Muslim students, including trainee doctors on one of Britain's leading medical courses, are walking out of lectures on evolution claiming it conflicts with creationist ideas established in the Koran.
Professors at University College London have expressed concern over the increasing number of biology students boycotting lectures on Darwinist theory, which form an important part of the syllabus, citing their religion.
Similar to the beliefs expressed by fundamentalist Christians, Muslim opponents to Darwinism maintain that Allah created the world, mankind and all known species in a single act.
Steve Jones emeritus professor of human genetics at university college London has questioned why such students would want to study biology at all when it obviously conflicts with their beliefs.
#1
Announce beforehand that anyone who does not sit for the complete lectures will be marked down as failing the course and will therefore not be given a medical degree.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/27/2011 21:28
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#3
Plus, it would imply that the university thinks that Western civilization is something worth cherishing, preserving and passing on. This would conflict with the primary mission of a modern university - to promote sophistry and relativism.
"I already said that if he wants to use a teleprompter, then it would be fine with me. It has to be fair. If you [were] to defend ObamaCare, wouldn't you want a teleprompter?" Gingrich asked.
"Now, just for a second I'm going to go in the detour and I'll try to explain why I've been and he'll say yes. There are two reasons. The first, is ego. Can you imagine him looking in the mirror? Graduate from Columbia, Harvard Law, editor of the Law Review journal. [Against] the greatest articulator in a Democratic book?"
"How is he going to say that he's afraid to be on the same podium as a West Georgia College student?"
Not a fair match-up, Teleprompter would win. It already knows the answers Obama would give.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/27/2011 22:20
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#3
I recall an election in Nevada many years ago. A candidate couldn't get his opponent to debate so he ran a commercial featuring an empty seat. "Empty Seat" got something like 20 write in votes.
At least someone is making money in these difficult times. Arms dealers in Lebanons Bekaa Valley are making out like, well, bandits as unrest in Syria sends black market gun prices through the roof says this story in Lebanons Daily Star. Rocket grenade launchers appear to be the hottest investment grade item, with prices more than sextupling from $400 to $2500 in recent months. Kalashnikovs and M16s are also up sharply, with 75 percent appreciation on the Russian guns and 100 percent on the US model.
Perhaps more investments in Lebanese arms dealer funds could rescue US state and municipal pension funds; those are the kind of returns states like New York, Illinois, California and Rhode Island need to avoid massive service and benefit cuts in the years ahead.
But what this news really means, of course, is that more and more people in Syria and Lebanon are preparing for all out civil war. Religious and ethnic divides half forgotten during the long decades when the dictatorship was secure are now beginning to revive as the Assad clan looks weak.
This is the pattern I saw at work in Yugoslavia and the Caucasus twenty years ago as ethnic groups geared up to butcher their neighbors and drive them from their homes; I will never forget the night a Georgian poet asked me how much guns cost on the Istanbul black market; he was arming himself against what he called the Abkhazian menace.
I made a note to myself at that time: when poets buy guns, tourist season is over. They are buying them now in Damascus; something wicked this way comes.
#1
A friend told me a few years ago that his stocks, 401K, real estate and savings had all been wiped out. Only thing he owned that had gone up in value was his gold and his guns, and from then on his sole investment strategy would be guns.
Wine is also a good investment in a socialist economy. If it goes up you make money. If it goes down you drink it.
More like: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges."
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
11/27/2011 16:46
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#5
If one person with gold but no guns meets another with guns but no gold, what do you think will happen?
Interesting question. The next and even more interesting question is:
If one person with guns (with or without gold) meets many more people with many more guns, what do you think will happen?
Take that a few steps further...
The Palestinians' rival leaders have quietly decided to keep their respective governments in the West Bank and Gaza in place until elections, a senior Hamas figure told The Associated Press. This proposal would remove a major obstacle to efforts to reconcile the factions: the need to form an interim unity government.
A representative of Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, denied that such a deal was struck. Abbas envoy Azzam al-Ahmed insisted there was no agreement and "no possibility of holding elections without a unity government."
The Hamas figure said the understanding was reached between Western-backed Abbas and Khaled Mashaal, chief of the Islamic militant Hamas, during one-on-one talks last week. He spoke on condition of anonymity, because he said the two leaders decided not to make the arrangement public.
Another top Hamas official, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said that it was at least possible to skip an interim government and head straight to elections, tentatively scheduled for May.
The Hamas statements suggested that a solution was being finessed to get around the disagreement over keeping Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the West Bank government, who is popular with Western donors but strongly opposed by Hamas. By retaining the separate governments until the elections and perhaps enabling them to work closer together, both sides could save face.
Keeping the existing governments in place would help
Abbas avoid a Western backlash and continue the flow of international aid to his government in the run-up to elections. Western powers fear a unity government, even one composed of technocrats without clear political affiliations, would be heavily influenced by the Islamic militant Hamas.
It also would mean that Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist, remains in charge in the West Bank for the time being and continue to ensure that donor countries keep funding Abbas' Palestinian Authority. Hamas will keep running Gaza, the territory it seized from Abbas by force in 2007. The Hamas government is not internationally recognized.
Shelving the unity government step would also remove a major sticking point in Hamas-Abbas negotiations.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has pardoned those who "committed errors during the crisis" gripping the country since January and has caused hundreds of deaths, state television reported Sunday.
"The President of the republic has decreed a general amnesty for all those who have committed errors during the crisis," it said
Bad move. Once the sanctions are shown to be ineffective, the Arab League will be shown up as the Allah bothering, goat buggering bunch of wankers they are.
The Arab League overwhelmingly approved sanctions Sunday against Syria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly eight-month crackdown on dissent, an unprecedented move by the League against an Arab state.
Before the vote, Damascus slammed the vote as a betrayal of Arab solidarity. Besides punishing an already ailing economy, the sanctions are a huge blow for a Syrian regime that considers itself a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.
At a news conference in Cairo, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim said 19 of the League's 22 member nations approved the sanctions, which include cutting off transactions with the Syrian central bank and halting Arab government funding for projects in Syria. Iraq and Lebanon abstained.
"We aim to avoid any suffering for the Syrian people," bin Jassim said.
The sanctions are the latest in a growing wave of international pressure pushing Syria to end its violent suppression of protests against President Bashar Assad, which the U.N. says has killed more than 3,500 people since March.
Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said the bloc will reconsider the sanctions if Syria carries out an Arab-brokered peace plan that includes sending observers to the country and pulling tanks from the streets.
"We call on Syria to quickly approve the Arab initiative," he said.
The state-owned Al-Thawra newspaper ran a front-page headline Sunday saying the Arab League is calling for "economic and commercial sanctions targeting the Syrian people." It said the measure is "unprecedented and contradicts the rules of Arab cooperation."
Brooke Langton aka Aviva Masters in "Primeval" aka Claire Kelly in "Beautiful Dreamer (2006 film)" aka Kathy Dobson in "The Benchwarmers" aka Nicoletta 'Niki' Sposato in "Kiss the Bride (2002 film)" aka Annabelle Farrell in "The Replacements (2000 film)" aka Sabrina in "Playing Mona Lisa (2000 film)" aka Nikki in "Swingers (1996 film)" (age 41)
#1
"Army, Navy and RAF chiefs have been visiting former Soviet states bordering Afghanistan to draw up a masterplan for what has been dubbed the new Dunkirk."
**Gulp** Looks like Ogabe's policy's working to design. I'm more worried that he's got the "new Gandamak" as a backup plan...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
11/27/2011 16:37
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#2
Good citation.
A few highlights from that article: The remnants dragged on and made a last stand near the village of Gandamack on 13 January. The force was down to fewer than forty men and almost out of food and ammunition. They were surrounded on a hillock and when a surrender was offered by the Afghans, one British sergeant gave the famous answer "Not bloody likely!" All were killed except Captain James Souter, Sergeant Fair and seven soldiers who were taken prisoner.[7]
Only one British officer from the army managed to reach Jalalabad...It is said that he was asked upon arrival what happened to the army, and answered "I am the army."...The annihilation of about 16,500 people left Britain and India in shock ... In the Autumn of 1842 an "Army of Retribution" led by Sir George Pollock, with William Nott and Robert Sale commanding divisions, levelled Kabul...
The British, after they took their revenge on Kabul, had resolved to abandon any attempts to intervene in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. After Shuja Shah was assassinated in April 1842, Dost Mohammed quickly reestablished his authority. He died on 9 June 1863 of natural causes, one of the few Afghan rulers in the past thousand years to do so.
#1
the AZ Republic pooh-poohs the theory that F&F was a scheme to create such havoc in Mexico with US guns that Obama could drive through new gun control laws. That is obviously the case, since they didn't track any guns past the border. Also, they never note that Bush Admin's gunwalker scheme worked WITH Mexican authorities, didn't keep them in the dark like F&F
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2011 11:46
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#2
I have to admit that I skimmed the article and posted it because it looked like a long re-cap of what we know so far. It's a shame that the AZ Republic has chosen to advance the official false-equivalency narrative of the MSM palace guard - but not a shock.
#4
Gun control has been on the Obama administration agenda although being flying under the radar. Gun control is not generally held in high esteem by most Americans other than the left. I've heard some Democrats recently trying to justify stronger gun control laws on the basis of F & F. What is really needed is to rein in a government who allowed F & F and the death of agents to occur.
One terrorist militant was killed and another injured in an attempt to plant a bomb near a shop in the town of Buinaksk in Dagestan. The bomb went off when two unidentified persons tried to plant an explosive device early on Sunday near a commercial shop.
The interior ministry said, "The explosion was equal to 100 grams of TNT. As a result of the explosion, one of the criminals died of wounds on the scene while the other was taken to hospital. Their identities are being established. The shop was slightly damaged. The sum of the damage is being determined."
Police seized a pistol with cartridges, a knife and bomb fragments at the scene.
Reports say that a tense exchange of words took place between President Zardari and Senator Raza Rabbani over former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, in the hours-long meeting of the PPP core committee held late on Friday night.
The president spoke for almost 45 minutes with most of the meeting's time spent on the Husain Haqqani sacking saga. According to one of the participants, the president was "literally forcing" the agenda of the party, throwing his full weight behind the sacked ambassador while describing the entire scandal as "a conspiracy against the government, hatched outside Pakistan to create a rift between the civil and military leadership."
At this, the ever blunt veteran PPP stalwart, Raza Rabbani, refused to acquiesce and throw his unconditional support behind Mr. Haqqani.
A visibly irritated president is said to have chided the 'stubborn' Rabbani, also the Chairman Parliamentary Committee on National Security, for not lending the required support to Haqqani and for his independent ways. The president insisted that Rabbani follow the rest of the pack since Haqqani had always "stood by the party in difficult times."
Sources said that an unconvinced Rabbani responded that he always preferred making up his own mind over issues and that the Haqqani affair was no different. Upon hearing this, the president reportedly snapped, "I agree to disagree with you," and ended exchange.
Sources said President Zardari spent most of the meeting's time speaking about the Memogate scandal and thought that while Haqqani had been the focus, the real target was the government.
Sources said the president also spoke of time he spent in prison and one of the participants remarked that "it seemed that the days spent by the president in jail have forever stuck in his mind."
