The head of the French intelligence agency DCRI said in an interview on Friday that the Toulouse shooter was arrested by Israel Police in Jerusalem in 2010, after he was found in possession of a knife.
Bernard Squarcini told the French newspaper Le Monde that Mohamed Merah, who killed four people in an attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday, was held by police in Jerusalem during his visit to Israel in 2010, but was released shortly after his detainment.
Squarcini said that Merah visited several other Middle Eastern countries during that trip, including Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Afghanistan. He said that French intelligence tracked him and investigated to see if he is suspicious, but found that he had not been engaging in any ideological activism or religious activity. And yet the US saw fit to place him on the No Fly List for some reason. Funny that.
Officials say an autopsy on the body of the gunman suspected of carrying out the killing spree in the city of Toulouse shows he died of two bullet wounds — but that he was hit by some 20 bullets, mainly in the arms and legs.
The judicial and police officials said Friday that a bullet wound to the left temple and another to the abdomen of 23-year-old Mohamed Merah were fatal.
The officials said the autopsy also found some 20 bullets, mainly to the arms and legs of the man. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
A British soldier who picked up and threw away a live grenade before it could kill him and his men is among 131 members of the Armed Forces whose heroics are being officially honored.
Serjeant Deacon Cutterham Hey, Deacon Blues, this sounds like a fine namesake for ya!
was wading through an irrigation ditch knee-deep in water on patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan, when the grenade came flying over a high wall to one side and landed in front of him.
He reached down to grab it and "posted" the grenade into a parallel irrigation channel to get it out of his hand as quickly as possible No sh*t, Sherlock! Hope you tipped your laundress! Bet the man is a wicked bowler in cricket...
An English teacher sparked outrage across France today after calling for her pupils to observe a minute's silence for Toulouse serial killer Mohammed Merah.
In disturbing scenes at Gustave Flaubert High School in Rouen, Normandy, Lorraine Collin, 56, described the 23-year-old who murdered seven including three children as himself being the 'victim of an unhappy childhood'.
This prompted up to 15 pupils aged between 17 and 18 to storm out of their classroom and report Ms Collin to their headmaster Luc Chatel, France's Education Minister, called for Ms Collin to be 'suspended immediately', saying he 'condemned this unspeakable behaviour without reservation'.
It came as Merah's elder brother said he was 'very proud' of what his brother had done, hailing him as someone who fought for what he believed in.
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday said Republicans should give President Barack Obama another term if Santorum isnÂ’t the GOP nominee and for a second day compared rival Mitt Romney to an Etch A Sketch toy.
Santorum reiterated an argument he has made before: The former Massachusetts governor is not conservative enough to offer voters a clear choice in the fall election and that only he can provide that contrast.
“You win by giving people a choice,” Santorum said during a campaign stop in Texas. “You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there.”
Santorum added: “If they’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate for the future.”
Santorum was referencing Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom’s comment Wednesday that “everything changes” for the fall campaign. “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch,” he said on CNN. “You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.”
The remark reignited criticism of Romney as the type of politician who will say or do anything to win.
Romney, who made no public appearances Thursday, issued a statement expressing disappointment “that Rick Santorum would rather have Barack Obama as president than a Republican.”
“This election is more important than any one person. It is about the future of America,” he said. “Any of the Republicans running would be better than President Obama and his record of failure.”
#2
Santorum is desperate. As Romney noted in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, Santorum thinks this election is about him.
It's not.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2012 13:23
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#3
Now that the usual shoot from the hip without any sense of information from the ususal suspects has now been completed here at Rantburg, lets get the rest of the story.
Such a mandate was, of course, a significant infringement on individual choice and liberty. As the Congressional Budget Office noted, the mandate was "unprecedented," and represented the first time that a state has required that an individual, simply because they live in a state and for no other reason, must purchase a specific government- designated product.
It was also a failure.
When the bill was signed, Governor Romney, the media, state lawmakers, and health care reform advocates hailed the mandate as achieving universal coverage. "All Massachusetts citizens will have health insurance. ItÂ’s a goal Democrats and Republicans share, and it has been achieved by a bipartisan effort," Romney wrote.
Mitt Romney has gone to great lengths to distance his Massachusetts health plan from the federal law, even giving a PowerPoint presentation to emphasize the differences. But the truth is that there are an awful lot of similarities between the plan he signed in Massachusetts in 2006, often called "RomneyCare," and the one that President Barack Obama signed in 2010, dubbed "ObamaCare."
Both leave in place the major insurance systems: employer-provided insurance, Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for the poor. They seek to reduce the number of uninsured by expanding Medicaid and by offering tax breaks to help moderate income people buy insurance. People are required to buy insurance or pay a penalty, a mechanism called the "individual mandate." And companies that don't offer insurance have to pay fines, with exceptions for small business and a few other cases.
#4
On many significant issues, Obama and Romney are on the same side. In the case of health care and global warming, they even share the same staff.
That said, not even I think that Romney would be worse than 4 more years of Obama. I think Mitt will hurt America and the Republican party -- like having our own Carter. But Obama is worse than Carter.
#6
the truth is that there are an awful lot of similarities between the plan he signed in Massachusetts in 2006, often called "RomneyCare," and the one that President Barack Obama signed in 2010, dubbed "ObamaCare."
Invalid comparison. States get to do things the Feds don't get to do.
#10
"I think Mitt will hurt America and the Republican party"
I agree, but 1-party rule hurts our country more. The best realistic election outcome (at this point) I can think of is a truly Conservative congress and a go-with-the-flow status quo RINO as president.
The less power concentrated in Washington the better. As you might guess, I'm no republican but liberal democrats are forever dead to me.
#11
Santorum is a dim bulb. But posters would do well to examine BHO strengths. 1. his infrastructure spending had bi-partisan support and he can show some material success from same. 2. Bloomberg NW reports successful institutionalization of obamacare (at least to a point). 3. Frumforum reveals general GOP support for Fed spending: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/23/guess-who-doesn-t-want-to-cut-government-republicans.html
4. wind-down in Iraq and Afghanistan has GOP support.
5. The Economist recently graphed proof that the economy is improving.
6. the October 2008 depression event was the direct result of Bush-Rove baloon financial governance. BHO can comfortably point to an inherited fiscal calamity, propped by the $3 trillion in defict increase caused by the political tax-cuts of GWB's first term. Do people here still admire that dypso?
Yah, BHO is weak on domestic policy. But, given that for the first time a majority (including millions of libertarian ideologues) of Americans support gay-marriage, Santorum's right wing agenda might deliver little more than marginalization.
Disagree if you want, but do you detect any desperation on the part of BHO? Could be he thinks the GOP could discredit the party to another second place finish. I wouldn't gloat about the President - son of a muslim spouse and child abandoner - being on the ropes. I believe GOP division and over-moralism is anything but an asset. Go Romney!!!
#13
Desperstion is rampant. How much does Red China owe the great USA? Oh, forgot. It's the USA who is in debt to the Red Chinese for generations to come. People heading to Mexico for reasonanly priced gas. Obama's new legions of IRS agents are starting to audit anything that moves for a buck and recently started refusing to recognize legal deductions here and there on 1040 Schedule A. One insurance agent is still waiting for his 2010 refund. The stinch of socialism is starting to perculate up and anyone who opposes strong or lite socialists Obama/Mitt are demonised and put down by just about everyone. What is coming down the pipe is what you deserve.
Posted by: George Ebbeamp4828 ||
03/23/2012 17:55
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#14
Jinesing,
1. Obama's infrastructure spending was horribly inefficient. It got some re-paving work accelerated, but that was about it. The real problems we face are with the aging bridges and he did virtually nothing there (that I have seen.)
2. Obamacare is a farce. It will not - can not - do what it purports to. What we had was not going to last, but neither will this.
3. Just because the Stupid Party supports spending insanely like the Evil Party does is no positive attribute of Obama.
4. Bush effectively 'declared victory and left' A'stan years ago - and it should have stayed that way. Iraq - it is what is was going to be.
5. I have to agree that the economy does SEEM to be improving. After a week of flying in jam-packed planes through bustling airports it is clear that a whole lot of people are spending more money than I have available to spend. I just don't understand where they are finding it. And nobody has yet even hinted about prosecuting the innumerable crimes committed by the various financial 'too big to fail' beheamoths that caused the meltdown. And nobody is even beginning to acknowledge the disaster that faces retirees who are now earning 0.1% on their life savings - which is effectively a confiscation of assets at an unprecedented rate from the most responsible members of society.
6. OK, Bush 'started it' (or more accurately, propagated what had been going on since c. 1965), but Obama accelerated it. That does not constitute an improvement.
Tomorrow is my Stupid Party primary. I plan to vote 'None of the Above' - aka Ron Paul.
#15
I heard there was a county in OK which did not nominate Obama for the democrat ticket.
Correction after looking it up: Obama lost 15 counties in Oklahoma (in 2008, Obama won zero counties in the democrat primary, zerobama we chuckled with our good neighbors to the south). Failing to approve the Kansas leg of the pipeline shows a general ignorance or willful politicalization of the pipeline and energy topic. Why you ask, well there are actual working refinaries in Kansas and trying to get more, if the EPA and the G-Dm sierra club would piss off. Furthermore, the Ogalala does not stretch into the Kansas leg.
Anyone remember the recent oil barge accident in the Mississippi? No? Because it happened right after the decision to not build the northern end because oil might leak into the Ogalala through all that soil and protective measures and shutdown systems. That does not make the big news, so that is desperation.
Ghosting the Repuplican primary route stinks and was tacky.
Making gay marriage a topic stinks.
Democrat suggestions to inquiray the NFL stinks.
Weighing in on hoodies stinks.
No longer supporting OWS stinks.
Not talking arab spring/syria stinks.
Showing up for the beginning of the college tourny games stinks.
Not bragging up his crown achievement, Obamacare, stinks.
#17
The difference between Romney and Obama is that when Romney does something unconstitutional the media won't sweep it under the rug. That is actually a big thing for those that want this country to survive.
#18
How many out there are willing to admit there was a time when you were more liberal then you are now? And, of those would you say that over the last few years, or so, youÂ’ve become more conservative? Romney says heÂ’s gone through a similar transformation. Moreover, he can point to his pivot points. Guess what? There are a lot of folks that are, right now, at that threshold but just wonÂ’t be able to bring themselves to vote for a Santorum or Gingrich. We donÂ’t have to take Mitt at his wordÂ…we just have to hold him to his word.
I still hold that we may be seeing a split GOP POTUS ticket this 2012 Elex, wid a real possibility that Romney + Santorum will pick Gingrich or Paul as their VEEP.
IMO NO US-IRAN WAR + STABLE, ALBEIT SLIGHT IMPROV TO US ECONOMIC = BAMMER WILL STILL WIN IN NOVEMBER. The Bammer doesn't want a US War agz Iran, which is why he fears what Netanyahu + Israel will do unilaterally militarily agz Iran's NucProgs.
#20
FYI BHARAT RAKSHAK > TERRORIST GROUP [MEK] THROWS PARTY IN US CONGRESS.
* SAME > WAL-MART SAYS "SERIOUS INFLATION" [definitely] COMING.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IN DEBATE, ROMNEY SAYS US SHOULD TREAT PAKISTAN LIKE INDONESIA BACK IN 1960's. Sukarno versus Suharto anti-Commie Coup + pro-US bloody aftermath.
IOW, PRO-US "KILLING FIELDS" AGZ PAK MILTERRS???
* SAME > PAKISTAN ACTS TOUGH: [Islamabad] SEEKS 38 DEMANDS, "INDIA-LIKE" NUCLEAR [Energy] DEAL + ENDS TO DRONE STRIKES [+ formal US Apology].
Looks more than 38 to me.
* RENSE > [ENENews = post-Fukushima]US GOVT: WIDESPREAD CONTAMINATION [Nuclear = Plutonium?] THROUGHOUT NORTHERN JAPAN, INCLUDING TOKYO -
"ENTIRE REGION WOULD BE REQUIRED TO BE POSTED AS A RADIOLOGICAL HAZARD AREA", iff Nippon + Disaster was the USA???
Maybe the laugh is on those Russian Perts, Bloggers whom would like Russia to re-occupy HOKKAIDO iff China gets back Okinawa + Senkakus???
#21
Rick would probably be the least active Prez other than the repeal of commie care. I would have no qualms with him in the Oval office but he even makes me uncomfortable with the office he seeks.
No one wants Crusaders, they want sanity and good governance - and straight up fiscal understanding.
Had he focused correctly, there would be nothing to stop him. He has not focused wisely.
We are in the fight for our very humanity and bringing up 1950 challenge only hurts.
The Republican party is the dumbest party in America. The Stupid party. It must learn how to focus and not speak morals, merely hold them and speak of government order and application (or non-application) of the law.
We want someone that shall leave US alone.
Rick, you screwed up. It is not an election for someone, it is an election against something.
The Defense DepartmentÂ’s (DoD) computer networks have been totally compromised by foreign spies, according to federal cybersecurity experts. The experts, speaking before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, say current efforts to protect those networks are misguided at best.
Those expert claim that the billions spent by the government on cybersecurity have provided only a limited increase in protection; attackers can penetrate DoD networks; and the defense supply chain and physical systems are at high risk of attack.
It is difficult to know how many of these warnings are hyperbole, since some, but not all of them, were accompanied by pleas for more funding
h/t Instapundit
Associate Professor Stephen M. Kajiura was reviewing with his evolution class in GS 120 for a midterm when FAU student Jonatha Carr interrupted him: “How does evolution kill black people?” she asked. Kajiura attempted to explain that evolution doesn’t kill anyone.
The Americans are with the Islamists. They support Ennahda in Tunisia and the Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia.
I've heard this complaint from every single secular person I've interviewed in this country without exception, from academics and democratic activists to journalists and teachers. They seem to be unanimously shocked and dismayed and appalled. The subject comes up again and again in conversation even when I ask about other things.
smart diplomacy in action
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/23/2012
10:04 ||
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At least seventeen prisoners have escaped from a jail in Kirkuk. They included members of al-Qaeda and fighters from a Salafi group blamed for attacks on American and Iraqi troops.
The men used a rope made of blankets to lower themselves out of a small window during the night. A local official said there had been "very clear negligence" on the part of the prison guards.
Iraqi security forces are searching for the men, and extra patrols have been deployed in and around the city. At least one suspect has been arrested.
Police say the men escaped early in the morning by removing a ventilation grill in a bathroom. One report suggested they drugged guards with tranquilizers hidden in dates, but a provincial councillor has said the guards assisted with the escape.
