Via the Ace of Spades roach motel. Adam Corolla (mild language warning) in video and print asks Leslie Stahl an interesting question: how would you obtain information from people who intend to kill Americans and don't feel like talking about how they're going to do it?
Of course, the progressive Left doesn't have an answer to that. First off, they're not bothered with the idea of dead Americans as long as it isn't them personally. Dead bitter-clinging yahoos in fly-over country is just a price they are willing to pay in their quest to transform our country. Second, in their world things happen without application of hard work, hard choices and hard times. Much like 'Julia' in the Obama campaign's latest ad, one floats along in life while government makes the bad stuff, from evil Rethuglicans to the occasional terrorist, go away. Perhaps it's the unicorn dust.
Take a look and see what you think.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2012
14:51 ||
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#1
Because when they could have stop something and didn't, they obstruct and cover up their inaction that led to thousands of deaths. See how they buried the story of Sandy "Papers in his Socks" Berger.
An official ceremony to hand over to Israel a Dolphin-class submarine, which can carry nuclear weapons, was held on Thursday in the German city of Kiel.
A large suitcase can carry a nuclear weapon so this isn't as dramatic as it sounds. Though if it makes the Mad Mullahs worry I'm willing to forgive the purple prose...
The German-made submarine, named Tanin ("alligator" in Hebrew), is due to enter service in 2013, when all tests are completed.
The Tanin is the fourth submarine of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and one of the country's most expensive defense contracts. Its construction costs are estimated at $500 million, with one third being subsidized by the German government.
"The Navy and the submarine fleet constitute a deterrent, protective and strategic arm for the IDF and for the State of Israel," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said during the ceremony.
A fifth submarine for the IDF is currently in the final stages of construction and is due to enter service in 2014. Two months ago, Israel and Germany have signed a deal to build the sixth submarine, due to be completed by 2017.
#1
Make that "...Gets Another..." Haze Gray says the Israelis already have three Dolphin class boats - equipped with Harpoon missiles which, interestingly enough, come in a land-attack version.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's support in Iran's parliament crumbled as final results released Saturday showed conservative rivals consolidating their hold on the legislative body in a runoff vote.
They aren't 'conservatives', they're Iran's special blend of religious nutters.
Iran has touted a robust turnout for Friday's vote as a show of support for the country's religious leadership in its confrontation with the West over the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear program.
The result is also a new humiliation for Ahmadinejad, whose political decline started last year with his bold but failed challenge of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the choice of intelligence chief.
While usually in agreement with the conservatives on foreign policy and many other issues, he had tried to change the rules of the political game in Iran, where the president and legislature are subordinate to religious figures like Khamenei.
Like tribute money offered to Mafia dons, funds were offered to Al Qaeda out of fear. One letter in the new trove explores whether Al Qaeda leaders should accept such money. It notes, for example, that Fatah, the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, has offered us funds, purportedly to [support] jihad, but there is another reason, namely their fear of becoming targets of our swords.
On the plus side, the author notes that these funds would go towards the purchase and manufacture of weapons. It also points to insider fighting, noting that these funds might be used to counter the influence of Hamas, who fear the growth of our influence and dominion.
Men charged following counter-terrorism investigation into network suspected of smuggling banned drug from UK to US. Adrian Wall, 49, Liiban Nursharif, 30, and Daud Ali, 40, were held on Tuesday after officers swooped on homes in London, Coventry and Cardiff.
Once again we are forced to note that their first names are not Trevor, William and Nigel...
They were arrested under the terrorism act as part of an investigation into the illegal exportation of khat to the US and Canada where it is a controlled substance.
Is it not in the UK?
The three men are jointly accused of conspiracy for allegedly mislabelling parcels being sent from the UK. Married father-of-six Ali, who runs a taxi firm which has contracts with several schools, was also charged with possession of a fake Norwegian passport.
Guess they didn't know who was taking temporary possession of their children... But on the other hand, he was working hard to support his family, not lounging about on the dole.
The three defendants spoke only to confirm their names, dates of birth and addresses when they were brought before Westminster Magistrates' Court in central London.
The three suspects were among seven people arrested by officers investigating a network suspected of funding terrorism at the Met's counter-terrorism command during a pre-planned, intelligence-led operation earlier this week. The remaining four suspects -- a woman aged 45 and three men aged 47, 45 and 42 -- continue to be held under the terrorism act, Scotland Yard said.
The United States supports China's bid to have the yuan included in the International Monetary Fund's basket of currencies, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said on Friday after high-level talks between Beijing and Washington.
China wants the yuan to be part of the IMF basket of currencies as part of long-term plans to turn the yuan into an alternative reserve currency next to the dollar and the euro.
But the IMF has said a currency needs to be convertible before it can be included in the basket. China envisions the yuan will only be convertible by 2015.
#3
Obama thought: "L3sbian and Jewish? Two-fer pandering!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2012 8:42
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Obama might be pandering for the L3sbian and Jewish vote and he might get the L3sbian vote. I don't think citing Stein whose sympathies were with Hitler will help him with the Jewish vote.
Had Hitler received the Nobel Peace Prize, he and Obama would have that in common.
#6
A Presidential spokesperson blamed the inclusion a Nazi-sympathizer in a speech about Jewish-American Heritage Month on sending out a copy of the speech too soon.
Riiiight. And Morgan Freeman is my wife. That's the ticket!
A US drone attack targeting a militant compound killed at least 10 insurgents in a troubled Pakistani tribal district along the Afghan border early Saturday, security officials said.
The Pakistani officials said two missiles hit and destroyed the compound in Shawal area, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.
Wazoo Waziristan is the most notorious militant stronghold in Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt. Washington considers it the main hub for Taliban and Al-Qaeda to plot attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.
"The death toll in the US drone strike has risen to 10. The drone fired two missiles at the compound," a security official in the northwestern city of Peshawar told AFP.
Two security officials in Miranshah confirmed the strike and death toll and added that militants were using the compound as a training centre. They said the mud compound was completely destroyed.
Officials had earlier put the death toll at six. The identity of those killed in the strike was yet not known and officials said they were trying to collect more information from the far-flung mountainous area.
Saturday's attack was the second strike since Pakistan's parliament in March approved new guidelines on relations with the United States, which included a call for an end to drone attacks on Pakistani territory.
A Pakistan-born US teen pleaded guilty Friday to terror charges for offering assistance to a woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" and supported a terror cell bent on waging a Muslim holy war in Europe.
The 18-year-old Mohammad Hassan Khalid faces a 15-year prison sentence for a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists for his offer to raise money and recruit terrorists.
Khalid, then 17, was arrested last July after he corresponded with a woman who later admitted plotting to kill a Swedish artist who had offended Muslims. He was 15 when he began online chats with Colleen LaRose, the US woman calling herself Jihad Jane. She now faces life in prison.
Khalid was held in FBI custody as a juvenile before being indicted after turning 18. Khalid and his family are legal immigrants from Pakistan, and he could be deported following completion of his prison term. A sentencing date wasn't immediately set.
Khalid, an honors student, had been offered a full scholarship to prestigious Johns Hopkins University. But online, he pledged to forward money to LaRose for her to pass on to an Irish terror cell and hid a passport she sent him, according to authorities. LaRose was being watched by the FBI after posting online videos in which she vowed to kill or die for the jihadist cause.
LaRose was arrested in November 2009 after returning to the United States from Ireland, where authorities said she traveled after agreeing to marry an online contact from South Asia and become a martyr.
LaRose intended to murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks for depicting the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog, authorities said.
Investigators said there's no evidence LaRose ever made it to Sweden.
Khalid was indicted along with Ali Charaf Damache, an Irish citizen from Algeria who married another US woman, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez.
The women were sought for their Western looks and passports, authorities have said. Damache, known as Black Flag, was charged in the Khalid indictment.
#4
I imagine the answer depends on which way the election goes in November, remembering that Governor Romney and PM Netanyahu are close friends from their time together at that Boston consultancy firm.
A letter from Romney to Obama. If Romney wrote this letter himself, he's got IT. If someone else wrote it for him, Romney should on for dear life to that person.
#2
If Obama promised a chicken in every pot there would be at least three new govmint agencies to regulate chickens. Wait a minute, there already are at least three agencies regulating chickens.
Martin Luther King dreamed of a day when men would be judged not on the color of their skin but on the content of their great-great-great-grandmothers wedding license application. And now its here!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2012 8:20
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elizabethwarrenindiannames
Lies-with-Leftists
Dances with Occupiers
Sitting Bull-Hockey
GeroniMao
Little Big Shorn
Arapaho Asfarasyouknow
A Girl Named Sioux
Princess Slinging Bull
Dines At Faculty Club
Hopi Changed.
Brig (r) Shaukat Qadir says Osama's personal courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, his wife Khairiah, and other friends betrayed him
A year after the late Osama bin Laden ... who was potted in Pakistain... was killed in a US raid in Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... , evidence uncovered by retired Pakistain Army brigadier Shaukat Qadir suggests friends in the Al Qaeda network betrayed the network's chief.
"My year-long research has shown that Al Qaeda sold bin Laden out to the Americans," says Brig (r) Shaukat Qadir, who was given exclusive access to bin Laden's residence and family.
His book, Operation Geronimo: The betrayal and execution of Osama bin Laden and its aftermath, will be published electronically by Amazon.com.
Brig Qadir said bin Laden's personal courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, his wife Khairiah, and other unidentified friends betrayed the Al Qaeda chief.
Khairiah, bin Laden's Iranian wife, had left him in 2003 and was insisting on reuniting with him in 2010. Al-Kuwaiti was bragging with several people in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar about his connections and the wealth he had amassed while he was in the Middle East.
Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a senior Al Qaeda leader, convinced bin Laden to accept Khairiah back. "But Khairiah was extremely jealous of Amal al-Sadah, the youngest wife of bin Laden," Brig Qadir said, because bin Laden had only been sleeping with Amal for four years.
