Millersburg, Ohio - The leader of a breakaway Amish group allowed the beatings of those who disobeyed him, made some members sleep in a chicken coop and had sexual relations with married women to "cleanse them," federal authorities said as they charged him and six others with hate crimes in hair-cutting attacks against other Amish.
Authorities raided the group's compound in eastern Ohio on Wednesday morning and arrested seven men, including group leader Sam Mullet and three of his sons. The mullet gang? Well, at least they don't seem to be hairmosexuals.
#3
'Bishop' Mullet is the alleged gang leader. However, the haircuts are the 'soup bowl' type.
Meanwhile, FBI has still made no arrests in the MF Global Holdings ripoff pending further campaign contributions from Jon Corzine.
[Those who disagree] may not like the language, she told The Washington Post, but the truth is what I said. Im a devout Catholic and I honor my faith and love it . . . but they have this conscience thing [that puts women at risk.] This tells me all I need to know about The Wicked Witch of the West's conscience. She doesn't have one. She shouild be ex-communicated.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/23/2011
17:00 ||
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#1
She bears false witness and uses the government to steal. She is one of the most Un-Godly of public figures. She uses God to push through her destructive and stupid programs.
#2
She is excommunicated by her very actions,latæ sententiæ according to Canon Law. The problem is her bishop is gutless when it comes to forbidding communion for her while in a state of mortal sin. And she is definitely bringing scandal upon the Church with her actions qnd claims of Catholicism, which itself calls for sanctions against her, up to and including formal ferendae sententiae excommunication.
The woman is an absolute idiot when it comes to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and her claim to be "good Catholic" are absolute trash given her rejection of the authority, dogma and magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church which is quite clear on the matter of abortion.
Nancy Pelosi is a liar. Simple as that - and an evil one as well given she is attempting to lead others astray with her lies - and force Catholics to participate in mortal sin under penalty of law by removing conscience protections for healthcare workers who refuse to participate in elective abortions, euthanasia or sterilizations. (That's the "conscience thing" that she refers to in her warped mind).
The U.S. Embassy in Damascus urged its citizens in Syria to depart "immediately," and Turkey's foreign ministry urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia to avoid traveling through Syria.
"The U.S. Embassy continues to urge U.S. citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available," said a statement issued to the American community in Syria Wednesday and posted on the Embassy's website. "The number of airlines serving Syria has decreased significantly since the summer, while many of those airlines remaining have reduced their number of flights."
The warning followed an announcement in Washington this week that Ambassador Robert Ford would not return to Syria this month as planned, indicating concerns over his safety.
The Obama administration quietly pulled Ford out of Syria last month, citing credible personal threats against him.
The Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia and avoid traveling through Syria for security reasons.
The warning came two days after Syrian soldiers opened fire on at least two buses carrying Turkish citizens, witnesses and officials said, apparent retaliation for Turkey's criticism of Assad. The Turks were returning from Saudi Arabia after performing the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The mainstream media has finally picked up the story Ive been telling since February about Egypts impending economic collapse. The country is nearly out of money.
...Egypts spendable foreign exchange reserves are down to just $13 billion and falling daily as the central bank buys its own unwanted currency from the market in order to postpone the inevitable collapse in the change rate. Why not just devalue? The probable answer is that the generals and their civilian front men are moving as much money as they can out of the country before Egypt goes bankrupt....Not only the countrys capacity to buy food in the future, but its existing stocks of food are disappearing. And Egypt imports half its caloric consumption.
...Turkey is in no danger of starvation, to be sure, but it faces a severe economic setback: Tayyip Erdogan, the countrys Islamist prime minister, spurred the countrys banks to lend huge amounts to consumers in advance of last Junes national elections. Bank lending rose by 40% in 2010 and by another 40% in 2011, and Turks bought consumer goods from abroad, running up a balance of payments deficit exceeding 10% of GDP (the same level as Greece). Most of that is financed by short-term debt. Turkey wont go bankrupt its overall debt levels are manageable but its economy will have to shrink by a good 5% to staunch the bleeding. That will deflate the neo-Ottoman balloon that Erdogan has been floating, and make it much harder to suppress Turkish grievances in the impoverished Eastern corner of the country.
There is no center of power, no reorientation, no neo-Ottoman empire, no Shiite crescent, no Arab Spring, no coherent description of what is occurring in the Middle East. There is only catastrophic social breakdown, civil unrest, despair and violence. If Iran gets nuclear weapons, they will be used. We cannot fix the Middle East. We can only protect ourselves from the fallout, starting with acquisition of WMD by a terrorist state. The last sentence of my book How Civilizations Die (and why Islam is Dying, Too) quotes Virgils warning to Dante in Canto III of the Inferno: Non ragionam da lor, ma guarda e pasa. Nothing to see here, folks. Keep moving.
h/t Instapundit
... German bond auction went rather badly today. In fact, a lot of commentators are using words like "disastrous". They sold just over half of the 6 billion they had put out to market, the worst such outcome anyone can remember. This comes on the heels of a Spanish debt auction in which the yields on their three month notes more than doubled to 5%. That's a higher interest rate than I pay on my credit card.
#1
The link goes to ft.com, which YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR BEFORE VIEWING THEIR ARTICLES. Why even link there? All of us don't have a subscription, you know.
#2
I wasn't able to read the original FT article either, but NYT has this: Weak Sale of Bonds Tests Germanys Stature in Crisis FRANKFURT Germanys stature as an island of stability amid the financial chaos of the euro zone was challenged Wednesday after an auction of government bonds met slack demand, suggesting that investors are beginning to question whether there are any havens left in Europe. Analysts cautioned against reading too much into a single bond issue...About one-third of a 6 billion, or $8 billion, issue of German bonds found no buyers, twice as much unsold stock as normal, the countrys central bank reported...The sale was one of nine this year that fell short of demand, said Jörg Müller, a spokesman for the German Finance Agency, which administers bond sales. Its routine, he said, adding that demand often tails off toward the end of the year. He said the excess bonds would be sold on the open market, and would not lead to any funding shortages for the government.
France will discuss creating protected humanitarian corridors in Syria with its EU and Arab allies, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Thursday, after meeting the exiled Syrian opposition leader.
Juppe said France considers Burhan Ghaliun's Syrian National Council a "legitimate interlocutor" and said he would take to Brussels the idea of escape routes for Syrian civilians fleeing Bashar al-Assad's forces.
"We examined the question of humanitarian corridors and I will ask the next meeting of the European Council to put this point on its agenda," Juppe said.
"If there could be a humanitarian dimension to the zones, which could be secured, to protect the population, that's a question that must be studied with the European Union and the Arab League."
There have been reports that Turkey and NATO allies such as France are considering imposing a no-fly zone and a buffer zone on Syrian territory to give the opposition breathing space while it organises its revolt.
Pakistan named a liberal legislator noted for her tough stance on human rights to replace its former ambassador to the US, who was forced to quit amid allegations that he had plotted to curb the influence of the military on politics.
Sherry Rehman, one of the few public figures who has dared oppose Pakistans draconian blasphemy law, faces the task of repairing ties with Washington, where her countrys record of backing Islamist militants has caused deep mistrust.
We all have to forge a progressive, dynamic Pakistan out of the ashes that are often left to us by the fire of terrorism, by the fire of extremism, Mrs Rehman said in a speech on Wednesday.
Her appointment was welcomed by human rights activists dismayed at the speed with which the military moved to oust her predecessor, Husain Haqqani, following a claim that he had sought US help to place generals under civilian control.
(CeeBeeS/News Agency Who Shall Remain Nameless) BEIRUT - The U.S. Embassy in Damascus urged its citizens in Syria to depart "immediately," and Turkey's foreign ministry urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia to avoid traveling through Syria. Also Stratfor is reporting that CVN 77 George H.W. Bush has left Straights of Hormuz and is now parked next to Syria.
Sounds like a 'No-Fly Zone' might be in the works.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/23/2011
14:52 ||
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Livestock farmers are demanding a change in the nation's ethanol policy, claiming current rules could lead to spikes in meat prices and even shortages at supermarkets if corn growers have a bad year. But central planning is ever so much more efficient...
The amount of corn consumed by the ethanol industry combined with continued demand from overseas has cattle and hog farmers worried that if corn production drops due to drought or another natural disaster, the cost of feed could skyrocket, leaving them little choice but to reduce the size of their herds. A smaller supply could, in turn, mean higher meat prices and less selection at the grocery store.
The ethanol industry argues such scenarios are unlikely, but farmers have the backing of food manufacturers, who also fear that a federal mandate to increase production of ethanol will protect that industry from any kind of rationing amid a corn shortage.
The subject of debate is the Renewable Fuel Standard, a 2005 law requiring the nation to produce 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2012. The standard was changed in 2007 to gradually increase the requirement to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
While a $5 billion-a-year federal ethanol subsidy is scheduled to expire this year, the production requirement will remain, unless it's changed by Congress.
That has other corn consumers worried that if production falls and rationing is needed, ethanol companies will be exempt. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently reduced its estimate of this year's corn crop because of flooding in the Midwest and drought in the southern plains, and corn reserves are expected to fall to a 20-day supply next year. A 30-day supply is considered healthy.
At the same time, the price of corn for livestock feed has risen from an average of just over $3 a bushel in 2006-07 to an average of more than $6 this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
11:33 ||
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#1
You forget, the drought in Texas has caused The deaths of tens of thousands that were to be fed, add that into your calculations?
Hmmm, there's feed aplenty.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/23/2011 17:02
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$5 billion-a-year federal ethanol subsidy
There is the crux of the problem. Without that, no one with a pocket calculator would be turning corn into ethanol.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed an initiative on Wednesday to hand power over to his deputy as part of a proposal to end months of protests that have pushed Yemen to the brink of civil war. Saudi state television has broadcast live images of Saleh signing the accord in the presence of Saudi King Abdullah and Crown Prince Nayef. Yemeni opposition officials signed the accord after Saleh.
It was the fourth attempt to complete a power transfer accord that Saleh backed out of on three previous occasions at the last minute.
During a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Saleh told UN chief Ban Ki-moon he will come to New York for medical treatment immediately after signing the deal.
QUITMAN, GA (WALB) - 12 former Brooks County officials were indicted for voter fraud. The suspects are accused of illegally helping people vote by absentee ballot. Notice there's no party given?
State officials launched an investigation after an unusually high number of absentee ballots were cast in the July 2010 primary election. "As a result of their grand jury findings 12 individuals were indicted in that particular matter and we will be trying that case in a court of judicial law instead of a court of public opinion so that will be pending this next year," said District Attorney Joe Mulholland. Golly. I wonder what party they belong to?
The defendants include some workers in the voter registrar's office and some school board members. They are Angela Bryant, April Proctor, Brenda Monds, Debra Denard, Lula Smart, Kechia Harrison, Robert Denard, Sandra Cody, Elizabeth Thomas, Linda Troutman, Latashia Head, and Nancy Denard. Probably Whigs is my guess...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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An opposition kurdish
lawmaker from the Republican People's Party said a dozen of his relatives were killed in Dersim at least 10,000 Kurds died during the massacres; counting both Kurdish and non Kurdish victims of both massacres and forced relocation during the late 30s, it may be as high as 80,000
and lawmakers needed to shed light on the suppression of the rebellion. Erdogan then called on Republican leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, to face up to his party's past.
His offering of the apology appeared to be a political tactic to tarnish the image of Kilicdaroglu, whose family is rooted in Tunceli.
"If there is need for an apology on behalf of the state, if there is such a practice in the books, I would apologize and I am apologizing," Erdogan said in a televised speech. Erdogan said Kilicdaroglu must also apologize because his party the Kamal Republican
was in power at the time. One may read about the Dersim massacre here.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/23/2011
11:31 ||
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Hezbollah's leadership is considering the possibility of taking control of Beirut and effectively carrying out a military coup in Lebanon should the current Syrian regime fall, the al-Arabia network reported Tuesday.
According to the report, Hezbollah members have expressed concerns over the escalation of the civil uprising in Syria, which could lead to the fall of Bashar Assad's regime. The Syrian president is an ally of the Lebanese Shiite group.
Sources close to Hezbollah noted that it was due to those concerns that the Hezbollah leadership was examining various scenarios - including a "broad maneuver on the ground," similar to the takeover of Beirut in May 2008. However, the current plans apparently include a much more extensive maneuver which may expand to a military coup.
"As soon as Hezbollah will sense that the collapse of Assad's regime is imminent, armed cells will quickly begin operating to seize control of Beirut's eastern and western parts," one of the sources told al-Arabia. "This operation, which will be coordinated with Hezbollah's allies, including Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, will be carried out under the banner of 'protecting the resistance and its weapons inside Lebanon,'" he said.
Ever so much more important than actual Lebanese citizens.
According to the source, Hezbollah will explain that the takeover "as an act that is aimed at countering Lebanese forces plotting to suppress the resistance in cooperation with foreign elements - headed by Israel -- and take advantage of (Assad's downfall) to annihilate Hezbollah."
About a week and a half ago Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel and the US that a war against Iran and Syria would lead to an all-out regional conflict. "They should understand that a war on Iran and Syria will not remain in Iran and Syrian territory, but it will engulf the whole region and there is no escaping this reality," Nasrallah said during a televised speech honoring "Martyrs' Day."
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the military to prepare to "destroy" the command capability of the planned U.S. missile-defense system in Europe. In other words, first strike capability versus command and control facilities - meaning missiles, likely theater nukes.
Russia may also station strike missiles on its southern and western flanks, including Iskander rockets in the Kaliningrad exclave between Poland and Lithuania why does this Soviet artifact still exist?
both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union, Medvedev said on state television today. Depending on spineless Obama to not threaten to return in kind and put the equivalent of Pershing missiles there in response. Betting on a toothless and gutless response from NATO is probably a safe bet.
#2
Hey! As a space nut... if we lift the testban treaty then... WE COULD DO the original PROJECT ORION!
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/23/2011 11:21
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..why does this Soviet artifact still exist?
1. It was East Prussia*.
2. It has effectively been ethnically cleansed.
* Some historians view the 19th Century 'German Unification' more as the triumph of Prussian expansion begun under Fredrick the Great via militarism. Given two world wars, no one really has been too concerned about resurrecting the thing or issues about 'right of return'.
#4
I knew its history - just wondering why Poland and Lithuania didn't simply split the territory between themselves while the bear was disintegrating.
#6
The US could score points in this one by pointing out that these anti-missiles are to defend Europe against an aggressive missile attack by Iran, so does Russia now have a mutual defense pact with Iran?
