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Philly man arrested on charges of supporting Uzbeki terrorists
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Afghanistan
Killer soldier named
His background needs close scrutiny:

The American soldier accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan last weekend is Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a US official said on Friday.

Pictures allegedly of a staff sergeant of that name in Afghanistan are already being circulated, but no confirmation of the identity is yet available.

UPDATE

The pictures comes from High Desert Warrior, March 4:

After the threat of the vehicle IED was neutralized, the Soldiers integrated themselves into the community.

“How’s the security affecting your family?” Asked Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 1st platoon sergeant, Blackhorse Company, 2-3 Inf., to a village elder relaxing outside of his home.

“Much better than yesterday,” replied the man.

The Soldiers of Blackhorse Company successfully secured the village and built upon their new relationship with the Afghan people.

“It represents the finest of everything the Army presents,” said Woods of his company.

Again: the identity of the man pictured has not been confirmed:
Posted by: tipper || 03/16/2012 19:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dennis? Dennis Quaid, is that you?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/16/2012 21:10 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Dupe entry: Russian official: Israel is blackmailing Obama, attack on Iran imminent
Israel will attack Iran this year if a new round of talks scheduled for April fail, a leading Russian newspaper has reported quoting a senior Russian diplomat.

Russian diplomats at the United Nations believe the strike against Iran is “a matter of when, not if”, said the Kommersant daily on Wednesday.

“The attack will be mounted before the end of this year. Israel is blackmailing [U.S. President Barack] Obama by confronting him with a dilemma: either he supports the war option or will lose the support [of the U.S. Jews],” a high-ranking official of the Russian Foreign Ministry told the paper ahead of the U.N. Security Council meeting on Syria on Monday.

After the meeting, the Russian diplomat said the attack could come earlier, any time after April when the six-nation group holds new talks with Iran.

The Kommersant quoted the diplomat as saying that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to warn Iran that the talks were a “last chance for Tehran” to avoid the attack.

The newspaper said a precise date and location for the talks was still being discussed. Iran on Tuesday confirmed that the talks would take place soon and said Turkey had been suggested as the venue.

The coming strike against Iran would save Syria from foreign military intervention, the unnamed Russian diplomat told the Kommersant.

“Americans realize that Israel will attack Iran and it would be too much to have two wars in the region,” the diplomat said explaining Washington’s consent to let U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan pursue his peace efforts in Syria.
Posted by: tipper || 03/16/2012 18:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
President Karzai casts doubts on US version of Afghan village massacre
President says US has not co-operated with his investigations and he questions whether there was only one attacker
The President of Afghanistan warned he was frustrated over western killings of civilians, as he accused the US of obstructing an Afghan investigation into the massacre of 16 civilians last Sunday.

At a meeting with the investigation team and family members of the victims, most of them women and children, Hamid Karzai asked the army chief of staff to investigate villagers' claims that there was more than one attacker – contradicting the official US version of events. He also confirmed a demand made on Thursday that foreign forces leave Afghan villages.

"This has been going on for too long. You have heard me before, therefore, it is by all means the end of the rope here," he said of the killings, which he described as the latest of "hundreds" of such incidents nationwide. "This form of activity, this behaviour, cannot be tolerated." he said.
Posted by: tipper || 03/16/2012 15:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Pentagon attempting to cover up Afghan treachery?
Posted by: Crinens Jeque2850 || 03/16/2012 15:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Few surprises here. It is in keeping with the US Gov't pro-muslim attitude toward the Fort Hood shootings and Nidal Malik Hasan.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/16/2012 16:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Michael Yon's take on this story here.
Posted by: Crinens Jeque2850 || 03/16/2012 19:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Speaking of SecDef Leon ....

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US MILITARY SAYS INCIDENT AT AFGHANISTAN AIRPORT WAS AN AN ATTEMPTED ATTACK, albeit it is not clear at this time iff SecDef Leon Panetta was the intended or primary target.

versus

* SAME > BILYUHNS IN CASH FLEE AFGHANISTAN, ECONOMY THREATENED. Up to US$8.0Bilyuhn thus far ala stuffed suitcases, etc. ostensibly due to fears oer 2014.

* SAME > US WANTS REGIONAL PLAYERS TO TAKE OWNERSHIP, in post-2014 Afghanistan.

* SAME > PAKISTAN-RUSSIA ENTENTE.

Arise, RUSPAK Alliance, arise.

* FYI TOPIX > RUSSIA TO NOT SEND TROOPS TO AFGHANISTAN, come 2014.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 22:06 Comments || Top||


Yon: Military coverup of soldier's death in Afghanistan
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia || 03/16/2012 14:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Anti-Arab Propaganda on Iran’s PressTV
Ahwazi activists have voiced their outrage against a documentary broadcast by Iran’s Press TV that used televised forced confessions by political prisoners to construct an outlandish conspiracy theory.

The Iranian government’s propaganda mouthpiece Press TV broadcast a documentary on 14 March claiming Ahwazi Arabs were “simple people with simple minds” and therefore vulnerable to mysterious “mind termination” brain washing techniques that turned them into violent unthinking killers.

Using theories of cult indoctrination devised by American Jewish psychologist Steve Hassan, the documentary claims that cult-like brain-washing techniques were used by individuals living in Denmark and Canada to involve Ahwazi Arabs in armed separatist groups. The ideology of the former Iraqi Ba’athist regime is cited as a method of attracting Ahwazis into psychological mind manipulation. The documentary implies that Arab social backwardness and psychological vulnerability makes them vulnerable to brain-washing and manipulation.
Posted by: tipper || 03/16/2012 13:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  > The documentary implies that Arab social backwardness and psychological vulnerability makes them vulnerable to brain-washing and manipulation.

So where's the conspiracy theory bit?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/16/2012 16:45 Comments || Top||

#2  that would be arabs from the Khuzestan province.

it has a lot of Iran's oil
Posted by: Lord Garth || 03/16/2012 18:06 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Radio-controlled car used as car bomb on I-75 last fall
Detroit-- The attorney who survived a car bomb blast along with his two sons in Monroe last fall appeared in a national television interview Friday, saying he has returned to work despite being targeted for his job. The interview was aired one day after federal investigators said parts from a $130 remote-control toy car were used in the explosive device that blew up the La Salle resident's Volvo Sept. 20. Chappell told The Detroit News in December he believes he knows who tried to kill him. He did not publicly identify the person.

The explosive device detonated under Chappell's Volvo. Chemists from an ATF lab analyzed debris recovered from the blast.

McCain said they have found electronic components from the toy cars -- available at area hobby stores -- in the debris.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/16/2012 13:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Blowing up lawyers?
Now what kind of nut could dream up a crazy plan like that?
Weird!
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 03/16/2012 16:06 Comments || Top||

#2  No-one law-abiding deserves to be the victim of things like this, but some come closer than others.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/16/2012 16:42 Comments || Top||


Britain
Archbishop of Canterbury: wearing a cross does not offend non-Christians
The ArchDruid Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken in support of wearing the cross saying that it does not offend non-Christians on the day he announced he was stepping down.
Don't go Rowan, you are a cornucopia of mirth to the plebs.
But what did the non-Christians say? Isn't that more important?
In a candid interview Dr Rowan Williams said he did not believe that Christianity was losing the battle against secularisation in Britain but said that the arguments were being clouded by 'dim-witted prejudice.'

"What I think slightly shadows the whole thing is this sense that there are an awful lot of people now of a certain generation who don't really know how religion works, let alone Christianity in particular, and that leads to confusions, sensitivities in the wrong areas - 'does wearing a cross offend people who have no faith or non-Christians?' well I don't think it does.
Isn't the job of the clergy to, you know, educate people about how religion works? Seems like the evangelicals, the missionaries, and the papists understand this a little better than you...
"But people worry that it will. That is partly because there is a slight tone deafness about how religious belief works.

"I think there is also a lot of ignorance and rather dim-witted prejudice about the visible manifestations of Christianity, which sometimes clouds the discussion."

Dr Williams, 61, will leave at the end of December to take up a new role as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge next January. The Queen, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has been informed.
Posted by: tipper || 03/16/2012 12:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  > wearing a cross does not offend non-Christians

Not been having "interfaith" dialog with islamics then?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/16/2012 13:39 Comments || Top||

#2  "What I think slightly shadows the whole thing is this sense that there are an awful lot of people now of a certain generation who don't really know how religion works, let alone Christianity in particular, and that leads to confusions, sensitivities in the wrong areas"

Spoken by someone who did more than most to muddy the waters...

"...'does wearing a cross offend people who have no faith or non-Christians?' well I don't think it does."

Stopped Clock. Twice a day.
Posted by: Ptah || 03/16/2012 13:46 Comments || Top||

#3  There are non-Christians who wear the cross as fashion statement.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/16/2012 14:46 Comments || Top||

#4  As a lapsed Episcopalian I am offended by Rowan with or without a cross.
Posted by: past master of the obvious || 03/16/2012 15:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Archbishop of Canterbury: wearing a cross does not offend non-Christians

...and so what if it does?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/16/2012 19:05 Comments || Top||

#6 
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/16/2012 20:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Just dont wear one in the magic kingdom of Saud.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/16/2012 22:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Just dont wear one in the magic kingdom of Saud.  

Or Pakistan, or the Palestinian territories, or...
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/16/2012 23:55 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Osama bin Laden 'ordered al-Qaeda to kill Barack Obama and David Petraeus'
Osama bin Laden ordered cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to shoot down a plane carrying Barack Obama and Gen David Petraeus, it was reported on Friday. According to a document retreived from the compound where bin Laden was shot dead by US Navy Seals last May, the al-Qaeda leader also told his deputy Atiyah Abd al-Rahman to focus attacks with the US rather than in Muslim nations.

Bin Laden told Rahman that without Mr Obama, the US would be thrown into "crisis" because Vice President Joe Biden was "unprepared" for the job, the Washington Post reported.
Biden actually was more prepared than Obama, which isn't saying much...
He also showed apparent regard for Petraeus.

"The reason for concentrating on them," bin Laden wrote in the 48-page document, "is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make (Vice President Joe) Biden take over the presidency. ... Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour ... and killing him would alter the war's path" in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden instructed Rahman to use Pakistani terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri for the attack. Kashmri was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan on June 2, 2011.

"Please ask brother Ilyas to send me the steps he has taken into that work," he wrote.
This article starring:
Atiyah Abd al-Rahman
Ilyas Kashmiri
Posted by: tipper || 03/16/2012 12:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  because Vice President Joe Biden was "unprepared" for the job

Um, didn't really know much about Zero did he, if he thought BO's so much more prepared than Joe?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/16/2012 13:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Real Man of Genius: Joe Biden
Posted by: Beavis || 03/16/2012 13:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Probably thought Biden would only last until Pelosi knifed him and took the leadership for herself. Folks from authoritarian countries always underestimate the peaceful transfer of power in a Democracy.

I remember hearing how impressed they were in some African country when the local American Embassy put a photo on the wall showing something like five living US Presidents together. That sort of thing doesn't often happen in the rest of the world.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/16/2012 15:32 Comments || Top||

#4  "Kill Barack Obama" > Possible but highly unlikely, as too many skeletons would be rattled on both sides. IMO this is just an election year mind gimmick or propaganda.

AYMAN, WHAT SAYETH YOU???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 19:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Osama allegedly wanted a "qualified" Qaeda leader to lead a major new terror operation agz CONUS, but Ayman convinced him it wasn't
"realistic/practical" given the current state of things.