On the night between May 1 and May 2 when American helicopters were hovering over bin Laden's compound, al-Kuwaiti warned his wife that the Americans had arrived. "How on earth did he know they were American helicopters and not Pak?"
He said al-Kuwaiti and his brother, living in the same premises, had Kalashnikovs, but did not fire even a single bullet on the raiding American commandos. "But it's a mystery why both of them were killed if they had reached any kind of deal with the Americans."
Some experts believe al-Kuwaiti was not a traitor, but became careless, and that helped the CIA track bin Laden down.
Brig Qadir said al-Kuwaiti was first detected when he bragged about his business in the Middle East, told people he was running a pharmaceutical agency, and bought a bulk of medicines. The information reached the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). For reasons not yet known, the ISI did not show haste in following the trail.
It has recently been claimed that the ISI had given the American CIA al-Kuwaiti's telephone number, and that proved to be the most crucial lead to bin Laden. "The ISI gave the CIA the telephone number of al-Kuwaiti's brother," Brig Qadir clarified.
Dr Shakeel Afridi, who ran a fake polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccination campaign in the area at the CIA's behest, might have spoken to Khairiah on telephone, he said. "There is a possibility the CIA experts had her voice matched."
Brig Qadir said bin Laden's compound was not built to shelter the world most wanted man. It was an ordinary house which did not even have an emergency escape route. It had 10 rooms for 27 people. There were no secret chambers or basements for the residents to hide in case of a raid.
The owner of the six-kanal house was Ibrahim Khan from Kohat, he said. Earlier, the media had reported that one Arshad Khan owned the house.
An official Pak probe team called the Abbottabad Commission is investigating the events and circumstances that led to the presence of bin Laden in Pakistain and his eventual death. It has summoned several civil and military officials.
But analysts believe it would not reach a conclusion to the benefit of either Pakistain or the United States. "It is just a formality the government of Pakistain is fulfilling," an expert said.
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.... is one of the oldest towns in 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... , with a population of over one million. According to Yahya Baloch, a teacher of history, Lyari was first called Dirbo, but later renamed Kolachi-jo-Goth after a fisherwoman who settled in the town. "It was inhabited mainly by fishermen of Baloch descent."
Eventually, the bed of the Lyari River was reclaimed for housing. On the other side of the Lyari River, "Khadda" had already been built to accommodate fisherman who were removed from Machi Meanee in 1870.
Gang wars
In 1964, Dad Muhammad, also known as Dadal, formed a gang with his brother Sheru, who worked at Rex Cinema, and began to illegally sell Hashish. Dad Muhammad was the father of Rehman Baloch, now known as Rehman Dakait. Together, Dadal and Sheru took on the biggest drug peddler in Bloody Karachi, known as Kala Nag. Nag was later killed in a police encounter.
Nag's son Fazlu (or Kala Nag II) and Iqbal Dakait aka Babu competed with rival Haji Lal Mohammad aka Lalu, who was Rehman Dakait's godfather. In the 1990s, Rehman consolidated his power in Bloody Karachi with the support of PPP-backed Khaled Shahanshah and others.
In the mid-1990s, Rehman Dakait kidnapped Saleem Memon, a trader from the Kharadar area, for ransom. Lalu asked Rehman to release the man for free, but secretly took the ransom himself. Ties between the two men broke down after that.
Later, Lalu's son Arshad Pappu kidnapped businessman Faiz Muhammad - who was Rehman's cousin - and killed him. Faiz's son Uzair Baloch eventually became Rehman Baloch's successor.
Uzair now heads the controversial People's Amn Committee (PAC) in Lyari, Lalu operates from Dubai, and his son Arshad Pappu was recently released by the police. Both the groups claim links with the Pakistain People's Party.
"The People's Amn Committee or Lyari Amn Committee had traditionally been backed by the PPP. The Sindhi elements in the party wanted to increase its influence in Bloody Karachi," a source in the party said. "The idea backfired."
People's Amn Committee
"We formed the PAC in 2008, when I came back from jail," Uzair Baloch said. "There was a feeling in Lyari that there is no one to look after us and that we had been deprived of our rights. It is more or less a pressure group working for the betterment of Lyari." Uzair said the group included health, legal aid and education committees that helped the people of Lyari. "It also promotes peace between various communities. Our members include people from all sects, religions and ethnicities."
Uzair said his father and uncle Rehman Baloch were PPP supporters, and so was the rest of Lyari. "We were the foot soldiers of the Bhuttos and of President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... ," he said. "But the PPP has betrayed us."
He criticised the party for the recent law-enforcement operation in Lyari. "We did whatever the party asked us to do, including taking on the MQM. And now they have unleashed the police on us."
Uzair's rivals, Haji Lalu and his son Arshad Pappu, are said to have been backed by the MQM. He said Arshad had threatened in a phone call that he would arrive on a Sindh Police vehicle and occupy his house.
"We feel betrayed," he said. "First they killed Rehman Baloch, and now they will kill me."
Law-enforcement operation
The ongoing law-enforcement operation in Lyari has been sanctioned by the top authorities in the PPP and a close relative of President Zardari is monitoring it personally.
Nabeel Gabol, the People's Party MNA from Lyari, recently survived an liquidation attempt after he was banned by the PAC from entering the city.
Former Sindh home minister Manzoor Wasan was recently sacked for being too close to allied parties. He declined to comment on the operation, but added, "I tried my best for things to go back to normal."
More than 20 people have been killed in the operation so far, eight of them coppers. The operation is now in its final stages and Uzair Baloch, Zafar Baloch and Shahid Baloch are among primary targets. Arshad Papu has meanwhile set up offices in Lyari.
Bloody Karachi police chief Akhtar Husain Ghorchani denied that police were using or siding with rival gangsters in Lyari.
A source in the police said intelligence and law-enforcement agencies had already initiated another wider operation. "We have picked up criminals and hit mans from the MQM, PPP, ANP and Sunni Tehrik ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... ."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
01:14 ||
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#1
Terror insurance for tourism strongly implies its not a tourist friendly spot so would not be a pleasant vacation. Ergo ... don't ever vacation there.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/05/2012 12:12
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It all began during an intense 2 1/2-hour firefight with the enemy earlier this year in Afghanistan. As members of the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Iowa National Guard, sat around later at Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam and discussed the engagement, they talked about how three-man teams manning crew-served weapons struggled to stay together over difficult terrain in fluid battles.
Someone mentioned actor Jesse Ventura in the movie "Predator." His character brandished an M-134 Mini-gun fed by an ammo box on his back.
After the Soldiers had a good laugh over that thought, Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski asked why a gunner couldn't carry a combat load of ammo. He decided to pursue the idea.
#1
On Feb. 26, 2011, our prototype 'Ironman' pack even saw its first combat use by Spc. McNew when our squad was ambushed by up to 50 fighters in a river valley, and it worked great!"
#2
Fortunately, this is a Guard outfit. Means the guys have jobs they can return to after being bounced for showing up the powers-that-be.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
05/05/2012 4:57
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"Our doctrine encourages Soldiers to think for themselves"
"To allow the gunner himself to be able to have this kind of firepower increases his lethality," Roy said. "By increasing his lethality, you've also increased his survivability by a certain amount."
Professional soldiers increasing both their effectiveness and survivability. Reminds me of the Culin hedgerow cutter.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
05/05/2012 8:43
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#4
Personally, I think this shows that the military is listening to, and acting on, ideas from the field. This is a very good thing.
Also, as always, Yankee ingenuity helps us win.
Posted by: Rambler In Virginia ||
05/05/2012 12:00
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I like everything but the name. "Ironman" seems a bit overdramatic.
"Ammo backpack" would be a more appropriate name, in my humble opinion.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The chief prosecutor in the trial of Charles Taylor The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually. has suggested an 80-year sentence after the Liberian former president's conviction for war crimes, according to a document made public Thursday.
The prosecutor said the term would be fair given Taylor's role in arming and aiding rebels who killed and mutilated thousands in neighbouring Sierra Leone during the 1991-2001 civil war, one of the most brutal conflicts in modern history.
"Should the trial chamber decide to impose a global sentence, 80 years imprisonment would be appropriate," said the document, signed by the Special Court for Sierra Leone's chief prosecutor Brenda Hollis in The Hague.
"The recommended sentence is appropriate to reflect the essential role that Mr Taylor played in crimes of such extreme scope and gravity."
Taylor, 64, was found guilty by the UN-backed court last week for aiding and abetting war crimes.
So he should be 144 years old when he gets out, except that this is Europe so he'll be 71...
In the first judgement against an ex-head of state by a world court since the World War II Nuremberg trials, Taylor was convicted on all 11 counts including acts of terrorism, murder and rape committed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, who paid him for arms with diamonds mined by slave labour.
Taylor will be sentenced on May 30 by the court, based in the leafy suburb of Leidschendam outside The Hague. Should he get jail time, it will be spent in a British prison.
The hearings, which saw model Naomi Campbell testify she had received diamonds from Taylor, lasted a liesurely four years, wrapping up in March 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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[Al Jazeera] Sudan has endorsed the African Union's ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... (AU) roadmap to avert an all-out war with South Sudan, though it insisted on retaining the right to self-defence.
Earlier on Thursday, South Sudan said it had accepted the AU's seven-point roadmap that called for a cessation of hostilities.
Based on the seven-point roadmap, the two countries have until next Tuesday to restart stalled negotiations and three months to reach an agreement.
The AU is trying to get the two sides to again negotiate the countries' shared border, citizenship matters and oil revenue sharing.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution threatening Khartoum and Juba with sanctions if they failed to silence the guns and resume talks within two weeks, endorsing the AU's deadline of May 8.
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday accepting the AU plan as well as the UN resolution. But with its reference to self-defense, the Sudanese statement also implied possible continued conflict.
The statement said Sudan wished the other side would fully commit to stopping hostilities and would withdraw its troops from disputed areas so that Sudan could do the same.