Posted by: Aussie Mike ||
11/23/2011 14:35
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The threat of a Soviet first strike against Europe was a major threat to Europe until Reagan's Pershing missile installation rendered the first strike a moot point - the western USSR would have been annihilated within minutes of a Soviet hit on western Europe.
So is western Europe more concerned about an Iranian / jihadi missile strike than a strike from zombie Communists?
Two Republican Illinois politicians say Chicago-style politics are dominating the state and they have a solution.
State Reps. Bill Mitchell of Forsyth and Adam Brown of Decatur have proposed separating Cook County from Illinois and creating a 51st state. Never happen. They'll never give up the Springfield boodle... More important, they need the Downstaters to finance all the largesse Cook County has voted itself...
WAND-TV in Decatur reports the representatives held a presser Tuesday in Decatur to talk about their proposal.
Brown said Chicago is overshadowing the rest of the state. Mitchell says families in other parts of the state believe Chicago is "dictating its views."
They've proposed Cook County, which is the second most populous county in the U.S., to become one state and the other 101 counties in Illinois to become another.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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#1
Why not make it a Federal District, like Washington?
#3
That's actually something of a better idea. Make Cook county an "autonomous county" within Illinois, so it has "self rule", and is no longer part of Illinois politics.
They can offer them a deal. No more State taxes or regulations, in exchange for no more State money or control.
It would probably be a success as these things go, and could give several other states ideas.
#4
We already have a 'home rule' provision in the Illinois constitution. That's how Chicago and a couple other big cities get away with what they do.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2011 12:52
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Even better, because it just means modifying an existing situation to cut Cook county out of the loop. Basically saying that, "Since you rule yourself, rule yourself. Not us."
#6
I like the NW Pakistain approach. Making it a state gaurantees 2 more senators and at least 1 congressman for the Dems and they don't even have to pretend to be honest.
#9
Really no need to go that far. There are some other things that can be done to dilute the skewed impact of a large metro in a state:
1. Eliminate winner take all primaries and divide delegates according to their percentage of the vote in the state. That allows candidates favored by rural areas to collect some delegates and prevents the candidate favored by the primary metro from carrying the entire state.
2. Change the way presidential electoral votes are distributed. You get two electoral votes for the candidate that carries the statewide majority (corresponding to the two electoral votes representing the at large Senate seats held by a state) and one electoral vote per US House district carried by a candidate. That way rural districts can see electoral votes go to their candidate. I believe Pennsylvania was contemplating such a system, don't know if they enacted it. It would also make the electoral vote system more closely match the popular vote and make it much more difficult for a candidate to win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote.
President Barack Why can't I just eat my waffle? Obama was heckled today as he gave a speech in New Hampshire about the state of the U.S. economy.
Days after the First Lady faced a chorus of boos as she honoured U.S. troops in Florida, Mr Obama, trailed by Occupy Wall Street protesters, dashed into the politically important state for his speaking event at Central High School in Manchester. There, he stood face-to-face with those calling themselves 'the 99 per cent' fighting economic inequality.
But as he began, activists drowned out his remarks, chanting: 'Over 4,000 peaceful protesters have been incarcerated while "banksters" continue to destroy the American economy.'
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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#1
Remember what happened when Mao's Red Guard started to get out of hand?
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has said he will no longer permit capital punishment in Oregon, because he is deeply disturbed over two executions he authorized more than a decade ago. He now prefers that murderers be sentenced to prison for life.
Oregonians seem divided on the issue, in referendums twice outlawing capital punishment and twice supporting it. Voters most-recently legalized the death penalty on a 56-44 vote in 1984.
Prosecutors have long complained that convictions have been blocked for decades in long transit through the court system, yet efforts for reform and to expedite the process in the legislature have stalled.
The governor's decision now means that five states will no longer execute. The others are Illinois, New Mexico, New York and New Jersey, for various reasons.
#1
Executions will continue in the streets, homes and businesses without due process. Meanwhile the citizens of the state will also continue to lock their doors and windows at night, avoid certain parts of towns, and worry after the sun goes down about the safety of their children. Who really rules? Who really exercises the ultimate power? Who dares testify against thugs and gangs when they and not the state readily apply such power?
#2
The death penalty doesn't work because it takes too long to put them down that folks really do forget the victims. Politicians are notoriously wobbly and have too many opportunities to derail things.
I would suggest a prison for murders that has no cable, no visitation, no frills. More like the man in the iron mask than what we have these days. Then the prisoner will have lots of time to think about what they did without possibility of parole or escape or rape.
#3
In this particular case, there is a fairly easy solution used in other states: that the governor cannot involve himself unless asked to by the state board of pardons & paroles.
With some jiggering by the state legislature or a public referendum, this could include stripping the authority to intercede in any procedural way by the governor, so he could not just "halt executions", because of his personal neurosis.
#4
The death penalty doesn't work because it takes too long to put them down that folks really do forget the victims.
It just takes a different form. That's what vendetta is about [see Romeo and Juliet]. It happens in the hood and elsewhere today. Someone gets killed. No witnesses or informants. A couple days or months later, someone else gets the 'payback'. The common term is street justice. What the self worshiping ruling class can't grasp is that they are surrendering authority and legitimacy of the government to other agents to render to the people some form of justice they believe they can't get from the prince or state.
#5
there are currently 30 inmates sentenced to die in Oregon. Twenty-nine are housed at the Oregon State Penitentiary. One is housed at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla. All inmates sentenced to death have been convicted of Aggravated Murder. Oregon voters reinstated the death penalty in 1984. Since then, there have been two executions. Douglas Wright was executed by lethal injection on September 6, 1996. Harry Moore was executed by lethal injection on May 16, 1997. Before Wright, the last inmate to be executed was LeeRoy Sanford McGahuey in 1962, the method used being the gas chamber. Oregon uses only lethal injection for executions.
Wright was sentenced to death for luring three homeless men to a remote area of Wasco County with a false promise of work, and then killing them. Wright later admitted killing a fourth man, Anthony Nelson, a Makah Indian. Shortly Before his execution, Wright confessed to the abduction and murder of Portland, Oregon 10-year-old Luke Tredway, committed in 1984.
It is not like there is a question about the guilt or severity of the crimes.
Prison officials had been preparing for the Dec. 6 execution of Gary Haugen, who also had waived appeals. Haugen was serving a life sentence for fatally bludgeoning his former girlfriend's mother, Mary Archer, when he was sentenced to death for the 2003 killing of fellow inmate David Polin, who had 84 stab wounds and a crushed skull.
My questions are:
Is the governor upholding and carrying out the law?
Is there justice for the victims and there families?
#6
That being said, in past I have proposed that the way out of this and other federally created dilemmas would be a constitutional amendment establishing a Second Court of the United States, a jurisdictional, not constitutional, court, just subordinate to the SCOTUS, but superior to the federal district courts.
It would, in effect, take over the duties that the US senate abrogated with the 17th Amendment, and would have an organization much like the senate, with two state judges from each state, *appointed* (only) by each state legislature, in parallel terms with their senators.
Its function would be a "court of the states", to decide if any of the 8,000 cases appealed from the federal district courts to the SCOTUS every year (the great legal bottleneck), originally sent up on constitutional grounds by any of the 3,600 federal judges, should *not* be considered at federal jurisdiction, but returned to state jurisdiction, as *their* business to decide.
The sole original jurisdiction of the 2nd court would be to handle all lawsuits between the federal government and the states, giving the states first crack at deciding who was right, not the federal courts.
Importantly, while most business of the court would be by a random panel of non-involved states, which is how it is done in federal courts, if the majority of the full court found against either federal jurisdiction or in favor of the states against the federal government, while the decision could still be appealed to the SCOTUS, the SCOTUS would have to cite "exact text" from the constitution to overturn their decision.
This means no interpolation or extrapolation from the constitution, or judicial precedent, or "common practice" by the federal government would suffice. Unless it is written down in the actual text of the constitution, and clearly, the states win.
And if 2/3rds of the 2nd Court agreed, then the subject could not be appealed to the SCOTUS at all, thus establishing the 2nd Court as the equivalent of a much safer version of a permanent constitutional convention.
This would strongly swing the balance of power from the federal government back to the individual states for many years, and severely erode the size and power of the federal government, but in an orderly and methodical manner.
As far as the death penalty goes, this would be a means to tell federal judges with agendas to "butt out" of state death penalty cases unless there was a real and serious constitutional issue involved. No more nitpicking over minutiae, and no more dictating to states how judges personally and whimsically wanted the death penalty enforced or not.
#7
Tell the Govenor that he now has to walk through the Bad sections of the Capitol, alone,Unarmed, and at Night.
The new Governor May see things differently.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/23/2011 17:09
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Interesting idea, 'moose. But it adds another layer of complexity, and it's still too centralized for my taste. The 50 states were supposed to be laboratories in which each gets to try its own approach, and maybe change if they see another state is doing it better. Wouldn't simply repealing the 17th Amendment accomplish many of those goals?
#9
FTA: Oregon's constitution gives Kitzhaber authority to commute the sentences of all death row inmates, but he said he will not do so because the policy on capital punishment is a matter for voters to decide.
Main point I want to make is that Kitzhaber can instantly commute all current valid death sentences, but refuses to do so despite his moral qualms. His 'reasoning' makes no sense. He is trying to force a legislative change by leaving the affair hanging.
I agree that non-judicial executions will continue at street level. The electorate's trust in gov't looking out for their best interests is already fading fast.
#1
Would not surprise me if Obamacare referred to people as "units" who could be left to die if they didn't pass muster (being over 70 with traumatic brain injury or stroke) by the ethics panel. After all the bill had to be passed to read it. I doubt that it would have been read before being passed anyway. It was ramrodded through. If we are fortunate SCOTUS will shoot it down. Otherwise we are left with some kind of Nazi-like system where bureaucrats decide who lives and who dies.
No violence yet but protests against King Abdullah of Jordan are growing and getting more heated (although contained to a few towns at the present).
Jordan doesn't have the financial resources to buy off everyone; their SOP has been to buy off key tribal leaders, imans and so forth and keep a loyal security force in good working order. But the region is boiling with Islamism, arabism, palestinian nationalism and various other streams of anger.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/23/2011
08:14 ||
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#1
...and various other streams of anger.
Angry folks in the Middle East?
Been a daily regimen for thousands of years?
Who knew?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/23/2011 10:25
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But this time they're not raging against Israel/USA, MR.
#1
The blast occurred in an area that is under UN control. According to UN Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah is forbidden from storing arms in this region. A UNIFIL team is expected to launch an investigation into the explosion.
UN peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon told The Daily Star that they heard about the explosion on the news. "We have no information at the moment. We are checking this report," UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti was quoted as saying.
clueless and hostages
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/23/2011 7:37
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...These guys really need to start checking their tech data. :D
Popcorn, anyone?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/23/2011 9:30
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The leaders of UNIFIL command had no comment.
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili ||
11/23/2011 9:37
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neither has any info on the actual size of the blast or the exact location
both verify that neither the Lebanese Army nor the UN forces are being allowed to investigate the blast
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/23/2011 10:47
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#6
I would be a classic intelligence operation for Israel to sneak in a bit of compromised munitions.
In past it was done with modifying a chemical formula, say adding a little bit too much nitroglycerine to dynamite so that after a short time it starts to leak, the liquid nitro forming very unstable crystals.
But today, just add a bullet sized electronic timer set for six months to a year to liquid explosives, as they are poured into artillery rounds to harden. Things like that.
Then again, Hezbollah probably uses Soviet style munitions storage, which is not the greatest in the world.
#7
American blogger Richard Silverstein claimed Israel was behind the explosion. Quoting an Israeli official with "considerable military experience," the blogger wrote "IDF military intelligence (Aman) has out foxed Hezbollah by deliberately crash-landing a booby-trapped Trojan Horse drone in southern Lebanon.
"For over a year, Hezbollah has been attempting to discover how to jam the ground signals commanding the drone so as to disable them in flight. When it discovered the downed craft, its operatives mustve crowed that theyd finally discovered the key to success. This bit of hubris is how Aman drew Hezbollah into its net. Its soldiers dutifully collected the imagined intelligence trophy and brought it to a large weapons depot it controlled in the area. Once inside the arms cache, Aman detonated the drone causing a massive explosion," Silverstein claimed.
Then again, Hezbollah probably uses Soviet style munitions storage, which is not the greatest in the world.
That may be their doctrine. That may be their training.
How many of the grunts moving the stuff around have been through the training? Have read the documentation? Can read?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/23/2011 14:47
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How many of the grunts moving the stuff around have been through the training? Have read the documentation? Can read?
There is a Soviet era story, possibly apocryphal, of a Soviet Air Force base commander where Syrian/Egyptian pilots were trained. According to the story, every time he'd get drunk (that being Russia 2 - 3 times a week) he'd write a request for a transfer---to a base specializing in training dogs for border patrol.
[An Nahar] Turkish police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock more than 70 people in simultaneous raids around the country on Tuesday for suspected links to outlawed Kurdish rebels, media reports said.
Lawyers for placed in long-term storage Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan who are members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) were among those set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock, security sources from the southeastern province of Diyarbakir said.
Police conducted simultaneous operations in 16 different provinces including Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Ankara and Bursa, media reports said, while the private news channel NTV said more than 70 people had been set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock.
Police also raided the office of Ocalan's lawyers in Istanbul, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
The suspects are accused of having links with the KCK, which Turkey claims to be the urban wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a rebel group labeled a terrorist outfit by Ankara and much of the international community.
Since 2009, some 700 people have been set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock over their alleged links to the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union), according to government figures, although the BDP puts the figure at more than 3,500.
Five BDP parliamentarians and two prominent intellectuals -- publisher Ragip Zarakolu and academic Busra Ersanli -- are in jug on the same charges.
The PKK took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.
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[An Nahar] Police have jugged 15 people suspected of having ties to the al-Qaeda turban network in central Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.
The suspects were placed in long-term storage in simultaneous raids at several addresses in central Anatolian province of Konya, Anatolia said.
Turkish security forces have regularly targeted suspected al-Qaeda supporters since twin suicide kabooms hit Istanbul five days apart in November 2003.
A Turkish cell of al-Qaeda was held responsible for the attacks, in which explosive-laden trucks first targeted two synagogues, and then the British consulate and a British bank, killing a total of 63 people, including the British consul.
Seven men were tossed in the calaboose for life in 2007 over the bombings, among them a Syrian national who criminal masterminded and financed the attacks.
