In an impassioned 80 seconds, MEP Daniel Hannan exposes the structurally rotten "syphilitic core" of a European Union whose existential crisis has now seemingly been pronounced 'over' by those wondrous self-denying members of the European elite. "There is an extraordinary denial going on," the eloquent Englishman expounds as he notes that they still "haven't addressed the fundamental problem," of 'applying a single monetary policy to countries with widely divergent conditions and means' leaving unemployment rising and growth stagnating. He notes that the crisis in one respect is over, the moment of decision of taking one of two paths, is indeed over - and "the squaller, the wretchedness, the unemployment and poverty have now become structural."
U.S. defense officials said a French military campaign against extremist rebels in Mali will be a time-consuming effort, and have yet to decide on specific steps to take in support of the intervention.
While France has carried out airstrikes since last week against Islamist militants in northern Mali, rebels and al Qaeda-aligned groups continued to advance on government-controlled towns.
U.S. officials predicted that the French campaign, with military support from Mali's neighbors, would drive back al Qaeda.
"Our hope is that ultimately they will be able to succeed in establishing better security in Mali," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in Lisbon, on a trip during which he will confer with European allies.
Gen. Carter Ham, the head of U.S. Africa command, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal Tuesday that the French campaign "may prove to be decisive," but that it wouldn't end after a few days of airstrikes.
"My sense is that the French are committed and understand this will not be a short-term campaign," Gen. Ham said.
#3
Bits leaking out now about a Mali junior officer who took the US Army MTT graduation certificate and then went over to AQ. Shades of SGT Doe in Liberia a few years back.
#4
See also WAFF > FRANCE IS PUTTING BOOTS ON THE GROUND, 24-HOUR ]Air] BOMBING CAMPAIGN, RAF FERRIES FRENCH EQUIPMENT | [CBC News] FRANCE WILL DEPLOY 2,500 TROOPS IN MALI, 800 FRENCH SOLDIERS, INCLUDING SPECIAL FORCES, ALREADY IN MALI.
and
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > FRENCH "RAFALE" STRIKES
[+ GAZELLE light combat helos + MIRAGES] OVER MALI | RAFALES HARASS ISLAMIST TERROROIST GROUPS IN MALI.
* SAME > [Guardian.UK] MALIAN REBELS OVERRUN GARRISON TOWN + ADVANCE TOWARDS CAPITAL.
RELATED BHARAT RAKSHAK > MALI MILITANTS ADVANCE DESPITE FRENCH AIRSTRIKES.
* SAME > [Dawn.com] NATO BACKS FRANCE IN MALI, BUT SAYS NO [Alliance-level] AID REQUEST, as made by France.
#7
FYI CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > US TO STRIKE CHINA'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS FIRST IN ASIA-PACIFIC, so allegedly sayeth the Russian Times as per the POTUS Obama-signed NDAA 2013.
IIRC VIDEO > US, CHINA "FIRST USE" FRICTION = both the US + China believe in preemptive strike agz the other's nuclear arsenal but demand the other can't do same or strike back.
So there.
lol.
* TOPIX > [Korea Herald] US KEEPS STRATEGIC HUSH ON JAPAN'S MILITARY AMBITIONS.
* SAME, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA'S ARMY [PLA] TOLD TO PREPARE TO FIGHT:STATE MEDIA; + CHINESE PLA OFFICIALS SAY TROOPS ARE TO PREPARE FOR WAR.
"...To fight-n-win a Battle in 2013".
MilPol double-speak for "FIGHTING JAPAN" = "STRENGTHENING REAL COMBAT-LIKE MILITARY TRAINING". IIUC, the Chinese are telling the PLA to expect serious or intense Japanese military resistance???
YOOHOO, BAMMER, THE PLA + JSDF + ASEAN + USDOD ARE A'LOOKIN AT YOU!
Pakistan is facing a deepening crisis after the country's highest court ordered the arrest of the Prime Minister today, just hours after tens of thousands of protesters demanding the dismissal of the government engulfed the capital.
In scenes that many believe represented little short of an unfolding coup, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Raja Pervez Ashraf over allegations of corruption as up to 50,000 supporters of the charismatic Muslim cleric, Tahir ul-Qadri, staged a mostly peaceful but debilitating sit-in in the heart of Islamabad.
The Supreme Court there is getting to be in the habit of dumping corrupt prime ministers. Then again, all of the Pak prime ministers to date have been corrupt...
Fawad Chaudhry, a special adviser to Mr Ashraf, claimed last night that the judiciary and the army were working in concert against the government to install an administration of its choosing. "This is the establishment working," said Mr Chaudhry. "They want to dismiss the government and put in a long-term interim set-up."
Islamabad was paralysed after Dr Qadri, who had been living in Canada until his return to Pakistan last month, arrived with his followers on Monday night, occupying the city's main thoroughfare. Defying the government's orders, he told the crowd to move close to parliament, pushing aside the barricades erected by police. Dr Qadri has instructed the protesters to stay in the capital until his demands are met.
#4
Protests erupt in Sindh after PM arrest orders The city descended into sudden chaos on Tuesday evening as angry PPP workers took to the streets and forced traders to shut down commercial activities, soon after the directives of the Supreme Court (SC) ordering arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in rental power corruption cases.
The workers of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) set tyres on fire and blocked several areas, including MA Jinnah Road, University Road, Shahra-e-Faisal, Shahra-e-Quaideen, Gizri, Malir and Mariupur, and staged protest demonstrations against the SC verdic
If we all close our eyes and wish hard enough and ignore Islam, Wendy will make all the terrorism go away.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for a focus on conditions that feed terrorism as part of a comprehensive strategy against the scourge, as he opened a debate in the Security Council that expected some 50 speakers, including several high-level national officials.
Terrorism festers where conflicts are endemic and where human rights, human dignity and human life are not protected and impunity prevails, Mr. Ban said in a meeting chaired by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar of Pakistan, which holds the January Presidency of the 15-member body.
Making it clear that no grievances can ever justify terrorism, the Secretary-General underlined the connection between security and development, the need for dialogue and understanding and the importance of information technology in countering messages of hate and radicalization.
We have to drown out shrill appeals to intolerance and extremism with sound calls for compassion and moderation, he said, adding: We have to replace the terrorist narrative with messages of peace, development and human welfare.
President Obama authorized money rewards Monday for tips leading to the capture of "foreign nationals accused by international criminal tribunals of atrocity-related crimes, and of individuals involved in transnational organized crime."
The top target: African warlord Joseph Kony.
"This powerful new tool can be used to help bring to justice perpetrators of the worst crimes known to human kind," Obama said in a statement. "This includes individuals such as Joseph Kony and other leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), as well as certain commanders of M23 and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)."
From the Associated Press:
"The Rewards for Justice program, established in 1984, gives the secretary of state the authority to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of anyone who plans, commits or attempts international terrorist acts. The new law allows the State Department to publicize and pay rewards for information about people involved in transnational organized crime or foreign nationals wanted by any international criminal tribunal for war crimes or genocide.
"Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for heinous attacks in multiple countries, will be the top target of the expanded law, administration officials said. Kony and his ruthless guerrilla group, the Lord's Resistance Army, are responsible for a nearly three-decade campaign of terror in Central Africa that has been marked by child abductions and widespread killings."
h/t Gates of Vienna
Chuck Hagel hates Jews. Or should I say, he hates Jews who think that Jews have rights and that their rights should be defended, in Israel by the government and the IDF, in America by Israels supporters.
As I mentioned before, it is not at all surprising that Obama appointed Hagel, and I see little chance that the Senate will reject his appointment. Israel and its American friends, however, can take heart that Israel will not be Hagels chief concern.
Hageland Obamahave bigger fish to fry than Israel. They are looking to take on the US military. They will slash military budgets, they will slash pensions and medical benefits for veterans in order to save a couple dollars and demoralize the military. They will unilaterally disarm the US to the point where Americas antiquated nuclear arsenal will become a complete joke. And I dont see the military capable of stopping it. Anyone remember the F-22?
