Hi there, !
Today Tue 12/11/2012 Mon 12/10/2012 Sun 12/09/2012 Sat 12/08/2012 Fri 12/07/2012 Thu 12/06/2012 Wed 12/05/2012 Archives
Rantburg
531686 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 59 articles and 154 comments as of 9:39.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix    Main Page
Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
19:26 1 20:39 rjschwarz []
18:11 5 20:58 JosephMendiola []
14:28 2 17:00 SteveS []
12:10 1 20:01 trailing wife []
12:06 14 23:37 Pappy []
11:15 2 22:29 Barbara []
06:04 18 23:23 tipper []
05:40 6 18:10 Eric Jablow [] 
02:43 11 21:04 JosephMendiola [] 
01:19 1 06:15 Besoeker []
01:11 1 15:12 Frank G []
00:37 3 14:34 g(r)omgoru [1]
00:00 14 18:35 Shipman [] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 1 21:36 JosephMendiola []
00:00 5 18:36 Galactic Coordinator Tojo9070 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 2 09:36 Shinert de Medici2790 []
00:00 1 21:23 JosephMendiola []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 1 08:30 American Delight []
00:00 3 06:25 Besoeker []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 3 09:13 Procopius2k [] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 14 22:21 Bright Pebbles []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 1 10:47 Raj [] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 4 15:39 Mullah Richard [] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 1 13:10 DepotGuy []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 1 13:36 SteveS []
00:00 0 []
00:00 3 12:46 Besoeker []
00:00 4 15:40 Frank G []
00:00 1 06:42 Besoeker []
00:00 0 []
00:00 12 21:00 JosephMendiola []
00:00 9 21:54 tipper [] 
00:00 1 08:31 American Delight []
00:00 3 15:12 Frank G []
00:00 0 []
00:00 5 21:53 JosephMendiola []
International-UN-NGOs
Inhofe: Obama funneling billions to UN for climate-change redistribution
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 19:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So Obama is giving Chinese money to the UN. Well at some point if we default as a nation the Chinese will get pennies on the dollars back for their debt obligations so who is the sucker really?

Yeah I still think this sucks if true. More buy-offs and the UN doesn't even vote in US elections.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/08/2012 20:39 Comments || Top||


Britain
Britain Convicts a Muslim for Disciplining her Child
A mother who beat her son to death for failing to learn the Koran by heart murdered him and burned his body to hide the evidence, a jury has found.
At least they found a crime was committed - I am almost surprised.
Sara Ege, 33, a mathematics graduate from India, treated her son Yaseen like a "dog," brutally beating him with a stick for failing to memorise religious texts.
I guess that was how she learned her math.
The seven-year-old died in July 2010 from internal injuries caused by three months of punishing beatings from his own mother.

Ege accused her husband, Yousef, of being the real killer throughout her murder trial at Cardiff Crown Court. But he was cleared on Wednesday of failing to act to prevent the death of his son at home in Pontcanna, Cardiff, south Wales.

Ege was found guilty of murder and of perverting the course of justice. She will be sentenced in the new year.

Details of the punishing beatings Yaseen regularly suffered at the hands of his mother were so traumatic she could not listen herself. She was given leave by the judge to absent herself from the court room when the jury was told of the events leading to his death.
Only those with a strong stomach should go to the link to read the details.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/08/2012 18:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Part of her sentence should be to listen to those details several times a day while she is in prison.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/08/2012 19:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Anyone aware of the "Prison Payback" to a woman who murders her kid....?

Posted by: Uncle Phester || 12/08/2012 19:59 Comments || Top||

#3  T'aint pretty, UP.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/08/2012 20:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Part of her sentence should be to listen to those details several times a day while she is in prison.
She will Rambler, in her head. However cognitive dissonance will kick in and and she will end up blaming the "Jinns" and not her sick religion.
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 20:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Great math student, lousy or dubious as a Mom???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/08/2012 20:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
HRW: Iran's statements not incitement to genocide
The head of the powerful New York-based Human Rights Watch refused to label Iranian calls to obliterate the Jewish state as genocide.
Cause Juice are not really human?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/08/2012 14:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mr. Sheinberg, wear you name-tag and stand in Baharestan Square wearing shorts whilst you spew on about your 'great organization'.

Call a few of the Basij guys 'Arabs' and while you're at it, tell the Pasdaran folks queuing about you that their mustaches are too short and they look gay.

It's all fair.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/08/2012 15:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Just to be clear: Sid Sheinberg HRW’s vice chairman, wrote in an email: “Sitting still while Iran claims a ‘justification to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel’ …is a position unworthy of our great organization.”

Ken Roth, head of HRW, is the the morally bankrupt one:
Roth wrote in one email, “Many of [Iran’s] statements are certainly reprehensible, but they are not incitement to genocide. No one has acted on them.”

In addition to moral bankruptcy, Roth apparently does not understand the meaning of the word 'incitement'. Why anyone would listen to this bunch of mooks about anything is beyond me. I fart in their general direction.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 17:00 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pak asks Karzai to share information about spy chief bomber
The Pakistan government today responded to President Hamid Karzai's accusation that a suicide attacker who targeted the Afghan spy chief had come from Pakistan by saying that Kabul should share any information it has to back up the allegation.

"Before levelling charges, the Afghan government would do well if they shared information or evidence with the government of Pakistan that they might have with regard to the cowardly attack on the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS)," foreign office spokesman Moazzam Khan said in a statement.

Khan further said that Afghan authorities should also probe possible lapses in the security for Afghan spy chief Assadullah Khalid, who was attacked in Kabul on Thursday by a Taliban suicide bomber posing as a peace envoy.

"They (the Afghan government) would also do well by ordering an investigation into any lapses in the security arrangements around the NDS chief," Khan said.

The Pakistan government is "ready to assist any investigation of this criminal act", he said.
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 12:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Here's his head. He has distinctively Pakistani facial hair."
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/08/2012 20:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Despite Tax Increase, California State Revenues in Freefall
Caliphornia State Controller John Chiang has announced that total state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget.

Democrats thought they could hammer "the rich" by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation. But it now appears that high income earners have already "voted with their feet" by moving themselves and their businesses out of state, resulting in over $1 billion shortfall in corporate and income taxes last month and the beginning of a new financial crisis.

Passage of Proposition 30 set off euphoria and expectations of higher spending for public employees. The California Teachers' Association (CTA) trumpeted: "California students and working families won a clear victory today as voters clearly demonstrated their willingness to invest in our public schools and colleges and also rejected a deceptive ballot measure aimed at silencing educators, other workers and their unions."
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 12:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pyrrhic victory -
noun:
a victory or goal achieved at too great a cost.

Origin:
Greek Pyrrikós; after a remark attributed by Plutarch to Pyrrhus, who declared, after a costly victory over the Romans, that another similar victory would ruin him.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/08/2012 12:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Certainly Governor Romney no one could have predicted such an unfortunate outcome. [sarc off]
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 12:43 Comments || Top||

#3  The California Teachers' Association (CTA) trumpeted: "California students and working families won a clear victory today

A victory over education and a future as an employable adult.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/08/2012 12:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Doesn't these teachers' unions have some math teachers as members?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/08/2012 14:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Despite?

Income taxes are like fining people for driving fast. Only a leftist moron would be surprised that people drove less and drove slower.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/08/2012 14:53 Comments || Top||

#6  g(r)omgoru Hello!, We have an economics professor I won't say where who has the worst credit rating a person could have. Maxed out with his credit card to purchase a used vehicle but was declined. Another professor has a hybrid Honda just a couple years old and the motor is shot. They may be intelligent but extremely poor keeping basic maintenance done timely.
Posted by: Dale || 12/08/2012 15:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh gee wow.... what a shock.
Posted by: Spolutle Jones9403 || 12/08/2012 15:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Unexpectantly!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/08/2012 16:47 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm trying to find my picoviolin - honest, I am. Maybe if I vacuum the cat....
Posted by: Barbara || 12/08/2012 17:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Obviously a miscalculation in the rates, give 'em an upwards nudge of 4 or 5 percentum and off we go into paradise.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/08/2012 18:37 Comments || Top||

#11  I voted against it and it sucks. Guess I'll retire and move somewhere else. Been here my whole life. Fuckers
Posted by: Frank G || 12/08/2012 19:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Frank G -
Just remember how hard it was for many of our ancestors to leave the 'old country', where generations of them had grown up, to get away from the authoritarian looting class.

..and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable..
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/08/2012 21:08 Comments || Top||

#13  Unfortunately California is out front in our financial meltdown. They are demonstrating what will happen next month after our loving government raises taxes on the wealthy. They will move their money and invest outside the US at a minimum or leave....
Posted by: 49 Pan || 12/08/2012 21:28 Comments || Top||

#14  Funny, the LA area papers are ful of "happy talk" about how good things are going.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/08/2012 23:37 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Egypt: Army warns it will not allow 'dark tunnel'
The Mamluks to the rescue.
The army in Egypt has called for dialogue to resolve a crisis over President Mohammed Morsi's new powers, warning it will intervene to stop Egypt going into "a dark tunnel".

In its first statement since protests erupted, it vowed to protect public institutions and innocent people.
Last time they had a chance to do that they refused to shoot the guys riding through Tahrir Square on camels. In fact they were in cahoots with those guys. So pardon me if I find the statements of the Egyptian generals to be a little less than completely serious...
It came as protests continued outside the presidential palace in Cairo.

The opposition has rejected his call for talks, unless he gives up powers and halts a constitutional referendum.

Critics say the draft was rushed through the constituent assembly - a body dominated by Islamists who support Mr Morsi - without proper consultation and does not do enough to protect political and religious freedoms and the rights of women.

Vice-President Mahmud Mekki has indicated that Mr Morsi could delay the 15 December plebiscite if the opposition agreed not to challenge the move on those grounds later, AFP news agency reports.

Under Egyptian law, referendums must be held two weeks after being formally presented to the president.
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 11:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Update
Egypt crisis: President Morsi annuls decree
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has annulled a decree he issued last month that hugely expanded his powers and sparked angry protests, officials say.

However, a news conference in Cairo was told that a controversial referendum on a draft constitution would still go ahead as planned on 15 December.

Mr Morsi's critics have accused him of acting like a dictator, but he says he is safeguarding the revolution.

He said the extra powers were needed to force through reforms.

Mr Morsi's decree of 22 November stripped the judiciary of any right to challenge his decisions and triggered violent protests on the streets of Cairo.
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 21:41 Comments || Top||

#2  "stripped the judiciary of any right to challenge his decisions"

You can be sure Bambi is paying close attention. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/08/2012 22:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
Another red-beard bites the dust.
A senior al-Qaida official and potential successor to the group's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed Friday morning in a Predator drone strike, according to reports on jihadi web forums and U.S. officials.

Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al-Hussainan, aka Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti, was killed in Pakistan while eating breakfast,
Start your day with a good breakfast, I always say.
according to the accounts. The 46-year-old cleric was seen as part of the "very top tier" of al-Qaida's remaining leaders in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden, according to one expert on the terror group.

"That's a big gap in the leadership," said Kohlmann, who is also a Justice Department consultant.
Oh well, I guess this story must be fake, if it's reported by NBC/Justice Dept.
"He was the last senior Al-Qaida leader in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area who was, one, from the Arabian Peninsula and, two, who had serious clerical credentials. Now there is no obvious publicly recognizable candidate left to succeed Zawahiri."
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/08/2012 06:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "That's a big gap in the leadership," said Kohlmann, who is also a Justice Department consultant.

A "gap" soon filled Mr. Kohlman. A "gap" soon filled. You've just revealed how little you know about Muslim Jihadi leadership and their long-term campaign strategy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 6:22 Comments || Top||

#2  "what's that buzzing? I can't even hear my 'snap, crackle, pop'!"