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#1
Turkey: If there's going to be a terror outfit operating on our turf, it's going to be Turkish, not Arab.
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/23/2011 6:49
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[An Nahar] The U.N.'s Yemen envoy said on Tuesday a Gulf sponsored power-transfer deal aimed at ending months of political deadlock has been approved both by the opposition and by President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... "All the parties have agreed to implement the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative," Jamal Benomar told news hounds in the capital Sanaa.
"We are now discussing the practical arrangements related to the actual signing ceremony," Benomar said, adding that there would be a news conference later on Tuesday when further details would be released.
The deputy leader of the ruling General People's Congress, Sultan al-Barakani, told Agence La Belle France Presse that discussions were still ongoing about the arrangements.
"The president wants a minister from a Gulf country to attend the signing ceremony in addition to (GCC Secretary General) Abdul Latif al-Zayani," Barakani said without specifying which country.
Final touches are being made to the implementation mechanism and the document of guarantees to the president and his entourage mentioned in the Gulf initiative which offers Saleh and his relatives immunity from prosecution if he hands over power to his deputy.
Barakani said that the signing is expected to take place "on Thursday or Friday."
Benomar, who arrived in Sanaa on November 10, has been working tirelessly to secure an agreement on the Gulf transition plan that calls for Saleh to transfer power over to his deputy, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, in return for immunity from prosecution.
Saleh's continued refusal to sign the initiative has triggered months of political deadlock that has left the government in a state of chaos and the economy in shambles.
The political crisis has also exacerbated tensions on the street where tens of thousands of anti-government protesters have faced a brutal 10-month government crackdown that has left hundreds dead and thousands maimed.
Benomar did not say when or where the signing ceremony would take place.
But a member of his delegation told AFP later on Tuesday that "talks are still ongoing and there will be no signing ceremony this evening."
On Monday, a senior opposition leader told AFP that Saleh had agreed to sign the power transfer deal and its U.N.-sponsored mechanism for implementation.
"The negotiations that have been under way for the past three days have led to an agreement by which the Gulf initiative and mechanisms for implementing it will be signed on Tuesday," Mohammed Bassandawa, who heads the National Council of revolutionary forces, has said.
The plan submitted by the six-nation GCC will effectively bring an end to Saleh's 33-year rule.
A GCC official told AFP on Monday in Riyadh that Zayani could travel to Sanaa if Yemen's political rivals were ready to seal the deal.
"The secretary general will go to Sanaa in the next two days if the Yemeni parties are ready to sign the Gulf initiative," the official said on condition of anonymity.
The plan also proposes the formation in Sanaa of a government of national unity and an end to the deadly protests rocking the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation since late January.
Saleh is required to submit his resignation to parliament within 30 days of the signing, to be followed two months later by a presidential election.
A Yemeni opposition official said on Monday that a second ceremony would be held in the Saudi capital where the GCC is headquartered.
The political turmoil in Yemen has seen powerful tribes and army dissidents join opposition parliamentarians and tens of thousands of protesters in their struggle to oust Saleh.
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[Dawn] A key UN General Assembly committee on Tuesday condemned the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on protests, stepping up international pressure on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa...
A resolution passed by 122 votes to 13 with 41 abstentions at the UN General Assembly's human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. committee. Syria's UN envoy accused the European backers of the resolution, Britannia, La Belle France and Germany, of "inciting civil war."
The resolution "strongly condemns the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities," highlighting the "arbitrary executions" and "persecution" of protesters and human rights defenders.
It joined international calls demanding a halt to the violence.
Russia and China last month vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Assad's crackdown since March, which the UN says has left more than 3,500 dead. The two abstained in the latest vote.
"The international community cannot remain silent," said Britannia's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant in a debate on the resolution in which he stressed the Syrian government's failure to carry out 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... peace plan.
La Belle France's envoy, Gerard Araud, said that UN condemnation was now "urgent".
"It is urgent because it is a situation that is deteriorating constantly,"Syria has "rejected" the vaporous Arab League plan and the number of victims is increasing, Araud told the meeting.
Arab nations Bahrain, Soddy Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Qatar were among more than 60 countries to co-sponsor the resolution which again called on the Syria government to halt the violence.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... Syria's UN envoy, Bashar Jaafari, accused the European nations of conducting a "political, diplomatic and media war".
He said Britannia, La Belle France and Germany were "part of the escalation of violence in my country" and were "propagating violent sedition" in Syria.
"How can you believe they are not interfering when they are inciting civil war?" said Jaafari, who was given support in speeches by Iranian, North Korean, Venezuelan and Cuban envoys.
"We will not let the former colonial powers interfere in our affairs again," he said, indicating the Assad government would not change its policies.
After Russia and China vetoed the Security Council resolution last month, insisting it would be used as an excuse to carry out regime change, Western powers insisted they would return to the UN's supreme body to get condemnation.
The Arab League move to suspend Syria and order sanctions has strengthened the case for action by the Security Council, according to western diplomats.
Egypt, where new unrest is rocking the country, supported the resolution.
Saudi ambassador Abdullah al Mouallimi stressed the Arab League efforts to end the violence but pointed the finger at the Assad government when he said "obstacles have been put in place which impede these goals".
He said the international community "must send a message to the Syrian people" with the resolution.
Russia and China abstained in the vote. But Russia defiantly opposes any condemnation in a formal resolution or any talk of sanctions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that outside support for Syria's opposition was creating more unrest throughout the region.
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[An Nahar] The opposition Syrian National Council said Tuesday it is organizing a conference with the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... to prepare for a "transitional period" after the fall of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Leveler of Latakia... regime.
Assad is under mounting pressure from Syria's neighbors to step down over his regime's eight-month crackdown on protests that the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... says has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.
"The Syrian National Council, in cooperation with the vaporous Arab League, will organize a national conference to prepare for the transitional period in Syria," it said in a statement received by AFP in Nicosia.
The SNC, the largest and most representative Syrian opposition grouping, said it was in talks with activists and dissidents to prepare for the transition "in accordance with the Arab League initiative."
"It was determined that the conference will issue a memorandum concerning the post-Syrian regime phase," it said, adding this would ensure "inclusivity and the participation of all political forces in Syria."
On Monday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged the Syrian opposition to unify to become stronger as he held his first meetings with their representatives in London.
La Belle France's foreign minister, Alain Juppe, issued a similar call last week, saying "the SNC must get organized" before it can win recognition from the French government.
The SNC has so far only been officially recognized by the new post-Qadaffy ...whose instability was an inspiration to dictators everywhere, but whose end couldn't possibly happen to them... Libyan authorities.
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For a map, click here. This article was previously published at www.borderlandbeat.com
By Chris Covert
Mexican security forces conducting Laguna Segura counternarcotics operations dismantled a sophisticated telecommunications network on Thursday in the Torreon, Coahuila metropolitan area, colloquially known as La Laguna.
The network used a long range radio, as well as networked laptop computers to communicate with aircraft and to control/monitor the movement of ground assets. Other equipment reportedly found included more than 120 separate telecommunications devices. The telecommunication center was operated by Los Zetas criminal drug gang, which used the data from the set up to monitor and evade security forces' movements.
The operation appeared to be similar to another one which took place earlier in September when Mexican Naval Infantry troops seized several telecommmunications nodes also operated by Los Zetas, this time in Veracruz, Veracruz on the east coast of Mexico. That network was reportedly sophisticated enough that the transmissions were virtually undetectable.
The Laguna Segura counternarcotics operation, which was reinforced late last October, is apparently a more general attempt to gain federal and state government control. This is hoped to be achieved through the increased presence of federal security personnel and by coordinating routine security activities with Coahuila and Durango state police agents, as well as with municipal police agents in the cities of Torreon, Coahuila; Ciudad Lerdo, Durango and Gomez Palacio, Durango. In areas such as these, there patrols with a centralized Mexican Army operations center.
These two operations dismantled a telecommunications network, which seems to be indicative of an increasing sophistication Mexican drug cartels are using in their drug processing and shipping operations.
The higher level at which cartels now operate places them firmly in the rubric of a narco-insurgency, at least if you ask California professor Dr. Robert J. Bunker.
Dr. Robert J. Bunker is a California national security academic whose recent writings place him as one of the top experts in the field as an applied theorist with regard to "non-state threat groups", "counter-threat strategies", "future war/conflict", and other advanced concepts concerning national security.
His most recent contribution to the growing national debate on border security and the threat Mexican drug cartels pose to the national security of the United States came last September 13 when he gave testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. His testimony was about the Merida Initiative, which is the US effort to provide support to Mexico's security apparatus in fighting the drug cartels in Mexico.
It is Professor Bunker's belief that the violence and much of the growing sophistication Mexican drug cartels have demonstrated in recent years show that the cartels are slowly evolving from organized crime to something more sinister and harder to deal with, than simple bands of thugs selling drugs to Americans.
His belief is bolstered by his contention that cartels are increasingly using warmaking means, such as telecommunications and the use of weapons heavier than small arms.
In an interview published in the Mexican leftist weekly Proceso, Dr. Bunker reiterated his contention that cartels are a growing insurgency problem within Mexico which directly threatens the US southern border.
This writer wanted to get Dr. Bunker's views on those very issues through an email correspondence.
What would you say to critics who say you are trying to conflate normal Mexican organized crime operations to an actual insurgency, that you are trying to make one set of circumstances fit another without any logical nexus?
To be candid, I think we have two levels of critics. One is comprised of those at the basic knowledge level-- internet trolls full of malice and readers with just enough knowledge to get themselves in trouble. I basically ignore that group-- I don't want to hear what a Maoist insurgency is and how the cartels do not fit its traditional patterns.
The second level of critics is composed of the informed public (with deeper knowledge of the topic), some military/law enforcement readers, and those from the policy and academic communities. The toughest critics come from the last group-- and in fact the debates have already started in the academic/policy circles. Dr. Paul Rexton Kan in the Summer 2011 issue of Parameters put Barry McCaffrey, Hal Brands, Hillary Clinton, Max Manwaring, and yours truly in his theoretical gun sights.
His basic argument is that 'high intensity crime' rather than narco-insurgency or narco-terrorism is taking place in Mexico.
I've already responded-- in a sense-- with another edited volume of Small Wars & Insurgencies/Routledge book coming out on 'Criminal Insurgencies in Mexico and the Americas'. John Sullivan and I have an important theoretical writeup on new forms of insurgency-- criminal and spiritual as they pertain to the gangs and cartels-- in that work.
However, I have recently decided, due to Kan's Parameters essay, that I'm going to have to do a comparative analysis of 'high intensity crime' vs 'criminal insurgencies' now as one response to the critics. To be fair to Dr. Kan, he is part of the El Centro program standing at Small Wars Journal in a few weeks-- we want his differing viewpoint included as we foster open scholarly debate on what is going on in Mexico.
This all might sound like splitting hairs but part of the solution-- or in this case mitigation of the threat-- is to accurately define it so that we can properly respond to it. We are back into that "is it crime or war" debate that has been going on for over a decade now.
The US Army underwent a similar debate with the emergence of OOTW (Operations Other Than War) back in the mid-1990s. Not to show my age, but I was actively involved in that debate too. Back then, the US Army thinkers just couldn't accept non-state groups were waging war-- only states were allowed to do that.
In one of your articles at Small Wars Journal, you write "The cartels then sought in the various towns and cities to suppress and co-opt information produced and distributed by journalists/reporters and their employers." That passage would lead the reader to think that that cartel information offensive was planned from the start. How do you convince a reader that is the case? And how significant is it that cartels have planned information operations from the start.
If the readers looked at background analytical documents, such as Lisa Campbell's operational assessment of Los Zetas-- specifically the operations and intelligence composition figures [See Narcos Over the Border, pp. 58-59] when they were allied to the Gulf Cartel-- they will see counterintelligence and deception (psychological warfare) organizational components identified.
The other cartels may have taken a more haphazard approach, though, as the La Familia and splinter Los Caballeros Templarios groups have proven adept at winning the 'hearts and minds' of indigenous populations in Michoacan via their own propaganda efforts.
The free press in Mexico has long been suppressed when reporting on the drug trade due to past PRI (and elite) complicity, profit taking, and collaboration with the initial cartels. Los Zetas, and later the Guatemalan Kaibiles, coming into this has made it even worse. They initially ushered in special operations planning into the decision making process for the Gulf Cartel-- info ops thus became a planning component. This required the other cartels to acquire their own capabilities just as we have seen with the 'arms race' that has been taking place with the deployment of cartel enforcers increasingly found to have military grade weaponry.
I think cartel info ops have evolved over time along with the Mexican cartels, which are about two-and-a-half decades old, they definitely did not have them day one with some sort of grand plan. Information operations is also a broad concept-- what is possibly even more significant is that different levels of these operations exist and the various Mexican cartels seem adept at different levels.
It could be argued that the Sinaloa cartel focuses on strategic level info ops issues while some of the other cartels do not. This was evident as early as the 1990s-- but very little has been written on it-- when car bombs were being directed against the Sinaloa cartel by the Arellano F"lix (Tijuana) cartel and the Sinaloa cartel did not retaliate in kind.
Blog del Narco has had technical problems with Google in the past that wound up being attributed to sloppiness by Google. If Blog del Narco's problems are not under that category, does their current travails suggest Los Zetas have some influence with unidentified individuals in Google?
I'm going to have to go with the sloppiness/too much network traffic explanation unless Google does not want Blog del Narco associated with it and therefore the technical service provided might not be considered a priority. Google is a business and the controversy generated by hosting Blog del Narco might represent a minor headache via the bad press it provides.
Blog del Narco also gets the service it pays for and has been doing things on the cheap. This is all only speculation however-- but Blog del Narco has since migrated to another web site now and mirrored sites are causing some confusion. I don't see Los Zetas having any influence on unidentified individuals or embedding 'agent provocateurs' at Google. Google has its own unique corporate culture that is pretty alien to outside groups-- especially Los Zetas.
Would it surprise you to learn that Blog del Narco has in the past been frequented by Mexican narcotraffickers? And that the identity of the bloggers are an open secret in one of the cities in Nuevo Leon?
Not your first statement. The site is open and anonymous media content (pictures/video links/text) is sent in all the time. No doubt the Mexican narcotraffickers are providing some of the content directly to the site to settle old scores, set up competitors and others who stand in their way, further their own agendas, and facilitate components of their info ops plans.
I'm sure many of the traffickers are also viewing the site to see how so and so was killed and to hear 'shop talk' about current incidents of interest.