...this doesnt contradict my point about Israel not being the problem with Hagel. He is an anti-Semite. And for American Jewish groups to remain silent about his appointment is worse than irresponsible. It is treacherous. My point about Hagel being anti-American is that the groups that should be leading the campaign against him are the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars not AIPAC and the ADL, not that AIPAC and the ADL should be silent.
#1
The Fedcritters are just shooting themselves in the foot by trying to take away America's guns while simultaneously not doing anything serious to seal the border + other in order to "justify" the ever-expanding Big Govt. + Welfare-Nanny State.
BY LAW, AFAIK THE FED IS SUPPOSED TO KEEPING DEFICIT SPENDING TO 6% OF US GDP - but-t-t, in the "new Math", 6% = 37% of GDP + still climbing, + THEY HAVE THE PERTS = SCIENCE TO PROVE IT.
EITHER STUPID OR CORRUPT, + DEY AIN'T STUPID.
Intentional expansion of US Debt = GOOD FOR NATIONAL, GLOBAL WELFARE-NANY STATE + OWG + NAU; WAR AGZ IRAN + ESPEC CHINA = GOOD FOR ANTI-US OWG + NAU WHERE THE US IS NO LONGER A GLOBAL SUPERPOWER OR HYPER-POWER + HAS DEVOL INTO AN "ALSO RAN", I.E. A MERE TRAN-REGIONAL, WORLD OR "GREAT POWER" SUB-I.E. NOT A GLOBAL OR NAU "SOLE" LEADER ANYMORE.
Unless the GOP-Right can field a strong unifying Conservative or mostly Conservative Personage-Figurehead to be POTUS in 2017 [2016 Elex], THE DEMOLEFT + ANTI-US GLOBALISTS WILL CONTROL THE "LEFTIST-GLOBALIST", ANTI-NATIONALIST ANTI-SOVEREIGN WEAK US GOVT. = AMERIKKA + ITS "GLOBALIST" CONSTITUTION [SOviet State Charter] FOR MANY MANY YEARS. IT W-I-L-L TAKE A CIVIL WAR OR WORLD WAR TO RESTORE AMERICA TO ITS FORMER GLORY + POSITION.
#2
The DemoLeft can't confirm or deny that Govt-provided goodies will be bigger + better, or worse, under OWG + OWG NAU, thus no need to have ordinary Americans = Amerikans to vote on OWG, NAU, Birtherism, + Sovereign Nationalist = Anti-Sovereign Globalist Socialism. NO NEED TO WASTE $$$ ON LEGALLY AMENDING THE US CONSTITUTION???
So why did the director of the critically acclaimed film -- it earned an impressive 92 percent rating on film critics aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes -- get left out at the Academy Awards?
Some say it is because Bigelow incorporated controversial scenes of enhanced interrogation. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) member David Clennon, an actor best known for his portrayal of Miles Drentel in the ABC series "thirtysomething," a role he reprised on "Once and Again," wrote an op-ed on the Truth-Out.org website announcing his intention not to vote for the film in any Academy Awards category.
"Everyone who contributes skill and energy to a motion picture -- including actors -- shares responsibility for the impressions the picture makes and the ideas it expresses," he said. "There's plenty of 'Oscar buzz' around 'Zero Dark Thirty.' Several associations of film critics have awarded it their highest honors. I have watched the film (2 hours, 37 minutes). Torture is an appalling crime under any circumstances. 'Zero' never acknowledges that torture is immoral and criminal." When is the last time Quintin Tarantino or any other Hollywood puck acknowledged gratuitous killing was immoral and criminal? That's different, different you see: that's just about separating people from their money. Entirely different, no doubt about it...
h/t Gates of Vienna
The "grand bargain" that has been the basis of the American economic system since 1913 is entering its end-game phase. What will replace the expiring order is unknown, but there are two substantially different substitutes that could emerge over the medium term. One is a return to the free market that existed before the institution of the progressive income tax and the Federal Reserve in 1913. This isn't likely, given the weakness and inability of so-called conservative "leaders" to communicate ideas effectively. The other is a form of financial repression resulting in the kind of fascistic state seen in Venezuela. This is the more likely scenario, given President Obama's mesmeric hold over the mainstream media, government employee unions and the burgeoning recipient class.
#1
As per FOX NEWS this AM, KRAUTHAMMER - argued SAY GOODBYE, AMERICA = AMERIKA, TO THE GOP.
Again, GOP-Right + pro-US Globalists = Mensheviks, DemoLeft + anti-US Globalists = Bolsheviks, AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MENSHEVIKS!
Those Menshies that weren't removed from influence, gulagged or killed by 1925 were during Stalin's "Great Purges" of the 30's.
[KATYN FOREST here].
versus
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Foreign Policy] THE DISAPPEARED: EVEN THE SOVIET UNION EVENTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGED STALIN'S GREAT FAMINE, WHY DOES CHINA STILL HIDE EVIDENCE OF ITS OWN STARVATION UNDER MAO?
#1
Texas et al could put the Feds in a real bind by revising their own state militia laws, starting with the Swiss model as an example, by enrolling and authoring that they arm themselves with the standard side arms of their National Guard [which are subject to federalization, but the state militia is not and constitutes a backup if the former is mobilized and deployed].
#4
..yes, but nothing stops them from expanding their [as the term is used in the federal statutes] unorganized militia, or to use a term from the beginning of the republic, the unembodied militia.
#5
Texas et al could put the Feds in a real bind by revising their own state militia laws, starting with the Swiss model as an example, by enrolling and authoring that they arm themselves with the standard side arms of their National Guard ....
Always wondered why pro-gun states haven't picked this fight with the federal government by doing just this.
#7
Tennessee has a State Guard and does have ta lot of the same weapons as the National Guard. Members are required to provide most of their own arms, however. Assault weapon ban? Not in Tennessee.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/15/2013 19:21
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#9
Alabama has NO law against "Open Carry", I found this out today listening to a radio program Featuring the Police Chief of Montgomery County.
I LOVE Alabama.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2013 20:43
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#10
RJ, A number of places don't have a law against 'open carry' - but they still arrest you if you do, and call it 'brandishment' or some kind of BS 'scaring people' charge.
This whole episode is starting to sound like a Inspector Clouseau movie.
French military officials say the Malian army has not recaptured the central town of Konna, contradicting reports from Mali at the weekend.
France launched its military intervention last Friday after Islamists seized Konna and began advancing further south. After French air strikes began, a Malian military official said the army had brought Konna back under control.
But the defence minister in Paris said it was not in Malian hands.
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
Jean-Yves Le Drian said the French aerial campaign had managed to block the rebels who had moved back to an area between Douentza and Gao. But, he said, "at this time, the town of Konna has still not been recaptured by the Malian armed forces".
Almost 800 French troops have been sent to help the Malian military fight back against the Islamists.
A West African force of around 3,300 is due to start arriving in Mali in the next few days.
#1
The question asked was about what these supposedly elite thinkers fear for 2013. After reading some of the responses I fear the lack of humility among "elite thinkers".
#2
If I lived next door and my home had been listed in that newspaper as having a gun inside I'd put a sign:
"MY HOUSE HAS GUNS AND WE KNOW HOW TO USE THEM.
BUT NEXT DOOR IS GUN-FREE"
You know, just to make things clear.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2013 17:29
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#3
But, like most truths in the modern era, that would be hate speech...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/15/2013 18:02
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#4
"CRIMINALS, ILLEGALS + ENEMY ARMIES LOVE GUN CONTROL"!
The DemoLeft's answer to stopping illegal immigration + neighborhood crime gangs is to take away the guns from law-abiding US Citizens so that the Welfare-Nanny State won't have to appropriate Monies to local law enforcement which they're not giving them anyway.