*POP*
Posted by: Frank G || 12/08/2012 8:06 Comments || Top||

#3  How many Alq have be found in Pakistan?Too many imo for calling Pakistan a friend and ally.
Posted by: Shinert de Medici2790 || 12/08/2012 9:13 Comments || Top||

#4  It's arguable whether hitting leaders does anything more than disrupt immediate operations. At least that is the outcome of some research at West Point.
Posted by: lotp || 12/08/2012 9:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Depends on how many leaders and how often, I should thin, lotp. If all you do is seasonally prune the deadwood at the top, you may actually improve things (see US Army.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/08/2012 9:54 Comments || Top||

#6  My takeaway from lotp's link is that it's the Number 3s who should be targetted instead.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/08/2012 9:59 Comments || Top||

#7  They say here that he was having a late dinner after fasting during the day. Could it be the Angel of Death caught him sneaking a breakfast during his fast?
Only Allah knows best.
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 10:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Like pruning kudzu
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/08/2012 10:21 Comments || Top||

#9  Not much different than dealing with plague. You don't immediately kill the rats because the fleas will jump to other carriers only speeding up the transmission. First you reduce the flea population to a low level, then you kill the rats.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/08/2012 11:12 Comments || Top||

#10  From lotp's High School on the Hudson link:

These days, American counterterror policy is even more reliant on taking out individual militants. How exactly those individuals are picked for drone elimination is the matter of intense debate and speculation. The White House reportedly maintains a “matrix” of the most dangerous militants. Social-network analysis — the science of determining the connections between people — almost certainly plays a role where those militants appear on that matrix.

Kinetic events and various nefarious activities are traced from bomb makers, bomb emplacers, hit men, drug lords, prison escapees, and financiers to cell leaders, and their various networks via signatures analysis, link analysis, and All Source reporting. Sometimes called "social- network analysis". Think of the "Matrix" as a sort of Ancestors.com on steroids and you'll not be far afield. It is a law enforcement or warrant approach vs classic military meeting engagement, ie, search and destroy the enemy.

As bad actors become more and more active in a specific region, their activities are validated and added to their rap sheet or "Matrix". The Matrix is then updated and annotated to reflect desired outcomes relative to the insurgent.

The bad guys or insurgent leaders have various methods to combat network analysis. Some of those methods include; name changes (most have several to include niks); subcontracting events through cut-outs, staying off the cellie or using half a dozen different cellies; disinformation provided by detainees during interrogation; moving to a different province; returning to PAK and going dormant.

Just because they are not educated, does not mean they are stupid.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 12:27 Comments || Top||

#11  "Expert" studies have a frequent tendency to conclude that actions fail to work and may even cause harm on the balance. They tend to especially disparage violent actions as being not only immoral, but also ineffective. If we followed their logic, we would have responded to Pearl Harbor by ignoring it or by making a "proportionate" response of attacking one Japanese military base and we would have refrained from bombing Nazi Germany because bombing them would only have created more Nazis. They also have a problem of picking the right baseline for comparison. Inaction doesn't have to result in stasis, but frquently results in a deterioration that would be the correct baseline for a valid comparison.
Posted by: Odysseus || 12/08/2012 12:36 Comments || Top||

#12  Excellent observation and analysis Ody. The problem isn't that we lack knowledge of what is taking place. The problem is we fail to do anything about it!
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 12:39 Comments || Top||

#13  Does anybody still study WT Sherman at that place?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/08/2012 13:29 Comments || Top||

#14  If current events are any indication it would appear William T's sexual exploits have been well studied indeed. He was also fond of fine horses. By the time he reached Savannah he was reported to have had a private stable of nearly 70.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 15:43 Comments || Top||

#15  Presumably no connection between the horses and is 'exploits'...
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/08/2012 18:52 Comments || Top||

#16  Not to bust anyone's bubble, but once again I personally won't truly believe it until Ayman, Mullah Omar or Other formally acknowledge it.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/08/2012 20:56 Comments || Top||

#17  Takes 'em a couple days of scurrying to find a new hide-hole where they can issue their 'bulletins' from, Joe.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/08/2012 22:03 Comments || Top||

#18  First you reduce the flea population to a low level, then you kill the rats.
How do you do dat, P2K
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 23:23 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Champ asks for $60b for east coast constituents and storm victims
Tell the victims to put up the lot for collateral and borrow the money locally for their rebuild. If that's a non-starter, sell the lot and buy a nice place in another democratic state like Ohio. We're broke and I've got my own homeowners insurance to pay for! The United States will have to go to China to borrow that much dough. My answer is no, and don't plan on moving to Georgia either!
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 05:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  F'em.

Sorry Ninglanders, but this gets approved, 1/2 disappears into a commitee needing an additional $60B to make reconstruction meet green requirements, and the other 1/2 simply disappears into the graftdrain.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/08/2012 11:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Do we have $60B?
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/08/2012 11:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Mr. Boeneke, to a white courtesy telephone please. We have a high priority $60 billion order for currency printing. Mr. Boeneke.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/08/2012 14:00 Comments || Top||

#4  If you're a krugmanite then damage = growth, so he should support gerbil wormin' as it will stimulate the economy.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/08/2012 14:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Insurance subsidies are the very definition of moral hazard.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/08/2012 14:57 Comments || Top||

#6  And don't send any money to New Jersey to replace the commuter trains they let wash away.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 12/08/2012 18:10 Comments || Top||


New Think approved by the Common Core State Standards
Schools in America are to drop classic books such as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye from their curriculum in favour of 'informational texts'.
Posted by: linker || 12/08/2012 02:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obviously Bill and Melinda know best.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 6:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Informational Texts == Leftist Propaganda
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/08/2012 9:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Hard enough getting kids to read good, well-written books - should be about impossible to teach from crappy BS books.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/08/2012 9:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Probably mainly a way to get taxpayers to buy the crappy BS books and enrich their politicallt-connected writers.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/08/2012 9:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Do they WANT kids to find reading "undeniably, unquestionably, uncool"? (Points for anyone geek enough to get the reference)
Posted by: Korora || 12/08/2012 9:43 Comments || Top||

#6  I like to kick back in the evening, in front of the fireplace and read a few chapters from The Compendium of Invasive Plant Species.
What kid wouldn't want to read about Swashbucklers, Astronauts or Fiberglass Insulation Standards as it relates to LEEDS certification of commercial high occupancy housing?
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/08/2012 12:12 Comments || Top||

#7  More likely the 'informational text' will be more in the way if 'An Inconvenient Truth', 'My two Mommies', etc...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/08/2012 12:55 Comments || Top||

#8  Actually, I think that deciding what my kid should read is my business---and not some lit teacher's.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/08/2012 14:44 Comments || Top||

#9  It's not even being decided by a lit teacher - some political hack back east will make those decisions for both of you.

When he's not making decisions about your healthcare that is.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/08/2012 16:46 Comments || Top||

#10  #6 LOL - I gotta remember this one.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/08/2012 21:01 Comments || Top||

#11  FYI the Bammer Admin is repor getting ready to "transform" higher learning, etc. in America across-the-board.

OWG STARFLEET/SPACE ACADEMY HERE WE COME???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/08/2012 21:04 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Arms, Allies, and the Horror in Syria
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 01:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The recently updated casualty figures for what ended here in 1865 is now estimated at nearly 700,000. They aren't even in the same ballpark. I don't recall the well known author, the late Shelby Foote mentioning any Syrian involvement in our troubled past. Stay home and stay out of it!
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 6:15 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
7 found dead in Zacatecas state

For a map, click here For a map of Zacatecas state, click here

Six unidentified individuals and one police agent were found dead in Zacatecas state Thursday afternoon, according to Mexican news reports.

According to a news item posted Thursday on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas, a municipal police patrol found the body of Policia Estatal Acreditable (PEA) agent Juan Ormidio Aguilar Lara in Calera municipality inside a Ferris wheel on El Montecillo ranch.

Aguilar Lara was a police commander who disappeared last Tuesday just after he started his vacation. Aguilar Lara resided in Calera municipality.

Six other unidentified individuals were found in the same area, three men and three women.

In the same area the day before a patrol which included Policia Estatal Preventiva (PEP) and Policia Federal (PF) police detained three suspected criminals, weapons and three vehicles. It unclear in the report if the detainees had anything to do with the disappearance and death of Aguilar Lara.
Posted by: badanov || 12/08/2012 01:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  4 tortured bodies found decorating a bridge in Saltillo
Posted by: Frank G || 12/08/2012 15:12 Comments || Top||


Africa North
UN: No offensive in Mali until next autumn
Because it is not the purpose of the UN to actually do anything.
The U.N. peacekeeping chief said Friday he doesn't expect a West African-led military offensive to oust al-Qaida and extremists from northern Mali to begin until September or October of next year.

Herve Ladsous said experts have told the United Nations that before a military operation takes place Mali's army needs to be retrained. Once that happens, another issue will be the rainy season, which should be over by next September, he said.

That will likely disappoint those, especially in Africa, who say an African-led military intervention in northern Mali is urgently needed to keep western Africa from becoming a hotbed of terrorists and drug traffickers.

There is wide agreement that swift action is needed, but
...they called the U.N. instead...
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others say the key to successfully reuniting the country is political reconciliation, and military action should be a last resort. The U.S. and the European Union want the Malian army and African troops to be properly trained before they try to retake northern Mali.

France is expected to circulate a draft U.N Security Council resolution early next week that would authorize the training of the Malian army and deployment of an international force. France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud has said the resolution will promote two tracks - military and political - and will include benchmarks and regular reports to the Security Council to assess the force's operational capabilities.
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 00:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  experts have told the United Nations that before a military operation takes place Mali's army needs to be retrained. Once that happens, another issue will be the rainy season, which should be over by next September

Then it'll one again be time for the glowball worming conference, the Durban conference, the debate when the 40-story mosque should be built on the grounds of the UN headquarters, et cetera...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/08/2012 13:18 Comments || Top||

#2  By the time the UN actually does something about 'global warming' (scare quotes!), the next ice age will have started.

Given that roughly half of the member nations are run by villains, thieves and scoundrels, the inability of the UN to accomplish anything can be regarded as a feature and not a bug.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 13:29 Comments || Top||

#3  And here I thought UN is offensive year round.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/08/2012 14:34 Comments || Top||


Europe
Minister Says 'Probably Dozens' More Like Merah in France
[An Nahar] A man tossed in the slammer
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
this week in connection with the March attacks by jihad boy gunman Mohamed Merah has been released without charge, a judicial source said on Friday.

The 38-year-old man was tossed in the calaboose
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
on Tuesday along with his ex-girlfriend, also 38, who was released earlier.

The man, described by police as a member of the traveler community who converted to Islam, was detained on suspicion of having provided aid to Merah in carrying out the March attacks that left seven people dead.

The nature of his potential involvement was unclear at the time of his arrest, but Sherlocks have been searching for a suspected "third man" believed to have been with Merah and his brother Abdelkader during the theft of a scooter used in the attacks.

Merah, a self-described al-Qaeda sympathizer, shot a rabbi, three Jewish schoolchildren and three French paratroopers before being rubbed out in a police siege in Toulouse
...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France...
French authorities have stepped up efforts to fight homegrown Death Eaters since the attacks, including with a series of arrests of alleged Islamist bad boys.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls has warned that there are "probably dozens" more potential Death Eaters like Merah in La Belle France.

"The threat exists abroad but there is also a threat from inside," Valls told La Belle France 2 television this week.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
U.S. Expresses 'Deep' Concern over Tripoli, Tariq al-Jadideh Unrest
[An Nahar] The United States is deeply concerned with the continued violence in the northern city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
and "attempts to spark violence" in Beirut's Tariq al-Jadideh neighborhood, said the U.S. Embassy via Twitter on Friday.
The usual deeply felt tut-tuttery...
"We call on all parties to exercise restraint and respect for Leb's stability and security," it said.

"The U.S. commends the Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces' efforts to work together and maintain calm in Leb," it added.

"The U.S. remains committed to a stable, sovereign and independent Leb," tweeted the embassy.

Twelve people were killed and over 75 were maimed in the latest round of festivities that erupted in Tripoli over the weekend in light of news that Lebanese fighters had been killed in an ambush in the Syrian border town of Tall Kalakh on November 30.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ahhhh, poo' 'ittle baby wobama no like his smart diplomacy that he made.


Next time check the recipe you maroon.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/08/2012 9:35 Comments || Top||

#2  We call on all parties to exercise restraint and respect for Lebanon’s stability and security...

Who writes this stuff? None of the parties have ever shown the capability much less the willingness for “restraint”. Further, the mythical concept of Muslim “respect” has never been a proactive gesture. It’s only the complaint of an aggrieved party after a perceived lack thereof. And if one was to list the all the countries that have even remotely exhibited “stability and security” it’s doubtful Lebanon would even register.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 12/08/2012 11:28 Comments || Top||

#3  The trouble with pick losers among losers. You generally end up with a loser.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 12:46 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Illegal local radio stations taken off air in Swabi
[Dawn] Around a dozen unlicensed FM radio stations were taken off the air in Swabi district over the last couple of days for spreading religious hatred.