The second statement did surprise me. If accurate, it would mean those bloggers are either protected or allied to one of the competing cartels. I have trouble with the cartels viewing the bloggers as benign and just leaving them alone in a city like that once they have been identified-- that would appear to be an anomaly. Part II to be continued tomorrow.
[Emirates 24/7] Saif Al Islam Qadaffy was betrayed to his captors by a Libyan nomad who says he was hired to help Muammar Qadaffy's ... the like of whose wardrobe will never be seen again. At least that's what we hope... son escape to neighbouring Niger on the promise that he would be paid one million euros.
Saif Al Islam, wanted for prosecution by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... , was captured at the weekend in what one official in the country's new government said was "the final chapter in Libya's drama."
With a black scarf wrapped around his head, Yussef Saleh Al Hotmani said that he contacted revolutionary fighters in Libya's south to inform them when Saif's two-car convoy would be passing through the area on the night of November 18.
"I made Saif believe that I trusted him," he said on Tuesday in Zintan, where Saif al-Islam is being held at a secret location before the details of his prosecution are finalised.
On the night of Saif al-Islam's capture, Hotmani said he was travelling with the younger Qadaffy's personal guard in the first car of their convoy.
"I had agreed with the fighters (who captured Saif al-Islam) that the best place for the ambush would be in a part of desert that was surrounded by high ground," he said.
Ten fighters from Zintan, in the Western mountains, and five from Hotmani's own tribe, al-Hotman, were waiting.
"When we arrived at the dark, deep hollow the gunfire was very precise, it only took about half a minute to capture the first car," he said, adding that he had intentionally told Saif al-Islam's convoy to have the vehicles spaced 3 km (2 miles) apart to give the fighters time to regroup and for Hotmani to join them.
"When the second car arrived, we started to shoot very precisely, to damage the vehicle so he could not escape."
Saif al-Islam, dressed in a long robe and a brown head scarf wrapped around his face, jumped out of the car, tried to run, but was captured, says Hotmani. "We treated him as a prisoner of war."
MUTINY OR CONSPIRACY?
It is unclear if Hotmani had planned to ensnare Saif al-Islam from the moment he linked up with the runaway's group in the Sahara desert, or if he defected when he had doubts about his payment and feared that he might be killed.
The Saharan nomad, who calls himself the "son of the desert", refused to give details on when or how he contacted the 15 fighters of the interim government who caught Saif al-Islam.
"I'm sure (Saif al-Islam and his guards) were planning to execute me when we reached the border. They had two handguns, two grenades, a knife and handcuffs. They were ready to execute me if they had any doubt," said Hotmani. He spoke with the new Libyan flag draped over his shoulder as a show of solidarity with the country's new rulers.
The fighters allied to the National Transitional Council (NTC) who caught Saif al-Islam refer to Hotmani as a "hero."
There was less than five thousand dollars found in the two-car convoy and Hotmani said he was not paid a penny of the one million euros promised to him.
"I didn't ask for an advance payment or anything," he said. "There was no money in the car. This proves that he wanted to execute me at the border."
SAIF AL-ISLAM WAS "IN DENIAL"
Proclaiming to know several languages and having run a small tourism agency, Hotmani said he was hired as a desert guide for the group that included Saif al-Islam.
"Saif didn't think I knew it was him. Nobody told me it was him," said Hotmani.
Why Saif al-Islam trusted the man who would eventually betray him is not clear but Hotmani said the younger Qadaffy, who had lost his father and three brothers in a revolutionary war that ended his family's rule, was in denial.
"Saif was dreaming of leaving Libya and then to eventually return," said Hotmani.
Those who were with Saif al-Islam in the hours after he was captured paint a picture of a solitary man, calm and controlled.
The commander of the fighters that conducted the ambush, Al-Ajami Ali al-Ateri, said that on the plane which transferred their prisoner to Zintan where he is being held, Saif al-Islam had asked if it had been the Hotmani that had tipped them off.
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[Al Ahram] Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari referred to a draft resolution on Syria which Germany submitted to the UN General Assembly's human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... committee, calling it a "declaration of war." The draft, which was crafted by Germany, Britannia and La Belle France, has five Arab states among its 61 co-sponsors.
"This was tabled in the context of declaring a political and media and diplomatic war on my country," Ja'afari told the committee, which is comprised of the 193 UN member states.
"It is a declaration of war that aims to affect the independence of our political decision-making and stop us from moving ahead in our national political agendas," he said.
Syria has promised the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... that it would halt military operations against civilians and implement political reforms. But UN officials say Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... has failed to keep any of his promises.
The draft resolution says the committee "strongly condemns the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities, such as arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and the persecution and killing of protesters and human rights defenders."
It also condemns "arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill treatment of detainees, including children" and demands an immediate end to all such violations.
If adopted as expected, the resolution would urge Syria to implement 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... plan that called for it to halt military operations against civilians and to allow foreign observers into the country.
The committee is scheduled to vote on the draft resolution on Tuesday. If approved, the resolution will go to the General Assembly for a repeat vote in a plenary session next month.
German Ambassador Peter Wittig urged the General Assembly's human rights committee to vote for the resolution.
"We hope that all [UN] member states will support this effort and send a strong signal to the Syrian Arab Republic that the ongoing human rights violations and violence must come to an end," he told the committee.
In an interview with Rooters, Ja'afari had sharp words for the five Arab co-sponsors of the resolution, whom he dismissed as "lackeys."
The Arab co-sponsors are Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar and Soddy Arabia. Syria's erstwhile ally Turkey, a predominantly Mohammedan country that has become increasingly critical of Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , is also co-sponsoring it.
"Since 1918, women can vote in Syria," he said, apparently comparing his country with Soddy Arabia. "We have a parliament. Women can be physicians. Women can drive a car."
He also accused Western powers of supplying the opposition with weapons and funds to attack government security forces.
The Arab League has threatened Syria with sanctions. If the league imposes sanctions on Damascus, Western diplomats on the UN Security Council have suggested that they would try to resurrect their efforts to impose UN sanctions on Syria.
Last month Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted resolution that would have condemned the crackdown, which has killed over 3,500 civilians since March according to UN figures, and threatened Syria with possible sanctions.
Western diplomats say European and US officials are encouraging Russia and China not to block council action on Syria, but so far Moscow has signaled that it could not support UN moves against Damascus out of fear that it would escalate into a Libya-style military operation aimed at ousting Assad.
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#1
Last month Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted resolution that would have condemned the crackdown
Just might have something to do with Russia and China selling weapons systems to Syria?
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Kenyan military commanders and African Union peacekeepers in Somalia on Tuesday met to discuss new strategies in the fight against Al-Shabaab. ... successor to the Islamic Courts... African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) front man Lt Col Paddy Ankunda told Daily Monitor that the meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia discussed the modalities of a joint operation between the Kenya Defence Forces and Amisom to rout the myrmidons.
The meeting, Lt Col Ankunda said, was a follow-up on last week's agreement by the leaders of Kenya, Uganda and Somalia to launch a joint onslaught against the myrmidons.
Presidents Kibaki, Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed (Somalia) met in Nairobi last week and agreed to join forces in the war against the myrmidons. (READ: Joint Africa force to hunt myrmidons)
It was not clear whether Amisom troops would team up with the Kenyan forces and Transitional Federal Government fighters to uproot Al-Shabaab from their bases in Southern Somalia.
Currently, Amisom troops are fighting Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu while Kenyan troops and Somali federal government fighters are concentrating on Southern Somalia.
Lt Col Ankunda said an offer by Kenya to send soldiers to Amisom would be considered. He warned that the faceless myrmidons had intensified attacks on Amisom positions in Mogadishu but said they would be defeated.
This comes is after Ugandan and Burundian Amisom troops killed 25 Al-Shabaab faceless myrmidons in fresh battles in Mogadishu on Sunday.
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[Dawn] Russia dismissed new U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's financial and energy sectors as "unacceptable" on Tuesday and said they would hurt the chances of renewing talks with Tehran over its nuclear programme.
A sharply worded Russian statement underscored Moscow's longstanding opposition to sanctions beyond those endorsed by the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... Security Council, where Russia holds veto power as a permanent member.
"We again underline that the Russian Federation considers such extraterritorial measures unacceptable and contradictory to international law," Foreign Ministry front man Alexander Lukashevich said in the statement.
It indicated that despite agreement last week on a U.N. nuclear agency board resolution that expressed increasing concern about Iran's nuclear programme, Russia differs sharply with the West on how to win Tehran's cooperation.
"Such practices ... seriously complicate efforts for constructive dialogue with Tehran," Lukashevich said.
The United States, which fears Tehran's nuclear programme is aimed at developing atomic weapons, named Iran on Monday as an area of "primary money laundering concern" in a step designed to dissuade non-U.S. banks from dealing with it.
It also blacklisted 11 entities suspected of aiding Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran says is meant for peaceful purposes including power generation, and expanded sanctions to target companies that aid its oil and petrochemical industries.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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#1
Nyet, nyet, a thousand times nyet (unless you agree to our Polish proposal)!!!
Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik on Tuesday urged China not to send North Korean defectors back to North Korea because of the treatment they face there when they are repatriated. Yu was meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Beijing.
Yu also asked for China's cooperation "so that defectors can reach South Korea as soon as possible at their own free will."
Yang merely replied China will handle the issue of North Korean defectors "in accordance with domestic law, international law, and humanitarian principles."
Diplo-speak for 'buzz off'...
China was recently reported to have cracked down on a growing influx of North Korean defectors, arresting about 20 defectors in Shenyang in September and allegedly being poised to repatriate 23 others, including three children, who were arrested in Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Dandong, and Kunming recently.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2011
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[Dawn] Two army officers and 47 cut-throats were killed in festivities in Orakzai and Kurram agencies on Monday.
Another 11 army personnel, two of them officers, and 38 cut-throats were maimed.
The festivities followed an attack on a security convoy in the Khadezai area.
According to sources, the convoy was attacked from two sides. Capt Adnan Khan and Capt Dr Faraz were killed in the attack and 11 security personnel, including Capt Mohsin and Capt Adnanullah, were maimed.
Other security officials injured in the attack are Naib Subedar Jalal Khan, Havaldar Dost Mohammad Khan, Lance Naik Mohammad Ghani, Havaldar Noor Afzal and Sepoys Ashraf, Ramazan, Juma Gul, Bakhtawar Gul and Bezar Khan.
The cut-throats used rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and other heavy weapons in the attack.
Security forces launched a counter-attack during which gunship helicopters shelled bully boys` positions. At least 26 cut-throats were killed and 13 others injured and four explosives-laden vehicles were destroyed.
The Khadezai area where the convoy was attacked is considered to be a stronghold of Taliban 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... The cut-throats also attacked checkposts in Arkhang and Zakhtun localities in the Dabori area of Orakzai`s upper tehsil.
The gunship helicopters attacked and destroyed four hideouts, killing 10 bully boys. Security forces also continued search operations in various areas to capture Taliban fighters. Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... Taliban front man Hafiz Saeed claimed that security forces had suffered heavy casualties in Khadezai area.
In central 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... , security forces attacked Taliban strongholds and killed 11 cut-throats and injured 25 others. Heavy artillery pounded Taliban hideouts in Masozai area, destroying five hideouts.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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[Dawn] At least 15 security personnel were killed and 15 others injured in an attack on a Frontier Corps convoy in Kangri area of Musa Khel district, some 350km northeast of the bustling provincial capital, on Monday.
Officials said an FC major and a non-commissioned officer were among the dead. Fourteen personnel was struck down in his prime and one in Loralai hospital. A front man for the FC 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... confirmed the ambush and the casualties. "Yes, we have lost our 14 personnel in the attack. Several soldiers were maimed, eight of them seriously," he said. Outlawed Baloch Liberation Army has grabbed credit for the attack.
Talking to journalists from an unspecified place, the organization`s front man Azad Baloch claimed that 40 security personnel had been killed in the ambush.
More troops were dispatched to launch an operation in the area after the incident.
According to sources, the convoy was going to Musa Khel to provide security to newly-found coal reserves in the area. The convoy, led by Major Amir Shahzad, came under the attack before dawn from mountains near Bahlol village in Kingri area.
"The assailants fired several rockets at the convoy. They also used heavy automatic weapons," the sources said, adding that some attackers were killed when security forces returned fire.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... there was no official confirmation about casualties on the cut-thoats` side.
The sources said that Islamic fascistihad also attacked an FC post and fired a number of rockets at checkpoints in Chamalang area on Sunday night. Security personnel retaliated, but no casualties were reported.
The FC front man said in a statement that security team had been sent to the area at the request of local people to protect a mining project in Bahlol village.
He condemned the attack and said the team was going to the area for a peaceful purpose and to protect the project which could play an important role in brining about economic prosperity in the area.
The statement warned what it called "the enemies of Balochistan peace and prosperity" that such attacks would not stop projects launched for development and prosperity of the province. AFP adds:
It was one of the deadliest attacks on Pak troops and marked the highest number of military dead in a single incident since March when friendly fire killed 13 soldiers on the northwestern border with Afghanistan.
The military said the troops were guarding a private coalmine and blamed the attack on Baloch rebels.
"Fourteen paramilitary personnel, including a major, were killed and several others maimed. Baloch Islamic fascistiwere involved," a military front man said.
Security officials said the rebels were armed with automatic weapons and that most of the soldiers died from gunshot wounds. They said Musa Khel, which is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns and borders the Baloch-dominated district of Kohlu, had seen several private coalmines closed because of tribal disputes.
Troops intervened to resolve those disputes. The coalmines were inaugurated by Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... in August and work began with the military providing protection, the officials said.
But Baloch separatist rebels oppose the military presence and there have been a string of attacks on troops in the area.
The scene of Monday`s attack is not far from Sui town, where two other soldiers were killed in a bombing on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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[Yemen Post] According to military sources in Abyan, a southern Yemeni province which has been under the yoke of al-Qaeda for nearly 7 months, has announced that 19 Islamist snuffies had been killed and several dozens injured in the latest government assault.
The army was attempting to free Zinjibar the regional capital from "Ansar al-Sharia", ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... an offshoot of al-Qaeda, by shelling their strongholds within the city. Residents also reported intense artillery campaigns, forcing civilians to barricade themselves at home.
"Artillery shells and Katyusha rockets hit the Islamic fascistigroup's positions in Bajdar neighborhood, killing at least 10 turbans, including an Algerian, an Egyptian, and two Somalis," an officer said under cover of anonymity.