* ION AYMAN TOPIX,DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [New Ayman video] QAEDA URGES [general] PAKISTAN REVOLT [agz Pak Govt-Army], VOWS TO KEEP US HOSTAGE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 21:17 Comments || Top||

#6  See CHINA DAILY FORUM > [Video = H.CON.Res. 107.IH] VICE-PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN MOVES WID [NC Congressman] WALTER JONES TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT OBAMA, oer undeclared wars.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 22:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Kill Barack Obama" > Possible but highly unlikely

They would have to get through the CIA, DoD, FBI, and finally the Secret Service. It is deliberately made difficult to off America's chief executive, much harder than to fly an airplane into a large building. Even those who do not like the gentleman won't accept the idea of outsiders messing with our guy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/16/2012 23:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
George Clooney arrested
George Clooney has been arrested and handcuffed during a protest at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington.
Posted by: tipper || 03/16/2012 12:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I gather there is a new federal law that the Secret Service can designate areas prohibited for free speech, petition or protest.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/16/2012 13:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Any word on whether Clooney was savagely beaten while resisting arrest? Or just for the heck of it?
Posted by: SteveS || 03/16/2012 13:57 Comments || Top||

#3  It's a celebrity arrest, the same as used to be done outside the South African embassy a generation ago. I bet it was all pre-arranged, just as those were...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/16/2012 13:59 Comments || Top||

#4  His sitting at the State Dinner --- was next to Michelle -- wonder how that happened?
Posted by: Sherry || 03/16/2012 14:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Wonder if he had a stylist there for the mug shots.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/16/2012 15:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Clooney annoys me and seems less brain dead than a lot of his ilk. It's not the average lefty that would pick up a cause like S. Sudan. And there's really no doubt that Sudan's leadership should be arrested and tried for the massacres there.
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia || 03/16/2012 15:39 Comments || Top||

#7  He's a major league asshole, but on this rare occasion, I agree with him in principle.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 03/16/2012 16:04 Comments || Top||

#8  For those who remember that far back, George Clooney is Rosemary Clooney's nephew. She lives just across the Ohio River in Kentucky. His father is a local news anchor in Cincinnati. Good people, from what I've heard.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/16/2012 17:55 Comments || Top||

#9  "there's really no doubt that Sudan's leadership should be arrested and tried shot en masse for the massacres there"

FTFY, MM.
Posted by: Barbara || 03/16/2012 19:18 Comments || Top||

#10  He should be arrested anyway for some of the clunkers he's made.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 21:10 Comments || Top||

#11  Damn! We're in a tight spot!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/16/2012 21:13 Comments || Top||

#12  Yes, I have very close friends that lived in the town where his parents live and they are said to be very kind and down to earth, but, no doubt, are bleeding hearts.
Posted by: Kentucky Beef || 03/16/2012 21:56 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Turkish helicopter crash kills 14 in Afghan capital
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/16/2012 10:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A Twofer: two for one special. I thought it, I wrote it, but I do not dare speak it...
Posted by: borgboy || 03/16/2012 14:33 Comments || Top||


Dupe entry: Turkish helicopter crash kills 14 in Afghan capital
Posted by: Anonymoose2 || 03/16/2012 10:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Administration Adds New Argument To Obamacare Defense
Justice has aggressively defended the mandate as its own regulation of economic activity, but is now stepping up a separate argument emphasizing that the mandate is part of a broader regulatory scheme.

The shift moves the focus of Justice’s argument from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to the Necessary and Proper Clause, which says Congress can make laws that are necessary for carrying out its other powers

Some legal experts say the shift could steer the case in a direction that would make Justice Antonin Scalia more likely to uphold the healthcare law’s mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance.

Oral arguments in the landmark case are set to begin March 26, and the justices are expected to give a ruling in June, just months before the presidential election.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/16/2012 10:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If it stands, our Republic is over. The new Socialist Empire of the United States will be born. You will be told what to buy, how to live and how to work, what to eat and you will turn your children over to be wards of the State.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/16/2012 11:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, Scalia would make hay of that one: what "other powers" is Congress claiming? Are they already in the constitution? If not, UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
Posted by: Ptah || 03/16/2012 11:11 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't see how this works. If the underlying mandate is unconstitutional, then how does Necessary & Proper save it? Seems like laws which are necessary & proper to carry out constitutional duties couldn't expand the scope of constitutionality.

One wonders if Obama's DOJ is trying to lose this case. Lose a battle, but win the war by getting reelected?

It kind of makes sense, especially if Romney is the nominee. Obama could actually position himself to Romney's right. He would say, yeah we tried Romney's approach but the SCT struck it down, and when we look at the CBO numbers and what is happening in MA we think this approach doesn't work well in practice either. So reelect us and we'll fix healthcare, but we'll find a better way than Romney did. That would be very difficult for Mitt to answer.
Posted by: Iblis || 03/16/2012 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  My law professor had the answer to this style of argument IMHO.

When you have the facts, bang the facts.
When you have the law, bang the law.
When you have neither, bang the table.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/16/2012 11:24 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Dirty Afghan Officers Fight Back
Last year, an Afghan Air Force officer (colonel Ahmed Gul) killed eight U.S. Air Force officers in Afghanistan. An investigation into that incident ran into another investigation; of Afghan Air Force aircraft being used for drug and weapons smuggling. Ahmed Gul, it turns out, was being suspected of being involved in drug and weapons smuggling, and the eight Americans he killed were among the investigators.
Posted by: Shimble Guelph5793 || 03/16/2012 09:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Afghans have no leg to stand on whereas brutality is concerned. They cornered the market themselves. STFU.
Posted by: newc || 03/16/2012 12:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Death is not enough for these Afghans.
Posted by: Omose Angeaque7353 || 03/16/2012 15:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Karzai wants us to leave? Really? I don't believe it. He wouldn't last a week after we are gone.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/16/2012 23:59 Comments || Top||


Good Morning
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 03/16/2012 08:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Brooke Burns aka Katrina in "Shallow Hal (2001)" aka Darlene Loren in "The Art of Travel (2008)" aka Nicole Booth in "North Shore (TV Series 2004–2005)" aka Kathy Dinkle in "Pepper Dennis (TV Series 2006)" aka Lisa Germain in "Miss Guided (TV Series 2008)" aka Vanessa Mancini in "Melrose Place (TV Series 2009–2010)" (age 35)



About to prepare a treat for Gorb
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 03/16/2012 11:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Gorb. now those are gams a biker would love.
Posted by: Dale || 03/16/2012 18:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Yow! How about a threesome.
Posted by: gorb || 03/16/2012 23:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Is it really true that women's bicycle seats have an enviable and robust retirement plan?
Posted by: Titus Bluetooth7929 || 03/17/2012 0:00 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
George Soros offered $250K to stifle choke claim
Beach photo FTW!
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 08:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The move of a true Democrat.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/16/2012 9:10 Comments || Top||

#2  That he offered money or that he was cheap?

That's not an either/or answer...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/16/2012 10:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Steve W, no not either or; yes/no and the answer to your question is yes. ;^)
Posted by: AlanC || 03/16/2012 11:25 Comments || Top||

#4  George "Vader" Soros.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/16/2012 13:40 Comments || Top||

#5  She should have stabbed him in the heart with her hair pin.
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/16/2012 14:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Heart? What heart?
Posted by: past master of the obvious || 03/16/2012 15:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Ferreyr and Soros dated for five years, and she says he dangled the promise of a luxury E. 85th St. pad three times.

In August 2010, while they were in bed, Soros told Ferreyr he had finally bought the apartment — for another girlfriend, according court papers.

Real classy George, real classy!
Posted by: tipper || 03/16/2012 17:32 Comments || Top||

#8  Hope she gets HALF his stuff in palim0ny due to a liberal judge and court, and funds Libertarian/Conservative stuff just to PO him. Yeah right. Well, a guy can dream.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/16/2012 22:25 Comments || Top||

#9  while they were in bed

Whoa! Creepiness Meter reading offscale high...
Posted by: SteveS || 03/16/2012 22:31 Comments || Top||

#10  In effect, he was offering him $ 250K for his ability to practice law. Now THAT's cheap.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/16/2012 22:32 Comments || Top||

#11  Soros is headed to China next month to attend his fourth "Total Organ Transplant Harvest Fest". He's a Major Demon in Satan's Army.
Posted by: Titus Bluetooth7929 || 03/16/2012 23:47 Comments || Top||


Britain
Cameron: No justification for Israeli attack on Iran right now
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 08:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Peace in our time."

From the leader of a country that tends to prosecute anyone that defends themselves this really shouldn't surprise me yet it does.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 03/16/2012 10:01 Comments || Top||

#2  You rather wonder what Champ said to Dave at the basketball game...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/16/2012 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  I would like the Israelis to say to Camoron and the Obamanation........"OK exactly what do you think WOULD justify an attack?"

And then make them be specific. Would certainly let everyone know where they stood, wouldn't it?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/16/2012 11:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Shut up you MORON.
Posted by: newc || 03/16/2012 12:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Pretty much what you would expect from a former PR exec.
Posted by: Peter Carroll || 03/16/2012 13:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, it would be better if the Israelis waited until *after* Iran tries to destroy Israel, just to make sure the Iranians mean all that Final Solution stuff.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/16/2012 14:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Ask them how many dead Jews does it take to justify defending themselves? A million? 50 million? all of them?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/16/2012 15:23 Comments || Top||

#8  There are a number of folk on the left that would still say an Israeli counter-attack would be unwarranted because such an attack wouldn't bring the dead back.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/16/2012 15:34 Comments || Top||

#9  But David, we're going to do it because nuclear is polluting!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/16/2012 15:48 Comments || Top||

#10  When Tel Aviv disappears under a mushroom cloud, Obama and Cameron will go to the UN and demand that they send a VERY strongly worded memo of disapproval. And tell Iran that if they do it again we will ... send another REALLY strongly worded memo, backed by a Security Council resolution condemning the action. Of course, Russia and China will probably veto the resolution.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/16/2012 18:02 Comments || Top||

#11  I never understood the concept of justification ?
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/16/2012 19:49 Comments || Top||

#12  "KAMARAD"? CAMERON + IRAN ...

versus

* CHINA DAILY FORUM > BRITISH PM IMPLIES AGHAN MISSION HAS FAILED | "WE WON'T BUILD A PERFECT AFGHANISTAN".

The USA, be it under the Bammer or other POTUS, will still have DEEP TROUBLES wid Afghanistan after 2014 pullout.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 22:34 Comments || Top||

#13  Meanwhile, not to be outdone by Iran + Argie Prez Christina oer dat Falklands brouhaha ...

* CHINA DAILY FORUM > "ENGLAND CAN BOMB SCOTTISH AIRPORTS, e.g. Glasgow + Edinborough, iff ole' Escosse' became formally independent from the UK, became mil undefended, but fell under "enemy/hostile" influence.


Tory Peer + Former Solicitor-General of Scotland LORD FRASER.

SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY [SNP]SCHEMA TO REMOVE ALL UK NUCLEAR FORCES FROM SCOTLAND + CONVERT THE COUNTRY'S NAVY INTO "FISHERY PROTECTION" VESSELS RISKS TURNING SCOTLAND INTO AN INDEFENSIBLE WARZONE.

Not sure iff His Lordship si referring to the IRISH OR TO RADICAL ISLAM'S GLOBAL = EURO JIHAD???

D *** NG IT, THE IRISH ARE COMING, THE IRISH ARE COMING!

[MONTY PYTHON'S GIANT RABBIT vs "THE EAGLE" vs BENNY HILL'S MIGHTY EU DUSCH ARMY here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 22:50 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Senate Democrats attack bipartisan startups bill
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 08:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Italy: Moroccan suspected of synagogue terror plot
Anti-terrorism police have set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock a 20-year-old Moroccan man in northern Italia on suspicion of planning attacks on targets including a synagogue in Milan.
 
A woman believed to have been contact with the Moroccan had been jugged by British police in London, Italian authorities said in a statement.
Update: Ynet has the story from Britain:
Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported that a 40-year-old British woman was arrested in London for her suspected involvement in the planning of a plot to blow up an Italian synagogue. Italian police suspect that the woman took part in Facebook discussions about weapons and explosives with the young Islamist Mohamed Jarmoune, 20, who was arrested on Thursday for planning the terror attack.
Posted by: || 03/16/2012 08:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Italy: Moroccan suspected of synagogue terror plot
Anti-terrorism police have arrested a 20-year-old Moroccan man in northern Italy on suspicion of planning attacks on targets including a synagogue in Milan.
 
A woman believed to have been contact with the Moroccan had been detained by British police in London, Italian authorities said in a statement.
Posted by: || 03/16/2012 08:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Turkey considers 'buffer zone' on border with Syria
Turkey is considering setting up a "buffer zone" along its border with Syria and may withdraw its ambassador from Damascus after Turkish citizens inside Syria return home, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Turkey's Foreign Ministry called on all Turkish citizens in Syria to return to Turkey as soon as possible and said it was closing the consular section of its Damascus embassy next week.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 07:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Isn't this News = Artic from this past January???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 19:32 Comments || Top||

#2  TOPIX > {PM Erdogan] TURKEY BUFFER ZONE MAY BE "GAME-CHANGER" FOR SYRIA, i.e. not only as per humanitarian efforts but also ala foreign = UNSC mil intervention???

Erdogan hinting at more than just a UN NFZ(s)???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 21:09 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 07:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I were a defendant in a federal court, I'd be using this to attack the prosecution. I'd get it in any way I could so that the jury would see that federal prosecutors not only do this sort of thing, they get away with it.

