clash with security forces in Speenwam area of North Waziristan Agency.
They said the clash occurred after suspected snuffies attacked security forces, injuring two personnel, adding that the forces returned fire killing one krazed killer and injuring another.
Officials said gunship helicopters came into action after the clash and bombed positions of suspected snuffies in the area.
A government primary school for girls was blown up in Salarzai tehsil of Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central early on Friday.
Officials said explosives planted by eight hard boyz in the Danqol village school went kaboom! completely destroying the building.
They said the kaboom didn`t cause any damage to human life, adding that the school`s watchman was not present on the premises when the explosives went off.
Officials said hard boyz had blown up 105 schools in the agency since 2007.
After the kaboom, the Danqol peace committee began a search operation for cut-thoats. Also, the political authorities tossed in the clink many suspects under the Territorial Responsibility Clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.
The kaboom occurred a day after the visit of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar corps commander to the agency. The corps commander had announced that the agency had been completely cleared of hard boyz and that solid steps would be taken for revival educational activities there.
Also in the day, a shop allegedly selling narcotics was blown up in the Siddiqabad locality near Khar on Friday.
Security forces fired gunshots in the air after the incident. However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... no arrests were made by night.
COLLEGE TARGETED: A homemade bomb planted by suspected hard boyz went kaboom! near the boundary wall of a private college in the wee hours of Friday.
The kaboom damaged the boundary wall and caused no damage to human life, said police.
It was the second blast of its kind in the last two months.
Earlier, a private school on Swabi-Jahangira Road was targeted when a bomb went kaboom! at its main entrance, damaging a small part of the building and injuring watchman.
Police claimed to have tossed in the clink two suspects but refused to reveal their names.
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11/20/2011
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#1
Not too many more girls' schools can even be left in Bajaur, no?
#4
We mods can usually catch it, but if we're not around, schtuff like this should be left in a note at the O-Club (where we're usually ... er, napping waiting to spring into action).
[Al Ahram] "What is taking place in Syria is genocide. There is calamity everywhere in that country. Shelling, massacres and endless violations, but calamity is also affecting us as a splintered opposition." With this statement, and in a lamenting tone, Mohamed Maamoun Al-Homsi, a leading figure in the Syrian opposition, began his interview with Ahram Online.
Al-Homsi called for uniting all tracks of the opposition under one umbrella, namely to save Syria. He asserted that the opposition Syrian National Council, which is popular in the media, does not represent the demands of the Syrian street through what he called "the revolution's constitution".
It naturally "prioritises protection for civilians, imposing a no-fly zone, imposing restrictions and international and regional isolation against the regime, and working towards overthrowing the regime, even through war whereby all Arab regimes would provide assistance -- even with weapons -- in order to put an end to this bleak reign."
Al-Homsi, a former Syrian MP, sought asylum in Leb, and as pressure mounted on him he left to Cairo, also as an exile. "Every minute that passes and Bashar's regime is still in power is like a knife held to the throat of the homeland, slaughtering deaders, and no one is helping," he said. "Arab efforts are too slow, and even worse, the Syrian National Council, headed by Borhan Ghalyoun, is now saying it does not want anyone to interfere. The opposition has become a council for rhetoric not action."
Al-Homsi believes that Assad's regime is propped up by Iran and Hizbullah, followed by several Iraqi political players, including Prime Minister Nouri Al-Malki and Shia leader Moqtada Al-Sadr. "I consider Syria as under Iranian occupation and what is needed is for an international force to end this occupation," he argued.
He criticised the Syrian National Council once again by describing it as a velvet glove, and that it was chosen in a selective, non-objective manner. "How can Abdel-Rahman Eissa, a leading voice in the opposition with a long history, be left out while they bring in figures who only recently joined the opposition ranks?" he pondered.
He added: "Is it reasonable that, after all these images, we talk about a fact-finding mission? Does what is taking place in Homs, Latakia, Hama, Deraa and Deir Al-Zur really need a fact-finding mission? The regime has lost its legitimacy, but unfortunately these committees claim that it is still legitimate. Then there is international support from Russia and China who are readily willing to use their veto power to benefit Assad.
As for Iran and its lies and acrobatics, it will lose this regime and with it Tehran's influence in the region, which we view as an invasion of the Arab nation and Shia occupation of Syria and Gulf states under the label of the Persian Gulf. Also, support for a criminal regime by providing it with supplies and provisions; we are the victims of this brutality."
Al-Homsi believes that the Syrian regime's chances of survival are very slim. "It has destroyed the Arab initiative at the outset, and continues with its allies to challenge our revolution," he said, adding that the Arabs must shoulder their humanitarian and historic responsibility towards the people of Syria.
In the past few days, senior military leaders joined the Free Syrian Army, which has carried out selective strikes against the regular army, the Arab Syrian Army. Al-Homsi said that deserting officers "must have realised the truth and are honest men of this revolution, but without Arab support they will be wiped out by the regime and the Iranian weapons in its possession.
We do not support chaos resulting from foreign intervention or arming the military, but in the end we want an army that is able to safeguard and defend the revolution instead of expanding the circles of battles and violence."
Bassma Kodmani, a member of the Syrian National Council, agrees with Al-Homsi that the opposition should close ranks and suggested that no one should be excluded. Qadmani added that the upcoming opposition conference is the umbrella that everyone should gather under, to agree on the principles of the Syrian Revolution Constitution, "so that we are able to catch up with the train of the Arab Spring, instead of each political faction finding a separate role to play," she said.