Also, the administration seized equipment used by these radio stations and booked their owners for illegal activity.

The provincial had taken notice of the illegal operations of illegal FM radio stations in Swabi. There followed the issuance of the provincial home and tribal affairs department's directions to the local administration to take them all off the air.According to an official of the home department, the administration has launched a crackdown on illegal FM radio stations in the district.

He said no illegal radio station was found in Mardan district, while around a dozen FM radio stations were run in Swabi district.

The official said the administration had revealed that almost all illegal FM radio stations used to air religious messages and these programmes were mostly of different religious schools of thought.

He added that the administration feared that it might cause unrest in the district and might create law and order situation.

Under the Pakistain Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Ordinance, 2002, the authority has the exclusive right to grant licences for the establishment and operation of broadcast media.

It is learnt that until now, Pemra has allowed licences to around 89 commercial and 35 non-commercial radio stations.

According to an official, the running of an unauthorised FM radio station is a crime under Section 33 of the Pemra Ordinance and is punishable up to four years imprisonment.

Due to easy availability of the required equipment, it has become easy for an individual to begin such radio stations, which could air programmes in the radius of few kilometres. Also, the equipment is easy to be shifted from one place to another.

The official said these illegal radio stations remained one of the reasons for increase in militancy in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and the adjoining tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Europe
Lawsuit Targets French Paper over Naked Mohammed Cartoons
[An Nahar] Two French Moslem groups have filed a lawsuit for inciting racial hatred and slander against a French satirical weekly that published cartoons of a naked Prophet Mohammed, the paper's lawyer said Friday.

Charlie Hebdo published the cartoons in September as often violent -- and sometimes deadly -- protests were taking place in several countries over a low-budget film made in the United States that insults the prophet.

The Algerian Democratic Rally for Peace and Progress (RDAP) and its offshoot the United Arab Organization (OAU), which both state that their goal is "the defense and support of Moslem and/or Arab people", are seeking damages of 780,000 euros ($1 million).

Their suit targets the publication, its director and two cartoonists.

Two other groups have already filed suits against Charlie Hebdo over the same series of cartoons. The most recent suits say they besmirched the honor of the prophet and of Moslems.

"Yet again, they are trying to scare us to prevent us continuing this French humoristic tradition regarding religion," said the weekly's lawyer Richard Malka.

In 2008, the then-director of Charlie Hebdo, Philippe Val, was cleared after French Moslem groups took him to court accusing him of having insulted Islam by publishing cartoons of the prophet.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Africa North
Egypt justice minister says Morsi 'ready' to postpone referendum
[Al Ahram] Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi may delay a controversial constitutional referendum, slated for 15 December, if the opposition accepts dialogue without preconditions, Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki said on Friday.

Anti-Morsi demonstrators, who switched their protest hub from the iconic Tahrir Square to the area surrounding the presidential palace in Cairo, are persistently demanding that Morsi call off the referendum.

The president's opponents say the draft constitution, which was written by an Islamist-dominated assembly, disregards the rights of women, workers and Christians.

Egyptian expats are due to cast their yes or no vote on Saturday.

"The president is ready to talk with political figures without any preconditions. He is open to the idea of postponing the referendum to reach consensus over the contentious articles," Mekki was quoted as saying by Al-Ahram Arabic website.

"He is ready for that even if it means the constitution will return to the assembly. Saturday's vote for Egyptian expats may also be suspended if opposition political forces accept dialogue without preconditions."

"The president believes (the opposition's) demands cannot be fulfilled without dialogue," Mekki, a one-time reform judge who played a key role in the anti-Mubarak movement before the January 25, added.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Anti-Morsi protesters set up barricades, distribute blankets outside palace
[Al Ahram] Protesters have set up barricades in Marghani Street leading to the presidential palace in the Heliopolis district in Cairo in preparation for a sit-in, according to Al-Ahram Arabic website.

Protesters are distributing blankets to wither[sic] the chilly night in the country's capital.

Rumors about attacks from Moslem Brüderbund supporters keep circulating, said Ahram Online's Bel Trew. Some anti-Morsi protesters formed groups to protect the rally at the presidential palace against "possible attacks."

Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact...
reinforced vehicles of the Central Security Forces are surrounding the Brotherhood supporters congregating at in Naser City's Raba El-Adawiya Mosque, three miles away from the presidential palace.

Some of the officers deployed near the mosque stressed there is no way for the Brotherhood supporters to head towards the presidential palace.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Dutch to Send Patriot Missiles to Turkey-Syria Border
[An Nahar] The Dutch cabinet on Friday gave the go-ahead to sending NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
Patriot missiles to Turkey to defend its border against Syria, along with a maximum 360 soldiers to operate them.

"The cabinet has decided shortly to send two Dutch Patriot batteries to contribute to the protection of our NATO ally Turkey," a government statement said.

The deployment, which comes on the heels of a similar German move, will be initially for one year and the government said the surface-to-air missiles could not be used offensively.

"The aim of the Patriot deployment is not to enforce a no-fly zone or to carry out attacks," Prime Minister Mark Rutte told journalists after the weekly cabinet meeting.

The missiles will arrive in Turkey mid-January, Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis told Dutch news agency Novum.

The exact location for the missiles' deployment will be decided in talks with Turkey, the United States and Germany.

The government statement said a maximum of 360 soldiers would be sent to Turkey to operate the missiles.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  The Dutch cabinet on Friday gave the go-ahead to sending NATO Patriot missiles to Turkey to defend its border against Syria…

Newsflash…Pencil Neck is currently up to his ass in alligators. It makes absolutely no sense, I say NO SENSE, for Assad to attack Turkey. Isn’t there one old ink-stained wretch or some cock sure greenhorn in the media that’s willing to ask…What the fuck are you doing NATO?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 12/08/2012 13:10 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Flood victims still waiting for help
[Dawn] TAUNSA SHARIF: It is difficult to walk around the small piece of land that used to be Laal Khan's home.

Most of his belongings are still buried under piles of mud and earth. The outer rim of a handi sticks out on the right. And a wooden leg piece of a charpai on the left. Khan's family still lives in a tent that Al Khidmat Foundation -- 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...
's charity wing -- handed out in Basti Guhman in district Dera Ghazi Khan.

"They weren't even going to drop by. But we got a personal contact to put in a special request," says Khan. "No government official came, other than the ones who jotted down our names."

"The ones" that Khan is referring to is National Engineering Services Pakistain (NESPAK), the institution entrusted with surveying the flooded areas and recording the numbers of people who have a right to compensation for homes and crops they lost when flash floods hit Punjab, Sindh and 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...
this summer.

The provincial governments plan to hand out compensation once the final list arrives. In the meantime, many hit by the floods have yet to receive basic relief goods -- in the form of food packs, tents, blankets and so on.

"We still need an additional 50,000-70,000 tents before I can safely say that the needs of those affected has been met. Around 150,000-170,000 families needed shelter," says Mir Changez Khan Jamali, Member of the National Assembly (MNA), on behalf of the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) for NA-266, Nasirabad, Balochistan.

"We are hoping to hand out Watan Cards by January. That should give the victims Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000," says Jamali.

The numbers from Sindh paint a similar picture -- 420,000 houses were damaged while NDMA has no numbers available for how many people were displaced from these houses.

All that is known is that 141,843 families are living in relief camps while for the rest, the government has provided only 14,000 tents. Many more may have gotten tents from the NGOs but few numbers are available. This provides a partial but tragic picture of the compensation provided.In other words, either the government has relied on NGOs to provide 75 per cent of the shelter needed for the homes that were partially or fully damaged, or there are still a significant number of Sindh's displaced flood victims who did not receive assistance to provide a shelter to their families.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Same story for 'Hurricane' Sandy.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/08/2012 6:00 Comments || Top||

#2  No money or time for tentage and victuals. The PAK gov't priority must go to perfecting their nuclear arsenal.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 6:07 Comments || Top||

#3  ...and subsidizing their terrorist front men in Kashmir.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/08/2012 9:13 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Japan poised to shoot down Nork missile
The Japanese government has ordered its military to shoot down the missile that is expected to be launched by North Korea as early as Monday. The order to destroy the missile should any part of it threaten to fall onto Japanese territory was issued after a meeting of the Security Council of Japan met and was informed that North Korea has begun filling a fuel tank alongside the launch pad at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in preparation for the launch.

Japan has already deployed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile batteries in Tokyo, as well as in Okinawa and at locations along the northern and western coasts facing the Korean Peninsula. Three Japanese destroyers equipped with the advanced Aegis detect-and-destroy weapons system have been deployed in the Sea of Japan. The US has also stationed warships in the area to monitor the launch.

New satellite images released on Friday indicate that snow may have slowed the preparations, but Pyongyang shouuld still be ready for liftoff starting on Monday.

Pyongyang claims the launch is an attempt to put an earth-observation satellite into orbit. But analysts and foreign governments share the belief that the it is part of North Korea’s development of long-range missiles.

The head of US forces in Japan, Lt. Gen. Salvatore Angelella, said on Thursday that the launch threatens the stability of the region.

“This is a very dangerous situation and we do not support those actions by North Korea,” he said. “We are monitoring the situation closely.”

The government and military forces in South Korea have been placed on heightened alert, while the Philippines has expressed “serious concern” that the missile will violate resolution by the United Nations Security Council and called on Pyongyang “to reconsider its planned launch and abide by these resolutions, which call for the abandonment of its ballistic missile programme in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.”
Posted by: Steve White || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  that would be delicious
Posted by: Frank G || 12/08/2012 9:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Extra style points if they do it with a giant flying robot rather than a stodgy old SM-3.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 13:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Gundam or Macross?
Posted by: borgboy || 12/08/2012 20:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Godzilla can snatch it out of the sky, can't he?
Posted by: Barbara || 12/08/2012 20:24 Comments || Top||

#5  ION DEFENCE PK/FORUMS > [Philippines] CHINA'S "NEW RULE" IN SOUTH CHINA SEAS IS A THREAT TO ALL COUNTRIES - DFA.

* SAME > PHILIPPINES PUTS OFF FOUR-WAY SOUTH CHINA SEA TALKS.

* SAME > VIETNAM SETS UP MARINE UNIT TO PROTECT FISHERMEN, RESOURCES.

RELATED SAME = VIETNAM FISHERY CONTROL FORCES TO JOIN SEA SOVEREIGNTY PROTECTION.

* SAME > [Asia Times] CHINA TO RULE THE SEAS - UNMANNED.

At this rate, "post-US" #1 wannabe Rising China is going to end up as JAPAN II, BUT NOT A GLOBAL SUPERPOWER???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/08/2012 21:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Blast in Quetta injures five: reports
[Dawn] An kaboom destroyed Quetta, the capital of restive 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...
province on Friday evening, injuring at least five people, DawnNews reported.

According to some initial reports by the police, the blast took place at Quetta's Jan Mohammad Road when kaboom planted outside a shop blew up.

Five people were maimed with one at death's door, police said.

The exact nature of the blast could not be ascertained as yet.

This is a developing story and will be updated as reports come in.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Belgium Raises Terror Level ahead of Anti-Islam Film Release
[An Nahar] Belgium on Friday raised its terror threat level to the second-highest ahead of the release of a new home-made film on the Internet next week criticizing the Prophet Mohammed.

Interior Minister Joelle Milquet said the decision by a terror analysis and coordination unit was "a simple preventative measure," taking the level of threat up from two to three out of a maximum of four.

The decision was taken ahead of the release, planned for December 14, of "The Innocent Prophet" which an online trailer says is "from the point of view of an ex-Moslem".

The film is presented as the work of a man living in Spain called Imran Firasat and said to be inspired by "The Innocence of Moslems", a film released in September that triggered a wave of anti-US protests across the Middle East and blamed for more than 30 deaths.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad


Africa North
Egypt's president sends messages of 'compromise' as tens of thousands surround palace
[Al Ahram] 23:40 The Ministry of Interior warned the protests at the presidential palace, held by anti-Morsi demonstrators, and the rally of the president's supporters three miles away could be infiltrated and might spiral "out of control". In a statement issued by its media center, the ministry called on the participants in both congregations to go home "for the sake of the nation."