Does the DoJ not see this? Do career, honest, ethical prosecutors not understand how much more difficult their jobs are going to be?
Posted by: Steve White || 03/16/2012 10:41 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't know about the career part, but honest and ethical don't seem to be part of Holder's DOJ at the moment.

In business, problems are often triaged like this:
1) does it affect me this quarter?
2) does it affect me in 2 years?
3) after 2 years, I'm either gone or in a different position, so no problemo!

So I guess the question is, do prosecutors stay with the DOJ from one admin to another?
Posted by: SteveS || 03/16/2012 21:58 Comments || Top||

#3  They dont care, they got the Senate seat for a Dem. To libs, the ends matter, by any means necessary.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/16/2012 22:26 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan: How To Motivate Voters
Pakistan's all-powerful army Generals have come up with a plan to use terrorists and terror groups they control to influence key elections. The leaders of this effort are two terrorists (Hafiz Saeed and Malik Ishaq) that have thrived on the patronage of the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Saeed, accused of masterminding the Mumbai 2008 attack (160 dead), is not only free but is also organizing and running political campaigns across Pakistan. Saeed does not operate in some remote hideout but in the heart of Pakistan's major cities, where he and his minions have managed to gather enough followers to be of some consequence in the scheme of things planned by ISI.
This article starring:
Hafiz Saeed
Malik Ishaq
Posted by: Shimble Guelph5793 || 03/16/2012 07:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Former US officials probed over speeches to Iranian group on terror list
Speaking firms representing ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton have been handed federal subpoenas as part of an expanding investigation into the source of payments to former top government officials who have publicly advocated removing an Iranian dissident group from the State Department list of terrorist groups.

The investigation, being run by the Treasury Department, focuses on whether the former officials may have received funding from the People's Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK, violating federal law barring financial dealings with terrorist groups. The three sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said that speaking fees given to the former officials total hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An B.O. regime source familiar with the inquiry said, "This is about finding out where the money is coming from. This has been a source of enormous concern for a long time now. You have to ask the question, whether this is a prima facie case of material support for terrorism."

Freeh and Shelton are among 40 former senior U.S. government officials who have participated in a public lobbying campaign to persuade the United States to remove the MEK from the terror list. Many of the speakers have received fees of about $30,000 or more per talk and first-class flights to European capitals, according to sources familiar with the arrangements.

Edward Rendell, former governor of Pennsylvania and ex-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, whose speaking firm also received a subpoena, has received $160,000 over the past year for appearing at about seven conferences and rallies, including some in Gay Paree, Brussels and Geneva.

The former officials have said they had been told the fees came from wealthy supporters of the MEK, not the group itself, and they resent the suggestion they are abetting a terrorist group.

The probe comes at a time of intense debate about the MEK, spurred by assertions it could be a useful ally in pressuring the Iranian government to suspend its nuclear program. Recent reports have suggested that MEK operatives, trained by the Mossad, are believed by some U.S. intelligence officials to have been involved in the liquidation of Iranian nuclear scientists -- which the group has denied as "absolutely false."

Officials say that the MEK has a history of terrorism against Iranian leaders during the 1980s and that at least six Americans died in such attacks. The group, once allied with Saddam Hussein, is also viewed suspiciously because of the cultish devotion of its followers to its Gay Paree based leader, Maryan Rajavi.

But the group's supporters say it has long since publicly renounced violence and that Rajavi has committed the group to democratic principles. The group has also generated considerable sympathy over its followers at Camp Ashraf, a paramilitary camp on the Iran-Iraq border, where they have been jugged -- and until recently protected -- by the U.S military since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 07:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Lawyer: Kandahar shooter 'had just seen his friend's leg blown off'
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 06:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Again. How is that winning the hearts and minds of people hell bent on killing as many of us as they can workin out for ya BIG ZERO? The commander in chief is too busy with hoops brackets this weekend.
Posted by: George Ebbeamp4828 || 03/16/2012 11:47 Comments || Top||


Posted by: || 03/16/2012 05:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Bombs vs Bunkers in a Potential Iran Attack
The possibility of an Iran attack highlights the latest arms race: The United States trying to build new bunker-busting weapons while Iran buries its nuclear labs deep underground to try to avoid possible U.S. (or Israeli) bombs.
Posted by: || 03/16/2012 05:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Again, Iran's recent rant about how it doesn't care about US Bombs, Missles, or Ships, etc. suppors my contention that ambitious Iran will continue dev its NucProgs even as the US Fifth Fleet, NATO, + other USDOD, Allied mil assets lie offshore.

As per IRAQ 2003 + AFPAK, the Mullah's rants from years ago, espec as per their willingness to detonate Nukes-WMDS on domestic Iranian soil to defeat foreign invaders, + ditto unilater violatingthe sovereignty of its Muslim neighbors to wage "Vietnam-style" People's War agz same, strongly infers that nothing short of a MAJOR MIL GROUND INVASION/CAMPAIGN AGZ IRAN WILL DIVERT THEM FROM THEIR NUCPROGS.

ITS FOR THE [Shia-led]OWG "CALIPHATE" + "UMMAH", AS MILPOL PAR OR DOMINANT VEE THE NON-MUSLIM WORLD [read, JudeoChristianity].

ISLAMIST "MANIFEST DESTINY" = SHIA OR SUNNI, THE CALIPHATE NEEDS NUKES EVEN THEY DON'T WANT TO ADMIT IT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 19:48 Comments || Top||


One dead, three injured in Israel-Egypt border shootout
Israeli troops killed one and injured three people on its border with Egypt after a group of suspects infiltrated into Israel on Thursday night.

The statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that soldiers patroling the border asked the suspects to stop and, when they failed to comply, opened fire on them.

The statement said, "Simultaneously, shots were fired from Egyptian territory. Three suspects were hit during this exchange of fire. Following a short pursuit, IDF soldiers caught the three injured suspects, and found at the point of infiltration a fourth deceased suspect."

Injured suspects were evacuated by a helicopter for a medical treatment in an Israeli hospital.
This apparently occurred where the border fence is still in the planning stages.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 05:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Uh, uh, NOT IN THE NOT-WEST-TEXAS TOWN OF NOT-EL-PASO???

gut nuthin.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 21:53 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea plans "satellite launch" in April
North Korea plans to launch an "earth observation" satellite using a carrier rocket in April, according to their official news agency, a move that would potentially violate U.N. Security Council demands.

The announcement could also threaten a deal struck with the U.S. last month with the United States in which Pyongyang agreed to halt nuclear tests, long-range missile launches and enrichment activities in exchange for food aid.

Previous satellite launches by North Korea have been widely viewed as ballistic missile test launches in disguise.

The last so-called satellite launch, in April 2009, was condemned by the U.N. Security Council, saying it breached a resolution forbidding North Korea from conducting "missile-related activities." The Security Council demanded that North Korea not conduct any further launches.

The official news agency reported Friday that the planned launch, scheduled for between April 12 and April 16, is to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung. The centenary of his birth is a huge event in the North Korean calendar.

The Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite will be "blasted off southward" from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the western province of North Phyongan, according to the official report, adding that "a safe flight orbit has been chosen so that carrier rocket debris to be generated during the flight would not have any impact on neighboring countries."
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 02:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As per BREAKING NEWS > Japan/Nippon is claiming that the missle launch does indeed violate the UN mandate agz North Korea.

versus

* BIG NEWS NETWORK > {Terror] EXPERT WARNS OF NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR BOMB. South Korea is unlikely to escape the Regional + International ramifications, espec Military, if one or more DPRK-supplied Terror NucBomb(s) goes off in CONUS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 2:37 Comments || Top||

#2  SM3 from the Pacific - take it out
Posted by: Frank G || 03/16/2012 8:07 Comments || Top||

#3  And Lord Sunset actually thought North Korea would keep its side of the food for concessions deal?
Posted by: Korora || 03/16/2012 9:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Let me guess: it will fail to achieve orbit and the 'payload' will land somewhere near L.A. ...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/16/2012 10:44 Comments || Top||

#5 
Posted by: Crinens Jeque2850 || 03/16/2012 21:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Wehell, the US now affirms that the Norkie rocket launch may break the US-DPRK food deal.

Personally, I'm not convinced - as times before, IMO the DPRK's NucProg is as much agz domination or annexation of North Korea by China as agz anyone else, espec vee the non-Kim ruled, pro-democracy South. PYONGYANG IS HUNGRY FOR NORCOM + DPRK-N-ONLY-DPRK IDEO, GEOPOL CREDIBILITY.

Truth be told, its in South Korea's [+ US, Nippon] to let the North have Nukes.

A few decades of grass-eating can do that to a country.

FAILURE OF MAINLAND CHINA TO FORMALLY INTEGRATE + RE-UNIFY WID TAIWAN = CHINA'S GONNA KEEP NORTH KOREA "AS IS", OR ELSE ANNEX IT. Again, by most accounts the new SIno-DPRK FTAS will onlt expand China's influence + control oer the DPRK, NOT LESSEN IT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 21:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Which way will they launch, round the world or only as far as America before a "Major Breakown" and the satlite "Falls" iuto the LA basin?

Sounds like a trial run to me. Shoot it down over the Pacific if westward, or over the Atlantic if eastward.

BUT SHOOT IT DOWN.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/16/2012 21:49 Comments || Top||


Britain
Leeds University Jewish Society cancels 'controversial' lawyer's invite
An invitation to an American lawyer who specializes in fighting Western lawsuits by Islamic extremists has been withdrawn at 48 hours' notice by Leeds University Jewish Society over fears that she is "too controversial".

Brooke Goldstein, director of the Lawfare Project, has been touring Britain this week with UK Lawyers for Israel, speaking about the ways Arab tyrannies and Islamist leaders use "lawfare" to sue those who publish articles exposing radical Islam.

Students are said to be concerned about her association with Geert Wilders, to whom she gave legal advice after he was sued for anti-Muslim remarks.

Ms Goldstein said the students are "trying to prevent me from speaking about how we defend their rights, as someone who advocates on their behalf. I think it's disgraceful, it's Orwellian."

JSoc president Ilana Manuel said: "We researched some of Ms Goldstein's past projects, her associates and views that she has expressed in various media outlets and have decided that this is not appropriate for our campus. Our priority is the welfare of our students and we did not want to put anyone in a situation where this could be jeopardized."

Ms Goldstein argued that her defense of Wilders was about protecting freedom of speech. "Whether you agree with him or not, and there are a lot of points we disagree on, surely he deserves to be allowed to express his opinions in the 21st century?

"It's disappointing that they would shy away from debating the most pertinent issues of our time, for example what limits should be put on free speech and what is acceptable dialogue, critical of religion, in free societies."
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 01:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO, British Jews have, more than a bit, of Uncle Tom in their makeup.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/16/2012 4:52 Comments || Top||

#2  A large proportion of British jews are secular, as are most nominal christians.

But the orthodox are winning the demographics war.

Research by the University of Manchester in 2007 showed that 75 percent of British Jewish births were to the Haredi community.[12] Ultra orthodox women have an average of 6.9 children, and secular Jewish women 1.65.
Posted by: Phil_B || 03/16/2012 5:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Dupe URL: Obama, Cameron discussed tapping oil reserves
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 01:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Philly man arrested on charges of supporting Uzbeki terrorists
A Philadelphia man accused of being a member of an Islamic terrorist bad boy group seeking to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan has been tossed in the calaboose on charges of conspiracy to provide support to a terror group.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Colorado said that Bakhtiyor Jumaev, 45, was tossed in the calaboose on Thursday in Philadelphia on charges filed in federal court in Denver of supporting the Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
Union.

According to federal authorities, Jumaev was a close friend of Jamshid Muhtorov, a 35-year-old Uzbek refugee living in suburban Denver who was tossed in the calaboose in January at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on a similar charge.

Documents filed in court said Muhtorov was nabbed as he headed overseas to fight for the Islamic Jihad Union, which opposes the U.S.-backed Uzbek government.

An FBI affidavit for Jumaev's arrest said German authorities disrupted an Islamic Jihad Union plot in 2007 and tossed in the calaboose three members of the group targeting unidentified facilities with explosives. It said Turkish authorities had seized weapons and jugged faceless myrmidons Islamic fascisti with ties to the group in 2009.

Court documents said the organization took responsibility for attacks in 2008 and 2009 that targeted U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, including a suicide kaboom against a U.S. military post. The group conducted simultaneous suicide kabooms in 2004 of U.S. and Israeli embassies, as well as of a Uzbek government office, all in the capital Tashkent, according to the same documents.

