New sanctions announced by Clinton place Irans Central Bank between cross-hairs, building on already-existing American restrictions against doing business with Tehran.
Despite American insistence that it is working together with UN Security Council members and IAEA leaders to formulate a united front against Iran, Washington teamed up with London and Ottawa to announce tough new measures Monday targeting Tehrans financial sector.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced Monday afternoon a series of new sanctions against Tehran, focusing on Irans money-raising activities. The sanctions place Irans Central Bank between the cross-hairs, building on already-existing American restrictions against doing business with Tehran, and targeting companies that support Iranian petrochemical and nuclear initiatives.
Geithner declared the Central Bank of Iran to be a primary money laundering concern, a step short of official sanctions that would require the United States to cut off access to any foreign institution that does business with the bank. That more drastic step would have presented serious problems for US business if states such as China and Russia fail, as they are expected, to cut off ties with Tehran. The new category would simply warn off foreign governments and companies from dealing with Iranian institutions.
Clinton phoned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday evening to brief him on the sanctions the US decided to level against Iran.
By disclaiming the desire to take power, Feingold is able to present himself as a statesman, appearing at numerous anti-Walker events to bolster the morale of the protesters and, seemingly selflessly, to criticize Walker. Here he was at Saturday's recall rally. Here he was at the Walkerville protest in June. And here he was embodying the Wisconsin protests for Netroots Nation people. That was back in March, before he'd done much at Wisconsin protests (oddly enough!), but when folks outside of Wisconsin, like FireDogLake, were straining to connect Feingold to the protests. FireDogLake noted that "practically every rally in Madison has included some variant of a 'Feingold for Governor' sign."
The suspect is a member of the 50th security forces squadron, officials said. This is not a hostage situation and no one has been hurt. Officials at the base released the following statement:
"Special control measures were activated here because of an ongoing incident. At this time Schriever and local first responders are on scene and have secured the area."
"The security of Schriever personnel and their families is paramount. We are taking every precaution to ensure their safety," said Col. James P. Ross, 50th Space Wing commander. All base members are asked to avoid the west side of the base until further notice.
In a significant failure for the United States in the Mideast, more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught and the U.S. government fears they will be or have been executed, according to four current and former U.S. officials with connections to the intelligence community.
Those are four officials who should be cashiered and lose their pensions. Never, EVER talk about this kind of stuff. It's always 'no comment'.
The spies were paid informants recruited by the CIA for two distinct espionage rings targeting Iran and the Beirut-based Hezbollah organization, considered by the U.S. to be a terror group backed by Iran.
"Espionage is a risky business," a U.S. official briefed on the developments told ABC News, confirming the loss of the unspecified number of spies over the last six months.
"Many risks lead to wins, but some result in occasional setbacks," the official said.
Robert Baer, a former senior CIA officer who worked against Hezbollah while stationed in Beirut in the 1980's, said Hezbollah typically executes individuals suspected of or caught spying.
"If they were genuine spies, spying against Hezbollah, I don't think we'll ever see them again," he said. "These guys are very, very vicious and unforgiving."
Other current and former officials said the discovery of the two U.S. spy rings occurred separately, but amounted to a setback of significant proportions in efforts to track the activities of the Iranian nuclear program and the intentions of Hezbollah against Israel.
Definitely shut up about this issue...
"Remember, this group was responsible for killing more Americans than any other terrorist group before 9/11," said a U.S. official. Attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 killed more than 300 people, including almost 260 Americans.
The U.S. official, speaking for the record but without attribution, gave grudging credit to the efforts of Iran and Hezbollah to detect and expose U.S. and Israeli espionage.
"Collecting sensitive information on adversaries who are aggressively trying to uncover spies in their midst will always be fraught with risk," said the U.S. official briefed on the spy ring bust.
But others inside the American intelligence community say sloppy "tradecraft" -- the method of covert operations -- by the CIA is also to blame for the disruption of the vital spy networks.
In Beirut, two Hezbollah double agents pretended to go to work for the CIA. Hezbollah then learned of the restaurant where multiple CIA officers were meeting with several agents, according to the four current and former officials briefed on the case. The CIA used the codeword "PIZZA" when discussing where to meet with the agents, according to U.S. officials. Two former officials describe the location as a Beirut Pizza Hut. A current US official denied that CIA officers met their agents at Pizza Hut.
From there, Hezbollah's internal security arm identified at least a dozen informants, and the identities of several CIA case officers.
Hezbollah then began to "roll up" much of the CIA's network against the terror group, the officials said.
One former senior intelligence official told ABC News that CIA officers ignored warnings that the operation could be compromised by using the same location for meetings with multiple assets.
"We were lazy and the CIA is now flying blind against Hezbollah," the former official said.
Again, don't talk about this. But IF it is true, some heads in Washington need to roll. Perhaps General Petreaus will wield the axe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2011
14:45 ||
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#2
clowns in action; and it has been thus in the middle east since the 70's; and 100's if not 1000's of Americans are dead because of these intel failures.
#3
Hezbollah or not Hezbollah, it typically takes time for a hostile or enemy spy ring to be "rolled up" en masse, which infers that these rings had been compromised but weren't aware of it.
Iff these operatives aren't executed, shot or beheaded, they'll likely be used as media fodder for Hezbollah's = Iran's anti-US, Zionist campaign.
#4
Funny how folks can't shut up when someone puts a microphone or recorder in front of their face. They just cain't control that urge to look like they's an authority.
Mexico's top cop Attorney General Marisela Morales has requested the extradition of six people suspected of providing guns to narco mobs. She told the Mexico's lower house of Congress last Wednesday three of the suspects are in Texas and three are in Caliphornia. Morales did not mention the gun walking operation known as Fast and Furious nor did she name the individual suspects. But, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune, "One of the requests involves three people believed to have acquired a large number of weapons under the Fast and Furious program."
Morales has been under pressure from politicians to "punish those responsible" in the U.S for an ATF Phoenix program that supplied high-powered weapons to some of the most vicious killers on the planet. The number of Mexican citizens killed with guns purchased under the ATF operation could number in the thousands, according to Chihuahua state prosecutor Patricia Gonzalez.
Wonder if they'll get to the point of demanding the extradition of Eric Holder...
#2
If it would cover up the conspiracy, I imagine the administration would be all in favor of extradition, on the condition that none of them are allowed to speak to the press.
#3
The only technicality to avoid such an extradition would be upon conviction in the US of the crime then a denial to the request due to Constitutional 'double jeopardy' civil rights protection. Otherwise, start preparing the paperwork. I'm sure some sort of deal could be worked out by those identified for the crimes who'd rather do time in selected American detention facilities rather than a Mexican prison. You know, like naming names and full telling of facts, dates, and places, predicated with the proviso that any misrepresentation terminates the deal.
#5
The sad thing is that the Att'y General is probably talking about the individual gun shop owners who sold the weapons under ATF pressure, not the ATF agents or their supervisors.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/21/2011 16:53
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Rambler is right: they will turn out to be Class 3 FFL holders. 'Cause that's how the Mexican government rolls, baby!
#8
We have writers at work. We can help. My sister is a lawyer. Pro bono.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2011 21:28
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#9
The only technicality to avoid such an extradition would be upon conviction in the US of the crime then a denial to the request due to Constitutional 'double jeopardy' civil rights protection.
Negatory.
1, the prohibition against double jeopardy applies only after an acquittal.
2, separate sovereigns doctrine permits other jurisdictions to prosecute even after an acquittal (e.g., the feds can try a person even after an acquittal in state court).
3, nothing in the Constitution is binding on foreign governments.
4, nothing pisses off foreign governments like Americans' assumption that it is.
5, the US is obligated to comply with duly ratified extradition treaties, which are presumed to be Constitutional until a US court rules otherwise.
That said, I agree that the Mexican AG appears to be going after the FFL dealers, and that is bullshit.
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- An Egyptian officer was killed and another injured Monday as Egyptian security forces and a jihad boy Islamist group clashed in the Sinai city of El-Arish.
Security forces raided the home of a big shot in the "Jihadists and Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... movement in the Jisr al-Wadi neighborhood of El-Arish, a security source told Ma'an.
No need for Mahmoud the Weasel if they'd continued their former practice of openly spurning contact with their neighbors as not Muslim enough.
Militants opened fire on the security forces, who in turn fired back. One officer was killed and another injured in the exchange of gunfire.
Somebody give them the phone number of Rab Headquarters -- they aren't doing it right!
One jihad boy was jugged by police, while the leader managed to escape, a Ma'an correspondent said.
Nooooo! I realize they're Egyptian and it isn't their fault, but after that I really must lie down for a bit.
The man tossed in the clink by police was reportedly in possession of a handgun, grenades and electric detonators.
Egyptian security officials say the "Jihadists and Takfiris" movement follows Al-Qaeda intellectually and demands an end to any military or foreign presence in the Sinai peninsula.
Muhammad Eid Musleh Hamad, also known as Muhammad al-Teehi, was jugged last week by Egyptian security forces. He is accused of planning the deadly attacks in Israeli border city Eilat in August, as well as a number of attacks in the Egyptian peninsula, a Ma'an correspondent reported.
Saboteurs blew up the gas pipeline between Egypt, Israel and Jordan on Nov. 10 in the Northern Sinai using remote controlled bombs, forcing it to shut down, Egyptian security sources said.
Forces launched a security sweep in August to root out suspected Islamist gangs and, according to security sources at the time, captured four Islamist cut-throats as they prepared to blow up a pipeline in El-Arish.
One Egyptian policeman was killed and one injured during a raid on an armed Islamist group suspected of involvement in pipeline bombings that have disrupted gas supplies to Israel and Jordan, the state news agency reported Monday.
The pipeline in the desert peninsula of Sinai has been attacked seven times this year as authorities have struggled to maintain control, especially since security was disrupted by the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in February.
The policeman was rubbed out when his unit approached the hiding place of two members of the armed Islamist group Al-Takfir Wa Al-Hijra (Excommunication and Exodus), news agency MENA reported, citing security sources.
Police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock an Egyptian of Paleostinian origin named Nour Mohamed who was accused of firing shots during the raid.
NEW YORK November 21, 2011 Meghan McCain has joined MSNBC as a contributor, with her first appearance today at noon ET on NOW with Alex Wagner. She has been a frequent MSNBC guest since 2009.
"I couldn't more be excited to be joining the MSNBC family, said McCain. It's a unique opportunity to share my perspective as a Republican on a network I respect and have built a relationship with over the past two years."
And Chelsea Clinton just joined NBC News, a part of Crony-Socialist extraordinaire (and China's Panda) General Electric.
Is there no limit to what Nouveau Royal blood qualifies one for? How about Field Marshal of the Armies?