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[Dawn] A suspected bad boy who went kaboom!" in Bloody Karachi during a raid by security forces was carrying a US and a Pak passport, authorities said on Saturday. Bet he wasn't named 'Bob' or 'Kevin.'
According to a statement by Pakistain's paramilitary Rangers, the dead man has been identified as Moeed Abdul Salam. Toldja so.
He detonated an bomb on Thursday when troops raided his apartment in Gulistan-e-Johar. Which brings up something I've been wondering about: If people from Texas are nicknamed 'Tex,' are people from Minnesota nicknamed 'Minnie'?
Post-mortem tests on Salam's body confirmed the man died due to the kaboom of a hand grenade, it said, adding "documents used for acts of terrorism were also recovered" from his possession.
The US Embassy could not immediately confirm the development.
The Rangers' statement said Salam had divorced his wife a month ago and was living with four children, who were unharmed.
How lovely -- he went a-jihading with children.
According to Salam's passport, he had traveled to many countries, the statement said.
Bloody Karachi is home to around 18 million people and is the capital of Sindh province. Several al Qaeda and Taliban operatives have been captured or killed there in recent years.
This article starring:
Moeed Abdul Salam
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Moeed Abdul Salam, rest in peace pieces.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/20/2011 5:54
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Lal Masjid cleric makes a mistake
Reported in Mashriq deputy leader of prayers of Islamabad's famous Lal Masjid, Maulana Amir Siddiqi complained that after he had made a trip to Iran he was receiving death calls. He had gone to Iran in a group of ten religious scholars on the invitation of Iran's Shia Council but forgot that his mosque was aligned with a school of thought that adhered to Al Qaeda and was opposed to Iran.
Another cricketer shows 'real' character
According to Mashriq Pakistan's pace bowler Suhail Tanvir got married (nikah) to a doctor but immediately after the wedding his former wife Nosheen appeared on the scene saying he had secretly married her earlier and had a daughter with her and had not taken permission under law from her for his second marriage. There is one year's prison for violating the law. But the clergy in Pakistan does not accept the law, so he was safe.
Musharraf wanted to hang Nawaz
Former General Ziauddin told daily Pakistan that Musharraf wanted to hang Nawaz Sharif after overthrowing his government in 1999. He had set up the scaffold at Attock Fort and the hangman had also been appointed. He said Nawaz Sharif as prime minister had dismissed Musharraf as army chief and appointed Ziauddin in his place because he knew what Musharraf had planned against Nawaz. Nawaz Sharif was spared because of international pressure.
Jinnah was unhappy with Bahawalpur
Daily Pakistan reported that Jinnah was unhappy with Nawab of Bahawalpur because of his activities and this had resulted in two Hindus trying to kill Jinnah but the plot was foiled just two days before it was to happen. Jinnah was about to take action against the Nawab.
Give women right to marry two men!
Reported in Jinnah Justice (retd) Nasira Iqbal said that men could marry second wife only under certain conditions usually taken to mean that he treat all his wives equally which was not possible according to the Quran. Sharmila Farooqui of PPP said that women too should be given permission to marry a lot of men.
Ah, Pakistan, Land of the Pure: where the impossible is permitted, and the possible is forbidden.
Allama Iqbal and Curse of America
Famous columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that America was on its last legs as the entire world was unhappy with the capitalist system imposed by it. He asserted that Allama Iqbal had warned the nation that it was not right to depend on London and Geneva because these places were in the clutch of the Jews (Panja-e-Yuhud). He also asserted that Western civilisation was on its death bed in its very youth.
Russia and Chechnya
World famous intellectual Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema
Who?
wrote in Jang that he had gone to Russia with a delegation and was received by a famous think tank. There he had the great wisdom of asking the leader of the think tank why Russia, after having given freedom to Uzbekistan and other republics, not allowed Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan the same freedom. (He forgot that new republics were created after the break-up of the Soviet Union; Russia did not break up therefore the above three areas of Russia were not to be freed without breaking up Russia too.)
So this would be that specific definition of great wisdom which means the sum of stupid plus ignorant. Got it.
Secretary petroleum does 'ghul-ghapara'
Reported in Jinnah that federal secretary petroleum became drunk on alcohol during a charity show in Islamabad, took off his shirt to bare his body after which he began to pursue the ladies present on the occasion. He caused a lot of disorder (ghul-ghapara) after which he specially turned his attention to foreigner ladies in hopes of attracting them to his bare body. On this he was overpowered by the guards and made to sit out the function.
Clearly the ladies weren't attracted to his mind, either.
Senior journalist also does 'ghul-ghapara'
Daily Jinnah reported that a senior journalist (hint-hint) and columnist of great fame in Lahore (name withheld) was found doing ghul-ghapara at Lahore's Gymkhana Club. The said journalist whose name could be easily guessed because of his well known inability to hold his drink was most abusive to club members in Chandni Lounge. The club administration was shocked at the fertility of the journalist's brain to produce long and very descriptive abuses.
Aisha is still Hamza's wife!
Daily Mashriq reported that Aisha Ahad Malik was still married to Nawaz Sharif's nephew and son of Punjab chief minister, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif. This was confirmed by the parents of Aisha - Ahad Malik of PMLQ and his wife. Hamza denied that he was married to her.