Reportedly, while praising Husain Haqqani, the president recalled that during her second term in office, he had advised Benazir Bhutto to allocate a party ticket to Husain Haqqani but she instead chose Shafqat Mehmood. However, when the government was overthrown, Shafqat Mehmood sided with Farooq Leghari while Husain Haqqani stood with the party.
Sources quoted the president as saying, "Husain Haqqani was earning more money giving lectures in an American university but when he was asked to become ambassador in the United States he left the lucrative job to serve the country." The president, according to these sources, told the committee that it was time to stand with Husain Haqqani rather than being taken in by the propaganda against him.
#1
...8090% of the world's Muslims are Sunni and 5 20% are Shia Differences in beliefs doesn't make for entirely chummy relationships between Shia and Sunnai.
Iran is largely Shia. It's doubtful Iran will be in the catbird seat anytime soon at the center of a Muslim caliphate. And there will be a hiccup in their nuclear ambitions at some point and many Arabs and others will breath a sigh of relief.
#3
Islamic prophecy includes a period of unity in the final war against disbelievers. After that, muz go at each other until the end of days.
Frankly, Erdogan is positioning Turkey as a sunni-shiite broker, with unity being the prize. He doesn't want ayatollah power continued in Syria because it is exercised as a rival factor.
Our lamebrain pundits have yet to perceive that calipha restoration is in the works. Western Civilization has the capacity to stop an entity that will result in hundreds of millions of casualties in islam's perma-war.
The indifference to the certainty of nuclear tipped ICBMs aimed at the US homeland, while "pre-emption" is supposed to frame US foreign policy, is staggering. Everyone is prisoner to the nation-building/redeemer-nation rhetorical fictions. Not enough people are being killed in the GWOT. Piecemeal killings need to be replaced with wholesale slaughter. The problem is: their lives.
#1
No. I've thought long about this issue and the term world war simply doesn't apply to anything that happens between the US and China. China doesn't have enough allies and US allies are unlikely to be talked into such madness.
#4
I'd have to agree. China has been using Proxies (primarily North Korea) for some time and we've allowed them to play that game successfully. The end game is they move openly against Taiwan or Japan goes rogue convinced the US can no longer be trusted to defend them.
#5
There are a bunch of possibilities, here. From the 1980s forward, the US and China both considered it inevitable; but "things change."
With China's naval build up, India decided that China was their serious threat, and they started to build up as well. And they are right next door, and have come to blows with China before.
This divided China's attention. But things became even more complicated when China recently decided to assert sovereignty over the entire South China Sea, right to the coastlines of all the other countries in the area. This has turned the whole region against China.
This leaves a bunch of possibilities wide open. From major to minor.
1) Sino-Indian ground war, maybe my suggestion of a "demographic war". With some naval engagements. Non-nuclear.
2) Sino-US war. Not just Taiwan, but because of economic crises, with war as more of a distraction. Non-nuclear, but could involve attacks in the US.
3) North Korean aggression or collapse. This could be very violent, or in the latter case, quite peaceful.
4) China decides it wants control of eastern Siberia, because more Chinese live there than Russians. Maybe Mongolia thrown in as well.
5) China against the assembled China Sea nations, mostly island snatching. But Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines could turn this really ugly.
6) Chinese military intervention in Africa, on the side of one of its allies, and in defense of its resource extraction. Likewise in Afghanistan, to protect its (projected) major mining enterprises there.
#6
After we leave Afghanistan, those fun loving Paks go after India and the new PAK ally and primary arms supplier, China, decides it's found a way to deal with all those excess males and divert domestic attention from the rapidly deflating bubble. Game on.
#8
I understand in the education of the youth of China we are the enemy. That future confrontation is inevitable. They have a big push on for the English language to be learned at this time. China has become an economic powerhouse. They don't have the natural resources so they must tie up all that they can. The race is on now to secure as much as possible to feed the needs of a modern country. Threatening their resources will provoke a quick response from them. Some in their military see this and argue for a more balanced approach to the world. The current leaders enjoy the current situation. When things go bad all will join in an united effort and those more open minded will become silent. So "Will the next war be between China and the US" if their resources are threatened or invaded will they react. We are however locked in an economic war. The costs for what they have done are a terrible burden based on economic growth. Lose growth and everything will choke off. The worst thing they have done is printing money. The second is tying up so much money in gold. The gold sits and just doesn't circulate. All their military production must be maintained and upgraded. So you see I don't view them in a strong position at this time. They must align themselves with others to feed war ambitions. I don't see those bonds. My two cents.
#9
Afghan mineral resources aren't that much of a prize. Kazakh and Russian projects can replace all, but aren't part of current development plans because of lack of immediate resource need.
There aren't that many clash points between the US and China. Even Taiwan is moving to associate statehood with the mainland. Trade and cultural integration continues at an exponential pace. Cheap electronics enjoyed by Americans wouldn't be there without Chinese components and cheap labor. Then there is the $1.5 trillion in China holdings of US debt. There isn't a good case for confrontation.
#13
...that's why we inscrutable westerners invented World of Warcraft (et al) and cheap PCs. Now to convince those Chinese mothers to dig basements to keep the world and their sons safe!
#15
Please, one world war at a time.
WWI- from 1914-1918
WWII - from 1918-1945
WWIII - from ca. 1918-1989 (started with US troops diverted from WWI to fight the Red Army to the collapse of the USSR in 1989). The US 'won' that.
WWIV - what we're in now, started either in 1993 with the 1st WTC bombing or in 2001 with the 2nd.
#16
The argument or hyperposition that China won't fight the US because of the former's seeming lack of Miltech + Econ, etc. parity or superiority goes agz Chinese history.
IMO the real danger would be a third-party, violent conventional andor nuclear [limited?] mil conflict breaking out, e.g US-Israel versus Iran, Pakistan versus India, DPRK military incident, etc. which will pull in both the US + China agz the other. RUSSIA HAS UNILATERALLY INFERRED AS MUCH WID ITS RECENT WARNING THAT IT MAY FIGHT A "NUCLEAR WAR" [WW3] AGZ THE US-NATO ONE DAY IFF THE VARIOUS "SMALL/LOCAL CONFLICTS",
E.G. CAUCASUS INSURGENCIES, ESCALATE UNCONTROLLABLY.
"Post-US" wannabe Rising China wants sole or joint, PLA-controlled Base Rights [+ trade] ASAP AMAP ALAP to select ports or areas throughout the "First Island" Chain, to which it is currently achieving little to no progress as per the PLA. THIS DESIRE IS EXCLUSIVE OF THE GENERAL ISLAMIST THREAT TO IT + MAINLAND ASIA.
Iff a US-China conflict does occur, China = Iran = North Korea i.e. the burden will be on the US-Allies to come + invade its backyard.
versus
* TOPIX/MILFORUMS > WILL THE ALASKA NATIONAL GUARD BE THERE FOR US?
Local Citizens-Residents of Alaska worry that US federalization of most or vital units of the Alaska Guard + Reserves = ALASKA WILL HAVE LITTLE TO NO DEFENSE WHEN THE RUSSIANS, ETAL. = MOTHERLY COMMIE AIRBORNE INVADE ALASKA + UPPER CANADA WID SEVERAL ARMY GROUPS LOOKING TO ARREST SARAH PALIN.
#17
Alaskans would like military-trained/experienced STATE DEFENSE FORCES responsible only to the Governor = State Govt, IIUC even in times of national contingency.
The Fed will need the State's formal permission to federalize them.
#22
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Financial Review] CHINA MAY TEST ITS POWER.
Beijing mulling its response to US re-engagement in Asia.
My guess is that this would be a pretext for doing something the Chinese have had in the works for a while, waiting for some American initiative they can label an unacceptable provocation.
Contrary to popular belief, the last Cold War wasn't just a fiscal windfall for the "military-industrial complex". Other beneficiaries were academia and think tanks, mostly of liberal bent, and the political institutions that are fellow travelers.
Until the money starts flowing again to the right people, the phrase 'New Cold War' won't see the light of day.
#2
Meanwhile the US Congressional 'pork scandal' continues unabated. Somewhere in this country another fraudulent 'green initiative' needs a few hundred million $...
h/t Instapundit
The ugly denouement of the so-called Egyptian Spring is visible in the collapse of Egypts stock exchange (down 11% in the first three days of this week) and the impending collapse of the Egyptian pound, as residents and foreigners flee to hard currency. A unique sort of brutality characterizes Egypts currency crisis: banks cannot meet the demand for currency because it is impossible transport bank notes. Mobs hijack the armored cars...
#3
The Obama administration, the mainstream media, and the liberal punditeska sit insensate before this hideous spectacle like children at a matinee of Peter Pan, hoping that Tinkerbell will come back to life. If you believe in the Arab Spring, clap your hands!
Ah yes! memories
The cleanliness of Britain's homes is being threatened by European bureaucrats who want to reduce the power of vacuum cleaners in a bid to cut energy use. I keep thinking that there can't be anything more idiotic justified by 'saving energy' and I am constantly proved wrong.
#7
I always thought their water saving washers and low energy dryers made a joke out of doing the laundry.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/27/2011 11:52
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#8
Typical Euro-sh*t,
Instead of researching new energy sources they will end up using candles and eating raw meat to save energy.
Anyhow who needs vacuum cleaners in the caves of Eurabia
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
11/27/2011 13:03
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#9
Muggsy Glink you da man!. Now kettles are a different issue. Britain will be quite putout if they can't have a proper cup of tea.
#10
Ah, yes. The power of significant figures. That is real leadership.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/27/2011 14:48
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#11
The EU elite environmentalists seem to be rather confused as to what filling a vacuum means in governing. Perhaps it's the free maid service they enjoy. More likely it's the algore double flush to save water toilet syndrome.
#13
Anyone remember the 'efficient washers' that the US government imposed. First year out, Consumers Report said they not only failed to meet prior washer cleaning, but in some cases made the laundry dirtier. Under those conditions just repairing the old one was a better deal than buying a new one.
Members of the Taliban who give up their fight are being paid £100 a month and will be allowed to keep their guns in a new initiative to end the insurgency. The "reintegration" programme, which has the full support of Nato, is intended to keep them from attacking troops from the International Stabilisation and Assistance Force (ISAF).
Those who have attacked and killed British forces are also effectively given an amnesty, which means they will never be put on trial. The amnesty extends to all Taliban fighters, including those who have taken part in atrocities, such as murdering children, beheadings and hanging women.
#5
Wouldn't the bullets that would be used to shoot them be cheaper?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/27/2011 15:06
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#6
Wouldn't the bullets that would be used to shoot them be cheaper?
Sure, but you would need enough boots on the ground to pull the triggers, and NATO just doesn't have a sufficient supply. Jerry Pournelle calls this affair an attempt to create an Empire on the cheap. He never liked the attempted remaking of Afghanistan in the first place.
A Somali military official says a roadside bombing has killed six people and wounded 10 others in Mogadishu. Captain Sabriye Hassey said on Saturday that the bomb exploded on SOS Street in north Mogadishu. Five government soldiers were among the victims and eight servicemen were wounded, the Somali military official said.
Hundreds of onlookers gathered on the scene in the aftermath of the powerful explosion. Witnesses said that three civilians had also sustained injuries in the incident, with one dying from his wounds moments later.
[Dawn] Six people were killed and eight maimed when a roadside kaboomwent kaboom! and hit a small truck carrying workers in the western outskirts of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... on Saturday, police and medical sources said.