THE DEMOLEFT ALWAYS HAS TO BE THE SUPERIOR OR DOMINANT NO MATTER HOW STUPID + MORONIC THEIR POSITION, EVEN WHEN THEY KNOW OR ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR POSITION IS STUPID OR MORONIC.
President Obama is weighing as many as 19 different gun control measures that he could take without congressional approval, as he prepares to unveil a comprehensive plan on Wednesday to address gun violence amid claims from Republicans that he's overstepping his bounds.
The president plans to reveal the details of that plan shortly before noon on Wednesday, joined by children who wrote him letters on the issue, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. Carney stressed that Obama believes a "significant" part of the plan would include congressional action, but declined to specify what actions the president might take via executive order.
During the final press conference of his first term, Obama said Monday that he will "vigorously pursue" the recommendations he received from the Vice President Biden-led task force.
#1
Well he sure as hell can't talk about the budget or anything else. Besides, keeping guns away from increasingly pissed off Americans is a win for him.
#3
What you may not be hearing about is the wholesalers who have shipments of guns and ammo from overseas who their shipments locked up in Customs warehouses. The US Customs Service is reportedly sitting on the shipments, awaiting guidance from Washington. Gun shop inventories are vanishing and many will soon be out of business. Some retailers have terminated the sale of guns and ammo. I suspect the next shoe to drop will be domestic manufactures of guns and ammo giving it up as well.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/15/2013 16:02
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#6
No links Rob, shop owner and distributor telephone conversation only. They are trying desperately to restock shelves, but cannot receive shipments. I am searching the web for further supporting data.
#8
Anecdotes from here in the reddest of red states: major city pawn shops that would each typically have dozens of used ARs in stock are sold out (the last fair examples fetched 3-4x the price of a very clean example brought prior to the 2008 election); ammo in many calibers is simply unavailable, larger quantities are sold out (often with no expected restock dates); 30 round AR clips that sold for $10-12 a few months ago are fetching upwards of $75 and are sold out in most shops; etc.
Panic buying is definitely an apt description for what's going on here.
#9
I have personal knowledge of Customs holding up deliveries as well, Besoeker. The reason given for the hold-up is "more inspections".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/15/2013 19:42
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#10
Might not be without good reason. Drudge is headlining a Magazine Size ban. Which makes no sense and I'm not even sure how that's within his power via Executive Order.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/15/2013 20:22
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#11
Obama's running "Smear" Ads saying "The Republicans are trying to scare you, Saying what's going to happen, DON'T BELIEVE THEM".
ON, I'll wait untill you step outside the Law, THEN I'll say BELIEVE HIM.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2013 20:24
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#12
By the way, Outfitters have NO small Primers and NO Bullets, I looked.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2013 20:26
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A former Pakistani politician and landowner described beheadings, bombings and attacks on police stations by Taliban militants Monday at the trial of two Muslim clerics accused of financially supporting the terrorist group.
Saifullah Khan, 43, said his name was on a Taliban hit list of officials targeted during the Islamic fundamentalist group's attempt to take control of Pakistan's Swat Valley in 2007. The father of six, who now lives in Philadelphia, was formerly an elected official who helped oversee such things as road and water projects for about 15 villages in the Swat Valley.
Testifying through an interpreter in Pashto, Khan said on one occasion he saw his cousin's beheaded body, "and the blood was still there, fresh." Another time he helped carry a mortally wounded police officer out of a station attacked by Taliban fighters with assault weapons and grenades. He knew people whose homes and businesses were bombed, killing dozens more. His own home was struck by a rocket and shot at, he said.
"The Taliban was harming people. They were shooting at the army. The army would shoot at them. The people in the middle would get hurt," he testified. "I don't have the number, but many times they (Taliban fighters) attacked my house."
The testimony about Taliban violence came in the second week of the trial of Hafiz Khan and one of his sons, Izhar. They are not related to Saifullah Khan but, like Saifullah, have family origins in the Swat Valley, where the surname is common. Hafiz and Izhar Khan are facing conspiracy and terrorism support charges that each carry potential 15-year prison sentences.
will frame the debate in the other direction. Democrats are irresponsible, and the Republicans already raised taxes and revenue, now this is your turn to address spending. If you refuse to address spending in the next month where you have had 5 years to cut spending and have refused then you are the irresponsible party, dead wrong on this issue, and you are the bad guys.
Winning Elections has nothing to do with Leading a Country
I don`t care if you won the election with a 100% mandate, I am sure the Greek politicians won all their damn elections as well. So stop spouting this campaign rhetoric as it is irrelevant to the spending problem at hand. We don`t have a tax problem, we have a spending problem. We never have a problem raising taxes in this country, but we sure have a problem cutting wasteful spending.
Personally, I doubt that the country`s spending issues and debt constraints that will hit home 5 years down the line were really on the voter`s minds while casting votes in the recent election. It is never on voter`s minds until you get Greece style austerity programs, then it really becomes on their minds, and guess what the Greek citizens still didn`t want to cut spending even when their country was in default.
#3
Some kind of major or catastrophic event(s) or disaster(s) will likely have to take place before the Sheeple can wake up. IMO THE POLITICOS ARE NOT WORRIED ABOUT MORE BUDGET-N-DEBT-CEILING BUSTING "QE'S". "STIMULUS", + "FISCAL CLIFFS" BECAUSE IT ONLY MEANS TO JUST RAISE THE LEGAL LIMITS AGAIN AND AGAIN AND ....
This where possible US war wid CHINA + IRAN, OR OTHER? IN 2013, COMES IN AS THESE CAN MAKE-OR-BREAK THE BAMMER'S LEGACY, DESTROY AMERICA'S CREDIBILITY + POSITION AS THE WORLD'S SOLE GLOBAL SUPERPOWER, + DESTROY ANY CHANCE OF POTENT US LEADERSHIP IN THE FUTURE OWG + OWG NAU + INTERIM.
As said or inferred times before, "post-US" WOrld #1 wannabe CHINA wants "sole" PLA MilBases + guaranteed, unopposed or unchallenged
"strategic access" into WESTPAC + FAR PACIFIC, INDIAN OCEAN vee the "First Island Chain", + ISN'T TAKING "NO" FOR AN ANSWER. CHINA WANTS PLA MILBASES + CONTROL OF TAIWAN WHERE IT HAS HINGED THE FINAL OR DE FACTO SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF ITS ANTI-US "MANIFEST DESTINY" AS FUTURE WORLD #1.
IMO China is willing + ready to wage war, Conventional as well as Nuclear, in the East China Sea + South China Sea + Himalayan Plateau to achieve its "Manifest Destiny" - iff it does not get its claimed sovereignty oer various disputed islands + maritime regions, IT WILL ONE DAY JUST SUDDENLY SHOCKING JUST START SHOOTING.
As for IRAN, its budding nuclear arsenal can make a US or US-led Coalition ground invasion VERY BLOODY = CASUALTY-INTENSIVE/PROHIBITIVE, HENCE DOMESTICALLY + GEOPOL POLITICALLY DIFFICULT IFF NOT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE BAMMER + ADMIN.
"IRAN" also read - [Nuclear?]RADICAL ISLAM + MUSLIM WORLD.
Iff the powers that be expect the US to overtly or covertly REMAIN the dominant Power in the future OWG + OWG NAU, TO BE SEEN AS SUCCESSFUL THE BAMMER ADMIN MUST GET CHINA TO [peacefully?]CONCEDE IN THE EAST CHINA SEA + SOUTH CHINA SEA, ETC. I.E. NOT ALLOW CHINA TO VIOLATE OR BREAK THE "STATUS QUO" AS PER THESE EAST ASIAN REGIONS.
The upsets + chaos wrought by the Bammer + Admin is consistent wid efforts to impose OWG + NAU on Americans vee USING THE INTENTIONAL OR DELIBERATE PROPAGATION OF CHAOS/ANARCHIES TO FORCE THE US, MEXICO, CANADA, + GREENLAND TO BE MUTUALLY INTERDEPENDENT FOR SIMPLE SURVIVAL.