23:25 The Ministry of Health said 11 people were injured in Friday's protests against the constitutional declaration: three in Cairo at the presidential palace, six at the president's home in Zagazig located in Sharqiya governorate in the eastern Delta, and two in Behaira governorate in the northern Delta.

23:00 Protesters have set up barricades in Marghani Street leading to the presidential palace in the Heliopolis district in Cairo in preparation for a sit-in, according to Al-Ahram Arabic website.

Protesters are distributing blankets to wither the chilly night in the country's capital.

Rumors about attacks from Muslim Brotherhood supporters keep circulating, said Ahram Online's Bel Trew. Some anti-Morsi protesters formed groups to protect the rally at the presidential palace against "possible attacks."

Meanwhile, reinforced vehicles of the Central Security Forces are surrounding the Brotherhood supporters congregating at in Naser City's Raba El-Adawiya Mosque, three miles away from the presidential palace.

Some of the officers deployed near the mosque stressed there is no way for the Brotherhood supporters to head towards the presidential palace.

22:15 Al-Ahram Arabic website reports that hundreds or anti-Morsi demonstrators in the northern coastal city of Alexandria ransacked the governorate's headquarters, expressing anger at the killing of other protesters Thursday at the hands of what they described as "armed militias affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood."
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa Horn
Three Killed in Blast at Nairobi Mosque
[An Nahar] Three people were killed and eight maimed in a blast outside a mosque in the Kenyan capital, the Kenyan Red Thingy and police said Friday.

There were "three fatalities" as well as several maimed, some critical, a Red Thingy official said after the "kaboom near a mosque in Eastleigh", a largely ethnic Somali district of Nairobi.

"We were told that three people have died of injuries from the incident," Nairobi police chief Moses Nyakwama told AFP, "There are eight others in hospital, among them is a member of parliament."

The grenade was hurled at worshipers leaving a popular mosque minutes after the end of the evening prayers. A handful of protesters erupted into the streets soon after the blast but were quickly contained by a heavy police presence.

The Friday evening incident follows a roadside kaboom kaboom also in Eastleigh district on Wednesday evening, that killed one person and maimed eight others, as well as a bomb on a bus last month also in Eastleigh that killed nine.

Eyewitnesses say that police and rescue organizations are currently in the area in a security operation and that residents remain locked up in their houses.

"Three ambulances are in the area. Police are patrolling, many residents have locked themselves in their houses," Joe Chaudhry an area resident told AFP via phone.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Egyptian presidency 'ready' to postpone constitution referendum
[Al Ahram] Egypt's vice-president Mahmoud Mekki read a presidential statement on Friday evening stating that President Mohamed Morsi is ready to postpone the constitution referendum.

However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
"the political forces who demand the delay of the referendum must provide guarantees that there will not be appeals [against the delay] in courts," the statement said.
Last year's constitutional declaration, which was issued by then-ruling military council in March 2011 after a similar referendum, stipulates that a referendum on draft constitution must be held within 15 days of the date at which the president receives the draft from a constituent assembly.

The controversial draft constitution was handed to president Morsi by the outgoing constituent assembly on 1 December and the president set a referendum on the draft for 15 December.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Compare wid DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > MOHAMMED MORSI ANNULS CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM WHICH WOULD HAVE EXPANDED HIS [State]POWER, + Immunity from Judicial oversight.

So let it be written, so let it be done???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/08/2012 21:23 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Shiite Protesters Demand Bahrain PM's Ouster
[An Nahar] Thousands of Shiite demonstrators in a village near the Bahraini capital on Friday demanded the premier's ouster in the first officially sanctioned protest since a ban at the end of October, witnesses said.

"Get out, Khalifa!" they chanted, referring to Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, an uncle of King Hamad
...King of Bahrain (since 14 February 2002), having previously been its emir (from 6 March 1999). He is a Sunni, while the rest of Bahrain is predominantly Shiite...
, who was held the premiership of the Sunni-ruled regime in the Gulf kingdom since 1974.

"We don't want an appointed government, we want a prime minister who serves the people," Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the main Iranian catspawing al-Wefaq, told the crowd.

The gathering was the first to be officially allowed since the end of October when the authorities banned all protests to ensure "security is maintained."
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Afghanistan
Afghan Spy Chief Wounded by Underpants Bomber
[An Nahar] The jacket wallah who tried to assassinate Afghanistan's spy chief detonated a bomb hidden in his underwear, the intelligence agency said Friday.
Right about now that jacket wallah is grateful his attempt succeeded. Life after a semi-successful pantibomb attempt isn't worth thinking about.
Asadullah Khalid, who heads the National Directorate of Security (NDS), was targeted by a bomber posing as a Taliban peace envoy in a spy agency guesthouse in the upscale Kabul district of Taimani on Thursday.

Khalid was maimed in the attack and is now being treated at a U.S.-run military hospital outside Kabul where he is in a stable condition, security sources have said.

On Friday, the NDS said that he was "recovering" and in a "satisfactory" condition.

Investigators found that "the organizers of this suicide kaboom... skilfully placed the explosives in the underpants and around the genitals of the suicide attacker," the spy agency said in a statement.
To much information, guys.
This "runs against all Islamic and Afghani principles", it added.
But turban bombs are universally admired for their cleverness.
It is believed to be the first time in Afghanistan that a suicide bomber has carried the explosives in his underpants. The tactic was made notorious on Christmas Day 2009 by an al-Qaeda agent who tried to blow up an American airliner.

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was caught while trying to detonate the plastic explosives aboard a flight from Amsterdam to the U.S., is serving life imprisonment. His capture led to even stricter searches in some airports, including scanners which show victims in the nude.

The fact that an assassin was able to get so close to one of Afghanistan's most prominent officials had raised questions about whether the visitor was an insider known to Khalid.

But the revelation that the explosives were hidden in his underpants could also suggest that he might not have been thoroughly searched on that part of his body -- an omission in many security searches in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal visits Gaza for first time
[LA Times] Exiled Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leader Khaled Meshaal set foot in the Gazoo Strip for the first time Friday, emerging from the Egyptian border with his hand over his heart and telling jubilant supporters that his visit marked a new era in the pursuit of Paleostinian independence.

Though Meshaal has led the Islamist thug group since 2004, traveling to its Gazoo-based home was unthinkable just a month ago because of fear that Israel might assassinate him as it did his two predecessors.

But the Nov. 21 cease-fire agreement that ended an eight-day clash with Israel emboldened Meshaal to make a victory lap through the seaside territory, culminating Saturday with an outdoor celebration to mark the group's 25th anniversary.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Maybe the Juices are going to do the old RAF intruder trick.


pls, pls, pls.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/08/2012 6:34 Comments || Top||

#2  a victory lap through the seaside territory, culminating Saturday with an outdoor celebration

Will there be fireworks?
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 9:19 Comments || Top||

#3  hope Mutual of Gaza has to pay a claim soon
Posted by: Frank G || 12/08/2012 15:12 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UN Chief Renews Plea for Syrian Refugee Aid
[VOA News] United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
made an appeal Friday for additional international support for the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled conflict in Syria.

Visiting Syrian refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey, the U.N. chief expressed frustration over the lack of aid for the region's growing humanitarian crisis. With winter now fast approaching and the conflict appearing to be intensifying along with the looming threat of chemical weapons, observers warn that the crisis could become even more dire.

"I therefore call upon and appeal most urgently to the international community, and particularly the countries in this region, to provide on an urgent basis the humanitarian assistance," he said during a stop at Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp along the Syrian border. "We need your caring hands to those helpless people."
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Great, with the UN involved, that aid is sure to go to the intended refugees only, and the aid will never fall into the wrong hands. Excellent idea Banquito!
Posted by: American Delight || 12/08/2012 8:31 Comments || Top||


Assault on Damascus suburbs feared amid raging violence
[Al Ahram] Syria's army sent reinforcements to a rebel town near Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
as festivities raged south of the capital Friday, hours after talks on the conflict between the US, Russia and UN ended without a breakthrough.
Meanwhile,
...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart...
UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
was due to visit Syrian refugees in Turkey before meeting in Ankara with President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, key backers of the revolt against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...

Inside Syria, activists feared a new ground assault on Damascus suburbs where military reinforcements poured in, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The army bombed orchards surrounding Daraya where military reinforcements are heading," said the Observatory, citing activists on the ground.

"Moadamiyet al-Sham was also violently pounded and large reinforcements were deployed apparently to attack the town," said the watchdog which gathers information from a network of activists and medics across the country.

Troops bombarded the southern districts of Damascus.

The outskirts of Damascus are at the heart of the fighting where the regime has launched an operation to reclaim territory within eight kilometres (five miles) of the city.

Analysts say the Assad regime wants to ensure it hold on the capital so that it can be in a position to negotiate a solution to the nearly 21-month conflict.

The Observatory said at least 77 people were killed on Thursday across the country, half of them in Damascus and its suburbs.

Amid the unrelenting violence, a 40-minute meeting in Dublin on Thursday between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edward Stettinius, Jr. ...
, her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and UN-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi ended with with "no sensational decisions".

Brahimi said all three agreed the situation was "very, very, very bad" in Syria, amid growing concern the conflict may take a gruesome new turn and see the regime unleash chemical weapons.

The three discussed "how we can work out hopefully a process that will get Syria back from the brink," said Brahimi.

A US State Department official said it was "a constructive discussion" and that the "next step will be a meeting in the next few days between special envoy Brahimi and bigwigs from the United States and Russia to discuss the specifics of taking this work forward".

Clinton told news hounds shortly before the talks: "We have been trying hard to work with Russia to stop the bloodshed in Syria and start a political transition toward a post-Assad Syrian future".

The three-way talks took place on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

It is likely the United States will move towards recognising the opposition National Coalition, set up in Qatar early last month, as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people at the meeting.

La Belle France last month became the first Western nation to do so.

The coalition suffered its first major setback on November 19, when Syria's jihadist Al-Nusra Front announced its refusal to recognise it.

Unknown before the start of the popular uprising in Syria in March 2011, Al-Nusra has grabbed credit for the majority of suicide kabooms that have rocked the country this year.

On Thursday, the US State Department 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 rising influence of fundamentalist groups in Syria, including Al-Nusra, which is said to have ties to Al-Qaeda.

"Although they make up a relatively small part of the opposition to Assad, we know that these groups, Al-Qaeda and their ilk, try to take advantage of exactly the kind of environment that Assad has fostered over the last year or so," front man Mark Toner said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [WND.com] RUSSIA ARMS SYRIA WID POWERFUL BALLISTIC MISSLES, after NATO'S formal decision to give PATRIOTS to Turkey.

"ISKANDER" SSMS wid 1500-lb Warheads.

and

* SAME > [Independent.UK] ARAB STATES ARM SYRIAN REBELS AS UN TALKS OF SYRIAN CIVIL WAR.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/08/2012 21:36 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Sunday Morning Coffee Pot: Mexico's PRI faces life competing to advance its agenda


Two national security initiatives were presented to the Mexican Chamber of deputies last week but only one, a proposal submitted by former president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa in 2009, managed to gain any support in the evenly split legislature.

Out of power for 12 years, and even with a freshly minted president in Enrique Pena Nieto, Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) politicians are facing the hard reality of having to form ad hoc coalitions to advance its legislative agenda, and the sobering possibility their numbers may well dwindle in the 2015 federal midterm elections.

On Rantburg's Sunday Morning Coffee Pot, Rantburg.com and Borderlandbeat.com correspondent Chris Covert examines the politics.
Posted by: badanov || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Egyptian opposition to shun Mursi's national dialogue
[Reuters] Prime Minister Mohamed Mursi was expected to press ahead on Saturday with talks on ways to end Egypt's worst crisis since he took office even though the country's main opposition leaders have vowed to stay away.
If only one side shows up for the dialogue it's a monologue.
Cairo and other cities have been rocked by violent protests since November 22, when Mursi promulgated a decree awarding himself sweeping powers that put him above the law.

The upheaval in the most populous Arab nation, following the fall of Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
last year, worries the West, in particular the United States, which has given it billions of dollars in military and other aid since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979.

Mursi's deputy raised the possibility that a referendum set for December 15 on a new constitution opposed by liberals might be delayed. But the concession only goes part-way towards meeting the demands of the opposition, who also want Mursi to scrap the decree awarding himself wide powers.
If Mursi keeps the power, the constitution is optional...
On Friday, large crowds of protesters surged around the presidential palace, breaking through barbed wire barricades and climbing on tanks guarding the seat of Egypt's first freely elected president, who took office in June.