"It was a roadside kaboom that went off near a pick-up carrying construction workers in Zobaa village west of Abu Ghraib," said a police source who asked not to be named.
A medical source at the nearby hospital in Falluja said they had received six dead bodies and eight maimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2011
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#1
They couldn't hit soldiers or even police, so they targeted construction workers. How noble..
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/27/2011 9:30
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[An Nahar] Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. urged his supporters on Saturday via twitter to join al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... rally in Tripoli.
"I invite you to join en mass the Independence Day rally in Tripoli to revive the Taif accord and to announce solidarity with the Syrian people," Hariri said on the social networking website twitter.
"The Taif accord was and is still Leb's only salvation," Hariri added.
Al-Mustaqbal movement is gearing up for a mass rally it is planning to hold in the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday on the occasion of Independence Day.
The rally will be held under the slogan of 'The Fall of Arms and the Spring of Independence' at the Rashid Karami International Fair Complex.
Hariri, who has been absent from the country for nearly eight months, has chosen Twitter as a comeback tool to reach out to followers.
The ex-premier, who left Leb in April after Hizbullah and its allies toppled his government, popped up on Twitter earlier this month, creating an instant buzz and attracting some 25,000 followers so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2011
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[Dawn] An anti-terrorism court on Saturday granted bail to Mohajir Qaumi Movement chairman Afaq Ahmed in kidnapping for ransom case, DawnNews reported.
Ahmed had been accused in 2001 of kidnapping one Jameel Baloch. However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... all others accused in the case had already been granted bail.
The bail was granted by judge Khalida Yasmeen of the special court number two of the anti-terrorism court on payment of Rs 500,000.
In his application for bail, Ahmed had stated that although the police had given an undertaking to the Sindh High Court (SHC) that there were no pending cases against him on dormant files, he had been nabbed in another kidnapping case. He also stated in the petition that his life was in danger.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2011
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A woman who pleaded guilty to assault after tearing off a Muslim womans face veil at a shopping mall in Mississauga, Ontario was given a suspended sentence on Friday.
Rosemarie Creswell pleaded guilty to assault after footage from a mall security camera showed her pulling off Inas Kadris niqab, at Sheridan Centre in August 2010. Kadri was with her two young children when the attack occurred.
Kadri claims she was approached by two women, and one began berating her. Kadri said, "She was swearing at my religion, my face cover and by my presence here in Canada. It was a shock."
In court Friday, Creswells lawyer argued for a conditional discharge, which would leave her with no criminal record. The judge disagreed, and issued her a suspended sentence plus one year of probation and community service. She will have criminal record, but she won't have to serve time.
The judge suggested that part of Creswell's community service could be at a local mosque so she can learn more about Islam.
#2
I have with some reason long sneered at the idea of "community service" for offenses. In some cases, the judge is so blase about it that they tell the defendant to go find their own community service, and get it signed off by whoever will give it.
So I came up with a dodge that I used for a respectable young woman who was arrested for a curfew violation while walking, just two blocks from her home, when her driver had car problems, though mostly because of her skin color.
The Universal Life Church will ordain anyone to be a ULC minister for free, by mail, and I knew someone who was a ULC minister. So I asked him to sign off on her "community service", for "work on behalf of his congregation", of which there was just him.
The court was so jaded about the whole process that they accepted the document for 100 hours labor, three days later. Phooey.
[Dawn] Three of the five suspected terrorists, including a woman, who were killed in what appeared to be a suicide kaboom at the seafront last week, were Chechens, a bigwig said on Saturday.
While he did not elaborate on personal details, the official said two local suspected cut-throats were assisting them for the major attack that was averted due to a vigilant police action.
"Initial findings show that they entered the country through Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... and finally reached Bloody Karachi to execute their job," Additional IG Ghulam Shabbir Sheikh, who is currently looking after the Bloody Karachi police chief office, told journalists at the central police office.
"Further information is being collected and will be shared with the media soon. So far, we have reason to believe that the three foreigners, including the woman, originally hailed from Chechnya. Their further connections here are also being traced."
The fresh findings to some extent matched the facts traced by the Sherlocks while probing the identity of the four beturbanned goons killed in the PNS Mehran base during the May 22 terrorist attack. The four beturbanned goons killed in the hours-long gunbattle with the
security personnel at the PNS Mehran base were identified as foreigners, belonging to the Eurasian region and were blood relatives.
About investigations into recent bank robberies, he said the police had identified a dozen of gangs involved in the crime.
Mostly they beat feet to tribal areas after executing their jobs, he added.
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[Tripoli Post] The head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, Abdulhakim Belhaj, was stopped from flying to Turkey and accused of travelling on a fake passport, but after the intervention of the NTC chairman he was released, the British daily newspaper has reported.
The report quotes Taher al-Tourki, head of the Zintan civilian council, saying that Belhaj was flying to Istanbul in Turkey on a fake passport -- it had a different name but his picture - when he was stopped by the Zintan Brigade, which currently controls the main international airport.
Tourki said that the men at the airport contacted Mustafa Abdul Jalil the chairman of the National Transitional Council directly and he ordered them to release him.
A front man for Mr Belhaj said later that after the incident at the airport he was able to board his original plane for to Istanbul where he went on "an important mission". He also dismissed as "complete lies" the speculation that circulated the city overnight, saying that he was trying to escape the country.
Belhaj was in charge of the main Islamist guerrilla group fighting against former Libyan dictator Muammar Al Qadaffy ... who is now deader than a rock... , whose regime once secretly extradited him rom Thailand back to Libya, where he said he was tortured, with the help of MI6 and the CIA. After the successful revolt that ousted Al Qadaffy, he became one of the revolution's dominant figures and appointed head of the Tripoli military council.
According to the newspaper's report, Belhaj, who was one of the front runners for the post of defence minister, claims he was offered the post in the interim government announced by by prime minister Abdurrahim el-Keeb on Tuesday, but turned it down as he wants to go into a less military, more political position after elections are held.
The Zintan Brigade, whose leader, Col. Osama Juwaili was this week appointed as defence minister in the cabinet of the transitional government, is reported to be the key rival of Belhaj's Tripoli Military Council. Members of both militias still patrol the capital, both setting up their own checkpoints and challenging local authority.
Mr Juwaili reported told the British daily that he would not withdraw his men until a police force was well-established.
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[Dawn] A security official said that Yemeni warplanes have killed 80 anti-government rustics who overran part of a military camp in the Arhab region north of the capital Sanaa.
The official said on Saturday that warplanes and artillery had pounded the armed rustics for the past 48 hours.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
There was no independent confirmation of the number of deaths.
But a soldier from Yemen's 63rd Brigade who decamped the camp said the rustics had overrun it several days ago.
He spoke by telephone from Arhab, asking not to be identified due to the fear of government reprisal.
The soldier said that about 20 soldiers were killed by the rustics.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
See also PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > IRANIAN HOUTHIS IGNITE SECTARIAN WAR IN NORTH OF YEMEN, HOUTHIS SHELL SUNNI TOWN KILLING 25 + INJURING 48 | AT LEAST 25 DEAD IN NORTH YEMEN CONFLICT: FIGHTERS. US, ASIAN [Malayan, Indonesian] RUSSIAN NATIONALS AMONG DEAD.
ARTIC = Shia Muslim Rebels attack Sunni Islamist Salafist fighters.
President Barack Obama and MSNBC's Ed Schultz have been named to GQ magazine's annual list of "The 25 Least Influential People Alive."
Although not available online yet, TVNewser published a preview Friday:
MSNBC's Ed Schultz comes in at #3. Ouch.
...Then there pundits like Ed Schultz. Do you watch "The Ed Show" on MSNBC? Of course you don't. No one does. The only reason people watch "The Ed Show" is they're working out in a hotel gym and they can't find a staff member to change the channel to ESPN.
Hehehe.
According to TVN, Obama came in 25th. Can't wait to see the explanation.
In the seventeenth position is Daily Beast/Newsweek editor Tina Brown. Forbes quoted from the piece Tuesday:
Brown spent 2011 transforming Newsweek from a magazine no one reads into a magazine no one reads but everyone despises. That's what happens when you star-f**k the corpse of Princess Diana by Photoshopping her at age 50 for your cover, then do a separate Photoshop of her holding an iPhone, and then create a fake Facebook page for her that includes wall posts from Deepak Chopra. Did you know Tina and Di were friends? They were! This Photoshopped image of them having lunch with Stevie Nicks is proof!
#1
According to TVN, Obama came in 25th. Can't wait to see the explanation. Ed of the Ed Show came in #3? What about Al Gore or Keith Olbermann?
It's Bush's fault? The American people are lazy? It is part of the vast right wing conspiracy? Take your pick--there are many.
Although I can believe this list, I don't know what the criteria was for "least influential." They must be referring to politicians and media people. There are a vast number of celebrities who would otherwise fall on this list. What about Joe Snograss down the street? Just fun I guess.
[An Nahar] Yemen is to hold a snap presidential election on February 21 in keeping with an accord which led to 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... 's resignation, his deputy said in a decree published on Saturday.
Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, to whom Saleh has handed over power under the Gulf-mediated accord, signed the decree which brings forward the election that had initially been due to take place in 2013.
The early poll follows a 90-day transition period which kicked off with the signing of the power transfer deal in Riyadh last Wednesday following several months of deadly anti-regime protests in Yemen.
The accord called for Saleh, in return for immunity from prosecution, to hand all "necessary constitutional powers" to his deputy with immediate effect and to hold office on an honorary basis only for the 90-day period.
A bloody crackdown on anti-Saleh demonstrations across Yemen since January has left hundreds of people dead.
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A hospitality company based in Qatar is set to invest at least $500 million in Turkish hotels operating under Islamic customs, with no alcohol or smoking allowed.
Semi state-owned Retaj Marketing and Project Management is looking to build multiple hotels to attract hidebound conservative Muslim holidaymakers in Turkey.
Spokesman Ahmed Khorshed said demand for 'dry' hotels in Qatar was booming. He said, "In the beginning it was very hard to predict if there would be demand for creating such a hotel in Doha. But we have found that the demand for 'Islamic' hotels is more than at regular hotels. For example the year-to-date occupancy in Doha hotels is 63 percent, whereas the occupancy at our hotels is 87 percent."
The company has just signed a deal to take over a five-star hotel in front of the Islamic Museum in Doha. Plans are in the works to expand the brand across the region, beginning with the UAE and Kuwait in 2012.
"Our plan for the next five years is to reach 20 hotels in the Middle East. We want to open in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE -- Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah; as well as Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey and Indonesia -- any country that can accept the Islamic way of running a hotel."
Chaudhry Nisar against MFN to India
PMLN leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was quoted by Nawa-e-Waqt that the intent of giving India the Most favoured Nation (MFN) status by Pakistan had aroused intense reservations in the breast of his party. His leader Nawaz Sharif had earlier favoured closer relations with India.
Hold on to Nazriya Pakistan!
Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt a number of speakers at a seminar including Qazi Husain Ahmad and Sardar Atique stated that if Pakistan did not want to be defeated by any power in the world it will have top hold on to Nazriya Pakistan (Pakistan Ideology). They said water war (abi jang) was worse than nuclear war (aytmi jang) referring to the stopping of Pakistani waters by India. Famous ISI ex-chief Hamid Gul made special appearance.