Chelsea Clinton joins IAC board Chelsea Clinton has joined the board of directors at IAC, the Internet media giant said late Monday. IAC, headed by media mogul Barry Diller, said in a regulatory filing that former First Daughter Clinton was elected to the post on September 22.
#7
Chelsea also worked for McKinsey & Co and the Avenue Group. Presumably, her main function was to lend them her name and let clients look at her(similar to what Newt did for Freddie Mac except Chelsea is much better looking).
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/21/2011 15:32
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#8
Chelsea is much better looking
Really? I think we have a difference in taste
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/21/2011 15:44
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#9
Chelsea is much better looking.
Perhaps on the outside (but not by much). Don't know about the inside....
#2
The game is getting interesting.
There appears to be 3 options left. China and the other Masters of The Universe appear to have folded, which leaves only the Squid and Germany in the game. The Squid is not only all in but b*lls to the wall as well. So
Scenario 1, Merkle goes nein, nein not this Frauline and refuses to print as per this article.
In this case GS goes belly up worldwide.
Scenario 2. GS pulls their ace from their sleeve and gets the Bernank to do a Marshall plan to save Europe. The One wont object as his re-election will depend on it. The Squid will have already worked that out. All they need then do is line up their armoured vans and collect their winnings.
Scenario 3. A combination of Germany and the US printing. The Squid wont make as much, but will do OK.
h/t Gates of Vienna
More than 250,000 residents out of a total population of one million in Brussels have Muslim roots, according to a study carried out by the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and published in the Belgian media Friday. And the rest are EUro bureaucrats and their support.
#1
The movie, The Last Days of Man on Earth (1973), loosely based on the Michael Moorcock novel The Final Programme, featured a collapsing Europe, with the suggestion of a haphazard nuclear war in the background, as the world spiraled into chaos. In a way it built on the dystopian future London seen in A Clockwork Orange, except from the point of view of a wealthy scientist.
I mention it because, just in passing, overheard on a radio broadcast was an apology from NATO, for having accidentally dropped an armed nuclear bomb on Brussels. Memorable, more than anything else, because of the general indifference of the characters to the event.
"It's a pity about Brussels... So, how's business?"
#2
"A person who believes in nothing believes it's all good, will believe in anything." Definition of the multi-culturalist. The end result is darkness.
Posted by: Harry Dribble1924 ||
11/21/2011 10:17
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Over in NE Asia ...
* WAFF > SOUTH KOREAN MUSLIM COMMUNITY GROWING. Steady rise in inquiries + conversions - current Muslim community in the ROk numbered at 200,000.
According to the 2011 Military Times Poll of active-duty subscribers, confidence in the overall job performance of the Commander-in-Chief has plummeted from 70% to 25%.
h/t Instapundit
Late Thursday the Obama administration abruptly knocked Kansas aircraft maker Hawker Beechcraft out of contention for a $1 billion project to make a fleet of lightweight counterinsurgency aircraft for the Air Force. Hawker Beechcraft is, understandably, disturbed and asking questions.
...By knocking Hawker Beechcraft out, the Pentagon has limited the competition to one company, a company that is not only not an American manufacturer, its a government-owned entity with ties to our enemies. The company is Embraer, which is controlled by the government of Brazil and has close ties to the government of Iran
#10
BO's next step is to end all US major oil and gas subsidies, including... ethanol subsidies in the US to bolster the Brazilian ethanol market.
Corn ethanol is a boondoggle anyway, but at least its one of the few boondoggles that benefits hard working American farmers not foreign interests like Brazilian sugar lords.
#12
Can't issue a pardon for something you haven't been convicted of. I thought that was exactly what Pres. Ford did for tricky Dick - gave him a blanket pardon.
#13
True. Can you name any others?
It was an extraordinary event and circumstances. As they may say the exception to the rule. No one pressed about the constitutionality of the act. Those in the various levels of power in the event were happy to 'move on'.
The danger of issuing a flurry of pardons of officials and employees of the government is that it sets a precedent that those then moving in can follow as they engage in actions against those who've just lost power. What LITTLE integrity is left in the system will basically be exhausted. That gets to the legitimacy of the government itself. Who'll die defending it? We witnessed that when the Communist regime in Moscow fell.
#15
Well, 2 down, only 55 to go. Can't build planes in South Carolina, can't build planes in Kansas, which state is next? Texas maybe, home of the V-22, a candidate for budget cuts, despite the recent Panetta show and tell test drive....
#1
Not mentioned is that f-ing Russia has provided Hezbollah with a ton of counterespionage electronics, specifically to neutralize Israeli and US intelligence efforts in Lebanon.
At this point, the proper response from both Israel and the US should be to start systematically assassinating effective Hezbollah leaders.
#2
Something really stinks here. Far too much info. Sounds like a turf issue. 'Current and former' officials speaking like this should be garroted, not to put too fine a point on it.
One takeaway here is that the CIA was able to plant spies. I thought they were no longer capable. Many ways to view that.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/21/2011 9:23
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Any time you see this level of detail and bemoaning of lost assets, you ponder if its turf wars, payback to a rival by the loser outing the losses, or damage control, or the most devious of all, the verrification that a dangle asset(s)were snapped up to blunt CI efforts and you want to let them hear you howl as the dangle gets eaten, insulating your true penetration assets as they assume you are devastated.
The most devious and cold-blooded of all is to penetrate the CI system and then feed it meaningless assets to burrow it deeper and learn what valued resources are at risk.
Wilderness of Mirrors.......
#4
Tradecraft and experience has suffered. Although it was not said, a reliance on drones has maybe diminished experience and tradecraft. The hyper-criticism by donks during the GWB admin. of such things as waterboarding, Gitmo, black sites, and Abu Ghraib and other clandestine activities had its effect. Maybe a turf battle. Maybe a battle to preserve budgets.
#5
It's not just Russia that's introduced counter-espionage electronics to the area. We've given some to the Lebanese government. There are sometimes unintended consequences to that sort of assistance.
#6
Or moles now far up the CIA chain stateside. Part of the US acceptance of "multiculturalism" thoughout the stateside ranks.
Posted by: Harry Dribble1924 ||
11/21/2011 12:28
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#7
Yet another example of Jimmy Carter decisions still getting people killed 30 years later. His shakeup of the intelligence community to put emphasis on technical intelligence and to gut human intelligence is the gift that has kept on giving for about 30 years now.
#8
The sarcastic thought crossed my mind, "I wonder how many captured field agents were Elis?(Yale graduates)." Not any, I'd bet. Such people prefer nice offices in the US and clean shoes.
Three monks, three policemen and three locals were slightly injured after an improvised bomb went off in front of a laundry in Pattani province on Monday morning.
The monks, guarded by three policemen, were collecting alms when the bomb, hidden under a flowerpot, was detonated by remote control when the group was about five meters away. The injured were rushed to the hospital. Police suspected the bomb was planted by terrorists insurgents with the aim of creating chaos in the region.
Pattani Deputy Governor Lertkiat Wongphopan later maintained that the attack on monks and monk-protection officers reflected the terrorists' insurgents' intention to discredit the Thai security force, as the incident took place on the route included in the security plan.
In neighboring Yala province, an explosion took place in a shack inside a banana plantation on Monday morning. Police found the body of Yako Ya-ngo, 55, in front of the shack. Nearby was a 70cm-deep 80cm-wide hole from the five-kg bomb impact and pieces of the metal box, electric wiring and the battery.
An investigation revealed that Yako, a security volunteer for Raman district, was inspecting his banana plantation when he stepped on the bomb and set it off. As Yako had been shot at twice before, police suspect terrorists insurgents were behind the attack, possibly the group led by suspected terrorist insurgent Kama Chaichana, who operates in the district and is wanted in connection with several cases.
In Narathiwat province, a vegetable vendor was injured in a drive-by shooting. Bahari Salae, 22, was driving a pickup truck on a local road heading to a fresh market when he was shot by a man riding on the back of a motorcycle. The attackers then fled.
In Yala province, two power poles were brought down by explosives late on Sunday night but no one was wounded. Police received a report about the bombings at 7:30 a.m. An investigation showed that two electricity poles had been toppled and turned up evidence of two home-made bombs having been detonated by timers.
Villagers told police that the two blasts occurred about midnight, and the electricity supply was abruptly cut off. No one dared to go out to see what was happening. They reported it to police on Monday morning.
Police blamed terrorists militants for all the attacks .
At least 12 people were killed in clashes between security forces and crowds protesting against Egypt's ruling military council in some of the worst violence since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
With just a week before voting in the first free parliamentary election in decades, the confrontations in the capital Cairo and other cities raised worries about how smooth voting will be.
While everyone is focused on Iran, North Korea has been making steady progress on the Yongbyon LWR. Their uranium enrichment program is coming along, too.
#1
VARIOUS > CHINA VOWS CLOSER MILITARY TIES WID NORTH KOREA.
Yokay, I'll a'say it - A-G-A-I-N!?
and
* TOPIX > CHINA TO EXPAND AIRBASE IN COCO ISLANDS [Bay of Bengal]
IRAN [North Korea] GETS ITS NUKES, OR ELSE IRAN [North Korea] GETS INVADED???
"Post-US" wannabe Rising China wants PLA base rights throughout the "First Island Chain" [+ beyond], to project unilateral power into WESTPAC, CENTRAL, + ultimately EASTPAC + CONUS, i.e. outside of East Asia, but is instead being blocked or "channelled" southward SE Asia + Indian Ocean where it cannot expand. ITS MUST ACCEPT MULTINATIONAL "SHARING" OF DISPUTED + OTHER REGIONS, OR ELSE WAGE WAR TO ACHIEVE ITS MANIFEST DESTINY.
[An Nahar] Iran is ready to cooperate "further" with the U.N. atomic energy watchdog if it "balances its approach" to the Islamic republic, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday, according to the ISNA news agency.
"We are prepared to cooperate with the agency more than ever, if the (U.N.) agency balances its approach and complies with its statutes and the safeguard agreements," Salehi was quoted as saying.
"If that is the case, we are prepared to cooperate much the same as before and even further with the agency," he said.
The conditional offer was made after a vote Friday by the board of the U.N. watchdog, the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, calling for more cooperation from Iran on its nuclear program.
The vote followed a November 8 IAEA report that strongly suggested Iran -- despite its repeated denials -- was researching nuclear weapons under cover of its civilian atomic activities.
The IAEA resolution -- worded to pass muster with Iran's allies Russia and China -- notably stopped short of sending the matter to the U.N. Security Council.
Instead, it said it was "essential for Iran and the Agency to intensify their dialogue" and called on Tehran "to comply fully and without delay with its obligations under relevant resolutions of the U.N. Security Council."