The foreign ministry also said Khartoum was committed to a long-standing peace with the South and hoped Juba would cooperate with the AU and Security Council decisions.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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#7
I'm looking for Brazil to start this. They had a strong economy but its in the tank now. Oil going down is bad news. They will blame everyone but themselves.
For a map, click here For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here
A total of 23 unidentified individuals were killed or found dead in ongoing drug and gang related violence in the last 24 hours in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, according to Mexican news accounts.
Nine victims were found early Friday morning hanged from a bridge. The victims included five men and four women. A narcopinta or blanket painted with a message was hung nearby claiming the victims were affiliated with the Gulf cartel.
Later that morning, at around 1100 hrs 14 individuals who had been beheaded and mutilated were found. Those victims were stuffed into black plastic trash bags. Their heads were found nearby
Nuevo Laredo is generally considered to be Los Zetas territory, but indications exist that drug and shooter gangs associated with the Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels are trying to drive Los Zetas from their sole border city.
The Sinaloa and Gulf Cartel formalized an alliance in 2011. Los Zetas were formally the Gulf Cartel's enforcement wing, but split from them in early 2010. Los Zetas originally came from Mexican special forces, and have in the past recruited from Mexican and Guatemalan special forces communities. But because of arrests, killings and the simple fact that many have been kicked upstairs, the group has become a shadow of its former self.
Myself and a prior service army guy I work with gamed this out and this is the only scenario for the extreme fire damage and limited structural damage:
The best we can figure is that the bad guys stole a pickup truck, drove it to the cop shop. A second set of bad guys drove by, dropped a hand grenade into the gas tank and then hauled ass.
Another vehicle was destroyed in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas three weeks before in front of a newspaper offices. Same deal. At the time it was called a car bomb. It was later found out to be a hand grenade.
For all their wealth power and insanity the drug cartels have yet to get their hands on high grade explosives, other than Tovez, which is a commercial grade dynamite.
Nuevo Laredo is going to burn this summer, if you listen to drug cartel operatives, because the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels are trying to drive them out.
The word is that Los Zetas operatives from as far north as Seattle are being called back to Nuevo Laredo to defend Los Zetas' home plaza.
P.S.: You've gotta tie em closer together if you want the windchime effects
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2012 12:49
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#5
Spoken like an engineer, Frank!
It still boggles me that none of this shows up on the mainstream media.
A recent search of the AP website (from whence all the non-local news in our Daily Fishwrap comes) showed no mention of Mexican violence beyond the usual soccer and beauty pagents. One would think there would be at least some interest in a minor war being fought on the other side of our border.
#5
Try this,then: You've been pushing your posting privileges recently, and you act as if I have nothing better to do than to Google your personal agenda.
I don't care if the Perfessor himself links to whatever you're trying to push here.
#6
Firstly my dear fellow, I have an agenda, I simply enjoy reading various commentary and opinion. I suspect others do as well. Secondly, as I recall, the MODS approve and actually post or reject the candidate submissions. An obvious failing on my part, but after many years enjoying the Burg, I had no idea 'InfoWars' was prohibited. I would respectfully ask that you coordinate or in some manner, publish other prohibited sites as well. Thanks! :-)
I dislike a whole lot of social engineering shit that the liberals want to shit out all over us.
I can also read a whole lot of nominally anti-social-engineering shit at Russian government organ press outlets, written by the guys who keep threatening to bomb flat guys who may have been in the same unit as you once, for the godawful sin of wanting to protect "one-worlder" Poland from now-with-extra-nation-state mojo Russia.
A whole lot of stopped clocks are right a couple times a day, including the ones made out of enriched uranium that are being catapulted at us at Mach 4.
Infowars is in a similar position. Yeah, they'll cover stuff like Ayers The Unrepentant Commie Terrorist to get your foot in the door, but long term the stuff they're selling, that we should all vote for RuPaul or Gary Johnson and split enough of the vote for Ayers' jugeared commie fuck of a friend to get a second term.
#9
It is true that over the course of the day, various moderators as they have time look through the submissions in the hopper and publish those they think appropriate to the site and delete those they think inappropriate. It is also true that at the end of the day whatever is in the hopper gets published at the midnight rollover. This means sometimes things get published because nobody looked at them closely due to the press of other things, generally life beyond the electrons. When the error is noticed it is rectified. As each of the mods has expertise in different areas, so some pay more attention to one thing and some another. We haven't published a formal list of undesired sites because, honestly, that's pretty much an infinite amount of work. We couldn't even keep up with news sites connected to R1ghth4aven, back when Fred was being dinged by them for a reasonably hellacious amount of money.
This is not a big deal. You mean well, Besoeker, and so does badanov. Please let's not make it one when we are all on the same side of the important issues.
#10
Another way of putting it just occured to me.... consider, for example, one frequent contributor to Infowars, Webster Tarpley. Go search on and read his explanation for the death of John Wheeler.
Think long and hard about whether you believe it or not.
Because if he was killed by anyone else, for any other reason... Tarpley has put a lot of effort in giving them a smokescreen to hide behind. And I doubt he did it because he's a Misunderstood but devoted-to-his-beliefs kook.
#11
Occam's razor suggests that he's a disinformation agent, and those who push his material as well. (Which would mean both Infowars and Coast to Coast, a topic for when I have more time later).
I have to go back to class now, have a nice day all y'all.
#14
I guess sometimes we should see what the heck the disinformation purveyors are saying.
Which suggests that there may be a point to posting stuff from Infowars, given that rantburg posts stuff from PressTV, which is also probably a truther site.
#15
exactly, Thing.
This is not news to you, Gromky.
Fred's philosophy is to bring the news as others are getting it. Riling up the rubes with disinformation and spin affects the WOT. If you don't like it, there's an option....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2012 16:26
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#16
what do you mean a "truther" outfit, Badanov just out of curiosity?
#18
Press TV also rewrites AP, BBC and other news organizations dispatches which cleans that news and eliminate copyright problems.
Fred doesn't have to rewrite the news. The turbans do it for him Does that mean we should post the anti-Jew crap they post as well?
There is a reason it is called news judgement. Infowars.com advances the troofer version of 911, and that has always been an unacceptable distraction from the actual causes of 911: hostile turbans.
But, as always, Besoeker is perfectly free to make another stab at posting Alex Jones' bullsheets, and I will delete them on sight, next time without further comment.
#19
The problem with establishing parameters is that it gives those with the intent to disrupt, boundaries to skirt or territory to claim.
Aw, Pappy! How can we flout the rules if we don't know what they are?
/me ducks
On a more serious note, the value of sites like PressTV is not the wealth of info they provide, although they sometimes do cover stories the MSM seem to avoid. What they bring to the table is traffic analysis - what they are talking about, who is saying it and when.
#20
Maybe what we need is a category for "What the enemy is thinking". Like Besoeker, I've been known to post an article or two because it sheds light on the thought processes involved, not because I agree with it. I try to make that apparent with my snark, though.
Want to understand terror? That is just another way to say "Know thy enemy."
[Yemen Post] The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a series of anti-press attacks in Yemen over the past 10 days that have included assaults on two journalists, threats against two more, and the official harassment of a local newspaper.
"Yemeni journalists of all types have been attacked and threatened in recent days," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "Authorities have a duty to enforce the law and bring an immediate end to these tactics designed to intimidate the press into silence."
Anwar al-Bahri, a news hound for the official Saba news agency, was beaten by faceless myrmidons who stormed into his home in the capital, Sana'a, on Monday, the agency reported. News accounts reported that the attackers belonged to Yemen's most influential tribal group, the al-Ahmar family. Al-Bahri was beaten in front of his wife and children and was treated for unspecified injuries at a local hospital, news reports said.
Wael al-Absi, a journalist for the news website Aleshteraki, was photographing a protest in Freedom Square in Taiz, Yemen's third largest city, on April 24 when an unidentified man assaulted him, according to his employer. News accounts reported that the assailant was aligned with the security forces that oversee Freedom Square. Aleshteraki is affiliated with the Yemeni Socialist Party. Al-Absi was treated for head and eye injuries at a local hospital, news reports said.
On the same day, two journalists received threatening calls, according to news reports. An unidentified man called Fathi Abu al-Nasr, a journalist who contributes to several Yemeni news publications, and told him he'd be killed if he didn't stop writing, according to news reports. The journalist, who has written in support of the revolution, is also critical of the Iranian catspaws known as the Huthis in the northern Saada region, news reports said.
An unidentified man called Abdelqadir al-Mansoub, the head of the office of the news website Hshd in the city of Al-Hudaydah, and told him to be careful about his coverage of alleged corruption involving a local oil company, according to news reports. The caller said that if anything happened to al-Mansoub, it would be the journalist's own fault.
The son of former President Ali Abdallah Saleh has also launched a campaign of harassment against a local newspaper. The weekly Al-Ahali reported on Tuesday that the office of Republican Guard Commander Ahmed Ali Abdallah Saleh had released a statement saying the paper had spied on military camps and cooperated with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsulaand that the paper's staff should be prosecuted in military courts. Several local news websites loyal to Saleh also republished the story, according to news reports.
Al-Ahali had published an article on April 23 that said the commander had four Apachehelicopters in a military camp in the village of Sanhan, the former president's birthplace. The paper, which is affiliated with the leading opposition Islah party, has long been a critic of the Yemeni government and the military.
Al-Ahali has been attacked in the past. In April 2011, thousands of copies of the newspaper were confiscated, and in 2009, the Yemeni government barred the sale of the newspaper for a time, CPJ research shows.
CPJ documented a stream of attacks against journalists in Yemen since political unrest erupted last year, including deaths, physical assaults, detentions, harassments, and attacks on news outlets.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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A local Los Zetas security chief was detained Wednesday by a Mexican Naval Infantry detail in Xalapa, Veracruz, according to a news release posted on the website of the Secretaria de Marina (SEMAR), the controlling agency for the Mexican Navy.