Jamaatud Dawa against MFN!
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt leader of Jamaatud Dawa Abdur Rehman Makki stated that giving the MFN status to India would put paid to Kashmir independence movement and will also destroy national security. He said Indian businessmen will actually be RAW agents who will strengthen the destructive network of CIA agent Raymond Davis in Pakistan. He said India never accepted independent Pakistan and that Hina Khar was an inexperienced foreign minister.
Fazlur Rehman rejects MFN!
Famous cleric of Pakistan sand JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman told Jinnah that he was surprised by the pledge of Pakistan to grant MFN status to India. He said his Kashmir Committee was not taken into confidence. He said all parties should be united on Kashmir.
Strange conference to defend Pakistan
WPriting in Jinnah Khushnood Ali Khan stated that JUI's Maulana Samiul Haq organised an all-parties conference aimed at ending Saudi and Iranian differences in Pakistan. Not many turned up. Imran Khan too did not turn up. But Hafiz Saeed was the most revered person in the conference while Maulana Samiul Haq was acknowledged as merely the teacher of the mujahideen. Ex-ISI Brig Yusuf was there too as were ex-ISI chief Hamid Gul and politician Sheikh Rashid. The conference did not take off because of Samiul Haq's refusal to postpone it to after the funeral of Nusrat Bhutto.
A Musharraf-Imran government?
Famous editor Khushnood Ali Khan wrote in Jinnah that there was rumour that the powers that be will install a Musharraf-Imran Khan government in Pakistan in which Musharraf would specialise in collecting overseas aid plus money given by expat Pakistanis while Imran Khan will focus on ending corruption in Pakistan.
Why call the judges My Lord?
Reported in daily Pakistan lawyer AK Dogar had approached the Lahore High Court with a petition that it should be banned to address any judge in the judiciary as My Lord which was against the edicts of Islam and equated the judge with God. The High Court asked the federal and provincial governments to defend themselves on the practice of addressing the judges as My Lord.
America goes for oil in Arab Spring!
An intellectually gifted TV anchor and acknowledged genius wrote in Express that the US was after the oil of Libya but the people of Libya were willing to become the hired killers of the West against their own ruler. There will be no democracy in Tunis, Egypt and Libya but the oil of Libya will be out of Muslim hands. If there is no democracy in oil-less Tunis and Egypt how can there be democracy in oil-rich Libya?
Gadafi not so great
Writing in Express famous intellectual Oria Maqbul Jan stated that Gadafi was not so great after all. He was born in a Bedou home and went to a madrassa for a time before getting selected in the army. He also spent some time in London bust in very dubious activities, then went back to join Hizbut Tahrir. He later staged a coup as a colonel and became ruler of Libya surrounding himself with beautiful hired white nurses.
A new PPP?
Khushnood Ali Khan revealed the secret in Jinnah that on the 40 days (chaliswan) of Begum Nusrat Bhutto a new PPP would announce itself to counter the ruling PPP which will be headed by her daughter-in-law Ghinwa, followed by Mumtaz Bhutto, Dr Mubashir Hasan, Nahid Khan and Safdar Abbasi. Ghinwa fell out with Zardari on the question of starting the funeral march of Nusrat Bhutto from her house which is the house of Nusrat Bhutto's eldest son.
Libya war is Western plot!
Daily Express held a seminar in which famous speakers such as Prof Sajjad Nasir, Ambassador Javed Hussain and General Nishat came to the conclusion that the West had destroyed a Muslim state while Ambassador Khalid Mehmood insisted that Gadafi gave nothing valuable to his country in his 40 years rule.
Dr AQ Khan versus Imran Khan
Daily Pakistan quoted the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb Dr AQ Khan as asking famous emerging leader Imran Khan to tell him what solution he had for the problems of Pakistan. He said it was Pakistan's misfortune that no one today was willing to take Pakistan out if its crises. (He was expecting to be 'made active' in politics.)
Hafiz Saeed rails against MFN
The strongest man of Pakistan Hafiz Saeed of banned Jamaatud Dawa told Jinnah that giving MFN status to India was like binding Pakistan hand and foot and throwing it in front of India. He said such plots should be abandoned forthwith. He said Bharat was not most favoured (pasandida) but most disliked (napasandida) country for all Pakistanis. He said rulers conspiring to buy electricity from India were Indian agents.
Gadafi invited Indira Gandhi
Daily Mashriq revealed that Gadafi was a most unpredictable person subject to changing moods and he was not consistent in policy-making. He once sent his wife to India to invite prime minister Indira Gandhi to Libya. He once handed over his embassy in New Delhi to Libyan students. India helped Libya greatly in the 1970s decade and Indira Gandhi visited Libya in 1984.
ISI paid renegade Karzai!
Famous columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that President Karzai of Afghanistan studied in Simla University in India, then became a minister in the pre-Taliban Rabbani Government while he had contacts in Pakistan's ISI who also gave money (wazifa) to his father living in Quetta. After America invaded Afghanistan the ISI and CIA joined to send Karzai to Kabul through Quetta after CIA pledged that Karzai will defend the interests of Pakistan.
Judges get illegal concessions
Reported in Mashriq two retired judges ex-chief justice of the Lahore High Court Khwaja Sharif and ex-judge of the Supreme Court Khalil Ramday were living in official residences even after retirement and were using free concessions like oil and official cars in addition to residences. The Punjab government was getting ready to organise raids to stop the facilities of the two judges as well as a lot of other ex-employees who had retained their facilities.
[Al Ahram] The head of Morocco's moderate Islamists said Saturday he wanted a coalition government to promote democracy and good governance after his party claimed victory in parliamentary polls.
"The nub of our programme and of those who will govern with us will have a double axis, democracy and good governance," Abdellah Benkirane told the La Belle France 24 television channel.
"Today what I can promise Moroccans is that I am going to try, I and the team which will work with me, to be more serious and more rational," the leader of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) said.
A month after Islamists won Tunisia's post-revolution election and days before their predicted surge in Egyptian polls, their Moroccan counterparts claimed to have achieved a similar breakthrough without bloodshed.
With official results expected Sunday, PJD parliamentary bloc leader Lahcen Daoudi predicted the party would have more than 100 of the 395 seats in the assembly.
Under the new constitution, if the predicted results are confirmed, King Mohammed VI will have to name a prime minister from the PJD.
Benkirane acknowledged that his party would have to tailor its programme to appease its coalition partners and the international community on whose investment and tourism the country relies heavily.
"As far as alliances are concerned, we are open to everyone, I have always said that," he said.
"From now on, Moroccans will feel that the state is at their service and not the other way about," Benkirane added. "That is very important for us."
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[Dawn] Pakistain said on Sunday it was reviewing its alliance with the United States and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... after up to 26 soldiers were killed in cross-border NATO air strikes, plunging frosty US ties into deeper crisis. We should be reviewing our ties as well. Perhaps the Paks should be made aware that in the event of interference with operations in Afghanistan there will be a.) no more foreign aid to Pakistain, b.) no immigration from Pakistain, and c.) all Pak citizens in the U.S. have 24 hours to depart and not come back...
Pakistain sealed its Afghan border to NATO, shutting down a lifeline for the estimated 130,000 US-led foreign troops fighting the Taliban, and called on the United States to leave a secretive air base (Shamsi) reportedly used by CIA drones.
Islamabad protested to NATO and the United States in the strongest terms -- summoning US ambassador Cameron Munter, branding the strike a violation of international law and warning that there could be serious repercussions.
The US-led NATO force in Afghanistan admitted it was "highly likely" that the force's aircraft caused the deaths before dawn on Saturday, inflaming US-Pak relations still reeling from the May killing of the late Osama bin Laden. ... who has left the building... The US commander in Afghanistan promised a full investigation and sent his condolences over any troops "who may have been killed" on the Afghan border with Pakistain's lawless tribal belt, branded an al Qaeda hub by Washington.
NATO troops frequently carry out operations against Taliban bully boyz close to the border with Pakistain, which in many places is unmarked, although the extent to which those operations are coordinated with Pakistain is unclear.
Afghan and US officials accuse Pak troops at worst of colluding with the Taliban or at best of standing by while bully boyz fire across the border from Pak soil, often in clear sight of Pak border posts.
At the same time Pakistain, battling its own Taliban insurgency in the northwest and dependent on billions of dollars in US aid, gives the US-led war effort in Afghanistan vital logistics support.
Key questions remain unanswered about what exactly happened in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... district, just hours after General John Allen, the US commander in Afghanistan, discussed coordination with Pakistain's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
Pakistain said NATO helicopters and fighter aircraft fired "unprovoked" overnight Friday-Saturday on two army border posts, killing 24 to 26 troops and wounding 13, adding that Pak troops had returned fire.
The government said the attacks were "a grave infringement" of illusory sovereignty, a "serious transgression of the oft-conveyed red lines".
A front man for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, confirmed that foreign soldiers, working with Afghan troops, called in air support for an operation near the border.
"It's highly likely that this close air support, called by the ground forces, caused the casualties," Jacobson told AFP.
Pakistain swiftly sealed its border with Afghanistan to NATO supplies -- holding up convoys at the Torkham and Chaman crossings on the main overland US supply line into landlocked Afghanistan from the Arabian Sea port of Bloody Karachi.
An extraordinary meeting of cabinet ministers and military chiefs ordered the United States to leave the Shamsi air base within 15 days, despite reports that American personnel had already left.
It also said the government would "undertake a complete review of all programmes, activities and cooperative arrangements with US/NATO/Isaf, including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence".
In Afghanistan, Allen promised a thorough investigation "to determine the facts" and extended his condolences to the loved ones of anyone who died.
Munter expressed "regret" over any loss of life and pledged the United States would work "closely" with Pakistain to investigate.
Relations between Pakistain and the United States have been in crisis since American troops killed bin Laden near the capital without prior warning and after a CIA contractor killed two Paks in Lahore in January.
Pak, US and Afghan officials have traded complaints about responsibility for cross-border attacks, with each side accusing the other of not doing enough to prevent cut-thoat assaults on military positions.
In September 2010, Pakistain shut the main land route for NATO supplies at Torkham for 11 days after accusing NATO of killing three Pak troops.
The border was reopened after the United States formally apologised.
Americans have long accused Pakistain of playing a double game with the Taliban, and the issue came to a head in September when the then top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, accused Pakistain of colluding in a US embassy siege in Kabul.
US drones carry out routine missile attacks on Taliban and al Qaeda operatives in Pakistain's lawless tribal belt, where American officials say neutralising bully boyz is vital to winning the war in Afghanistan.
Pakistain last week forced its envoy to the United States, Husain Haqqani, to step down over accusations that he sought American help in limiting Pakistain's powerful military after the bin Laden raid.
His successor, Sherry Rehman, has yet to arrive in Washington.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
We should be reviewing our ties as well. Perhaps the Paks should be made aware that in the event of interference with operations in Afghanistan there will be a.) no more foreign aid to Pakistain, b.) no immigration from Pakistain, and c.) all Pak citizens in the U.S. have 24 hours to depart and not come back...