US WAR AGZ NUKE-ARMED CHINA + NUKE-WANNABE/NEAR-NUKE IRAN, HOWEVER, MAY DECIDE IFF THE US IS TO BE THE DE FACTO LEADER, OVERT OR COVERT, OF SAIDSAME OWG + OWG NAU, ETC.
Lest we fergit, 1990's + Pre, Post 9-11 NET > CHINA + ISLAM HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE EXCEPT THE MILYUHNS + DILYUHNS OF PEOPLE THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE CARE OF ANYWAY.
E.G. CHINA'S PROB OF "20.0 MILYUHN" OR SO ANGRY YOUNG CHINESE MALES WID NO LOCAL WOMEN TO MARRY, thanks to China's traditional Culture + contemporary "One-Child" Policy.
Put another way, dats "20.0Milyuhn" Men = PLA Soldiers China can WILLINGLY throw + sacrifice to the US + Japan + ROK + ASEAN [India?] in any East Asia mil conflict.
AFAIK THE CONTROL/DOMINATION-HAPPY DEMOLEFT IS N-O-T GOING TO LIKE BEING PART OF A ECON, GEOPOL WEAK OWG + NAU USA WID NO $$$.
An explosion has rocked a university in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, with unconfirmed reports that at least 15 people were killed.
State TV said Aleppo University was hit by a "terrorist bombing", although activists say the cause is unclear.
Student bombers. They never get it right the first time in the lab. Ask William Ayers...
Aleppo has been the scene of numerous bombings and air strikes, as government forces try to dislodge rebels there. Rebel forces have made sweeping gains in northern Syria in recent months and Aleppo is largely under their control.
The university is located in an area under the control of government forces.
The state news agency, Sana, said the university was hit on the first day of student exams.
"Next question in our practical: which wire do you attach to the negative pole, the red one or the green one? Mahmoud, come up here to the front and demonstrate to the class."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, reported two explosions and said dozens of people had been wounded. Pictures on state television showed at least one body and several vehicles on fire.
#1
update 'More than 80 killed' in Aleppo University blasts MohammedWahid Akkad, the governor of Aleppo, Syria's second city, said there were 82 fatalities so far and more than 160 wounded "in a terrorist attack that targeted students on their first day of exams at the University of Aleppo."
Mr Monti, who is contesting the election as the leader of a centrist coalition, likened the 76-year-old billionaire to "a pied piper who leads the mice to drown in the river".
He said Mr Berlusconi had "already fooled Italians three times," a reference to his three terms as prime minister the last of which came to an end in Nov 2011 when he was forced to resign amid sex scandals and concerns over the mismanagement of Italy's large public debt.
Mr Monti's remarks, made on a television current affairs programme on Monday night, marked his most trenchant criticism to date of his predecessor and intensified the antagonism between the two protagonists just weeks ahead of the Feb 24-25 election.
"The sacrifices Italians have made in the last year could be squandered in three or four months if an old, reinvigorated illusionist comes to power," Mr Monti told the programme, Porta a Porta.
He said that he had believed in Mr Berlusconi when he first entered politics in the early 1990s, promising to bring Thatcherite reforms to Italy's sclerotic economy, but said that like millions of Italians he had become disillusioned after the media mogul broke so many promises.
The first of a planned 900 Nigerian troops will deploy to Mali in the next 24 hours as part of a UN-mandated African force aimed at helping the country battle Islamists, a defence spokesman said Tuesday.
"The president approved the deployment of a battalion, and in the next 24 hours a company of the battalion will be deployed," Colonel Mohammed Yerima told journalists. "The remainder will be deployed later."
He added that Nigeria's total commitment will be around 900 troops, or 300 more than previously announced. The first company will include 190 personnel, he said.
The planned 3,300-strong African force is to be commanded by a Nigerian, Major General Shehu Usman Abdulkadir, previously his country's chief of army standards and evaluation.
Nigeria announced at the weekend that a Nigerian military technical team as well as the commander were already on the ground carrying out support and preparation work.
The country, the continent's most populous nation and largest oil producer, has the biggest military in 15-nation regional bloc ECOWAS, which is organising the African intervention.
The move reversed Frances earlier insistence on providing only aerial and logistical support for a military intervention led by African ground troops.
Commentators have cried wolf about debt ceilings and fiscal cliffs so often that Canadians can be forgiven for ignoring the latest confrontation brewing between President Barack Obama and Congress. But that would be a mistake.
A perfect storm (to mix metaphors) of three separate fiscal and legislative crises is converging on Washington. Unless the administration and Congressional leaders can find a way to disperse that storm, the United States government could default on its debt, be forced to cut a trillion dollars from spending or simply shut down.
The price of staving off any one of these disasters may be allowing one of the others to happen. And that would be very bad news for the Canadian economy.
Over the past few years, the Americans have punted a series of debt and spending deadlines time and time again. Now all the deadlines are arriving at once.
On March 1, sequestration kicks in, the first tranche of $1.2-trillion (U.S.) over nine years in mandatory spending cuts half of them to Defence unless Congress and the administration can find another way to rein in the U.S. governments trillion-dollar annual deficits.
#1
Yes, yes, yes were told yesterday in the presidential news conference that Social Security and military pensioner checks may be "delayed".
No intent to frighten or issue a threat to anyone mind you, but we must ensure that those who have invested in the old America, shoulder the burden of government failure. As we all know, in brave new world of fairness and 'needs based entitlements', they can afford to.... pay a little more receive a bit less. [sarc off]
#2
Notice it's never the pay or perks of the elected officials who's income may be deferred for not doing their jobs. Something to be hardwired in the next Constitution (V.2).
#7
Weird, above post should be in texas thread. Wow the lag is horrid out here today. We've got a storm front moving out to where the ship is. 8-10 foot waves with occasional 14:) I love rough weather out here.
The Somali government on Sunday (January 13th) expressed dissatisfaction over a failed French military operation against al-Shabaab in Bulomarer in which eight civilians died, the Somali National News Agency reported.
"This was a shocking incident by French military, unfortunately civilians lost their lives," Foreign Minister Fowsiyo Yusuf Haji Aadan said after an emergency government meeting, adding that the Somali government has in the past been able to secure the release of hostages through dialogue.
Eight civilians and 17 al-Shabaab militants reportedly died in the operation, which was an attempt to rescue French intelligence agent Denis Allex who has been held hostage by al-Shabaab since 2009.
Apparently the French team approached the site by land after being dropped off by helicopter. Their presence was compromised by locals living near the target compound. Some of those locals may have tried to warn the mujahideen inside the compound - causing the French to have to silence the civilians. Somewhere between 3-8 locals were killed, but the exact number is not clear.
It's hard to know what the "Soamli Gov't" is complaining about - the French hostage who was the primary goal of this mission has been held for 3-1/2 years by Al Shabaab. He is being used as a pawn and his captors are not serious about negotiations. So they have to assume that hard consequences are going to happen sooner or later.
Residents of Bo'o say a dark cloud has descended upon their small village ever since three suspected al-Shabaab gunmen opened fire on women leaving a wedding party there last week. The party was a traditional celebration to mark seven days of marriage and was attended only by women.
Al-Shabaab has imposed strict rules on wedding ceremonies that includes banning brides from wearing the traditional Somali wedding dress.
"It was a joyful day for the relatives and friends of the couple, as it should be when there is a wedding, and there had been no problems [with al-Shabaab until the attack]," said Ugas Hirey, a 35-year-old Bo'o resident. "We cannot figure out what changed; we were shocked by the gunshots and its ugly aftermath."
The al-Shabaab controlled village is located about 30 kilometres from Hiran's regional capital of Beledweyne, which was liberated by allied forces in December 2011 and has since rebuffed several attempts by the group to reclaim the city.