As the night wore on, tens of thousands of opposition supporters were still at the palace, waving flags and urging Mursi to "Leave, leave".
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
U.S. Diplomat Hopes Song Can Win over Pakistan
[An Nahar] A US official is taking a novel approach to diplomacy in Pakistain -- singing in a local language to build bridges in one of the world's most dangerous countries, where anti-Americanism runs rampant.
"If I had a hammer [KABANG!]"
Shayla Cram, a public diplomacy officer assigned to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, the gateway to al-Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in the northwestern tribal belt, has not only learnt Pashto but has penned her own Pashto-style song.
"Mahmoud, what's 'blowin' in the wind' mean?"
"I dunno, Ahmed. Dammit! She won't hold still long enough to draw a bead on her!"
"Maybe we should use a cycle of violence?"

"Jenaiy," which means "girl," is a tribute to Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting education for girls.
"Where the hell's my detonator?"
"Hurry, Mahmoud! She won't stop!"

It features Cram on guitar and vocals and a Pak musician on the rabab -- a traditional stringed instrument -- and urges girls to have hope for the future and pursue their dreams.
"No! Not 'Kumbaya' again!"
"Please, Allah! Make her leave on a jet plane!"

"There's definitely need in Pakistain to encourage maidens of tender years and females in their education and leadership, to make them young leaders, and that's the basic message of my song," Cram told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"That's why they pay me $125,000 a year! Plus per diem!"
Women in Pakistain, particularly in northwestern rural areas, are frequently treated as second-class citizens,
...optimist...
subjected to horrific violence in the name of family "honor," and denied education.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought the headline was a joke.

Nope! Never underestimate the U.S. State Department.
Posted by: gromky || 12/08/2012 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  We can always put external speakers and a sound module on the killbots.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 1:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Homeopathic waste of time, but if it makes you feel better.....
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 1:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Are we sure this isn't the Onion?
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 12/08/2012 5:34 Comments || Top||

#5  playlist suggestions:
"Its a Small World After All."
"Sesame Street Theme"

feel free to add your personal faves...
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 12/08/2012 9:58 Comments || Top||

#6  This one might work
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/08/2012 10:30 Comments || Top||

#7  I doubt we could use "It's a Small World," Ret.

Every nation on earth (including ours) would consider that torture.


Maybe we could use it at Gitmo ....?
Posted by: Barbara || 12/08/2012 12:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Mr Rogers Its a beautiful day in the neighbourhood. Na not female forceful enough How about nancy Sinatra These Boots are Made for Walking?
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 12/08/2012 12:25 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm waiting for the wave of B-52s dropping paper Chukars...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/08/2012 13:30 Comments || Top||

#10  Not tourtière if not a Geneva conv signatory. But amnesty into or useless nations might bitch a bit. Extra points
Posted by: USN,ret || 12/08/2012 16:10 Comments || Top||

#11  Puff the Magic Dragon?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/08/2012 18:27 Comments || Top||

#12  Puff the Magic Dragon?

More formally known as the AC-47 gunship, eh?
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 18:41 Comments || Top||

#13  Yes! Because bad whiney hippie songs have always ensured world peace and understanding amongst sworn enemies (sarc/off)
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/08/2012 19:25 Comments || Top||

#14  paX- Factor?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/08/2012 22:21 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Ghad Party reports Egypt's Morsi postpones constitution referendum
[Al Ahram] Hossam Ali Ahmed, secretary-general of the Ghad El-Thawra Party led by 2005 presidential candidate Ayman Nour, announced on his Twitter account that the presidential office has agreed to postpone the expatriate voting processions on the draft constitution from Saturday 8 December to Wednesday 12 December, which was the party's condition before accepting negotiations with President Morsi.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Europe
Ukraine Opposition Names Tymoshenko its Presidential Candidate
[An Nahar] Ukraine's main opposition alliance Friday named imprisoned ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko, who recently staged a hunger strike protest, as its candidate for president in the 2015 elections.

The decision was reached at a congress of opposition leaders including members of Tymoshenko's party and that of ex-parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the alliance said in a statement.

"Yulia Tymoshenko has shown that she holds European and democratic values, that she is capable of the fight," Yatsenyuk said in the statement.

Tymoshenko last month staged a two-week hunger strike to protest against alleged fraud in parliamentary elections won by the party of arch rival President Viktor Yanukovych, to whom she lost the presidential poll in 2010.

The former prime minister is serving a seven-year sentence for abuse of power while in office. Her conviction in October last year sharply worsened Ukraine's ties with the West and exposed Yanukovych to accusations he was persecuting political opponents.

Her supporters believe she will ultimately be released from prison through a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

"We are waiting in the next few months a decision by the ECHR," in the case brought by the opposition, Yatsenyuk told Interfax, adding: "I hope it will free Yulia Tymoshenko."

Tymoshenko insists she is a champion of Ukraine's integration with the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
but critics have accused her of ruthless pragmatism, changing her beliefs with the political winds.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Campaign advice - don't drink tea...
Posted by: Raj || 12/08/2012 10:47 Comments || Top||


Germany Charges Man with Spying on Moroccan Dissidents
[An Nahar] German federal prosecutors said Friday they had brought charges against a German-Moroccan national on suspicion of spying for Rabat against opposition members.

The federal prosecutor's office said the 59-year-old suspect identified only as Bagdad A. was believed to have worked as an agent for the Moroccan secret services in Germany from May 2007 to February this year.

"The accused has a broad network of contacts among Moroccans living in Germany," it said in a statement.

"In 2007, he told the Moroccan foreign intelligence service he was willing to use his contacts to provide information about Moroccan opposition members living in Germany."

It said he remained in "constant" contact with his employers until February this year and informed them in particular about demonstrations held by opposition groups.

A front man for the prosecutors said the man was not currently in jug but that the authorities had determined there was little risk of flight as his family lived in Germany.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Jamaat attacks cops again: 8 injured in 2 districts
[Bangla Daily Star] Eight more coppers, including an assistant commissioner and an OC, were maimed during attacks on them by Jamaat-Shibir activists at Pirojpur and Rajshahi towns yesterday.

The law enforcers locked away
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
25 activists from both towns in connection with their alleged involvement in the attacks.

Six coppers including the officer-in-charge (OC) of Pirojpur Sadar Police Station were maimed during a clash between Jamaat-Shibir activists and law enforcers in front of a mosque of Sayeedi Foundation on bypass road.

Police and witnesses said around 200 activists of Jamaat-Shibir gathered in front of the mosque after performing their Juma prayers to hold a rally demanding release of Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi
...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami...
and other party leaders.

On information, police rushed to the spot and tried to disperse the activists. Jamaat-Shibir men, divided into several groups, swooped on the police with sticks and other sharp weapons.

A wrangle between the activists and police led to a chase and counter chase in the area. Jamaat-Shibir supporters threw brickbats at police, prompting the law enforcers to charge batons, fire four rounds of tear shells and 20 rubber bullets.

Police arrested three activists--Hafez Hafizur Rahman, Mustak Ahmed and Sirajul Islam--from the spot, reports our correspondent in Barisal.

A case would be filed against the activists on charge of attacking the law enforcers, said N M Murshid, acting superintendent of police of the district.

In Rajshahi, a police constable was stabbed allegedly by Jamaat-Shibir activists while an assistant commissioner of police came under attack by locals during his attempt to nab the activists at Dharampur early yesterday.

The injured coppers are constable Shariful Islam of Motihar Police Station, and Assistant Commissioner (AC) Abul Hasnat of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP).

RMP Commissioner SM Moniruzzaman blamed Jamaat and Shibir activists for launching the pre-planned attacks on both coppers.

Police arrested 22 activists of Jamaat-Shibir for their alleged involvement in the incidents, reports our staff correspondent in Rajshahi.

Quoting Shariful, police officials said a gang of six to seven people swooped on Shariful while he was going to join his duty as a guard at Bangladesh Betar Transmission Tower at Binodpur around 2:00am.

Nayek Romesh Kumar Ghosh said they dragged Shariful to a roadside tree and stabbed him indiscriminately after knocking him down on the ground.

Hearing Shariful's scream, other coppers rushed to the spot and the attackers fled through the orchards of the Radio tower garden, he added.

Stabbed severely in the legs, the constable was first taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital and later shifted to National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Dhaka for better treatment.

Later AC Hasnat along with a police team went to Binodpur around 4:00am to nab the suspected attackers -- Sabuj and Rajib.

As the police members raided their house, its female members swooped on Hasnat with sharp weapons.

Sabuj and Rajib fled through the bamboo fence of their house when coppers were busy in the tussle with their family members, police said.

Rajib's mother Shahar Banu and aunt Motijan Begum were maimed as police charged baton on them. They were undergoing treatment at RMCH.

RMP Commissioner Moniruzzaman said "It is undoubtedly the work of Jamaat-Shibir activists as the injured police members had no involvement in any local affairs."

"The attempts on their lives were similar to the recent attacks on police by Jamaat-Shibir men," he added.

Sanaul Haque, officer-in-charge of Motihar Police Station, said two cases were filed in connection with the incidents.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Jordan Fires Back after Syria Bullet Hits Soldier
[An Nahar] A stray bullet fired from inside Syria maimed a Jordanian soldier on the border on Friday, prompting the kingdom's army to respond to the source of fire, an armed forces front man said.

"The border area in Tel Shehab has in the past few hours witnessed heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or desultory fighting...
between the Syrian (regime) army and the Free Syrian Army," he said in a statement carried by the state-run Petra news agency.

"Shells and bullets fell on Jordanian territory. A stray bullet hit Jordanian soldier Oday Hussein Momani in the shoulder."

Momani was taken to hospital "and now he is in good condition."

"Jordan's armed forces have been exercising self-restraint despite indiscriminate fire from unknown sources inside Syria," the front man added.

"This time, however, and in an act of self-defense, the army used a suitable response to the source of fire. The army will not hesitate in the future to take all necessary measures to defend Jordanian territory and border."
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Arabia
Yemen Foils Prison Break by 25 Qaida Convicts
[An Nahar] Yemeni guards foiled an attempted prison break by 25 al-Qaeda convicts on Friday, some of them some considered as high risk, a security official said.

"The guards from Aden central prison foiled an escape attempt with the discovery of an eight meter (yard) long tunnel dug by the 25 detainees," the official told AFP.

"Another two meters and the tunnel would have reached a market near the prison" in the Mansura district of Yemen's main southern city, he added.

The detainees included "some dangerous elements who were to be transferred to Sanaa," the official said.

Aden prison houses many suspected or convicted members of al-Qaeda which has been particularly active in the south and southeast of Yemen.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Africa North
Egypt protesters break through barrier around Morsi's palace
[Dawn] More than 10,000 protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi swarmed the square in front of his Cairo palace on Friday evening, breaking through barbed wire barriers protecting the compound.

A cordon of soldiers prevented the crowd from nearing the palace's main gate, but elsewhere protesters sprayed graffiti on the outside walls, telling Morsi to "Go" and leave power, AFP correspondents at the scene said.

There was no visible violence, but tensions were high after festivities at the same spot on Wednesday between pro- and anti-Morsi supporters left seven people dead and more than 600 injured.

Several army tanks were stationed in the square and nearby but made no movement against the protesters, some of whom clambered atop them to declare the army was "hand in hand" with them.

That was reminiscent of the popular uprising that ousted long-time president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
early last year, when tanks stood idle amid massive protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, as protesters mixed with soldiers.

The crowd also shouted "We want to see the fall of the regime", a slogan common during the anti-Mubarak revolt.

The increasingly strident calls for Morsi to step down followed an address on Thursday in which the president dismissed demands he give up sweeping new powers he decreed for himself two weeks ago and postpone a December 15 referendum on a constitution drafted by a panel of Islamic oriented allies.

Leaders of the main opposition group, the National Salvation Front, rebuffed a grudging offer from Morsi to talk with them about the political crisis his decisions have triggered.

Both Morsi's Islamic backers and the largely secular opposition have dug in their heels in the confrontation, raising the prospect of further escalation.

In his speech, Morsi sought to portray elements of the opposition as "thugs" allied to remnants of Mubarak's regime.