The unit was dispatched to a location in Animas colony based on an anonymous complaint of shots fired. The suspect, identified as Luis Alberto Perez Casanova AKA Casanova, attempted to flee the area aboard a sedan as soon as he observed the marine unit. The road unit blocked his attempt to flee, then detained him.
The marines seized one rifle, three handguns, 15 weapons magazines, 242 rounds of ammunition, two fragmentation grenades, 16 kilograms of marijuana, a quantity of cocaine divided for retail sale, communications equipment, the sedan, and miscellaneous contraband.
Perez Casanova is said to be the security chief for the central region of Veracruz, specifically in Xalapa.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Dawn] Law enforcement agencies on Thursday tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! a key commander of Khyber Agency-based banned bad turban outfit in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar cantonment area.
Sources said the arrest of Lashkar-e-Islam commander Hussain alias Hamza was made during a raid on a compound in jurisdiction of West Cantonment cop shoppe.
They said the tossed in the clink ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... bad turban, who was wanted by security agencies for terrorist activities, including kabooms, had been shifted to an unidentified location for interrogation.
Also in the day, police found the beheaded body of a girls college's student in a field from a Peshawar suburb.
An official of Dawoodzai cop shoppe said the girl was Khadeeja, daughter of Rehman Gul, a resident of Shabqadar.
He quoted the girl's father as telling police that she was a student of 1st year in a local girls college and left home on April 26 for sitting an examination but didn't return.
The man further told police that his family had no enmity and therefore, couldn't suspect anyone of killing his daughter.
The police official said it seemed that the girl was killed and beheaded somewhere else before being dumped in the field. He said police had started the paperwork but haven't done much else against unidentified killer(s) and began investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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[Yemen Post] Yemen's ex-president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... has asked the United Arab Emirates and the international community to give him $50 million in return for his acceptance to stay in the Gulf state, alahale reported on Thursday, quoting western diplomatic sources.
"The sum was big forcing the UAE stay silent and avoid a reply over its approval to host Saleh," the website said.
Two months ago, the UAE agreed to host Saleh during the two-year transitional period in his country after pressure by the US and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... , but later reports surfaced Saleh might stay in Russia or Æthiopia.
Also, the UAE agreed to host Saleh within the efforts to help Yemen continue a power transfer deal brokered by the GCC countries and backed by the West. The deal saw Saleh leave office in November after 33 years.
Earlier this week, reports said Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi had handed the Æthiopian government a written approval of Yemen's President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi for the African country to host Saleh. Æthiopia demanded the written approval of Hadi, reports said.
The ten countries sponsoring the deal including the GCC, the US, EU have been exercising pressure on Saleh to stop meddling and his relatives, especially senior military commanders, to respect presidential decrees replacing them.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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[Dawn] Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. on Friday said that the police operation in Bloody Karachi's ...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... 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.... neighbourhood had been stopped, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to media representatives, the minister said that police and Rangers were only surrounding the neighbourhood.
"The forces have been ordered to withdraw," Malik said.
Malik further said that "if Aziz Baloch had no trust in the police, then he could surrender to the Rangers".
Responding to a question, Malik said "justice would be done to Aziz Baloch and his lover companions".
Eighth day
Friday morning saw a tense Lyari as the operation against criminal elements in the area had entered its eighth day.
Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the area as authorities reportedly finalised plans to use helicopters for the operation and deploy Rangers in the area.
Gangsters killed
Earlier on Thursday, the police claimed to have taken two alleged gangsters' bodies into custody after killing them in an exchange of fire in the area's Afshani Gali on Thursday morning.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the families of the two alleged gangsters, identified asShirazand Junaid, claimed that the two youths were innocent and vehemently denied that they were gangsters.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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[Dawn] The Bin Laden documents, released by the US military on Thursday, have no explicit references to any institutional Pak support for al Qaeda or its operatives.
The documents, collected by US commandos when they raided the late Osama bin Laden's ... who was laid out deader than a mackerel, right next to the mackerel... compound in Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... on May 2 and killed him, also show that al Qaeda's relations with Pakistain were fraught with difficulties.
The discussion of Pakistain is scarce and inconclusive. Although references are made about "trusted Pak brothers", they do not disclose who these brothers are.
The documents also show that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain had come incredibly close to provoking a direct and public confrontation with al Qaeda's leadership.
Its indiscriminate attacks against Mohammedans caused two al Qaeda leaders Atiyyatullah and Abu Yahya alLibi to write to TTP leader Hakimullah Mahsud to express their displeasure with the group's "ideology, methods and behaviour".
They also threatened to take public measures "unless we see from you serious and immediate practical and clear steps towards reforming [your ways] and dissociating yourself from these vile mistakes [that violate Islamic Law]".
The documents make it clear that Bin Ladin was not informed of the TTP's failed attempt Curses! Foiled again! to bomb New York's Times Square by Faisal Shahzad in May 2010. Bin Ladin was following Shahzad's trial in the news and was disappointed by his performance, which he thought distorted the image of jihadis.
Bin Laden also reminds TTP leaders that as US citizen Shahzad had taken oath of allegiance to the United States and should not commit 'treason' by violating this oath.
One document includes a list of 30-50 journalists around the world and advises al Qaeda operatives to send their propaganda material to these journalists.
In Pakistain, Hamid Mir and Salim Safi, Rahimullah Yusufzai, Jamal Ismail, and at and an unidentified Al Jizz correspondent were on this list.
"It would be good if we send it to those journalists and writers. We would inform each that he has been chosen to be amongst a group of international journalists and writers," the letter says.
"And they will receive special media material on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. It will be favourable if the message sent to them also includes ... reasons that call them to be interested in this material and to cooperate in publishing its mission for the world, plus other convincing arguments."
The journalists would also receive a password and a site address to download the materials at the right time, about 5 days before the anniversary, the letter adds.
"But from what I know about the black reputation of Pak Taliban, I am confident of what was stated, particularly as these information verify each other," says one letter which does not have the author's name but is apparently from Bin Laden or one of his senior aides.
It notes that the TTP was targeting religious and tribal leaders, mosques and public places across Pakistain, killing men, women and kiddies.
It notes that after one attack, TTP accused Blackwater of orchestrating the bombing failed but failed to prove its claim.
The document also refers to a propaganda video released by Uzbek hard boyz who pledged to bomb mosques across Pakistain as Dire Revenge for the military's attack on the Red Mosque, and to bombard other mosques.
The author discusses such attacks with a young hard boy, saying: "This is not acceptable ... even if the mosque is in a military or government compound."
"The young man did not accept my story, and replied that most --or maybe- all mosques now are mosques of evil full of informers, spies and government employees and they have no mercy on them," the author adds.
The author then refers to another group of hard boyz who went to Kurrum to ambush a military patrol, which was delayed.
The leader of the hard boy group then suggested that they should attack the Shia instead.
This annoyed the head of another hard boy group, which was cooperating with them and prevented the attack.
"The list is quite long," argues the author, and includes robbery, kidnapping and other crimes committed by those corruptors."
The author points out that taking over mosques and spilling the innocent have always been associated with "the worst groups and individuals".
"I have no doubt that what is happening to the Jihadi movement in these countries is not misfortune, but punishment by God on us because of our sins and injustices and because some of us are silent over these sins."
The author points out that a Mujahid should not obey Emir's orders if those orders lead to God's disobedience, "even if his Emir was Khalid Ibn al-Walid."
If an individual is martyred, the author argues, and owned a few dinars to someone before he died, he will be denied heaven until the debt is paid.
"Now, how about he who has killed scores or even hundreds of Mohammedans in absolute injustice? He is more eligible to be denied the heaven."
The author urges "the wise men of Taliban movements in both Pakistain and Afghanistan to review his statement" and stop the killings.
One document refers to a report by a Pak journalist residing in America, which notes that most of the questions raised at President B.O.'s mid-term news conference dealt with America's bad economy.
The author then asks al Qaeda operators to release OBL's statement prepared for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 because it too dealt with America's economic woes.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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#1
Osama was repor in negotiations for his son + heir-apparent HAMZA [aka AQ "Crown Prince"] to get safe passage + stay in a secure safehouse in Peshwar.
* ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > FROM THE GRAVE, ANWAR AL-AWLAKI CALLS FOR BIO-CHEMICAL ATTACKS ON US.
Killing, Maiming of US Women + Kiddies as collateral casualties as justified as IHO the US was waging war agz Muslims + Islam, + iff the former were also being used as enemy "combatants" agz Islamic fighters.
#2
WORLD NEWS > [Irish Times] AL-QAEDA SOUGHT TO CONVERT THE IRISH.
ARTIC > AQ considered exploiting the disenfranchisement of mainstream Irish wid ...
> Scandal-ridden Catholic Church = pedophilic Priests.
> perennially poor state of Ireland's national economy.
> national sympathy for the Paleo cause ["underdog" factors].
* SAME > [US News + World Report] FORMER US SPECIAL OPS ADVISOR [Seth Jones]; AL-QAEDA [is] COMING BACK.
ARTIC > SETH JONES = AQ is NOT ON THE VERGE OF DEFEAT, as POTUS Bammer describes, but VICTORY instead. AL-QAEDA IS SUCCESSFULLY "REGENERATING" DESPITE HEAVY US BLOWS E.G. DEATH OF OSAMA. The US must either NOT leave Afghanistan in 2014, or else in the alternate must maintain an effective post-2014 SpecOps + Mil Presence there.
* SAME > WHO WAS OSAMA? WHAT IS OBAMA?
I say lets ask JOHN "Hanoi Hilton" McCAIN, whom the Chinese say was very excellent in his candor durng the Vietnam War.
Dozens of Afghans, mostly students of religious seminaries and daily wage workers, have been arrested under the Foreign Registration Act in the last week
The government has launched a massive crackdown against Afghan nationals living illegally in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province.