Saudi Arab wanted Nawaz Sharif as premier
Famous double-game president General Musharraf was quoted in Jinnah as saying that the Saudis wanted him as president of Pakistan provided he kept Nawaz Sharif as prime minister. Saudis got Nawaz to agree that he would stay out of Pakistan for a decade but later it was agreed that he would return but would not demand restoration of the judges nor want President Musharraf removed.
Drone kills Umar Abdur Rehman's son
Reported in Jinnah a drone killed three Arabs in Pakistan including two of them - a son and a grandson of - Umar Abdur Rehman the fiery blind orator-leader of Egypt's Gamaa Islamiyya serving a long sentence in America since 1995 for plotting to blow up the American Trade Centre through Ramzi Yusuf who is also serving a long sentence.
Maulvi Faqir calls Pakistan 'ghulam'
Quoted in Mashriq deputy chief of the Taliban Maulvi Faqir Muhammad said that it was no use talking to Pakistan because it was a slave (ghulam) of America. He said America was losing the war in Afghanistan and was therefore deceptively talking about peace with the Taliban. He denied that he had recently visited India; nor was he killing Pakistanis at the behest of India.
India cannot be 'most favoured'
Famous columnist Tanvir Qaiser Shahid wrote in Express that India could not be granted the title of Most Favoured Nation (pasandida tareen mulk) because it had inflicted so much cruelty on Pakistan. How could it be acceptable to the armed forces of Pakistan and how can it be acceptable that our army chief invites foreign guests to his meetings only to have them say in public that the army was in agreement with the award of MFN to India.
Kick America out!
World famous spy-master and intellectual Hamid Gul told Nawa-e-Waqt that if Afghanistan could beat up the US (maar-bhagaana) and throw it out of its territory, why couldn't Pakistan do it? He said Pakistan should stop the greatly expensive equipment of the US leaving Afghanistan through Pakistan, which Pakistan should confiscate.
A new slant on 'halala'
Daily Jinnah reported that chief of the world renowned madrassa of Karachi Jamia Banuria chief Mufti Naeem said that the contracting of second marriage by Suhail Tanvir without the permission of his first wife was a kind of halala (making permissible) which was allowed by Islam. He said Islam did not make second marriage or more conditional to taking permission from the first wife. Normally halala means remarrying first wife after first marrying her to another man, who is usually a cleric, complete with consummation of marriage through sleeping with the said cleric.
[Iran Press TV] Two protesters have been rubbed out after snipers fired live ammunition at demonstrators in Egypt's northern city of Alexandria.
Witnesses said that the victims died in the early hours of Sunday as police forces fired rubber bullets and threw tear gas canisters at the demonstrators who were staging a protest rally in front of Alexandria's Security Directorate, DPA reported.
The development came after at least one person was killed and close to 700 others injured on Saturday after festivities erupted between police forces and protesters in Tahrir Square in the country's capital Cairo.
The country has been swept with rallies against the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF)'s failure to live up to its promise of handing over power to a civilian government in the aftermath of the country's February revolution.
Egyptian Islamic and liberal opposition groups also staged a mass rally in Cairo on Friday to protest at the ruling junta's plans to change the constitution with the aim of empowering the Army with legal safeguards.
Earlier this month, Egypt's Deputy Prime Minister Ali al-Silmi showed a draft of a revised constitution to political groups in the North African country. The draft would give the army exclusive authority over its internal affairs and budget and would also shield the forces from legal scrutiny.
The opposition and democracy campaigners protested at the prospect.
Protesters have also criticized the head of the council Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi for his reluctance to implement sweeping changes and dismantle elements of the former regime.
The military rulers have promised to hold presidential elections by late next year.
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[Al Ahram] Several hundred Ethiopian troops crossed on Saturday into southern and central Somalia, local elders said, but Addis Ababa dismissed the reports as "absolutely not true."
"There are several hundred Ethiopian troops here in lorries and some armoured vehicles too," said elder Abdi Ibrahim Warsame, speaking by telephone from Gurel town, in Somalia's central Galgudud region.
Ethiopian forces were also reported in the Hiran region at the town of Beletweyne, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) into Somalia, an area contested by Islamist Shebab rebels and pro-government militia.
"They are here, the Ethiopian soldiers in trucks have reached Beletweyne with many forces," said elder Ahmed Liban. "The Shebab in the area are pulling back, away from them." But Ethiopia dismissed the reports outright.
"It is absolutely not true, there are absolutely no troops in Somalia," said Ethiopian foreign ministry front man Dina Mufti. "People are simply speculating."
Small numbers of Ethiopian forces have been reported operating in Somali border regions in the recent past, but witnesses said the scale of troop movements was this time far larger.
If confirmed, it would be Addis Ababa's first large scale incursion since it invaded Somalia in 2006 with US backing.
Ethiopia pulled out three years later after failing to restore order in its lawless neighbour, which has lacked a functioning government for two decades.
The Galgudud area is largely under the control of an anti-Shebab militia called Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, factions of which have close ties with Ethiopia.
Ethiopian soldiers were reported to be up to 50 kilometres (30 miles) inside Somalia in that area.
Hardline Shebab beturbanned goons control much of southern Somalia, but are battling both the Western-backed government in Mogadishu and Kenyan troops in the far south, who crossed the border last month to attack rebel strongholds.