The North Korean authorities have issued orders demanding the collection of 10kg of scrap iron per person in advance of this April’s major national events. A source from North Hamkyung Province today Daily NK yesterday, “The authorities are shouting about how we must collect more than 10kg of scrap iron per person from factories, schools and homes in every area of North Korea, including Pyongyang.”
Scrap iron collection is not a new idea; North Korea ordinarily carries out similar drives twice a year in spring and autumn. However, right up until last year the amount requested was ordinarily less than 5kg and the policy was not implemented very strictly. People who did not submit their share were simply told to make it up six months later, or in many cases were overlooked completely.
However, the atmosphere this year is different. According to the source, “Our local people’s unit leader is putting strong pressure on, saying ‘don’t come to me with reasons or excuses’ and emphasizing that the authorities will regard not contributing to the celebrations in April as an ideological problem.”
“They are asking for money from people who can’t find iron,” the source added. “They are calculating 200 won per 1kg so want 2,000 won for 10kg, and are threatening that those who don’t participate in the project will be excluded from holiday distribution.”
Naturally, this is unwelcome. “These days, special distribution means at best a day or two day supply of corn,” the source pointed out, “so a lot of people are thinking, ‘How about we don’t request special distribution and you just leave us alone’.”
In 2004, the Union of Democratic Women Organization was told to gather fully 30kg of scrap iron per person. At that time the authorities told the women, “We can live without candy but not without bullets.” Then, on November 18th, 2005, the founding day of the union, a tank called the ‘Women’s Union’ was publicly unveiled, with the authorities claiming it was the result of their hard work.
As a result, this year’s stricter than average drive has caused women who remember those days to comment, “Are they planning to make another ‘Women’s Union’?”
The scrap iron collected in the drive is normally sent to North KoreaÂ’s main iron and steel works, including Kim Chaek, Hwanghae, Sungjin and Gangsun, to be turned into items for use in construction projects.
#6
"We can live widout Candy, but not widout Bullets" > Oh, yeah, that'll convince the Babes.
WE MISSED THE MEAT-EATERS-DEPENDED-ON-THE-PLANT-EATERS DINOSAUR SEMINAR THAT DECADE, DIDN'T WE???
Perhaps its all going to Mainland China, courtesy of the new SINO-DPRK FTAS???
* E.G. CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > THE MYSTERY OF BHARAT [India] EXPORTING MORE COPPER TO CHINA THAN ITS ENTIRE [national]PRODUCTION | COPPER INFLATES BY US$6.3BILYUHN IN NEVERENDING EXPORTS MYSTERY.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > LIFE AFTER FUKUSHIMA:NUCLEAR POWER REMAINS THE BEST BET FOR ASIA'S GROWING ENERGY DEMAND, espec Rising China's.
No surprised here - never was convinced Nippon/Japan was truly serious about getting clsoing down + rid of all its CivNucEnergy Reax ["Yeah-h-h Right-t-t ..."].
Philippine security forces arrested a member of Abu Sayyaf in Zamboanga City in Mindanao before noon today. PNP spokesman Agrimero Cruz identified the suspect as Abdulwahab Hamia, alias Amia, 42, who he called one of the most wanted.
Cruz said Hamia had arrest warrants for six counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention. He said Hamia used to work under Abu Sayyaf commander Ghalib Andang, alias Commander Robot.
#1
I believe the author of the article, and probably the folks quoted, are pretending nobody knows about the carbeques and the non-fatal attacks on Jews.
What if they're wrong? What if people actually know about these things?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/23/2012 11:35
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#3
One way that Muslims could deflect any pushback would be to condemn the attacks, in no uncertain terms - no waffling, no blame the victim, no reference to Palestine or Afghanistan. And say the same thing in Arabic as in French.
Instead, they will just whine and complain every time someone offends them by not treating them as special.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/23/2012 16:20
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The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the research branch of the US Congress and the number one information source for congressional staff. The CRS is responsible for maintining updated research publications on numerous policy concerns. The referenced article lists various CRS research papers related to norkland.
Looks like the latest is on "North KoreaÂ’s Nuclear Weapons: Technical Issues" Dated February 29, 2012.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
03/23/2012
07:58 ||
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Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/23/2012 9:50
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#3
This is the Democrat-controlled Senate. Pretty much anything they do is going to be the wrong thing anyway, so they might as well busy themselves with pointlessness until the Republicans take over in November.
#7
Not for sports people, they are special. If I was high, ran over a traffic cop, and was caught with a bag of weed in the glovebox, what would happen to me? This particular WR got traded and a raise.
Caught with a gun in a NYC club? Diddled an underage gal? These are just the one's we know about.
I think in a way, they are already being paid to perform actions on other people which outside the field would be assault.
My question would be what does the players' union think about their own putting out hits on their own.
#8
That is, one of the major points of the NFL PU was that the owners were not doing enough to protect the players, both equipment and rule wise, why there is the crappy new kickoff system and the vulnerable hit penalty, extensions of previous roughing passer/kicker and unimpeded to the QB.
So you have the NFL PU pointing fingers at the Owners, to the point the game is somewhat ruined with no real kickoff, yet here they are beating each other up on their own conscience (bonus, yes, but they could choose not to participate, and maybe for the most part they did).
#9
I used to think congress should mind their own business in these types of matters. Now I think like TW. If they are busy dicking around with trivial matters, they aren't passing liberty restricting laws. Oh I forgot. Big daddy doesn't need congress any more. He'll just issue another decree (exec. order). So why not put on another geek show for the masses to have something to talk about? Smoke and mirrors. Bread and circus.
At least 943 Pakistani women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family's honour, the country's leading human rights group said Thursday.
The statistics highlight the growing scale of violence suffered by many women in conservative Muslim Pakistan, where they are frequently treated as second-class citizens and there is no law against domestic violence.
Despite progress on better protecting women's rights, activists say the government needs to do more to prosecute murderers in cases largely dismissed by police as private, family affairs.
"At least 943 women were killed in the name of honour, of which 93 were minors," wrote the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in its annual report.
Seven Christian and two Hindu women were among the victims, it said.
The Commission reported 791 "honour killings" in 2010. Around 595 of the women killed in 2011 were accused of having "illicit relations" and 219 of marrying without permission.
Some victims were raped or gang raped before being killed, the Commission said. Most of the women were killed by their brothers and husbands.
Only 20 of 943 killed were reported to have been provided medical aid before they died, the Commission wrote.
#2
And neither that nor the forced conversion of non-Muslim Girls + Adult Women is likely to change once Radical Islam's = TALIBAN'S POLITICAL-LEGAL JIHAD IS COMPLETE.
* NEWS KERALA > NO LAW IN PAKISTAN TO STOP THE SALE OR PURCHASE OF WOMEN FOR MARRIAGE.
* See FREEREPUBLIC + MEMRI TV on Muslim Rights vee forced taking of Non-Muslim = Infidel females.
* INDIA BLOGGERS = opine that MANY OR MOST MUSLIM TURKS HAVE GREEK BLOOD IN THEIR ANCESTRY DUE TO THE FORCED ABDUCTION + RAPE OF GREEK WOMEN UNDER THE OTTOMANS. THEIR RELIGION/FAITH IS ISLAMIC BUT THEIR ETHNICITY IS GREEK + ALIGNED, as the ancestors of Same were Greeks, Greek Christians, or Greco-Roman influenced Stepped Peoples intimidated or forcibly converted into Islam.
MaliÂ’s coup leaders ordered soldiers to return to barracks and imposed a curfew to halt vandalism on the streets of Bamako, the capital.
The curfew will be from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., Lieutenant Amadou Konare, spokesman for the National Committee for the Recovery of Democracy and the Restoration of the State, said yesterday on state television. All of the countryÂ’s borders are closed until further notice, he said.
Army officers yesterday said they had toppled President Amadou ToureÂ’s government and suspended the constitution over the stateÂ’s handling of a Touareg rebellion in northern Mali. The military formed a transitional council that will organize elections and plans to restore power to a democratically elected leader, Konare said. Mali vies with Tanzania to be AfricaÂ’s third-biggest gold producer, after South Africa and Ghana.
Captain Amadou Sanogo, the head of the transitional council, said the military is committed to fighting an uprising by the ethnic Touareg Azawad National Liberation Movement as well as fighters from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in northern Mali.
More polemics from Tariq Ramadan. You'll be surprised to learn that the murderous killing spree undertaken by Mohamed had nothing to do with his religion, its all the fault of the French.
He only went on a Jihad after being deprived of his true dignity by France.
#2
"...he ends up a Jihadi without real conviction.."
That's why he filmed his 'slay them wherever you find them' moment while shouting Allahu Akbar. Because he didn't really believe. Yeah right.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/23/2012 10:09
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#3
But who paid for the terrorists extensive travelling?
I am assessing the French islamic websites. Until one of their own was implicated, they were attacking "nazis" for killing children. Now they are posting pics of babies that are said to be collateral casualties of IAF bombing.
I have counted 5 non-islamic causes for the terror. All blame Western Civilization for not allowing Merah to enforce shariah beheading and limb hacking. Those being the right of the slaves of allah.
We don't infest our homes with termites. Why infest our countries with pests?
#4
It's probably not the religion. It's actually the culture, that's in so many ways the antithesis of Western culture. It was the culture that gave birth to the religion, and the two have been reinforcing each other since 622 A.D.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2012 17:37
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#5
We don't infest our homes with termites. Why infest our countries with pests?
Snark of the day, JD.
Could not find it in my old Webster's. Googled it and discovered it is a recently coined new word found on a T-shirt on eBay. Getting really close to the bone! Read this one over slowly and absorb the facts within this sentence!
Ineptocracy
(in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
#6
The Bammer should be suppor the return of US Astronauts to the Moon by 2020, ala NEWT GINGRICH.
> OWG-NWO > IMO akin to SPACE GOVT-ORDER = organizing the Planet for Deep Space Exploration + Colonization. The future GLOBAL FEDERAL UNION + NAU, etc. will make the curren Fed + Congress in Washington DC akin to COUNTY/TOWNSHIP/LOCAL/ GOVT.
> By most accounts, the most advanced SpaceProg after the US are the RUSSIANS whose Rockets keep crashing [like Indjuh + MIGS]. Russ repor wants to land Cosmonauts on the Moon sometime between 2022 NLT 2030. CHINA is ambitious enuff but thus far its proficiency is centered on dev Orbiting Satellites, NOT MANNED LAUNCHES TO THE MOON + BACK, OR BEYOND. INDIA + MUSLIM WORLD is debating whether HINDUISM, ISLAM as Religions validates even having a SpaceProg. NATO-EU DEPENDS ON THE USA THATS WOULD LIKE TO DEPEND ON THEM + OTHER, WHILE NIPPON = JAPAN IS TOO FOCUSED ON RECOVERING FROM FUKUSHIMA DISASTER + CHINA'S AMBITIONS IN NE ASIA.
> The Green Techs have not proven their PARITY, LET ALONE SUPERIORITY, TO FOSSIL FUELS-BASED OR NUKULAAR TECHNOLOGIES.
> THERE IS NO MAJOR OR VIABLE CONSUMER MARKET FOR THE GREEN TECHS AT THIS TIME SAVE FOR THE US = US-WORLD GOVT(S) WHICH IN TURN HAVE YET TO ESTABLISH ANY MARKET OR NEED FOR SAME, EVEN PER GOVT SECTOR AS WELL AS PER GOVT, PRIVATE-LED SPACE VENTURES.
The Fed wants us Consumers to cut back + adopt expensive, dubious "Green Techs" all the while the MSM + various Perts keep telling us the US-World has plenty of oil reserves, or enuff oil to last hundreds of years yet.
GOVT + MSM > THERE IS NO "PEAK OIL" CRISIS, ETC. THUS OF COURSE CONSUMERS HAVE TO CUT BACK!
A German court sentenced a Syrian-born militant for five years on Thursday for posting jihadi propaganda on the internet aimed at recruiting new members for Al Qaeda.
The higher regional court in Koblenz, western Germany said it convicted the 26-year-old defendant identified only as Hussam S on 44 counts of recruiting for "foreign terrorist networks" from September 2007 to December 2009. He was also found guilty of two counts of supporting foreign terrorist groups.
It said, "He released 44 publications online calling for participation in violent jihad by Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic Jihad Union and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
"The evaluation of the internet postings found that the defendant not only called for armed jihad against foreign troops in Afghanistan and Iraq in particular but for the violent spread of terrorism around the world."
The court said he had published German-language propaganda online, much of it translated from audio and video messages by leading Al Qaeda members. In two cases, he posted a video showing the beheading of a U.S. citizen used as promotional material by Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Hussam S was arrested in July 2010 in the western German town of Montabaur. He was born in Syria and is of Palestinian origin. He has lived in Germany since 1990 and was registered as a student.
The jail sentence was close to the demand of federal prosecutors, who had called for five years and six months imprisonment.
The defendant did not address the court during his trial and his lawyers said the case against him was flawed without specifically calling for his acquittal.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Danish ambassador in regard to Chechen separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev's participation in an international conference in Copenhagen. Zakayev, wanted on charges of terrorism, attended the Chechen International Conference in Copenhagen.
"Due to this, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Danish Ambassador to Russia Tom Risdahl Jensen," the ministry said in a statement.
Zakayev, who took part in the first Chechen war and allegedly led attacks on Russian forces, was placed on an international wanted list by Russia in 2001 but was granted political asylum by Britain in 2003. Russia has asked Britain to extradite him but the request has repeatedly been denied.
#1
Many moons ago I emailed the British government about Zakayev. I also emailed the U.S. State Department shortly after 9-11 about revoking Vanessa Redgrave's American visa. Ms. Redgrave is his "hostess in the U.K. I guess she is the British Hanoi Jane.
#3
If he refuses to return to Chechnya to face trial he should be declared an outlaw with a large reward on his head, if captured dead or alive. That he is free to travel around makes the KGB look p*ss weak. I'm sure that's not the image they want to project.
For a map, click here For a map of Michoacan state, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
The 12 individuals who were kidnapped Wednesday were released late Wednesday night following hours of negotiations by officials with the Michoacan state government, according to Mexican news accounts.
Wednesday it was reported in Mexican press that 11 unidentified individuals has been kidnapped from Cheran municipality. Reports at the time were unclear as to just who held the victims and what were the demands for release.
Reports said the abductions were a reaction by indigent Indians in Cheran municipality who had been trying to stop what was termed "illegal logging" in the area.