Dozens of Afghans, especially students in religious seminaries and daily wage workers, have been nabbed Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! under the Registration of Foreigners Act in the last week.
Pakistain has been host to the world's largest refugee population. Millions of Afghans decamped to Pakistain in the 1980s after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and during the rule of Taliban in the late 1990s. "In fact, the influx of Afghan refugees to Pakistain started right after the overthrowing of Sardar Daud's government by Noor Muhammad Tarakai in April 1973," said Akbar Azami, a Kabul-based rights activist who has worked extensively on Afghan refugees. "The issue of Afghan refugees in Pakistain is a long-drawn-out one, spread over 30 years. The ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan is responsible for the continued influx of refugees."
In March 2002, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, and the government of Pakistain conducted a census of Afghans living in Pakistain. There are about 3 million Afghan refugees living in country, according to the census. About 42% of them live in refugee camps and 58% in urban areas. Over 81% of them are Pashtuns, with much smaller percentages of Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and other ethnic groups, said a Human Rights Commission of Pakistain (HRCP) report titled "Afghan Refugees in Pakistain: Push Comes to Shove".
According to Duniay Aslam Khan, an official at UNHCR Islamabad, there are 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees still in Pakistain. Various studies put the number of unregistered refugees at around 1.2 million. Most of them live in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, FATA, Pashtun districts of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , and 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... Refugee rights organizations claim that a large number of Afghans had recently returned. Since 2002, when the UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation programme started, 3.7 million Afghan refugees have returned home, Duniay Aslam Khan said.
Increasing incidents of harassment and arrests by Pakistain's law enforcement agencies following terrorist attacksin the country, poor socio-economic conditions, floods in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and increase in forcible deportation are key factors compelling the refugees to go back, they believe.
"Pakistain had been a haven for war victims of Afghanistan for decades," says Gul Shireen, who was returning to his home town Mazar-e-Sharif. "Now, Pakistain is facing the same problems of terrorism and militancy that Afghanistan had been facing for three decades. We are going back because Pakistain no longer offers jobs, security and peace."
Social researchers see things differently. They say popular perceptions of refugees have changed in response to altered geo-political realities. "In the past, Afghan refugees were encouraged to join anti-Soviet Mujahideen forces by the Pak authorities, but now they associate these refugees with homegrown Death Eater outfits responsible for terrorist attacks in Pakistain," said a social scientist at Beautiful Downtown Peshawar University. "Pakistain's law enforcement agencies are purposely reinforcing the idea that Afghans living in Pakistain are involved in terrorist or criminal activities in the country," he said, adding that Pakistain's judiciary and law enforcement agencies should understand the refugee phenomenon.
In a presser on April 25, Siraj Ahmed, Peshawar's District Coordination Officer (DCO), said the Afghans living illegally in Peshawar and its surroundings should leave the country by May 25. He said they had become a potential threat to peace and involved in hard boyz activities in the province. Committees were operating on a micro level in Peshawar to collect data about illegal Afghan immigrants and would be able to evacuate them in a month, he said.
Although Ahmed said the crackdown would be launched on May 25, officials and refugee leaders claim that an operation is already underway across the province, especially in Peshawar. "After the recent terrorist attacks in the province, the crackdown against Afghan refugees, both registered and unregistered, has been accelerated," said Haji Ghulab, a refugee leader. He said Afghan refugees who do not have Proof of Registration (PoR), a document issued to them jointly by the government of Pakistain and the UNCHR, face stern action by law enforcement agencies.
A police official in Peshawar said a number of Afghan refugees were linked to local and Afghan Taliban groups. The provincial government had decided to deport all illegal Afghan refugees in the province, he said, and was yet to decide if their assets should be sealed or confiscated.
UNHCR also receives complaints from Afghans about police harassment. In most such cases, the police refuses to accept their PoRs. "We provide legal assistance to registered Afghans who are nabbed Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! under the country's Foreigner Act to ensure that no registered refugees are deported. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... those living illegally in the country are subject to the law of the land," a UNHCR official said.
The Afghan ambassador in Islamabad, Omar Daudzai, expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over the forced deportation of illegal Afghan immigrants from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. He told Radio Mashaal on April 26 that it was almost impossible to send back such a large number of Afghan immigrants in such small duration. Daudzai rejected the notion that Afghans were involved in subversive activities in the province.
Security analysts say the government had been issuing such deadlines to illegal Afghan immigrants since 2001, but did not take action. They said law enforcement agencies had launched a largely successful crackdown against Afghan prayer leaders some time ago, and deported many of them.
"There are 150 unfrequented routes along the 24,000 kilometer long Pakistain-Afghanistan border, where keeping a strict check on cross border movement is impossible," said the police official.
UNHCR has decided to complete the repatriation of Afghan refugees by December 2012 and townships have been set up in nine Afghan provinces where the refugees would be settled. This has created fear among Afghan refugees.
"We are under a lot of pressure after the December repatriation deadline," said Hamadullah Jan, a refugee from the Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... . He said he would like to live in Pakistain because he believed there would be no peace in Afghanistan even by December.
The ministry of State and Frontier Regions (SAFTRON) has prepared a comprehensive proposal to arrange visa permits for Afghan refugees for a long-term stay in Pakistain, said a SAFRON official.
But the federal interior ministry and the Punjab government have expressed reservations saying the move might lead to security problems.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/05/2012 15:26
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#7
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Alana Curry aka Vanity in "BreadCrumbs (2011)" aka Mary in "Revamped (Video 2007)" aka Natasha in "Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter (2007)" aka Renee Anderson in "Dead Calling (2006)" aka Beth Haines in "Is This Seat Taken (2003)" aka Woman born in same town as GolfBravoUSMC (Much later year)(age 32)
Russian officials are blaming suicide bombers for twin attacks in the Republic of Dagestan, in the North Caucasus region, killing at least 13 people and wounded more than 100 others.
Authorities said the first blast involved a car, which exploded as police approached it at a check point in Makhachkala, Dagestan's capital. The second explosion occurred as emergency responders arrived on the scene of the initial blast. The explosions ignited fires, which damaged several other vehicles.
Police have been targets of similar attacks in Dagestan by Islamist insurgents.
Last March, a double suicide bombing killed at least 40 people in Moscow. The two women responsible for the subway attacks were from Dagestan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2012
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ANBAR/ Aswat al-Iraq: Security sources reported a soldier was killed and six Lebanese pilgrims were hit by a kaboom on the international highway west of Anbar.
The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the soldier was standing on the highway when the bomb went kaboom! on the bus.
Precautionary measures were taken, but to details were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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[Al Jazeera] Egyptian armed forces and protesters have clashed in Cairo, with troops using water cannon and rocks to disperse demonstrators trying to reach the defence ministry.
If it had been any worse it would have looked like Occupy Oakland...
Hundreds of troops guarding the ministry surged forward on Friday when protesters began cutting through barbed wire used to seal off the ministry building in the capital's central Abbasiya neighbourhood.
"We understand that just a few minutes ago, the protesters tried to remove the barrier with barbed wire between themselves and the defence ministry," Al Jizz's Steve Chao reported from Cairo.
"Security forces responded with water canons. Protesters responded with rocks."
He said the military forces were describing their actions as "self-defence".
The protests come amid heightened tension after 11 people were killed in festivities that broke out on Wednesday when person or persons unknown fired at protesters staging a sit-in outside the ministry of defence in Cairo.
Protesters have plastered Cairo's Tahrir Square with banners reading, "Down with military rule".
"I'm telling the military council... enough bloodshed, enough fabricated crisis, enough unleashing of thugs on the public, enough destruction... we want them to transfer power to an independent transitional authority tomorrow," Akrami Darwish, a protester, said on Friday.
The protests, to "protect the revolution and halt the bloodshed", were expected to draw people from all major political formations in Egypt, namely the Moslem Brüderbund, a section of the Salafist movement and the liberal activist movements.
Several pro-democracy movements, including April 6, as well as the powerful Moslem Brüderbund said they would be joining the protests in Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
The ultra-conservative Salafi movement, which has become increasingly popular recently, is also participating in the rallies. Its candidate, Hazem Abu Ismail, was disqualified because his mother had dual Egyptian-US nationality.
"If anyone approaches its (installations), they should hold themselves responsible," General Mokhtar al-Mulla, a member of the ruling military council, said on Thursday.
Al Jizz's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said: "It has really boiled down to an issue of trust. Whatever the ruling military council promises, people simple don't trust them, at least the protesters."
"It is definitely turning into a battle of the wills between the two sides," she said.
Army troops were accused of standing idly by near the festivities on Wednesday and not intervening until after the deaths of some of the protesters.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... the army denied that it was responsible for the bloodshed.
"Our hands are clean of Egyptian blood," Major General Mohammed al-Assar, a bigwig in the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), said on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Rather heavy pool cues in the photo. Look very low quality and cheap too.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/05/2012 12:04
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WASSIT / Aswat al-Iraq: Policemen tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! on Wednesday 21 desperados, including al-Qaeda leader and a drug dealing gang in northern Wassit, local police chief said.
"The forces tossed incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! al-Qaeda wanted man during a crackdown operation launched in al-Suweira district, north of Kut," General Hussein Abdulhadi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
"The man is wanted for implementing armed operations against civilians and Iraqi security forces in the province," the general explained.
"Another force cooled for a few years Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! a 6-person drug dealing gang at the same district," he added.
"Twelve desperados were also tossed in the clink Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in accordance with Article 406 of the penal code and two more desperados in accordance with Article 405 of the penal code," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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[Al Jazeera] The UN-backed peace plan for Syria is on "track", the office of international mediator Kofi Annan ...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... has said, as activists reported renewed violence in the country.
Ahmad Fawzi, Annan's spokesperson, said on Friday negotiations were being "conducted under the radar" involving the Syrian government and its opposition to cease all hostilities.
But Fawzi said there were continuing violations of truce conditions such as heavy weapons in populated areas, despite "small signs of compliance".