You are absolutely right Fred!!! Don't expect anything like that from the the greatest appeasers since the British govt in the 1930s. The Clueless will put our troops at risk, rather than to get hard nosed with the Paks.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/27/2011 0:10
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#2
Cut them off. 1/3rd? Cut off all aid and step up the drones. Lying bastids
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2011 0:12
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#1
As the Freakonomics boys are fond of saying, economics is all about incentives. When being a pirate is no longer a lucrative trade, piracy will stop. There are a number of paths to this end-game, but paying ransoms is not one of them.
And then there will be an election. After that, who can say?
U.S. Marines will march out of Afghanistan by the thousands next year, winding down combat in the Taliban heartland and testing the U.S. view that Afghan forces are capable of leading the fight against a battered but not yet beaten insurgency in the country's southwestern reaches, American military officers say.
At the same time, U.S. reinforcements will go to eastern Afghanistan in a bid to reverse recent gains by insurgents targeting Kabul, the capital.
Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, said in an Associated Press interview that the number of Marines in Helmand province will drop "markedly" in 2012, and the role of those who stay will shift from countering the insurgency to training and advising Afghan security forces.
#2
Notice they don't give simular handbooks to Buddists, Jews, or any other 'religious minority' - only the Muslims.
Which means that muslims are so 'special' (in 'need extra-special help' sort of way) that they need a handbook.
And where does the handbook send them - right into the open arms of Radical Islam.
[Dawn] On the instructions of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... , Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Saturday called in US Ambassador Cameron Munter to lodge a strong protest on the unprovoked NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... attack on Pakistain border posts in the Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency.
The secretary conveyed to the US ambassador that the unprovoked attack by NATO/Isaf aircraft on border posts, in which 24 Pak troops bit the dust and another 13 were maimed, had deeply incensed the government and the people of Pakistain, according to a press statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"The president, prime minister and the government of Pakistain strongly condemn the attacks which were totally unacceptable, constituted a grave infringement of Pakistain's illusory sovereignty, were violative of international law and a serious transgression of the oft conveyed red lines and could have serious repercussions on Pakistain-US/NATO/Isaf cooperation", the statement said.
The Ambassador was informed that the prime minister had convened an emergency meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet to evaluate the situation arising from these uncalled for attacks by NATO/Isaf forces.
Strong protest has also been lodged in Washington and at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, the statement added.
On the other hand, Munter expressed regret for the loss of life in cross-border Incident in Mohmand Agency.
In a statement issued by US embassy, Munter says "I have seen press accounts of an incident on the Pak-Afghan border in which Pak soldiers were reportedly killed.
I regret the loss of life of any Pak servicemen, and pledge that the United States will work closely with Pakistain to investigate this incident."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
Alledgedly, when Sauce Robert [ROH-bare](Brown Mustard Sauce), is used on meat, especially pork, it takes on the flavor of human meat, according to second-hand information from none other than Julia Child. Based on her OSS war experience in Ceylon, she likely heard it from someone who knew.
[An Nahar] Colombia's FARC rebels have executed four hostages, just days after installing a new leader at the helm of Latin America's longest-running Death Eater group, the defense minister said Saturday.
"Four hostages, members of the security forces, have been killed," Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon told a presser, adding that their bullet-ridden bodies had been found on Saturday morning in the Solano region.
In his first message since taking over as leader of Colombia's main leftist guerrilla outfit, new FARC chief Timoleon Jimenez warned President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday: "We all have to die."
Alfonso Cano, who had led the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a narco mob based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. (FARC) since 2008, was bumped off in a November 4 firefight with Colombian government forces.
Santos said Thursday in Bogota that Jimenez, alias Timochenko, would share Cano's fate unless he gave his actions serious thought.
The FARC, believed to have 8,000 members, has been at war with the government since 1964. It began a campaign of kidnappings in the mid-1980s, seizing army hostages to serve as bargaining chips forFARC prisoners. By the late 1990s, civilians and politicians were also being snatched, winning the group greater notoriety.
Saturday's executions leave 14 police and soldiers still in FARC hands. Some of them have spent more than a decade in captivity.
The operation to kill Cano was the latest in a string of recent military victories in the government's quest to eradicate FARC, after years of unsuccessful attempts to find a negotiated solution.
The FARC lost its number two Raul Reyes during a Colombian army raid in Ecuadoran territory in 2008.
That same year, the FARC also lost Manuel "Sure Shot" Marulanda Velez, the reclusive 80-year-old rebel chief, who was last seen in 1982. He died after a brief undisclosed illness.
This article starring:
Alfonso Cano
Timoleon Jimenez
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Correct term would have been 'murder' not 'execute', something only a legitimate government can do.
More state officials have been identified as being involved in the Coahuila debt scandal, according to Mexican news accounts.
According to an account published last Friday by the Mexican daily El Universal, Sergio Ricardo Fuentes -- who has been linked to another Coahuila state government official, Jaime Rene Jimenez Flores -- travelled to Mexico City along with two other unidentified bank officials, as well as two other unidentified employees of Coahuila state Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico (SHCP) or treasurer's office to present falsely endorsed debt documents to the Mexican national Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico (SHCP).
The article fails to name the two non governmental bank executives, apparently since a separate investigation is ongoing, but the banks identified are Santander, Banco de Baijo and BBVA Bancomer. Those banks are three of the 14 banks which hold the lion's share of the MP $33 billion (USD $235,871,130.00) in debt Coahuila now has on its books.
In per capita terms and as a percentage of the state Gross Domestic Product, Coahuila's total debt is the Mexico's heaviest load.
The article is significant because it says Ricardo Fuentes forged the signature of the then head of the Coahuila Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico (SHCP), Victor Manuel Zamora.
The account describes a trip Ricardo Fuentes took along with at least two other Coahuila state official and two unidentified bank representatives in December 2009 to register a credit for approximately MP $1 billion (USD $71,476,100.00).
The article which is partially based on a November complaint filed with the Mexican national SHCP general counsel, said numerous other documents were found in the files of the national SHCP files which contained the faked signature of Manuel Zamora. Reports do not say how far back the forgery scheme goes back, or if it goes back further than December, 2009.
On its face, the complaint seems to go some distance in separating Humberto Moreira Valdes' involvement in the falsification of documents and illegal acquisition of debt during Moreira's term as governor of Coahuila. However, even if the recent revelations do exonerate Moreira they do not entirely let him off the hook. There is no way Moreira could not have known at least some of the official documents were or had been falsified.
Mexican law requires not only new loan and bond documents be filed with the national SHCP, they must also be filed in a public place, preferably the internet. A quick audit by Moreira's treasurer while he was governor appointee could easily have uncovered the fraud.
The article also says that Ricardo Fuentes had to have met with Flores Jiminez just prior to the December, 2009 trip to Mexico City to receive documents. All four officials, Ricardo Fuentes and Javier Segovia went with the yet to be identified Saltillo-based bankers aboard a private charter jet to Mexico City.
The official complaint does not mention the Mexico City home of Ricardo Fuentes. The trip was said to have lasted three hours, presumably before all four officials left Mexico City to return to Saltillo. Presumably none of the four in the December 2009 trip to Mexico City stayed in town for very long.
Flores Jiminez who is known to have maintained a residence in Mexico City, according to the latest news accounts, is missing -- and he is a known central figure in the last of the false loan documents filed for Coahuila.
The report, while failing to name the two bank officials in the December 2009 contract, indicates that those officials were acting on orders from more senior bank officials presumably to seek additional loan business from Coahuila state.
According to the complaint, Javier Segovia, a subordinate of Ricardo Fuentes, said he and another banker were directed to wait at a popular local Mexico City bar while Ricardo Fuentes went to the Mexico City SHCP office at the Palacio Nacional to register the loan documents in December 2009.
Another possibly forged loan document was produced in December 2010, which is very close to the end of the tenure of Moreira as governor of Coahuila. According to an affidavit by an unidentified bank official, Jesus Gustavo, an official at BBVA Bancomer ordered the unidentified affiant to take loan documents to the airport at Ramos Aripe, adjacent to Saltillo, Coahuila, so that Javier Villareal -- the disgraced Coahuila state tax collection official -- could sign them. The loan documents for MP $1.65 billion (USD $117,935,565.00) were transmitted in person along with another unidentified bank official or possibly a "companion" to the unidentified bank employee.
The trip to Ramon Aripe airport was described as being in a rush because, according to the translation, the documents were to be signed by Villareal aboard a private jet on the way to Mexico City.
In the December 2009, two more Coahuila government officials, Juan Manuel Froto GarcÃa and Juan Manuel Delgado Hernändez, appeared at the SHCP office to register the latest loan. It is unclear in the translation if the two newly identified officials were additional officials omitted from the November complaint, or if they were involved in a separate transaction.
[Tripoli Post] Election results for the first 50 seats in Morocco's 395-seat parliament early Saturday suggest a moderate Islamist party is taking 40 percent of the vote according to the state's news agency.
According to the new constitution, the party with the most seats in the popular European tourist destination and US ally that suffers from high unemployment and widespread poverty, it gets first crack at forming a new government. It would also appear to confirm a trend of victories by Islamist parties in elections prompted by the Arab Spring, following Ennahda's win last month in Tunisia.
Like the rest of the region, Morocco was swept by pro-democracy protests decrying widespread corruption, which the king attempted to defuse over the summer by ordering the constitution modified to grant more powers to the Parliament and prime minister and then holding elections a year earlier.
The government announced a 45-percent turnout in Friday's contest, slightly more than legislative elections in 2007, when 19 percent of ballots were invalid..
A coalition of eight liberal, pro-government parties led by Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar have amassed roughly the same amount of seats as the Islamists in the preliminary results announced, but it is the largest single party that forms the government.
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[An Nahar] At least 24 civilians and members of the security forces were killed in attacks in Syria on Saturday as 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... finance ministers met in Cairo to draw up economic sanctions against Damascus. ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... Deserters killed eight soldiers and members of the security forces and maimed 40 more in an attack in Idlib in northwest Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"A group of deserters attacked a squad of soldiers and security agents in a convoy of seven vehicles, including three all-terrain vehicles, on the road from Ghadka to Maaret Numan," the Britannia-based watchdog said.
"Eight were killed and at least 40 more were maimed. The deserters were able to withdraw without suffering any casualties," it added.
The rebel Free Syrian Army said in a statement it was behind the attack.
Elsewhere, 16 civilians, including two children aged nine and 10, were rubbed out by security forces -- 15 in Homs and Qussayr in central Syria and another in Deir al-Zour in the east, the Observatory said.
It added that the bodies of three men set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock several days ago in Homs and Idlib were returned to their families.
The Observatory said at least 10 members of the security forces were killed in festivities with mutinous soldiers in Deir al-Zour on Friday.
The same day, the Syrian military confirmed that six elite pilots and four others were killed in an attack on Thursday, and accused foreign powers of supporting acts of terror inside the country.
"An armed terrorist gang murdered six pilots, an officer and three junior officers working for the military air base" on Thursday, the army said in a statement quoted by the state news agency SANA.
The ambush "took place on the Palmyra-Homs road," it said.
Thursday's attack was also claimed by the Free Syrian Army which said seven military pilots were killed in an ambush on a bus.
The rebel army has stepped up attacks on regime targets in recent weeks in a bid to topple the government of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... who has waged a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters since mid-March.
The Free Syrian Army claims to have some 20,000 deserters in its ranks. The group's chief, Riad Assad, is based in Turkey.