According to tribal elder Jama Ahmed the gunmen are believed to be between the ages of 16 and 19. He said they waited for the celebration to end and shot the women as they were leaving the venue, killing the groom's aunt and wounding two other women.
The wounded victims were immediately rushed to Beledweyne Hospital for treatment.
One of the victims lost a lot of blood and was in critical condition when she arrived at the hospital, Beledweyne Hospital director Ahmed Khalif told Sabahi. Both women are now in stable condition and receiving the necessary treatment.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the Rental Power Projects (RPP) scam, a major blow to the government and the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to arrest 16 accused including the PM within 24 hours and submit a report tomorrow. The Supreme Court had earlier ordered to the NAB to assign criminal liability in the case.
PM Ashraf, three ex-Cabinet ministers and four former secretaries of government departments have been accused in the case.
Ashraf is facing accusations of taking bribes in 2008 when he served as the federal minister for water and power. The prime minister also came to be known as 'Raja Rental' after he was accused in the case. He is facing allegations of buying property in London from wealth amassed through involvement in various scams as well.
[Yemen Post] The specialized penal court started on Monday the trial of ten suspects accused of involvement in the bombing that killed and injured scores of central security soldiers while performing a military parade rehearsal in the Sabeen Square in downtown in Yemen's capital Sanaa in May 2011.
The court accused the suspects of forming an Al-Qaeda-linked cell which attacked and planned to target security and military installations as well as soldiers and foreigners.
The accusation included the suspects were well-prepared with guns and explosives to assassin and carry out suicide kabooms and that they received funds for their operations.
Samir Khalid Ali Hamoud Al-Sahib confessed he had been assigned by one of Al-Qaeda leaders, known as Khawlan, to detonate a boom-mobile at the US embassy but he convinced himself and stopped the operation at the last moment.
"Then my fellow Haitham Hamid Mufarah was ordered to carry out the suicide kaboom at the military parade rehearsal in the Al-Sabeen Square," he said, adding that Mufarah was recruited by Al-Qaeda.
The hearing was adjourned to next Monday when the remaining suspects are expected to face accusations.
The bombing, which killed and injured about 171 central security soldiers on May 21, 2011, was part of a series of Al-Qaeda deadly suicide kabooms last year.
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A man told police he was on a military mission when caught shoplifting Sunday afternoon at a supermarket in east Athens.
"Your mission, Robert, should you decide to accept it, is to find one of the few remaining Twinkies at the Kroger, and bring it to us."
Robert Anthony Leseueur, 36, was arrested at the Kroger on College Station Road for drinking a soda and eating a beef stick, then trying to leave the store without paying, Athens-Clarke police said.
Got short-rationed again, did he?
Police said store managers caught Leseueur attempting to leave and held him until an officer arrived.
"Lemme go! Lemme go!"
"You stay put until Officer Squarenuts gets here!"
"No way, Satan's water bottle is gonna spring a leak!"
Leseueur first explained that "someone on the Internet had told him to come get those items," the officer wrote in an incident report.
They also told him to send them his social security number to Nigeria...
While speaking with Leseueur, it became apparent to the officer that he was a raving loonie has some sort of issue, which was blacked out in a copy of the officer's report made public on Monday.
"He stated that he works for Seal Team Six and was on a special mission," the officer wrote in the report.
"What kind of mission, pal?"
"A special mission, officer! Now lemme go or else Satan's gonna get outta jug."
"He also informed me that he had caught Satan and had him in a bottle in his book bag."
Sure. Where else would you put him?
Whatever issues Leseueur might, he was still arrested and booked into the Clarke County Jail on a theft by shoplifting charge.
Wonder if they dumped Satan down the drain.
While he has no criminal record noted in Clarke County Superior Court, Leseueur served prison time for convictions in other Georgia counties and has been arrested in at least one other state.
Might want to check with the state psychiatric facility...
Central State Prison released Leseueur just five months ago, after he served nearly two years for an aggravated stalking conviction in Taliaferro County.
That was a special mission too...
Leseueur entered the state prison system twice before in 1995 and 1999, both times for convictions in McDuffie County on theft, burglary and other charges, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. He was arrested for burglary in Tennessee in 2004, and a year later was booked into the Dekalb County Jail as a fugitive.
He was booked into the local jail Sunday and listed has having a Snapfinger Drive address in Athens.
#2
A mission from God could appear pretty whack. Or maybe he was on a mission from Satan, and Satan was just goofing with him. Prolly hard to tell at times.
Please use the link doohickicky instead of just pasting the URL naked like that -- long links break the 'burg. Type a word or phrase to hold the link, highlight, then click on the little icon that looks like a globe wearing eyeglasses... or two links of a chain, and paste the URL into the box that pops up.
[An Nahar] At least 26 children were killed in violence in Syria on Monday, a watchdog said, fueling international calls for a war crimes probe into the 22-month conflict.
Reports of the child deaths came as Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... accused Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's regime of expanding its use of banned cluster bombs.
Eight of the children were killed in an air strike on the town of Moadamiyat al-Sham, southwest of Damascus ...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy... , the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Five women were also killed.
"The children, all members of the same clan, were aged between six months and nine years old," said the head of the Britannia-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman.
State television blamed "terrorists" for the deaths.
Also near the capital, four other children were killed, including two siblings, the Observatory said.
Eight children were killed in the northern province of Aleppo -- five of them in an air strike.
Six more children died in other flashpoints in the strife-torn country.
The Observatory says that more than 3,500 children have been killed since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011. The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... says more than 60,000 people have died in all, while the Observatory reported at least 126 killed on Monday alone.
International medical organization Medecins Sans Frontieres condemned a Sunday air strike on the Aleppo province town of Aazaz that maimed 99 people.
"The attack... was particularly devastating as it came just two weeks after air strikes hit the city's health facilities, making it almost impossible for medical staff to cope with an emergency on this scale," MSF said.
On the diplomatic front, at least 57 governments called on the U.N. Security Council to refer the Syria conflict to the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... for a war crimes investigation.
Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... sent a petition requesting the move to the 15-member council, the only body that can refer the case to the ICC but which is deeply divided over the conflict.
The signatories included many European governments as well as Libya and Tunisia, which both saw Arab Spring uprisings overthrow longstanding autocratic regimes.
The letter called on the Security Council to refer the Syria conflict for an ICC investigation "without exceptions and irrespective of the alleged perpetrators."
As Syria is not an ICC member, only a Security Council referral could start a war crimes investigation.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said other governments should sign up to the Swiss-led initiative.
"Human Rights Watch urged other states, particularly Arab states who have repeatedly voiced concern over the killings in Syria, to join the mounting calls for accountability," the organization said in a statement.
But diplomats said the council's divide on Syria is so deep that no move by the body is now possible.
Russia and China, both veto-wielding permanent council members, have refused to sign the petition.
On Sunday, Russia said Assad's removal from power was not a part of past international agreements on the crisis and so impossible to implement.
The wrangling comes amid warnings that the conflict, which according to the U.N. has sent more than 600,000 Syrians fleeing into neighboring countries, is growing more dangerous for civilians in the face of the regime's expanded use of cluster bombs.
Syria "is now resorting to a notoriously indiscriminate type of cluster munition that gravely threatens civilian populations," the director of HRW's arms division Steve Goose said in a statement.
U.N.-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 Lakhdar Brahimi, who last week dismissed peace proposals by Assad as "one-sided", came in for more criticism from the Syrian authorities with government daily al-Thawra describing him as an "aging tourist".
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From last week but we missed it. Josh Stanton at One Free Korea and a group of other dedicated souls have been working on this for quite a while. They chart the locations and, as best they can from Google images, the activities of the North Korean slave-labor concentration/extermination camps.
This is another fine example of how information wants to be free, and what you can do with freed information.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt's visit to North Korea this week has been met with sharp criticism and low expectations, but the global Internet search giant indirectly is helping to make history by revealing one of the reclusive country's darkest secrets, say human rights activists.