African Union officials and members of the regional peacekeeping body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), held talks this week on bolstering the 9,700-strong AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
But no decision for Ethiopia to join Ugandan and Burundian forces in the mission had been made, Dina said.
"There is an intention on the part of IGAD members to bolster peacekeeping forces, because as you know the regional countries are working on increasing the numbers of AMISOM," Dina said.
"As to Ethiopian (troops) there is nothing that has been decided."
The humanitarian crisis in central and southern Somalia sparked by years of conflict and extreme drought is the worst in the world, the United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... said Friday, with nearly 250,000 people facing imminent starvation.
Although the UN downgraded three famine alerts Friday to emergency levels, three other famine zones remain, and aid agencies warn that conflict is hampering access to those in need.
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[Dawn] Four men appeared in a London court on Saturday charged with terrorism offences after being jugged as part of a major police investigation linked to Pakistain. That'd be Nigel, Ian, Cecil and Clive, of course...
The men, from the central English city of Birmingham, were jugged on Tuesday in a counter-terrorism operation which has seen eight others already charged, including three who are alleged to have been plotting a suicide kaboom in Britannia.
Khobaib Hussain, Ishaaq Hussain and Shahid Kasam Khan, all 19, and Naweed Mahmood Ali, 24, are accused of fundraising for the purposes of terrorism, travelling to Pakistain for training and travelling abroad to commit acts of terrorism. Oh. Sorry. My mistake. Y'gotta admit, it could happen to anybody...
They were remanded in jug following a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court and will appear again at Kingston Crown Court on Dec. 9, the Press Association reported.
Police said their arrests had been pre-planned and not made in response to any immediate threat to public safety.
Britannia's security services have been on high alert since four British jacket wallahs killed 52 commuters on three trains and a bus in London on July 7, 2005. A similar attack failed two weeks later when the bombs did not explode.
The government said in July that the threat level had been downgraded by one notch to "substantial", the third highest of five categories, meaning an attack is a "strong possibility".
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ZINTAN, Libya: Libya's prime minister hailed the capture of Muammar Qaddafi's son on Saturday as the "crowning" of the Libyan uprising and promised a fair trial for Seif Al-Islam, who was found in the southern desert overnight.
Wonder if he was hiding in a hole...
In the first official announcement of Seif Al-Islam's capture, Abdurrahim El-Keib said he hoped it would "turn the page on the phase of revolution and will mark the beginning of the building of a state of freedom, law, justice and transparency.
"I want to assure our people and all nations of the world that Saif and those with him will be given a fair trial, with the guarantees of local and international law -- those legal processes which our own people were deprived of," he told a news conference in the Western mountain town of Zintan, where Seif Al-Islam and several bodyguards had been taken.
Seif Al-Islam, once favorite to succeed his late father, was arrested by fighters from Zintan, who make up one of Libya's most powerful militia factions. They said they would hold him until they could hand him over to the authorities.
The West urged Libya's new rulers to give Seif Al-Islam a fair trial and work with the International Criminal Court to bring him to justice, fearing he might suffer the same fate as his father, who was beaten and shot dead after his capture.
Not that there was anything wrong with that...
"It is important for future national reconciliation that those responsible for human rights violations committed both before and during the recent conflict are brought to justice," said a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.
That pre-supposes that justice will be done not just fairly but swiftly. We haven't ever seen anything 'swift' from the ICC or the various Euro courts of justice.
British Prime Minister David Cameron joined calls for a fair trial and offered Libya help in ensuring justice.
"The Libyan government has told us again today that he will receive a trial in line with international standards, and it is important that this happens," he said in a statement. "Britain will offer every assistance to the Libyan government and the International Criminal Court to bring him to face full accountability and justice for what he has done."
The Libyans don't need the ICC to be involved. They can handle this.
France, which together with Britain pushed for a military intervention in Libya last March, urged fighters who captured Seif Al-Islam to hand him over to the authorities.
"Seif Al-Islam must answer for his acts and face trial," the French foreign ministry said.
Human rights activists said a trial by the ICC would send the right message to the international community that Libya is serious about protecting rights.
Then again, having the new Libyan government try and execute him would send a message too...
"Fair prosecution at the ICC will afford Libyans a chance to see justice served in a trial that the international community stands behind," said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
Fair prosecution by a Libyan court, delivered by Libyans, would send a better message. Note that the implicit message of all the Euros is, in the end, imperialist: the Libyans apparently aren't capable of delivering justice. The Libyans should be insulted.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt pressed for his removal to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which wants to try the 39-year-old on charges of crimes against humanity during the crackdown on protests.
The court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said he would visit Libya in a week to discuss the prosecution.
But many Libyans want Seif Al-Islam tried at home, believing he knows the location of billions of dollars of public money amassed by the Qaddafi family. Libya's interim justice minister said the country would try him first, for crimes that carry the death penalty.
"We are ready to prosecute Seif Al-Islam," Mohammed Al-Alagy said. "We have adopted enough legal and judicial procedures to ensure a fair trial for him."
That ought to end it...
Alagy, who does not expect to retain his post in a new government, said he would be tried on charges of instigating others to kill, misuse of public funds and recruiting mercenaries among other crimes.
Across Libya, Said Al-Islam's capture was celebrated. Keib, the incoming prime minister, thanked Libyans for their "struggle and historic heroism" that ousted the regime and captured Seif Al-Islam.