"The Annan plan is on track... And a crisis that has been going on for more than a year is not going to be resolved in a day or a week," Fawzi told a UN briefing in Geneva.
His comments came as the Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network, reported the deaths of 33 people in renewed violence across the country. Massive anti-government protests were also reported.
In the central city of Hama, government forces used gunfire to disperse protesters in two districts of the city and in another town of the same province, activists reported.
Abu Omar, a local activist, said troops also fired on demonstrators outside the main mosque in the Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... neighbourhood of Jubar.
Similar incidents were reported in other neighbourhoods of the capital and surrounding towns as well as in Hasakeh, in the northeast of the country.
Opposition activists had called for nationwide protests under the slogan "Our commitment [to the revolution] is our salvation".
Anti-regime demonstrations have been staged after prayers each Friday since the revolt against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Trampler of Homs... rule broke out in March 2011.
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#1
What do these people smoke?
And where can I get some.
[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... has announced that he does not intend to rejoin the March 14 camp, slamming the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... as an "irrational" political movement that is "paralyzing everything."
Commenting on his recent trip to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... in an interview to be published on Saturday, Jumblat hoped to restore his previous relation with the kingdom, saying Riyadh was dismayed by his support in 2011 for the nomination of Prime Minister Najib Miqati for premiership following the collapse of Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. 's government.
"I have not changed my stance: that (political) shift was necessary in order to spare the country sectarian tensions and to enter a transitional period," Jumblat said.
He added that restoring the relation with the kingdom was the focus of his meeting in Saudi Arabia with Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, stressing that talks did not tackle the Lebanese affairs.
Jumblat lamented the presence of "an irrational movement led by (MP) Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... that is paralyzing everything."
"Unfortunately, Hizbullah is complying with his wishes," Jumblat said, accusing Aoun of "seeking to control all the organs of the state: judiciary, security, politics, administration and elections."
Asked about the relation with the March 14 camp, Jumblat said: "Our political interests may coincide over the issue of proportional representation, but I won't rejoin March 14."
"They don't want to engage in dialogue over the issue of weapons and this is a central point of contention," he added.
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[Yemen Post] Yemen's Prime Minister Muhammad Salem Basindwa vowed on Friday to hold YR13 billion which the House of Representatives approved for the tribal elders and sheikhs within the state budget.
In a speech delivered after the prayers in the southern province of Taiz, he said the former regime used to give this sum to some tribal elders and sheikhs to gain their allegiance but the power-sharing government will not repeat this unconstitutional act.
"We will not pay the YR13 billion to sheikhs. The state budget should be directed to serve all the Yemeni people and there should not be provisions aimed at special people or groups," he said from the Freedom Square.
In April, Parliament passed YR2.1 trillion as the state budget for fiscal year 2012 including the provision allocating YR13 billion for tribal elders. Some MPs resisted the decision, urging to annul this provision.
The cabinet arrived and held an extraordinary meeting on Thursday in Taiz which discussed ways to supply urgent needs and maintain security, in the city turned into a battlefield for pro- and anti-regime forces last year.
"I came to you, so trust me I will pay my life to achieve your demands and no one can force you out of your squares," he addressed the people of Taiz.
He said the power-sharing government, formed according to a power-transfer deal brokered by the GCC and backed by the West in November, has made strides on all fronts and all of its members are devoted to serving the country.
He urged the youths to actively participate in the national dialogue to bring solutions to all Yemen's problems. "Taiz is the heart of Yemen. if it stands, the country stands. It really deserves more and more from us," he said.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... 's Conservative Party took a bashing yesterday in mid-term local elections, capping a bad month for the government after Britannia slid back into recession.
The main opposition Labour Party made big gains in the partial elections at the expense of the Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat partners in the coalition government.
In a further blow to Cameron two years after he came to power, his push to create the posts of elected mayors in England's biggest cities was rejected in referendums.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... early vote indications showed Conservative Boris Johnson may hold on to the mayor's job in London in the year of the 2012 Olympics.
Results are due in the capital from 1900 GMT.
A BBC vote share estimate based on results in England put Labour up three per cent on 39 per cent, the Conservatives down four on 31, the Liberal Democrats unchanged on 16 and others on 14.
They projected a low turnout of 32 per cent. With results in from 104 of the 181 local councils, Conservatives controlled 29 councils, losing power in 11, and held 604 seats, a loss of 289.
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[An Nahar] Three Turkish soldiers were killed early on Friday in a firefight with Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country, local security sources said.
The clash with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) occurred after the rebels attacked a military patrol in a rural zone of Tunceli, the sources said.
In a separate attack blamed on Kurdish rebels, two coppers were maimed when gunnies sprayed their car with machine gun fire in Sirnak near the border with Iraq and Syria, they said.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and by much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.
Fighting between the two sides usually escalates in spring as snow melts along the mountainous Iraqi-Turkish border, enabling rebels holed up in rough terrain to launch attacks more easily.
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SEOUL -- North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un has visited the air force unit that shot down a U.S. spy plane in 1969, Pyongyang's official news agency reported Friday.
His latest trip to the Air and Anti-air Force Command comes amid speculation that the communist country may carry out a nuclear test to try to compensate for last month's botched rocket launch. It also occurred more than a week after North Korea threatened to launch special military actions to reduce Seoul to ashes in minutes over South Korea's alleged insult to the North's dignity.
"The air force has a very important role to play in firmly defending the socialist country from the encroachment of the enemy," Kim said, according to an English-language dispatch of the Korean Central News Agency.
Suet Face Kim, who took over the country following the December death of his father, long-time leader Kim Jong-il, also "set forth the important tasks which would serve as guidelines for bolstering up the air and anti-air forces of the country," the dispatch said, without elaborating.
The new leader has also "highly estimated the achievements" of the command's personnel. In 1969, the air force unit shot down EC-121, a U.S. navy reconnaissance plane over international waters off the North's east coast, killing all 31 Americans on board. The incident occurred one year after the North seized a U.S. spy ship, Pueblo.
In April, Kim inspected the navy unit that captured the Pueblo and ordered his troops to bury the nation's enemies at sea if they "dare intrude into the territorial waters" of the North.
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#1
ION NOT-PUDGY = REGIONAL, WORLD NEWS > TAIWAN SETS UP AN AIRBORNE UNIT FOR THE SPRATLYS.
* SAME > [Taiwan] MND NOT KEEN ON DEPLOYING MISSLES TO SPRATLY ISLANDS.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM BLOGGER: THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA HAS NO REAL [gutsy] LEADERS LIKE [Russia's]VLADIMIR PUTIN TO RUN THE STATE.
ARTIC > CHINA NEEDS WARS = FIRE, IRON, + BLOOD [Bismarckian?] TO INSPIRE HEROES, + VALIDATE NATIONAL STRENGTHS + BELIEFS. Contemporary POST-DENG LEADERS like HU are "nobody" Politicial-Intellectuals wid no real or serious experience at War andor the Chinese experience in the early 20th Century like Chairman Mao + other "Long March" Veterans = dead or retired Party-Mil Cadres???
[Yemen Post] Yemeni activists have called for imposing a ban against supporting Yemen's political parties and factions by foreign states. On a workshop held Thursday in Sana'a on political parties creation, activists asserted that political factions receive support from foreign states and use it to achieve the goals of these countries without taking into account the interests of Yemen.
Yemeni analysts accuse Iran of supporting the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates.... group with funds and weapons with the aim of sparking turmoil in Yemen, the neighboring state of its sworn foe, Soddy Arabia. ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features. If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... a Saudi newspaper, Al-Sharaq, said on Thursday that Iran recruits Yemeni university graduates, particularly in the governorate of Aden with the aim of carrying out its own agendas inside the state.
Iran frequently invites Yemeni journalists, writers, students, activists and in particular Southern leaders such the former president Ali Salem Al-Beedh to Tehran.
Yemeni political sources in Aden affirmed that many Yemenis of the armed southern movement are invited to Tehran, expressing its concerns about the purposes of the visits amid allegations that Iran supports the leaders of the Southern Movement with large financial amounts.
The sources reiterated that a number of Iran-funded TV channels are under establishment and, citing that they will be specialized in covering Yemen's affairs
They emphasized that Yemeni prominent journalists and media practitioners were hired to work with these channels.
An intelligence report that was released by Al-Sharaq three months go has revealed that the Iranian regime and Hizballah work to recruit Yemeni politicians, journalists and media practitioners, particularly those who study abroad.The report pointed out that Iran aimed at sparking sectarian conflicts in Yemen in retaliation against Saudi influence in Yemen's affairs, particularly after the signature of a power transfer deal that was brokered by Saudi Arabia.
The report said that Tehran created and funded a number of parties, newspapers and TV channels in Yemen.
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[Bangla Daily Star] The government's crackdown on BNP bigwigs seems to be helping bridge the gap that developed between the main opposition BNP and its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... after the last parliamentary polls.
Jamaat leaders now plan to exploit the latest political developments in their favour, as they believe the crackdown on BNP leaders has given them an opportunity to get closer to BNP.
Jamaat that opposed the country's independence has been facing a serious crisis following the arrests of its top leaders on charges of committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
The latest situation has prompted BNP policymakers to reassess the party's strategy for reshaping ties with Jamaat to intensify anti-government agitations from June after the expiry of the 90-day deadline for the government to restore the caretaker government system.
Jamaat, a key component of the BNP-led electoral alliance, is likely to be in a much better position to improve its relations with BNP in this fast-changing political situation.
"We all nationalist forces including components of our alliance are now uniting to resist the government's repression. We will face it unitedly," ASM Hannan Shah, member of BNP standing committee, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Police last week filed cases against opposition leaders and raided houses of some top BNP men in connection with hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... violence. Most BNP bigwigs went into hiding following the crackdown.
Talking about the present political situation, Jamaat leader Mujibur Rahman said: "Our relation with BNP was strained but now it will take a solid shape."