Jumaev and Muhtorov pledged support the IJU, and Jumaev sent money to Muhtorov, intended for the organization, the U.S. Attorney's Office said on Thursday.

Jumaev was tossed in the calaboose without incident and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
This article starring:
Bakhtiyor Jumaev
Jamshid Muhtorov
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 01:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah, the bot accidentally highlighted the wrong I.J. I think we all know the difference between the Uzbek I.J. and the Egyptian one, but just in case someone doesn't, please note that they are distinct.
Posted by: Kentucky Beef || 03/16/2012 21:09 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
MNLF ready to support Philippine government
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 00:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Motorcycle bomb kills one, injures three in southern Thailand
A motorcycle bomb exploded in Pattani province yesterday, killing a villager and injuring three others including two soldiers. Meanwhile, a homemade bomb found in Narathiwat province on Wednesday was defused in time.

The Pattani bomb attack was aimed at a squad of soldiers on a pickup truck, but also hit two civilians nearby and damaged two motorcycles. The motorcycle containing the bomb had recently been reported as stolen. The explosive was triggered by remote control.

Three previous bomb attacks have been carried out at or near the explosion site, located off Route 410 near Kahong cemetery, police added.

In Narathiwat, a bomb squad defused a homemade bomb attached to a power pole after it was detected by paramilitary rangers who were on footpatroldistrict. The bomb, consisting of 20kg of explosives mixed in with gasoline-soaked fertilizer, shrapnel created from pieces of steel and housed in a cooking gas cylinder, could have hurt people in a 50 meter range, police said.

Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha, who is currently visting the deep South, said the government's three year plan was heading in the right direction and that it would be evaluated once the emergency law comes to an end in June.

He said that people affected by authorities' mistakes, crime and abuse, as well as those mistakenly killed or innocents who died in custody, were entitled to as much compensation as victims of political turmoil. He said that the issue was being sorted out by the military, the Interior Ministry and the Internal Security Operations Command.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/16/2012 00:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Bo Xilai, Chinese city boss, suffers abrupt fall from grace
[USA Today] With his life-size plastic cows, and pretty policewomen on horseback, Bo Xilai was never your average Chinese leader. Over a decade ago, Bo used herds of both to beautify the coastal city of Dalian he transformed into a magnet for foreign investment.

Sharply dressed and media-savvy, with impeccable Communist Party credentials, the confident, even flamboyant Bo has long been China's most Western-style politician in a nation whose propaganda-spouting officials can embody blandness and conformity.

But as China prepares for a leadership transition this fall, in which Bo, 62, was a strong contender for a place on the ruling party's highest body, the state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
Xinhua announced his removal as boss of Chongqing, a mega-city in the southwest.

Bo's downfall comes amid a broad debate about China's future direction and follows an unusually public scandal involving his police chief Wang Lijun, a close ally who last month decamped to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu but was turned over to China state security and has not been seen since.

Controversy already accompanied Bo's campaigns to crack down on organized crime in his city, and organize its masses to sing "red songs" from China's more strictly Communist past.

"There have been fierce leadership struggles for decades, but usually we never get to see them," explained Zhang Ming, a political scientist at People's University in Beijing, alluding to Bo's attempt to join the Politburo Standing Committee -- the party's top decision-making body of nine members.

While no official reason has been given for dismissing Bo, "the only reasonable explanation is that Bo has been victimized by forces stronger than him in the leadership transition period," said Huang Jing, a China politics expert at the National University of Singapore.

His "Chongqing model" was a return to socialism, increased government power at the expense of people's rights and further endangered the rule of law, Huang said. Bo's dismissal aims "a very substantial blow to so-called leftists."
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Something happened. We won't know what it was for a while, but it was enough to make Wang Lijun, his Dirty Harry supercop, run for the US consulate. Maybe a coup plan by Bo? It's all speculation right now.
Posted by: gromky || 03/16/2012 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  See also CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > WEN JIABAO SAYS CHINA NEEDS [serious]POLITICAL [+ Economic] REFORMS, WARNS OF ANOTHER CULTURAL REVOLUTION IFF WIDOUT.

and

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > TAIWAN LOOKS TO CHINA FOR MASSIVE ECONOMIC BOOST.

* SAME > THE CHINESE-PHILIPPINES DISPUTE IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 0:48 Comments || Top||

#3  More - much more than that. Is East Asia maritime now West Asia as well
Lots of vessels doing not but a bunch of useless.
China may no longer be a brutal power. Straight up.
15 future years is a quarter, remember?

You lost 8 standing where you are. BO is not done, but China is due for a smell test because frankly they abuse power, currency, weapons, INDIVIDUAL property rights and cut organs out of opponents alive for transplant, no drugs, just squirming alive as they remove your vital organs. Than you die kind of problem here. Aborting Future young Ladies?

It's all about a buck. How is the Moslem world treating you? How is that desert coming along? I see you have lost lakes and poisoned sooooooo many people with your fucked up water supply.

There are not enough Forrest on the planet needed for the Toilet paper for this, but I will tell you this - MAO was a FUCK UP.

China is better than this.

Make you eat your tail, yet I wish you happy :)
Posted by: newc || 03/16/2012 2:06 Comments || Top||

#4  newc? What are you talking about?
Somehow I don't get the drift?
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/16/2012 14:07 Comments || Top||

#5  I think newc is telling the ChiComs to bite the wax tadpole.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/16/2012 20:59 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Abbottabad commission findings contradict US version: report
[Dawn] A member of the high-level Pak Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
commission tasked with detailing the May 2 incidents in Abbottabad that resulted in the killing of the late Osama bin Laden
... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing...
, has completed recording his findings, according to a BBC Urdu report published on Thursday.

The findings are based on statements from bin Laden's family, his neighbours, and the government officials who entered the area after the raid, said the report.

Questioning the American position on the raid, the details contradict, and are different from, the version of events described by the US. The findings will also be the first official version of the events from the Pak side.

A major question raised in the report is the finding that only a single bullet-casing and bullet-mark was found from the room which was allegedly filled with more than half a dozen armed companions of the former al Qaeda chief.

The bullet mark was found on a wall in bin Laden's bedroom, the same room where he was killed. The mark is so high on the wall that it appears as if the man firing bullet was on his knees. The commission's experts have concluded that this bullet caused bin Laden's death, and possibly hit the wall after tearing through a part of his skull, adds the BBC report.

Other than this, no other bullet-casing or bullet-marks were found from the compound. However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
the commission's members found more than a dozen Klashnikov rifles -- some less than a yard away from the dead bodies, adds the report.

The report raises the question that why did bin Laden's companions not fire a single bullet at the US Marines, because the American version of events states that not a single soldier was hit. Now if no soldier was hit, and not even a single shot had gone astray -- which was proved by the absence of bullet casings and marks -- then why did Osama's companions not fire a single bullet, the commission findings inquire.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  The report raises the question that why did bin Laden's companions not fire a single bullet at the US Marines, because the American version of events states that not a single soldier was hit. Now if no soldier was hit, and not even a single shot had gone astray -- which was proved by the absence of bullet casings and marks -- then why did Osama's companions not fire a single bullet, the commission findings inquire.

Because the SEALs made them real dead real fast.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/16/2012 6:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Who said they carried rifles?
Posted by: muffled explosion || 03/16/2012 19:10 Comments || Top||


Africa North
MP proposes Sharia punishments for murder, theft crimes
Bet you never saw this coming...
The People's Assembly Proposals and Complaints Committee discussed in a meeting Tuesday a bill proposed by MP Adel Azzazy from the Salafi-oriented Nour Party that would apply Islamic law for certain crimes.

The proposed law calls for the application of "Heraba," an Islamic penalty for criminal actions that include overt robbery, murder, forcible taking of property with a weapon and vandalizing public facilities.

The penalties according to Azzazy's bill are execution in the case of murder, or cutting one arm and one leg from opposite sides of the culprit's body in the cases of robbery and forcible taking of property. If the taking of possessions is accompanied by murder, the penalty would be death or crucifixion, to be determined by the judge.
Crucifixion is not a death penalty? There are some people who should have been told...
It's like the old joke, "Death or momba? Choose..."
The bill also stipulates imprisonment for intimidating citizens, and that the prison sentence will end when the felon repents.

These penalties would only be imposed on adult, mentally stable wrongdoers who either commit the crimes or assist in carrying them out, according to the bill.

Policemen are entitled to treat felons with force after warning them, and are also entitled to shoot them dead. But if they surrender or are wounded, policemen are obliged not to hurt them, the proposed law says.

Stolen possessions should be returned to their owners, the law says, but it stipulates that if their owners are unknown, they should be put in the state's treasury. For murders, citizens affected by the crime should be given the options of retribution, receiving compensation or granting amnesty.

"This is God's law and is not optional," Azzazy said, commenting on his proposal. "The current penalties are not deterrent enough."

MP Gamal Heshmat from the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party praised the bill. He said that under former People's Assembly Speaker Sufi Abu Taleb, draft laws were adjusted to match Islamic Sharia but were later shelved intentionally.

But the assembly's committee asked Azzazy to reformulate the bill after the Justice Ministry's representative, Haytham al-Baqly, criticized its lack of accuracy, saying that many of its stipulations are found in existing laws.

According to Parliament's bylaws, the Proposals and Complaints Committee, after approving the law, should submit it to the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, which would write a report on it before slating a session to reach a final resolution.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And the return to the 7th century continues apace.

Doesn't say what vandalism gets as a penalty. That might be humorus.
I love folks like Azzazy who say "This is God's law and is not optional". If it's Allan's law, let him enforce it...or don't you think HE's up to it?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/16/2012 11:09 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
At least 13 killed in Afghan roadside bombing: police
[Dawn] A Taliban roadside kaboom tore through a civilian vehicle in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing nine children and four women, police said.

The bombing in the troubled province's Dihrawud district comes a day after a similar incident killed eight civilians in the neighbouring province of Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
and while US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
was holding talks in Kabul.

The blast hit a station wagon travelling on a dirt road in Uruzgan province, provincial police front man Farid Ail told AFP.

"There are 13 people dead: nine children and four women," he said. Two others were maimed, he added.

Ail blamed the incident on "Taliban, the enemies of our people who plant bombs on our public roads to kill our innocent children and women."

The rebels, most active in southern and eastern parts of the war-scarred country, mainly use improvised bombs and suicide kabooms.
The crude devices are aimed at Afghan and 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...
security forces but often miss their targets and hit civilians using the same roads.

The number of civilians killed has risen steadily each year for the past five years, reaching a record of 3,021 in 2011, according to UN statistics.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
U.S. Denies Sending Warning to Iran via Russia
[An Nahar] The United States on Thursday denied a report that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told her Russian counterpart that upcoming talks on Iran's nuclear program were a "last chance" to resolve the long-running standoff.

"The secretary did not send a warning to the Iranians through Foreign Minister (Sergei) Lavrov," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters when asked about the report in Russia's Kommersant daily.

"The conversation that they had on Iran centered around ensuring that these talks, as they start, are structured in a way ... that they bring substantive results," Nuland said.

Clinton's meeting with Lavrov in New York Monday also focused on ensuring that the talks "can't be used for stalling and that they can't be used for covering continuing activity" in Iran's nuclear program, Nuland said.

In her discussions with Lavrov on the sidelines of the U.N. Security Council, Clinton never used the adjective "last" to describe the opportunity that the planned talks represent, Nuland said.

The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany have agreed to resume stalled talks with Iran over its nuclear program at a time and place yet to be determined.

Kommersant reported Wednesday that Clinton had told Lavrov the talks were a "last chance" to resolve the crisis, and asked her Russian colleague to make this clear to the Iranian authorities."

Washington, which has no diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic, has stressed there is still time to resolve the standoff over Iran's disputed nuclear program, but has refused to rule out a military strike as an option.

Israel, increasingly impatient with Iran's refusal to come clean on its nuclear program, also has refused to rule out military action.

The United States and Israel fear that Iran's uranium enrichment program masks a drive to build a nuclear bomb. Iran denies the charges, insisting its program is entirely peaceful.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  The US is repor doubling the number of its Minesweepers [+ MS Helos] in the Gulf.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Russia Today] BRITISH MP: WEST SHOULD ACCEPT IRAN AS A LEGITIMATE REGIONAL SUPERPOWER | SANCTIONS AND FORCE AGZ IRAN BOTH ILLEGAL AND NAIVE.