Across the province additional scuffles erupted between pro-government rustics and al-Qaeda snuffies in Modiyah district, where a few days ago a Sheikh loyal to the regime was killed.
"In the retaliatory attack, the tribal fighters stormed a house of a local al-Qaeda leader in Modiyah, killing nine Islamic fascistiand injuring three others," said a primitive, adding that "the local al-Qaeda leader was captured by the rustics after the armed confrontations."
With still no political solution in sight for Yemen, al-Qaeda continues to use the power-vacuum extending its hand over southern Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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[Emirates 24/7] Egypt's ruling military on Tuesday discussed the possibility of appointing ex-UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee. to head a new government after the cabinet's resignation, a military source told AFP.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had invited the country's political forces to crisis talks in a bid to contain deadly festivities raging for the fourth day between police and protesters demanding democratic reforms.
The military source, who attended the talks, said discussions centred on the resignation of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet which was tendered on Sunday but has yet to be accepted.
The meeting also discussed the idea of forming a new government headed by ElBaradei or Abdelmoneim Abul Futuh, a presidential hopeful and former member of the powerful Moslem Brüderbund, the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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[Dawn] Nov 20 marked a resumption of sorts for the PML-N. The speech at the big rally nicely summed up the foursome task 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... has at hand.
He is fighting a corrupt government and against the corrupting influence of the agencies and is pitted against an emerging clean alternative. Sharif`s fourth battle is against himself, his own recent image. He has to re-establish the lost tone for his party and the people on the lam.
The rally was billed as a show of intent on his part, aimed at convincing the people that he does want to take the Zardari government to the cleaners. There was greater urgency, since, in the traditional pro-Sharif circles, the rise of Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... as a possible alternative is so often explained in the PML-N`s own inability to go after Zardari hammer and tongs.
At the meeting Nawaz Sharif reposed his trust in the two courts he is publicly seen to be relying on: one held by the judges in whose restoration he played a huge role, the other that of the people. He asked the Zardari government to order, and allow, an inquiry into `memogate` within two days and gave it another nine to clear its name.
This nine-plus-two-equals-good-riddance formula fulfilled but a formality. The people hardly need an investigation of a memo to reconfirm their views about a government from which they are seeking urgent relief.
Consequently, a believer in the process of justice and the law as he may be, for the best part of his Sunday address the PML-N leader had to make sure he appeared to be already convinced about the origins of the memo that has landed the Zardari-Gilani set-up in trouble. Sharif could not be expected to not exploit in true spirit a letter that had the potential of setting the security establishment and the elected government apart, besides compromising Pakistain`s illusory sovereignty.
The second-most important moment in his address was when he took great pains to explain that he was never in cohorts with this PPP government.
Discarded was the argument where Sharif would proudly boast of his restraint against the government in the name of democracy. Instead, he found it prudent to refresh public memory with a list of occurrences that distinguished him from the government: the long march for justice and the imposition of governor`s rule in Punjab.
Certainly now was not the time to claim credit for the reconciliatory exchanges between him and the Zardari camp over the last few years.
Three weeks earlier, the PML-N head was away as Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif fought the stern Imran Khan challenge to the Sharif monopoly over Punjab by himself. Now it was Shahbaz Sharif`s turn to be absent from the stage.
It was in the fitness of things that he did not attend the Faisalabad rally: it allowed Nawaz Sharif space to redeem himself in the public eye unhindered by a comparison with his more impatient, tough-talking and -- as one view suggests -- more farsighted younger brother.
The Punjab chief minister`s repeated angry utterances can be used as a guide to Sharif`s own defiance of the Shahbaz Sharif school within the PML-N that had been edging for a frontal assault on the Zardari-Gilani set-up.
Whatever the reasons behind the PML-N policies over the last few years, Khan used the breach between the chief minister`s express desires and his brother`s inaction to woo a large number of potential PML-N supporters in an onslaught on the Zardari camp.
It was only fair that it was Nawaz Sharif who spearheaded his party when new realities born out of his own policies were intermingling with old suppressed needs to make up a formidable challenge that the PML-N must overcome.
Less than a month after Khan was hailed as a coup leader in Lahore the feeling in the city is that the Sharifs still have the time and resources to recapture some lost ground. And surprisingly for the ever-groping progressive democrats who have rediscovered Nawaz Sharif on the basis of his recent pro-peace and anti-agencies remarks, it is the dirty work the politicians are liable to undertake in the realm of practical politics that could help the PML-N regain territory.
The PML-N`s current thinking is reflected in how it responds to whom. Khan is right that the PML-N has tried to answer him action for action -- just as it has been matching a lost and self-destructively rhetorical PPP word for word. In the latest phase the PML-N leadership has been found wooing back politicians who it had dropped from the list of loyalists after the great betrayal of October 1999.
The scepticism built on the hurt the Sharifs felt after being ditched by their own cadres and the arrogance derived from the estimates of their personal charisma and clout to see non-entities through an election are luxuries they can ill afford right now.
The proverbial khambas (novices) as Sharif`s polls candidates might not be sufficient the next time around. The PML-N needs to quickly resort to old tactics. It must build new alliances and repair the old ones to attract solid candidates. It is not that its friendly overtures are going unreciprocated. Some have already joined the party in Punjab, others may be preparing to do so as Khan`s principled PTI opens up to its own little compromise over men with the potential to win an electoral contest.
A typically straight-forward Imran pokes gentle fun at the Sharifs when he finds the veterans reacting to him in their equally typical, direct manner.
Khan`s problems start when he is found to be copying the Sharifs and the PPP and PML-Q in his inclusion in the PTI of people who may in time emerge as his election candidates. It is here that the fight between the worthless incumbents and their reformist challenger degenerates into a tussle between `equals`. To the benefit of the still very resourceful Nawaz Sharif and his party.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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#1
He is fighting a corrupt government
to impose his OWN corrupt government
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/23/2011 7:57
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#2
Nawaz Sharif was prime minister for much of the 1990s. His slogan was to make Pakistan an ideal Islamic welfare state (combining the tolerance of Islam with the efficiency of socialism). His family is wealthy and ran the steel industry for many years.
Possible campaign slogans:
Sharif: he's already stolen enough to run the country
Sharif: He might steal less than some other guy
Vote PML-N: Maybe they will bribe you too.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/23/2011 8:28
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[Dawn] Pakistain rowed back on Tuesday from demands that text messages containing nearly 1,700 "obscene" words should be blocked, following outrage from users and campaigners.
On November 14, the Pakistain Telecommunication Authority (PTA) distributed a list of 1,695 words in English and Urdu, the national language, to operators, giving them seven days to implement a filtering system.
But the list was met with uproar, both at the attempt to censor messages and the inclusion of many seemingly innocuous terms, among them "Jesus Christ", "lotion", "athlete's foot", "robber", "idiot", "four twenty" and "harder".
On Tuesday, PTA front man Mohammad Younis Khan told AFP the authority would consult civil society representatives and mobile phone operators on refining a much shorter list of words, giving no timeframe for any eventual ban.
"At the moment we are not blocking or filtering any word," Khan said. "No final decision has been taken in this regard," he added.
A PTA committee with representatives of civil society and mobile phone operators will decide on a "final list of objectionable words" which Khan conceded could be only around "a dozen".
"We have no plan to block any word until and unless it is approved by that committee and it will take time to reach that decision," he added.
A letter accompanying the list on November 14 said filtering was legal under the Pakistain Telecommunication Act of 1996 which prohibits people from transmitting messages that are "false, fabricated, indecent or obscene".
The PTA on Tuesday claimed that the November 14 list was merely "preliminary" and "advice" for operators to adopt a filtering system.
Mobile operators have already detailed their "concerns and reservations"and said they would seek further clarification from the PTA.
"Most of the words mentioned in the list are used legally," lawyer Syed Mohammad Tayyab told AFP.
"Like 420. It is a section of the Pakistain Penal Code," he said.
"The PTA policy is unjust and unfair on the face of it. It needs judicial review," said Tayyab, who is also a senior prosecutor in terrorism cases.
Campaign group Bytes for All had vowed to challenge the order in court, saying "a new, ruthless wave of moral policing" violated rights to free speech and privacy, and made a mockery of the entire country.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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The muslim community of Scunthorpe breathes a sigh of relief.
[Dawn] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday urged Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad to step down, branding him a coward and warning that he risked the same fate of dictators who met the bloody deaths.
In his fiercest criticism yet of his one-time ally, Erdogan also ridiculed Assad for pledging to fight to the death against domestic opponents while being unwilling to risk his life to retake the occupied Golan Heights from Israel.
"Quit power before more blood is shed, for the peace of your people, your region and your country," Erdogan told the Turkish parliament in Ankara.
After weeks of mounting criticism of the Syrian president, it was the first time the Turkish premier had directly called for his removal from power.
He is the second leader of a neighbouring country to do so, after Jordan's King Abdullah last week called on Assad to go.
"Bashir al-Assad is saying he will fight to the death.
Fighting your own people is not heroism but cowardice," Erdogan said, referring to a recent interview with Assad published by the Sunday Times in London.
"If you want to see someone who fought and died, take at look at Nazi Germany, take a look at Hitler, take a look at Mussolini and Romania's Ceausescu," he said.
Adolf Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days as a politician somebody doesn't like... died in his bunker as Allied forces closed in on Berlin, wartime Italian leader Benito Mussolini ...former dictator of Italia. He perfected the idea of the corporate state and was all the vogue in intellectual circles until he lined up with Adolf in the Second World War. He wanted Italians to be figli de la lupa, and like the sons of wolves they turned on him when they finally got the chance. He ended his days dangling by his heels in a public square next to his mistress... was strung up from a lamppost by an angry mob and Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu ...late Communist dictator of Romania, where he was executed by a firing squad organized by his indignant subjects. While he was alive Old Nick was the subject of periodic mandatory adoring rallies and was respected in Washington because he wasn't Like All the Other Commies... was executed by firing squad on Christmas Day in 1989.
If the Syrian leader had failed to learn lessons from the history, Erdogan invited him to consider the more recent fate of Libya's late strongman Moammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... who was executed by his opponents after being chased from power.
Erdogan also asked Assad why he failed to display the same fighting spirit to win back the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau which Israel captured from Syria during a war in 1967.
The Jewish state unilaterally annexed the Golan in 1981.
"You are talking about fighting to the death. Why didn't you fight to the death for the Golan Heights occupied by Israel?" Erdogan said.
Erdogan insisted that Turkey had no intention of interfering in Syria's domestic affairs but added "we cannot remain indifferent" to what happens in a neighbouring country with which Turkey shares a 910-kilometre border.
Turkey has become increasingly vocal in its criticism of Assad after its diplomatic missions came under attack by pro-government demonstrators in several Syrian cities earlier this month.
Tensions deteriorated further on Monday when two busloads of Turkish pilgrims who were in Syria on their way back from the hajj in Mecca were attacked by the Syrian gunnies.
In his first official remarks confirming the attack, Erdogan said: "The Syrian administration did not prevent the attack on buses carrying pilgrims," accusing Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... of failing to protect its citizens.
"Protecting the citizens of a foreign country is a matter of honour for a country," said Erdogan.
He called on the Syrian leadership to find the perpetrators of the attacks on Turkish diplomatic missions as well as the pilgrims and "deliver them to justice at once."
Turkey last week announced a halt to joint oil exploration and threatened to cut electricity exports.
It also joined the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... at a meeting in Morocco in calling on the Assad regime "to stop the bloodshed and to spare Syrian citizens from new acts of violence and killing".
In an interview with The Guardian published on Tuesday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who is on an official visit to Britannia, said Assad had reached a "dead end."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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#1
It's just me, but aren't those fighting words? I mean, rational democratically-elected heads of state generally don't directly, negatively compare their neighboring heads of state - however despotic or illegitimate - to murdered genocides and tyrants without being in an actual or de-facto state of war with said neighbor.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/23/2011 9:31
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[An Nahar] Tunisia entered a new era on Tuesday with the inaugural session of its first-ever democratically elected constituent assembly, 10 months after a popular uprising ended years of autocracy.
The 217-member assembly, the first elected body of the Arab Spring, was expected to confirm a deal whereby the Islamist Ennahda party and two other parties split the country's top three jobs between themselves.
The politicians, who will be tasked with drafting a new constitution and paving the way to fresh elections, sang the national anthem as the session got under way in the Bardo palace on the outskirts of Tunis.
"I give thanks to God, to all those martyred and maimed and those who fought so we could witness this historic day," Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi told Agence La Belle France Presse after the opening.
After longtime ruler Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's ouster in January and internationally acclaimed polls on October 23, the inauguration marked yet another landmark in the Arab Spring trailblazers' democratic revolution.
"This event is like a second independence for Tunisia," said Ahmed Mestiri, an iconic figure in the struggle for Tunisia's 1956 independence from La Belle France.
The Bardo palace was where the ousted regime's parliament would sit and also where the 1881 treaty that paved the way for the French protectorate.
"This place was all lies and pretense, now it becomes a real chamber representing the people. I am overcome with awe," Moncef Marzouki, Tunisia's president in waiting, told AFP.
Radiating with pride, the deputies embraced one another, chatted and laughed under the gilded cupola and glittering crystal chandelier of their new home.
Several hundred demonstrators, including relatives of some of the protesters killed in the uprising, nevertheless greeted the newly elected politicians at the Bardo palace with a warning.
"We're watching you," read some of the banners.
"We're here to remind the politicians of the demands of the Tunisian revolution -- dignity and freedom -- and to tell them the Tunisian people have not handed them a blank cheque," said Rafik Boudjaria of the Civic Front for Democracy and Tunisia.
Despite Ennahda's assurances, some Tunisians have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... that an Islamist-dominated Tunisia could roll back hard-earned rights such as the Code of Personal Status, seen notably as one of the Arab world's most progressive sets of laws on women.
"Tunisia wants to hold up a model to society in which Islam is not a synonym of terrorism, fanaticism, extremism or hostility to democracy," Ghannouchi said Sunday during a visit to Algiers.
On Monday, Tunisia's three main political parties formalized a power-sharing agreement hammered out in the aftermath of last month's polls.
Ennahda's Hamadi Jebali is to take the post of prime minister and the Congress for the Republic (CPR) party's Moncef Marzouki will become president.
The Ettakatol party's Mustapha Ben Jaafar had been offered the chair of the new assembly and deputies confirmed him in a vote on Tuesday.
A popular uprising that started in December 2010 over unemployment and the soaring cost of living ousted Ben Ali, who had been in power 23 years and was thought to be one of the world's most entrenched autocrats.