Mujibur, assistant secretary general of Jamaat, told The Daily Star yesterday that the relation between the two parties strengthens either when they both face repression or during the election.
Asking not to be named, a BNP policymaker said the party had distanced itself from its major ally Jamaat since the debacle in the December 2008 parliamentary polls. There had been an anti-Jamaat opinion before the election for its role in the Liberation War.
BNP gave a mild response when the government cracked down on top Jamaat leaders in mid-2010.
"The government should have respected BNP's strategy for maintaining distance from Jamaat. But the latest crackdown on our big shots will compel the party to get closer to Jamaat to resist the government's repression," said the BNP leader.
Mahbubur Rahman, member of BNP standing committee, holds the government responsible for the present "volatile" political situation.
"We do not have any alternatives but to gear up street agitations, along with the components of our alliance," Mahbub told The Daily Star.
Jamaat Chief Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... , its Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and three other big shots had been cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! on charges of committing crimes against humanity, since the government's crackdown on Jamaat leaders in mid-2010.
The embattled Jamaat then turned to BNP for launching a joint movement. But BNP did not respond, and Khaleda reportedly refused to meet Jamaat leaders.
Matiur Rahman Akanda, assistant publicity secretary of Jamaat, said yesterday that BNP had only sympathised with Jamaat at that time.
"But BNP did not stand by us when the government launched a crackdown on our leaders. BNP's cold attitude towards us had created a gap between grassroots-level leaders of the two parties. The changed political situation will now close the gap," Akanda told The Daily Star.
Leaders of other Islamic parties also echoed the views of Jamaat leaders.
Abdul Latif Nezami, secretary general of Bangladesh Nezam-e-Islam Party, said the ties between BNP and other components of the alliance strengthened following the government's crackdown.
"Communication between the alliance leaders has increased. We are now putting our heads together to devise a strategy to gear up anti-government movement," Nezami told The Daily Star.
Ahlullah Wasel, press secretary of Islami Oikya Jote ... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support... , said the activity of the BNP-led alliance was limited to holding meetings. But the recent political developments have given them the opportunity to get united against the government.
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[Bangla Daily Star] The ruling Awami League will take a tough stance if the BNP-led opposition parties enforce hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... or observe similar anti-government agitation programmes in the coming days.
AL insiders said the party would take to the streets to curb the opposition agitation. In no circumstances, the BNP and allies would be allowed to "hamper development activities of the government".
"We will go tough against those who will try to hinder development activities. We won't spare anyone who will try to create anarchy in the name of movement," AL Organising Secretary Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury told The Daily Star yesterday.
He added that as a pro-people party, the AL would stay alert in the streets to thwart BNP's anti-government movement.
Khalid, however, said they believe "the opposition leaders who go into hiding and are not courageous enough to face charges won't be able to wage a movement to unseat this government".
The main opposition BNP has already announced that after May 6 it would take up programmes even harsher than hartal to press the government for return of its missing leader Ilias Ali, withdrawal of "false charges" against most of its top leaders and reinstatement of the caretaker government system to hold the next parliamentary election.
In last 12 days, the BNP-led 18-party alliance has enforced five dawn-to-dusk shutdowns and staged demonstrations across the country to protest the disappearance of Ilias Ali and his driver.
Ilias, one of the organising secretaries of the BNP and a former politician, went missing in the early hours of April 18.
AL high-ups claim the government has been trying its best to find out Ilias. So, they reason, there is no logic in calling hartal.
Besides, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide... herself has assured Ilias' wife Tahsina Rushdir Luna of doing everything necessary to trace her husband.
On the two cases filed against the BNP leaders on charges of involvement in blasts and vandalism during hartal hours, AL leaders said the senior BNP leaders must accept responsibility when one bus driver had been burned alive and many vehicles smashed or torched by hartal pickets.
The ruling party leaders also said the charges had been brought against senior opposition leaders as they had threatened to set the country on fire.
About the opposition's demand for withdrawal of the charges, AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said, "The law will take its own course and no one is above the law."
On April 29, Tejgaon police filed a case against 44 leaders and activists of the BNP-led 18-party alliance for torching a vehicle near the Prime Minister's Office that day.
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(Sh.M.Network)- Lamu police are on high alert following the entry of nine suspected Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... gun-hung tough guys from Somalia on Wednesday.
The aliens are suspected to include imported muscle, who entered Kenya from Burgavo and other small towns in Somalia's Lower Juba region, and have been forced out by Kenya's military offensive in the these parts, and the disintegration of Al-Shabaab.
The police alert is bad news for the fledgling tourism industry, which was battered last year following the abduction and murder of British and Frenchies in Manda, and Kiwayu islets, a few kilometers by sea from the area where the forces of Evil are believed to be hiding.
"We have no doubt that the group has links with the Al-Shabaab," said Lamu East OCPD, Samuel Obara, who is co-ordinating the operation against the bully boys. He was speaking on telephone from Lamu, on Thursday.
But the Government has responded robustly with heavy deployment of forces in Lamu, other islets, and international border seeking to prevent a fresh assault on the tourism sector.
This comes less than a week after theUKand US lifted advisories against essential travel to Lamu and local slums.
In Mombasa, Administration Police officers demolished structures around Tononoka Grounds after gun-hung tough guys detonated simultaneous bombs last month in Mtwapa, killing two worshippers.
The reports emerged as the British Government announced it was reviewing the travel advisory it issued last year. During the life of the advisory, including a separate one issued by theUS, the Lamu archipelago lost about 50 per cent of its foreign tourists and revenues, conservative estimates show.
The US has since, also, reviewed its separate advisory against essential travel toKenya, but most tourists on the Kenyan coast are from western Europe. Some investors, however, feel the words used in the review by the British do not go far enough to reassure foreigners about their safety in Lamu and other cities.
They are also calling on the Government to improve security and infrastructure.
Coast Provincial Police Officer Aggrey Adoli told The Standard on Thursday that police have maintained air, land, and sea patrols in hotspots following last year's events.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Former president of the African National Congress (ANC) youth league, Julius Malema, has lambasted the leadership of South Africa's ruling party for using him to achieve their goals and then discarding him "like a condom." E-e-e-e-w-w-w-w! Too much imagery!
Mr Malema made the accusations at a gathering of a new group called the "Friends of the Youth League" in Mthatha, South Africa's Eastern Cape Province.
The group has been created to provide a different platform for Mr Malema following the confirmation of his expulsion from the ANC, according to the City Press newspaper.
The ANC youth league has distanced itself from the new group.
Mr Malema claimed he had been mistreated by the ANC leadership despite his service to the party.
"Those of us who have remained loyal and entered treacherous places by defending the African National Congress... today we are not wanted," the South African Press Association quoted Mr Malema as saying.
"We are used like toilet paper or like condoms."
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#1
OK, is there some unknown South African meme or idiom that makes this less yucky and stupid sounding?
#10
"/sarc" works pretty well to signal to those like me who are less subtle that a comment isn't meant literally, AlanC dear.
I think I shall make up a pot of chamomile tea -- it seems that kind of day, as we wait for Israel to bounce some rubble on the Persian side of the border.
Turkey's prime minister on Thursday accused ratings agency Standard & Poor's of bias for lowering the country's long-term credit outlook on the same day it upgraded Greece's credit grade.
"How dare they! Don't they know who we are!?"
S&P on Tuesday had dropped Turkey's outlook from positive to stable, which mean it is no longer considering an upgrade of its credit rating, and cited concerns over government debt. The same day it had upgraded the ratings of neighboring Greece after Athens completed a major debt writedown with private creditors.
#1
IIRC last week or week-n-half ago, India = Indjuh was expecting a major credit ratings upgrade but to their shock were instead downgraded - HILARITY DID NOT ENSUE.
[Al Jazeera] Soddy Arabia's ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... ambassador to Egypt will return to Cairo next week, a Saudi official has said, signalling the end of a diplomatic row.
The ambassador was withdrawn almost a week ago in response to street protests in Cairo against the arrest of an Egyptian lawyer in the Gulf kingdom.
According to the Saudi state news agency SPA, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ordered the reopening of the embassy and consulates in Alexandria and Suez from Sunday.
Abdullah gave the orders during a visit by a large Egyptian parliamentary delegation to Riyadh.
In a speech on Saudi state TV, King Abdullah said: "Our decision to recall the ambassador and shut down the embassy was to protect its staff from any ominous consequences,
"What happened recently and its ramifications on the relations between the two brotherly countries hurts every Egyptian and Saudi citizen."
Saad al-Katatni, Egypt's parliamentary speaker who was at the head of the Egyptian delegation, told Abdullah that the ambassador's withdrawal was "hard for Egyptians".
"We have to overcome these passing events and not let them unsettle the relations between the two countries," he said.
"We hope that the [Saudi] ambassador comes back with us on the same plane."
The Saudi move appeared a sharp message to Egypt's rulers of the need to maintain good ties with the Gulf kingdom, that last week agreed to send $2.7b to support the fellow Arab state's shaky finances.
The withdrawal of the embassy came after hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the embassy on Tuesday demanding the release of an Egyptian human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... activist held by Saudi authorities who claim he possessed banned drugs.
The protesters rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against the Saudi rulers as they called for the "immediate" release of Ahmed Mohammed al-Gizawi, who was locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! on arrival at Jeddah airport on April 17.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... there has been no word yet on the fate of Gizawi who is thought to be still in jug in Saudi Arabia.
Strong ties between Riyadh and Cairo had already been strained by the upheaval in Egypt that overthrew its president, Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , who was close to the Saudi leadership.
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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling early elections so that he and his government will be free to deal with Iran's nuclear program this September-October, one of Israel's best-informed political commentators said on Friday night.