The presumed perpetrators kidnapped the victims as a response to allegations that residents of Cheran were engaged in carjacking, highway robbery and theft of fuel.
The group which held the hostages were from the rival village of Cerecito. The abductions took place as a response to an alleged theft of three vehicles from Cerecito. An autonomous town council in Cheran also accused residents of Cerecito of being in the pay of organized crime.
An agreement to release the victims was reached at 2200 hrs Wednesday, presumably negotiated by Michoacan Secretario de Gobierno or Interior Minister, Jesus Reyna Garcia.
The agreement provided for the the release of eight men and four women, in exchange for the return of the stolen vehicles reportedly numbering 40 in total.
The kidnapping victims were unharmed except for two women who were treated for their injuries and reported as stable.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The [Kenyan] government is making frantic efforts to evacuate Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang'ula and three other government officials stranded in Mali following a coup.
Mr Wetang'ula is with his personal assistant Boniface Munzala and Foreign Affairs officials Anthony Safari from the directorate of Africa Union and Gilbert Ng'eno from Kenya's mission in Addis Ababa.
Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Thuita Mwangi said Kenya's ambassador to Addis Ababa Monica Juma who was attending a security meeting with Mr Wetang'ula in Mali was lucky as she left before the unrest.
Addressing journalists in his office when he launched a committee for the implementation of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region genocide prevention, Mr Mwangi assured Kenyans that Mr Wetang'ula and the ministry officials were safe in their hotel.
"The government is in touch with the Kenyan delegation and is keenly observing the unfolding scenario and awaiting for more information on the state of security," Mr Mwangi said.
Mr Mwangi said his ministry was trying to "establish contact with the interim authority that is reported to have taken charge in a bid to have the Kenyans evacuated".
However, Mr Wetangu'la said on Thursday the situation was quickly unravelling.
"Situation worsening. Curfew imposed. Airport closed. Heavier gunfire can be heard repeatedly," he said in a facebook posting.
Wetang'ula stranded in hotel after chaos erupts in Bamako
"It is 5.30am in Bamako. Sporadic gunshots can be heard. Both myself and officers B. Munzala, G. Ng'eno and A. Safari from my ministry holed up in hotel. Difficult to tell exact situation. Another Kenyan, manager of KQ Bamako holed up at the airport where he had gone ahead to receive yesterday's flight and check us in. We are in communication. We have not established if there are any other Kenyans living/working here," Mr Wetang'ula said.
Mr Mwangi said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was working with national carrier Kenya Airways with a view to evacuating the Kenyans in Mali.
He told Kenyans in Mali to get in touch with the Kenya Airways Area manager Sally Osuke in Bamako Mali on +22177638386.
"There's confirmation a coup has taken place. A caretaker government has taken over. The President's whereabouts is unknown. The military junta has taken custody a number of ministers. We have established contact with a number of countries interested in safety of their nationals to work out on all options of safe evacuation," Mr Mwangi said.
At the ongoing fourth session of the African ministerial conference on housing and urban development in Nairobi yesterday, there were calls for the return to peace in Mali.Dr Sahle Work Zewde, the Director General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi said they were deeply concerned with the developments.
"As our Secretary General (Mr Ban Ki Moon) indicated, we are asking for a return to constitutional order in Mali. We hope that this will be restored as soon as possible," said Dr Zewde.
Mali's minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development Mr Yacouba Diallo is attending the meeting which was opened by President Kibaki.Mr Wetang'ula said the fighting broke out on Wednesday as he was about to leave Bamako.
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Special: Iranians speak to Israeli newspaper, reveal grim state of affairs in Islamic Theocratic Republic
While in Israel we are preoccupied with threats and preparations for a possible strike on Iran's nuclear sites, residents of Tehran, Esfahan, Shiraz and other Iranian cities are already deep into another war -- the war for their survival. Phone calls made in recent days by Yedioth Ahronoth to several Iranian citizens revealed a fascinating picture of the enemy state that hides behind the scary rhetoric of the leaders from Tehran.
Â
While top Iranian leaders Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad boast that Western sanctions merely make Iran stronger and issue statements claiming Iran's home front is resilient, the Iranians we spoke with have other news -- the situation in the country is terrible.
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"You can see it well at markets and shops," says Razi, the owner of a textile store in Tehran. "People only buy what they really need...I have some friends who only buy the most defective, rotten goods at the market, at the end of the day, in order to save up a few more pennies."
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'I love Israel'
Razi says he belongs to Iran's constantly shrinking middle class. He dresses up, speaks and thinks like a Westerner, yet to his great regret lives in Tehran. "I would run away if I could," he says. "But I have a big family and roots here, and I prefer to hope and believe that sometimes all of this will pass and we'll again be able to live like human beings."
Â
In recent weeks, the local currency depreciated dramatically, the prices of goods skyrocketed, and inflation has spun out of control. Meanwhile, ...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... the government has minimized fuel subsidies and encourages residents to walk or use public transportation. "We're eating less meat, whose price went up significantly, and settle for staples. It's good for our health. Maybe the Americans want all of us to go on a diet," he quips, bitterly.
Â
When Razi is told of the recent Israeli Facebook campaign under the "We Love Iran" banner, he laughs. "I would do a similar campaign. I love Israel," he says. "However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... I have this slight concern that 10 minutes after my first post goes online, you'll find me hanging upside down from a city crane."
Â
Stockpiling dollars
Khatem, a real estate professional, says that the Iranian government's propaganda isn't working. "They can keep talking about Big Satan and Little Satan, yet aside from the religious fanatics, everyone looks up to the West. We want to be like in America, but wake up into a nightmare every morning."
Â
"All my relatives are dreaming of running away from here, but stay because of the force of habit," he says. "The government is corrupt. Everyone knows that. They have no economic problems whatsoever. They keep their money stashed somewhere and know they will always have somewhere to flee to. They are also protected in case of war; they have well-built, durable bomb shelters, unlike the civilians who will eventually be hurt."
Khatem says that many Western friends and businesspeople he was in touch with severed their ties with him recently, partly because of the sanctions that prevent them from doing business with Iran. "Up until now it was difficult but possible. Yet now, with the new sanctions in place, it appears we're heading into an impossible and much more difficult period."
Â
To be on the safe side, Khatem has started to stockpile dollars. Not in the bank, but rather, under his floor tiles. "If, or more accurately, when the situation becomes harder and they nationalize our money from the bank, I'll take out my dollars, board a plane and seek political asylum in Canada.
Â
'People are scared'
Iranians believe that anti-government protests will renew in full force after Syria's Bashir al-Assad will be toppled. "Once Assad falls, the ground here will start to shake here as well," says Razi.
Â
"It will give youngsters plenty of incentive and vigor to hit the streets. At this time there are snitches everywhere and taking part in any political activity is strictly forbidden," he says.
Â
Maria, a 23-year-old student from Shiraz, says she took part in previous protests with relatives. One of them never came back, she says. "Talking is no good; it's better to shut up," she says, while describing the grim reality around her. "People are stockpiling food. They are scared. Everyone knows something bad is about to happen."
Â
'Sanctions are working'
The 40-year-old Amir lives with his family in Esfahan, not far from one of Iran's uranium enrichment sites. He realizes that in case of an Israeli strike on the facility, his home may be mistakenly hit by a missile. Still, the shortage of food bothers him more. "I don't believe that there will be a bombing...but on the other hand, I'm already feeling the shortage of money and food," he says.
Â
"Under the current state of affairs, the government can't perform financial transactions. This is serious trouble," he says. "My wife told me that soon we shall run out of medications as well. We can't go on like this for long. There are two options: Either the regime renounces the nuke project, or else we'll have a big war."
Â
Amir says that Iran is much more similar to Israel than we may think. Many Iranians aspire to be like Americans, and view Jews as true potential partners. "The problem starts and ends at the top, with our leaders," he says. "I can tell you with certainty, as one who hates the regime and wants it to fall, that the sanctions most certainly work."
#1
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Dawn.PK] OF DIAPERS AND DRUGS: IRAN'S TROUBLES PAYING ITS BILLS.
versus
* SAME > IRAN NOT TO PULL OUT OF NUCLEAR NPT, NOR TO HALT NUCLEAR ENERGY PROGRAM | IRAN RULES OUT PULLING OUT OF NUCLEAR NPT, BUT IS ALSO NOT ABANDONING THE RIGHT TO PEACEFUL NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY.
versus
* SAME > IRAN WILL HIT ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR SITE IFF ATTACKED: AHMADINEJAD.
#2
In most of modern history, about 10 years of this kind of stuff is about all a civilized people can take. Even in China the Cultural Revolution only lasted 10 years before people finally got sick of it. This has already gone well beyond 10 years, it can't go on much longer.
I believe what that person said about once Assad being gone, Iran will be next.
Because the government doesn't have the funds to import the stuff.
[AFP] - Long queues snaked outside empty petrol stations in Cairo and other Egyptian cities on Thursday, as worried motorists waited for new deliveries amid fears of price hikes and longer-term scarcity.
Industry professionals say the situation has shot fuel prices up on the black market, where some motorists have no choice but to go, amid insufficient public transport alternatives.
The queues have brought more traffic to Cairo's notoriously busy streets, sparking incidents of road rage, according to press reports.
"There's no fuel or diesel at all. We wait five hours to fill the car and then we can start working," said taxi driver Rashed Said.
"I only found fuel at this petrol station," said Maged, another driver. "This has been the case since yesterday," he said pointing to the long queues.
Fuel is highly subsidised in Egypt to maintain the price of 15 US cents (11 euro cents) per litre of 80 octane petrol, the cheapest quality.
The sector has been under pressure for months due to a fall in foreign reserves and an increase in the budget deficit, threatening subsidies.
In mid-January, the country suffered a shortage for several days, made worse by rumours of price hikes that sparked a rush on petrol stations.
Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul Naga sought to calm fears, telling the press that "the government has no intention of raising fuel prices."
Petroleum Minister Mohammed Abdullah Ghorab said the situation was due to a "lack of confidence" by consumers, insisting that petrol stocks are sufficient.
Amr Mustafa, deputy head of the General Petroleum Authority, said smugglers control 15 to 20 percent of petrol products available on the market, the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted him as saying.
Egypt's economy has been in crisis since a popular uprising last year which toppled president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , marked by a drop in tourism and foreign investment.
Cairo is currently in talks with the International Monetary Fund over a $3.2 billion loan to ease the crisis.
#7
There are less than 4 liters in a gallon. At 15 cents a liter, a gallon is less than 60 cents. The last time I filled up I paid almost $4 a gallon. I couldn't afford to fill my tank, but I got it up to halfway.
Cry me a river, Gyppos! I can't believe these savages continue to receive US taxpayer money. It's an abominiation.
#11
One of muslim brotherhood entity's presidential candidates wants offenders against islam, to be bled to death. Someone would have to be brain dead to invest in that pig-pen.
Barry and Hillary, tell us what you have done for threatened Copts in North Africa. Nothing?
#12
Amr Mustafa, deputy head of the General Petroleum Authority, said smugglers control 15 to 20 percent of petrol products available on the market, the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted him as saying.
This guy knows little about economics. Why would smugglers pay spot price for petrol to smuggle into Egypt when they could arrange for their supplies through corrupt Gov officials at 80% discount. Back hand 40% to the officials and every one is happy including the Saudis who will be paid through the ever generous IMF, who are mainly funded by the US. Win/win all round, especially for the Saudis.
[Yemen Post] Two Southern Movement supporters were killed in a shootout with the security forces in the southwestern Yemeni province of al-Dale.
Two gunnies belonging to the Southern Movement, which calls for outright independence from the north, have been killed in al-Dale central city, a local security source told Yemen Post on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
"The incident occurred when a police campaign raided a hideout of the separatists accused of killing some army personnel. The separatists refused to give themselves in, triggering an exchange of fire," the source said.
"The exchange of fire left two of them killed, but the others managed to escape," added the source.
Al-Dala is a stronghold of the Southern Movement, which increased its armed activities in the south despite claims of adhering to the peaceful struggle in calling for independence.
Yemen was two separate states before 1990, when the two leaders of the two states at that time culminated long time efforts and integrated the two states into one.
In 1994, unification partner called for secession, sparking a civil war that left thousands killed and others maimed. North Yemen won the civil war and unification is still intact.
Many analysts think that the southern issue is the biggest challenge in Yemen currently, and that the unification has never been more challenged than now.
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[Ynet] A senior American official in Kandahar confirmed to French newspaper La Monde that the passport of the terrorist from Toulouse Mohammed Merah had stamps that indicate that he visited Israel, Syria, Iraq and Jordan.
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Moreover, it was reported that he visited the West Bank.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The new governor of Bayelsa State in South-South Nigeria, Seriake Dickson, has raised the alarm over the disappearance of over 200 government vehicles believed to have been taken away by sacked aides of former governor Timipre Sylva.
Mr Dickson who decried the looting of government property including kitchen utensils and window blinds announced in Yenogoa, the state capital, stated his administration's resolve to recover every item stolen by political aides of his predecessor.
To this end the new governor has set up a Vehicle Recovery Committee charged with the responsibility of recovering all government vehicles and property in the custody of former political office holders in the oil-rich state.
According to Mr Dickson's front man Daniel Iworisuo-Markson, over 126 political appointees in governor Sylva's administration have failed to return the vehicles in their possession since January 27, 2012 when they lost their jobs, following the sacking of Mr Sylva as governor by a Supreme Court judgement.
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At present, there are two opposing theories of the causes of sexual violence. The feminist perspective asserts that sexual violence is motivated primarily by an offender's desire to exert power and control over another individual. Therefore, according to this theory, conjugal visitation should have little or no effect on sexual offending in prison. In contrast, sexual gratification theory argues that the ultimate motivation for rape and sexual violence is to achieve sexual gratification. Therefore, based on this view, conjugal visitation should reduce sexual offending in prison.
D'Alessio and colleagues put the two theories to the test, and analyzed data for the 50 US states from 2004-2006 from a combination of sources - the Directory of Adult and Juvenile Correctional Departments; Sexual Violence Reported by Correctional Authorities; and an article published in Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law - to elucidate the relationship between conjugal visitation and the amount of sexual violence behind prison walls. They compared the number of yearly inmate-on-inmate sexual offenses reported to prison officials, (including non-consensual sexual acts and abusive sexual contacts) between states where inmates are allowed conjugal visits and those where the practice is not permitted.