It gave no deadline for those demands to be met, but said IAEA head Yukiya Amano would report to the board in March on Tehran's implementation of the resolution.
Amano said last Thursday he had proposed sending a high-level team to Iran to "clarify the issues" in the IAEA report, and asked Tehran "to engage substantively with the agency without delay."
The U.N. Security Council has already imposed four sets of sanctions on Iran to pressure it to halt its nuclear activities.
Iran's deputy chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri, said, according to the website of Iran's state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, that Washington had "failed" in a bid to again have the IAEA refer Iran's nuclear program to the Security Council.
Iran's representative at the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was quoted by the ISNA news agency Saturday as saying Iran had already invited IAEA officials to visit to discuss questions raised in the report.
"The director general's announcement that the agency is now ready to send a team of inspectors must be studied again and the result will be announced after that," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2011
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For a map, click here. For a map of Durango state click here
To read the last Rantburg report on the Durango mass graves, click here
Another seven unidentified skeletons were exhumed Saturday in Durango state, according to Mexican news accounts.
The bodies were discovered in in the village of Leona Vicario in San Juan del Rio municipality which is about 115 kilometers north of the capital, Durango.
The newly discovered dead brings the death toll in the several graves in and around Durango to 280, the worst mass grave in modern Mexican history.
Starting last April and lasting throughout the past early summer, Mexican Army units had been working to exhume bodies from 13 separate locations in Durango state including the cities of Durango, Santiago Papasquiario, Cuencame and Ciudad Lerdo.
The Durango Fiscalia General Estado (FGE) or attorney general's office reported early on in the investigation that many of the dead were killed as far back as four years ago. Many of the early discovered dead had been buried alive.
To date of the 280 dead found only 25 have been identified and claimed by relatives.
"The final act of the Libyan drama," as a spokesman for the former rebels put it, began in the blackness of the Sahara night, when a small unit of fighters from the town of Zintan, acting on a tip-off, intercepted Seif Al-Islam and four armed companions driving in a pair of 4x4 vehicles on a desert track.
It ended, after a 300-mile flight north on a cargo plane, with the London-educated younger Qaddafi held in a safe house in Zintan and the townsfolk vowing to keep him safe until he can face a judge in the capital.
His captors said he was "very scared" when they first recognized him, despite the heavy beard and enveloping Tuareg robes and turban he wore. But they reassured him and, by the time a Reuters correspondent spoke to him aboard the plane, he had been chatting amiably to his guards.
"He looked tired. He had been lost in the desert for many days," said Abdul Al-Salaam Al-Wahissi, a Zintan fighter involved in the operation. "I think he lost his guide."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2011
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First paragraph reads like the RAB boilerplate, don't it?
[Al Ahram] Turkish President Abdullah Gul said there was "no place for authoritarian regimes" in the Mediterranean region, heaping more pressure on the embattled Syrian regime, in comments published Sunday.
"I strongly believe that there is no place any more for authoritarian regimes -- single party systems that do not have accountability or transparency -- on the shores of the Mediterranean," he told Britannia's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
"As someone who has studied in the United Kingdom, lived in the United Kingdom, has this world view, President (Bashar al-) Assad should be able to understand this."
Gul was to arrive in Britannia later Sunday, where he will be undertaking a three-day state visit next week.
His comments, made before the expiry of 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 at midnight Saturday (2200 GMT) for the Syrian government to halt a deadly crackdown on protesters, was the latest criticism of Assad's regime by Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
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MADRID Spanish conservatives won a resounding mandate at the polls Sunday, freeing them to make deep austerity cuts as they struggle to pull the countrys economy out of a tailspin.
In an election marked by bitter disappointment and desperation over the euro zones highest unemployment rate, the Socialists who have led the country since 2004 were cast from office in their worst showing in the modern era of Spains democracy.
Conservatives won 186 of the 350 seats in parliament; the Socialists won 110. But the sharp swing was more a result of millions of voters abandoning the Socialists for smaller parties, not conservatives picking up new voters, suggesting a country more dispirited with the policies of the past than excited about the future.
The leader of the conservatives, Mariano Rajoy, 56, will not take over for another month, but he is widely expected to announce his economic team and strategy in the coming days.
It is times like these that measure what men and societies are made of, Rajoy said Sunday in his victory speech. Our destiny is to play a big role in and with Europe. We will be more loyal but also more demanding. . . . There arent going to be any miracles, but we didnt promise them.
Sundays vote gives Europe another leader closely aligned with the austerity-based consensus that the continents strongest economies say is the solution to what plagues the weaker ones. In recent weeks, leaders in Italy and Greece have been forced from their perches.
Still, Rajoy may have limited influence over problems that have spread to France, Austria and the Netherlands countries long associated with fiscal discipline and economic power which saw their borrowing costs spike last week. France has called for continent-wide solutions more radical than those applied so far, including the printing of more money to prop up struggling countries, something Germany staunchly opposes.
In Spain, Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had abandoned many of his partys historic positions to implement budget cuts aimed at getting the countrys finances under control. But they did little to head off the nations 22.6 percent unemployment rate.
Last week, Spains borrowing costs spiked to their highest level since 1997, and one of Rajoys first tasks will be to soothe investors fears about his countrys viability.
Rajoys challenger, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, 60, seemed to accept defeat long before the election was held. Zapatero decided earlier this year not to stand for reelection.
Countries like Spain are on the brink, said Fernando Fernandez, an economist and former International Monetary Fund official who teaches at IE Business School in Madrid. This government will have the moral authority to make changes, he said.
Fernandez said that in addition to another round of budget cuts, he expected the new government would overhaul the labor market to make it easier to hire and fire workers, which could help create jobs in the long term but might add to joblessness in the immediate future.
Voters Sunday had little enthusiasm for the election, and many said they saw little difference between the two main parties. The Socialists had 4 million fewer votes than in the 2008 election. The conservatives gained just over 500,000 compared with their previous results.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2011
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#1
Calling this party "conservative" is a bit of a stretch. While they are considered "center-right" in a European perspective, we would still consider them to be social democrats.
#2
Aznar was a good friend to the US and was fiscally conservative. Zapatero went on a spending spree and spent a fortune on a failed "green jobs" program. Now that Spain is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy voters threw him out.
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili ||
11/21/2011 17:24
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ISLAMABAD: Police arrested four people on Sunday in connection with the murder of a Saudi Consulates official in Karachi. According to Clifton Police head Tariq Dharejo officials claim the suspects belong to banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group.
Senior Superintendent of Police Farooq Awan confirmed that three suspects were arrested from the Arambagh area namely Zaki alias Kamran Mohsin, Mohammad Ali and Tehseen alias Tabish.
The fourth suspect was arrested from Gulistan-e-Jauhar area. The suspect was injured during the operation when he resisted arrest.
Police claim the detained men were involved in target killings, sectarian violence, murder and attempted murder among other charges.
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11/21/2011
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Director of Iran Space Agency Hamid Fazeli announced on Saturday that the Islamic Republic plans to build a civil satellite launch center, MNA reported. The center will be established with the cooperation of the Defense Ministry, he told IRNA.
The most suitable location to build the center is the southeastern area of the country since its population is not high and is close to the Indian Ocean, Fazeli added.
Don't worry, we'll find it...
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#1
Is this like sending the fleet to the US Atlantic coast? The "hey notice me, I'm important too" ploy?
[Al Ahram] 3:15am: Imam Mazhar Shahin, the revolution's preacher who led Friday prayers since the outbreak of the revolution and a harsh critic of the old regime, announces via microphone in the squarethat he brokered a deal with government whereby police will cease attempts to break sit-in, youth will form popular committees to secure square , and an end to bloodshed.
2:35am: Numbers in Tahrir halved in the last hour. Thousands still holding square.
2:20am: Young protesters hurl molotov cocktail bombs at police from a buildig roof on Mohamed Mahmoud street to relieve protesters confronting security forces firing rubber bullets and tear gas below. A protester catches fire from a molotov bomb but quickly saved by comrade.
2:15am: Mazhar Shahin Imam of Omar Makram mosque in Tahrir square said on ONTV that he brokered a deal between protestors, the army and the Police. According to Shahin the Police will back up from the outskirsts of Tahrir square while the protestors will refrain of trying to attack the Ministry of interior, while army vehicles will act as a buffer between protestors and the police. It is still unclear if all the groups of protestors will accept the deal.
2:08am: Activists identify green lazer beams that police use when snipers are mobilised.
2:02am: Protesters chant against Tantawi and call for the military council to depart.
1:50am: Battle rages at two entrances to Tahrir. Reports that the police has attacked one of the two field hospitals in the square and demolished it for the second time today. Doctors are making phone calls to divert cases to near by hospitals such as Kasr El-Aini 10 minutes off Tahrir.
1:30am: Police are firing tear gas from Falaki square - 200 meters northeast of the square into the area. Gas is rising and filling up apartment buildings on Tahrir street whch leads into the square.
1:15am: Former presidential candidate Aiman Nour tells ONTV that the army today behaved like Mubarak's repressive forces and it feels that the former Minister of Interior Habib El-Adly is not in jail but actually free and reining repression on the people like the old days.
1:00am: Field hospital outside of KFC in the square continues to treat protesters suffering from gas tear and rubber bullets.
12:15am: Around fifty thousand protesters are still in Tahrir. Clashes still ongoing at Tahrir Street and Mohamed Mahmoud street leading to the Ministry of Interior between protesters and military police
12:04am:Ministry of health raises count of dead to 10 and injured to over 1700 after two days of festivities.
10:30pm: Ministry of health raises count of dead to 6 and injured to over 1000 after two days of festivities.
10:27pm: Protesters continue to hold off police at Mohamed Mahmoud street off square.
10:11pm: The president of the influential Journalist syndicate, Mamdouh El-Wali, defends the people's right to protest, condemns violence against news hounds and protesters by authorities, and announces that the entire board of the syndicate demands the resignation of the government of Essam Sharaf.
9:55pm: Crowds in Tahrir demand that military council give up power. "The People want the field marshal out!", "Depart means go! What do you not understand?"
9:45pm: Egyptian state tv releases the first statement issued by SCAF following the failed attempt Curses! Foiled again! of security forces to evacuate protesters from Tahrir in which the council calls on all political parties and youth groups to assist the council in containing the situation in Tahrir.
9:40pm: Numbers increase in the square. Tens of thousands roar in Tahrir against military council. "Speak up, do not be scared - the council must depart", We will defend the revolution till death" and other chants.
9:18pm: Presidential hopeful Mohamed El-Baradei releases a statement condemning government violence in dispersing Tahrir protesters, supports demands of stopping military trials against civilians and the formation of a salvation government with full jurisdiction.
8:53pm: Protest in front of the security directorate headquarters in the city of Qena, in solidarity with Tahrir protesters.