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[An Nahar] The corpse count in festivities between Mohammedan and Christian ethnic groups in central Nigeria has risen to 25, a local official said Saturday, following a mass burial that included four of his own children.
Pam Choji, a counselor in Barkin Ladi local government council, who lost four children in Wednesday's attack, said that 23 of the victims were entered on Friday.
He said the corpses of two other people who were rubbed out in the festivities were expected to be buried on Saturday, "which will make 25 people that we would have buried."
A Plateau state government front man, Ayuba Pam, had said on Thursday that at least 12 people were killed in the festivities between ethnic Fulani, mainly Mohammedans, and Beroms, who are predominantly Christians.
Newspapers on Saturday, quoting an army front man, said that more than 160 people had been placed in long-term storage over the festivities, which appeared to result from reprisals carried out over killings that had occurred several days ago.
Plateau state lies in the so-called middle belt region between the mainly Mohammedan north and predominately Christian south of Africa's most populous nation.
The area has been caught in a deadly cycle of attacks and reprisals that have regularly flared up for years.
Beroms and other mainly Christian ethnic groups are viewed as indigenous in the area, while Hausa-Fulani Mohammedans are seen as the more recent "settlers" despite the fact that many have been there for decades.
Separately in the countryside, festivities over land have occurred between Berom farmers and Fulani herdsmen.
Thousands have been killed in the unrest in recent years. Dozens died in violence including kabooms on Christmas Eve 2010 and the days that followed.
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11/27/2011
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[An Nahar] Israel warned on Saturday that it would cut the supply of water and electricity to the Gazoo Strip if rival Paleostinian movements Fatah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, form a unity government.
"The foreign ministry is examining the possibility of Israel pulling out of the Gazoo Strip in terms of infrastructure," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the daily Yediot Aharonot website.
A unity government deal "would transform the Paleostinian Authority into a terrorist authority and would put an end to any hope for a peace agreement" with Israel, said Ayalon, who is also a Knesset deputy from the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
On Friday, Israeli ministers decided to maintain a freeze on the transfer of tens of millions of dollars in tax monies to the Paleostinian Authority hours after Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... held top-level talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal at which they announced a new era of "partnership."
The transfer of funds, which make up a large percentage of the authority's monthly budget, was frozen on November 1 as a punitive measure after the Paleostinians won full membership of the U.N. cultural organization.
"If the Paleostinians have signed an agreement over a unity government, it would make a transfer of funds impossible," a senior government official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
In January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already threatened to cut off water and power to Gazoo, which has been controlled by Hamas since the Islamist group chased Fatah from the territory in 2008.
Israel, which unilaterally withdrew from Gazoo and dismantled Jewish settlements in 2008, continues to supply the territory with water and 70 percent of its electrical power, the rest being supplied by neighboring Egypt or local power plants.
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#1
I suspect it was more like "pay your damn bills or we cut off service"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2011 0:14
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Israel fulfills its obligations under the Oslo Treaty with the Paleostinian Authority. No PA---No Oslo Treaty---no power and water. The Israeli govt should cut off courtesy hospital admissions, too. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses with losers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/27/2011 0:15
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#3
Reoccupy Gaza, push the Gazooks into the sea.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
11/27/2011 5:03
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Israeli sanctions appear to be working: Fayyad: Palestinian economy devastated by Israeli freeze Israel's suspension of transferring tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority has had a "devastating impact" on the Palestinian economy, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said.
Fayyad told The Associated Press that he will be unable to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants.
Israel has been withholding about $100 million in tax payments collected on the Palestinians' behalf since the Palestinians were accepted as a full member of UNESCO, the United Nations scientific and cultural agency, and is continuing to withhold them over Fatah-Hamas unity talks.
#6
As per CHINA DAILY FORUM, Paleo investors or speculators prefer to put their $$$ into Israel's economy than either the curren PA or their future Paleo State.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The secessionist leader during Nigeria's civil war in the late 1960s and a pivotal figure in the country's history, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, has died at 78, the presidency announced Saturday.
"President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has received with much sadness and a deep feeling of great national loss news of the passing away of Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the United Kingdom," a statement said.
It did not say when Ojukwu died or give the cause of death. He had been ill and receiving treatment in Britannia for a number of months.
The Oxford-educated Ojukwu, who had been an army lieutenant colonel, led the campaign for an independent state of Biafra in eastern Nigeria in the 1960s that included a two-and-a-half year civil war from 1967-1970 which left more than a million dead.
He remains a revered figure in eastern Nigeria, where the Igbo people dominate.
Ojukwu's 1967 declaration of independence for Biafra came largely in response to the killing of large numbers of Igbos in the country's north.
Control of the country's vast oil resources also played an important role in the war. Many of those who died succumbed to starvation and disease.
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Piers Morgan: "In her haste to take no responsibility, [she] didn't even bother to pick the phone up, to write, to do anything. I find that extraordinary."
#1
her husband can go blow. Palin had ZERO to do with his wife's shooting, and for him to inject that means his NASA service doesn't provide cover. How long has her district been unrepresented? She should've resigned and run again after her rehab.
Selfish
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2011 0:17
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#2
The cross-hairs map nonsense will not help the Dems. It will make them look sad and hypocritical and stupid. After all they are photographic fedicials on that map, not cross hairs, and the nut was not political anyway, and boy don't start a discussion on insisting violence. Not if you have any brains.
#7
The good cap'n usn, RET., being a life-long military AND demon-crat political careerist, had his mind totally warped as he went through Earth's exo-sphere in both directions several times.
He's now collecting pap, pablum, phlegm and smegma samples for a liberal e-reader sob-fest that's been festering in his evil, careerist, doomed and dollar-grubbing soul.
[An Nahar] Arab finance ministers gathered in Cairo on Saturday drew up a list of economic sanctions against Syria that they will present to foreign ministers for adoption, a communique said.
The recommendation -- which includes a ban on Syrian officials visiting any Arab country and the freezing of government assets -- comes after Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Lord of the Baath... regime defied an ultimatum to allow in observers amid a lethal crackdown on protest.
Arab top diplomats will meet in Cairo on Sunday to vote on the sanctions.
The list of punitive measures also included the suspension of flights and a halt to any transactions with the Syrian government and its central bank.
Arab states are also called to freeze any investments for projects in Syria.
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... had set a Friday deadline for Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... to agree to the details of the observers' mission, part of a reform deal Syria had previously said it accepted.
If adopted, the sanctions are likely to have a crippling effect on Syria which relies on its Arab neighbors for half of its exports and a quarter of its imports.
The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... estimates that the Syrian government's crackdown has cost more than 3,500 lives since March.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Looks like a Sunni united front against the Shiia.
[Yemen Post] A senior Interior Ministry official said that President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... contacted the Interior Minister twice over the last 36 hours giving him orders on how to run certain matters. "His contact is directly with the minister.
It was like that all along. The minister received a call from President Saleh last night," Under the power transfer agreement signing in Riyadh days ago, Saleh does not have authority to act as president and his 90-day role is a honorary president with no authorities.
Opposition forces are worried that Saleh will not implement the points in the agreement and continue calling for sanctions on the ruling family if the agreement is not implemented.
Vice President Hadi has not authorized anything or released a statement since being handed the authorities of President Saleh.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2011
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There are two routes into Afghanistan from Pakistan, one across the Khyber Pass to the Afghan border town of Torkham and on to Kabul. The other goes through Pakistan's Baluchistan province to the border town of Chaman and on to the southern Afghan city, and former Taliban stronghold, of Kandahar.
Between them these two routes account for just under one third of all cargo that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) ships into Afghanistan.
Just over one third of all cargo goes on routes dubbed the "northern distribution network" through Central Asia, and the Caucasus or Russia. The remaining 31 percent is flown in.
As recently as July, the balance of supplies transiting through Pakistan and the northern distribution network were weighted in Pakistan's favor, with slightly more than half of ground-transported supplies arriving through Khyber or Chaman.
After a string of disruptions, NATO-led forces and the U.S. military decided to push supply networks away from reliance on Pakistan. The United States has gone even further than other nations in the alliance with a target that only 25 percent of ground cargo should arrive via Afghanistan's eastern neighbor.
This was done with the goal of "reducing reliance on any single line of communication to avoid any unnecessary vulnerabilities should that network become unavailable," according to an ISAF spokeswoman.
#1
Hmmm...the US could get all the ground fighters it wants from Northern Alliance remnants. All that would be needed was to maintain an air presence, and employ Napalm. It was a mistake to create conditions where Pashtun neo-talibanis would be in position to play doble cara, while expanding Heorin operations. A smaller but stronger US presence could deal a mortal blow against the enemy.
The detachment of Taliban from al-Qaeda was part of State Dept "nation building" rhetoric. Nation-destruction was and is the only viable option. Allowing Pakistan to maintain its "in depth" policy, while leveraging the belligerent status quo is a recipe for disaster.
[An Nahar] Iraqi forces need an American troop presence or at least U.S. training forces, President Jalal Talabani has said, according to a Saturday statement on the Iraqi presidency's website.
Regarding "internal security, I believe that the police and army forces are capable of maintaining security as it is now," Talabani said in an interview with Iraqiya television, according to the statement.
"But there is a big problem in air and naval defense, and in using new weapons," Talabani said.
"I have read, as the president of the republic, reports from officers responsible... for the air force and the navy and armor and infantry," he said.
"And all these reports found that Iraq needs an American presence or at least the presence of American trainers, because they say we are not capable now of defending our skies and our waters, nor to use the weapons we will buy or obtain from the Americans."
Iraqi officers "want the Americans to stay either as trainers or as forces to help Iraq against terrorism and against external interventions," Talabani said.
But he added: "I do not think the U.S. withdrawal will be a disaster for Iraq, as I believe Iraq is able to maintain its internal security."
U.S. President Barack My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it Obama announced on October 21 that all U.S. troops would depart Iraq by the end of the year, bringing to a close an almost nine-year war that has left thousands of U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead, and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
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#1
then Talabani should've overcome Obama's inept argument for a SOFA and put one in place to protect our troops.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2011 9:37
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#2
Don't think he would be able to, even with his own party.
Don't forget the US State Department will be there, with its own privately-contracted armed force almost as large as the one that's leaving.
[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 ... stressed on Saturday that Leb would not enjoy stability as long as its citizens are in disagreement.
"The authority in Leb is practically lost," Geagea told a delegation of businessmen visiting him at his residence in Maarab.
"Where would stability come from if the country doesn't have a demarcated border and known authority and lacks citizens that agree on the concept of nation?" he wondered.
The LF leader said that stability requires a country with demarcated borders and an authority that can protect it.
"How would we have an economy and an economic cycle" if the authority is lost?, he asked.
He urged the Lebanese to start reforming politics before anything else. "We have to fight till the end. We should start by fixing politics and then we could fix everything else."
Geagea stressed that Leb would have a strong and capable state only if the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces come back to power.
"We should always work on achieving this objective," he said.
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Rogue Muslim rebel leader Ameril Umbrakato, whose forces have threatened the peace efforts of the Philippine government, has fallen ill, said a spokesman for his group on Saturday. However he is not dead despite a number of reports about his demise, said Abu Misri Mama, spokesman of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighterssplinter faction.
Mama said, "Four days ago, (Umbrakato) was walking around the camp when his vision darkened and he collapsed. He regained consciousness three minutes later and told his followers they should go back because he did not feel well."