After taking into account the size of the prison population*, the researchers found that the rate of sexual violence was significantly lower in states that allowed conjugal visitation: 57 incidents per 100,000 inmates compared with 226 incidents per 100,000 inmates in states that do not allow the practice. This finding casts doubt on the feminist perspective and supports sexual gratification theory. Whoda thunk it? You mean feminists were wrong the whole time?
[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... on Thursday issued an order for initiating a complete crack down against the extortion mafia, DawnNews reported.
A meeting pertaining to the issue of maintaining law and order was held in the Presidency presided by the President.
Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad, Sindh chief secretary Raja Mohammad Abbas, Sindh home minister and other high officials were present in the meeting.
The Sindh home minister Manzoor Wassan briefed the President about the law and order situation.
Zardari said that the traders are vital for every country, hence security should be granted to them.
The President directed Wassan to conduct a meeting with the traders on monthly basis and report him.
Zardari said the Sindh government should cope up to improve the rangers and police services in the industrial area.
Wassan informed the President that more than 50 people were tossed in the calaboose who were involved in extortion.
On March 17, a strike call was given by a trader federation which was actively supported by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... and some other political parties.
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Michael Totten reports from Tunisia. Herewith a taste:
TUNIS -- Radical Islamists are making inroads in the Arab world's most advanced, liberal, and tolerant country. And the secularists think the United States is helping them do it.
Thousands took to the streets of Tunisia's capital Tunis yesterday to celebrate the end of French colonial rule in 1956. As one might expect on independence day, most were in an anti-imperialist mood. Who are the "imperialists" in the Tunisian imagination today? Not the French. Not anymore. The "imperialists" of today are the United States and, oddly enough, Qatar. Both are seen, fairly or not, as the backers of Tunisia's Islamists.
"No to America, no to Qatar, the people of Tunisia will always be free."
#3
Spats, that exactly why I was confused when Obama backed the revolution in Egypt. It was obvious from the beginning that the MB was the only political group in the country that was half-ass organized. The answer is that there must be a desire on the administration's part to prefer such Islamist governments to the military dictatorships that the Republicans traditionally cozy up to.
#4
We don't. But the progressive Left does. There's your answer.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2012 8:54
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#5
I have read this in a few places that US back Islamist takeovers.I dont understand how US would gain from having MB or salfists in control.
I don't think the outcome was intended, Spats Slath4746. Rather, the clever men in the White House saw the romance of a "people's revolution" and ran with it without thinking of possible consequences. At the time I sincerely believed that, in Egypt at least, the Muslim Brotherhood would let the secularists take the fall for the inevitable economic crash, then take over afterward, so I was wrong, too. I think they've made a mistake in going for power immediately although, like in Iran, it may take two generations for them to thoroughly discredit the idea of Islamic rule.
#6
"I have read this in a few places that US back Islamist takeovers.I dont understand how US would gain from having MB or salfists in control."
We don't gain and, in fact, Obama, Hillary and company were almost certain that the Salafists wouldn't gain even partial control. However, because the arab world lives in a cocoon of conspiracy theories, secularists in countries taken over by islamists believe in the conspiracty du jour.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/23/2012 12:15
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#7
"I have read this in a few places that US back Islamist takeovers.I dont understand how US would gain from having MB or salfists in control."
It is the logical consequence of the 'War on Terror' approach.
The West makes political concessions to islamofascists who do not employ the method 'terrorism' in order to weaken those islamofascists who do.
When they understand that they can get their way without 'terrorism' then 'terrorism' will cease and the WoT will be 'won.'
</sarc>
Posted by: Herb Phavick7554 ||
03/23/2012 22:26
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[An Nahar] Syria's main opposition group on Thursday said a U.N. statement calling for all parties to end violence in Syria will simply give the regime more time to continue killing its own people.
"Such statements, issued amid continued killings, offer the regime the opportunity to push ahead with its repression in order to crush the revolt by the Syrian people," said Samir Nashar, member of the executive committee of the Syrian National Council.
U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said he hoped Wednesday's rare show of unity by the 15-member Security Council -- including Russia and China -- would mark a "turning point" in the crisis, in which more than 8,000 people have been killed.
"I hope that this strong and united action by the council will mark a turning point in the international community's response to the crisis," Ban said on a visit to Kuala Lumpur Thursday.
Russia and China, which have blocked two resolutions on Syria, backed a Western-drafted statement that called on Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... to work toward a cessation of hostilities and a democratic transition.
The council also gave a veiled warning of future international action.
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[An Nahar] Claims by Iraq's runaway Sunni vice president that his bodyguard was tortured while in jug were denied on Thursday by authorities, who insisted he died of kidney failure.
Amir Sarbut Zaidan al-Batawi died earlier this month and his body was handed over to his family, with Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, wanted by Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... on terror charges, releasing photographs he said showed the 33-year-old married father-of-three was tortured.
A senior Iraqi general and a judicial front man, however, said Batawi died of acute cirrhosis kidney failure and other conditions after refusing treatment.
"He died because he had a serious disease in his kidney, and he refused to be tested and to be treated," Lieutenant General Hassan al-Baydhani, chief of staff of Storied Baghdad's security command center, told Agence La Belle France Presse on Thursday.
Why would a 33 year old man refuse treatment? Were they going to treat his kidney failure with pliers?
Asked about Hashemi's claims of holding photographic evidence of Batawi suffering torture, Baydhani replied, "It is easy for Photoshop to show anything," referring to a popular digital photo editing software.
Higher Judicial Council front man Abdelsattar Birakdar added that Batawi was regularly examined by doctors at multiple Storied Baghdad hospitals and in the prison where he was being held.
Birakdar said Sherlocks filmed Batawi confessing to criminal activity on January 14, but declined to give specifics, and said he was involved in no further inquiries afterwards.
"The dear departed's corpse was sent to the morgue for his appointment with Doctor Quincy to state the cause of death," he said in a statement. "The initial autopsy showed the cause of death to be extreme diarrhea, reduction in blood pressure, and kidney failure."
Hashemi released a statement on Wednesday in which he said Batawi had died and his body was handed to his family on March 18, around three months after his initial arrest.
"There were signs of torture in several parts of his body, including several sensitive places, a cause of savage methods used on him during the investigation," the statement said.
Birakdar said the body was transferred on March 20. It was unclear what was behind the discrepancy.
In December, shortly after U.S. troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq, the country's Shiite-led authorities issued an arrest warrant for Hashemi, a Sunni, on terror charges, sparking a protracted political crisis. Hashemi, who has remained in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region for the duration of the row, says the allegations are politically-motivated and Kurdish officials have refused to hand him over to the central government.
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#1
Last time I took a shot to the kidney it manifested as bloody urine. 'Easy' to misdiagnose as a bladder problem with associatd abdominal issues.
#2
If you get kicked in the kidneys enough times, they'll fail. And you'll die from it.
Hurts, too. (Which would BE the point.)
Like the story about the south Texas coroner, who opined that a body with 37 bullet wounds was death by natural causes, because "you're just naturally gonna die if you have that many holes in you."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/23/2012 7:34
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[Dawn] Two unidentified persons rubbed out a lady health visitor (LHV) in the limits of Gomal cop shoppe late on Tuesday night.
The dear departed LHV was working with International Committee of the Red Thingy at Kot Hakeem basic health unit.
Her brother told police that she was performing duty at the health unit when two persons, one of them wearing a veil, knocked at the door of the hospital at 12 midnight. The watchman opened the door and the assailants tried to whisk away his sister, he added.
"They rubbed out my sister on resistance," he said. Police registered FIR against person or persons unknown.
It merits a mention here that more than a dozen NGOs have been working in Tank since the last year devastating flood hit the region.
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[Dawn] The United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... Human Rights Council passed a resolution Thursday urging Sri Lanka to "credibly investigate" allegations of violations during the war against Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009.
The US-led resolution was adopted with 24 votes in favour, 15 against and eight abstentions.
Tabling the resolution, the United States said Colombo had been given three years to hold its own investigations into allegations of serious violations, but "given the lack of action... it is appropriate" that the 47-member state council pushed it to do so.
"An enduring peace will be unsustainable without meaningful steps to foster national reconciliation and accountability," said US envoy Eileen Donahoe.
"It is a resolution that encourages Sri Lanka to ... make concerted efforts at achieving the kind of meaningful accountability upon which lasting reconciliation efforts can be built." Unlike in the immediate aftermath of the conflict when it staved off a similar resolution at the Human Rights Council, Colombo was unable this time to lobby sufficient support to defeat the Western-led move.
Its ally India was among countries voting in favour of the resolution.
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SALAH AL-DIN / Aswat al-Iraq: Two people were killed and five others wounded in two separate incidents in Salah al-Din province on Tuesday, according to a local security source.
“A roadside explosive charge went off near a vehicle carrying farmers returning home Tuesday evening in the area of al-Jaloudiyat, eastern al-Dujail district, leaving two killed and four others seriously wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Meanwhile, a car bomb parked in al-Hai al-SinaÂ’ie district in Samarra went off, seriously wounding a civilian man and damaging stores near the blast site.
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Obamacare dominated the 2010 midterms, driving its Democratic authors to a historic electoral shellacking. But since then, the issue has slipped quietly underground.
Now itÂ’s back, summoned to the national stage by the confluence of three disparate events: the release of new Congressional Budget Office cost estimates, the approach of Supreme Court hearings on the lawÂ’s constitutionality and the issuance of a compulsory contraception mandate.
Obamacare was carefully constructed to manipulate the standard 10-year cost projections of the CBO. Because benefits would not fully kick in for four years, President Obama could trumpet 10-year gross costs of less than $1 trillion — $938 billion to be exact.
But now that the near-costless years 2010 and 2011 have elapsed, the true 10-year price tag comes into focus. From 2013 through 2022, the CBO reports, the costs of Obamacare come to $1.76 trillion — almost twice the phony original number.
It gets worse. Annual gross costs after 2021 are more than a quarter of $1 trillion every year — until the end of time. That, for a new entitlement in a country already drowning in $16 trillion of debt.
Constitutionality:
Beginning Monday, the Supreme Court will hear challenges to the law. The American people, by an astonishing two-thirds majority, want the law and/or the individual mandate tossed out by the court. In practice, however, questions this momentous are generally decided 5 to 4 — i.e., they depend on whatever side of the bed Justice Anthony Kennedy gets out of that morning.
Ultimately, the question will hinge on whether the Commerce Clause has any limits. If the federal government can compel a private citizen, under threat of a federally imposed penalty, to engage in a private contract with a private entity (to buy health insurance), is there anything the federal government cannot compel the citizen to do?
If Obamacare is upheld, it fundamentally changes the nature of the American social contract. It means the effective end of a government of enumerated powers — i.e., finite, delineated powers beyond which the government may not go, beyond which lies the free realm of the people and their voluntary institutions. The new post-Obamacare dispensation is a central government of unlimited power from which citizen and civil society struggle to carve out and maintain spheres of autonomy.
Figure becomes ground; ground becomes figure. The stakes could not be higher.
Coerciveness.
Serendipitously, the recently issued regulation on contraceptive coverage has allowed us to see exactly how this new power works. All institutions — excepting only churches, but not excepting church-run charities, hospitals, etc. — will be required to offer health care that must include free contraception, sterilization and drugs that cause abortion.
Consider the cascade of arbitrary bureaucratic decisions that resulted in this edict:
(1) Contraception, sterilization and abortion pills are classified as medical prevention. On whose authority? The secretary of health and human services, invoking the Institute of Medicine. But surely categorizing pregnancy as a disease equivalent is a value decision disguised as science. If contraception is prevention, what are fertility clinics? Disease inducers? And if contraception is prevention because it lessens morbidity and saves money, by that logic, mass sterilization would be the greatest boon to public health since the pasteurization of milk.
(2) This type of prevention is free — no co-pay. Why? Is contraception morally superior to or more socially vital than — and thus more of a “right” than — penicillin for a child with pneumonia?
(3) “Religious” exemptions to this edict extend only to churches, places where the faithful worship God, and not to church-run hospitals and charities, places where the faithful do God’s work. Who promulgated this definition, so stunningly ignorant of the very idea of religious vocation? The almighty HHS secretary.
Today, it’s the Catholic Church whose free-exercise powers are under assault from this cascade of diktats sanctioned by — indeed required by — Obamacare. Tomorrow it will be the turn of other institutions of civil society that dare stand between unfettered state and atomized citizen.
Rarely has one law so exemplified the worst of the Leviathan state — grotesque cost, questionable constitutionality and arbitrary bureaucratic coerciveness. Little wonder the president barely mentioned it in his latest State of the Union address. He wants to be reelected. He’d rather talk about other things.
But thereÂ’s no escaping it now. Oral arguments begin Monday at 10 a.m.
[An Nahar] Renegade Mali soldiers shot their way to the presidency and forced the head of state to flee Thursday, claiming on television to have ousted an "incompetent regime" and dissolved state institutions.
The putschists, calling themselves the National Committee for the Establishment of Democracy, said they had acted due to government's "inability" to put down a Tuareg-led insurrection in the north.
Mali had been seen as relatively stable but the demise of Muammar Qadaffy ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse... turned the country into a tinderbox, flooding the region with weapons and sparking the return of former Tuareg rebels who had fought for him in Libya.
Foreign powers voiced great concern over President Amadou Toumani Toure's ouster and appealed for calm. La Belle France said that a presidential poll that had been due for April 29 should be held as early as possible.
A group of a few dozen soldiers appeared on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
at about 04:45 GMT after a few false starts battling to get audio equipment working and hours of music videos playing after seizing the broadcaster in Bamako.
The group's front man, identified on-screen as Lieutenant Amadou Konare said the takeover was a result of a "lack of adequate material to defend the nation".
Claiming to represent the nation's defense forces, Konare said the junta "solemnly commits to restore power to a democratically-elected president as soon as national unity and territorial integrity are re-established."
Since January, al-Qaeda's North African branch upped its attacks on Mali government troops and kidnappings of foreigners while Tuareg rebels launched their largest offensive in years in the impoverished landlocked country's north.
The leader of the junta was revealed to be one Captain Amadou Sanogo, who appeared briefly to announce the imposition of a national curfew.
The appearance on television came shortly after the mutinous soldiers seized the presidential palace and nabbed several ministers, including Foreign Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga and Interior Minister Kafouhouna Kone.
"We are in control of the presidential palace," one of the rebels told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Toure was initially holed up in the palace as shots were traded outside but he managed to flee the premises. Loyalist officials told AFP the ousted president was unharmed and had been moved to safe location.