Nuthin t'aint gonna stop Iran from going Nukulaar iff it rly rely Really RRREEEELLLLYYYY, D *** N YOU, WANTS TO!

UK Conservative MP John Baron.

There goes the 2012 Brit Barbecue wid the Sunni Saudis.

* SAME > WANT IRAN TO GO NUCLEAR? BOMB THEM - REP. SMITH.

US Rep. Adam Smith, D-WA.

versus

* WORLD NEWS > IRAN OPENS "SECOND FRONT" IN AZERBAIJAN.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 0:59 Comments || Top||


Army Arrests Suspect Linked to 2011 Estonian Kidnapping
[An Nahar] The army intelligence set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock on Tuesday a Lebanese national linked to the 2011 Estonian kidnapping, reported the National News Agency on Thursday.
These were the beauzeaux who mistook them for Americans. Presumably because they were riding bikes. The Estonians, that is, not the kidnappers...
It said that Mohammed Toufic Hujairi confessed to providing shelter and food to the kidnappers and their captives in exchange for money.
Ahah. Filthy lucre. That explains it all.
He also confessed to helping one of the abductors escape Leb through providing him with a fake passport.

The suspect was nabbed with some drugs in his possession.

Investigations are underway in order to arrest the rest of those involved in the kidnapping.

The seven Estonian cyclists were kidnapped in Leb in March 2011 as they entered the country from Syria. They were kidnapped in the eastern Bekaa and kept in captivity in Leb and Syria until July of that year.

Wael Abbas, the suspected ringleader in the abduction, was jugged in November 2011. He was tossed in the calaboose by Syrian security forces as he was attempting to escape to the country through a false ID.
"Sir? This ID is drawn in crayon on a grocery bag!"
"Oh, yeah? Lemme see dat!... Book 'im, Danno!"
"C'mon, youse!"

In September, the Internal Security Forces killed two accomplices of the alleged criminal mastermind behind the kidnapping during festivities in the area of al-Bireh in Rashaya.

Later that month, two Intelligence Branch officers were maimed when they were ambushed by gunnies in the hunt for the kidnappers in the village of Jlala near Shtaura.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Estonians were idiots, and even have admitted as much in interviews back home.
To quote Lord of the Rings: "One does not simply bicycle through Syria and the Bekaa Valley".
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia || 03/16/2012 14:22 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Suicide blast in Peshawar kills police superintendent
[Dawn] A suicide kaboom on Thursday killed a senior Pak police officer and maimed his bodyguard in the northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, troubled by a new wave of violence, police said.

"Police Superintendent Kalam Khan died in the blast and his driver and a guard were maimed," police officer Tahir Ayub said.

"The bomber came on foot and detonated explosives strapped to his body near Khan's jeep," bomb disposal squad chief Hukum Khan said.

"We have found the bomber's head," he added.
Always a good thing...
"Oh, good! I was just lookin' for that!"
The incident took place on a road under construction in Peshawar's Pishta Khara neighbourhood that meant Khan's car had to drive slowly, police said.

Khan had been on his way to work in the suburban town of Badaber, where a suicide attack killed 15 people at a funeral on Sunday.

It lies close to Bara town, a stronghold of local warlord Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
, who is linked to Islamist thugs.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Africa North
Court of Appeals head to face withdrawal of confidence over NGO case
Someone has to be the fall guy...
Judges from the Cairo Court of Appeals on Thursday succeeded to collect enough signatures to hold an emergency general assembly within days in order to decide on withdrawing confidence from Abdel Moez Ibrahim, president of the court, for his position on the NGO foreign funding case.

Ibrahim was accused of pressuring the judges overseeing the trial of 43 NGO workers, including 16 Americans, who are charged with working for unlicensed NGOs and receiving illegal funds.

The authorities lifted the travel ban on foreign defendants and all but one of the Americans left Egypt in early March. The lift of the ban was regarded by public opinion as an insult to the Egyptian judiciary.

Judge Hisham Raouf said more than 300 signatures were collected, although the needed quorum requires 285 signatures.
Sure hope he got his [cough] pension [cough] funded...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
32 Killed in Syria as 23 Slain 'Torture Victims' Found near Idlib
[An Nahar] Syrian security forces killed at least 32 people on Thursday as the bodies of 23 torture victims were found near the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria that security forces captured earlier this week, activists said.

"Twenty-three bodies with marks of extreme torture were found near Mazraat Wadi Khaled, west of the city of Idlib," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in a statement.

The Britannia-based group said the 23 blindfolded and handcuffed victims had been rubbed out.

It also reported that security forces on Thursday killed nine civilians, including four in a car, and four rebels across the province of Idlib.

But the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, gave a higher corpse count, saying at least 32 people were killed across the country, among them 29 in Idlib alone.

Elsewhere, one person was killed in the central province of Hama, one in the northern province of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
and another in the southern province of Daraa, the LCC said.

In Aleppo and on the outskirts of Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
, security forces broke up scattered anti-regime protests on Thursday, according to the LCC.

The city of Idlib fell to government forces on Tuesday night, two weeks after the regime stormed the Baba Amr district of Homs city in central Syria, following a month-long blitz that activists said left hundreds dead.

Syrian activists have compiled a list of 114 civilians killed since security forces launched their assault on Idlib on March 10, Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
said on Thursday.

Following the Baba Amr offensive, residents of nearby neighborhoods reported finding the mutilated bodies of women and kiddies. Activists posted video footage they said proved regime forces were to blame.

The government blamed "armed terrorist gangs."

Human Rights Watch stepped in to demand an end to the "scorched earth methods" being deployed by Assad, and insist that China and Russia stop blocking U.N. efforts to take tough action.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Geagea Urges Arrest of Takfiri Network Head
[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 Thursday the need for the Lebanese authorities to remove all arms within and outside Paleostinian refugee camps.

He told Voice of Leb radio (93.3): "If we are forced to wage a battle similar to the one at Nahr al-Bared, then so be it."

"The army should enter the Ein el-Hellhole camp and arrest the head of the takfir
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
i network," he added.

"The opposition will support the government should it take such a decision ... and the Paleostinian Authority had voiced its readiness to cooperate with it to such an end, he stated.

Geagea noted however that "Syria, Hizbullah, and its allies, starting with Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
leader MP Michel Aoun
...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
, oppose such a measure."

"Aoun is defending the Syrian regime more that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
," remarked the LF chief.

In addition, he accused the FPM leader of waging a "battle of ethnic cleansing against Sunnis in the area through portraying them as thugs."

"He is attempting to portray the Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
Movement as a fundamentalist group, while the MP allies himself with Iran and Hizbullah, whose people and members do not even where neckties," Geagea noted.

As Safir newspaper reported on Tuesday that an thug network placed in long-term storage by the Lebanese army intelligence was planning to carry out terrorist attacks on the military school in al-Fayyadiyeh and the army barracks in Hamat.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati had confirmed on Monday that the army had uncovered the subversive cell following a detailed report by al-Akhbar newspaper on the arrest of the network.

As Safir's sources, which described the cell as takfiri with links to the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, said the army began to find leads into the case after the arrest of a clergyman in northern Leb.

President Michel Suleiman
...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
called on Wednesday for the coordination of the defense, interior and telecommunications ministries to resolve this case.

Suleiman told the cabinet that convened at Baabda palace that "the army is the backbone of stability in the country."

He condemned any attempt to attack it, saying the file has been referred to the competent judiciary.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Takfir wal-Hijra


About 1,000 Syrians flee to Turkey in single day: Official
[Dawn] About 1,000 Syrian refugees, including a defecting general, crossed into Turkey in the last 24 hours, the foreign ministry said on Thursday, the one-year anniversary of the Syrian revolt.

"The number of Syrian refugees currently staying in Turkey boomed by 1,000 in a single day and climbed to 14,700 total," ministry spokesperson Selguk Unal told news hounds in Ankara.

The latest wave of arrivals included a defecting general who crossed the border to join the rebel forces which have a base in Turkey's Hatay province on the border with Syria, according to Unal. "With the Syrian general who arrived yesterday, we now host seven generals on our side of the border," he said.

Another group of 700 Syrians had arrived in Turkey on Tuesday night, signaling that the number of Syrians arriving at the border might continue to increase rapidly.

Turkish officials based on the border had to relocate some of the 1,000 refugees to the nearby provinces of Gaziantep and Kilis, where the government is setting up additional camps to house the thousands that have flocked to Turkey in the last month.

"We are getting ready for any scenario, there is the expectation that the numbers will rise," Unal said.

In Sanliurfa province, near the halfway point of Turkey's 910-kilometre (560-mile) border with Syria, Turkey has already started building a massive camp site that can house up to 20,000 people, Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.

Turkey is also establishing a "city" in Kilis, between Hatay and Sanliurfa, made of prefabricated homes to house the refugees, with some 10,000 due to be initially transfered to the site.

Although Turkey advocates a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis that has claimed 8,500 lives according to rights groups, Unal noted that the country was nevertheless "ready for any possibility."

Following the Syrian army rampages in the restive neighbourhood of Baba Amr in Homs and in the rebel stronghold Idlib, the number of Syrians arriving at the border has escalated sharply.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Pakistani dies in firing by Nato forces
[Dawn] A Pak man was killed in firing by NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
forces at a village on the Pak-Afghan border in the Chagai district on Wednesday. They also locked away four others and took them across the border.

Sources said that five Paks belonging to the Chagai district were on their way home from Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province of Afghanistan in two vehicles early in the morning when NATO forces opened fire on them near the border village of Bibi Jan.

The firing left Saleh Mohammad dead. NATO forces locked away four Paks who were travelling in the vehicles.

"They took four Paks across the border," sources said, adding that both vehicles were damaged in the attack.

The Paks taken into custody were identified as Mohammad Raza, Syed Khalid Dad, Syed Rahim Noor and Mohammad Azam. All of them belonged to the Bibi Jan village.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Media content regulation
[Dawn] THE rapid expansion of Pakistain's media industry has been accompanied by reservations about the quality of content. Admittedly, there have been instances -- particularly in the electronic media -- where the limits of civilised discourse have been transgressed. This can be put down to the electronic media still being a young industry and the inability of channels to self-regulate. To some, therefore, the 'content regulations' drafted and approved by the Pakistain Electronic Media Regulatory Authority last month may seem a good idea in theory, containing as they do clauses meant to ensure, for example, that all programming complies with the country's laws and has nothing derogatory to any religion, sect or community.

In theory is as far as it goes, however. Should content codes such as these be put in place, it would soon become a case of 'give an inch and they'll take a yard' vis-à-vis freedom of speech and the ability to freely report and critique. The proposed code is worded so loosely that it is a potential tool for censorship and intimidation of media personnel and organizations. One worrying clause, for example, says that no material can be aired that "is against the national interest, brings into contempt Pakistain or its people or tends to undermine its integrity or solidarity [...]" Who will decide on matters as nebulous as 'national interest'? Potentially, such a clause could be used to stifle critique. Similarly, the document proposes to prohibit footage that can "cause depression" or that ridicules a person or state institution. Defining such things is too arbitrary a matter to be made a blanket requirement.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that no industry ought to operate entirely free of regulations, and in terms of Pakistain's media landscape there needs to be more self-regulation. Organisations need to ensure that their programming adheres to the highest editorial and aesthetic standards, so that no need for intervention is perceived. These matters could be handled by forums such as the Pakistain Broadcasters Association, or through moves such as the 'code of conduct' agreed upon by heads of major news networks in 2009 to standardise professional guidelines.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Something I never understood was Pakistanis have always been Saavy (in their own way). They were as so modern as Iran was back in the 60's and now have some people whom may communicate if only the government would let it.

You need to talk, and if you decide to kill people during your talk, you need to talk some more.

If you keep screwing around, they will talk anyways and then where are you.
Posted by: newc || 03/16/2012 1:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Have you ever seen a water well dispute being handled over the internet by Family dispute to have it solved before morning? On the Internet?

"Your Son brings me the key to the well before sunrise, and you may drink and feed your cattle from it. Your son must also protect our water resource from now on."

Ahh, freedom.
Posted by: newc || 03/16/2012 1:38 Comments || Top||


Curse Of Coalition
[Friday Times] Standard and Poor, the top international credit rating agency, has just warned that Pakistain's ratings could slip down a notch (currently B- for long term credit worthiness and C for short term) if political instability and security risks continue to scare away investors, retard economic growth and forestall desperately needed structural adjustments and fiscal reforms. Particular note was taken of the country's "renewed balance of payment difficulties and a rising public debt trajectory" (144 per cent increase in the last four years of the Zardari regime, from Rs 4.8 trillion in FY 2007 to Rs 11.73 trillion in Dec 2011 or nearly 61 per cent of GDP). Who is responsible for this state of affairs?