Google Earth, the company's popular satellite imagery product, might be the last thing Schmidt will want to showcase for his hosts, because it presents a bird's eye view of many things that secretive North Korea wants to keep hidden.
Human rights activists and bloggers have taken a Google program used mostly for recreation, education and marketing and applied it to map a vast system of dozens of prison camps that span North Korea, a country slightly smaller in area than Greece and home to 23 million people. As many as 250,000 political prisoners and their families toil on starvation rations in the mostly remote mountain camps, according to estimates by international human rights groups.
Schmidt's trip to Pyongyang with former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has been criticized by the U.S. State Department as ill-timed - coming weeks after North Korea conducted a rocket launch in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions.
Richardson, along with Jimmuah, is the Nork's favored American tool. But I don't understand why Schmidt went there unless it was to check off a box.
Rights activists are skeptical that celebrity visits to Pyongyang can produce meaningful results, but they are inclined to give Google credit for living up to its informal motto of "Don't Be Evil" when it comes to how Google Earth sheds light on North Korea.
"What Eric Schmidt does or does not do in Pyongyang will probably be forgotten in a few weeks," said Joshua Stanton, a Washington lawyer who devotes his spare time to blogging and activism on North Korea human rights. "The good that Google has done, however inadvertently, by helping people tell the truth about North Korea, will probably be reflected in the history of the country one day," he said.
Google has characterized Schmidt's trip as "personal" travel, and Schmidt did not respond to requests for comment before leaving for Pyongyang. The company declined to comment on the use of Google Earth in monitoring North Korea.
Richardson said last week he hoped to win the release of Kenneth Bae, a U.S. tour guide detained in the North since November.
Stanton's blog carries satellite images from Google Earth and analysis of the features of six political prisoner camps - three of which he is credited with playing a role in confirming or identifying. The blogger identifies images of gates and guard houses, and in some cases coal mines and crude burial grounds - corroborated through the work of experts and interviews with defectors from North Korea who lived or worked in the camps.
"The largest of the camps, if you don't know what you're looking at, look like towns or villages, and I suspect they are designed that way to fit into the countryside," said Stanton, whose readers trade tips on the camps and their landmarks.
Stanton, who became interested in North Korea while serving in the U.S. military in South Korea at the height of a deadly late-1990s famine in the North, built on the pioneering work of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a U.S. non-governmental organization which unveiled the camps in a 2003 book, "The Hidden Gulag."
When a second edition of "The Hidden Gulag" came out in 2012, Google Earth received prominent acknowledgement.
"The dramatically improved, higher resolution satellite imagery now available through Google Earth allows the former prisoners to identify their former barracks and houses, their former execution grounds, and other landmarks in the camps," said the study.
"Hidden Gulag" also credited Stanton and a second blogger, Curtis Melvin, whose blog has been at the forefront of using Google Earth to catalog not only prison camps but also ordinary facilities like schools, factories and train stations.
"It opens up areas of North Korea that no foreigners are allowed to see at all," said Melvin, who downloads the free program available to the general public.
Melvin, an economist with an unfinished doctoral dissertation on North Korea's monetary system, verifies landmarks he finds on Google Earth by studying maps and documents and by sitting down in front of his computer in Virginia with North Koreans.
"I've also been watching North Korean television literally every day for about three years, so I have a list of thousands of names (of places) I can ask them specific questions about," he said of his interviews with defectors from North Korea.
North Korean defector Kim Sung Min, who escaped the country in 1997 by jumping off a train that was taking him to be executed, "told me the name of the train station where he jumped, and I pulled it up immediately and we were able to trace his actual escape path out of North Korea," said Melvin.
Some of Google Earth's satellite imagery comes from DigitalGlobe, a 20-year-old Colorado firm that, under its previous name, EarthWatch Incorporated, was the first outfit to get a U.S. government license to gather and sell satellite imagery commercially.
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea receives imagery and analysis pro bono in a project with DigitalGlobe Inc, which has a record of supporting humanitarian causes, said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the committee. According to satellite technicians, the imagery available directly from DigitalGlobe is of finer resolution and is updated more frequently than the versions carried for free on Google Earth.
"Satellite imagery readily available through Google Earth has certainly enabled human rights experts to decisively confirm that these facilities do exist, despite the fact that the North Korean regime denies their existence," Scarlatoiu said.
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[Dawn] THE news today may bring you to the edge of your seat, but apathy to the violence that endures may soon take over, given the general societal attitude.
At an individual level, it may not be too difficult to fashion ourselves into advocates for what we believe in, whether it's condemning the slaughter of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... 's Hazaras or speaking in support of women victims of crime. We could use social media to rally support or contribute in other ways towards bringing change; but rarely has civic action, without the requisite numbers or the sustained action, resulted in reforming the socio-political landscape.
So back to the news of the day: a series of bombings across Pakistain have killed some 120 people -- journalists, a human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... activist whose Twitter profile reads 'My religion is respect', civilians, Frontier Corps personnel, women, children, members of the Hazara community.
Last year was the bloodiest for Pakistain's Shia population, Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... reports, reminding of the callousness and apathy of law-enforcement authorities that have failed to take action against rising sectarian violence. Many question the failure of the state to provide security to communities living in fear and the answer isn't hard to come by.
More disturbing is political inaction when it comes to investigation and prosecutions. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom says that "more than 400 Shia have been killed in the past year. The violence was tragic and predictable. The government must take action to protect all its citizens". Tolerating violence threatens stability, when the institutions of democracy -- parliament, the judiciary, media -- remain passive towards corruption, sectarianism and extremism.
If the government has failed to act, why has civil society failed to raise its voice? One could argue that civil society has been restricted and controlled, and has been unable to develop into a concerted national movement that feeds off activism and the will to fight injustice. This could be because activism is an elite preoccupation in many underdeveloped countries. When starving, unemployed and worried about the safety of their family, civil society is unable to protest or chant slogans or coin radical tweets.
The effort at best has been sporadic. For instance, in 2011, the Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... -based Citizens for Democracy, a coalition of 80 civil bodies, ran a campaign when in a single day it obtained 150,000 petitions demanding an end to violence and protection for minorities. Little followed that effort.
The paucity of groups with common agendas -- or the inability of these groups to come together -- along with an elitist, exclusive model with individual projection as the key driving force, and limited financial resources -- keep civil movements, which should be the nucleus of any democracy, at bay.
Activism here is not broad-based or effective. This is unlike India's vibrant civil society where even moderate voices have demanded and won rights for squatters, labourers, women and low-caste communities. Here civil society briefly united during the 2007 lawyers movement, assisted by the free media but again with negligible staying power.
Historically, the failure of getting diverse groups to converge on one platform is attributed to differing ideologies and missing national will. Social movements liberate to provide opportunities; something that hasn't happened for Pakistain. The legacy of the Soviet-Afghan war eroded liberal platforms; uneasy political alliances and military interventions proved detrimental to pro-resistance movements. Periods of military rule gave rise to fragmented movements led by leftists, communists, progressive writers. Resistance was crushed by the state, although some underground movements based on political ideologies managed to sustain themselves.
Conversely, the language movement in East Pakistain lent Bengali identity its impetus and became a forerunner to the nationalist movement, and subsequently the 1971 war and independence for the country's eastern wing.
Here, in the 1980s, when the women's movement emerged with the formation of the Women's Action Forum, civil society was propelled into action by Zia's draconian Hudood laws. Women's rights were not a government priority, and unfortunately regressive societal attitudes overall did not help the cause of the handful who lobbied for change. It was much later that women parliamentarians would win popular attention, spearheading pro-women bills despite religious opposition.