Witnesses reported heavy gunfire and the use of tracer bullets, while one noted flames coming from the southern side of the palace, perched on a hill overlooking Bamako.
Elite paratroopers known as the "Red Berets" attempted to fight back but the renegade soldiers claimed the upper hand.
Toure, who has served two terms, was not a candidate in next month's polls.
The president is himself a former soldier who led the ouster of president-for-life Moussa Traore in 1991 before handing power to civilians. He later won an election in 2002 and was re-elected in 2007.
Under his leadership Mali -- which has battled successive Tuareg rebellions since independence and more recently al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb -- has since been hailed as a growing democratic success in the region.
The Tuareg, many of whom decamped drought and discontent under a southern government to work and fight for Qadaffy in Libya, returned heavily armed, battle-experienced and jobless after last year's conflict.
In mid-January they launched a fresh rebellion for independence of what they call Azawad, their stomping ground which makes up the vast desert northern triangle of the bow-tie shaped nation.
Anger has grown in recent weeks over the government's handling of the conflict in which the Tuareg attacks have displaced up to 200,000 civilians.
Wednesday's turmoil erupted when efforts by Defense Minister Sadio Gassama to ease tensions at a military barracks outside the capital turned sour and soldiers fired shots into the air as they demanded proper weapons with which to face the rebels.
Mali has become a new frontline in Africa and Western powers concerned that the northern triangle of the bow tie-shaped country could become a safe haven for al-Qaeda were quick to call for order to be restored.
"We believe that grievances should be addressed through dialogue, not through violence," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon voiced "deep concern", as did neighboring Algeria, Bamako's main partner in the fight against al-Qaeda.
EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton condemned the coup and said "constitutional rule should be restored as soon as possible."
Former colonial power La Belle France, which has a military presence in several neighboring countries, said a fresh election was the urgent next task at hand.
"We ask that the constitutional order be restored, elections, they were scheduled for April, they need to take place as soon as possible," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.
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[Yemen Post] Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the commander of the First Armored Division, and the northwest military region, expressed Thursday his willingness to resign from his post in line with the GCC-brokered deal signed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in November.
In an interview with the state-owned 26 September newspaper, he said the army institutions under his command will not be an obstacle in front restructuring the army, warning that using violence will only lead to regrets, and agony.
"This is life, nobody is eternal, and nothing remains forever. I'm an official today but tomorrow I will be an average citizen," he said.
Mohsen said there is not divisions in the national army, rather there is just disputes among the army commanders.
He applauded the current President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, describing him as a wise man, and a hell of a politician, disclosing that he meets him on a regular basis to take orders from him[ Hadi].
Asked about the current situation of the armed forces, he replied that "the current situation is in shambles, holding everyone concerned responsible for that.
Regarding terrorism in Yemen, he pointed out that the 133 brigade, which belongs to the northwestern military region, has been fighting al-Qaeda since the beginning of the war in the restive Abyan province, revealing that the brigade lost more than 80 of its soldiers and officers who were killed in the fierce festivities.
Mohsen noted that he has been calling for a long time for moving military brigades out of residential areas, especially the capital Sana'a.
A huge kaboom rocked the First Armored Division last night. It was, according to security official, a mortar shell that fell far away from the main building. it did not caused any causalities. So far, it's not known who was responsible for the attack.
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03/23/2012
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[An Nahar] Fierce festivities erupted in Syria on Thursday, with a busload of fleeing civilians among 110 killed, as Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Despoiler of Deraa... foes described a U.N. Security Council peace call as toothless. Picked right up on that, didn't they?
The army attacked a string of towns, while rebel fighters struck military posts in several provinces and announced a command structure to coordinate hit-and-run strikes in and around Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
The escalation came just hours after the Security Council adopted a statement urging Assad and the opposition to implement "fully and immediately" international envoy Kofi Annan's ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... peace plan.
The Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, dismissed the U.N. statement, saying it offered "the regime the opportunity to push ahead with its repression in order to crush the revolt by the Syrian people."
Samir Nashar, an SNC executive committee member, told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone from Istanbul: "It's time for the U.N. Security Council to use its powers to stop these massacres."
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the international community had to go further and develop "a joint plan of action."
"We continue to think that Syria is playing for time ... In order for this human tragedy to end we must act together," he told news hounds in Vienna. "Just making calls is not enough."
He also said he did not think "that this regime, with these characteristics, can survive. It is against the logic and history and the flow of history.
"A regime fighting against its own people, trying to keep the status quo, cannot survive."
Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, Zebulon finally found just the friend he'd been looking for...
the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed 84 people across the country, including 12 children, four women and an army dissenter.
Twenty-four people were killed in Idlib, 33 in Homs, 15 in Hama, four in Daraa, two in 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... , two in Latakia, two in Damascus suburbs and one in the heart of the capital, the LCC said.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fierce festivities also killed 18 regime soldiers and nine army deserters across the country.
A bus, with women and kiddies on board, was shot up close to the town of Sermin in the northwestern province of Idlib, near the Turkish border, and 10 people died, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Opposition activist Milad Fadl, contacted by AFP in Beirut, said the civilians were headed for Turkey to escape the bloodshed when regime forces opened fire.
A day after the Security Council statement was passed, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... was set to slap a travel ban and assets freeze on Assad's British-born wife Asma and other members of his family, diplomats said in Brussels.
Annan's plan calls for Assad to pull troops and heavy weapons out of protest cities, a daily two-hour humanitarian pause to hostilities, access to all areas affected by the fighting and a U.N.-supervised halt to all festivities.
Monitors say more than 9,100 people have been killed in a revolt against Assad that started with peaceful protests before turning into an increasingly armed revolt, faced with a brutal crackdown costing dozens of lives each day.
On the rebel side, the Free Syrian Army announced that it has set up a military council to coordinate hit-and-run strikes around the capital, so far largely spared the worst violence.
The official media in Damascus on Thursday played up the lack of any threat or ultimatum in the non-binding Security Council statement aimed at bolstering former U.N. chief Annan's mission.
After intense negotiations between major U.N. powers, Russia and China signed up to the Western-drafted text which calls on Assad to work toward a cessation of hostilities and a democratic transition.
Russia and China have vetoed two Security Council resolutions on Syria, arguing they were unbalanced and aimed at regime change.
The Security Council awaited a formal response from Syria to its peace call.
With a veiled warning of future action, the Security Council called on Assad and the opposition to work "towards a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis and to implement fully and immediately (Annan's) initial six-point proposal."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Condoleezza Rice ... praised the U.N. statement and warned Assad to carry out the peace plan or "face increasing pressure and isolation."
European countries still want to press for a full, binding Security Council resolution on the crisis, with French envoy Gerard Araud calling the statement "a small step by the Security Council in the right direction."
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact... State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton will attend the next "Friends of Syria" talks in Istanbul on April 1.
Nuland said the meeting will build on previous efforts to end the violence, enabling the delivery of humanitarian aid and launching a political process aimed at replacing Assad.
In other developments, Iran stressed its opposition to any foreign intervention in Syria, its chief Middle East ally, and called for a political solution to the bloody conflict there.
Iran "once again reiterates its emphasis on solving the current Syrian situation via political means and refraining from any hasty move and intervention," foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast said, according to the website of state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
network IRIB.
Iran "will go along with any plan that does not violate this nation's illusory sovereignty, which includes the reform plans by the president and helps stability and calmness and also prepares the ground for national dialogue," he said.
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[Dawn] Intermittent firing and street festivities between protesters and law-enforcers kept most parts of Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... shut on Wednesday.
Raids by police in different areas, removal of banners of a proscribed outfit and arrest of some suspected gangsters triggered violent protests by residents who hurled stones at the law-enforcers at Lea Market and shouted slogans against what they described as a one-sided operation.
The protesters also blocked roads by burning tyres. To disperse them, the police used teargas and had gun sex.
SP of City Nasir Aftab said that Lyari gangsters were inciting the public after police demolished their several gambling dens, depriving them of their illegal businesses.
Scores of people earlier converged on Sheedi Village Road, D.D. Chaudhry Road and Saifee Lane and raised anti-police slogans.
A couple of marchers were heard shouting why Lyari had been singled out for an operation. They also raised slogans against Interior Minister Rahman Malik.
The banners of the defunct People's Amn Committee were removed in different part of Lyari and eight people were rounded up, said the police.
They added that defunct PAC activists forced people to stage protests against the ongoing operation of the police and Frontier Constabulary in Lyari.
During the day, Nayaabad, Dubai Chowk, Singhu Lane, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai Road, Kamela Stop, Khadda Market and Al Falah Road reverberated with intermittent gunfire.
The police said the protesters were tear-gassed when they started hurling stones at the law-enforcers. The officials said that they also had gun sex to disperse a crowd in the Lea Market area.
Police jugged eight to nine protesters, who were involved in the riots and attacks on the law-enforcers, said SP Aftab.
He said since police had demolished several gambling dens of gangsters depriving them of their running businesses, they instigated violent protests.
He claimed that during the operation, the police removed 'all the banners' of the proscribed PAC, adding that such outfits were not allowed to display their banners.
Defunct PAC leader Zafar Baloch said that the people of Lyari were angry because the police had singled them out by conducting raids only in the old city area.
Pre-dawn arrests
In the early hours of Wednesday, three wanted gangsters were picked up by a special police team during a raid on Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai Road.
The police also claimed to have seized weapons and drugs found in their possession, but did not disclose the identity of the gangsters.
Earlier, PAC leader Zafar Baloch, PPP leader Habib Jan Baloch, Inspector Yousuf Baloch, Lyari gangster Baba Ladla and his two brothers -- Zahid Ladla and Tahir Ladla -- and other Lyari gangsters, including Rahim alias Darinda, Sikandar alias Sikku, Omar
Kutchhi and two unidentified persons, were booked in the murder of Kuchhi Rabita Committee leader Abdul Rasheed, his guard and a policeman.
The three men were killed in an attack in Agra Taj Colony on March 18.
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[Dawn] THE younger brother of one of the late Osama bin Laden's ... who now dances with worms... widows, Amal Abdulfattah, has filed a legal challenge in the Islamabad High Court against criminal cases filed against Ms Abdulfattah and five minor children of the Al Qaeda chief. From what the authorities have disclosed, they entered the country illegally. Perhaps the state believes that because of their proximity to the world's most wanted man the family can provide crucial information. If this is the case, the authorities need to make it clear; otherwise it can be argued that these people are high-profile examples of the manner in which women and kiddies in this shadowy war are written off as negligible collateral damage by faceless myrmidons who head households as well as the security network in pursuit.
In many cases, the faceless myrmidons jeopardise their families' security by keeping them in the area of active operations. It is hard to imagine that the women and kiddies have a choice in the matter. And when the men are targeted, via drones or bombs or raids, those affected include people whose crime was simply to be irrevocably tied to a suspected terrorist. Some argue that the bad boys' intention is to use their families as human shields. Do those planning a strike against faceless myrmidons take such collateral damage into consideration? From the many examples, including that of Baitullah Mehsud's wife who was killed along with her husband in a drone strike, it would appear not. The onus lies primarily on the men who drag their families with them. But military planners are not absolved of the moral responsibility for the death or victimisation of those who have no proven links with terrorism. The fate of Osama bin Laden's family, then, becomes a litmus test. If the only charge against them is of illegal entry, the humanitarian answer lies in deportation.
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03/23/2012
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The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) has been granted "observer status" in the negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) when they resume talks in April, representatives of the two panels announced.
The MILF have acknowledged OIC's active involvement in attempts to end almost 40 years of war and violence in Mindanao. The OIC brokered the 1996 agreement between the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front that resulted in the establishment of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
In Bangladesh, Islamic terror organizations such as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Harkat- ul Jihad al-Islami (HUJI), though banned for years, have survived several changes of government. Some training camps continue to impart both ideological and arms training. It's all because of money.
Survival is made possible by some twenty local and foreign Islamic charities, including al Qaeda's International Islamic Front (IIF), which have been financing radical Islamic groups JMB and HUJI. Much of the money arrives from Pakistan via hawala (underground banking) channel. Other sources include the Saudi based World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Rabeta-al-alam-al-Islami, Kuwait based Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, International Federation of Islamic Organizations, Islamic World Committee, Qatar based Charitable Society and UK based Muslim Aid. In a single transaction in 2008, for instance, JMB received $42 million, again through 'hawala'. Bangla is a dog's breakfast of a place, but from where I've been sitting it's about 900 percent improved over the Khaleda regime. The August 21st grenade attacks seemingly had the coppers "stumped" until the election turned the BNP and their allies out. JMP ran wild, with Bangla Bhai and his bad boyz seemingly impossible to run down. HUJI operated with impunity. Even though part of the motive behind it is the fact that the Battling Begums despise each other, I think the war crimes prosecutions have provided a wedge to take out the Jamaat-e-Islami leadership, the corruption trials and the arrests in the Chittagon Arms Shipment fiasco are providing a level to dump some of the more odious BNP partisans, and the recent revelations of the ISI's ownership of BNP will help postpone their comeback for awhile. Because it's a Moslem country they'll be back in power eventually, but until then and in spite of the Awami's League's own problems with corruption things have definitely been getting better.
Major structures built to promote the personality cult of North Korea's Kim dynasty have been damaged as isolated pockets of resistance begin to grow, according to reports. A statue of Kim Jong-suk, former leader Kim Jong-il's mother, in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province was damaged in October and a monument in Pyongyang was destroyed in April last year.
Based on information from domestic and foreign intelligence agencies, Saenuri Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun said on Sunday, "The Kim Jong-un regime has witnessed several events challenging the authority of regime founder Kim Il-sung and his family."
A door of Mangyongdae, regime founder Kim Il-sung's birthplace in Pyongyang, was stolen in February last year. Mangyongdae is the most sacred place in the North. Minister of People's Security Ju Sang-song, the closest aide to Kim Jong-il, was suddenly fired in March, presumably taking the blame for this case.
In September last year, graffiti reading "Hereditary succession is betrayal of socialism!" and "Down with Kim Jong-un!" were found at major universities and in market areas.
A source familiar with North Korean affairs said, "Public security agencies were in an uproar in June last year after graffiti denouncing the Kim dynasty were found in some places at universities." Right after the incidents, the regime closed major universities for 10 months.
"On the surface, the regime said it closed the schools to mobilize students for various kinds of construction projects before it would declare the North a 'powerful and prosperous nation.' But in fact, the regime intended to prevent students from creating a disturbance," the source added.