The revolt touched off a wave of pro-democracy protests across the region and Tunisians anchored their revolution last month with a historic election for a constituent assembly.
Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party inspired by the Moslem Brüderbund, holds 89 seats while the CPR and Ettakatol control 29 and 20 seats, respectively.
The chamber's freshly elected members are also expected to pick two deputy chairs and adopt a set of internal rules based on a document drafted by the now-dissolved body in charge of political reform after Ben Ali's ouster.
Challenging the bloc formed by the three main parties, the Progressive Democratic Party and the Democratic Modernist Pole, which have 16 and five seats, respectively, will be main opposition forces.
A question mark still hangs however over the Popular Petition, a previously unknown group lead by a London-based millionaire which came out of the woodwork to clinch 26 seats, making it the assembly's third largest party.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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[Dawn] An anti-terrorism court here on Monday indicted the imprisoned chief of proscribed Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM), ...Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law) is a Pak krazed killer group whose objective is to enforce their definition of Sharia law in Pakistain whether anybody wants it or not. It was founded by Sufi Muhammad in 1992, and was banned by President Musharraf in January, 2002 after Sufi dispatched several thousand yokels to Afghanistan to fight the infidel and ended up with most of them killed or captured and held for ransom. In 2007 TNSM took over Swat, which shows how well the banning worked. TNSM is the Pony League of Islamic militancy.. Maulana Sufi Mohammad, and several others for the murder of an MPA of Pakistain People`s Party in 1994.Maulana Sufi Mohammad and other accused persons pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to the offence and decided to stand trial following which the court fixed Dec 12 for the next hearing and also summoned the prosecution witnesses.
Due to security concerns the judge of anti-terrorism court, Swat, Asim Imam, has been conducting proceedings against Maulana Sufi Mohammad and others inside the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar Central Prison in several cases mostly pertaining to 1994-95.
The MPA, Badiuzzaman Khan, hailing from Shangla, was killed on Nov 3, 1994, in the jurisdiction of Mingora cop shoppe. The dear departed was going to Buner to attend a party meeting when TNSM members allegedly stopped him near Odigram in Mingora and asked him to remove the party flag from his vehicle. At that time the activists of TNSM had occupied several government installations in Swat.
He allegedly refused to follow their directives and was taken to Abasin Hotel in Mingora. Negotiations were in progress at the hotel when a person fired at the MPA which resulted in his death.
Interestingly, Maulana Sufi had mostly remained behind bars during the last decade but the successive governments did not try him in several cases.
Initially, he was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock in 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... in Dec 2001 on his returning back to Pakistain from Afghanistan where he had gone to fight the American forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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#1
A little clarity. Sufi Muhammad and company are Wahabi and Deobandi types, not of the Sufi sect.
"According to The Times, about 900 of Britain's nearly 1,500 mosques are run by Deobandi affiliated scholars, and 19 of the country's 25 Islamic seminaries follow Sunni Deobandi teachings, producing 80% of all domestically trained Ulema.
"The majority of mosques are Sunni Deobandi; in 2010, the affiliation of the mosques was, 65% Deobandi, 20% Barelvi, 6% Salafi, 4% Shi'a, and 3% Maudoodi-inspired. The majority of mosque managers are of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin."
[An Nahar] Syrian security forces cracking down on dissent killed 13 people on Tuesday, including five boys in the flashpoint central province of Homs, a rights group said.
Four boys -- aged 10, 11, 13 and 15 -- were "indiscriminately" bumped off by forces manning a checkpoint in the Hula area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received by Agence La Belle France Presse.
Their deaths were also reported by the Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists that organizes anti-regime protests, which listed their names.
A fifth boy, aged six, was killed by security force gunfire in Homs city, along with three other people, including a mentally ill man who was shot in the restive al-Khalidiyeh neighborhood, the Britannia-based Observatory said.
A man was also shot by security forces in the Homs town of Talbisseh, and a deserter was killed in the town of Qusayr in the province when regular forces opened fire on him, the watchdog said.
Three brothers were killed in Idlib, near the Turkish border, when security forces fired on their car, the group said, quoting an activist in the northwestern city.
At least five people were maimed when security forces opened fire in the Qusour neighborhood of Homs on Tuesday, and 23 were incarcerated in raids in other parts of the city, the Observatory said.
In Maaret Numan, north of Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , seven people were incarcerated and two maimed by gunfire when security forces crushed an anti-regime protest.
Three other protesters were maimed in the town of Jassem, south of the capital, when Syrian forces opened fire on a demonstration by parents protesting against the arrests of eight pupils and three teachers.
The latest bloodletting comes as the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... , which has suspended Syria from the 22-member bloc, is due to hold on Thursday a new round of crisis talks aimed at ending the violence amid threats it will impose sanctions on Damascus.
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11/23/2011
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Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Kelly Brook aka Herself in "Kelly Brook's Cameltoe Shows" aka Danni in "Piranha" aka Lyle's Girlfriend in "The Italian Job" aka Sarah in "Sorted" aka Marisa Tavares in "Ripper" aka Fiona Plum in "The (Mis)Adventures of Fiona Plum (TV 2001)" aka Dr. Claire Whittaker in "Absolon" aka Sophia Rosselini in "School for Seduction" aka Lea in "House of 9" aka Jennifer in "Survival Island" aka Neried in "Fishtales" aka Kirby in "Removal" (age 32)
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi Army force has discovered on Tuesday a plant for booby-trapping vehicles and manufacturing of explosive charges east of Mosul, the center of northern Iraq's Ninewa Province, an Iraqi Army source reported.
"Ninewa's 2nd Army Division's Operations Command has discovered early on Tuesday, a plant for booby-trapping vehicles in east Mosul's Kokijly district," the Army source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the same force had also discovered (another plant manufacturing explosives and sticking exposives," he told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, giving no further details.
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For a map, click here. This article was previously published at www.borderlandbeat.com To read Part I of the interview with Dr. Robert J. Bunker, click here
You mentioned in your SWJ Strategic Assessment #5 about the current violence visited on Mexican bloggers in Nuevo Lardo, which is completely under the control of Los Zetas' Z40, Michael Trevino. Why would this organization go to such lengths to kill free press in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, when the press in Juarez is actually vigorous and critical in that environment?
If we can agree that Nuevo Laredo is a Los Zetas controlled (criminal) city, it would make sense for them to ensure that the press is not free but instead becomes an attribute of cartel political authority. The press would print the stories they wanted printed and leave out the stories that should not be printed-- if an event or incident is not reported on as far as the outside world and then as far as most of the city itself is concerned it effectively never took place.
Similarly, events and incidents that never took place can be made to take place if reported on. Having the ability to manipulate the free press represents another attribute of power like having lots of money, gunmen, and corrupt officials in your back pocket.
Juarez is a contested city-- between warring cartel and gang factions and democratic governance-- the federal government is actively trying to turn it around. Thus the press in Juarez has not been turned or co-opted and coerced by the authority of any one cartel. The implications of course are horrid things could be taking place in a fully cartel controlled city-- like femicide for sport and pleasure-- and the rest of the world would have no idea such atrocities are taking place.
How likely in your estimation is it that the vigilante organization Matazetas is in fact supported and funded by the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels, as are a number of smaller subgroups currently operating in Jalisco and Zacatecas states?
I put it at a high certainty that the 'Zeta killers' paramilitary death squads are tied into the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels. They could be led by their operatives, composed of apolitical mercenary groups (contract killers), and/or also could include the involvement of big business and other elite interests. It reminds me, on one level, of the old death squads in Colombia targeting Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel-- they were called Los Pepes (an acronym in English for 'people persecuted by Pablo Escobar').
The question that keeps getting kicked around, without resolution, is does any Mexican government linkages to these groups exist. Currently, to my knowledge none have been shown conclusively to exist. Many have said the cartel wars in Mexico are coming down to two major blocs-- Los Zetas vs Sinaloa-- so the emergence of the Matazetas is probably not that surprising.
We should wonder at what point some sort of 'Matasinaloa' group might arise in Culiacan-- but then, when the Zetas stood up for the Gulf Cartel they were initially pretty much deployed as paramilitary death squads. So maybe, in this case, what goes around comes around in the conflicts taking place between the warring cartels.
I have read Mexican news reports that that Sinaloa cartel has moved the bulk of its growing and processing facilities to South America; that much of their drug growing and processing operations in the western half of Mexico, what is left, are being farmed out to smaller independent groups.
I have not seen these reports. Also without fully researching this question I'm not sure what to think of them. We are getting into specific drug commodities-- marijuana, heroin (black tar), and cocaine-- being grown, processed, transported, and distributed (whole sale and retail) by a specific cartel with this line of inquiry.
Shooting from the hip I can't see marijuana farming being relocated to South America for starter so maybe that is the smaller independent group involvement mentioned.
The cocaine is already coming from South America and is being processed down there, and in some instances, in Central America.
The heroin would also be problematic though I don't know the growing potential of heroin poppies in regions of South America.
We do know that the Mexican cartels are distributing high profit drugs-- like cocaine-- into Europe via West Africa. So, a Sinaloa cartel presence already exists down in that region to logistically support European market sales.
Methamphetamine, manufactured rather than grown, also has to be considered now that the Sinaloa cartel has moved into the market once dominated by La Familia. It's far better to manufacture in Sinaloan areas of control in Mexico, but since doses in bulk don't take up huge space, establishing manufacturing capabilities in safe havens in Central and South America is at least plausible.
In your interview with Proceso, you said that shifting strategic priorities will eventually lead the US to consider direct military action in Mexico against the cartels. Do you see the cartels as having an actual political end game such as control of Mexico as a narco state? Would a fractured state with weak control and lack of political authority provide preferable operating conditions for the cartels?
Nowhere in the Proceso interview did I state that "shifting strategic priorities will eventually lead the US to consider direct military action in Mexico against the cartels." Possibility this interpretation was due to problems in the English to Spanish translation of the interview printed at Proceso but the actual English response found at Small Wars Journal (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexican-cartel-strategic-note-no-7) was far more nuanced. We can make the Mexican cartels a 'strategic priority' without direct military action-- this is not an all or nothing deal regarding US boots on the ground and targeted killing of insurgents like in Afghanistan.
Rather, we should support the Mexican governmental effort indirectly and via operational support (intelligence, targeting, campaign planning, et al.) and other aid.
Quite frankly, given increasing US debt and declining military budgets, we need to do things on the cheap (relatively) and smarter than we have done so in the past. As far as a cartel political end game, a lot of what has happened has been de facto political control taking place-- the criminal insurgencies evolved over time down this path. The cartels would, and do flourish when governmental political control is weak and the locals are co-opted and coerced (that old silver and lead deal) into accepting cartel authority. For a cartel to basically control a city or town would provide them with total 'impunity' and allow them to do what they wanted.
In some areas in the northern Mexican sierras, cartels have virtual control and where they do have control they act like feudal lords. Would that be a template for cartel governance nationally? Would that not be a return to the days before the 1910 revolution?
Acting like a feudal lord, is, well vulgar and blatant. Now you can get away with such activities in smaller villages and towns-- everyone is cowered into submission and those who are left probably work for the cartel anyway or profit indirectly via a relative or family member. Also no press exists and the police force have either quit en masse or are really cartel enforcers just wearing local police uniforms.
Larger cities are trickier, although doable, but the cartel leadership (plaza boss) would be more of a shadowy figure. On the other hand, if they can wear the dual hats of governmental authority (like a local Army commander) and local cartel leader, it probably does not get better than that.
Seems like this was more of the old PRI model, prior to the rise of the PAN political victories, and back in the days when the Federal government and the cartels collaborated with each other to allow for mutual profiting and the suppression of drug related violence.
The old rules and alliances are long gone and thus quite a few different futures may now come about in Mexico. Cartel political authority looks differently-- like a patchwork quilt-- wherever it takes root. Conceivably, some of these 'areas of impunity' will be a return back to the pre-1910 era-- we could even see (and have seen to a limited extent already) instances of slavery, the disenfranchisement of women, and human sacrifice taking place.
You would agree that direct US military action against cartels would be a game changer. One of the possible reactions of cartel would be direct violent actions against minor officials in the US, do you agree? How about civil war or even revolution?
That would be a game changer and would not take place except in a situation where Mexico literally imploded. Mexico is nowhere near state-failure and actually does quite well on the various state indexes. Instead, what is happening is that it is losing control over parts of its sovereign territories--towns, cities, and regions-- which are de facto under criminal (cartel/gang) political authority.
The city might have Mexican flags everywhere, post offices and other elements of state power, but it is a fa�ade--the criminals are calling the shots in those areas. This is like cancerous tumors with their roots embedded into a healthy host-- at some point the two blend together. We are seeing this with the blurring of what is legitimate and what is illegitimate in the 'areas of impunity' in Mexico.
By definition, the usage of the term 'criminal insurgency' implies that civil war and revolution-- of a politicized criminal kind-- is taking place. If US military assets directly targeted cartel assets-- to destroy and kill them-- the inhibition of the cartels to strike back against the US (including minor officials) would likely be removed. Thus, the US does not want to engage in direct military action against the cartels-- nor do the cartels want such engagement or, for that matter, does the Mexican state.
In your opinion, what would be the one thing the US government could do that could bring the violence down in Mexico, especially in northern Mexico?
Legalize drugs-- but that is not going to happen for a whole host of reasons (nor did I say I advocated it!)-- and, in the case of Los Zetas and some of the other cartel and gang groups, that act still would not take care of the overall threat.
Many of the drug cartels have morphed into polyglot criminal organizations involved in human trafficking and slavery, kidnapping, extortion, street taxation, bulk commodities theft (including petroleum), counterfeiting, and pornography and prostitution.
The basic issue now goes way beyond 'the war on drugs' and gets us into a situation where Mexico is fighting armed organizations with multiple illicit revenue streams. These revenue streams are growing in proportion to the initial drug revenue streams, mind you.
Street taxation is a critical concern because, in many cases, the cartels not the state get this revenue source and taxation itself is a state function. In that case, one extra peso to the cartels is one less peso to the Mexican government-- that is a very bad (zero sum) situation. I'm not sure also if our sole objective is to get the violence down in Mexico.
Would we rather have a cartel controlled criminal (narco) city with a low death rate or a contested city (part Mexican government controlled and part narco controlled) with a high death rate? The common man or women in the street might go with the low death rate but the tradeoff is the loss of sovereign Mexican lands to these armed criminal groups.