"It is the crowning of the sacrifices of our people," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2011
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#1
They'll give him a fair trial before they hang/shoot/behead him.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/20/2011 0:20
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#2
"Fair prosecution at the ICC will afford Libyans a chance to see justice served in a trial that the international community stands behind,"
Considering that the majority of the international community stands behind warrantless detention, sham trials, and arbitrary execution, I'm okay with this.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/20/2011 8:33
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#3
"they hang/shoot/behead him"
Probably all three, Rambler. (I suspect they'll have to hang him before they behead him, but I'm not really an expert in that area. ;-p )
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/20/2011 8:50
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#4
he hoped it would "turn the page on the phase of revolution and will mark the beginning of the building of a state of freedom, law, justice and transparency
Where have we heard this before? Typical BS you hear before a the new dictatorship becomes entrenched.
#3
Looks like metal plating covers the walls of the tunnels. I guess that is to protect occupants from concrete spalling / shrapnel due to shock waves.
#4
All the flanged circular segments bolted together make a pressure vessel. That is one hell of a bunker! After a nuclear hit, it would allow the occupants to survive, but they could also be entombed. A lot of effort went into that place. Amazing!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2011 16:59
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#5
It is interesting to see. These things are all over the world. The food goes bad. Then decay. While these things go on the people live on. Out of Siberia I have followed some folk protest singers. A group photo is in this video. The man to the right is in the video. The woman was found dead in a river from a blow to her head. They called it suicide. Now Russian Punk Rock:
[Al Ahram] Saif Al-Islam Qadaffy told Rooters on Saturday that he was feeling fine after being captured by some of the fighters who overthrew his father and he said injuries to his right hand were suffered during a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... air strike a month ago.
Asked by Rooters correspondent Marie-Louise Gumuchian on the plane which flew him to the town of Zintan if he was feeling all right, Qadaffy said simply: "Yes."
Reluctant to speak at length, the London-educated 39-year-old son of Muammar Qadaffy was asked about bandages on the thumb and two fingers of his right hand. "Air force, air force," he said. Asked if that meant a NATO air strike, he said: "Yes, One month ago."
Aides to Qadaffy had said his motorcade was caught by a NATO air strike as he tried to flee the pro-Qadaffy stronghold of Bani Walid, near Tripoli, on Oct. 19, the day before his father was captured and killed in his home town of Sirte.
After the brief exchange with the heavily bearded prisoner, Libyan Rooters journalists who have met Saif al-Islam said they had no doubt that was indeed him - though he repeatedly declined to confirm his identity outright.
So great was the crowd which thronged the Soviet-built cargo aircraft that flew him up from the desert town of Obari that his captors removed four other prisoners and other people from the plane, leaving Saif al-Islam still on board on the tarmac.
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[Dawn] THE air of conspiracy, never far from the corridors of power here, has grown thicker in recent days. Incredibly, as memogate threatens to take down the Pak ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, only an outline of the facts has been established. Here`s what is known for certain: a memo was delivered to the former US joint chiefs of staff chairman from Mansoor Ijaz, an American citizen of Pakistain descent with a shady past and a knack for finding himself at the centre of controversies. The contents of that memo have purportedly been published by a section of the media here in Pakistain, but that has only deepened the mystery. In the memo, the authors propose "a revamp of the civilian government that ... in a wholesale manner replaces the national security adviser and other national security officials". But Pakistain has had no national security adviser since Maj Gen (retd) Mahmud Durrani was sacked by Prime Minister Gilani after prematurely announcing that Ajmal Kasab was a Pak citizen when the prime minister was expected to do so himself. Nitpicking or a glaring error in the narrative of memogate, which seems to raise more questions than it answers at every turn?
Perhaps the broader lesson to be learned from this entire sorry tale is that the civil-military imbalance in the country remains profoundly skewed. If the memo has some truth to it, it hints at the desperation of politicians at critical junctures and the profound errors of judgment they can make. It also hints at the utter inability of the civilians here to slowly win back space ceded to the military without outside assistance. That would bode ill for the transition to democracy: if the civilians are not learning how to fight their own battles, they`re unlikely to ever win. Even if the memo was not authorised by the top civilian leadership, the pressure that the government has come under clearly indicates that hard questions are being asked and possibly demands being made from quarters that in theory ought to be subservient to the civilians. Perhaps this is the inevitable consequence of a tacit arrangement in which the civilians have opted to rule in the internal political domain and surrender national security and foreign policy issues to the men in uniform.
Whatever the fate of Ambassador Haqqani, himself a magnet for controversies, or other officials, memogate has served to remind Paks that they are caught between a rock and a hard place: bumbling civilians on one side and hard-line military men, who believe they alone know what is good for Pakistain, on the other.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011
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#1
Memogate? Calling Dan Rather...someone needs some documents forged!
[Emirates 24/7] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... was quoted on Saturday as saying he would press on with a crackdown against anti-government unrest in his country despite increased pressure from 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... to end it.
"The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue," he told Britannia's Sunday Times newspaper. "However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... I assure you that Syria will not bow down and that it will continue to resist the pressure being imposed on it."
In video footage on the newspaper's website, Assad said there would be elections in February or March when Syrians would vote for a parliament to create a new constitution and that would include provision for a presidential ballot
"That constitution will set the basis of how to elect a president, if they need a president or don't need him," he said. "They have the elections, they can participate in it. The ballot boxes will decide who should be president."