Obviously, much of the blame must go to the Zardari government. It has reeked of corruption and incompetence from Day One. And it has hugely mismanaged and neglected the economy.

In theory, at least, the recipe was clear enough from the outset: raise revenues by enlarging and deepening the tax base; rationalize and prune expenditures; privatize state corporations and stop doling out Rs 500 billion in subsidies every year to loss making or leaking public sector enterprises. In practice, however, a number of extraneous factors have served to dampen the government's enthusiasm for reform.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Pakistan lost Afghanistan to the premier enemy of anything Pakistan now, where do you stand, or do you Pakistan.

America tried, you lied.
Posted by: newc || 03/16/2012 1:43 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Aoun Warns War to Move to Lebanon if Assad Ousted, Slams 'Takfiris'
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
leader MP Michel Aoun
...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
on Wednesday warned that the violence in Syria would spill over to Leb if the embattled Syrian regime was ousted, rejecting the presence of what he called "Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
s on our border."

"Those who backed Israel's war on Leb in 2006 are the same ones who are backing the inner war against Syria, that's why we should think of good neighborliness and the neighborhood's security, as we cannot live with Takfiri groups on our border that are interacting with the Lebanese domestic scene," Aoun said on the 23rd anniversary of the so-called Liberation War he waged in 1989 against Syrian forces stationed in Leb.

A Takfiri is a hardline Islamist who practices Takfir, which means to accuse others of apostasy or of being an infidel. Takfiris usually declare takfir upon anyone who does not conform to their hard-line interpretation of Islam.

"When we first talked about Syria, we said that we support reform and that we do not want the presence of extremism on our border, as we cannot accept the rise to power of certain people under the slogans of democracy and human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
, while in the end there will be neither democracy nor human rights, as there is no democracy in their sharia (Islamic law)," Aoun added.

"Let us suppose that the Syrian regime was ousted, what is the alternative in that case? Our safety is at stake and war will reach us. We do not want to close our eyes and say 'let the (Moslem) Brotherhood rule.' Where (will they rule?) In (the predominantly Christian Lebanese district of) Keserwan?" Aoun wondered.

Recalling the previous stages, Aoun said everyone blamed him for "declaring war against Syria."

"But the truth is I did not declare war against Syria, as when a country is occupied it would use everything in its capacity to liberate its land, and we did not bombard the Syrian cities or any inch of Syria," he added.

He went on to say that "what's happening in Syria is an international aggression rather than a domestic revolution."
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Caribbean-Latin America
Badanov's Buzzkill Bulletin

For a map, click here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

In ongoing counternarcotics operations throughout Mexico, since March 7th Mexican Army units have seized 14,153.4 kilograms of marijuana, 1.40 kilograms of opium gum, 1.175 kilograms of poppy seeds, 49.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, 8.2 kilograms of solid methamphetamine, 0.800 kilograms of glass methamphetamine, 56 liters of liquid methamphetamine, 23 kilograms of unprocessed marijuana, 2.55 kilograms of marijuana seeds and MP $2,459.00 (USD $194.08) in cash.
  • An army unit with the Mexican 4th Military Zone seized several kilograms of marijuana March 6th in Sonora state. The unit had observed 47 packages of marijuana totalling 564 kilograms adrift along Sonora's west coast near Isla Tiburon.

  • Responding to a citizen's complaint, an army unit in Sonora state with the Mexican 4th Military Zone detained three individuals with a number of weapons in Navajoa municipality in Deportiva colony March 6th. Weapons and munitions seized included 18 rifles, one handgun, seven weapons magazines, 410 rounds of ammunition, two motorcycles, two jet skis and two vehicles.

  • A Mexican Army unit with the 9th Military Zone seized about four metric tons of marijuana in Sinaloa state March 4th. The unit was on patrol near the village of El Navito in El Dorado Sindicatura in Culican municipality when soldiers found 4,023 kilograms of marijuana in 393 packages.

  • An unidentified Mexican Army unit in the La Laguna region of Mexico detained seven unidentified individuals said to be members of Los Zetas criminal group in an apparent traffic stop March 7th in Gomez Palacio, Durango. Contraband seized included packages of marijuana, powder cocaine and crack cocaine presumably divided for retail sale, seven rifles, one fragmentation grenade, nine weapons magazines, 261 rounds of ammunition and two vehicles.

  • A Mexican Army unit with the 13th Military Zone seized quantities of drugs and guns in Nayarit state March 8th.The seizure took place presumably incidental to a traffic stop on the Texcalame-Los Ciruelos road in El Nayar municipality. Soldiers seized 1.40 kilograms of opium gum, 1.175 kilograms of poppy seed, three handguns, two weapons magazines, 326 rounds of ammunition and a vehicle.

  • An army unit with the Mexican 35th Military Zone seized quantities of marijuana and other contraband in Jalisco state March 8th. While on patrol in Morelos colony in Ocotlan municipality the unit found four vehicles. Inside the vehicles soldiers seized 35 kilograms of marijuana, 593 rounds of ammunition, one weapons magazine and tactical gear. Three of the four vehicles were reported as stolen.

  • A Mexican Army unit with the 29th Military Zone detained three unidentified individuals and rescued two individuals who had been kidnapped. Units also seized weapons and fuel containers in Veracruz state. The actions took place March 7th in Coatzacoalcos, Cosoleacaque, Acayucan and Oteapan municipalities. Seized materiel included one handgun, one weapons magazine, five rounds of ammunition, two tankers, four tanks and fuel containers with a total capacity of 106,000 liters, and three vehicles.

  • Army units with the Mexican 13th Military Zone seized marijuana and chemicals used to manufacture synthetic drugs in Nayarit state March 8th. Contraband seized included 49.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, 1,349,400 kilograms of chemical precursors, 23 kilograms of unprocessed marijuana and 2,550 kilograms of marijuana seeds.

  • Mexican Army units with the 19th Military Zone seized weapons in Cazones colony in Poza Rica municipality in Veracruz state March 8th. Included in the seizure were nine rifles, one 40mm grenade launcher attachment, four 40mm grenades, one rifle grenade, 101 weapons magazines, 978 rounds of ammunition, tactical gear, two vehicles and one ATV.

  • Army units with the Mexican 19th Military Zone in Veracruz state detained two unidentified individuals in a presumed traffic stop near the village of Potrero del Llano in Alamo municipality March 8th. Soldiers found personal quantities of powder cocaine, one handgun, 32 rounds of ammunition and one vehicle.

  • On March 10th, military units with the Mexican 43rd Military Zone seized weapons in Michoacan state. The seizure took place near the village of San Jose de Chila in Apatzingan municipality, and included five handguns, 550 rounds of ammunition, 80 weapons magazines and weapons accessories.

  • A Mexican Army unit with the 5th Military Zone detained six unidentified individuals in Ojinaga in Chihuahua state March 9th. Contraband seized included 900 kilograms of marijuana and three vehicles.

  • Mexican Army units with the 8th Military Zone seized more than 2.5 metric tons of Marijuana in Ciudad Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas in three separate incidents March 9th. Near the intersection of Privada Barrera and Calle Angela Barrera soldiers found 810.1 kilograms of marijuana in 144 packages. In the village of Los Angeles, soldiers found 912.3 kilograms of marijuana in 116 packages. In Santander colony soldiers found 859 kilograms of marijuana in 86 packages. The total weight of the three seizures amounted to 2,581.4 kilograms.

  • Mexican Army units with the 26th and 29th Military Zone detained two unidentified individuals and seized quantities of drugs and weapons in several incidents March 9th in Veracruz state. The seizures and arrests took place in Ciudad Isla, Tepetzintla, Chicontepec, Cosoleacaque and Coatzacoalcos municipalities. Contraband taken by the military included personal quantities of powder cocaine, one rifle, one handgun, 118 rounds of ammunition, four weapons magazines, tactical and communications gear, one tractor, one motorcycle and one stolen vehicle.

  • On March 10th, an army unit with the 10th Military Zone found a hidden synthetic drug laboratory in Sinaloa state. The lab was found in Perisur colony in Culican, where soldiers seized three rifles, six weapons magazines, 365 rounds of ammunition, 8.2 kilograms of solid methamphetamine, 56 liters of liquid methamphetamine, 250 kilograms of caustic soda, 60 kilograms of acetyl acetate, 200 liters of white gas, 200 liters of ethyl alcohol and 200 liters of unknown substances.

  • Mexican Army units with the 26th and 29th Military Zones in Veracruz state detained three unidentified individuals, seizing quantities of drugs and weapons in several incidents March 11th. Contraband seized included personal quantities of marijuana, four rifles, two handguns, 678 rounds of ammunition, 30 weapons magazines, communication equipment, MP $2,459.00 (USD $194.08) in cash and six vehicles.

  • Mexican Army units with the 15th Military Zone located a hidden synthetic drug laboratory in Jalisco state March 12th, arresting two unidentified individuals. Seized materiel included 800 kilograms of marijuana, 0.800 kilograms of glass methamphetamine, 230 kilograms of phenyl acetic acid, 3,402 kilograms of chemicals, equipment for the production of synthetic drugs, six rifles, one handgun, six weapons magazines, 54 rounds of ammunition and one vehicle.

  • On March 12th soldiers with the Mexican 5th Military Zone in Chihuahua state at a checkpoint near the city of Ojinaga observed two individuals abandon a vehicle, then flee into the brush. Soldiers found 125 kilograms of marijuana in four packages in the vehicle.

  • Military units with the Mexican 5th Military Zone stopped a tractor trailer rig at a military checkpoint near the town of Samalayuca in Chihuahua state, arresting the driver March 12th. Hidden in the trailer soldiers found 1,117 packages of marijuana weighing a total of 2,400 kilograms.

  • Units with the Mexican 8th Military zone seized 239 packages of marijuana weighting a total of 2,275 kilograms in Miguel Aleman in Tamaulipas state. Soldiers also located 2,081 rounds of ammunition and 25 weapons magazines.

  • On March 12th in Diaz Ordaz, Tamaulipas Mexican army units with the 8th Military Zone seized 54 packages of marijuana totalling 450 kilograms.

Badanov's Burnt Blunt Special

Mexican Army units attached to the 34th Military Zone incinerated quantities of drugs seized in Quintana Roo state March 8th. Drugs destroyed included 86 kilograms of cocaine and 14.5 kilograms of marijuana. The incineration was conducted at the bases of the Mexican 64th Infantry Battalion in Cancun and 7th Motorized Cavalry Regiment in Chetumal.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks for reporting on the Mexican news, Badanov. It would be good if it also traveled to the Mainstream Media, but they are concerned with dysfunctional hollywood stars and cannot be bothered. **sigh**
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/16/2012 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  They recovered over 14 THOUSAND keys of weed, yet found only $194.08 cash?

Hmmm.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 03/16/2012 13:01 Comments || Top||

#3  14 THOUSAND keys of weed, yet found only $194.08 cash?

Dope will get you thru times of no money better than money will get you thru times of no dope, as the hippies used to say.

What I want to know is how much Sudafed can you make from nearly 50 kg of meth? The Journal of Apocryphal Chemistry recently had an article on converting common methamphetamine into regulated decongestants and I'm really tired of showing my driver's license in order to buy sinus meds.

P.S Major props to badanov for going where the MSM fears to tread.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/16/2012 14:57 Comments || Top||

#4  If someone would be so kind as to explain the differences between methamphetamine, solid meth, liquid meth, and glass meth, I would be grateful. A quick google search gave Dexadrine, Benzadrine, Hitler, and Air Force pilots for history; powdered and crystal meth for street product; and, all sorts of persuasive reasons why I don't want to either manufacture or use the stuff at home. But I still don't understand the differentiations made in badanov's extensive reports.