Getting back to your question, I don't think the US government can do any one thing to bring the violence down in Mexico nor should it. A war is taking place in Mexico between the state and violent armed organizations, although very few people want to admit it, and, historically, lots of people die in wars. The US role should be to support the Mexican government, and its people, against these violent armed organizations who represent competitors that threaten the very integrity of the state.
[Dawn] WHAT has Afghanistan`s recently concluded loya jirga really achieved? By bringing together over 2,000 delegates who agreed the American military should maintain some presence in the country for 10 years beyond the transfer of authority to Afghan forces in 2014, President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... appears to have convened it to demonstrate political backing for this position. At the same time, he attempted to bolster his nationalist credentials with rhetoric about Afghan illusory sovereignty and the inclusion of preconditions, including an end to American night raids, an end to immunity for Americans committing crimes in Afghanistan and complete Afghan control over detainees. But objections from within Afghanistan raise questions about the legitimacy and practicality of the jirga`s conclusions, and it remains unclear whether the gathering will in fact strengthen Mr Karzai`s hand in negotiations with the Americans. Unsurprisingly, the Taliban have rejected the jirga as an extension of foreign occupation. On Sunday, hundreds of students protested in Jalalabad against what they saw as kowtowing to the Americans. Political rivals had claimed that most of the attendees were handpicked by Mr Karzai and many opposition politicians opted not to join. Their cynicism is only bolstered by the fact that the jirga sidestepped an ongoing session of the Afghan parliament.
The fact does remain that without continued outside support, including funding and training, Afghan cops seem woefully inadequate to take over from the US in 2014. At the same time, Afghans resent some of the behaviour of US troops in the country. And any long-term American presence, including military bases, should be used to help ensure Afghanistan`s stability and prevent the strengthening of terror networks rather than to keep a foothold in the region for reasons having to do with Afghanistan`s neighbours. Any long-term US presence negotiated without taking into account the views of these neighbours and the Afghan opposition has the potential to prevent a unified national and regional effort to ensure stability in Afghanistan. Mr Karzai`s jirga may have achieved some degree of political support for a long-term US presence, but the usefulness of that support remains questionable.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Gunmen kidnapped two foreigners, including a Frenchwoman, and their Yemeni driver from a Red Thingy vehicle in the southern province of Lahij on Tuesday, government and security officials said.
"A French woman of Moroccan origin was kidnapped along with another foreigner and their Yemeni driver in the town of Msaimeer," around 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Huta, the capital of Lahij, a security official said.
The pair were in a Red Thingy vehicle when they were seized, a government official said.
The security official, speaking from Msaimeer, described the abductors as "an armed gang wanted by the authorities."
"The kidnappers want to press for the release one of their men, held by Yemeni authorities on criminal charges," the official said.
Yemeni tribes often kidnap foreigners to try to put pressure on the authorities. More than 200 foreigners have been seized during the past 15 years, with most later freed unharmed.
And the rest killed. But really, that's such a minor detail, except to the dead people and those who loved them.
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11/23/2011
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20:00 Tahrir Square responds to Field Marshal Tantawi's address to the nation with booming chants of "The people demand the removal of the field marshal" and "Down, down with military rule."
19:46 The field marshal comes on state TV to deliver his much-anticipated address. Here is a breakdown of what Egypt's ruler has to say in response to four days of protests despite the Ministry of Interior's continued deadly crackdown on Egyptians:
1. Tribute to the deaders of January 25 Revolution.
2. Egyptian Army protects the will of the Egyptian people.
3. The Army has been patient in dealing with multiple attempts to smear its reputation and patriotism over the last few months.
4. The Army has not shot one bullet at an Egyptian citizen
5. The Army will never stand in opposition to the Egyptian people.
6. The Army's main goal since February has been to bring back a sense of security to the Egyptian street.
7. The Army tried to stand behind the police force, which protects the Egypt people.
8. The Army and the goverment have been steadfast in protecting the national interests and what's best for the country under very harsh conditions.
9. The Army continuosly consulted with all political forces in the country and never made any unilateral decisions during this transistional period.
10. The Army attempted to facilitate the birth of a new democratic age in the history of Egypt.
11. The SCAF never wavered in its support of holding parliamentary elections and handing power to a civilian administration.
12. We stopped referring civilians to military trials based on the wishes of our people.
13. Some continued to doubt the honest intentions of the SCAF. Many continued to instigate divisions between the Army and the people.
14. We are not interested in holding a monopoly over power in Egypt.
15. We are committed to defending the national interests of this nation.
16. We have accepted the resignation of Essam Sharaf's government and I have directed the outgoing Cabinet to continue fulfilling their obligations until a new cabinet is formed.
17. We reiterate our commitment to holding parliamentary and presidential elections no later than June 2012. We will hand over power to a civilan administration, should the people so wish it.
19:05 Thousands of protesters have gathered in front of Alexandria's Northern District military command to march towards the Alexandria police directorate.
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11/23/2011
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...And then his lips fell off.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/23/2011 9:25
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[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. on Tuesday said dialogues have already been offered to the Pak Taliban but these cannot happen unless the beturbanned goons throw away their arms and give up terrorism.
"There is nothing formal regarding talks with the Taliban. The Taliban usually send messages to us and I also sometimes convey them a message so that peace could prevail. But it is clear that if the Taliban want to shake hands with us they would have to get rid of their arms," he said.
The minister was responding to questions raised after inaugurating a ceremony where 50 new Mobile Registration Vans (MRVs) were added in the fleet of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to facilitate the population settled in remote areas.
"Few days back we received a message from the Taliban for talks and yes we also offered them. We are happy they have realised that killing innocent people is wrong and the only way forward is the path of peace," he said.
The minister said he could not say much on the issue and added that all the stakeholders would sit together to find an amicable solution.
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[Dawn] The Pak Taliban has declared a cease-fire to encourage nascent peace talks with the government, a senior commanders said, a move that appears to show the deadly group's willingness to strike a deal with state.
The commander said the cease-fire has been in effect for the past month and was valid throughout the country.
"We are not attacking the Pakistain army and government installations because of the grinding of the peace processor," he said late Monday. The commander is close to Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not the official front man of the myrmidon network.
His statement adds credence to recent announcements by anonymous Taliban and intelligence officials that government intermediaries recently met Taliban capos to talk about a possible peace deal.
The government has not officially commented, and on Tuesday the Mighty Pak Army denied it was involved in any talks.
The Pakistain Taliban, an umbrella grouping of Islamic fascistiallied with al-Qaeda and based in the northwest close to the Afghan border, has been behind many of the scores of bloody suicide kabooms around Pakistain over the last 4 1/2 years. At least 35,000 people have been killed in the bloodshed.
The United States wants Pakistain to keep the pressure on Death Eaters and would likely be concerned about any effort to strike a deal.
Many of its fiercest foes in Afghanistan, as well as al-Qaeda operatives from around the world, live alongside the Pakistain Taliban in North Wazoo.
Much remains unclear about the nature of the talks and their potential. Both the army and the Islamic fascistihave engaged in misinformation before. Some reports have said any deal would only cover one region in the northwest, South Waziristan, but could be extended.
The Pakistain Taliban is believed to be divided. Many of its leaders and foot soldiers have been killed in US drone attacks and Mighty Pak Army offensives over the last few years.
Some faction and allied groups are still committed to war against the state, and there been several myrmidon attacks over the last month.
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[An Nahar] Libya will not hand over Moammar Qadaffy's
most prominent son Seif al-Islam to the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... for trial, interim justice minister Mohammed al-Allagui said on Tuesday.
His comments came as the court's chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo was in Tripoli for talks on jurisdiction in the case of Seif and Qadaffy's spymaster Abdullah al-Senussi, both of whom are wanted by the court on charges of crimes against humanity.
"In a nutshell, we are not going to hand him over," Allagui said when asked about Seif, who was captured in Libya's far-flung Saharan south on Saturday after three months on the run.
Asked by Agence La Belle France Presse if he expected to meet Seif during his visit, Moreno-Ocampo said: "No."
The Qadaffy son is being held in the mainly Berber hilltown of Zintan, in the Nafusa Mountains some 170 kilometers southwest of Tripoli.
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Qaddafi always firmly rejected membership in the ICC for Libya.
[Dawn] Strongly and categorically refuting media reports, a spokesperson of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Tuesday that the army was not undertaking any kind of negotiations with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) or its affiliated orc groups.
Such reports are concocted, baseless and unfounded, the spokesperson added.
Any contemplated negotiation or reconciliation process with orc groups has to be done by the government, the spokesperson concluded.
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[Dawn] Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi on Tuessday asserted that the decision taken by the ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani to resign from his post was the right one and urged government to investigate the 'memo issue' to bring it to its rational conclusion, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to media representatives after meeting with PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... Qureshi said that there was nothing left in assemblies anymore. "I have adviced 'Mian Sahib' to come out of assemblies," he added.
Sovereignty of the country and its survival lies in democracy, said the former minister.
He urged the masses to decide who should lead the country in theses chaotic times to bring it out of troubles. "It's about time to get rid of this ineligible and failed government," said the former minister.
The former PPP minister stressed on the importance of forming a free election commission and urged politicianship of the country to take a unified stance on the issue. "Supreme Court should also play its role to ensure the formation of a free election commission," he added.
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[An Nahar] Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... stated on Tuesday that Leb is facing a struggle over asserting the role of the state in controlling the country and combating attempts to impose the role of the "statelet" over it.
He said before a delegation of NDU students: "It is a battle between two different points of view, one that calls for the rule of the state institutions and army and the other that does not believe in the state and that opposes the Arab and international communities."
The March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... -led opposition believes in democracy and freedom, whereas the March 8 forces ... the opposition to the Mar. 14th movement, consisting of Hizbullah and its allies, so-called in commemoration of their Mar. 8th, 2006 demonstration of strength in Beirut ... still adheres to obsolete regimes, he added.
The LF leader urged the students to make the choice between the ideology of the state and that of the "statelet".
They should also chose between the rule of force and that of the law and between the state that respects international agreements and one that wants to wage a confrontation with the international community, Geagea stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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[An Nahar] The United States said Tuesday it has placed a suspected Saudi member of an Islamist orc group based in Leb on its list of international terrorists.
The State Department said it had designated Ibrahim Suleiman Hamad al-Hablain, known as Abu Jabal, a "specially designated global terrorist," a classification that bars Americans from doing business with him or on his behalf.
It said al-Hablain was an explosives expert for the "Brigades of Abdallah Azzam," a Leb-based orc group that has taken credit for firing rockets into Israel.
According to press reports, it also took responsibility for a July 2010 kaboom on a Japanese oil tanker, the M Star.
Soddy Arabia has requested al-Hablain's extradition and he has been sought by Interpol since 2009 for "activities related to terrorism."
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11/23/2011
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Former US president George W Bush and British ex-prime minister Tony Blair were Tuesday found guilty at a mock tribunal in Malaysia for committing "crimes against peace" during the Iraq war.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, part of an initiative by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad -- a fierce critic of the Iraq war -- found the former leaders guilty after a four-day hearing.
"The Tribunal deliberated over the case and decided unanimously that the first accused George Bush and second accused Blair have been found guilty of crimes against peace," the tribunal said in a statement.
"Unlawful use of force threatens the world to return to a state of lawlessness. The acts of the accused were unlawful."
Mahathir, who stepped down in 2003 after 22 years in power, unveiled plans for the tribunal in 2007 just before he condemned Bush and Blair as "child killers" and "war criminals" at the launch of an annual anti-war conference.
A seven-member panel chaired by former Malaysian Federal Court judge Abdul Kadir Sulaiman presided over the trial, which began last Saturday, and both Bush and Blair were tried in absentia.
"The evidence showed that the drums of wars were being beaten long before the invasion. The accused in their own memoirs have admitted their own intention to invade Iraq regardless of international law," it said.
The verdict is purely symbolic as the tribunal has no enforcement powers.
One can hope they had fun, then, since it was otherwise utterly pointless.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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Tell me again why US companies have factories in that POS country?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/23/2011 2:06
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From the article and from what I remember of Mahathir Mohamad's status as an ex-premier, this isn't exactly an official act, Water Modem. It's not even the equivalent of Rep. Conyers' basement "hearings". It's more of a high-profile gathering of out-of-government anti-American assholes than anything significant. We might as well blockade Berkeley for "Occupy Oakland"'s misbehavior as piss on Malaysia on the basis of "their ex-premier's a hysterical dick".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/23/2011 9:38
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Did the CEO of Pepsico attend? Sounds like something she could really support.
The United States said Tuesday that it will stop sharing information with Russia about its conventional weapons in Europe, dpa reported. The move comes after Moscow in 2007 stopped sharing information about its weapons with 29 other countries as part of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty.
"We have tried repeatedly to bring Russia back to the table because we do believe in the CFE and we think it provides reassurance," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "But we're at a stage now where, after a number of efforts to salvage this, we don't think it's in our interest to continue to provide data that is not reciprocated on the Russian side."
They stopped in 2007? Took us long enough to respond...
Other US NATO allies are also likely to stop providing information to Russia on their non-nuclear weapons to protest Moscow's noncompliance, Nuland said. The other parties to the treaty will continue to provide that information to each other.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2011
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[Bangla Daily Star] Three non-combatants were killed and three others including a woman and child maimed when their vehicle hit a roadside kaboom in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, police said.
The bomb was planted under a bridge in Alingar district of Laghman province before it destroyed a civilian van, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang told AFP.
Roadside bombs are frequently planted by cut-throats but there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
According to the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... , the number of civilians killed in violence in Afghanistan rose by 15 per cent in the first six months of this year to 1,462, with cut-throats responsible for 80 percent of the killings.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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Top|| File under: Taliban
[Dawn] Investigators probing into killing of four coppers and a civilian took five police officials into custody on Monday.
The men who were killed during an unsuccessful attempt to catch leader of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in Pir Chambal Pind Dadan Khan left everyone raising eyebrows on the performance of police.
The arrests were made on suspicion of having links with terrorist groups, Dawn has learnt. Of the five cops, three were posted at Pind Dadan Khan cop shoppe, one was associated with security branch whereas the fifth was posted at Lillah cop shoppe.
All of the cops taken into custody were shifted to Jhelum for further interrogation; the source said, adding that evidence collected so far pointed towards possibility that the cops were hiding something important from the Sherlocks.
When SHO Pind Dadan Khan Sagheer was contacted, he cautiously said he did not know anything however he said it was his senior officer DSP Saddar Jhelum who was investigating the case.