Netanyahu is set on Sunday to announce that he is dissolving parliament and calling elections for September 4 -- a year ahead of schedule. In the weeks immediately after that vote, said well-connected commentator Amnon Abramovich on the top-rated Channel 2 news, Netanyahu will head a transition government at home and have no need to worry about voter sentiment, and he knows that President Barack Obama will be paralyzed by the US presidential campaign.
Netanyahu has shocked the nation in the past few days by indicating that he will be calling elections a year ahead of their scheduled date in October 2013, leaving analysts baffled as to his reasoning. Speculation has focused on differences among the various coalition parties over legislation on national service for ultra-Orthodox Israelis, and over elements of the national budget.
After the September elections, which all polls show Netanyahu winning easily, he will head a transition government for several weeks while a new coalition is formed. During that period, Netanyahu "will not be beholden to the voters,"
But Abramovich said that the dramatic decision to bring the elections forward relates to Iran. After the September elections, which all polls show Netanyahu winning easily, he will head a transition government for several weeks while a new coalition is formed. During that period, Netanyahu "will not be beholden to the voters," and will be free to take decisions on Iran that many Israelis might not support, Abramovich said.
Furthermore, he will still have his trusted Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, at his side. Barak is seen as unlikely to fare well in the elections, and may not even retain his Knesset seat, but would retain the defense portfolio until a new coalition is formed.
And finally, said Abramovich, the September-October period would see Obama, who has publicly urged more patience in allowing diplomacy and sanctions to have their impact on Iran, in the final stages of the presidential election campaign, with a consequent reduced capacity to try to pressure Israel into holding off military intervention.
Obama, "on the eve of elections, won't dare criticize Israel," said Abramovich. From Netanyahu's point of view, "the conditions would be fantastic."
He noted that a transition government is prevented by law from taking dramatic policy decisions -- except in critical circumstances, and drew attention to comments from Barak in a newspaper interview Friday in this regard.
"The political-security system will make decisions as needed, even under challenging circumstances," said Barak about the impact of elections. "We must separate the issue of Iran from the subject of elections."
Barak also said of the Iranian nuclear drive: "The moment of truth is approaching."
Netanyahu has been repeatedly drawing parallels in recent weeks between the Iranian nuclear threat to Israel and the Holocaust, has said sanctions are not working, and warned that he will not allow Israel to have to live in the shadow of "annihilation."
He has also indicated that a decision on military intervention in Iran will have to be taken within months.
Barak, for his part, has stated repeatedly that confronting Iran before it achieves a nuclear weapons capability, however complex, will be far less challenging a prospect than confronting a nuclear Iran.
In the interview Friday with the Israel Hayom daily, Barak recalled a speech given in 2003 by the then-Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who, said Barak, spoke of Israel as being "so small and vulnerable that it is a 'one-bomb' nation.
"If one bomb were dropped on it, this nation would not return to its former glory," Barak quoted Rafsanjani as saying. "After the exchange of blows, Rafsanjani said, Islam would remain and Israel would not remain as it was. He also noted that there need not be any clear markers on the bomb as to where it came from. It could be transported in a shipping container that arrives at some port and simply explodes."
Added Barak: "I do not delude myself. The moment of truth is approaching. We have to decide what to do about this if the sanctions and diplomacy fail...
"Some say let's trust the world... I say that in the end we can deal with Iran now or deal with a nuclear Iran that poses a far greater danger... If it obtains a nuclear weapon, it will be very hard to bring it down. Now they are trying to seek immunity for their nuclear program. If they achieve military nuclear capability, for arms, or a threshold in which they can assemble a bomb within 60 days, they will acquire another form of immunity -- for the regime."
Barak recalled Israel being caught off guard in 1973, when it was attacked in the Yom Kippur War and sustained heavy losses. "What happened in 1973? The entire cabinet was blinded and we were forced to pay the price on the battlefield."
The defense minister also used the interview to castigate several ex-intelligence chiefs and former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who have criticized what they argue is the government's misguided handling of the Iranian threat, and who have warned that the Netanyahu-Barak duo may be leading Israel into a regional war with dire potential consequences.
Said Barak: "You can trust me when I say this: In the history of the state, there has never been such as orderly decision-making process."
(Sh.M.Network)- Nearly 10 mortars slammed at Somalia's presidential palace on Friday night as kabooms and gunfire rocked Mogadishu in the latest outbreak of violence in chaotic Somalia, witnesses said.
"I can confirm two mortars have hit near VillaSomalia," a source told Shabelle Media of the building where President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed stays. "We do not have word yet if there were casualties or not."
More than a dozen kabooms boomed across Mogadishu and gunfire rattled out to break a lull in the violence of several days in the coastal capital of the Horn of Africa nation.
"I have heard more than a dozen kabooms ... now there is no gunfire," said a resident
Also in the news, unknown gunnies have overnight attacked on government bases in Mogadishu, triggering face-to-face gun-battle that lasted two hours.
At least four government soldiers were killed last night in Mogadishu. Al shabab group has so said it was behind the killing.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2012
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[An Nahar] Security forces killed at least 33 people on Friday as protesters took to their streets in their thousands on Friday to call for regime change, activists and a rights watchdog said.
The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed seven people in the northwestern province of Idlib, seven in the Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... neighborhood of al-Tadamon, six in the central province of Hama, five in the central province of Homs, four in the northern province of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , two in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, one in the Damascus suburb of al-Mleiha and one in the southern province of Daraa.
For its part, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a demonstrator was killed in the Damascus district of al-Tadamon when security forces opened fire on a protest.
Activist Abu Omar, reached by Agence La Belle France Presse from Beirut via Skype, said troops shot at demonstrators outside the main mosque in the Damascus neighborhood of Jubar.
Shootings were also reported by activists in other neighborhoods of the capital and surrounding towns as well as in Hasakeh, in the northeast of the country.
Elsewhere, government forces used gunfire to disperse demonstrators in two districts of the central city of Hama and in another town of the same province, the Observatory added.
Opposition activists had called for nationwide protests under the slogan "Our commitment (to the revolution) is our salvation".
Anti-regime demonstrations have been staged after prayers each Friday since the revolt against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's iron-fisted rule broke out in March 2011.
The Observatory said protests were also taking place Friday in northern Aleppo province, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and in northwest Idlib.
Amateur video posted on YouTube by activists showed demonstrators in Irbin, a town in Damascus province, carrying a banner that read: "Dear observers, thank you for your visit and goodbye."
The message referred to U.N. observers deployed in Syria to monitor a U.N.-backed ceasefire that went into effect April 12 but has failed to take hold fully.
"One year of killings and you still need observers to know the truth, enough lies," read another banner carried by protesters in a neighborhood of the capital.
More than 600 people have died in violence since the April 12 ceasefire went into effect, according to the Observatory.
Overall, the watchdog estimates that more than 11,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the revolt.
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05/05/2012
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[An Nahar] Pro-government gunnies fighting al-Qaeda alongside the Yemeni army have killed 12 suspected snuffies as jihadists attacked the southern town of Loder, one of the fighters said on Friday.
"Two vehicles were destroyed and 12 fighters killed" late Thursday by the gunnies, he told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding the snuffies had attacked the southern entrance to the town in restive Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province.
The gunnies, who belong to the so-called Popular Resistance Committees, were supported by army artillery as they pushed the snuffies back, the fighter said.
He added that four civilians were maimed when two mortars fired by al-Qaeda suspects struck Loder.
Al-Qaeda seized Loder in August 2010, but the army eventually drove it out.
Loder lies 150 kilometers northeast of Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, which was overrun last May by the Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law), an affiliate of al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula.
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IDF forces set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Please don't kill me! a Paleostinian near the West Bank Elon Moreh settlement suspected of attempting to launch a terror attack
The Paleostinian was armed with a knife, and was approaching the settlement's security barrier when he was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Please don't kill me! Security forces cooled for a few years Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! the Paleostinian man for questioning.
Two Paleostinians in their 20s were cooled for a few years I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! near the Tapuah Junction in possession of bombs and knives. The Border Guard officers transferred them into the custody of security forces for questioning.
[Al Jazeera] Argentina's congress has approved the country's takeover of the Spanish-owned YPF oil company, clearing the way for President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner to sign the bill into law.
The lower house approved the takeover of YPF by a 207-32 vote on Thursday. The Senate approved the bill last week.
Deputies in congress debated the law, which includes the expropriation of Spanish energy company Repsol's $10.5bn controlling stake in the oil company.
Spain has threatened to retaliate against the so-far-uncompensated takeover of YPF, and the Moody's rating agency has said that trading with Argentina is now riskier than before.
Argentine policy makers, however, have brushed off concerns, and more than three-fourths of politicians approved the law during Thursday's vote.
President Kirchner, a combative career politician who has tightened state control of the economy, unveiled the plan to take over YPF from Repsol six months after her landslide re-election last year.
Agustin Rossi, head of the ruling party bloc in the lower house, heralded the move as a watershed in the country's energy policy.
"We're going to see a big improvement and a big difference [although] it's probably going to take a few years for us to achieve energy self-sufficiency," Rossi said.
"This isn't just about YPF, [all companies] will have to keep in mind that their business is a matter of public interest
and the aim is self-sufficiency," he added.
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#1
cut off all foreign investment, loans, and trade. Let Argentina rot
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2012 8:23
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#2
...I do believe they are. It's just that there are so many suckers clueless out there who'll play just about any gamble even when everyone else knows the game is rigged.
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.
A Presidential spokesperson blamed the inclusion a Nazi-sympathizer in a speech about Jewish-American Heritage Month on sending out a copy of the speech too soon.
A US drone attack targeting a militant compound killed at least 10 insurgents in a troubled Pakistani tribal district along the Afghan border early Saturday, security officials said.
Asif Ali 
Charles Taylor
[Yemen Post] Yemen's ex-president 
[Al Jazeera] Egyptian armed forces and protesters have clashed in Cairo, with troops using water cannon and rocks to disperse demonstrators trying to reach the defence ministry.
...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...
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
Najib Miqati
Michel Aoun
David Cameron
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