Thank you in advance. Also, jets skis. Two of them, no less -- simply amazing!
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/16/2012 17:49 Comments || Top||

#5  If they get the mother ship close enough they can deploy a jet ski to bring the stuff onto the beach.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 03/16/2012 18:49 Comments || Top||

#6  I LOVE how they found ALL those drugs and only found $194.08. WTF?
Posted by: Kentucky Beef || 03/16/2012 21:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Thank you, Abu Uluque. Good to know the jet skis are work-related rather than recreational. The map of my ignorance has slightly less white space, thanks to you. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/16/2012 23:39 Comments || Top||


Europe
Mosque arson attack
[Dawn] THOUGH mosques in non-Moslem states have been targeted in the past, mostly by right-wing and racist elements,
We don't hear about a lot of them, but no doubt they occur. Presumably the author doesn't hear about the ones perpetrated by members of the congregations...
Monday night's arson attack on a mosque in Brussels may be the first intra-Moslem sectarian attack in a western country. A man, apparently an undocumented Democrat from Morocco, entered a Shia mosque in the Belgian capital and set it alight, shouting slogans denouncing the bloodshed in Syria, and holding the Shia community responsible for the carnage in the Levant. The Belgian interior minister has suggested the attack had sectarian motives while eyewitnesses described the suspect as "a Salafist". The mosque had already been under police protection because of threats received in the past from hardline Salafists.
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
As it is, Moslems living in the West and other non-Moslem societies encounter considerable prejudice due to the antics of religiously motivated terrorists. Acts such as these will further complicate the situation as sectarian poison originating from Moslem-majority countries is exported to the diaspora. While we in Pakistain have seen far too many mosques, imambargahs and Sufi shrines -- let alone non-Moslem places of worship -- targeted by bad turbans, Moslems of different denominations in the West generally eschew sectarianism and get along with each other. That may well change as sectarian tensions in the Middle East boil over and have a cascading effect. After Bahrain, the Syrian conflict has taken on an increasingly sectarian colour. If the Syrian quagmire degenerates into open communal conflict, the possibility of more such hate crimes cannot be ruled out. And if hard-liners in the West go ahead with an attack on Iran -- and especially if pro-West Gulf sheikhdoms have any role in supporting such an attack -- sectarian fissures in countries like Pakistain, Iraq, Leb and others which have seen bouts of Shia-Sunni violence, are bound to increase considerably.
For those determined on jihad, any target will do. But certainly for Western governments and police it is easier to justify to the PC crowd convicting and jailing those involved in intramural behaviour -- to be treated by the courts as straightforward violence -- rather than trying to anthropologize attacks on kufrs, so central to their quaint traditional culture.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad


Afghanistan
Karzai Demands U.S. Pullback
[WSJ] The U.S. suffered a major blow in Afghanistan as President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
made a surprise demand that the American-led coalition pull its troops from villages back to bases, opening a new rift that threatens the U.S. strategy in the country.
That's a perfect cue to pull all the troops out by Saturday and leave Karzai to his Najibullah moment.
U.S. officials said they are planning no changes in U.S. deployments, however, and played down Mr. Karzai's request, which came as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
left Kabul after meetings officials described as cordial.

The Afghan president's demands showed the extent to which a series of offenses against Afghans by American forces--in particular the killing on Sunday of 16 villagers, mostly women and kiddies--have roiled U.S. efforts to seek an orderly way out of the 10-year war.

At about the same time as Mr. Karzai's statement, the Taliban also challenged Washington, saying they had suspended their negotiations with the U.S.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Further proof that even Hamid Karzai reads the Burg.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/16/2012 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Start by pulling his security detail
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/16/2012 5:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Just buy him a new kabob cart and all will be well!
Posted by: Boss Noodleman8019 || 03/16/2012 10:28 Comments || Top||

#4  "A major blow"? perhaps its an opportunity instead. Pull back to the bases in a province or two. Likely 3 possible scenarios follow on that:

1. The province goes for shit in a handbasket. Then Game on again, this time with a "told you so"
2. The ANA, now over 173,000 troops, of which say 1/2 are effective, step and take on their Afghan/Pakistan adversaries (which they are slowly doing anyway and must do within 36 months or so,)and hopefully demonstrate they can walk the walk. Best to know this before the financial follow-on deal gets struck. Bonus point -early pull out option.
3. The Taliban slow up, because there are less foreigners to fight. (and perhaps foxly hold their punches). Result - things get less violent, ANA looks good. Who knows perhaps stability until the pullout in 14 or whenever.

Too simplistic I know, but ticker tape parades are not going to be anyway. Plus there are other options and outcomes. My point - pulling back is not a bad plan for a while in any event.
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 03/16/2012 15:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Prezident Pander: "I realize that there may have been some, um, mis-representations made, um, viv-a-vis things that, um, would or would not occur in, um, the vicinity of your mouth. Mistakes were made. I'm kicking off a blue-ribbon panel to look into who made them."
Posted by: mojo || 03/16/2012 15:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Demand in one hand, and shi" in the other, see which one needs cleaning first.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/16/2012 21:52 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt Ready to Hand Back Libya ex-Regime Members
[An Nahar] The Egyptian foreign ministry said Thursday it was in talks with Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
over a request to hand back members of slain leader Muammar Qadaffy
...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years until he was ejected from the gene pool by his indignant citizens...
's regime seeking refuge in Egypt.

Libya's prosecutor had written to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, providing a list of Libyans in Egypt belonging to the former regime who are wanted back home.

Cairo "is working to comply quickly with the Libyan request", foreign ministry front man Amr Roshdy said in a statement.

General prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has slapped a travel ban on all the Libyans on the list and ordered that those flying into Cairo be stopped for checks, Roshdy said.

Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr also asked his legal advisers to organize a meeting of all the authorities involved to "look into the necessary steps to quickly comply with the Libyan request within the framework of judicial treaties between the two countries," Roshdy said.

Some of the suspects have been located and Egyptian authorities have asked their Libyan counterparts to provide the necessary documents in order to get the process moving, he said.

Egypt and Libya both witnessed historic uprisings in 2011 that ousted longtime autocratic leaders.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  These Muslim Brothers sure stick together.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/16/2012 4:55 Comments || Top||


Amnesty calls for blocking Egypt-bound US weapons cargo
How about the Syria-bound Russian weapons?
A ship carrying weapons, including explosives, en route from the US to Egypt must not be allowed to offload because of a substantial risk the weapons will be used by Egyptian security forces to commit human rights violations, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
If you didn't know better you'd swear Amnesty and HRW were on the other side...
The organization said in its statement that it has tracked the Dutch-flagged ship, MV Schippersgracht, for the past two months. It revealed that the ship is currently in the Mediterranean Sea and due to arrive in Egypt early next week.

“This ship of shame should not be allowed to unload its dangerous cargo in Egypt, and there is a substantial risk that this is what it plans to do,” said Brian Wood, Amnesty International’s Head of Arms Control.

“There is a clear pattern that weapons from previous ships have recently been used to commit serious human rights violations by the Egyptian security forces, and yet the US is recklessly sending a constant flow of arms to Egypt.”

In late November, Egyptian customs employees at a Suez port denied access to a US tear gas shipment that was going to the Interior Ministry. The shipment was widely believed to be meant for use against protesters during the clashes near the Interior Ministry’s building in downtown Cairo, which left dozens of protesters dead and witnessed an extensive use of tear gas against demonstrators.

Egyptian security forces’ use of ammunition is a clear example of the urgent need for the establishment and implementation of an effective global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) which enters the final stage of crucial negotiations in July, the international organization said.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stopped clock?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/16/2012 4:53 Comments || Top||

#2  At least until the MB 'takes power'.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/16/2012 15:38 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan Taliban suspend talks with US
[Dawn] Afghanistan's Taliban bully boyz said on Thursday they were suspending peace talks with the United States because of the "shaky, erratic and vague" US position.

US and Taliban negotiators were believed to have had preliminary contacts aimed at establishing an office for the Taliban in the Gulf state of Qatar to launch peace negotiations.

Even though substantial talks have yet to begin, the Taliban announcement will dent hopes of a negotiated settlement to the more than a decade-long war in the run-up to the withdrawal of foreign combat troops at the end of 2014.

"The Islamic Emirate has decided to suspend all talks with Americans taking place in Qatar from (Thursday) onwards until the Americans clarify their stance on the issues concerned and until they show willingness in carrying out their promises instead of wasting time," the group said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
In Iran, Warty Nose Says Strategy to Remain Unchanged
[An Nahar] Senior Gazoo-based Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leader Mahmoud Warty Nose al-Zahhar
...a co-founder of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and a member of the Hamas leadership. Since 2006, Warty Nose has served as foreign minister in the government of Ismail Haniyeh. He is considered one of the more stubborn hard-liners and has no objection to kissing the Persian foot to keep the money flowing. Warty Nose's son, a member of the Qassam Brigades, was killed in an Israeli raid in early 2008. Another one was disposed of when the IDF bombed his house in 2003...
pledged that the "principles and strategy of the Paleostinian Islamic resistance will not change," during a visit to Tehran on Thursday, Iranian media reported.

Zahar, who is meeting Iranian officials, arrived in Tehran shortly after a fragile truce between Israel and Gazoo-based snuffies was announced, ending four days of bloodshed.

During a meeting with the Hamas leader, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi voiced his country's support for the Paleostinians.

He condemned Israeli air strikes during the recent outbreak of violence, calling them "savage attacks by the Zionist regime against the innocent Paleostinian population," the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Support for the Paleostinian population is part of our principles and religious beliefs, and we are certain that the Paleostinian people will triumph," he said.

Zahar thanked Iran for its "limitless support."

On Wednesday, Zahar met the head of Iran's supreme national security council, Saeed Jalili, and the speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani, the IRNA said.

Jalili reportedly renewed Iran's unwavering support for the Paleostinian cause and cautioned Zahar against "plots" seeking to divide the Paleostinian resistance.

In recent months, divisions have opened between Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, who lives in exile, and members of the group's Gazoo leadership, including Zahar.

Meshaal has presented an increasingly moderate position, saying last May that he was ready to give negotiations with Israel "a chance," and offering tacit support for the establishment of a Paleostinian state alongside Israel.

He has also publicly supported peaceful "popular resistance," and engaged in a reconciliation deal with rival Paleostinian group Fatah, even backing an agreement to have Paleostinian president and Fatah chief the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
serve as the head of a temporary consensus government.

Those positions have put him at odds with much of the leadership in Gazoo, which has warned that it expects to be consulted about key decisions, including reconciliation with Fatah and the principle of armed struggle.

"Jihad is our path, our life, our pride and we will not renounce it no matter the sacrifices," Zahar said in January.

Despite Meshaal's engagement with Fatah, the reconciliation efforts have largely stalled, and Paleostine Liberation Organization official Yasser Abed Rabbo
... Paleostinian politician and a member of the Paleostine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee. He holds an M.A. in economics and political science from the American University in Cairo.....
warned on Thursday that he felt Hamas was uninterested in the process.

"I no longer believe that Hamas wants reconciliation," he told Voice of Paleostine radio.

Zahar's visit follows one last week by Hamas's Gazoo prime minister Ismail Haniya, who shared the podium with Iran's diminutive President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad on February 11 to commemorate the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On March 3, Zahar said Hamas was not taking sides in the conflict between the Syrian regime, Iran's main ally, and bad turbans.

But Haniya, in a visit to Cairo last month, saluted "the heroic Syrian people, who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform," in a departure from the Islamists' refusal to criticize Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
Meshaal last visited Tehran in October.

Israel and the United States consider Hamas to be an armed proxy of Iran and, on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded Gazoo an "advance post for Iran," explicitly accusing Tehran of arming, financing and training snuffies in the Paleostinian enclave.

But despite the ties, Hamas has said publicly it would stay out of tensions between Israel and Iran over Tehran's nuclear activities.

Ahmed Youssef, a counselor to the Hamas foreign ministry, told Agence La Belle France Presse earlier this month that "Iran does not need Hamas to respond to Israel in the event of an attack, because it has enormous military capabilities at its disposal, which allow it to act without us."
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Guess the rag tag band from the south failed again huh?
Posted by: Titus Fillmore1824 || 03/16/2012 10:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Six militants killed in Bara operation
[Dawn] Security forces killed at least six suspected forces of Evil and dynamited three hideouts in Sipah area of Bara tehsil, Khyber Agency, on Wednesday.

Officials said that security forces carried out a search and cordon operation in Speen Qamar, Yousuf Talab, Jansi, Mandai Kas and Dawra localities of Sipah on Wednesday. They said that the operation started in the morning and continued till late in the evening.

They said that during a raid on a house, six suspected bad boys, including an Afghan national, were killed. The forces also destroyed three hideouts of forces of Evil and blew up the houses of five local bad boy commanders, including Nek Amal, Shah Faisal, Khalid and Sakhi. Houses of three civilians Wilayat Zakhakhel, Sardar Sipah and Kaki Jan Qamarkhel were also raised to the ground.

Local sources said that at least eight civilians, including women and kiddies, were killed and 21 others were maimed due to intense artillery firing by the security forces during the operation.