Since a botched currency reform in late 2009, an increasing number of people have openly complained about the regime's excessive policies. In many cases, market traders gesticulated at officials and shouted at them in resistance to attempted crackdowns. Some officials were beaten or even killed. Several cases of arson and attacks on public buildings took place in July last year.
"Dissident activities are still continuing," Yoon said. "This shows that ordinary people's loyalty to Kim Jong-un is still weak, although he has a relatively solid grip on the ruling elite."
Economic difficulties and a growing income gap have led to increasing complaints from people, said Prof. Cho Dong-ho of Ewha Womans University.
Another speculation is that recent public activities by Kim Jong-un indirectly reflect the serious situation he faces. "Kim Jong-il refrained from engaging in public activities until 100 days after Kim Il-sung's death. But Kim Jong-un started visiting military units just 15 days after his father's death," a South Korean security official said. "This implies that he can't afford to lose a day trying to ensure the loyalty of soldiers.”
But the resistance shows no signs of being organized. The attacks are scattered and sporadic and are not seen in Pyongyang.
A South Korean government official said, "The regime has no problem maintaining itself even if there is some resistance, as long as the three- or four-tier surveillance structure and control network built by Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il over their lifetime is in place."
There have been isolated incidents of protest before. In October 1991, one arm of a Kim Il-sung statue in Sinuiju was cut off, and in December 1994 a large Kim Il-sung portrait was burned in a factory in Sinuiju. In April 1997, and a tower commemorating Kim Il-sung at a shipyard in Wonsan was destroyed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2012
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#1
D *** NG IT, I was expecting this yesterday wid the news of alleged coup in China!
#4
g(r)om, I do remember that from those (very) long-ago organic chem classes, but, I also seem to remember that it was realllllly hard to break them down.
Maybe they need it as fire wood to boil up the grass & rock soup.
#6
All you need is a breeding population of termites. They're good eatin' if you've been feeding them well. The challenge is to keep them from wandering off to crunchier pastures while you're farming them.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/23/2012 16:57
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(Sh. M. Network)- Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) on Wednesday said it has incarcerated suspects over the mortar shells on the presidential palace in the past couple of days, killing five innocent civilians.
Abdirahman Omar Osman (Yarisow), the front man of Somali government told Shabelle Media that the security forces have apprehended several suspects for involvement of Mortar Attacks near Villa Somalia in Mogadishu and will put on trial.
The target of the attack is believed to have been a hostel housing pro-government forces in the nearby Villa Somalia compound, the presidential palace. But the mortars did not reach their target and instead landed in a small settlement for internally displaced people in the Wardhigley district.
The mortar attack fired into Somalia's palace, Villa Somalia claimed the lives of up to five internally displaced people, including two children.
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03/23/2012
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As La Belle France takes stock after a shoot-out on Thursday which left the man believed to have killed seven dead including three Jewish children and a rabbi, Germans were warned they could face the same horror on their streets.
Such attacks could take place in Germany, said Rainer Wendt, chairman of the DPolG police union. They could take place in Iceland or Portugal, too, though I don't believe either is swarming with Islamists like Germany so likely they won't...
He told the business daily Handelsblatt that 250 of "roughly 1,000 sympathisers of Jihad-terrorism in Germany" had received attended terrorist training camps on the Pakistain-Afghanistan border.
But it is impossible for security agencies to keep a round-the-clock observation of these 250 people. "In this respect it is of course possible at any time that also in Germany a radicalized single perpetrator commits such actions like in Toulouse," said Wendt.
250 of "roughly 1,000 sympathisers of Jihad-terrorism in Germany" had attended terrorist training camps on the Pakistain-Afghanistan border.
He called for politicians to make training in so-called "terror camps" a crime in Germany.
"Politicians would be well advised to think about this [legal] instrument and not first become active when there are concrete plans for an attack," he said. "Then it can be very quickly too late," he added.
The police union leader noted that the French police were able to quickly home in on the suspect because of internet research and called on the German government to quickly adopt legislation that would allow German authorities to store and retain internet data.
Separately, a German Jewish leader condemned the French massacre, and said it should be regarded as a "warning signal for Germany. The problem of Islamism has been "played down, misjudged and underestimated," Charlotte Knoblauch said in Munich.
"Hostility toward Jews is growing rapidly among Moslems living in Germany," said Knobloch, the former head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, while calling on politicians and society as a whole to not hide from these problems.
The Central Council of Moslems in Germany condemned the Toulouse killings and warned the media against using the attacker's propaganda to try to explain the violence.
"Say anything and we'll cut yer sister!"
That would "make a mockery of the victims and hurt Moslems worldwide," said council chairman Aiman Mazyek said in a statement on Thursday.
Chairman Mazyek needs to work on his taqqiya...
He said the council was "deeply shocked over the deaths from the attacker" and had already expressed his sympathies to the Jewish community in a letter to the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann.
The letter was back-copied to the Jewish school in Marseilles, to show precisely the respect the Moslem-German community feels for those mourning in Toulouse.
The Moslem council was very appreciative that French President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... invited both Jewish and Moslem representatives to the presidential Elysee palace.
"That was an immensely important signal," the statement said. It "showed that the attacker's goal of inciting religions against each other backfired."
How many Moslem schools have radical Jewish Frenchmen raked with gunfire, again? Oh, yes: none.
The statement said, "there is no justification in Islam for such baseless and shameful acts."
[AFP] Interpol has issued "red notices" for four Iranians suspected of involvement in a kaboom near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, the international police agency said Thursday.
Indian authorities requested the notices, which instruct police across the globe to arrest the suspects, following the February 13 embassy attack that left an Israeli diplomat seriously injured.
Those wanted are: Mohammadreza Abolghashemi, Houshang Afshar Irani, Seyed Ali Mahdiansadr and Masoud Sedaghatzadeh.
They are are all wanted for terrorism related offences, including criminal conspiracy and attempted murder.
"India has ensured that law enforcement officials around the globe are alerted to the wanted status of these runaways, and therefore reduces their options for international travel," Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said in a statement.
In the attack, a hitman on a cycle of violence attached a magnetic bomb to the back of an Israeli embassy car carrying the 42-year-old diplomat, who was also the wife of the defence attache at the embassy.
The woman was left at death's door with spinal injuries and was flown to Israel for further treatment. Her driver and two passengers were also maimed.
Israel immediately accused Iran of being behind the bombing, which came on the same day as another attempted attack on an Israeli embassy car in Georgia.
But India has held back from blaming traditional ally Tehran although the Indian police's probe appears to be focused on Iranian nationals and those with ties to the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
Photographs of the suspects are posted on Interpol's website.
#1
See also WAFF > IRANIAN WEBSITE DESCRIBES HOW IRAN WILL REPULSE A GROUND ATTACK.
IMO Artic is shade of 1991 Gulf War + Iraq 2003, which we all know de facto stopped or defeated the US - NOT!
The Delhi Bombings + Iran's strategic focii from Syria-Lebanon + Hizbollah bases in Venezuela + to CENTASIA [-Stans = CAR], etc. shows more of Iran's real anti-US strategery vee any US-led ground campaign to occupy Iran, AS CONSISTENT WID ANCIENT PERSIAN + OTTOMAN MIL HISTORY, + OF COURSE THE "VIETNAM WAR" + AFPAK/AFRAQ.
IOW, THE BORDERS OF IRAN'S SOVEREIGN NEIGHBORS, NOSTSOMUCH THE PERSIAN GULF GULF OR LAND LINES, IS THE MULLAH'S REAL "DMZ" TO KEEP THE US-ALLIES LOCKED INSIDE IRAN. A US-IRAN WAR WILL BE A REGION-, OR TRANS-REGION WIDE WAR NOT CONFINED TO IRAN ANDOR THE GULF PROPER.
As per POTUS Nixon + "CAMBODIA" INCURSION, the question is how long + how far will the US-Allies alow their Milfors to penetrate into "neutral" Countries chasing the IRGC + Basij, etc. + risk coming up agz Russia + China???
#2
I'm sorry, but Joseph Mendiola, I have to tell you that I absolutely detest your comments. They are abstract, abstruse, annoying, at times incomprehensible, etc. Please, stop typing like a freak. Lay off the caps and go easy on the abbreviations. And please stop theorizing fourteen steps ahead. Speculation turns into craziness once you start speculating on speculation. And, what are you smoking when you insinuate that a potential war with Iran would see Iranian forces displacing all the way to the borders of China and/or Russia? Please let me have some of what you're smoking!
Like many who frequent the Burg, Joe is no "average Joe." He's a Burg plank holder who provides a learned, Pacific Island perspective that is not available elsewhere. Like me, he gets a pass on spelling, caps, syntax, and grammar.
[Bangla Daily Star] Private security firms are storing their guns aboard floating armories in international waters so ships that want armed anti-piracy guards for East Africa's pirate-infested waters can cut costs and circumvent laws limiting the import and export of weapons, industry officials say.
Companies and legal experts say the operation of the armories is a "legal gray area" because few, if any, governments have laws governing the practice. Some security companies have simply not informed the governments of the flag their ship is flying, industry officials said.
Some members of the private security sector are urging governments and industry leaders to impose standards on the unchecked practice of storing weapons offshore to equip anti-pirate forces off Somalia's coast.
Storing guns on boats offshore really took off as a business last year. Britannia - where many of the operators are from - is investigating the legality of the practice, which has received little publicity outside of shipping industry circles.
Floating armories have become a viable business in the wake of increased security practices by the maritime industry, which has struggled for years to combat attacks by Somali pirates. But those in the industry say the standards vary widely.
Governments and industry leaders "need to urgently address standards for floating armories and get flag state approval," said Nick Davis of the Maritime Guard Group "Everything has got to be secured correctly, recorded, bonded, the correct locks, and so on. It's not just a case of find a room, put some weapons in it and everybody chill out."
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#1
Didn't we have an article a while back about recommissioning some reef-bait bunker ship and adding assault zodiaks with a helipad? The discussion at the time was about clearing mines.
I wonder if this might not be a more appropriate theme.
[An Nahar] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... is set to slap a travel ban and assets freeze on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... wife Asma and other members of his family, EU diplomats told Agence La Belle France Presse on Thursday.
Asma al-Assad is on a list of 12 people, including a handful of the president's relatives, whose assets will be frozen and who will be barred from travel across the 27-nation bloc, the sources said.
As a British-born and British-educated former investment banker, it was widely believed Asma al-Assad's grounding in Western values would help give the regime a more human face and shatter the isolation of the secretive Assad family.
But in the last weeks she became the focus of sharp criticism after Britannia's Guardian newspaper released e-mails showing the ruling couple shopping for luxury goods as the country slid into bloody chaos.
She will be one of a dozen names added by EU foreign ministers Friday to a blacklist of around 150 firms and people already targeted in 12 previous rounds of European sanctions, EU sources told AFP.
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03/23/2012
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[Yemen Post] Al-Qaeda bully boyz in al-Mukala killed a senior Intelligence officer late on Wednesday evening, the picturesque provincial capital of Hadramout, security source told Yemen Post.
Fraj Saeed Qahtan was kidnapped by al-Qaeda Wednesday afternoon, and was found killed with his throat slashed wide open late at night, said the source requesting anonymity.
"Late last night we received reports telling us the whereabouts of the bully boyz who kidnapped Qahtan earlier the day. When police forces arrived to the place, they exchanged gunfire with the hard boyz who were in a car in Doan area of Hadramout" he said.
"The police opened fire on the car, forcing the car to stop. But when they approached the car, they only found Qahtan dead, whom al-Qaeda obviously cut his throat in a brutal, ugly way before they abandon the car." He added, noting that the bully boyz managed to escape through the cultivated farms.
In a separate incident, Aytha Fraj Baganem, a colonel at the Political Intelligence Security was assassinated on February 12 by the bully boyz in the trouble-torn province of al-Baytha.
In November, Ahmed Nasser al-Jari, the chief of Political Intelligence Security in al-Baytha, was also killed by terrorist transnational network.
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03/23/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
Human Rights Council passes resolution ordering complete review of Israel's West Bank settlement policies, possible infringement of Palestinians' right. PM: Council is hypocrite
The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... ' Human Rights Council on Thursday passed a resolution ordering a first probe into how Israel's West Bank settlements may be infringing on Paleostinians' rights.
Â
The resolution was adopted with 36 votes in favor and 10 abstentions. Only the United States voted against it.
Presenting the resolution, a Pak envoy criticized Israel for insisting on building more settlements, saying that they are "in violation of international humanitarian and human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. laws."
Â
"This resolution seeks to respond to the humanitarian and human rights challenges this illegal Israeli practice has created in the occupied territories," he said.
Â
Beyond ordering an investigation into the implications of settlements, the resolution also calls on Israel to "take and implement serious measures" such as confiscating arms to prevent acts of violence by Israeli settlers.
Â
But the United States spoke up against the move, saying it was "deeply troubled by this Council's bias against Israel."
Â
"Steps like this do nothing to promote a just and lasting peace," said a US envoy, adding that they only serve to "push parties apart."
Â
Israel's move to expand settlements has been criticized by the international community, which deems the action illegal.
Â
Earlier this week, UN rights chief Navi Pillay said the expansion of Israeli settlements is deeply linked to problems including violence in the territories.
Â
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the UN's decision, calling the Human Rights Council "hypocrite."
Â
"The council is hypocrite. They have an automatic majority against Israel. This council has proven once more that it is detached from reality, by inviting a member of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, -- an organization whose creed advocated the murder of innocent people, to speak before it. Its members should be ashamed of themselves," he said.
[An Nahar] Ethiopian soldiers and pro-government Somali forces closed in on a key town in southwest Somalia Thursday, battling al-Qaeda allied Shebab bully boys, official and witnesses said.
Heavily armed troops advanced towards the town of Hudur, capital of the Shebab-controlled Bakool region, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the Ethiopian border.
"Somali soldiers backed by the Ethiopian armed forces are now very close to Hudur, and they will secure control of the town in the coming few hours," said Somalia MP Mohamed Ibrahim.
"Shebab fighters tried to ambush our forces but they were defeated late on Wednesday, and they have decamped the area," he added.
A Shebab commander confirmed the fighting but denied that his troops had run away.
"Mujahedeen fighters ambushed the enemy convoy trying to seize Hudur, and many of their soldiers were killed and armored trucks destroyed," the Shebab commander said, asking not to be named.
Witnesses said Shebab fighters decamped Hudur at dawn Thursday, leaving the town empty of gunnies.