The Arab League, a powerful political group of Arab states, set a deadline on Saturday for Syria to comply with a peace plan, involving a military pullout from around restive areas, and threatened sanctions if Assad failed to halt the violence.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 non-combatants were killed in raids by government forces on Saturday while two army defectors died when they clashed with the army in Homs, which has become a centre of armed revolt against more than 40 years of Assad family rule.
Asked if his forces had been too aggressive, Assad told the newspaper mistakes had been made but these were the fault of individuals, not the state.
"We, as a state, do not have a policy to be cruel with citizens," he said.
The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... says 3,500 people have been killed during the crackdown on the protests which began in March, but Assad disputed this and put the number killed at 619. He told the paper that 800 government forces had been killed.
"DAILY OBSESSION"
"My role as president, this is my daily obsession now, is to know how to stop this bloodshed caused by armed terrorist acts that are hitting some areas," he said.
Syria has come under growing international pressure to stop the crackdown. Britannia, a strong critic of Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , said on Friday senior figures including Foreign Secretary William Hague would meet Syrian opposition representatives in London next week.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another James Baker ... has expressed fear that Syria could be slipping into civil war but said the international community was reluctant to intervene as it had in Libya.
Assad said the vaporous Arab League's intervention could provide a pretext for Western military action and repeated a past statement that such a move against Syria would create an "earthquake" across the Middle East.
"If they are logical, rational and realistic, they shouldn't do it because the repercussions are very dire. Military intervention will destabilise the region as a whole, and all countries will be affected," he told the Sunday Times.
The newspaper said Assad had promised to personally fight and die to resist foreign forces.
Assad also vowed to prevent further attacks by the Free Syrian Army, which opposition sources said had killed or maimed at least 20 security police in an assault on an Air Force Intelligence Complex near Damascus two days ago.
"The only way is to search for the armed people, chase the armed gangs, prevent the entry of arms and weapons from neighbouring countries, prevent sabotage and enforce law and order," he told the paper.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2011
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Words and ideas matter. Whether we're aware of them or not, the ideas we absorb shape our lives and our choices in deep ways.
Often the ideas we form start with the stories we hear, like this very ancient one:
At the beginning of things, YHWH took a handful of mud and formed a creature. Bending down, he came close, so intimately close that his breath flowed into the nostrils of the creature and Adam ("made of earth") truly lived....
YHWH called Adam's descendent Abram to pick up his tents from the pastoral areas around wealthy Ur and to move his flocks through a long route to a new land, one that was not dominated by either the great city empires of the Two Rivers nor the chariots of Egypt. In that place-on-the-edge YHWH made a covenant with Abram, giving him a new name and the promise that the lands around him would be belong to his descendents. No more would they be homeless. And although for a while his descendents remained Hebraoi ("those who wander, the marginal ones") and even found themselves in bondage, YHWH led those who kept the covenant into the land promised to them. "When Israel was a child I loved him and I called my son out of Egypt".
Many centuries later an exile, looking back on his experiences through the lens of his education both in the commentaries of the children of Israel and also of the Greek philosophers, wrote a book with an audacious claim:
En arche en ho logos, kai ho logos en pros ton theon, kai theos en ho logos.
In those few words John packed layers of meaning. Arche means beginning of time, but also can be used to indicate social or legal prominence, power, causation.
Logos, too, carried layers of meaning: spoken word, the word of God through his prophets and by which He created. (It is significant that, unlike the seers of surrounding cultures, Hebrew prophets were not seized by ecstatic trances. Instead they heard YHWH speak intelligibly -- and sometimes argued back.)
But logos also meant 'meaning' itself, the truth behind words, the patterns and connections that raise the world from being a chaos of unpredictability to having purpose and resonance. And finally, John's readers who were educated in Greek learning would remember that the great Euclid used logos to describe the means by which things which are otherwise different in their very natures, such as number and space -- or God and man - could be brought into relationship with one another.
In the beginning (of time, of precedence, of causation) was the Logos (the word, the meaning, what makes meaning possible, what can bring us into relationship with what is otherwise totally beyond our power to reach). And that Logos was with God -- and that Logos was God.
That was John's claim. And so Christian theology was from its start grounded both in the stories of a very personal YHWH - a God who got his hands dirty and was intimately bound to his people in a complex and dramatic story of promise, suffering, fulfillment, disobedience, renewal -- and also in the challenge posed by Greek thought which celebrated human reason and sought to understand the very roots and heights of what is. Nor was such a theology entirely new, since there were already Jewish teachers who had pondered related matters with sophistication and devotion.
It is both the personally related God and the God of meaning, Robert Reilly tells us, that Islam rejected, with consequences that are playing out today. The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Islamist Crisis chronicles the encounter of Islam with Hellenistic thought and Christian theology. Islam committed intellectual suicide, he writes, when those who sought to apply reason to theology were ultimately suppressed in favor of strong assertions that Allah was unknowable, utterly transcendent, arbirtrary in his demands and not subject in any way to human understanding -- only to obedience.
Hence this hadith:
The Holy Prophet said: Allah created Adam when he created him. Then He stroke his right shoulder and took out a white race as if they were seeds, and He stroke his left shoulder and took out a black race as if they were charcoal. Then He said to those who were on his right shoulder: Towards paradise and I don't care. And He said to those who were on his left shoulder: Towards Hell and I don't care.