The Front shot back, accusing the president of "dividing Egyptians between his 'supporters of legitimacy'... and his opponents."
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  In his speech, Morsi sought to portray elements of the opposition as "thugs" allied to remnants of Mubarak's regime.

We refer to them as "Bible thumping, gun totters, teabaggers and racists" here. Same dictatorial slander however.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 5:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Several army tanks were stationed in the square and nearby but made no movement against the protesters, some of whom clambered atop them to declare the army was "hand in hand" with them.
To quote the hero of Wonder Years.... "and there you have it"
Posted by: Shipman || 12/08/2012 6:21 Comments || Top||

#3  When the tank turrets are rotated toward the first and second floor windows of the palace... it's generally a bad sign, a very bad sign.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 6:25 Comments || Top||


Protesters Encircle Morsi Palace
[An Nahar] Thousands of protesters broke through a barbed-wire perimeter protecting the Cairo palace of President Mohamed Morsi on Friday, as his vice-president hinted at a possible compromise aimed at calming the seething crisis dividing Egypt.

A cordon of soldiers prevented the crowd from nearing the palace's main gate, but elsewhere protesters sprayed graffiti on the outside walls saying "Leave, Morsi" and "Down with the Moslem Brüderbund," the movement from which Morsi hails, Agence La Belle France Presse correspondents at the scene said.

There was no visible violence. But tensions were high after bloody festivities at the same spot on Wednesday between supporters and opponents of Morsi left seven people dead and more than 600 injured.

Several army tanks were stationed in the square and nearby but made no movement against the protesters, some of whom clambered atop them to declare the army was "hand in hand" with them.

That was reminiscent of the popular uprising that ousted long-time president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
early last year, when tanks stood idle amid massive protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, as protesters mixed with soldiers.

The crowd also shouted "We want to see the fall of the regime" -- a slogan common during the anti-Mubarak revolt.

The increasingly strident calls for Morsi to step down followed an address on Thursday in which the president dismissed demands he give up sweeping new powers he decreed for himself two weeks ago and postpone a December 15 referendum on a constitution drafted by a panel of Islamist allies.

Late Friday, however, Egypt's vice-president, Mahmoud Mekki, told AFP that Morsi "could accept to delay the referendum" on the draft constitution but only if the opposition guaranteed it would launch no legal challenge to the decision.

Under Egyptian law, a president is compelled to hold a referendum two weeks after formally being delivered its text.

Mekki's suggestion implied Morsi might be seeking a way to de-escalate the crisis.

On Thursday, Morsi had offered to hold talks with the opposition, but the main opposition bloc, the National Salvation Front, rebuffed the offer, accusing Morsi of "dividing Egyptians between his 'supporters of legitimacy'... and his opponents."

The opposition sees Morsi's decree as a brazen power grab, and the draft constitution as an attempt to quash Egypt's secular underpinnings in favor of Islamic aspirations.

Demonstrators on Cairo's streets said they were determined to stop Morsi.

"Before the violence, I just wanted Morsi to repeal his decree and cancel the referendum. But now that blood has been spilt, he has to go," said Sahar al-Shazli, 27, a veil covering her face.

"Morsi won't back down and neither will we," said Sharif Qasem, a demonstrator outside the palace. "Those who are steadfast the longest will win."

But determination flashed just as brightly among those backing the president.

Late Friday, police fired tear gas at hundreds of Islamist protesters, mostly hardline Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
, who tried storming the Cairo studios of private Egyptian television channels critical of Morsi's supporters.

Prominent Salafist leader Hazim Abu Ismail had called for the demonstrations on his Twitter and Facebook accounts in order to "cleanse the media" of reporting they see as biased against the Islamists' cause.

At a Cairo funeral on Friday for several of the seven people killed this week and said to be Moslem Brüderbund members, Morsi supporters dismissed the public protests against the president.

"All the people are with us, with the (draft) constitution," said one Brotherhood supporter attending the service in the Al-Azhar mosque.

That unquestioning backing was not shared by Egypt's top Islamic body, which on Thursday called on Morsi to suspend the decree.

The United States and European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
have called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.

And on Friday, U.N. human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
chief Navi Pillay criticized the draft constitution and "the way the process has been short-circuited," saying "people are right to be very concerned."

She highlighted the proposed charter's perceived weaknesses in upholding human rights and gender equality, the primacy of Islamic sharia law in the text and its potential to give the president "excessive power" over the judiciary.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  "All the people are with us, with the (draft) constitution," said one Brotherhood supporter attending the service in the Al-Azhar mosque.

Something of an electoral mandate? I seem to recall having recently heard that in other, unrelated local news as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 6:42 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Meshaal Hopes to Become Gaza 'Martyr'
[An Nahar] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leader in exile Khaled Meshaal made his first visit to Gazoo on Friday, kissing the ground and saying he hoped he would one day die a "martyr" in the Paleostinian territory.
I would like that too, let's schedule it. Does tomorrow sound good?
After his seven-vehicle convoy swept across the border from Egypt, Meshaal got out and kissed Paleostinian soil before embracing Gazoo's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.

Green Hamas flags and the red, white, green and black of the Paleostinian flag were everywhere to mark the unprecedented visit which was timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Islamist movement.

Meshaal was accompanied by his deputy Mussa Abu Marzuk and other brass hats on a trip which came just two weeks after the end of a deadly confrontation with Israel, which began on November 14 with an Israeli air strike that killed Hamas military commander Ahmed Jaabari.

Shortly after his arrival, Meshaal was taken to see the charred remains of Jaabari's car, which had been transported to Rafah especially for the visit.

"I hope God will make me a martyr on the land of Paleostine in Gazoo," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Let's hope we get to watch it on YouTube.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  After his seven-vehicle convoy swept across the border from Egypt,

Somewhere an IDF drone operator watched his screen and wept openly.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 1:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Why dont he live in Gaza then?

Talk is cheap.Coward.
Posted by: Shinert de Medici2790 || 12/08/2012 9:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Hamas leader vows never to recognize Israel

well that's that. No need for further negotiations. Raze the joint. Salt the Earth
Posted by: Frank G || 12/08/2012 15:40 Comments || Top||


Africa North
ElBaradei Gives Conditions for Talks in Egypt
[An Nahar] A prominent opposition leader on Friday stressed preconditions for any dialogue with President Mohamed Morsi to ease Egypt's dire political crisis, notably that Morsi postpone a referendum on a new constitution.

Mohamed ElBaradei
Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee.
, a former U.N. atomic agency chief and Nobel peace prize winner, also called on Morsi to "repeal the decree" announced two weeks ago giving him sweeping new powers, saying "he can do this immediately, tonight."

"If Morsi takes these steps, I know there will be a way, through dialogue and mutual understanding, for all of Egypt, Islamic and Christian, to sit together," ElBaradei said in a televised address on a private satellite channel.

"I know there will be a response from all sides," he added, after more than 10,000 Morsi opponents descended on the presidential palace in Cairo calling for Morsi to step down.

Egypt's worst crisis since Morsi's election in June has seen violent festivities this week between his allies and foes which have killed seven people and injured more than 600.

ElBaradei appealed for calm and urged that protests remain peaceful.

"I call on everyone not to enter bloody battles. We cannot allow Egyptian blood to be split again and must find a peaceful way out of this crisis," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Economy
Federal Government Borrowed 46 Cents Of Every Dollar It Has Spent
[Washington Times] The federal government borrowed 46 cents of every dollar it has spent so far in fiscal year 2013, which began Oct. 1, according to the latest data the Congressional Budget Office released Friday.

The government notched a $172 billion deficit in November, and is already nearly $300 billion in the hole through the first two months of fiscal year 2013, underscoring just how deep the government's budget problems are as politicians try to negotiate a year-end deal to avoid a budgetary "fiscal cliff."

Higher spending on mandatory items such as Social Security, Medicare and interest on the debt led the way in boosting spending compared with the previous year, which also highlights the trouble spots Congress and President B.O. are struggling to grapple with.

All sides agreed to discretionary spending cuts and automatic spending cuts last year, but have been unable to agree on ways to control entitlement costs, which are the long-term drivers of deficits and debt.

Fiscal year 2013 began on Oct. 1 and so far the government has spent $638 billion and taken in just $346 billion in revenue.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It should be relatively easy for a government teetering on bankruptcy to completely default to a "needs based" entitlement strategy. "Needs" of course, as defined by the government and the IRS. It's really only fair, and an obvious extension of what has already been going on discreetly for decades. I doubt the chronically unemployed living in urban America will object to the imposed emptying of my 401k and stock portfolio, prior to my receiving Medicare or Social Security.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  No, Besoeker, they will nationalize our 401(k)s, IRAs & pensions FIRST, then 'give' us SS & Medicare.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/08/2012 6:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Obama and his minions sure have a misguided notion of what paying one's "fair share" means. Maybe we should be talking about large scale theft of personal property and belongings instead of the phrase "paying one's fair share."
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/08/2012 10:24 Comments || Top||

#4  It's really for your own Glenmore. Who better to invest your money than a treasury headed by a tax cheat, a DOJ headed by a racist and gun-runner, and a President who firmly believes he really is the chosen one?

And you're only be given SS if you really need it and medicare will be replaced by Obamacare (and you get that only if the death panels think you are worthy).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/08/2012 11:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Anyone here have change for a trillion dollar bill? The soda dispenser won't make change.
Posted by: Perfesser || 12/08/2012 11:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Glenmore ... my theory is that there are certain lines that the Gov't cannot cross in this unfloding financial breakdown. These include: (1) Nationalizing peoples' 401K's and retirement plans, (2) Seizing specific assets like land, hard cash, and gold. If the difference between private property and public property gets eroded too far - we will see a major breakdown in our society.
Posted by: Raider || 12/08/2012 11:58 Comments || Top||

#7  I certainly hope you are correct Raider, but most of the available evidence and trend analysis does not appear to support your theory.

Gunshot injuries which do not strike a vital organ seldom result in immediate death. Death comes from blood loss and hypovolemic traumatic shock. We're simply being bled to death.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 12:36 Comments || Top||

#8  Arrow trauma vs high-powered bullet trauma.

Excellent analogy, Besoeker.
Posted by: no mo uro || 12/08/2012 13:33 Comments || Top||

#9  there are certain lines that the Gov't cannot cross in this unfloding financial breakdown. These include: (1) Nationalizing peoples' 401K's and retirement plans

Of course not. Printing money is so much easier---of course, the result...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/08/2012 14:24 Comments || Top||

#10  This was written in '09 and seems to be spot on. Then Dems controlled Congress and their prognosis for a tax rate hike seemed inevitable. However as the Dems lost Congress a spanner was thrown in the works. So they need Boehner to cave for their schemes to work.
"If the Obama administration holds to the recent practice of U.S. politicians of keeping near the lower margin, the expected national debt burden for 2011 of 2.9 indicates that the top marginal income tax rate will increase to roughly 44-45%. Given the President's political party's current large majority in the U.S. Congress, it is possible that tax rates could go much higher. The tax rate corresponding to the central curve for the national debt burden expected in 2011 is 67-68%."
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 20:07 Comments || Top||

#11  "Given the President's political party's current large majority in the U.S. Congress"

Huh?

Somebody's very bad at plain ol' arithmetic.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/08/2012 20:27 Comments || Top||

#12  Yokay, I'll bite, I thought it was $0.52 per dollar???

WELL SON, AHZ EZ CONFUSED.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/08/2012 21:00 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Newsweak fires 50 on editorial side
Guess they couldn't lash the two lifeboats together... Newsweak and the Daily Beast are also going to a metered paywall. Pretty soon you'll have to pay for the privilege of reading Meghan McCain and Andrew Sullivan beat conservatives over the head for being conservative.
It's got to be a sad day at the Newsweek Daily Beast Co., where the layoffs that have been expected since the company announced it would fold the dead-tree edition of Newsweek have begun.

The staff got an email at lunchtime today from editor in chief Tina Brown and CEO Baba Shetty notifying them that editorial staffers would learn if their positions are being eliminated.

The company announced in October that it would take Newsweek digital-only in 2013--it's expected to lose $40 million this year, mostly from the newsmagazine--ending a costly experiment to combine the weekly publication and online upstart into a profitable entity.