8:21pm: Police firing tear gas at the protest in front of the Alexandria police headquarters in Semouha. Residents in close buildings can hear the screams and chants, smell the tear gas.
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The Washington Post reports the shells, which Libya had filled with mustard gas, were discovered in recent weeks at two sights in central Libya. The Post cites unnamed US and Libyan officials.
#2
Weak tea here. The Iranians had learned to manufacture these things for the Iran Iraq war, where Iraq started using chemical weapons on Iran.
That they had some unfilled shells left over and then got rid of them by selling them to Libya is more like proof that they wanted to get rid of the things.
It was the Libyans who filled them up with the nasty. Who sold them the precursor chemicals? Germans? Probably. Those are the people who need to get a spanking.
TRIPOLI: Abdullah Al-Senussi, Libya's feared former intelligence chief, was cornered and captured at a remote desert homestead on Sunday, a day after Muammar Qaddafi's son was seized by Libyan fighters in the same region.
A commander of former rebel forces nominally loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC), General Ahmed Al-Hamdouni, told Reuters that his men, acting on a tip, had found and surrounded Senussi at a house belonging to his sister near the town of Birak, about 500 km (300 miles) south of Tripoli and in the same general area as Seif Al-Islam was seized on Saturday.
NTC spokesman Abdul Hafez Ghoga later confirmed that Senussi, who is Seif Al-Islam's uncle by marriage, had been captured. It was not immediately clear if the arrests were linked, though there has been speculation since the fall of Tripoli three months ago that the pair were hiding together.
Fighters who intercepted Seif Al-Islam on a desert road in the early hours of Saturday said they believed one of his companions was also a nephew of Senussi, whose wife is a sister of Muammar Qaddafi's second wife Safiya.
Like Muammar Qaddafi, who was captured and killed on the coast a month ago on Sunday, Seif Al-Islam and Senussi were indicted this year by the International Criminal Court for alleged plans to kill protesters after the Arab Spring revolt erupted in February.
But NTC officials have said they can convince the ICC to let them try both men in Libya. Ghoga said NTC members meeting on Sunday had confirmed that preference, as did the current justice minister -- although legal experts point out that international law demands Tripoli make a strong case for the right to try anyone who has already been indicted by the ICC.
Possession is 9/10ths, folks. The accused are Libyan nationals and the new Libyan government is internationally recognized as such. It's their business unless they choose to involve the ICC.
Given the state of Libya's legal system after 42 years of dictatorship, as well as the depth of feelings after this year's civil war, the ICC may not agree. Its chief prosecutor is expected in Libya this week.
Can you say, 'persona non grata'?
While the ICC, backed by a UN resolution, can demand Libya hand over the prisoners, many Libyans are keen to see them tried for alleged crimes committed over decades, well beyond the scope of the ICC charges relating to this year only. And many also want them hanged, something barred at The Hague.
And that's exactly why the Euros want them--hanging is icky, you see.
Among other old wounds, Senussi is suspected of a key role in the killing of more than 1,200 inmates at Tripoli's Abu Salim prison in 1996. It was the arrest of a lawyer for victims' relatives that sparked Libya's Arab Spring revolt in February. And many of the dead were members of Islamist groups which are expected to be a major political force in a democratic Libya.
The case of Senussi, long the elder Qaddafi's right-hand man and enforcer, may also revive interest in international incidents long shrouded in mystery, from the days in the 1980s and 90s when Qaddafi's Libya waged undercover war on the West. Senussi's name has been linked with the Lockerbie bombing of 1988. He was among six Libyans convicted in absentia in Paris of bringing down a French UTA airliner a year later.
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[Al Ahram] Hundreds of Sudanese protested in the city of ad-Damir on Sunday, demanding the government do more to help villagers whose homes were flooded by an electricity-generating dam, witnesses said.
Witnesses said up to 1,200 protesters gathered outside a government office in ad-Damir, capital of River Nile state, to call on authorities to provide more assistance for people displaced by the Merowe dam.
"The people want the fulfilment of their rights," the protesters chanted, a variation of a slogan often used by demonstrators in "Arab Spring" countries.
The protesters also called for the resignation of the electricity and dams minister.
The $2-billion, Chinese-built Merowe dam was completed in 2009 with the aim of doubling Sudan's electricity supply. The 1,250-megawatt project displaced tens of thousands of people and has long been a source of controversy.
Villagers have clashed with authorities over the dam in the past, though most have now accepted government compensation and moved.
Ezzedin Jafar, a front man for displaced people in the Manaseer area, 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of Khartoum, said demonstrators had started a sit-in and would move the protest to Khartoum if their demands were not answered.
"We've tried to meet with officials in the federal government and the state government, but they've refused to respond to us," he said by telephone.
Jafar said about 12,000 people in the area were still affected by the dam, about 9,000 of them living in the open. Police and local government officials were not immediately available for comment.
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Two Iraqi civilians have been killed and 5 others injured in sporadic US Army fire on the main highway passing through west Baghdad's Yousifiya township, following an explosive charge blast on Saturday, a security source reported.
"An explosive charge blew off on the main highway passing through Yousifiya township, aimed at a US Army patrol that did not harm any of the patrol's soldiers," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the US troops opened sporadic fire on the passing cars, killing 2 persons and wounding 5 others."
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JERUSALEM: Israels ambassador to Cairo has traveled to Egypt for the first time since he and his staff were evacuated from the country in September after protesters stormed the Israeli embassy, a Foreign Ministry official said on Sunday.
Playing down the significance of Yitzhak Levanons trip, the official, who asked not to be identified, said the ambassador went to Egypt on Saturday for farewell meetings with foreign and Egyptian diplomats before his retirement.
Israels embassy in a high-rise building in Cairo has remained unoccupied since protesters broke in two months ago, trapping Israeli security guards inside until they were rescued by Egyptian troops. The incident followed the killing in August of five Egyptian security guards by Israeli soldiers pursuing militants who had ambushed and killed eight Israelis along the Israeli-Egyptian border.
The Israeli official said the new ambassador to Cairo, Yaakov Amitai, was expected to travel to the Egyptian capital in December to present his credentials, but the embassy would not be staffed or resume normal activity until acceptable security arrangements were in place.
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[An Nahar] Former premier Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. on Sunday said that Prime Minister Najib Miqati would only resign when he "feels his boss is about to fall."
Asked by a Twitter user on whether he would ally with Miqati in the 2013 polls if the premier resigned over possible inability to secure the funding of the Special Tribunal for Leb by his government, Hariri said: "No."
"If Miqati resigns, it will be only, AND ONLY, because he feels his boss is about to fall," Hariri tweeted in English.
"Justice will prevail, (the) tribunal has begun its work and soon we will see the criminals behind bars," Hariri said.
He denied that he was "waiting for the (Syrian) regime to fall" in order to return to Leb, noting that he will return to the country "sooner than later."
Asked how would the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... camp respond if Hizbullah Secretary-General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... "took Leb to war to protect Syria or Iran," Hariri said: "That's called suicide and I doubt he will."
Asked whether he believed Hizbullah and its allies would resort to military action against fellow Lebanese to "support the Syrian regime," the former premier said: "No i don't think so and if they do they will be committing suicide."
He also noted that Miqati's government would "help" embattled Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... in the event of a foreign military intervention in Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2011
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Ming-Na (Macau) aka Dr. Jing-Mei Chen in "ER" aka Chun-Li Zang in "Street Fighter" aka June - The Daughter in "The Joy Luck Club" aka Han in "Terminal Voyage" aka Katie Chun in "Hong Kong 97" aka Mimi Carlyle in "One Night Stand" aka Katy Woo in "Teddy Bears' Picnic" aka Dr. Elisha Crowe in "Prom Night" aka U.S. Senator Alice Wen in "Eureka (TV Series 2006 )" (age 48)
#4
Happy 33rd birthday to Nadine E. Velazquez (actually yesterday but we didn't have a Good Morning post that day). Her break out role was to play the part of Catalina on "My Name is Earl" (in which she plays the part beautifully in every way).
She has been in Stuff and Maxim many times. Here's a picture that you should not look at if you have a weak heart.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/21/2011 8:17
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#5
GB, I'm overwhelmed by Good Morning today--"watch your heart" warning is appropriate. Thanks. Goes well with the morning coffee as a first stop at RB.
[Dawn] The Chief of the Pakistain Moslem League (PML-N) Mian 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... said that the present government is the most corrupt in the history of Pakistain and that the ministers are only making money.
He was speaking to a large gathering at Faisalabad. Nawaz Sharif also said that he was saddened to see the country's situation.
"We are among the last in South Asia," he added.
Nawaz Sharif stressed on President Zardari to launch an inquiry into the alleged memo to Mike Mullen.
He said that if Zardari will not start any inquiry he will go to the Supreme Court on the behalf of all four provinces over the issue.
He also criticised Prime Minister Gilani for praising the US government after the operation against the late Osama bin Laden. ... who sleeps with the fishes... Nawaz Sharif said that Kashmire is an issue of Pakistain's illusory sovereignty and security. Criticising the agencies he said that they should stop their interference in the political affairs of Pakistain.
Thousands of peoples welcomed Mian Nawaz Sharif, the head of the N League. Earlier, Chaudhary Nisar Ali, Javed Hashmi, Sanaullah Zahri, Saad Rafiq, Pir Sabir Shah and other leaders addressed the gathering.
Chaudhry Nisar Ali said that ISI is a national organization and that the army is defamed when it personally held on to power.
Talking about the assets of Nawaz Sharif, he said that Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... should contact the Supreme Court on the issue of assets.
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[Dawn] A senior Bangladeshi official on Sunday urged Pakistain to formally apologize for alleged atrocities and acts of genocide committed by the Pak military during the independence war in 1971.
Foreign Affairs Minister Dipu Moni made the demand in a meeting with Pakistain's new envoy to Bangladesh, a statement released by the ministry said.
Aided by India, Bangladesh, then the eastern wing of Pakistain, won its independence in 1971 after a nine-month war.
Bangladesh says Pak soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed an estimated 3 million people, raped about 200,000 women and forced millions to flee their homes. Pakistain has disputed the allegations.
According to the statement, Moni "sought Pakistain's understanding and recognition of Bangladesh's position on resolving the outstanding issues including an expression of formal apology from Pakistain for the genocide and atrocities committed by the Pak military in 1971."
It said Moni also wanted to settle the issues of division of assets and war reparations.
Moni said that resolving these long-standing issues was important to maintaining good relations with Pakistain.
"Early resolution of the outstanding issues would enable the existing friendly relations between Bangladesh and Pakistain to make a great leap forward and create a wider space for cooperation," the statement quoted Moni as saying.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has initiated a move to try Bangladeshi collaborators who allegedly helped the Pak military. A special tribunal has been formed to conduct the trials.