Al-Ghazali and others used such passages to insist that God is not obligated in any way, including by his own nature. We must call him just, but he is not bound by any notion we might have of what justice entails. Philosophy has no place in theology, nor can the world be understood by it. Allah is, first, foremost, and totally, transcendent. Allah is pure will. He acts as he chooses, without limit. We cannot understand. We can only obey.
Reilly quotes many contemporary Muslim thinkers who are very aware of the disastrous results of such thinking in the Arab and broader Muslim world today: rejection of science, justification for despotism, a disconnect with reality, the inability to relate cause and effect.
One need not be a believer in any religious tradition for this book to be an important one to read. In this review I've fleshed out a few elements of Jewish and Christian thought that Reilly assumes, and highlighted only a small portion of the substantial evidence he assembles regarding the rejection of meaning that came to dominate Islam.
Nor is this merely a historical concern. The spiritual leader of Egypt's terror group Jemaah Islamiyah is quoted as specifically emphasizing the central importance in Islam of the concept of al-fikr kufr: by the very act of reasoning one becomes an infidel. Or, as Taliban placards in Afghanistan proclaim, "Throw reason to the dogs - it stinks of corruption."
But doctrine is one thing and daily life is another. Although many Muslims are poor and illiterate, others in the Islamic world who hear sermons about al-fikr kufr increasingly navigate a world filled with the products of science, the debates of reason and political systems in which the meaning of justice is a lively concern. Reilly quotes modern Muslims who call for a renewal of Islamic theology and a modern synthesis of faith with elements that were forced out centuries ago. Our media are full of stories about those who are chosing to cling ever more tightly to the abyss, instead.
#1
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."
-- Winston Churchill, "The River War", in which he describes Muslims he observed during Kitchener's campaign in the Sudan
#2
If you look up this title on amazon.com, in the upper right hand corner of the results there is a link to Kindle and another link to 'read the first chapter'. If you have the Kindle utility installed, clicking on that button will give you a look at Chapter 1.
From the book: It may seem outrageous to say in the title of this book that the Muslim mind has closed--that a whole civilization has mentally shut down and abandoned reason and philosophy. I do not mean that the minds of every individual Muslim are closed, or that there are not varieties of Islam in which the Muslim mind is still open. I do mean, however, that a large portion of mainstream Sunni Islam, the majority expression of the faith, has shut the door to reality in a profound way. The evidence attesting to this embrace of unreality is unfortunately abundant and has been offered by Muslims themselves. This closure is especially true of, and due to, a particular current of Muslim theology, the Ash'arite school of Islam, which predominates in the Arab Middle East (and is heavily present in other areas such as Pakistan and south Asia)....I do not include Shi'a Islam in this book except tangentially, because it is different enough from Sunni Islam as to require a separate work...Shi'a Islam's relations to philosophy was and is entirely different, for reasons that will be alluded to in Chapter 2.
#3
Personally, I think that Muslims follow Islam because it allows them to survive and prosper in competition against non-Muslims. A competition that kept pre-Islamic Arabs as a fringe group, surviving only because no one else wanted their habitat.
#6
Kudos to L. Sprague de Camp, who decades ago strongly cursed Al-Ghazali for having killed any efforts at intellectual evolution in Islam.
Though it is *very* wisely avoiding any press, there are efforts now to essentially rewrite the doctrines and interpretations of Islam to the equivalent of a "Protestant" form, stripping away much of its repulsive character.
Granted it is hypocritical, but then again, so was the revisionism that has been done to the (old testament) Christian Bible. It mostly just changes the emphasis from the violent parts to the non-violent parts.
Once it is created, the hard part will be the sales pitch, which they will try to get through the less radical Islamic scholars.
#9
However, they have an intellectual dodge. While the Koran is "correct in all times and places", changing interpretations are based on there having been human error in interpretation in the past.
This is pretty much the same scheme used to explain Papal infallibility. "It is not that the current Pope disagrees with a previous Pope, it is that those who interpreted what the previous Pope said got it wrong. The two Popes are in agreement, because they are both infallible."
#11
Sufism is not definable, despite all those who claim to have defined it. It predates Islam yet claims to be compatible with it. AFAICT much of al-Ghazali's work was to defend Sufism & strengthen its claim to be compatible with Islam, efforts which still continue. I suspect he was merely stating that human intellect and reason have limitations, just as much as ideas of cause & effect do. Certainly any philosophical writing can be distorted and interpreted badly.
I think the greater cause of the closing of the Muslim mind was the destruction of the heart of Muslim territory by the Mongols in the 13th century.
Idries Shah d. 1996 was reputed to be a Sufi and also an observant Muslim. Once he visited a South American country, and publicly bought a single lottery ticket, something strictly forbidden to an observant Muslim. He won the grand prize. So, was he gambling or not?
#12
Reilly quotes extensively to show that al-Ghazali was taking a much stronger stance than simply saying reason has limits.
For instance, in referring to reason's awareness of Allah's habits (only habits which could change at any time, not natural laws he has embued creation with), al-Ghazil writes "there is no unity in the world, moral or physical or metaphysical; all hangs from the individual will of Allah."
By the 15th century, Muhammed Yusuf al-Sanusi quotes Ghazali and then writes of
the impossibility of anything in the world producing any effect whatsoever, because that entails the removal of that effect from the power and will of our majestic Protector .... food has no effect on saiety, nor water on moistening the land ... nor fire on burning. Know that it is from God from the start, without the other accompanying things having any intermediacy or effect ...