If we had a CIA worth anything at all, we'd be spreading a story about how the assassin had poisoned Ameril's mushrooms...
Mama said that another terrorist a vice-commander had taken Umbrakato to a doctor and he had not been seen since. The other terrorist vice-commander said he was merely suffering from asthma. But others in the rebel group said that Umbrakato could barely speak and was communicating by writing.
Mama said that if the he died, they would announce it publicly.
The local army commander, Major General Rey Ardo, said he had also heard reports of Umbrakato's death or that he had suffered a stroke, but had not verified them. He repeated an earlier offer to have Umbrakato treated at a military hospital.
Umbrakato and his group broke from the MILF after the latter opened peace talks with the government. Umbrakato, thought to have as many as a 1,000 followers, rejected the talks and accused his former comrades of abandoning the fight.
He was one of two hard-line MILF leaders who led large-scale attacks across Mindanao in August 2008 after the Supreme Court outlawed a draft peace deal that would have given the MILF control over vast areas of the south. About 400 people died and 750,000 were displaced in that attack.
In recent months, members of Umbrakato's "freedom fighters" have clashed with MILF members in disputes over territory.
[Tripoli Post] After talks on Friday with the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, SCAF. UN general secretary, the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... has renewed calls for Egypt's military rulers to ensure a "peaceful transition".
According to Ban's front man, Martin Nesirky, as tens of thousands of demonstrators massed in the Egyptian capital Cairo's Tahrir Square demanding the army rulers step down, Ban and Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi held a telephone conversation ahead of Egypt's elections which are due to start on Monday.
The UN leader renewed a plea "for an inclusive, orderly and peaceful transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people through transparent and credible elections leading to the establishment of civilian rule," said his spokesperson.
"The secretary general remains deeply concerned by the violence in Egypt over the last few days. He deplores the loss of life and the high number of injured, and reiterates his call for the transitional authorities to guarantee the protection of human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... and civil liberties for all Egyptians," he said.
The US and other governments have also called for a quick transition to civilian rule in Egypt.
The military council has ruled out stepping down, and has pledged to maintain security during the first poll since a popular uprising toppled Mubarak in February. General Mukthar al-Mulla said "The people have entrusted us with a mission and, if we abandon it now, it would be a betrayal of the people."
Egypt's new prime minister, 78-year-old Kamal al-Ganzuri, a premier under ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... tasked to head a new cabinet, has so far failed to win over the thousands of demonstrators packed into Tahrir Square who continued to demand that the military rulers step down.
Ganzuri, who served as Mubarak's prime minister between 1996 and 1999 told news hounds in his first public statement after his appointment that previous cabinets over the past 60 years were given many powers by the President of the republic.
Later he said he would formalise his government "before the end of next week" and would allocate some portfolios to younger people, but protesters in the square quickly rejected his appointment, saying he was not the man to lead a transition to democracy.
Hundreds of demonstrators in the square branched off to the nearby cabinet offices to block Ganzuri from entering the building, chanting "revolution" and "Ganzuri is a former regime leftover."
"Our mistake in the (January-February) revolution was to think that we had only to topple Mubarak. But what we did was to cut off the head and leave the body," protesters said.
The protesters proposed a list of presidential candidates to form a civilian leadership council, including former 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. , a prominent dissident during Mubarak's rule.
Earlier they were bolstered by an announcement that the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest authority, had thrown his weight behind them.
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#1
Ban Ki-moon has renewed calls for Egypt's military rulers to ensure a "peaceful transition".
For a map, click here For additional updates on this story see today's sidebar: More Coahuila state and private officials named in debt scandal
By Chris Covert
Humberto Moreira Valdes' role in the public debt scandal became clearer -- and his crisis deeper as Mexican press reports revealed Wednesday that a top official in Moreira's state government not only knew about fraudulent loans, but also signed off on them as well.
Until last Wednesday Moreira contended he had no role in the acquisition of public debt for the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. At the time of his protestations, two minor officials had been arraigned for their role in illegally contracting new debt for the state by using false or non-existent documents.
Despite public and repeated calls for him to explain his role or for him to step down, Moreira had resisted describing his side of the contracting of public debt for the state he presided over for three years, instead insisting he was too focussed on winning elections for the Partido Revolucinario Institucional (PRI), Mexico's largest and most politically powerful political entity, which he now heads.
According to El Universal daily newspaper posting last week, on November a complaint was filed by the Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) or national attorney general's office with the Procuraduria Fiscal de la Federacion, a general counsel of the Mexican national treasurer's office, that debt acquired by the state of Coahuila in 2009 was done so illegally. Named in that complaint was Jaime Rene Jimenez Flores, formerly head of Deuda Pública de Entidades y Municipios of the Coahuila state Secretario de Hacienda y Credito Publico, or state treasurer's office.
According to press accounts the loan in question was for MP $550 million (USD $38,907,770.00) and was contracted with BVVA Bancomer bank. According to the complain, Jimenez Flores used a registration for a loan in another state, San Luis Potosi, and has falsified the document to make it appear genuine.
The report also said that Jimenez Flores had left his MP $94,000 (USD $6649.69) a month job, and that Jiminez Flores also owned a home in Mexico state. Mexican news reports provide every reason to believe that Jiminez Flores skipped town once the shenanigans became public.
As of the date of this posting no Coahuila state attorney had yet to move against Jiminez Flores. To date only two individuals have been implicated in the false contracting of debt for Coahuila, in per capita and as a percentage of the state's gross domestic product, Mexico's heaviest.
That, however, may be changing.
The Coahuila state Chamber of Deputies has recently passed changes to the state Revenue Act which will raise user fees, some more than 200 percent. Included in the fees hikes are:
Charges for birth registration goes from MP $19 (USD $1.35) to MP $60 (USD $4.25).
Marriage and divorce registrations will rise from MP $194 (USD $13.74) to MP $520 (USD $36.84).
Certified copies of marriage and divorce decrees go from MP $19 (USD $1.35) to MP $70 (USD $4.96).
Entrance to parks and museums go to MP $5 (USD $0.35), which were previously free.
Automobile license plates go from MP $552 (USD $39.11) to MP $600 (USD $42.51).
Motorcycle license plates go from MP $58 (USD $4.11) to MP $70 (USD $4.96).
The timing of those hikes are critical, as close to the end of the quarter, the total of public debt of Coahuila is set to rise from MP $33 billion (USD $233,785,530.00) to MP $37 billion (USD $262,123,170.00), which is an annualized rate of more than 40 percent. The increase is due to the downgrading of the Coahuila public debt this past fall, and the failure of state negotiators to bring all 14 banks owed money to terms for better rates and higher bond/debt rating.
If comments in the news articles about the fees hikes are any indication, Coahuilans are angry at PRI for the coming user fee hikes.
They shouldn't be. The party was going real good while Moreira was governor with numerous and popular income support/transfer programs funded by the bulging state treasury and fuelled by a populist facade. Parties such as the one going on in Coahuila since the election of Moreira are almost always good until a bad guy takes away the punch bowl.
The news article does not make clear when the fees are set to go into effect. but the speed at which changes were announced seems to indicate Coahuila's fiscal condition is dire. Nor does the article address a proposed payroll tax hike from one percent to three percent, a sure job killing measure. It is entirely possible the state payroll tax hike was killed in favor of increased user fees.
Politically, no change has occurred in Coahuila since the July elections. Moreira was a PRI governor who went on to lead the PRI while his brother won a crushing victory over the two other major political parties, Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) and Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD). The overwhelming victory of PRI and its coalition partnets in the state Chamber of Deputies is telling having won 58 percent of the vote.
If comments in the news articles about the fees hikes are any indication, Coahuilans are angry at PRI for the coming user fee hikes.
They shouldn't be. The party was going real good while Moreira was governor with numerous and popular income support/transfer programs funded by the bulging state treasury and fuelled by a populist facade. Parties such as the one going on in Coahuila since the election of Moreira are almost always good until a bad guy takes away the punch bowl.
Unfortunately for Moreira, the bad guy in this case is Moreira's very party, the PRI.
Defending Actions as Performance Art
Last Thursday Moreira gave a television performance finally explaining where all the money went his government borrowed during his tenure as governor: roads, hospitals and the state health care system infrastructure.
In a summary of his interview with Milenio TV's Carlos Marin on El Asulto a la Razon or The Assault on Reason, Moreira reiterated his innocence and instead of throwing unrelated charges back into the face of his PAN rivals, -- as he has done in previous interviews -- he said he doubted that Ernesto Cordero did anything illegal as well.
Cordero was formerly Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico (SHCP) or treasury ministry and current presidential contander. Cordero was SHCP at the same time Moreira was governor of Coahuila.
"It is absurd to think that the actual governor (Ruben Moreira), the previous, namely myself, or the previous Secretary of Treasury, namely the current aspirant to be candidate for the National Action Party (PAN) would put himself in this.
I am sure of myself, as also you can tell, that the current aspirant goes to be placed in this, either," he told Milenio TV.
Moreira's discussion was disingenuous at best because since it wasn't the SHCP that contracted the loans and spent the money, but it was Moreira himself.
[An Nahar] Leading Egyptian political figure Mohammed el-Baradei said on Saturday he was prepared to forgo a presidential bid if asked by the country's military rulers to be interim prime minister, his office said.
El-Baradei, who met earlier with the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said he was "ready to renounce the idea of being a candidate in the presidential election if officially asked to form a cabinet."
Protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square demanding that the army step down from power have repeatedly proposed ElBaradei -- a former
and highly, perhaps deliberately incompetent
UN nuclear watchdog chief -- to lead the transition to democratic rule.
ElBaradei said he was "willing to respond to the demands of the youth of the revolution and the political forces calling for a national salvation government that represents all the national forces."
His statement comes amid political upheaval, with anti-military rallies threatening to eclipse Monday's parliamentary elections, the first since Mubarak was ousted in February.
Political activists have called for another mass protest on Sunday to express their rejection of the military's decision to appoint Kamal al-Ganzouri -- who served as Mubarak's premier -- as the country's new prime minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2011
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[Dawn] A front man for NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... -led troops in Afghanistan confirmed that NATO aircraft had been called in to support troops during an incident near the border with Pakistain, and its forces were "highly likely" responsible for deaths of Pak soldiers.
"Close air support was called in, in the development of the tactical situation, and it is what highly likely caused the Pakistain casualties," said Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, front man for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"We are aware that there are Pak casualties, we don't know numbers, we don't know the magnitude of the incident," he told Rooters.
Pak officials earlier said NATO helicopters had attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistain and killed up to 28 troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2011
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#1
Firing 'warning shots' at US aircraft engaged in combat will often earn you a Darwin Award nomination.
#2
they were likely firing cover for Taliban forces.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2011 14:44
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#3
Bloggers = Pundits aren't worried so much about a US-Paki rift as they are PAK-vs-Afghan conflict, espec since Nuclear Pak is Nuclear China's BFF while Nuclear India is Not-Yet-Nuclear Aghanistan's new BFF.
Islamabad is denying that its troops fired twice at Afghan forces in cover, support of the Taliban.
versus
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > ISRAEL BLAMES [accuses] PAKISTAN, IRAN OF USING TERRORISTS AS PROXIES FOR FANATIC POLITICAL AIMS.