Five top leaders of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, are currently behind bars, pending trial for their alleged role as collaborators.
Two other men from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... , are in jail on similar charges. All of them have denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! Jamaat-e-Islami openly campaigned against breaking away from Pakistain during the 1971 war. The international community has called on the government to ensure that the tribunal is free and impartial.
New York-based Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... has praised the government for establishing the tribunal, but called for changes, including allowing the accused to question its impartiality, which current law prohibits.
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The New York Police Department has foiled an alleged terror plot targeting law enforcement and soldiers returning from the battlefield.
Jose Pimentel, 27, of Washington Heights, New York, was arrested yesterday at his apartment. The charges include conspiracy, first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act. He was to be arraigned later Sunday.
He was believed to be acting as a 'lone wolf', New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during a press conference tonight. Mayor Bloomberg said Pimentel was 'plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad.'
The NYPD's counter-terrorism unit has been tracking Pimentel since May 2009, when he began discussing his terror plans.
Pimentel, an unemployed American citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, had converted to Islam and was allegedly inspired by Al-Qaida - namely radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. He had converted to Islam and was going to change his name to Osama Hussein, the name of his two heroes, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, Mayor Bloomberg said.
The date of his alleged attack was not immediately clear.
Pimentel was reportedly able to build three pipe bombs using instructions found in an article in the online terror magazine Inspire. The magazine featured an article entitled, 'How to build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.'
He also intended to test the effectiveness of the bombs by placing them in mailboxes and detonating them.
His terror plot intensified from talk to action with the dealth of Awlaki, Inspire's publisher, in September. Commissioner Kelly said: 'What set him off was the elimination of Anwar al-Awlaki on September 30.'
Bloomberg said: 'This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city... this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on.'
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#1
FYI I'm more interested in the whereabouts of his family, espec Father + Uncles.
Some unidentified terrorists militants set ablaze on Sunday at least three NATO oil tankers by opening fire in western province of Balochistan, local media reported.
According to reports, terrorists attacked tankers carrying oil supplies for NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan in Dasht area of Mastung district of the province, IRNA reported. The terrorists gunmen were safely managed to escape from the spot after attack.
The sources said that levies forces rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area and launched a search operation in the area. No causalities were reported initially, the sources said. No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
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SURKHROD, Afghanistan: Around 1,000 people, mostly talibs students, took to the streets in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday to protest against plans for a long-term partnership deal with the United States, which they fear could lead to an extended presence of US troops.
Afghan political and community leaders endorsed the idea of a strategic partnership, with some caveats, after a 2,000-strong national gathering, or loya jirga, which ended on Saturday.
The demonstrators gathered just outside the capital of eastern Nangarhar province and burned an effigy of US President Barack Obama as they protested against the prospect of US troops remaining in Afghanistan.
We are totally against any American presence in Afghanistan, they kill our people in their arbitrary operations, said university talib student Mohammad Tahir Qane.
Other talibs protesters carried banners and shouted death to America, death to American slaves.
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[Al Ahram] 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 Syria came and went with Bashar defiantly continuing the brutal crackdown against opposition, but some point to signs that his end is inevitable
"The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue," Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad told Britannia's Sunday Times newspaper. "Syria will not bow down." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 people were killed on Saturday by government security forces. On Friday dozens were reported killed in festivities.
The Arab League had on Wednesday set a Saturday deadline for Syria to comply with a peace plan which would entail a military pullout from around restive areas, and threatened sanctions if Assad failed to end the violence. The League, a group of Arab states, suspended Syria's membership in a surprise move last week.
Non-Arab Turkey, once an ally of Assad's, is also taking an increasingly tough attitude to Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... . Turkish newspapers said on Saturday Ankara had contingency plans to create no-fly or buffer zones to protect civilians in neighbouring Syria if the bloodshed worsens.
"It's almost certain that Bashir al-Assad's regime is going down, all the assessments are made based on this assumption. Foreign Ministry sources say that the sooner the regime goes down, the better for Turkey," one paper said.
"It is out of the question that Turkey carries out a military intervention to change the regime. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... it takes a flexible stance on opposition groups running activities in Turkey."
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[Dawn] Gunmen on Sunday torched three trucks carrying supplies for NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops in Afghanistan in the southwestern Pak province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , officials said.
Gunmen on a cycle of violence fired at the vehicles and then set them on fire after pouring petrol on them in the Dasht suburb of the picturesque provincial capital Quetta, local police official Ismail Sumalani told AFP.
There were no casualties in the attack, which happened when the trucks had stopped at a roadside tea stall, he said.
No group has grabbed credit for the attack but the Taliban has in the past said they carried out similar attacks to disrupt supplies for more than 130,000 US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.
Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked hard boyz frequently launch attacks on NATO supply vehicles in the northwest and southwest regions of Pakistain, which border landlocked Afghanistan.
Most supplies and equipment required by foreign forces in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistain, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through Central Asia.
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[Dawn] [Dawn] At least 10 Death Eaters were killed and several others injured as helicopter gunships pounded hideouts of Death Eaters for hours on Saturday in different areas of Upper Kurram Agency. ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... Taliban strongholds and hideouts in Adokhel, Mir Kalamkhel, Jabba, Sama Bazaar and Mamozai came under attack. The shelling was so intense at times that people started leaving their areas.
The large-scale shelling continued for the fifth day running in Mamozai, forcing hundreds of people to leave their homes and move to safe areas.
Syed Zamin, a primitive who decamped Mamozai, told journalists that the situation in Sama Bazaar, Arghanjo, Mir Kalamkhel, Adokhel, Jabba, Khunzadgan Kalli and other areas was serious and continued shelling by helicopters and artillery had forced people to hide in bunkers and other safe places in their houses.
He said that during a break in the shelling a large number of people started fleeing the areas, adding that displaced people were facing great hardship because all key routes had been closed by security forces.
Several hideouts were destroyed and a cut-thoat training centre was also razed. Four hideouts were destroyed in Akhun Kot area in a clash and a huge cache of arms was seized.
According to security sources, 10 Death Eaters were killed and several others injured in the shelling.
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[Dawn] In the early 1990s when the then ameer of the Jamat-i-Islami (JI), Qazi Hussain Ahmed, ...the absolutely humorless, xenophobic former head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He was also head of the MMA, a coalition of religious parties formed after 2001 that eventually collapsed under the weight of the holy egos involved. Qazi was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar during the Afghan mujaheddin's war against the Soviets. His sermons are described as fiery, which means they rely heavily on gospel and not at all on logic. Qazi once recommended drinking camel pee for good health, but that was before his kidneys went... decided to add a more populist dimension to the otherwise exclusivist Jamat, the old guard of the party balked. Some Jamat members felt that Qazi's attempt to make JI a more populist party was done to counter the image of JI being an establishment-backed party that had been used by various figures to meet their own ends.
There is enough evidence to maintain that the above is correct. Though JI was a staunch opponent of Jinnah, ironically it burst on to the mainstream with the help of one of Jinnah's associates, the then chief minister of Punjab, Mumtaz Daultana. In spite of being a secularist, Daultana used the JI and another fundamentalist party, the Ahrar, to instigate a violent religious movement in Punjab in 1953 to divert the attention of the people from the grave economic failings of his ministry.
Hassan Abbas in 'Pakistain's Drift into Extremism' writes that Daultana unleashed JI and Ahrar to turn food riots against his ministry into a full blown movement against the Ahmadiya community. But JI's rise was thwarted by the arrival of the Ayub Khan dictatorship in 1958 that was secular in orientation. The JI did return to its new-found politics of agitation against many of the Ayub regime's policies, but since the party was unable to find any worthwhile patronage from the military-bureaucratic elite, it was largely overshadowed by various leftist political groups, especially the National Awami Party (NAP), the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and the National Students Federation (NSF).
The three triggered the fall of Ayub in 1969, and the JI suddenly came back into reckoning, this time tacitly supported by yet another secularist opportunist, General Yahya Khan. Faced with the rising tide of leftist agitation, Yahya, a heavy drinker, decided to patronise the JI as a counterforce. Hussain Haqqani in his book, 'Pakistain: Between Mosque & Military' suggests that it was during the Yahya dictatorship (1969-71) that the JI was given leeway to penetrate both state and privately-owned Urdu media. Militant JI groups were also tolerated as long as they were attacking leftist parties.
But state patronage failed to transform the JI into an electoral success. It was trounced by secular parties in the 1970 elections. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... this didn't stop the Yahya regime to use the JI to formulate fanatical pro-military 'hit-squads' in the former East Pakistain against Bengali nationalists. Ironically, when the military lost the 1971 war against Bengali separatists and their Indian backers, the JI turned around and accused its own patrons, Yahya's military, of 'drunkenness and debauchery'.
This is also when JI began finding sympathetic ears in the military, especially in the shape of junior officers. The new 'socialist' PPP regime led by Z A Bhutto allowed the spreading of JI's influence in the military, believing that this would keep the military's 'Bonapartist' tendencies in check. By the mid-1970s, JI had penetrated a large section of the media and the military.
Added to this was the growing influence of JI's student-wing, the IJT, on major campuses -- a happening one of Bhutto's youngest ministers, Meraj Muhammad Khan, claims was facilitated by Bhutto himself.
According to Meraj, after following the example of certain other secular regimes in Mohammedan countries of the time (Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia), Bhutto too over-exaggerated the threat of Soviet-backed leftist radicals, and consequently encouraged the fragmentation of leftist student groups and tactically allowed the flowering of right-wing groups on campuses. After creating various openings for the JI, Bhutto thought he was neutralising the party, whereas all the while the JI was cultivating relations with military men and the industrialists who'd been bitten by Bhutto's nationalisation policies.
All these links came to fruition when in 1977, JI embraced other religious outfits to successfully lead a protest movement against Bhutto, eventually paving the way for the country's third (and harshest) military dictatorship overseen by General Ziaul Haq ( a disciple of JI's chief and scholar, Abul Aala Maududi).
Between 1977 and 1984, JI experienced its most active moments. It first became part of Zia's cabinet and then supplied the ideological engine and manpower that Zia needed to impose his version of 'Islamic laws' and peruse his pro-Jihad policies in Afghanistan.
After Zia's death, JI automatically joined the ISI-backed anti-PPP electoral alliance, the IJI. Former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, accused the ISI for mobilising the JI into holding a violent 'long march' against her first government in 1989.
Then, in 1999, when JI's former partner in the IJI, 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... , began peace talks with India (during his second government), JI became the most vocal opponent of the talks. In his book, 'Frontline Pakistain,' Zahid Hussain suggests the JI street protest was instigated by the military chief, General Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... , who was against Nawaz's new Indian policy.