Meantime, it's exploring the possibility of moving the Daily Beast to a metered access model, à la The New York Times, Adweek has learned.
Posted by: badanov || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Layoffs make sense, given how much redundancy there is at Newsweak. After all, most of their writing and editing is done by the Obama press secretary's office anyway - they just rephrase the talking points and reprint them.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/08/2012 0:02 Comments || Top||

#2  True OS and interns can easily do that edit.
Posted by: tipover || 12/08/2012 0:44 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm surprised Newsweak still had 50 employees.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 1:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Fired from Newsweek. Wear it like the badge of honor it is!
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 6:30 Comments || Top||

#5  ... somehow I don't think the HR dept at the Peoples Workers Daily will be impressed. Maybe the Pennysaver.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/08/2012 9:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Now Tina & Baba can get their big bonuses for cutting costs.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/08/2012 9:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Just before Christmas, too. Typical of the cold, bourgeois matriarchial corporate power structure!
Posted by: Raj || 12/08/2012 10:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Lifeboats? More like rocks; you can tie them together but they still won't float.
Posted by: DoDo || 12/08/2012 11:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Who?
Posted by: Barbara || 12/08/2012 12:07 Comments || Top||

#10  How long before Tina and Baba Shetty get fired too?

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/08/2012 12:52 Comments || Top||

#11  FORWARD!!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/08/2012 13:28 Comments || Top||

#12  What - they couldn't wait two weeks?
Posted by: Pappy || 12/08/2012 13:35 Comments || Top||

#13  Wasn't Baba Shetty a character in one of the Star Wars movies?
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 13:37 Comments || Top||

#14  COMRADE! STOP THE PRESSES!
Posted by: Shipman || 12/08/2012 18:35 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Leb: Army Units Deploy in Tripoli as Clashes, Sniper Fire Renew at Night
[An Nahar] Army units continued their deployment in the northern city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
on Friday as they requested the residents to cooperate with them in informing them of any suspicious activity in the area.

The Army Command had described the last round of fighting on Thursday night as the worst the city had seen in years.

It added that its units were deploying in the neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen, Bab al-Tabbaneh, and others that had witnessed festivities.

It is seeking to contain any armed presence in the city and restore calm and stability in Tripoli, added the statement.

But despite the army's measures, festivities and sniper activity renewed as night fell on the northern city.

"Four shells fell between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh amid heavy gunfire," LBCI television reported.

Ans OTV said "fierce festivities" erupted between the rival districts as state-run National News Agency said "several shells landed in Tripoli's Syria Street and near al-Nasseri Mosque and Souk al-Qameh."

The Army Command revealed that it had raided on Thursday night the resting places of various gunnies involved in the fighting, succeeding in arresting a number of suspects and seizing several weapons and military equipment.

In addition, it said that some army centers were subject to sniper attacks, which maimed seven soldiers and caused material damage to some military vehicles.

The soldiers' injuries are not serious, it stressed.

It urged the residents of Tripoli "to cooperate fully with the army", warning them of the possibility of the gunnies of using them as human shields.

Tripoli had witnessed its fiercest night of fighting in years along the Bab al-Tabbaneh, Qobberh, Jabal Mohsen, Rifa, al-Baqqar, and Mankoubin neighborhoods.

Twelve people were killed and over 75 were maimed in the latest round of festivities that erupted in Tripoli over the weekend in light of news that Lebanese fighters had been killed in an ambush in the Syrian border town of Tall Kalakh on November 30.

The fighters, who mainly hail from the North and were seeking to fight alongside the Syrian opposition, were killed in an ambush by Syrian regime forces.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Tunisia President Denounces North Africa Arms Trafficking
[An Nahar] Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki has denounced arms trafficking in North Africa since the fall of Libyan dictator Muammar Qadaffy
...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years until he was ejected from the gene pool by his indignant citizens...
, a particular source of concern given the current strife in Mali.

The Qadaffy "regime accumulated weapons, and now some are in the hands not only of Islamists from Libya, but also from Algeria and Tunisia," Marzouki said in an interview with The World Today, edited by London-based think tank Chatham House.

"The danger now is that all these guys will go to Mali and train and make a holy war like in Afghanistan, and then they will come back to Tunisia. Our main foreign policy challenge for the next three years is to restore order to Mali."

Mali has been in turmoil since three Islamist groups, among them al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, seized control of the country's north after a coup in March, and Tunisia backs a political solution to the conflict.

In an interview appearing in the December-January issue of the magazine, Marzouki spoke about an attack on the U.S. embassy in Tunis by hardline Islamists known as Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
"This attack was a surprise for me and the government. We didn't realize how dangerous and violent these Salafists could be," he said, explaining that the interior minister had thought it would be just another of many rallies.

"We saved the life of the U.S. ambassador by sending the presidential guard; but the image of Tunisia was badly damaged in the United States and in Europe."

Marzouki insisted that Salafists in Tunisia are "a tiny minority within a tiny minority. They don't represent society or the state."

While arguing that they "cannot be a real danger to society or to government," he said "they can be very harmful to the image of the government."

He also downplayed growing concerns in the Western world that Islam and democracy are incompatible.

"We cannot talk about Islam as a religion in this context. We have to talk about Islamism as a political trend rooted in Islam," he argued.

"Islamism is a very wide spectrum, going from the Taliban to (Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan. We have the good fortune in Tunisia to have the central part of the spectrum in the form of the Ennahda movement," which rules Tunisia in a three-party coalition.

"The worst mistake is to consider Islamism as monolithic. It is not. You probably know that now the worst enemy for Ennahda are the Salafists."

Marzouki defended his center-left Congress for the Republic's alliance with Ennahda, saying the "center has to hold together. What I really fear is a misunderstanding with the moderate Islamists."

Turning to delays in drafting a new constitution following the revolution that ousted long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali two years ago, Marzouki said there is still disagreement over whether the political system should be presidential or parliamentary.

"We still have a lot of differences between us and Ennahda. And we will need time to discuss the electoral law. This will probably be more difficult than the constitution itself."

Marzouki said he longed for stability in a country where he said the "situation is getting worse by the day."

He said investors, foreign and Tunisian, are waiting for a new constitution and government.

"Without investment and commitment we cannot attack economic issues. We have to hurry. Otherwise Tunisia will be in a mess."
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa Subsaharan
U.N. Confirms Rapes in DR Congo Unrest
[An Nahar] A probe by members of a U.N. mission confirmed allegations of rape and other abuses by Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
troops as they pulled back from advancing rebels, an official said Friday.

The investigation followed claims that dozens of women were raped by government forces in the town of Minova in eastern DR Congo last month.

The Armed Forces of the DR Congo, known as the FARDC, already face criticism for quickly collapsing as rebels from the M23 group -- which has also been accused of widespread abuses -- advanced in the region.

Members of the U.N. Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) "indicate that several human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
violations including rape and looting were committed by FARD elements," said U.N. deputy front man Eduardo del Buey.

U.N. officials "cannot confirm the reported figure of 72 rapes, but is on the ground conducting further investigation," del Buey said, adding that the mission "expressed serious concern to the Congolese authorities."

The United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
said on Wednesday that U.N. Sherlocks had reported about 70 rapes in the Minova area, but did not say who committed them.

Minova is near the North Kivu scenic provincial capital of Goma, and the army withdrew from Minova after losing Goma to the M23.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Any day now womyn from San Francisco will be going to the Congo and stripping off their cloths in protest of these rapes.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/08/2012 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2  I suspect seeing some of those SF wimmins nekkid would render those African r*pists imp*tent for life.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/08/2012 13:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh! The Imagery, Glenmore!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/08/2012 14:02 Comments || Top||

#4  That's okay, Glenmore.

Handing over a couple of goats ought to fix it.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/08/2012 15:39 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Violence claims eight more lives in Karachi
[Dawn] Eight more people died and at least four injured on Friday as the wave of violence and killings continued 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...
, DawnNews reported.

Sporadic firing by unknown myrmidons took lives of two persons in Machar Colony and Orangi Town's Sabri Chowk areas. A man, identified as Jahanzeb, was killed in Gulshan-e-Maymar's Jhanjhar Goth.

In Manghopir neighbourhood, another man was bumped off also.

Earlier, three bodies were recovered from a rickshaw in Garden's area. Police reports suggest, the rickshaw was stolen from Nabi Bhaksh locality a day ago and the dear departed were kidnapped before being rubbed out. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
reports added, all three men were not identified as yet.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again...
in separate incidents of firing, at least four people were maimed in Clifton, Korangi and Kati Pahari areas.

On the other hand, protests were launched against the killing of Maulana Hassaan Rashid outside the Bloody Karachi Press Club and in New Bloody Karachi's Bilawal Colony. The participants threatened to prolong their protest if the killings of Ulema (holy mans) were not stopped by the authorities.

Moreover, the suspect of Muharram 6 blast in Orangi Town, Attaullah, was presented before the District West Court for identification parade. Two witnesses identified the suspect during the hearing.

It is pertinent to mention that Attaullah was also identified in another court for the blast in Abbas Town area during Muharram.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Eight more people died and at least four injured on Friday"

On Friday, of course--the Muslim day of prayer. Islam is a religion of peace, dontchya know?
Posted by: American Delight || 12/08/2012 8:30 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Brotherhood says 'ready to defend democracy'
[Al Ahram] In a fresh swipe at opponents, the Moslem Brüderbund said they would not let opposition "derail path to democracy."
That word doesn't mean what you think it means...
"The Egyptian people will defend their democratic choice and will not let opposition to derail path to full democracy through intimidation and violence," the group said on its English Twitter feed.

"If opposition is seeking change, only way to do it through ballot box and earning people trust in upcoming elections, so far they've failed miserably."
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  "If opposition is seeking change, only way to do it through ballot box and earning people trust in upcoming elections

You'll know you've arrived at true democracy when 129% of registered voters turn out to vote and the opposition candidate fails to get a single vote. Call it whatever you like. We call it Obamaville.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 1:04 Comments || Top||

#2  MB are no friends of the West.

We must support the opposition like we should in Iran.

It all comes down to Democracy versus Sharia Law.
Posted by: Shinert de Medici2790 || 12/08/2012 9:22 Comments || Top||

#3  And in order to defend democracy we had to flagrently ignore it by giving our guy overwhelming powers and then ramming home our own version of how the country will be run. Nice

This time the non MB have the experience of two "sort of " successes. One against Muberak, the other against the military. They will not stop. and the MB - well, they can be rallied on to go into the breach at any time. Looks like a coal for Xmas for all concerned.
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 12/08/2012 11:22 Comments || Top||

#4  We must support the opposition like we should in Iran.

Bullshit! The so-called “opposition” was never and is never going to pull the levers in Egypt. The MoBro Genie is out of the bottle. Deal with it. Besides, those leftist pricks brand of “Democracy” has nothing to do with Liberty. Trying to be on the “right side of history” is for saps.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 12/08/2012 12:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Besides, those leftist pricks brand of "Democracy" has nothing to do with Liberty.

Leftist theologians vs leftist secularists. What a choice. Sadly, these choices reflect the composition of the Egyptian hoi polloi.
Posted by: Galactic Coordinator Tojo9070 || 12/08/2012 18:36 Comments || Top||


Britain
Former IRA terrorist Martin McGuinness greets Hillary Clinton as she arrives in Ulster
[Daily Mail.Co.UK]
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting date to be kissing. The IRA shared intelligence with the Abwehr (Nazi intelligence service) during WWII. Birds of a feather.... and all that. Nothing is too good for our cousins in the UK, and that's precisely what they'll get from this administration.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I remember Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy thinking Sinn Fein were Trustworthy too.

Posted by: Shinert de Medici2790 || 12/08/2012 9:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey, she swims with the Paleos, why not the IRA too.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/08/2012 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  It's all about benefits. While Britain was paying better benefits than the South, the Unionists could lead against any unification. Then the Celtic Tiger happen and welfare was as good, so things quietened down. Now that the the Celtic Tiger is prone and cutting welfare, it's on again.
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 11:04 Comments || Top||

#5  What is she even doing there? What does she have to do with Ulster? Does the British FM stick his nose into our business?