[Yemen Post] Yemen's opposition National Council officially chose Mohammed Basendowah as its candidate for the prime ministerial post in Yemen's fist national government after President-for-Life Saleh's ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... power transfer signing.
Senior officials in the opposition said that the council had previously decided on Yaseen Noman, president of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties, but he decline to accept the position.
According to the agreement, the opposition would nominate its candidate to lead the government while the vice president would accept the nomination and ask him to form the unified government.
Officials close to Vice President Abdu Rabu Hadi said that he will call on Basendowah to form the new government.
Basendowah is a former foreign minister and a prominent southern leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused 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... on Saturday of "internationalizing" the deadly crisis hitting the country since pro-democracy protests began more than eight months ago.
The accusation came in a letter addressed to the vaporous Arab League as ministers from the group gathered in Cairo to draw up sanctions against Syria to punish Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's regime for defying an ultimatum to allow in observers and pressing a deadly crackdown.
On Thursday, Arab diplomats said the League would ask the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... to contribute observers to an international mission that Syria is refusing to admit to the country.
In a letter released to the state-run SANA news agency, Muallem said the call by the Arab League to U.N. Secretary General Bank Ki-moon was an invitation "for foreign intervention (in Syria) instead of a call to avoid one."
"What we understand by this latest Arab League decision is a tacit green light for the internationalization of the situation in Syria and to meddle in its domestic affairs," Muallem was quoted as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2011
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[Tripoli Post] Reports from Tunisia indicate that the former prime minister in the Al Qadaffy ... who is now cavorting happily with Himmler and Heydrich... regime, Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi failed to turn up at a court hearing in Tunisia on Friday to fight an extradition order, with his lawyer explaining hat the reason for his failure to attend was because he was the target of death threats.
Al Mahmoudi's attorney, Mabrouk Kourchid told the press that is client had received written death threats from Libyans, and as such asked for authorisation from the court not to leave the prison in Mornagia close to the Tunisian capital, Tunis where he is being kept.
The 70-year-old Mahmoudi, who was Libya's the secretary of the General People's Congress (equivalent to prime minister) in the Al Qadaffy regime, is battling a ruling from the Tunisian appeals court earlier this month that approved his extradition to Libya. on the grounds that he has formally applied for refugee status.
Kourchid said that Mahmoudi's absence from the court hearing on Friday had little or no significance as the hearing was merely a formality.
Al-Mahmoudi, prime minister since 2006 until the final days of the regime of former Libyan leader Muammar Al Qadaffy was locked away by the Tunisian border police on September 22 in Tamaghza, southern Tunisia, close to the border with Algeria. He was sentenced to six months in prison for entering the country illegally.
Al-Mahmoudi's sentence was overturned a few days later, but the Tunisian authorities, who recognised the NTC as Libya's new authority in August and committed itself to cooperation on security issues, then held him in jug pending the outcome of an extradition request by Libya's mew rulers.
He is trying to avoid his extradition back to Libya by applying for political refugee status, and another of his lawyers, Tawfik Wanas, says that if the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) grants Mahmoudi refugee status it will no longer be possible to extradite him from Tunisia.
This article starring:
Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2011
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Dale Carnegie was never translated into Farsi.
Iran will target NATO's missile defense installations in Turkey if the U.S. or Israel attacks the Islamic Republic, a senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saturday.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards' aerospace division, said the warning is part of a new defense strategy to counter what he described as an increase in threats from the U.S. and Israel.
Tensions have been rising between Iran and the West since the release of a report earlier this month by the International Atomic Energy Agency that said for the first time that Tehran was suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose was the development of nuclear arms.
#2
But... But... Isn't Erdogan the Turk a fantastic Example of an Anti-Jew, Anti-Israel devout Mooooslim ?
Doesn't he deserve an Iranian Medal of Honor and 72 Raisins ?
Why Oh Why do the Mullahs wish to Punish Turkey !
/Sarcasm switch off/
There is nothing I would like to see more than a Turky-Iranian war.
PopCorn stock dividends are about to hit the cieling
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
11/27/2011 12:57
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#3
Go ahead. No leverage here.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/27/2011 14:42
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#4
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [YouTube] IRANIAN KAMIKAZE PILOTS READY TO TAKE OUT FIFTH FLEET OF US NAVY.
and
* WAFF > {YouTube = PLA General Zhang] "CHINA TO PROTECT IRAN EVEN WITH A THIRD WORLD WAR".
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [PressTV] IRAN HAS 150,000 MISSLES AIMED AT ISRAEL: DEFENCE MINISTER.
* SAME [related] > FARS NEWS AGENCY: DM: IRAN TO TEACH ART OF FIGHTING [War] TO US, IFF ATTACKED.
ARTIC > Senior Military Aide to Iran Supreme Leader MGEN. Yahya Safavi = ALL OF ISRAEL'S CITIES ARE IN RANGE OF THE KATYUSHA ROCKETS OF HEZBOLLAH + HAMAS [Gaza] WHOM WILL JOIN THE FIGHT = COMBAT AGZ US, ISRAEL.
SAFAVI also asks, "HOW LONG IS THE US PREPARED TO SEE THE DROWNING OF THEIR WARSHIPS + [Merchant?] SHIPS"?
IIUC, the above Iranian Officials are indirectly threatening ANTI-US "LONG WAR"???
{BASE-TOO-FAR QATAR; + NOSTRADAMUS = "NONE SHALL SEE THE POWERS OF ASIA DESTROYED UNTIL THE SEVEN/SEVENTH HOLDS THE LINE".
1960's Guam Taotamonas + Jefferson Airplane's "WHITE RABBIT" [Theme from "PLATOON"].
"There were other Battalions in the Valley - we weren't the only One - but somewhere out there was an entire Enemy [NVA] Regiment".
#6
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > [Experts]TIME FOR SAUDI ARABIA TO EMBRACE ITS SHIAS, in order to prevent rival Rising Iran from using them to destabilize the Saudi Kingdom.
ARTIC > denotes that the ME is perceived as going through a "historic phase".
versus
* TOPIX > IRAN THREATENS TO HIT NATO MISSLE SHIELD IN TURKEY IFF ATTACKED, espec iff its nuclear facilities are struck by US, Israeli mil assets vee Turkey staging bases/areas.
* SAME > IRAN DOWNPLAYS CLAIMS OF [historic]SOVEREIGNTY OVER BAHRAIN.
Iran claims that Bahrain once used to be its 14th Governate = OOOOOPPPSIES, US-BASE-TOO-FAR QATAR.
[Dawn] Furious over the pre-dawn NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... attacks on border posts, the government on Saturday reacted sharply by indefinitely closing down supply routes used by western forces in Afghanistan and once again asking the United States to vacate an airbase previously used for drone operations. The government also said it would carry out a thorough review of its cooperation with the US and NATO.
The retaliatory decisions were taken at an emergency meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC), the country's highest forum for defence policy consultation and coordination. The meeting was convened to discuss the NATO air strikes and make strategies for a response.
"The DCC decided to close, with immediate effect, the NATO/Isaf logistics supply lines. It also decided to ask the US to vacate the Shamsi airbase within 15 days. The DCC decided that the government will revisit and undertake a complete review of all programmes, activities and cooperative arrangements with US/NATO/Isaf, including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence," said a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office after the meeting.
The decisions, though sounding tough, apparently kept the window for negotiations open.
It was originally proposed to unilaterally terminate the NATO supply route, but ultimately the DCC settled for keeping it indefinitely closed even as it had been squelched soon after the incident and the decision by the country's top civilian and military leadership appeared as a formal closure announcement.
The supply route remained closed for 11 days last year after NATO choppers intruded into Pak airspace and fired at a paramilitary force, killing two soldiers. The issue was resolved after apologies from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Liberatress of Libya and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Charles Evans Hughes ... and NATO leaders.
About 40 per cent of NATO's non-lethal supplies are transported through Pakistain using Chaman and Torkham border crossings -- the preferred routes for being economical.
NATO has developed an alternative northern route through central Asian states as a contingency for a situation where the Pak route is choked.
It was for the third time this year that the US has been asked to vacate the Shamsi airbase, 300kms southwest of Quetta. But this time it has been given a 15-day ultimatum for leaving the airfield, which is under the United Arab Emirates' control.
The two previous occasions when similar demands were made from the US were after the CIA operative Raymond Davis episode and then in the aftermath of the late Osama bin Laden ... who went shovel-ready... denouement. Drone operations from the base were believed to have ceased in April and the facility is now supposedly being used for logistic purposes.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... will brief parliament on how the government intends to conduct its rocky relations with Washington in the future.
The attack is likely to cause yet another dent in Pakistain-US ties that were still recovering from strains following the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... Islamabad is also likely to reduce its cooperation for a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan. According to a source, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar may cancel her trip to Bonn for a conference on Afghanistan and the country may be represented there at a lower level. A final decision may depend on how Washington moves to prevent the frayed ties from taking yet another slide.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2011
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Still say Pakiwakiland is a prime grade A candidate for a through fusion like scrubbing for it's whole extant...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/27/2011 1:50
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#2
A final decision may depend on how Washington moves to prevent the frayed ties from taking yet another slide.
#3
Offer to cut off all aid monies and tell them the next time their forces fire on us, the war is ON. Then kick their ambassador in the forks to reinforce the message.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division ||
11/27/2011 11:04
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#4
Isn't that why we train Airborne troops? To take a contested airbase?
#5
How about the US selling a balistic missile defence system to India together with a few hydrogen bombs on top of this.
I am sure the Paki's will really appreciate the gesture !
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
11/27/2011 12:45
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#6
Afghanistan is the symptom and Pak is the problem. We are done in Afghanistan. Time to wind things up and cut off all aid to Pakistan. You cannot buy them off, even for a day anymore.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/27/2011 14:37
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#7
We are so screwed.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/27/2011 18:37
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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.
One 
Reports say that a tense exchange of words took place between President Zardari and Senator Raza Rabbani over former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, in the hours-long meeting of the PPP core committee held late on Friday night. 
Members of the Taliban who give up their fight are being paid £100 a month and will be allowed to keep their guns in a new initiative to end the insurgency. The "reintegration" programme, which has the full support of Nato, is intended to keep them from attacking troops from the International Stabilisation and Assistance Force (ISAF).
An anti-terrorism court on Saturday granted bail to Mohajir Qaumi Movement chairman Afaq Ahmed in kidnapping for ransom case, DawnNews reported.
President Barack Obama and MSNBC's Ed Schultz have been named to GQ magazine's annual list of "The 25 Least Influential People Alive."
... 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...
A hospitality company based in Qatar is set to invest at least $500 million in Turkish hotels operating under Islamic customs, with no alcohol or smoking allowed.
Chaudhry Nisar against MFN to India
Mohmand
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
[An Nahar] At least 24 civilians and members of the security forces were killed in attacks in Syria on Saturday as 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Piers Morgan: "In her haste to take no responsibility, [she] didn't even bother to pick the phone up, to write, to do anything. I find that extraordinary."
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Samir Geagea
Rogue Muslim rebel leader 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[An Nahar] Leading Egyptian political figure Mohammed el-Baradei said on Saturday he was prepared to forgo a presidential bid if asked by the country's military rulers to be interim prime minister, his office said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hillary Clinton