The names of the coppers taken into custody were Zulfiqar Ali, Mohammad Shahbaz and Jabbar Hussain, Sadaqat Hussain and Zulfiqar Hussain.
A police official requesting anonymity said the cops were placed in long-term storage after they refused to hand over their mobile phones to the investigating officers.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... on Tuesday announced that he would not "defend" Premier Najib Miqati's government if the rival Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement sought to topple it in the near future.
Asked about the views he shares with Miqati during an interview on his movement's mouthpiece OTV, Aoun said: "We agree with PM Miqati that Leb's security is interlinked with that of Syria. We will see if the Mustaqbal Movement will call for toppling the government, but we will not defend it."
"We will hold the thieves accountable, crimes have been committed. My conscience surpasses the political alliance. I was commissioned by the people and I'm defending people's money," he added.
Turning to the controversial issue of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb, Aoun said: "Why would we put the entire (2012 state) budget on hold for the sake of the tribunal's funds which are worth $30 million?"
"There is bad performance in cabinet and I don't know why everything is stalled. The taxation system is wrong and comprehensive plans for everything, such as health and other issues, have been all shelved. I'm not a beggar, these are the people's rights," Aoun went on to say.
"How can (U.N. chief) Mr. the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... convince me that world peace is threatened because of the crimes that happened in Leb?" he wondered.
Slamming the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... , Aoun said "throughout 63 years, we have not heard any outcry from the U.N. concerning the Paleostinian people and its plight,"
"Should human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... exist only in Syria?" he asked.
"The tribunal is 6-year-old, so why don't we wait for another six months to settle its constitutional status?"
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11/23/2011
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
This is interesting. Aoun being a Hezbollah proxy, I'd guess that the Hezbullies see Miqati's government collapsing. With Wally Jumblatt changing sides again I'd say actual popular sentiment's probably with Mustaqbal and its allies.
Which means the story about Hezbollah preparing a coup in the event of Assad falling can be taken without much salt at all.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011 11:38
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#2
With Wally Jumblatt changing sides again
Did you mean again today or again in the last hour?
[An Nahar] Iran on Tuesday blasted new sanctions against the Islamic republic announced by the United States, Britannia and Canada as "reprehensible and ineffective."
Foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast made the comments a day after Washington, London and Ottawa said they were leveling additional sanctions on Iran's financial sector because of a report by the U.N. atomic energy watchdog strongly suggesting Tehran was researching nuclear weapons.
"These actions show the hostility of these countries towards our people. They are reprehensible and ineffective," Mehmanparast said during his regular weekly media briefing.
He said U.S. and British sanctions previously imposed on Iran had likewise proved ineffective.
The new ones amounted to little more than "propaganda and psychological warfare," he said.
"Everybody knows our trade with Britannia and the United States is at its lowest point. These past years we have decided for various reasons to reduce exchanges with those two countries to a minimum, so as to increase them with other countries," Mehmanparast said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Are they complaining that they want effective sanctions?
[An Nahar] Three Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... bloc MPs and several Sunni Moslemholy mans on Tuesday called on President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... , Premier Najib Miqati and Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji to shoulder their responsibilities concerning what they called "the attack against the Bekaa town of Arsal on the eve of the 68th anniversary of independence."
"According to verified information, a plainclothes group comprising bearded members belonging to the 'party of weapons' (Hizbullah) entered the town of Arsal Monday night and tried to abduct a Syrian national belonging to the Qarqouz family," said a statement issued after a meeting at MP Mohammed Kabbara's residence in the northern city of Tripoli.
The meeting was attended by MPs Khaled al-Daher and Moein al-Merehbi and Sunni Moslemholy mans Zakariya al-Masri, Salem al-Rifai, Bilal Baroudi and Kenaan Naji.
The incident prompted "the town's residents to peacefully confront the (aforementioned) members, using stones and sticks, and prevent them from completing the kidnap attempt, especially that Mr. Qarqouz is not wanted in Leb on any arrest warrant, and he may be rather wanted by the Assad regime," the conferees said in the statement.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... the army issued a statement Tuesday in which it said: "Yesterday evening, while an army patrol was pursuing runaways in the Bekaa town of Arsal, it came under gunfire and a large group of people encircled the patrol and assaulted its members with stones, which left two vehicles badly damaged."
"Immediately, army forces deployed in the region intervened and worked on dispersing the mob and restoring normality," the army added.
Army troops "are still pursuing the shooters -- who decamped to an unknown destination -- and the instigators," it said.
As the conferees in Kabbara's house noted that "plainclothes Lebanese army intelligence agents took part in the incident," they wondered whether "an official order was issued by the Lebanese army command to carry out this mission on behalf of the Assad (regime's) intelligence."
But they added: "We do not believe so, for a simple reason: Arsal is not an abandoned town and our army -- which we love, appreciate and respect -- is not Assad's brigades."
They urged the army command to "conduct a transparent probe into the attack against the town of Arsal to preserve the army's reputation and out of respect for the Lebanese illusory sovereignty, on the anniversary of an independence that has become lost."
The conferees also warned against "any attempt that may be under preparation to take vengeance on our heroic people in Arsal and other regions."
"Let everyone know that Arsal is not orphaned. Arsal is a Lebanese town and anyone attacking Arsal or any other Lebanese town would be definitely serving the Zionist enemy and Assad's brigades," they cautioned.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Al Ahram] A government official says a roadside kaboom in the Somali capital of Mogadishu has killed 11 civilians and maimed many others.
Local district commissioner Ahmed Addow says the bomb went kaboom! in Mogadishu's Medina neighborhood.
The Medina neighborhood is where the city's airport and the main base for the 9,000-strong African Union force are located. It is generally considered the safest area in the capital.
In recent weeks the AU has been pushing the Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab ... successor to the Islamic Courts... bully boyz out of the last district in the capital that al-Shabaab controls. The AU supports the weak UN-backed government.
Kenyan soldiers have also entered Somalia from the south to fight al-Shabaab.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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[An Nahar] Egypt's military ruler said on Tuesday that presidential elections will be held by end of June 2012, and that a referendum on the immediate transfer of power would be organized if necessary.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who took power when Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... ...And who has wayyyy too many medals on his chest... was ousted, said in a televised address that he had accepted the cabinet's resignation, a week before crucial legislative polls which he said would be held on schedule.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces "does not aspire to hold power and is fully willing to transfer responsibility immediately should the people wish it, through a popular referendum if necessary," Tantawi said.
He said the council had accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet and had "tasked it to carry on working until a new government is formed ... to handle the transition in cooperation with the Supreme Council."
Tantawi said his council was also committed to holding parliamentary elections on schedule on November 28 and to "electing a president of the republic by the end of June 2012."
As news of the statement filtered into Cairo's Tahrir Square, where tens of thousands attended an anti-military rally, protesters began to chant against Tantawi.
"The people want the downfall of the Field Marshal" they chanted, just blocks away from festivities near the interior ministry on the outskirts of the square.
"We can't trust what he says. The ball has been in SCAF's court for months, and they didn't do anything," said Ibtisam al-Hamalawy, 50.
"Tantawi is Mubarak copy pasted," said another protester Ahmed Mamdouh, 35.
"It's like Mubarak's speech. Tantawi has to go. That's all there is to it," said Abdul Rahman Ibrahim, a young member of the powerful Moslem Brüderbund.
Tens of thousands had gathered in Tahrir Square on Tuesday after days of deadly festivities between police and protesters demanding democratic change.
At least 28 people have died in the festivities and hundreds have been injured, according to the health ministry.
Sporadic confrontations continued on Tuesday, with police using batons, tear gas and birdshot against demonstrators.
The SCAF had invited the country's political forces for crisis talks amid the spiraling unrest that had threatened to derail the election.
The Moslem Brüderbund, Egypt's best-organized political force, had said it would take part in the talks, which also included presidential hopeful and former 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... chief Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who has been head of the Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... and the head of the liberal Wafd party Sayyed Badawi.
Clashes also erupted in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, the canal city of Suez and the central city of Qena, the northern city Port Said and Assiut and Aswan in the south, as while as the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya.
Protesters at Tahrir Square indicated they would want to hear nothing less than an announcement of an end to the rule of SCAF, which took over when Mubarak was toppled in February.
"The people want the downfall of the regime," they shouted, echoing the Arab Spring signature chant.
According to the health ministry, at least 28 people have been killed since Saturday, when the security forces first resorted to tear gas, rubber bullets and birdshot in an bid to subdue the protests.
Demonstrators responding by throwing stones and petrol bombs.
The United States said it was "deeply concerned" by the violence and called for democratic elections, as watchdog Amnesia Amnesty International charged the SCAF's record on human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... was worse than under Mubarak.
Egypt's main stock market index closed down 4.77 percent after trading on the bourse had been suspended for one hour when the main EGX-30 index fell 172.82 points to touch 3,688.17 points, according to the Egyptian Exchange website.
Egypt's military-appointed cabinet of civilian officials announced its resignation late on Monday, but state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
initially quoted a SCAF source as saying this was rejected by the military.
The SCAF said it had asked the justice ministry to set up a committee to probe the violence, and called on "all forces and citizens to commit to (restoring) calm, and creating an atmosphere of stability with the goal of pursuing the political process."
The Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party had said it would not join Tuesday's protest, a decision it said stemmed from its "desire not to pull people towards fresh bloody confrontations with the parties that are seeking more tension."
Tuesday's rally was called by the activist groups which spearheaded the popular uprising that forced Mubarak out.
In a Facebook page for the rally, the groups called for the immediate resignation of Sharaf's cabinet and the formation of a "national salvation" government.
They also demanded a presidential election by April 2012 and a complete overhaul of the interior ministry.
Politician Selim al-Awwa told state news agency MENA earlier on Tuesday that the SCAF had agreed to form a national salvation government and hand power to a civilian authority by July 2012.
"It was agreed at the meeting headed by the deputy of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Sami Enan ... to form a government of national salvation which would implement the goals of the revolution," said Awwa, a presidential hopeful who attended the meeting.
Several politicians, including ElBaradei, have urged the military to review its plans for the transfer of power to civilians, by organizing a presidential election before the parliamentary polls which are due to begin next Monday and last several months.
The Moslem Brüderbund, although highly critical of the military rulers, is against any postponement of the legislative vote, feeling it is in a strong position.
The military is also under pressure from abroad to halt the violence, with U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland calling for "free, fair elections," and expressing the hope that the polls will proceed on schedule.
U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... urged the military council to "guarantee" civil liberties and he deplored the deaths in the festivities.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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Top|| File under:
#1
And who has wayyyy too many medals on his chest...
Don't know as there are too many medals; think if it as the military's equivalent to a 'Mr. T. Starter Kit.'
A senior Iranian official says many countries are willing to buy Iran's oil and the Islamic Republic is not concerned about oil embargo imposed by some European countries, Press TV reported.
This is right after he blasted the sanctions as 'reprehensible'. If no one will honor the sanctions, then why complain?
Because the Chinese negotiate hard for price concessions?
Managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani further stated on Tuesday that if France or other European countries imposed sanctioned on buying Iran's oil, the country would sell its oil to other customers.
"Iran did not export oil to France and its overall oil export to EU member states was meager," Oil Ministry's official website Shana quoted Qalebani as saying.
After Britain and the US announced on Monday, November 21, that they have considered new unilateral sanctions against Iran's oil industry, the French government followed suit by declaring that it will not buy Iran's crude oil.
Paris called for new sanctions on an "unprecedented scale" against Iran in response to Tehran's nuclear program, urging world powers to halt purchases of Iranian oil and freeze its central bank assets.
On the same day, the US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Washington had imposed new sanctions targeting Iran's oil and petrochemical industry and the Iranian companies supplying Tehran's nuclear program.
The British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne also noted that the White Hall was terminating all contact between the UK's financial system and the entire Iranian banking system.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2011
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#1
Iran is looking forward to Oil For Food Part 2. They get sympathy and the ability to blame all of their ills and crackdowns on sanctions, they get a cadre of corrupt westerners helping to keep things secret to keep the gravy train rolling, and what oil they ship goes up in price. What's not to love.
[Dawn] At least five persons, including three personnel of a law enforcement agency and two local tribal men, were killed and nine others injured in a remote control kaboom in the Jano Beri area of Dera Bugti district on Tuesday.
Police said unknown men had planted a remote control bomb in the Jano Beri area on the way leading to Kachhi Canal. They detonated it when engineers and local tribal men escorted by law enforcement personnel were on their way to Kachhi Canal.
As a result of the kaboom, five men, including three LEA personnel and two local persons, were killed and nine others sustained wounds.
The injured were rushed to the PPL Dera Bugti hospital where condition of some is stated to be unstable. The engineers who were being taken to Kachhi Canal area for survey remained safe.
Law enforcement agencies rushed to the site and cordoned off the entire area to trace the suspects out.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2011
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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.
Two Republican Illinois 
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
North Korea
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
International Criminal Court
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
.
Orakzai Agency
[Emirates 24/7] Egypt's ruling military on Tuesday discussed the possibility of appointing ex-UN nuclear watchdog chief 
Nawaz Sharif
Punjab
[Dawn] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday urged Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad to step down, branding him a coward and warning that he risked the same fate of dictators who met the bloody deaths.
[Dawn] An anti-terrorism court here on Monday indicted the imprisoned chief of proscribed Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi (
[An Nahar] Syrian security forces cracking down on dissent killed 13 people on Tuesday, including five boys in the flashpoint central province of Homs, a rights group said.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi Army force has discovered on Tuesday a plant for booby-trapping vehicles and manufacturing of explosive charges east of Mosul, the center of northern Iraq's Ninewa Province, an Iraqi Army source reported.
Interior Minister 
[Dawn] The Pak Taliban has declared a cease-fire to encourage nascent peace talks with the government, a senior commanders said, a move that appears to show the deadly group's willingness to strike a deal with state.
The Pakistain Taliban, an umbrella grouping of 
Mehmood 
Samir Geagea
Former US president George W Bush and British ex-prime minister Tony Blair were Tuesday found guilty at a mock tribunal in Malaysia for committing "crimes against peace" during the Iraq war.
[Dawn] Investigators probing into killing of four 
Michel Aoun
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Najib Miqati
A government official says a 
[An Nahar] Egypt's military ruler said on Tuesday that presidential elections will be held by end of June 2012, and that a referendum on the immediate transfer of power would be organized if necessary.
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
[Dawn] At least five persons, including three personnel of a law enforcement agency and two local tribal men, were killed and nine others injured in a remote control 