For civil society to extend beyond pockets of protest groups to more advocacy-based initiatives that are funded and long-term, act as a watchdog over the government and participate in policy creation (through awareness campaigns, research, community activation), a more cohesive national movement is needed. Paks must take ownership of their issues. This is a challenge indeed given the large percentage of people living below the poverty line in a country that is at a crossroads, and that stands divided in its fight against extremism.
What is also disturbing are the varied differences that civil society shows to matters that, as human rights violations, should prompt strong, collective action. In May 2012, an amateur video emerged from a conservative district of Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... of four women singing and clapping and a couple of men dancing. We don't know if the women are alive or have been shot after a tribal jirga condemned the participants to death for their celebratory disposition. Civil rights groups haven't protested on a larger scale for justice for these men and women. But when in October, a schoolgirl from Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... was shot and injured by the Taliban, the attack forced condemnation from politicians and activists, with global shock at this brutal assault.
It seems that traditional practices and beliefs suffice as justification for crimes committed and for uneducated, poor victims being incarcerated or murdered for committing blasphemy. Those who have shown solidarity against religious bigotry and violence have been murdered. Real civil activism will become a high-risk strategy when it comes to the final push for saving democracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#5
The Jihadi's have been trying to capture an American (or British) serviceman and ritually sluaghter him for some time.
They tried to capture 2 american snipers they were going to behead live as Gen. Petreus was testifying to congress. The 2 snipers did not cooperate and AQI lost 35 guys in the Bargain.
During the battle of Falluja, the Marines came across the body of a blond woman. They still have no idea who she is. She had been carved up in ways that would make Hannibal Lector proud.
Any woman going into combat better have her cyanide pills at the ready. (So should the men.)
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/15/2013 11:01
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[Dawn] The Sindh government imposed a ban on riding double on Sunday night.
The ban was imposed in view of the general unrest in the city because of protests over the Quetta incident and subsequent sit-ins staged in the city, said a senior law-enforcement official.
The ban on riding double will remain effective till further orders, he added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... citing the same reason, the Private Schools Management Association also announced that all private schools and colleges in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... would remain closed on Monday.
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PYONGYANG, North Korea -- North Korea is vowing to strengthen its war defenses amid concerns the country may conduct a third nuclear test. Citing U.S. hostility, Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said Monday without elaborating that the country will "continue to strengthen its deterrence against all forms of war."
A ministry memorandum carried by the Korean Central News Agency urged the U.S. to dismantle a U.N. command that oversees an armistice signed at the close of the Korean War in 1953.
North Korea claims the right to build atomic weapons to protect itself against U.S. threats. Monday's memorandum comes amid worries Pyongyang may follow a December rocket launch with a nuclear test.
Nothing in the communique about feeding the people...
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#1
USS GEORGE WASHINGTON CVN in the DPRK's = SSSSSSHHHHHH China's TLCM crosshairs once again??
[ABC.NET.AU] Italia's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi ...former Italian prime minister, known for his plain (for a European politician) speaking and his liking for hookers a third his age or less... has lost a bid to adjourn his trial for underage sex until after upcoming elections.
Berlusconi wanted the trial pushed back until after next month's election, in which he is running for office.
The billionaire tycoon is charged with paying for sex with Karima El-Mahroug in 2010 at his mansion near Milan, when she was just 17 and he was the prime minister.
They both deny ever having sex.
Berlusconi's lawyer told the court he will be too busy campaigning to follow the case or attend court, and that he fears his trial could influence the election.
But the court has ruled the trial must go ahead.
Moroccan-born Ms El-Mahroug, who used the working name "Ruby the Heart Stealer", arrived at the trial overnight to testify.
But Berlusconi's lawyers now say they will not be calling her as a witness.
Judges said her written testimony, where she described wild "Bunga Bunga" parties hosted by Berlusconi, will still be considered in the case.
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[An Nahar] Somalia's al-Qaeda linked Shabaab gunnies on Monday posted a picture on their Twitter account of an alleged French commando chief killed in a botched hostage rescue operation.
"French commander killed during botched rescue operation in Bulo-Marer," read an accompanying caption to the photo.
The picture showed the body of the alleged commander, dressed in a black button-up shirt, and khaki pants, lying face up on an orange surface next to presumably his combat gear. A small crucifix showed from his neck.
A second photo, also posted on the Shabaab Twitter feed, showed the dead man in the same position but with bullet magazines and an assortment of guns and other tools of war strewn around and on top of him.
"François Hollande, was it worth it?" read a caption accompanying the second picture.
La Belle France's military operation Saturday to free a French spy held hostage by the Shabaab since July 2009 was a failure, with another French soldier killed and the fate of the hostage unclear.
On Saturday, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said one French soldier had died and another had gone missing during the raid, adding that 17 guerrillas had been killed.
He did not say a commander had gone missing.
The French defense ministry had earlier on Monday expressed fears that the Somali Islamists would put on display the bodies of the French soldier and the hostage, who La Belle France believes was killed during the operation.
"All indications unfortunately lead us to believe that the Shabaab are preparing to organize a disgraceful and macabre display" of the bodies, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
The gruesome image recalled the incident in 1993 when the bodies of U.S. soldiers were dragged through the streets and mutilated in Mogadishu, after a battle between U.S. forces and Somali militia fighters.
On Saturday, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said one French soldier had died and another had gone missing during the raid, adding that 17 guerrillas had been killed.
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[An Nahar] Islamists occupying northern Mali on Monday pushed further into the government-controlled south with an attack on the town of Diabaly, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital, as they have "retreated" in the east of Mali.
"The Islamists attacked the town of Diabaly today (Monday). They came from the Mauritanian border where they were bombed by the French army," said a Malian security source on condition of anonymity.
He said the Malian army had "urgently" dispatched a helicopter to the town.
A regional security source confirmed the attack, which he said was being led by Abou Zeid, a leader al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
"They left the Mauritanian border to avoid raids by French planes," he said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the sea battle, the fleet limped into Bremerhaven, the wreck of the Blutwurstkoenig in tow... French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that the rebels have retreated in the east but French forces are facing a "difficult" situation in the west of the country where rebels are well armed.
"The situation is developing in conformity with the expectations" of French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it... and is "developing favorably", Le Drian told news hounds.
The French offensive kicked off on Friday to block the advance of Islamist forces towards the capital from their bases in the north which they have controlled since last April.
On Sunday, French Rafale fighter planes struck bases used by al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Gao and Kidal, two of the main towns in northern Mali.
Sixty Islamists were killed in Gao alone on Sunday, according to residents and a regional security force.
French warplanes attacked jihadist positions in the town of Nampala some 50 kilometers north of Diabaly, as well as a base in Lere, near the border with Mauritania.
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#1
Looks like the Brits provided air transport for the French troops. Also, AQIM is well entrenched in a Tora Bora like mountain redoubt.
And there's no confirmation like a IRGC deputy commander's confirmation.
Deputy Commander in Chief of Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Hossein Baloney Salami has recently said that the news about Iranian major general Qassem Soleimani's visit to Egypt is not true, Fars reported. Salami made the remarks speaking at the press conference held this morning.
Last week, Al Ahram reported that the Egyptian presidency has strongly denied a UK newspaper claim that the president's assistant for foreign relations met a senior Iranian intelligence official in Cairo.
The Times newspaper said on 8 January 2013 that the two met while Suleimani was in Cairo for two days.
The office of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's assistant for foreign affairs, Essam El-Haddad responded robustly, pointing to "the inaccuracy of the whole story" and categorically denying "these fabrications."
The Times report described the aim of the claimed visit as "sending a message to America."
El-Haddad expressed anger at the report. He said in an official statement Friday, issued through the Egyptian Embassy in London, that Mr Suleimani never entered Egypt.
"We are concerned that a respectable news outlet such as The Times would fail to uphold basic journalistic standards. The Times chose not to solicit a reaction from the [Egyptian] presidency, Dr El-Haddad's office or the Foreign Ministry," the statement went on to say.