Some analysts believe that it was again Musharraf who 'facilitated' the electoral victory of the right-wing MMA (of which the JI was a part) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... in the 2002 elections. Today, led by Munawar Hassan, JI stands burdened by a past dented by episodes of being (willingly) used by manipulative secularists and Islamists alike; of being the 'B team of the agencies' and (according to Tariq Fathah's 'Chasing a Mirage'), of being a tool of western powers and Soddy Arabia against the left (during the Cold War).
It will take a lot more from JI than holding passionate anti-US rallies and collecting money to bring Aafia Siddiqui back from the US jail for it to ever again be reconsidered an important political player in the country's changing political landscape--unless, of course, people like Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... have other plans for this party.
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[Dawn] Security forces clashed with armed Death Eaters in Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... on Sunday, killing seven suspected myrmidons, DawnNews reported.
According to sources, hard boyz attacked an armed forces convoy, injuring a security personnel. Seven hard boyz were killed in retaliatory action by the forces.
Orakzai is one of the most lawless areas in Pakistain's northwest tribal region, which is made up of seven districts near the Afghan border.
The area is home to supporters of Pak Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
Security forces launched a major operation in the agency in March last year after hard boyz fled a sweeping offensive in the nearby tribal district of South Wazoo.
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(BBC) - Colombia's army says it has shut down the main radio station operated by the Farc rebels, after 15 years on air. Troops captured transmitters and other broadcast equipment when they overran a guerrilla camp in the Meta region.
The rebel radio station Voice of Resistance broadcast the Farc's revolutionary message across large areas of eastern and central Colombia. The army also disrupted its broadcasts last year, but the left-wing rebels got the station back on air.
Troops found the clandestine broadcasting operation in a rebel base protected by some 60 improvised bombs, the army said. The captured equipment included microphones, computers, amplifiers, a mixing console and a generator.
'Indoctrination'
"This is a powerful blow to the Farc terrorist group, as this broadcaster was an important tool for the hard boys' daily work," the army said in a statement. "For more than a decade it has been fundamental for the political indoctrination of Farc members as well as for broadcasting strong criticism of the institutions of state," it added.
The capture of the radio operation comes two weeks after the Farc leader Alfonso Cano was killed by the security forces. He has been replaced by Rodrigo Londono - better known by his alias Timochenko.
The Farc (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a narco mob based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. are the country's oldest and biggest rebel group.
The have been fighting to impose a Marxist revolution since the 1960s.
Once upon a time that was the cutting edge political app, back in the days when punch cards were a radical improvement on paper tape.
Over the past decade they have suffered a series of setbacks, losing thousands of fighters and several of their top commanders. But they remain a powerful force in large areas of rural Colombia, thanks in part to money gained from cocaine production and trafficking.
[Al Ahram] Angry relatives of a Jordanian who died in detention last week blocked a road to neighbouring Syria on Sunday, accusing authorities of killing him after he allegedly helped Syrians buy arms.
"We blocked the international road from (the border town) Ramtha to Syria to protest against an autopsy report and to demand a trial for the killers," Fathi Zubi, brother of Najem, a 20-year-old taxi driver who died in prison on Wednesday night, told AFP.
"We will continue our protests until the killers are identified," said Zubi, whose family belongs to one of the largest tribes in northern Jordan.
Zubi said his uncle, who is a physician, "attended the autopsy and said the cause of death was asphyxiation."
"According to my uncle, my brother was strangled. He did not hang himself as the report claimed," he added.
Residents in Ramtha, a town north of Amman, confirmed to AFP that the road has been blocked by large rocks and burning tyres.
Police front man Mohammad Khatib played down the incident, saying, "around 30 people blocked the road."
"The situation is currently being addressed by MPs, senators and others who are in talks with Zubi's family," Khatib said.
On Thursday, protesters in Ramtha torched the governor's offices, the courthouse and a police car before a riot squad broke up the demonstration using tear gas.
A Jordanian official, on condition of anonymity, said that day: "Najem took two Syrians, who had arrived in Jordan a few days earlier, to an arms dealer."
His mother insisted on Sunday, "My son Najem had a clean record."
"He was supposed to get a new job in the Civil Defence Department later this week. I do not understand why he was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock," she told AFP.
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The Defense Ministry officially announced plans to purchase stealth bombers capable of avoiding radar detection to counter the threat of North Korea's so-called asymmetrical warfare capabilities. Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told reporters on Tuesday the ministry will push for a stealth fighter acquisition project as part of the ongoing F-X fighter program.
The third phase of the F-X program envisages buying 60 high-performance fighters such as the F-15K from the U.S. from around 2015. The Air Force wanted the third phase to start this year, but budget pressure and Cheong Wa Dae's resistance to hasty implementation of an acquisition program worth trillions of won have led to delays.
It received a fresh spur last year when North Korea's military provocations became more unpredictable, China unveiled its home-grown J-20 stealth fighter jet and Japan announced plans to buy Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jets.
The Air Force, Defense Ministry and Cheong Wa Dae now reportedly agree the purchase needs to be speeded up. The Air Force decided to launch the third phase of the F-X program next year and start buying stealth aircraft around 2015, since the country's F-4 Phantom and F-5 fighter jets are aging fast.
The stealth fighters would allow the Air Force to launch air raids on strategic targets on its own without the support of the U.S. Forces Korea.
Currently, the U.S. F-22 is seen as the world's best stealth fighter, but its overseas sale is banned until 2015. As a result, the F-35, another model whose performance is a little inferior to the F-22's, is mentioned as a potential candidate. Boeing's F-15SE Silent Eagle and Eurofighter's Typhoon are also possible candidates. But the Silent Eagle is only an adapted version of the F-15 with some stealth functions and the Typhoon was not developed as a full-blown stealth fighter in the first place, making the F-35 the preferred option.
However, development of the F-35 keeps has been delayed and the price is expected to keep rising and exceed US$100 million.
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#1
Potential buyers like the F35's advanced tech but love the F-15E's payload.
#4
Something worthy of an ROK investment would be the secret installation of 16" naval guns, emplaced like coastal artillery, but concealed inside fake buildings on the northern edge of Seoul.
The idea would be rapid and effective counter-battery fire against the Nork guns, that would neutralize or destroy several of their mountain emplaced guns simultaneously. 16" rounds would rattle the heck out of the entire side of the mountain, even dug in granite.
Such guns, inside a thick, reinforced, concrete shell would be close to invulnerable. Nork artillery, on the Soviet model, solely uses Target Reference Points for its fires, and they are almost incapable of lifting and shifting their fires.
In effect, it would be like broadsides from an Iowa class battleship.
#5
After reading this + related Artics around the Net, my gut is telling me that the SOKOR's covert intent is to SELL/GIVE THIS STEALTH TECH TO NORTH KOREA, as hedge agz domination by China???
#6
In an INTER-KOREAN MIL CONFLICT, Beijing wont care iff the DPRK is damaged as long as the ROK + US Milfors stay behind the DMZ, + NOT attempt to enter into the North.
In addition, many CHINA MILBLOGGERS support PLA intervention in any war between the two Koreas, TO INCLUDE FORMAL CHIN ANNEXATION OF NORTH KOREA, iff it means keeping the "devil" US below the DMZ, or better yet leaving the Korean Peninsula in its entirety. THEY ARE CONFIDENT THAT, AS IN THE FIRST KOREAN WAR 1950-1953, CHINA CAN ONCE AGAIN STONEWALL OR DEFEAT US + UN FORCES DESPITE ANY TECH INFERIORITY.
[An Nahar] The "time has come" to deal with Iran, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday, refusing to rule out military action to curb the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions.
Barak, speaking on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS program, indicated that Israel's patience was wearing thin -- and provided an ominous response when asked about the growing speculation of an Israeli military strike.
"I don't think that that is a subject for public discussion," he said. "But I can tell you that the IAEA report has a sobering impact on many in the world, leaders as well as the publics, and people understand that the time has come."
The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency published a report on November 8 saying there was "credible" information that Iran was carrying out "activities relevant to the development of a nuclear bomb."
On Friday the IAEA's board passed a resolution condemning Iran's nuclear activities, but stopped short of reporting Tehran to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... and issuing no deadline for compliance.
"People understand now that Iran is determined to reach nuclear weapons," said Barak. There is "no other possible or conceivable explanation for what they have been actually doing. And that should be stopped."
The IAEA report -- based on "broadly, credible" intelligence, its own information and some input from Iran itself -- said that Iran had examined how to fit out a Shahab 3 missile, with a range capable of reaching Israel, with a nuclear warhead.
Tehran rejected the report "baseless," denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and maintains its nuclear activities are for civilian energy purposes.
Washington, Gay Paree and London however jumped on the report as justification to increase pressure on Iran, already under four rounds of Security Council sanctions and additional U.S. and European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... restrictions.
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#1
As said times before, Iran will stay or prefer to stay on the strategic = Diplomatic, Media defensive AMAP ALAP - in its mind, the burden is on the US + Israel, etc. to unilaterally strike or attack Iran where Iran will then be able to blame them for inter-state war, to includ proxy/surrogate terrorism, breaking out.
EVEN GIVEN THE "OBAMA DOCTRINE", THE US IS HIGHLY UNLIKELY TO GET A UNSC MANDATE FOR MILSTRIKE + WAR AGZ IRAN FOR A LONG L-O-N-G TIME TO COME YET.
In sum, it comes down to
> IRAN OR THE USA DOING SOMETHING XTREMELY STUPID ACT = REAX.
> DOMESTIC "REGIME CHANGE" [anti-Govt revolution] IN TEHRAN.
> The US engages in some kind of so-called "FALSE FLAG" OPERATION where Iran + only Iran gets the blame.
Moud + Mullahs are willing to tippy-toe in high heels on a thin tightrope iff it means the success of Iran's NucProgs + LT agendum.
ISRAEL CAN CERTAINLY ATTACK IRAN, BUT ONLY THE US = US-NATO OR UN COALITION CAN ATTACK AS WELL AS INVADE, OCCUPY IRAN.
Pragmatically, iff Israel has now decided absolutely that "time is of the essence" agz Iran, IMO means Tel Aviv must induce POTUS Bammer to do an Option #3 = "False Flag" ASAP AMAP within 6-8 months or less [Dec 2011 < = Aug 2012], AS I DON'T THINK ISRAEL DESIRES TO WAIT UNTIL THE BAMMER WINS OR LOSES HIS RE-ELECTION.
Israel is not just fighting agz time agz any de facto, physically real Iran NucBomb, BUT ALSO THE KNOWLEDGE + LEARNING CURVE(S) THAT IRAN WILL ACQUIRE + USE TO REPAIR OR REPLACE THOSE NUC ASSETS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED VEE LR AIR, MISSLE [Commando?]MILSTRIKE.