What is she doing anywhere? What has she accomplished in her term as Secretary of State except to make a fool of herself?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/08/2012 13:38 Comments || Top||

#6  From Wiki, about his ahem alledged Provo activity:

McGuinness has acknowledged that he is a former IRA member but claims that he left the IRA in 1974.[8] He originally joined the Official IRA, unaware of the split at the December 1969 Army Convention, switching to the Provisional IRA soon after. By the start of 1972, at the age of 21, he was second-in-command of the IRA in Derry, a position he held at the time of Bloody Sunday, when 14 civil rights protesters were killed by British paratroopers in the city.[9]

During the Saville Inquiry into the events of that day, Paddy Ward claimed to have been the leader of the Fianna, the youth wing of the IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday. He claimed that McGuinness and another anonymous IRA member gave him bomb parts that morning. He said that his organisation intended to attack city-centre premises in Derry on the same day. In response, McGuinness said the claims were "fantasy", while Gerry O’Hara, a Derry Sinn Féin councillor, stated that he and not Ward was the Fianna leader at the time.[10]

The inquiry concluded that, although McGuinness was "engaged in paramilitary activity" at the time of Bloody Sunday and had probably been armed with a Thompson submachine gun, there was insufficient evidence to make any finding other than they were "sure that he did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire".[11]

McGuinness negotiated alongside Gerry Adams with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Willie Whitelaw, in 1972.

In 1973, he was convicted by the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court, after being caught with a car containing 250 lb (113 kg) of explosives and nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition. He refused to recognise the court, and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. In court, he declared his membership of the Provisional IRA without equivocation: 'We have fought against the killing of our people... I am a member of Óglaigh na hÉireann and very, very proud of it'.[12]

After his release, and another conviction in the Republic for IRA membership, he became increasingly prominent in Sinn Féin, the political wing of the republican movement. He was in indirect contact with British intelligence during the hunger strikes in the early 1980s, and again in the early 1990s.[13] He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont in 1982, representing Londonderry. He was the second candidate elected after John Hume. As with all elected members of Sinn Féin and the SDLP, he did not take up his seat.[14] On 9 December 1982, McGuinness, Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison were banned from entering Great Britain under the Prevention of Terrorism Act by William Whitelaw, by then Home Secretary .[15]

In August 1993, he was the subject of a two part special by The Cook Report, a Central TV investigative documentary series presented by Roger Cook. It accused him of continuing involvement in IRA activity, of attending an interrogation and of encouraging Frank Hegarty, an informer, to return to Derry from a safe house in England. Hegarty's mother Rose appeared on the programme to tell of telephone calls to McGuinness and of Hegarty's subsequent murder. McGuinness denied her account and denounced the programme saying "I have never been in the IRA. I don't have any sway over the IRA".[16]

In 2005, Michael McDowell, the Irish Tánaiste, claimed McGuinness, along with Gerry Adams and Martin Ferris, were members of the seven-man IRA Army Council.[17] McGuinness denied the claims, saying he was no longer an IRA member. Experienced "Troubles" journalist Peter Taylor presented further apparent evidence of McGuinness's role in the IRA in his documentary Age of Terror, shown in April 2008.[18] In his documentary, Taylor alleges that McGuinness was the head of the IRA's Northern Command and had advance knowledge of the IRA's 1987 Enniskillen bombing, which left 11 civilians dead.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/08/2012 14:09 Comments || Top||

#7  Imagine if Canada invaded and occupied the US. What would you do to them.....that's right, of course you would, any way you could.

Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/08/2012 18:32 Comments || Top||

#8  "Imagine if Canada invaded and occupied the US."

Actually, jim, the way things are going with this administration, as long as the Canadians left our guns alone, I think I'd be cool with that. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/08/2012 20:20 Comments || Top||

#9  And Gerry Adams gets an honorable mention.
The IRA tutoring, which was allegedly brokered partly through Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, led to the ANC fighters improving their bombing skills considerably, thanks to the expertise of what Mr Ellis describes as "the world's most sophisticated urban guerrilla force".
Posted by: tipper || 12/08/2012 21:54 Comments || Top||


Europe
German Opposition Launches Bid to Topple Merkel
[An Nahar] Germany's opposition Social Democrats will on Sunday launch their campaign to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom...
next year, throwing their backing behind her former finance minister to challenge her.

Delegates from the center-left SPD party gather in the northern city of Hanover to formally hand Peer Steinbrueck, 65, the unenviable task of beating the hugely popular Merkel, often called the world's most powerful woman.

Steinbrueck's drive for chancellor has started disastrously with a stream of bad press, notably over revelations he had pocketed some 1.25 million euros ($1.63 million) in fees for making speeches at private functions.

And polls show the size of the challenge ahead of him to beat the conservative Merkel, 58, who is riding a wave of personal and party support for her firm approach in the eurozone crisis.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Pakistani Taliban recruiting via Facebook
[Dawn] The Pak Taliban has set up a page on Facebook to recruit enthusiasts to write for a quarterly magazine and to edit video, a front man confirmed Friday.

The Umar Media TTP page, which has more than 270 likes, appears to have been created in September and has just a handful of messages written in English.

"Umar Media is proud to announce online jobs oppertunities (sic)," says the first post on the networking website, written on October 25.

"Job discription (sic) is video editing, translations, sharing, uploading, downloading and collection of required data," it says, giving an email address and asking readers to "plz spread it. This fb account ma be deleted."

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) front man Ehsanullah Ehsan confirmed to AFP by telephone on Friday that the faction was "temporarily" using the page "to fulfill its requirements" before launching its own website.

US-based organization SITE Intelligence Group says the TTP uses Facebook as "a recruitment centre".

"Through its official media arm, Umar Media, the TTP has taken to Facebook to recruit contributors for their media work and the group's forthcoming publication 'Ayah-E-Khilafat' (Sign of the Caliphate)," it said in a statement.

The TTP Facebook page describes the publication as its "official quarterly magazine" and asks writers to submit articles "on (a) topic of your choice", or on jihadi current affairs, history, Islamic movements or the plight of Mohammedans.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Southeast Asia
U.N. Has 'Major Concern' over Myanmar Displaced
[An Nahar] A top U.N. envoy Friday raised concerns about the plight of hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes by unrest in Myanmar, after visiting camps in the country's conflict-hit west and north.

The United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
' humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said almost half a million people are displaced "in need of assistance" in the country, which is opening to the world after nearly half a century of military rule ended last year.

"While it is a time of positive change in the country, humanitarian needs have increased and this is a major concern," said Amos, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

The U.N. said around 115,000 people have fled bloody communal violence between Moslem and Buddhist communities in western Rakhine state, while 75,000 are displaced in Kachin state in the north because of ongoing fighting between ethnic rebels and the army.

A further 300,000 are believed to be unable to return home because of separate conflicts along the country's eastern border with Thailand.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
GHQ attack case: Military court rejects appeals of ex-army men
[Dawn] A military court of appeal on Friday, by rejecting appeals of convicted ex-army men in the GHQ attack case, maintained the punishments awarded in August last year, DawnNews reported.

The military court in Rawalpindi had sentenced to death a former soldier, Aqeel alias Dr Usman, over an attack in 2009 on the Pakistain Army Headquarters (GHQ) and awarded prison terms to the seven others.

The former soldier of the army's medical corps was given the maximum punishment of death while another retired soldier, Imran Siddiq, was awarded life imprisonment.

Three civilians -- Khaliqur Rehman, Mohammad Usman and Wajid Mehmood -- were given life terms while two others, Mohammad Adnan and Tahir Shafiq (both civilians), got eight and seven years jail sentence respectively.

Aqeel was caught injured during the Oct 10, 2009 raid on GHQ by snuffies while the other serviceman and five civilians were found guilty of abetment.

Eleven soldiers had bit the dust in the attack when 10 heavily armed hard boys, wearing boom jackets, stormed the GHQ, holding off commandos for hours.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Arabia
Bahrain Crown Prince Urges Talks with Opposition
[An Nahar] Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa on Friday called on for dialogue with the mainly Shiite Moslem opposition in the Sunni-dominated country, urging them to condemn violence.

"We had our own experience of the so-called Arab Spring last year. It divided the nation, and many wounds are still to be healed," the prince told delegates at the annual Manama Dialogue organized by the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet and strategically situated across the Gulf from Shiite Iran, has experienced unrest since February 2011, when Arab Spring-style protests led by the Shiite majority erupted.

Hundreds of people were jugged
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
when security forces aided by troops from neighboring 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...
crushed the uprising within a month.

The International Federation for Human Rights says 80 people have died in Bahrain since the unrest began.

Salman, considered to be a moderate within the ruling dynasty, spoke after thousands of Shiites in a village near the capital demanded the premier's ouster in the first officially sanctioned protest since a ban at the end of October, witnesses said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
U.N. to Reinforce Golan Heights Force as Syria Troubles Mount
[An Nahar] The United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
is strengthening its force monitoring a ceasefire between Syria and Israel because of the growing threat from the Syria conflict, a top U.N. official said Friday.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said extra armored cars would be sent to the force in the strategic Golan Heights where tensions have escalated in recent months as the civil war spreads.

The unarmed U.N. observers say they have been threatened and have also had to treat Syrian forces following battles with opposition rebels in the demilitarized zone, according to a new report by U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...

Four Austrian members of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has been in the Golan since 1974, were maimed as they drove to Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
airport last week. Syrian and Israeli forces have repeatedly exchanged fire across the ceasefire line.

Canada pulled its small contingent out of UNDOF in September and other contributor countries have raised concerns, diplomats said. Austria, Croatia, India, Japan and Philippines provide the 1,000 troops in the force.

"We take very much to heart the safety and security of our personnel in UNDOF," Ladsous told news hounds.

On top of sending extra armored cars, the force would reinforce its "political analysis capacity," Ladsous said. "We do all this in very close consultations with our troop contributing countries."

The UNDOF countries are to meet next week ahead of the U.N. Security Council's renewal of the force's mandate.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  OK, I realize they are not exactly the one ranger/one riot crowd, but the UN is going to 'reinforce' the Golan with unarmed 'peacekeepers'? If you want them to keep peace, give them guns. Oh, well. At least they'll have "political analysis capacity. Won't *that* be helpful!
Posted by: SteveS || 12/08/2012 13:36 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Obama welcomes Morsi's call for dialogue
[Al Ahram] President Barak Obama has welcomed President Mohamed Morsi's calls for dialogue with opposition figures. During a speech to the nation on Thursday, President Morsi invited all political forces for talks to put an end to the ongoing dispute over his 22 November constitutional declaration and the draft constitution. He said the constitution would be put to a referendum on 15 December as planned.

A White House statement on Thursday said Obama had urged Egyptian opposition leaders to take part in talks with the president without setting pre-conditions.
Posted by: Fred || 12/08/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Interesting comment from a man who won't even talk to his own congress.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/08/2012 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Is Obama realising NOW he chose the wrong side!

Should have supported the secular forces from day one.
Posted by: Shinert de Medici2790 || 12/08/2012 9:36 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
27[untagged]
14Arab Spring
5Govt of Syria
3Govt of Pakistan
2Salafists
2Hamas
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Taliban
1al-Shabaab
1TTP
1Global Jihad
1al-Qaeda in Arabia

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
Comments Spam
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
RSS Links
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio
Sink Trap

Alzheimer's Association
Day by Day
Counterterrorism
Hair Through the Ages







On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-12-08
  Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
Fri 2012-12-07
  6 dead, 450 injured in clashes at Egypt's presidential palace
Thu 2012-12-06
  Two Dead as Egypt Islamists Overrun Opposition Tents
Wed 2012-12-05
  Hundreds of thousands besiege Egypt's presidential palace to protest draft constitution
Tue 2012-12-04
  Syria FM Spokesman 'Defects' from Regime, Leaves Syria
Mon 2012-12-03
  Car bomb in Syria's Homs kills 15: State media
Sun 2012-12-02
  Mullah Nazir orders out Mehsud Taliban fighters
Sat 2012-12-01
  Egypt assembly approves new draft constitution
Fri 2012-11-30
  Damascus fighting cuts off airport, Emirates suspends flights
Thu 2012-11-29
  Bomb injures top Talibunny Mullah Nazir
Wed 2012-11-28
  Packed Tahrir Square defiant as deadlock prevails
Tue 2012-11-27
  30 Inmates Escape as Gunmen Attack Nigerian Police Unit
Mon 2012-11-26
  Syrian Rebels Claim Capture of Helicopter Base Near Damascus
Sun 2012-11-25
  Thousands of anti-Morsi protesters spend the night in Egypt's Tahrir square
Sat 2012-11-24
  7 People Killed in Pakistan Shiite Procession

Better than the average link...



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.
44.221.81.212
Paypal:
WoT Operations (24)    WoT Background (22)    Opinion (2)    (0)    Politix (3)