"The Shebab left town, they left because of the approaching forces from Ethiopia," said Mohamud Idow, a resident in Hudur.
"Ethiopian forces are now about eight kilometers (five miles) away from town, there has not been much fighting since the fierce battles yesterday," said Ahmed Madker, another resident.
The loss of Hudur would be another blow to the Shebab, who face increasing pressure from pro-government forces and regional armies.
Last month, the forces of Evil lost control of their strategic base of Baidoa to Ethiopian troops, the second major loss in six months after abandoning fixed bases in the capital Mogadishu.
However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... experts warn the Shebab are far from defeated and remain a major threat, especially now they have in many areas switched to guerrilla tactics.
On Tuesday, the rebels were ousted from the central town of Dhusamareb hours after they captured it from a pro-government militia, in fierce battles both sides claimed had killed several rival fighters.
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[Dawn] A bomb went kaboom! Thursday in a car outside the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmire, killing the driver and wounding at least 20 others in what police said may have been an accident involving suspected rebels.
Authorities believe a rebel was transporting the bomb when it went off accidentally in Bijbehara town, some 28 miles south of Srinagar, police officer Ramesh Jalla said.
The driver was killed in the blast, which occurred on a busy road. At least 20 others who had been passing by were maimed, including seven who were taken to a special hospital in Srinagar for treatment of multiple injuries. One victim was at death's door.
"It seems the krazed killer was carrying the bomb to plant it somewhere to target security forces," he said, noting the car had just passed a cop shoppe before it went kaboom!.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
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Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, has repeatedly said that even his father was unable to gain complete control over the North's powerful military. Kim Jong-nam, who was passed over as his father's successor, exchanged some 150 e-mails with Japanese journalist Yoji Komi.
"North Korea experts say this can't be true, but Kim Jong-nam told me that whenever he had the chance," Komi told reporters Wednesday.
Komi said a key example was the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2011. He said the regime had just agreed to develop special economic zones in Rajin-Sonbong and Hwanggumpyong Island and really needed international investment, but the military insisted on the counterproductive attack.
Kim Jong-nam said even his uncle Jang Song-taek (62), who is often described as a kind of eminence grise of the regime, was unable to rein in the military. "That's why the Yeonpyeong Island incident happened," Komi quoted Kim Jong-nam as saying.
Komi said Kim Jong-un told him that the military had become a kind of state within the state and reports to no one.
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#1
DPRK = PAKISTAN???
hence ...
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA MUM ON FEARS OF NUCLEAR TERRORISM IN PAKISTAN. China repor may not defend the merits of BFF + "Younger Brother" Pakistan iff international doubts about the security of Pak's nuclear arsenal are brought up + proven? at the 2012 Seoul nuke summit???
* SAME, TOPIX > GEN. ALLEN: AL-QAEDA OPERATES WID IMPUNITY IN PAKISTAN, widout effective challenge from Pak Govt-Army.
IRAN = also supports the Islamist-led insurgency agz its own BFF Pakistan.
[AFP] - The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Thursday warned of a major new foot-and-mouth outbreak in Egypt which could threaten the whole of North Africa and the Middle East.
"Urgent action is required ... to prevent its spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East, which could have serious implications for food security in the region," the UN agency warned in a statement.
In Egypt, official estimates speak of more than 40,000 suspected cases, with more than 4,600 animals, mostly calves, already dead.
According to the CDC Hand, foot, and mouth disease is often confused with foot-and-mouth disease, a disease of cattle, sheep, and swine. However, the two diseases are caused by different viruses and are not related. Humans do not get the animal disease, and animals do not get the human disease.
This is a comfort, but F&M is nasty, rapidly spreading disease among cloven-hoofed animals.
While foot-and-mouth disease has circulated in Egypt for some years "this is an entirely new introduction of a virus strain known as SAT2, and livestock have no immune protection against it," FAO said. While foot-and-mouth disease has circulated in Egypt for some years "this is an entirely new introduction of a virus strain known as SAT2, and livestock have no immune protection against it," FAO said.
"With vaccines urgently needed, international and regional organizations are at the ready to assist in developing a regional prevention, preparedness and action plan," the organization added.
The UN body said it is working with the government in Egypt to bring the outbreak under control.
"The area around the Lower Nile Delta appears to be severely affected, while other areas in Upper Egypt and the west appear less so," according to Juan Lubroth, FAO's Chief Veterinary Officer.
Farmers have been urged to limit animal movement, avoid buying animals, and to burn or bury the carcasses of dead animals.
According to FAO's livestock census data, 6.3 million buffalo and cattle and 7.5 million sheep and goats are at risk in Egypt.
Vaccines for the new virus strain are currently in limited supply and vaccination often takes up to two weeks to confer immunity, FAO said, while urging anti-contamination measures.
[Dawn] The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar High Court on Wednesday summoned provincial science and technology minister Ayub Ashari over the alleged manhandling of a government official.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk asked the minister to show up on April 12 and explain his position on the incident.
The summons was issued on a complaint filed with the court's Human Rights Cell by Sanaullah Khan, project director of Early Recovery of Agriculture and Livelihood Project for Malakand, a component of Provincial Disaster Management Authority.
Mr Sanaullah appeared before the court and said he had informed his bosses about the science and technology minister's misconduct but action against him was awaited.
He said on February 25, the minister's personal assistant called him and sought delivery of different fruit samplings prompting him to ask the relevant official to do the needful if rules allowed it.
The officer said the minister later telephoned him but since he was away, conversation couldn't take place to the annoyance of the minister, who, after some days, stormed his office along with his personal assistant, locked the door from inside, hurled abuses on him, slapped across his face and pointed a gun at him.
He said the incident occurred on Saturday and he informed his bosses about it after weekend but to no avail.
The bench observed that if the minister had really acted in that manner, he overstepped his powers and that he shouldn't have behaved in such a manner. Really.
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03/23/2012
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Iran's leaders believe that with the current global economic climate, specifically in the United States and Europe, and it being an American election year, the talks of a military option to take out the nuclear facilities amount to a bluff. They believe they hold the key to President B.O.'s re-election, as any instability in the region and in the price of energy will send America back into a severe recession.
More dangerous is their belief that even a limited conflict with America will help their status as the leader of a worldwide Islamic movement and trigger the downfall of regimes in the region more friendly to the U.S.; help the Syrian regime out of its current crisis; and push the military junta out of power in Egypt, helping solidify control by the Moslem Brüderbund.
As the Iranian strategist Mehdi Mohammadi recently stated, as Iran progresses on the nuclear front, the West will realize that not only will a military option no longer work, but neither will sanctions. Then the West will have to accept a nuclear Iran.
Iranian leaders also believe that since Israel would now have to act alone, it will not risk thousands of missiles from many fronts raining down on Tel Aviv and ultimately will also accept a nuclear Iran.
Most of all, they believe that once Iran is nuclear-armed, the West will be checkmated, as the cost of any confrontation at that time would be the destruction of the world.
Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran's Revolutionary Guards and the author of the award-winning book A Time to Betray. He is a senior fellow with EMPact America, a member of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, and teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA).
#2
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't recall a POTUS who suffered a decline in popularity for bombing the sh*t out of somebody perceived as villainous/hostile by USA public.
#5
Why? Gas is approaching $4 per gallon during an election year. And the Prez is a goof who sourced ayatollah suppression of the 2009 riots, in America's 1953 intervention.
BHO has never attacked Ahmadinejad; he only expresses differences with same.
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03/23/2012
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Barbara Rhoades aka Donna in "The Goodbye Girl (1977)" aka Penelope 'Bad Penny' Cushings in "The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968)" aka Elaine in "Scream Blacula Scream (1973)" aka No Balls Hadley in "The Choirboys (1977)" aka Vivian in "Serial (1980)" (age 65)
Seoul and Washington are still discussing a revision to guidelines that limit the range of South Korean ballistic missiles to 300 km. Seoul wants to extend the range to 800-1,000 km in view of the growing missile threat from North Korea, a wish given greater urgency by the North's plan to launch what it says is a satellite-carrying rocket next month.
The two sides agreed in principle last year to extend the range, a government source said on Thursday, but they "still differ over how far to extend the range."
Seoul prefers 800-1,000 km, which would bring all of North Korea within range from Jeju Island or the south coast. But the U.S. apparently thinks that is too far and worries about opposition from China.
Perhaps it's time to start worrying China...
At the bilateral Security Policy Initiative meeting in Washington next month, Seoul is going to cite the North's planned rocket launch, widely believed to be a cover-up for a long-range missile technology test, by way of stressing the urgency of the matter.
Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told lawmakers in a National Assembly audit last September, "We're discussing with the U.S. so that the missile range can cover the entire Korean Peninsula."
President Lee Myung-bak recently told reporters ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, "By extending our missile range, we want to take preventive measures against attacks from the North. We need an appropriate range"
The existing missile guidelines, signed in 1979 and revised in 2001, limit the range of South Korea's ballistic missiles to 300 km and their payload to 500 kg. That has stopped Seoul developing longer-range missiles even though the North has already deployed ballistic missiles with a range of more than 3,000 km.
There is no limit to the range of cruise missiles, so Seoul developed the Hyunmu-3 cruise missile series with a range of 500-1,500 km. But they are less powerful and slower than ballistic missiles.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2012
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#1
Looks like Beijing has heard the news - it repor is urging Seoul to refrain or not contribute to any new Militarization of the Korean Peninsula via dev of new Missles.
Read, CHIN-CONTROLLED DPRK ARMY TO STILL HOLD THE ADVANTAGE VEE THE SOUTH.
#2
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > INDONESIAN FM WARNS AGZ COLD WAR-STYLE CONTAINMENT OF CHINA.
A Caged Dragon is still a Caged Tiger-Bear by another name.
Wehell, I've always said that, like any other aggressive wannabe Nation-State in Histoire', Rising China doesn't want to wait until Year 2080, 2100, or after to achieve its perceived
"post-US" Manifest Destiny as Future World #1 - IT WANTS IT ASAP AMAP ALAP ATAP + IRREGARDLESS OF ANY DIPLOMATIC, MEDIA RHETORIC TO THE CONTRARY.
We see it already in Beijing's increasingly willingness to send PLAN Warships + Armed Auxiliiaries, even also LR PLAAF Fighter-Attack AC, to disputed island areas in East China Sea + espec South China Sea. HISTORICALLY FAVORED POLITICAL "SOFT" DIPLOMACY IS LOSING SWAY TO OVERT "GUNBOAT/BATTLESHIP DIPLOMACY".
Espec ala the longer Beijing fails to regain sole sovereign control of TAIWAN.
#4
BHARAT RAKSHAK > KOREAN PENINSULA HEATS UP OVER NORTH KOREA/NK "ICBM" TEST | US" NOKOR [Space = "UNHA-3/III"] ROCKET TEST A PRELUDE TO ICBM CAPABILITY.
ARTIC > PERT = the DPRK may have 4-8 large, bulky Uranium = "simple" Nuke Bombs that thus far cannot be fitted aboard a LRBM [ICBM or IRBM] unless is firstly "miniaturized".
Iff NOT Alaska [Palin-land], Hawaii, or CANUS West Coasties, then ...
Doing their best to clear out excess population...
March 20, 2012: Pakistain continues to suffer far more from terrorism than neighboring India. Terrorism related deaths are running at the rate of over 150 a week in Pakistain, and one-tenth as many in India (which has six times as many people). In Pakistain a lot of the terrorism (usually non-fatal) is directed at religious minorities (Shia, Christian, Hindu, and Sikh mainly). There is also an increase in violence between terrorist groups. The Pak Taliban is currently suffering internal disputes, with at least two major factions fighting over control. Soldiers and civilians are encountering the bodies of dead Taliban, apparently killed by other terrorists.
March 18, 2012:Â In Pakistain's tribal territories (Kurram and Orakzai) army operations were resumed in the last week leaving 51 Islamic beturbanned goons and four soldiers dead. Many of these battles are attacks against camps or bases used by Islamic terror groups (including the local Taliban). Â Other festivities are terrorist ambushes of military convoys or checkpoints.
I hope CHINA + INTERNAT PERTS are finally able to verify or not iff THREE GORGES DAMS + FOLLOW-ON PROJS is responsible for lakes + rivers in normally wet areas, regions in Chin suddenly or mysteriously going dry.
[Ynet] The Jund al-Khalifa group which is associated with al-Qaeda in Maghreb took responsibility for the Toulouse massacre and called on France to reexamine its hostile policy towards the Islamic minority.
Al Q. in the Maghreb seems an unlikely choice, given that the gentleman trained in Pashtunistan. But perhaps his mobile phone and laptop will reveal all.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[Yemen Post] An kaboom rocked on Wednesday night the defected army headquarters in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a.
A huge kaboom was heard in the First Armored Division headquarters located nearby Sana'a Change Square, the focal point of protests against the 33-year long rule of President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... where thousands have been camping since February last year, according to the residents of the neighborhood.
Unknown attackers targeted the defected brigade with a huge mortar shell, the residents said.
Unidentified security official said that the mortar shell fell in a faraway place, and that it did not cause any causalities.
So far, there is not any information as to who is responsible for the attack on the military post.
Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the commander of the First Armored Division and northwestern military region, defected against his cousin the former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh and pledged support for the revolution after more than 50 protesters was bumped off by Saleh's loyal forces.
His supportive position to the revolution marked a turning point in the Yemeni revolution as his loyal forces protected the protesters from what was dubbed into thugs, who were ascending roof tops and gun down peaceful protesters in a bid to quell protests.
He was reportedly subjected to many liquidation attempts in the last couple of years as his relationship with Saleh has sharply deteriorated due to his alleged opposition to bequeathing rule to Saleh's eldest son, Ahmed.
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Israel has spotted some of the 480 Russian Igla-S (SA-24) shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles that had been sold to Libya and stolen from military warehouses during the rebellion there last year. Some of these weapons have shown up in Gaza in the hands of Islamic terrorist group Hamas. Most Israeli and NATO helicopters and aircraft are equipped with missile detection and protection (lasers or flares) systems. Such systems on Israeli AH-64 helicopter gunships operating over Gaza have defeated several SA-24 attacks recently.
Last year Russia supplied Libyan missile serial numbers, which were distributed to counter-terrorism officials worldwide with the admonition to be vigilant. Apparently the SA-24 thieves sold many of the SA-24s to Iran, which in turn gave some to Hamas and Hezbollah (another Iran backed Islamic terror group in Lebanon).