Haroon Afridi, general secretary of Khidmat-e-Khalq Committee, Sipah area, told Dawn on phone from Speen Qamar that almost all area residents were shut in their houses, as the forces had imposed an indefinite curfew in the area before the start of the operation.

Mr Afridi said that the civilians killed in the artillery firing could not be taken to the nearby graveyard and were buried inside their houses. He said that the forces did not allow the residents to take their injured to hospital for treatment or move their women and kiddies to safer places.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Egypt denies Israeli bulldozer was shot at on border
An Egyptian security source on Thursday denied Israeli media reports that an Israeli bulldozer working on the construction of the separation barrier between the two countries had been shot at. Work at the site was halted.

Egyptian security contacted all posts on the borders, including troops at the Egyptian frontier with Israel and patrols, and no breaches or violations were spotted, the source told DPA, adding that security bodies received no reports of any abnormal activities.

“The Egyptian-Israeli border is combed on a daily basis,” the source said, adding that such news aims at spreading confusion and instability.

Israeli radio said Thursday that a vehicle from the defense ministry took light fire from the Egyptian side near the Ogah crossing, which caused damage to a vehicle taking part in the construction of the border wall.

The Egyptian-Israeli border has long been a conduit for smuggling guns and African migrants into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in early January a plan to build a fence on the Israeli border with Jordan after finishing the wall on the Egyptian border in an attempt to stem the flow of migrants seeking job opportunities at Israel.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ZOOMG, they killed the Clamshell - WHY, D **** YOU, WHY!

lol.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/16/2012 2:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Good thing it wasn't shot at, or they would appear to be incompetent.
Posted by: gorb || 03/16/2012 14:25 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Huge Rallies across Syria in Pro-Assad Show of Force
[An Nahar] Huge crowds rallied in cities across Syria Thursday in a mass show of support for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
"to make the world hear our voice" on the first anniversary of a deadly anti-regime revolt.

State television showed tens of thousands of people waving Syrian flags and Assad's portrait in squares in Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
, the northern city of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, Suweida to the south and Hasaka in the northeast.

The cities have been relatively unscathed by the regime's crackdown on a revolt which erupted on March 15, 2011 and has cost more than 8,500 lives, according to opposition activists.

"After a whole year of pressure on Syria, we want to make the world hear our voice: Leave Syria in peace," a woman on the street told the state broadcaster.

According to the official news agency SANA, "millions of Syrians flocked (to the rallies) ... to tell the world that the Syrian people have chosen the path of national unity and stability, free from interference and foreign diktats."

The authorities, which have blamed the revolt on foreign-backed "terrorist gangs," announced a "global march for Syria" to counter anti-regime demonstrations being organised this week by the opposition across the world.

"For the lives lost in the battle for Syria," was the slogan beamed across the television screen.

Against a backdrop of a sea of flags, including the colors of Syria's Russian ally and the yellow of Leb's Hizbullah, a bugler played in Damascus before a military band struck up the national anthem.

"We are not scared of death. We are ready to sacrifice ourselves for you, oh Syria," the demonstrators chanted, many of them singing and dancing, and shouting: "Long live the army!"

Last week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a breakdown of around 8,500 deaths: apart from 6,200 civilians, it said the toll included more than 1,800 members of Assad's security forces and over 400 rebels.

"In democracy, it's the majority which decides ... these people represent a vast movement, in comparison (the anti-regime camp) are only a handful," a commentator said on the live television broadcast.

In Aleppo and on the outskirts of Damascus, security forces dispersed scattered anti-regime protests, according to the Local Coordination Committees, which organize demonstrations on the ground.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Judges protest lawyers 'misbehaviour'
[Dawn] KARACHI: Legal proceedings remained suspended at the city courts and district courts, Malir, on Wednesday as judges of the subordinate judiciary protested against the alleged misbehaviour of a group of lawyers with a judicial magistrate.

Hundreds of cases fixed before the subordinate judiciary for Wednesday could not be taken up for hearing. Undertrial prisoners were sent back shortly after their arrival at city courts and Malir courts lock-ups on Wednesday morning as the judges refused to hear the cases.

Dozens of enraged lawyers on Tuesday afternoon stormed the courtroom of Judicial Magistrate (east) Malik Javed Iqbal shortly after he convicted a lawyer and her husband in a fraud case, allegedly misbehaved with him, breached the decorum of the court and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud.

The court had sentenced Advocate Zeba Hammad and her husband, Hammad, to two years in prison after finding them guilty of fraudulently getting possession of a property within the remit of the Sharea Faisal cop shoppe.

A fine of Rs10,000 each was also imposed on the couple and in case of non-payment they were to undergo an additional one-month imprisonment.

Policemen present at the court were unable to take the convicts into custody following the pronouncement of the judgment owing to the presence of emotionally charged lawyers.

As the magistrate made it clear that he had pronounced the verdict in accordance with the law and would not reverse it, the unruly lawyers along with the convicts entered the district and sessions court (east) and moved an appeal against the conviction and sought suspension of the sentence.

The district and sessions court referred the matter to an additional district and sessions judge (east), who admitted the appeal for hearing, suspended the sentence and ordered the release of the accused on bail on Tuesday evening.

The judges, who came to know about the incident on Wednesday morning, decided not to work. They sat in their chambers in protest against the lawyers' actions on Tuesday.

All the four district judges of city courts met the senior puisne judge of the Sindh High Court, Justice Maqbool Baqar, later in the day.

Justice Baqar formed a committee -- comprising the registrar of the high court, the member inspection committee, four district judges and two representatives of the lawyers -- to look into the matter and submit its report within 10 days.

Keeping the suffering of litigants in view, Justice Baqar also directed the judges to resume work on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  ...another slapfight...zzz...
Posted by: gromky || 03/16/2012 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  So in Pakistan there are "emotionally charged lawyers" but IN North America there are lawyers who charge emotionally - hence the billable hour for even thinking about the case.
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 03/16/2012 15:19 Comments || Top||


Blood in the valleys
[Dawn] I HAVE 'normal' sectarian prejudices and tell Shia jokes to friends and colleagues.
How nice: a self-aware bigot.
Also, I do occasionally listen to firebrand
...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments...
Shia Learned Elders of Islam, who like their Sunni counterparts keep their audience spellbound, block traffic and contribute to noise pollution.

Beyond that, my 'prejudices' end. How strange, then, that there are Paks who have time to board buses, demand to see passengers' identity cards, guess their sects from their names, and slaughter them.

I wonder how many Paks have visited the paradise once called the Northern Areas, now Gilgit-Baltistan. Until 'civilised' people from the south and warriors from the west intruded in to this Shangri-La, this area nestling in the foothills of some of the world's mightiest mountains had known no violence.

They are a humble and pacifist people, and, more important, they flaunt their Pak-ness, because they take pains to emphasise they are not Kashmiris and that the GB people had revolted against the Dogra regime, thrown it out and joined Pakistain.These hardworking and remarkably handsome Paks are divided into three sects -- Shia, Sunni and Ismaili. But the commonality of interests in fighting a harsh climate and giving a better life to their people had, until recently, made them indifferent to sects.

Situated in a bowl, and hemmed in by towers of white granite that would pose a challenge to the most accomplished of climbers, the area was cut off from the rest of the country in winter for months and depended on airdrops by Pakistain Air Force for essential supplies. The area also had a high maternal and child mortality rate; literacy was low, but tourism was a major sector of the economy.

Three developments turned out to be the catalyst. The all-weather Karakoram Highway was built, land reforms were carried out during the Bhutto years, and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme took education and healthcare to the remotest of valleys.

Women have joined the medical profession in a big way, standards of living on the whole have gone up, the literacy rate has risen to 90 per cent -- the highest in Pakistain for any administrative unit -- and maternal and child mortality has gone down.

The rural support programme cost the government no money because the funds came from the Aga Khan Foundation, which encouraged people to rely on self-help to fight nature and give a better life to themselves.

The programme also led to the construction of channels by chipping away at the mountains and making use of glacial water.

This way water began flowing into homes and orchards and transformed the agricultural scene. A GB person can never go hungry, because the little plot of land in front of every home has fruit-laden trees -- citrus, grapes, cherry, pears, apples and apricots.

More important, the GB people have a Swiss-style direct democracy where development projects and other issues are decided by a show of hands. From the point of view of national integration, it is interesting to know that minutes of all meetings are maintained in Urdu as far as the Khunjerab Pass on the Chinese border.

The idyll has not lasted. The wave of religious militancy that America encouraged as part of its anti-Soviet 'jihad' in Afghanistan gripped GB, too. The situation deteriorated when non-Ismaili Learned Elders of Islam from the south suddenly found their religion threatened and rushed to the north to begin a campaign against what was a valuable, non-governmental development programme bringing education and healthcare to all GB people. As arms and faceless myrmidons from the south and west began their own mission, the green valleys and singing brooks became red with blood.

Until 9/11, mountaineering teams from all over the world used to descend on GB to scale some of the world's highest peaks. Now the area's thriving tourism industry has fallen victim to sectarian violence, guides are jobless, the hotel industry is struggling to survive, and even domestic tourism has taken a major blow.

On Feb 28, murderers wearing police uniform boarded two buses carrying innocent people -- men, women and kiddies -- to their enchanting snow-draped valleys. The 'coppers' checked the passengers' ID cards and shot those who belonged to the wrong sect.

Jandallah grabbed credit for the slaughter, which in their opinion will take the killers to paradise. Jandallah is part of the Pak Taliban, and they are supposed to be fanatically anti-American. But all the victims of their anti-US 'jihad' are Pak.

Strange jihad!

The GB people used to constitute the mainstay of the Northern Light Infantry (NLI), and killed and got killed in the wars with India. It was a paramilitary force, but because of its brilliant performance in the Kargil
... three months of unprovoked Pak aggression, over 4000 dead Paks, another victory for India ...
conflict it was made part of the army.

However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
there has been a gradual change in their attitude. They still form part of the NLI, but many young men refuse to wear uniform and make a simple statement: "either we can stay home and protect our families or we can join the NLI. We cannot do both".
Posted by: Fred || 03/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Pakistan really truely IS 27 provinces, is it not?

Ever try the Deobandists? What effort is there? Wahabbists and Sunni Mosques. Never hear anything from a Kurd, Turk, Hindi, Pashtun, Druze, Bahai?
Nevermind.

Pakistan must account for itself on this day before any decisions are warranted. Where, what, and whom do you want to be?

I see the electoral map, but what does Pakistan want to be?
Posted by: newc || 03/16/2012 1:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Check me on Rantburg. Not PK.
Posted by: newc || 03/16/2012 1:53 Comments || Top||

#3  How many eons have people in this region been killing one another over something half ass-ed for?
Posted by: Closing Dribble3914 || 03/16/2012 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Was wondering when America and it's leaders will wake up and realize it is not good sound business practice involving the country with people who marry small children( age 10 and under etc.)? Blame National Geographic perhaps our leaders and their friends would like to send their kids to private schools in the hinter lands to be brought up all proper and such! Long live the fake people leading America down the toilet.
Posted by: Eohippus Angomoling4919 || 03/16/2012 17:46 Comments || Top||



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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2012-03-16
  Philly man arrested on charges of supporting Uzbeki terrorists
Thu 2012-03-15
   Karzai orders NATO out of all Afghan villages
Wed 2012-03-14
  Leon Panetta unhurt after suspected attack
Tue 2012-03-13
  U.S. Drone Attack In Pakistan Reportedly Kills 15 Suspected Militants
Mon 2012-03-12
  Army airstrikes kill 20 al-Qaeda militants in south Yemen
Sun 2012-03-11
  Syrian Ground Forces Storm Rebel Stronghold of Idlib, 62 Killed in Violence
Sat 2012-03-10
  Air strikes in Yemen kill suspected al Qaeda militants
Fri 2012-03-09
  13 Dronezapped in South Wazoo
Thu 2012-03-08
  British and Italian hostages murdered by captors in special forces rescue bid in Nigeria
Wed 2012-03-07
  Suicide bomber kills four in southern Russia
Tue 2012-03-06
  Nigerian Army Says Killed 3 Islamists Trying to Burn School
Mon 2012-03-05
  Gunmen massacre 21 policemen in Iraq attacks
Sun 2012-03-04
  Sherpao escapes suicide attack in Charsadda
Sat 2012-03-03
  African Union troops say seize major al Shabaab base
Fri 2012-03-02
  39 Dead as Syrian Army Seizes Baba Amr and Rebels Withdraw 'Tactically'

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