(As for the appearance of causes), God has created them as signs and indications of the things he wishes to create without any logical connection between them and that of which they are the indications.
Thus the recent attempts by Jemaat-e-Islami to Islamicize Pakistani textbooks includes the stern admonition that effect must not be related to physical cause. To do so causes atheism.
This is the legacy of al-Ghazali and more broadly of the Ash`arite victory over early Mu`tazilites in Islam.
Re: Sufism, which he adopted mid-life after having already established a strong reputation as a theologian in the Ash`arite tradition, al-Ghazali wrote approvingly that "Sufism consists in experiences rather than in definitions". Since he taught that God's creation was unmediated by any intermediate causes, and that every moment was created there and then by Allah's potentially changeable will, it is no surprise that al-Ghazali was left only with direct experience of God on which to base religion.
While the Mongols no doubt influenced many things, the Ash`arite position that al-Ghazali articulated had been well established several centuries prior to their arrival on the scene. FWIW
#13
The 'philosophical' position may have been articulated, but Muslim minds acted pretty open for whatever theoretical reason for some centuries afterward. The real constriction seemed to come after the Mongol destruction. Afhanistan for example never recovered.
al-Ghazali's principal emphasis was the unity of God, with no holds barred. So there is no other unity, not even in the created world, separate from God. Neither is logic. Yet Sufis adhere to the principle that the phenomenal is the bridge to the real. Direct experience of God, if that is what Sufism aims at, is a result of a very long evolution in any given adherent. Over-reaching one's capabilities, they would hold, simply leads to disaster. recent attempts by Jemaat-e-Islami to Islamicize Pakistani textbooks includes the stern admonition that effect must not be related to physical cause. To do so causes atheism. A good example of destructive arrogance and overreaching by 'Muslims' who get their rocks off by imposing their will on others and lording it over them. If they really wanted to be fundamentalists, they would (of course) ban any book outside the Koran. Of course the Koran used can NOT be a translation. The true believer-fanatics of Jemaat-e-Islami only worship themselves and their limited ideas and goals.
And also thanks to all our readers and commenters on this new feature at Rantburg. This has been an experiment in several ways: first, adding book reviews in a short space for an audience with a wide variety of interests, and second, the coincidence that the first two reviews were on a related (and as it happened, a religious) subject. That's not intended to set a pattern ... it just reflected what I was reading and discussing when the mods thought an occasional book review might be of interest.
If you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to add it here or in the Club. Were the books or the reviews interesting? Boring? Too long? Too short? Wrong? (smile) Are there other books you'd like to discuss?
#16
Islam has been popular only because it gave women a safe way to have enough children. Western culture provides an alternative through medicine, education, and liberty, which any woman possessing a modicum of rationality and freewill would prefer.
The historic struggle here is not between the west and the rest, it is between the women of the rest and their men, who are lashing out at the unfairness of a future that will not include children of their making.
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.
In New York City. Lone Wolf. NYPD was on top of it from the beginning. Jose Pimentel, 27, aka Muhammad Yusuf.
Abdullah al-Senussi was labelled the "the executioner" by the International Criminal Court, but for the families of his victims he will always be known as "the butcher". 
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sought cooperation from professionals in holding war crimes trials saying that it would free Bangladesh from another stigma. She said, "No area of the country was spared from their [the war criminals'] atrocities during the Liberation War in 1971 and the people of the country who were subjected to their tortures can never forget that."
The Arab League has rejected a Syrian request to change plans to send a monitoring mission to Syria. The League rejected Assad's approach in a letter from its Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby to Syria's foreign minister. The League wants to send 500 monitors to Syria to assess the situation there.
A classified booklet containing President Obama's Australian itinerary down to the minute, as well as details of his security convoy and the mobile phone numbers of dozens of senior US and Australian officials, was found by The Age on a Canberra street yesterday morning. The booklet, Overall Program and Orders of Arrangements, for the president's visit, was found by a reporter in a gutter about 100 meters from the front entrance to Parliament.
Moqtada 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Walid 
Najib Miqati
Nawaz Sharif
Asif Ali 
IT`S immaterial whether Pakistain`s ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani is still in office when you read these lines.
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
[An Nahar] 
Michel Aoun
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
Wazoo
Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central
[Dawn] A suspected
Lal Masjid cleric makes a mistake
Russia and Chechnya
Four men appeared in a London court on Saturday charged with terrorism offences after being 
Saif Al-Islam Qadaffy told 
THE air of conspiracy, never far from the corridors of power here, has grown thicker in recent days. Incredibly, as memogate threatens to take down the Pak ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, only an outline of the facts has been established. Here`s what is known for certain: a memo was delivered to the former US joint chiefs of staff chairman from Mansoor Ijaz, an American citizen of Pakistain descent with a shady past and a knack for finding himself at the centre of controversies. The contents of that memo have purportedly been published by a section of the media here in Pakistain, but that has only deepened the mystery. In the memo, the authors propose "a revamp of the civilian government that ... in a wholesale manner replaces the national security adviser and other national security officials". But Pakistain has had no national security adviser since Maj Gen (retd) Mahmud Durrani was sacked by Prime Minister Gilani after prematurely announcing that Ajmal Kasab was a Pak citizen when the prime minister was expected to do so himself. Nitpicking or a glaring error in the narrative of memogate, which seems to raise more questions than it answers at every turn?
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