[Dawn] THE Hindu community, particularly in Sindh, has been in the grip of strong feelings of grief, anger and insecurity for several weeks. Unless its grievances are speedily addressed Pakistain stands to suffer incalculable harm in both material and moral terms.
The issue of Hindu girls' conversion to Islam and marriage to Moslem men, both transitions alleged to be forced and often after abduction, is not new. Indeed, it has always been high on the Hindu citizens' list of complaints. What is new is the scale and intensity of their reaction and the large number of their appeals for justice. It seems three recent cases involving Rinkal Kumari, Lata Kumari and Aasha Kumari have unleashed the Hindu community's long-brewing fears of loss of its religious and cultural identities.
The three cases are not identical in detail. Dr Murli Lal Karira, who belonged to Jacobabad and practised medicine at Suhbatpur, in Jafarabad district, was reported to have been kidnapped while travelling homeward. Some days later, his niece, Aasha Kumari Karira, who was taking lessons at a Jacobabad beauty parlour, did not return home after her work hours, and was believed to have been kidnapped. Her whereabouts are unknown.
Dr Lata Kumari, the 29-year old daughter of a medical practitioner from Jacobabad and employed at one of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's premier medical institutions, was reported to have married a young Moslem man after converting to Islam. Her father alleged that her conversion and marriage took place under coercion after abduction and he moved the high court for redress. The lady denies these allegations. She came to the court when her husband applied for bail before arrest.
The brother of Rinkal Kumari (18) says she was kidnapped by unknown persons, allegedly backed by an influential MNA. Her family had difficulty in filing an FIR. The next day she and the young man she was said to have married after conversion to Islam were presented in a court at Mirpur Mathelo, while her family had been told to go to a court in Ghotki. The family was not allowed to see her. It is said that she told the magistrate she wanted to go with her family but the latter reportedly expressed his inability to allow a Moslem girl to go to a non-Moslem house and sent her to a Darul Aman. Subsequently she is said to have modified her statement.
One suspects that these cases have provoked an unusual wave of protest because unlike the poor and voiceless victims in earlier cases of forced conversion-marriage affairs, the women now involved come of socially noteworthy families who have some access to electronic means of communication.
Several non-Moslem citizens have argued that these women have been, or are being, forced to accept conversion and marriage under threats of dire consequences to their families if they refuse to surrender.
The state of the common Hindu citizens' mind is reflected in the e-mail Rinkal Kumari's brother addressed to the chief justice of Pakistain (copied to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain). He says that Rinkal's abductors have told her that "if she wants to save her parents' life she should choose to convert [change] her religion and marry [an] unknown guy.... And yesterday [the] judge ordered that [the] girl wants to change her religion and want[s] to marry ...Naveed.... [The] judge even didn't allow [the] girl to meet ... her parents or anybody from her family. There were 500-700 people in [the] courtroom all with guns and there was nobody from [the] girl's family.... Now hundred[s] of people will take advantage of [the] 18-year-old girl and after that they will sell her to somebody". Nobody with a reasonably sound heart will fail to be moved by the feelings of anguish and despair oozing from these words.
These cases raise several questions of a fundamental nature.
First of all, change of religion is a fundamental right but Islamic authorities do not accept a Moslem's right to convert to another faith, though the laws of the country are silent on the point. Non-Moslems sometimes demand a bar to any conversion, something no legal authority or human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. activist will agree to.
However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... non-Moslems are on solid ground when they protest against organizations and groups of professional proselytisers who apparently make a living by inducing, if not forcing, non-Moslem Paks to convert and who enjoy support in the majority community, in the police force and even in the judiciary (at least its subordinate part).
The proselytisers and matchmakers are facilitated in their task by a social environment in which a non-Moslem can be persuaded to escape from all-round discrimination and move from the ranks of second-class citizens into a privileged community by changing his religion. To make matters worse, the non-Moslems have to read reports of the exploits of a family that boasts of three or four daughters-in-law who have been converted from Hinduism or the plight of a Hindu family that has lost three girls in a row.
The complaint of foul play acquires additional strength when a non-Moslem woman is kidnapped and the state machinery shows little interest in recovering her until her marriage to a Moslem has been consummated. At that point another factor begins to worry these women. Some of them may be genuinely apprehensive of being killed by their families if restored to them and some others might consider themselves too impure to rejoin their parents. Further, the problems in registration of cross-faith marriages force parties to such unions to prefer secret compacts to open contracts.
This environment prevents most non-Moslem Paks to accept the possibility that one of their girls could voluntarily and of her free will opt for cross-faith matrimony. They do not want to follow the majority community's practice of accepting a Moslem woman's decision to take a non-Moslem as her spouse if he becomes a Moslem in name only.
Thus, the real issues are, firstly, the growth of discrimination against non-Moslem citizens, especially their womenfolk, that makes them vulnerable to force and susceptible to temptation and make-believe about escape from misery and, secondly, the rise of intolerance and hypocrisy in the ranks of the majority community. These matters cannot be resolved so long as the state allows itself to remain hostage to orthodox forces.
Quite obviously, Pakistain's accession to a sane and tolerant society in which all its sons and daughters are equal before the law and by social standards is going to be a long haul. The process may be started with action against organised abduction-conversion marriage rackets, offering guarantees of prompt and effective police action on complaints of abduction, and firm assurances of even-handed treatment by the courts of all parties regardless of belief, gender or social status.
All this is necessary to stop the loss of talent and skills that a spurt in non-Moslem migration to foreign lands is causing and to prevent the majority community from degenerating into a horde of morons capable of neither reason nor compassion. Above all, the distress caused to a minority community must be accepted as a serious national calamity.
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03/23/2012
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[An Nahar] The rebel Free Syrian Army has set up a military council to coordinate operations around Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , as it brings the year-old conflict to the capital, it announced in an online video on Thursday.
"I, Colonel Khaled Mohammed al-Hammoud, announce the creation of the military council for Damascus and the region that will be in charge of FSA operations in this region," an army deserter said in the video.
He invited other "noble officers still in the ranks of Bashar's army" to join the rebel force, referring to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
Ahmed al-Khatib, calling himself rebel front man for the Damascus area, said the council "represents a unified leadership for deserters from the army to reassure those supporting the FSA."
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03/23/2012
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(Sh. M. Network) - At least 27 Al-shabab defectors have on Thursday surrounded to Somali government forces in Gedo region of southwestern Somalia and close to Kenya border, according to officials.
TFG military officials in Gedo region who spoke to Shabelle Media by phone said the give up followed after the Al-shabab defectors made series of contacts with government and pleaded for amnesty.
"We received 27 defectors from the hard-line Al-shabab rebels in the past 24-hours, two of them senior commanders who were carrying with their weapons after they got in touch with us via telephone contacts," said TFG military officials.
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03/23/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[AFP]. Mohammedans in French suburbs remain vulnerable to bad turban indoctrination but those lured into radicalism are an "ultra-minority" and the spread of jihadism is declining, experts say.
Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old suspected Al-Qaeda myrmidon of Algerian descent was killed Thursday following a shootout with police, after being linked to seven murders in southwestern La Belle France in the last eight days.
The former resident of a Toulouse suburb is believed to have been drawn into radicalism after joining a group of 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... -- an ultra-conservative brand of Islam -- and travelling to Afghanistan and Pakistain.
Such trips to Aghanistan "were quite common in the 1990s," amid the euphoria of the mujahedeen victory over Soviet troops who had invaded the country, said Samir Amghar, author of "Salafism Today."
"A number of people went to Afghanistan and Pakistain to train," explained the sociology professor at La Belle France's School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.
"But for several years, we have seen a decline in jihadism because of the strong pressure of the French and European security services," he added.
He said current estimates put the number of Salafists in La Belle France at between 12,000 and 15,000, but "jihadist Salafists are an ultra-minority."
Gilles Kepel, author of "Jihad, The Trail of Political Islam," said it was "worrying when the Salafists impose their rules, for example, wearing of the full veil, on other Mohammedans."
"When there is a rupture between their values and the values of the French Republic, it makes fertile terrain for radical Islam," he stressed, adding that bad turban recruiters target those "who are marginalised."
They are speaking "in a general manner to people in working class neighbourhoods, but not strictly to the working classes.
Radicals also target "a strong proportion who are from the middle and upper classes. People who have studied, who are university graduates," Amghar said.
But, he explained, the channels through which bad turban recruiters connect with new sympathisers have evolved since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
"In the 1990s, the radical imams, the preachers, were able to recruit in the mosques," he said.
"After September 11, because of the surveillance of the French intelligence services in the mosques, it became very difficult. The recruitment from then on happened through interpersonal relations, or over the internet.
Bernard Godard, co-author of "Mohammedans in La Belle France", said probing Merah's path to radicalisation was a crucial next step.
"We'll have to see how he was initiated, how he was fed jihadism," Godard said.
Speaking Thursday after Merah was killed, French President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... vowed to crack down on bad turban indoctrination.
He said he wanted legal action against people who regularly consulted jihadist websites or who travelled abroad for indoctrination and an end to French jails being a breeding ground for extremism.
"Henceforth, any person who habitually consults Internet sites which praise terrorism and which call for hatred and violence will be punished under criminal law," he said in a televised address.
#1
He said he wanted legal action against people who regularly consulted jihadist websites or who travelled abroad for indoctrination and an end to French jails being a breeding ground for extremism.
We need the same approach in UK especially re the Pakistani youth.
#3
I have to speak out against the whole "arrest people for visiting extremist websites." I visit them periodically to satisfy my amateur academic curiosity. Should I go to jail? I think it is normal to study the enemy and it's normal to have a curiosity of the occult.
#4
Besides, Western governments own the internet. Allowing the jihadis to use the internet is a great way to monitor them, gather intel, etc. Take away the internet and I'd bet that intel on jihadi circles would plummet. Sarkosy is just looking for a pre-election bump in the polls.
[Dawn] Officials in Afghanistan and Pakistain told AFP on Thursday that they could not immediately trace the Toulouse gunman as having visited either country or held by US-led forces as announced in La Belle France.
French prosecutor Francois Molins said Mohamed Merah claimed to have been trained by Al-Qaeda in Wazoo, the most notorious hotbed of Islamist militancy on the Afghan-Pakistain border.
Molins said the suspect went to the region twice and was on one occasion placed in durance vile by Afghan police and handed over to US troops, who put him on a flight back to La Belle France.
But in Kabul, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, front man for NATO's ...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... US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said: "As of now I have no information on him being in ISAF or US custody.
"We are working to ascertain the details of his activities, to include if he was jugged, during his suspected time in Afghanistan."
The governor in Kandahar -- the Taliban's birthplace where French officials said Merah was placed in durance vile in 2010 -- also claimed no Frenchie had been placed in durance vile there for six years, but also conceded police do not keep records.
In Pakistain, security officials also denied any trace of Merah, although they pointed out there were ways for would-be Islamist Islamic fascistito slip across the country's mostly non-existent borders undetected.
"People like Merah use different channels to sneak into Pakistain. These are the kind of channels, which their networks identify as safe and risk free," one senior Pak security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said Pakistain "was not ruling out" that Merah was trained in Waziristan or elsewhere in the semi-autonomous Afghan border areas, but said its security agencies were not aware of his presence in the country.
"We are talking to French authorities on the issue and looking into his possible connections to Al-Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain but it is not possible at the moment to go into the specifics," he said.
Merah, a self-proclaimed Al-Qaeda Death Eater who French officials say made two trips to Pakistain and Afghanistan, was rubbed out in an assault on his flat on Thursday. He was suspected of killing seven people in southern La Belle France.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday said Republicans should give President Barack Obama another term if Santorum isnÂ’t the GOP nominee and for a second day compared rival Mitt Romney to an Etch A Sketch toy.
Philippine security forces arrested a member of Abu Sayyaf in Zamboanga City in Mindanao before noon today. PNP spokesman Agrimero Cruz identified the suspect as 
At least 943 Pakistani women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family's honour, the country's leading human rights group said Thursday.
Mahmoud 
Asif Ali 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
The 
[An Nahar] Renegade Mali soldiers shot their way to the presidency and forced the head of state to flee Thursday, claiming on television to have ousted an "incompetent regime" and dissolved state institutions.
[Yemen Post] Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the commander of the First Armored Division, and the northwest military region, expressed Thursday his willingness to resign from his post in line with the GCC-brokered deal signed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in November.
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
[Dawn] Intermittent firing and street 
[Dawn] THE younger brother of one of 
cycle of violence
Companies and legal experts say the operation of the armories is a "legal gray area" because few, if any, governments have laws governing the practice. Some security companies have simply not informed the governments of the flag their ship is flying, industry officials said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Yemen Post] Al-Qaeda 
A bomb 
Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, has repeatedly said that even his father was unable to gain complete control over the North's powerful military. Kim Jong-nam, who was passed over as his father's successor, exchanged some 150 e-mails with Japanese journalist Yoji Komi.
The 
March 20, 2012: Pakistain continues to suffer far more from terrorism than neighboring India. Terrorism related deaths are running at the rate of over 150 a week in Pakistain, and one-tenth as many in India (which has six times as many people). In Pakistain a lot of the terrorism (usually non-fatal) is directed at religious minorities (Shia, Christian, Hindu, and Sikh mainly). There is also an increase in violence between terrorist groups. The Pak Taliban is currently suffering internal disputes, with at least two major factions fighting over control. Soldiers and civilians are encountering the bodies of dead Taliban, apparently killed by other terrorists.
Israel has spotted some of the 480 Russian Igla-S (SA-24) shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles that had been sold to Libya and stolen from military warehouses during the rebellion there last year. Some of these weapons have shown up in Gaza in the hands of Islamic terrorist group Hamas. Most Israeli and NATO helicopters and aircraft are equipped with missile detection and protection (lasers or flares) systems. Such systems on Israeli AH-64 helicopter gunships operating over Gaza have defeated several SA-24 attacks recently.
[Dawn] THE Hindu community, particularly in Sindh, has been in the grip of strong feelings of grief, anger and insecurity for several weeks. Unless its grievances are speedily addressed Pakistain stands to suffer incalculable harm in both material and moral terms.
[An Nahar] The rebel Free Syrian Army has set up a military council to coordinate operations around 
(Sh. M. Network) - At least 27 Al-shabab defectors have on Thursday surrounded to Somali government forces in Gedo region of southwestern Somalia and close to Kenya border, according to officials.
Officials in Afghanistan and Pakistain told AFP on Thursday that they could not immediately trace the Toulouse gunman as having visited either country or held by US-led forces as announced in 