Knowledge gained = rarely lost save in the most extreme or difficult circumstances. IOW, ONCE IRAN "HAS THE BOMB", IT "HAS THE BOMB" EVEN IFF THE US, ISRAEL PHYSICALLY DESTROY WHAT ONE OR FEW IT ORIGINALLY HAD.
#2
I still wish that Israel could have stage managed a nuclear disaster in Iran, to convince the average Iranian on the street that nuclear anything is not right for them. Ideally, that they would as a people be as repulsed by nuclear weapons as were the Japanese after the war.
It would exchange a few thousand lives for tens of thousands of lives.
(AFP) - New York authorities announced Sunday they had arrested and charged a US Al-Qaeda sympathizer in a plot to build a pipe bomb to kill government workers, elected officials and others.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 27-year-old Jose Pimentel was targeting police, postal facilities and others and said he was a "lone wolf" without affiliation to foreign terrorist organizations.
City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Pimentel, though not affiliated with an outside group, was a follower of slain radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, who was killed in a US raid earlier this year.
Kelly said Pimentel, a native of the Dominican Republic who was a US citizen, had followed a online magazine from Awlaqi including an article "How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."
Pimentel "talked about killing US servicemen returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly US army and marine corps personnel. He talked about bombing post offices in and around Washington Heights and police cars in New York City, as well as a police station in New Jersey," the police chief said.
The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least a year, first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act.
Mr. Pimentel, who is also known as Muhammad Yusuf, will face charges that include criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree as a crime of terrorism, which is considered an A-1 violent felony.
Mr. Pimentel made incriminating statements to an informant who was working with the Police Department, investigators said, and those conversations were recorded.
"He was in the process of building three pipe bombs," the law enforcement official said. "We weren't going to wait around to figure out what he wanted do with his bombs. He was in Harlem about an hour from actually assembling the bombs," but had all the "unassembled components ready to go."
The police commissioner identified the suspect as a follower of Anwar al-Awlaki. Pimental allegedly tried to contact al-Awlaki directly, but never got a response.
Pimentel had been monitored by authorities since 2009 and his extreme positions "made some of his like-minded friends nervous," said Kelly.
I am truly grateful the CIA taught the NYPD all that spy stuff that the New York Times, et al were fussing about a few months ago.
His aim, the police commissioner said, was to show there were "mujahedeen" -- or Islamic militants -- in the city ready to wage "jihad."
And so he has done.
He was arrested at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in an apartment in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in northern Manhattan, after he began to drill holes in the would-be pipe bomb, Kelly said.
The unemployed pothead converted to Islam in 2009 in while living in Schenectady, NY, where he caught the eye of local police. After he started beating his wife to encourage her to join him in conversion, and forcing their child to watch jihadi videos, she took the child and left. Following his return to NYC, his mother threw him out because of his radicalism, so he moved in with an uncle. The Schenectady police tipped off the NYPD, who apparently bugged the uncle's apartment for sound and video,
Somebody got to watch him scrape the sulfur heads off of 700 matches...
put a tap on his computer, and sent an informant
*ring, ring* "Mahmoud the Weasel, at your service!"
to be his friend. Like Santa Claus, the police know where he's been, what he's done, read, and posted on his website since he moved back to New York. Our lad confessed all, insisting that "Islamic law obligated all true Muslims to wage war against the United States."
The wonder being how few have acted on that obligation, and how many of those were lone wolves. You'd think the Muslim community would be trumpeting that with pride.
According to Mayor Bloomberg, this is the fourteenth jihadi plot against New York City since 9/11.
Rumors were circulating recently in the Korean military and defense industry that U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating Korea's weapons production and exports.
"The rumors said that CIA and FBI agents have arrived and are investigating the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and defense firms to find out whether Korea has developed and exported weapons based on stolen U.S. military technologies," a government official said Thursday. "But our own probe into these rumors found no investigation of DAPA or defense firms by any U.S. agencies."
The rumors began circulating after an unusual joint Korea-U.S. investigation in September of suspicions that Korea illegally disassembled the Tiger Eye, a key component of the cutting-edge U.S.-made F-15K fighter jet equipment for low-altitude night penetration attacks.
In early June, U.S. officials raised suspicions that the seal of one box which the Air Force had sent to the U.S. for maintenance showed evidence of having been broken, disassembled and put back together again. But a weeklong joint investigation in September failed to find proof that Korea had disassembled the Tiger Eye.
Afterwards, there was talk that the U.S. was probing whether Korea had stolen U.S. technologies, because it was very sensitive to Korean exports of the T-50 supersonic jet trainers and missiles.
A military source said, "It's true that the U.S. is responding sensitively to the increase in our arms exports and that it's holding our exports of weapons made with U.S. technological assistance strongly in check. But it would make no sense for the FBI, a U.S. agency tasked with investigating internal U.S. issues, to conduct an investigation here."
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"But Tiger Eye is much more advanced, and the U.S. is reluctant to transfer the technology. It therefore seals the box before it exports the device to other countries, and the contract stipulates that it cannot be disassembled.
But the U.S. said one box which the Air Force had sent to the U.S. for maintenance and repair showed evidence of the seal having been broken, illegally disassembled and put back together again, according to a source.
Korea has a history of disassembling U.S.-made weapons in the 1980s and using what it learned to develop its own weapons. But since the 1990s this has supposedly not happened again."
[Dawn] Four persons including two suspected Death Eaters were killed on Saturday in two
separate incidents in Khyber Agency.
Official sources said that unidentified gunniesrubbed out two suspected Death Eaters in Akkakhel area of Bara. They said that suspected Death Eaters were riding a cycle of violence when then were attacked by the gunnies.
The attackers managed to escape after the incident.
Local sources in Tirah said that two rustics were killed when a mortar shell fell on a house in Toor Toot area on Saturday.
"The locality is situated near the border with Orakzai and Kurram agencies where security forces are targeting bad boy positions with heavy artillery and tanks," they said. A number of artillery shells have reportedly fell in the fields and deserted places in the area.
In Bannu, suspected Death Eaters blew up a link bridge and a house in different areas on Saturday.
In the first incident, Death Eaters planted improvised bomb at the house of Gul Azad in the limits of Saddar cop shoppe. The device went off with a big bang and damaged the boundary wall, doors and windowpanes of the house.
The blast was followed by another kaboom in the limits of Hooveed cop shoppe where Death Eaters planted a bomb at a bridge and detonated it. The bridge was partially damaged in the blast.
In Lakki Marwat, a house was damaged when a bomb went kaboom! in Darra Pezu Town late on Friday night.
Sources said that an bomb was planted outside the house of Chaudhry Aslam that went off late in the night and damaged the main gate and a portion of the boundary wall of his residence.
Chaudhry Aslam, a businessman, is an active member of the town's welfare and peace body.
In Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central, a tribal elder and leader of Salarzai Peace Committee beat feet unhurt in a roadside kaboom on Saturday.
Locals and political officials said that Malak Gul Akbar along with another associate was coming from Pashat area to his home
in Danqool area of tehsil Salarzai. When he reached near his home a remote controlled bomb planted by unidentified persons went kaboom! with a bang. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... Malak Gul Akbar survived while his other aide sustained injuries. He was taken to hospital.
No group has grabbed credit for the attack. The peace committee volunteers launched search operation in the area soon after the incident.
Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... security forces in a crackdown nabbed more than 12 tribal people in connection with blowing up of a government primary school in Danqool area under collective territorial responsibility clause of FCR.
On the other hand Salarzai rustics have decided to set up peace committees for security of school buildings and heath centres in different areas of the region. Each committee will consist of 10 armed volunteers.
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[An Nahar] Syrian security forces rubbed out at least four civilians on Sunday in Idlib province in the northwest and in Homs province in the center, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Among 17 dead on Saturday, the Britannia-based watchdog reported seven civilians killed in the Idlib town of Kfar Kharim, close to the Turkish border.
The Observatory also quoted a mutinous officer as saying that two army deserters "were killed in festivities with regular troops in Qusayr" in the restive central province of Homs.
Also in central Syria on Saturday, "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 Observatory said.
The Observatory and another key Syrian opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees, reported that the ruling Baath party in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... had been by hit several rocket-propelled grenades early on Sunday.
But an Agence La Belle France Presse news hound who went to the area found no trace of the attack while residents denied there had been kabooms.
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[Dawn] About 150 members of Pakistain's parliament, provincial assemblies and senate have received anonymous text messages demanding that they resign or be killed, the interior minister said.
Two suspects from Larkana district in Sindh province are being held over the threats, 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. told news hounds on Saturday, after help from the cyber crime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency.
"Threatening SMS were sent... asking them to resign or get killed," Malik said.
Pakistain is battling multiple insurgencies including Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks whose attacks are blamed for thousands of deaths in the past four years including those of several politicians.
An MP from northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , told AFP that he and colleagues regularly received such threats "by SMS and other means" but that he believed authorities dealt with them well.
"It is a routine, we get so many threats, but our institutions are tackling this issue very well. Many culprits have been jugged in the past for sending threatening messages," he said.
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[Dawn] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... defiantly vowed to fight and die if needed 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 his government to stop its lethal crackdown on protesters expired with 20 more people killed.
Upping the pressure on Syria, the vaporous Arab League on Sunday announced it had rejected amendments proposed by Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... to its proposal to send a 500-strong delegation to monitor the violence in Syria.
And Turkish President Abdullah Gul said there was "no place for authoritarian regimes" in the Mediterranean region.
Among the dead on the weekend were four intelligence agents killed as gunnies raked their car with gunfire and two mutinous soldiers who died in festivities with regular troops in the central town of Shayzar, rights campaigners said.
The latest bloodletting added to the more than 3,500 killed since mid-March, and came despite the Saturday's midnight (2200 GMT) deadline which had been set by the Arab League for Assad to end the crackdown or face sanctions.
With rebel troops inflicting mounting losses on the regular army, Turkey and the United States have both raised the spectre of civil war as Russia called for restraint.
But in an interview with London's Sunday Times, conducted before the Arab League deadline lapsed, Assad said he was "definitely" prepared to fight and die for Syria if faced with foreign intervention.
"This goes without saying and is an absolute," he said.
The president said he felt sorrow for each drop of Syrian blood spilt but insisted Damascus must go after armed rebel gangs and enforce law and order.
"The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue," he said. "I assure you that Syria will not bow down and that it will continue to resist the pressure being imposed on it."
Assad accused the Arab League of creating a pretext for Western military intervention, which he said would trigger an "earthquake" across the Middle East.
Russia has staunchly resisted any attempt to invoke international involvement in the crisis, fearing it could clear the way for a Libya-style military campaign under a UN mandate.
"We are calling for restraint and caution. This is our position," Putin said a day after after his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had also likened the situation in Syria to a civil war.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, meanwhile, said he felt Assad had reached "a point of no return" with a change of regime possible within months. Turkey's president rounded on one-time ally Syria.
"I strongly believe that there is no place any more for authoritarian regimes, single party systems that do not have accountability or transparency, on the shores of the Mediterranean," he told Britannia's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
"As someone who has studied in the United Kingdom, lived in the United Kingdom, has this world view, President Assad should be able to understand this."
The Arab League, in a statement issued in Cairo, said it had rejected 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.
"It was agreed that the amendments and appendices proposed by the Syrian side affect the core of the document and would radically change the nature of the mission which is to oversee the implementation of the Arab plan to end the crisis in Syria and protect Syrian civilians," the statement said.
With the peace deal in tatters, the Arab League has already suspended Syria from the 22-member bloc and saw its deadline expire with no compliance from Assad's security forces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three non-combatants were killed in security force fire on Sunday in Idlib province in the northwest and in Homs province in the centre.
Among 17 dead on Saturday, the Britannia-based watchdog reported seven civilians killed in the Idlib town of Kfar Kharim, close to the Turkish border.
The Observatory also quoted a mutinous officer as saying that two army deserters "were killed in festivities with regular troops in Qusayr" in the restive central province of Homs.
Also in central Syria on Saturday, "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 Observatory said.
The Observatory and another key Syrian opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees, reported that the ruling Baath party in Damascus had been by hit several rocket-propelled grenades early on Sunday.
But an AFP news hound who went to the area found no trace of the attack while residents denied there had been kabooms.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2011
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ANBAR / Aswat al-Iraq: Five Iraqi policemen have been killed and 4 others were injured in an armed attack on a checkpoint in Ramadi city, the center of Anbar Province, along with 3 armed men that were also killed in the clash between both sides, an Anbar police source reported on Saturday.
"A group of armed men have attacked a checkpoint in Taamim district west of Ramadi, using light and middle-size weapons, killing 5 policemen and wounding 4 others, who were drive to hospital for treatment," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The police source said that "the police forces returned fire, killing 3 of the armed men, among those who launched the attack, whilst the police forces imposed a cordone around the area of the attack, searching for other attackers, who escaped for an unknown destination."
Ramadi, the center of Anbar Province, is 110 km to the west of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2011
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"[T]he police forces returned fire, killing 3 of the armed men, among those who launched the attack..."
Bravo!
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/21/2011 8:41
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TANGIER, Morocco: Thousands of Moroccans protested in cities across the country on Sunday calling for a boycott of a parliamentary election later this week which they say will not be truly democratic.
Thus ensuring that their supporters will not be represented in the new parliament. Shrewd, real shrewd...
The Nov. 25 vote is a test of reforms made by Morocco's ruler, King Mohammed, to try to defuse pressure for change in the Arab world's longest-serving dynasty in the wake of uprisings this year across the Middle East.
A Reuters reporter in the city of Tangier, across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain, said about 10,000 protesters had gathered in a square in the working class Beni Mkada district.
A witness in Casablanca, Morocco's commercial hub, said at least 6,000 people had turned up for a parallel protest, despite heavy rain. Two western diplomats and a resident in the capital, Rabat, put the turnout for a protest there at about 3,000 people.
At the Tangier protest, one group of protesters carried a mock casket draped in white with the words "parliamentary elections" written across it. Demonstrators chanted "We are not voting. Long live the people" and "We are not voting because we are not cattle."
About 200 police officers, equipped with metal riot shields, helmets and truncheons, cordoned off the square but there were no clashes. One police officer put the number of protesters in Tangier at less than 1,000.
Or about 10 times larger than most US 'Occupy' protests...
Faced earlier this year with protests inspired by the "Arab Spring" uprising, King Mohammed backed constitutional reforms which handed over some of his powers to elected officials. He kept his final say on issues of defense, national security and religion.
The palace wants the election to clear out a government associated in the minds of many Moroccans with graft and replace it with new faces who will implement the king's reforms. The vote has pitted a party of moderate Islamists, who swear loyalty to the king, against a coalition of mainly liberal parties with close ties to the palace.
The movement in support of the boycott is unlikely to derail the election because it does not resonate with the majority of the population, who are not politically engaged and revere the king.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2011
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Say what you will about hereditary monarchies, they do result in stable government generally. Although Nepal is a recent exception.
[Dawn] A prayer leader was rubbed out while his lover companion sustained serious injuries when unknown motorcyclists opened fire on them while going to a mosque to offer prayer on Saturday night. The incident occurred at Shaidu. Following the killing of the religious leader, Maulana Abdullah Haqqani, residents of the area blocked the GT road for some time. Maulana Abdullah Haqqani died while being taken to hospital.
When the news of his murder spread residents came out of their houses and blocked the GT road in protest. The villagers said Mr Abdullah Haqqani was against the militancy.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2011
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[Dawn] The crime branch of Bloody Karachi police has incarcerated four bully boyz belonging to a banned outfit, who were involved in a grenade attack on the Saudi Consulate in Bloody Karachi, DawnNews reported on Sunday.
One of the members of the outfit was injured and incarcerated during a shootout in another incident.
According to the SSP crime branch, Farooq Awan, the police conducted a raid early morning in the Eid Gah area and incarcerated three suspects named, Zaki, Mohsin and Muhammad Ali Kazmi. During the interrogation, the incarcerated suspects confessed their links to Lashkar-e-Mehdi -- a banned outfit -- and admitted attacking the Saudi embassy and a mosque at Sakhi Hassan.
They also stated that eight hit mans, incarcerated by the special investigation unit earlier this year, were a part of their gang.
During interrogation, they pointed out one of their accomplice in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar area. The police incarcerated injured Asif alias Munna after a shootout in the area. The maimed culprit was shifted to a hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2011
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[Dawn] "IT takes two to tango," Hina Rabbani Khar said on Friday. "One day [the Afghans] require Pakistain's assistance; the next day it is Pakistain which is working against them. Then how can Pakistain help them?" Just last week, the Foreign Office had denied reports from the sidelines of the Saarc summit that Prime Minister Gilani found President Karzai's attitude in a bilateral meeting to be aggressive and accusatory. But in this latest presser, the foreign minister did not hold back, expressing in remarkably direct language that Kabul's recent statements have not been helpful. Earlier in the year the relationship seemed to be making progress, with Mr Gilani visiting Kabul in April with a high-level diplomatic and military team, and Mr Karzai in Islamabad in June to discuss reconciliation with the Taliban. But since a number of high-profile terrorist attacks in the Afghan capital and the liquidation of former High Peace Council chief Burhanuddin Rabbani ... the gentlemanly murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan... in September, public suggestions of Pak support for the Afghan Taliban have been emerging from Kabul. The trilateral summit in Turkey had the potential to ease relations, especially given discussion of a joint investigation into the liquidation, but doesn't seem to have improved matters.
So where do things go from here? The state of the relationship will not do much to help the revival of peace talks with the Taliban, which now seem to be in disarray. And as the region prepares for America`s withdrawal from Afghanistan, what role will Pakistain be able to play in this atmosphere of mistrust? There are a couple of things both sides can do. Afghanistan must not accuse Pakistain of involvement in incidents without concrete proof. Both countries need to make sincere efforts to stop cross-border raids. Pakistain should act on its offer of any possible cooperation with the liquidation investigation. And the burden of history means that Pakistain will have to keep proving, through words and actions, that it is not interested in destablising Afghanistan. In the absence of such moves, this crucial relationship, at this crucial juncture, is unlikely to improve.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2011
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
In a significant failure for the United States in the Mideast, more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught and the U.S. government fears they will be or have been executed, according to four current and former U.S. officials with connections to the intelligence community.
Mexico's top cop Attorney General Marisela Morales has requested the extradition of six people suspected of providing guns to 
Three monks, three policemen and three locals were slightly injured after an improvised bomb went off in front of a laundry in Pattani province on Monday morning.
While everyone is focused on Iran, North Korea has been making steady progress on the Yongbyon LWR. Their uranium enrichment program is coming along, too.
Iran is ready to cooperate "further" with the U.N. atomic energy watchdog if it "balances its approach" to the Islamic republic, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday, according to the ISNA news agency.
[Al Ahram] Turkish President Abdullah Gul said there was "no place for authoritarian regimes" in the Mediterranean region, heaping more pressure on the embattled Syrian regime, in comments published Sunday.
ISLAMABAD: Police arrested four people on Sunday in connection with the murder of a Saudi Consulates official in Karachi. According to Clifton Police head Tariq Dharejo officials claim the suspects belong to banned 
Director of Iran Space Agency Hamid Fazeli announced on Saturday that the Islamic Republic plans to build a civil satellite launch center, MNA reported. The center will be established with the cooperation of the Defense Ministry, he told IRNA.
TRIPOLI: 
[Al Ahram] Hundreds of Sudanese protested in the city of ad-Damir on Sunday, demanding the government do more to help villagers whose homes were flooded by an electricity-generating dam, witnesses said.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Two Iraqi civilians have been killed and 5 others injured in sporadic US Army fire on the main highway passing through west Baghdad's Yousifiya township, following an explosive charge blast on Saturday, a security source reported.
Najib Miqati
Nawaz Sharif
[Dawn] A senior Bangladeshi official on Sunday urged Pakistain to formally apologize for alleged atrocities and acts of genocide committed by the Pak military during the independence war in 1971.
Khaleda Zia
[Al Ahram] An 
Kurram Agency.
...the absolutely humorless, xenophobic former head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He was also head of the MMA, a coalition of religious parties formed after 2001 that eventually collapsed under the weight of the holy egos involved. Qazi was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar during the Afghan mujaheddin's war against the Soviets. His sermons are described as 
Punjab
Pervez 
Orakzai Agency
(BBC) - Colombia's army says it has shut down the main radio station operated by the Farc rebels, after 15 years on air. Troops captured transmitters and other broadcast equipment when they overran a guerrilla camp in the Meta region.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)
Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central
[An Nahar] Syrian security forces 
[Dawn] About 150 members of Pakistain's parliament, provincial assemblies and senate have received anonymous text messages demanding that they resign or be killed, the interior minister said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] A prayer leader was 
[Dawn] The crime branch of 
"IT takes two to tango," Hina Rabbani Khar said on Friday. "One day [the Afghans] require Pakistain's assistance; the next day it is Pakistain which is working against them. Then how can Pakistain help them?" Just last week, the Foreign Office had denied reports from the sidelines of the Saarc summit that Prime Minister Gilani found President Karzai's attitude in a bilateral meeting to be aggressive and accusatory. But in this latest 