The Times claimed that the Iranian security official visited Egypt just after Christmas.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family have been hiding living on a warship, with security provided by Russia, intelligence sources told a Saudi newspaper.
An Al-Watan report Monday says the family and Assad aides are residing on the ship in the Mediterranean Sea and that he travels to Syria by helicopter to attend official meetings and receptions. Otherwise, he cowers stays on the warship, the sources told the Arabic language newspaper.
When he flies to his embattled country, the president lands at undisclosed locations and is transported to the presidential palace under heavy guard, the sources said.
The Russian-guarded warship provides a safe environment for Assad, who has lost confidence in his own security detail, the report said.
Wonder why...
Assad's presence on the warship suggests he has been granted political asylum by Russia but there has been no official comment from Moscow, the newspaper said. The circumstances reinforce Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's comment Sunday that Assad's removal from power is "impossible to implement," the newspaper said.
Not without a torpedo or limpet mine...
Assad's presence on the ship could be a sign of looming negotiations on the conflict in Syria, the report said.
"It is necessary to make everybody, including the opposition, which is still categorically denying any dialogue, to sit down at the negotiating table, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty quoted Lavrov as saying during a visit to the Ukraine.
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#1
It might be a fun exercise to get hold of the AShM "hidden" in Aroud that region, and feed it that target. Just sayin'
#3
I never liked asking the Captain "May I join you sir?". The conversations were always dry and the ring-knockers were blatantly treated with favoritism. I always had a better time on the mess deck with my guys every so often. I found eating chow with them and randomly covering a watch for any of them went a long way for all of us.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/15/2013 11:10
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#4
I used to get invited to the Chief's mess, much to the consternation of the executive officer (he was 'unwelcomed').
That said, Assad is probably in the flag quarters; out of sight and out of the way.
[Dawn] Terrorists who use improvised bombs (IEDs) to carry out bombings across the country have changed their modus operandi in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... -- they increasingly use IEDs hidden inside cement blocks and curve stones.
Elsewhere, they usually use explosive-rigged vehicles and suicide jackets.
These IEDs were used in about eight blasts in Bloody Karachi while close to a dozen similar IEDs were detected before they went off and defused by the bomb disposal unit of Bloody Karachi police, according to officials.
"Protruding wires or other material visible from inside the cement block or curve stones have led to most of the detections," said CID SP Raja Umar Khattab.
A 30kg IED concealed in a curve stone was detected in October 2011 by a boy. He was busy washing his car when his eyes caught sight of some wires protruding from a curve stone. The boy got suspicious and informed police, he recalled.
The boy was rewarded by the then IG of Sindh for helping the police.
The same type of IED was found planted near a mosque in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in June 2011. It had more or less the same weight as the others found previously and the outer cement covering appearing like a brick.
Brick IEDs were used in two of three attacks on the Naval buses in April 2011 but in the third attack in the DHA an explosive-laden cycle of violence was used, he said.
Likewise in December 2011 blast, a brick-covered IED was planted near the Rangers mobile close to Safoora Chowrangi.
The Bloody Karachi police got their first chance to lay hands on a brick-covered IED during the 11th of Muharram in 2009 when the device fell from some vehicle in Shadman Town while being transported somewhere.
The chance discovery led to the arrest of six suspects behind the Ashura blast in 2009 and the 8th and 9th Muharram low intensity blasts.
But just six months after their arrest they fled the City Courts in June 2010. One of them later died when a hand-grenade he was carrying blew up in his hands.
The suspects were said to be activists of 'Jundullah', a previously little known krazed killer outfit.
They were never retossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! and the police conveniently put the blame for the attacks on Rangers and Naval buses on a splinter group of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... led by Naeem Bukhari.
Bukhari is once reported to have been enjugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by a law enforcement agency several years ago. He was booked in a drug case, which never proved and was set free for want of evidence, said a law enforcement official.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Same as in Iraq. Same makers, or same teachers.
[Dawn] Chief of the Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) Dr Tahirul Qadri addressed tens of thousands of protestors in Islamabad during the early hours of Tuesday, giving the Pak government until 11 am to dissolve all assemblies and voluntarily resign.
A large crowd of supporters, by some estimates between 25,00 to 50,000, poured into the Pak capital early on Tuesday, led by Qadri, a holy man who many accuse of trying to sow political chaos ahead of elections.
"This president and prime minister...they are now ex-presidents and prime ministers. Their time is over. Dissolve the national and provincial assemblies by the morning. I am giving you until 11 am to step down or else the people will start making their own decisions," said Qadri
"This president and prime minister...they are now ex-presidents and prime ministers. Their time is over. Dissolve the national and provincial assemblies by the morning. I am giving you until 11 am to step down or else the people will start making their own decisions," said Qadri. "These millions of supporters have spoken. They have rejected your so-called mandate. You are no longer their representatives."
Qadri, a Pak-Canadian who returned to Pakistain last month after years in Toronto, accuses the government of corruption and incompetency, and calls for sweeping reforms to be enacted by a caretaker administration before polls.
The federal government had agreed with Qadri to hold the rally in the federal capital as long as there was no violence and crowds were kept away from the Parliament House. Arrangement had been made for the march with a makeshift stage set up at Jinnah Avenue.
However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... speaking in a more aggressive tone than any of his earlier speeches, called on his workers to shift the rally to D-Chowk, the highly sensitive area in front of the parliament and close to several international embassies and consulates.
"I will give them five minutes to transfers the stage and equipment to D-Chowk in front of the Parliament. That is where the people's revolution will take place," he said.
"The long march has ended. This is the start of a revolution," said Qadri. "Tomorrow when you wake up, and after offering Fajr prayers, I will give the inaugural address the revolution."
The holy man, who was addressing the crowd from behind a bullet-proof screen, urged his supporters to support him until the government gives in to his demands.
"Promise me you will not leave until I leave," he said. "Promise me you will stay until our demands are met."
In the late afternoon, security officials had told AFP that the crowd had swollen to around 50,000 people. However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... estimates differed as to the real number of protestors.
Qadri's supporters say he gives a voice to masses ruled by feudal and industrial elite incapable of redressing a weak economy, a crippling energy crisis, insurgencies and sectarian violence.
"Look what we are witnessing in our country today. We have no gas, no power, no petrol. Is this the country we aspired to? We should give Qadri a chance," said Huma Nadeem, a 20-year-old college girl, in Islamabad.
"I'll stay there until real change comes or until Tahirul Qadri asks me to go back. If I have to stay 10 years, I'll stay there," said Hafez Aamir Chishti, a holy man from Lahore who joined the protest march on his cycle of violence.
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[An Nahar] Ethnic Tuareg separatists are ready to support the French military intervention in Mali by taking on beturbanned fascisti on the ground in the north of the country, one of their bigwigs told AFP on Monday.
"We're ready to help, we are already involved in the fight against terrorism," Moussa Ag Assarid, a representative of the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA), said by telephone from northern Mali.
"We can do the job on the ground. We've got men, arms and, above all, the desire to rid Azawad of terrorism."
The MNLA, which is seeking a Tuareg homeland in much of the north of Mali, an area it calls Azawad, has played a major role in Mali's troubled recent history.
A rebellion launched in January 2012 triggered a military coup in the capital Bamako two months later, creating the political vacuum that enabled Islamist groups to seize control of the north.
The MNLA initially allied itself to the Islamist groups but soon found themselves sidelined as an extreme form of Islamic law was imposed across an area larger than La Belle France.
Considerably weakened, the movement began peace negotiations with the Malian authorities in December and dropped its demand for independence in favor of a request for self-rule.
On Sunday, the organization warned the Malian army not to push into the north of the country without a prior political agreement on autonomy.
Because of the defeats it imposed on the Malian army at the start of 2012, the Tuaregs are concerned about a possible settling of scores if government troops regain control of the north on the back of the French bombing campaign.
"We don't want to see the Malian army in Azawad without a prior accord between the two parties," said Assarid. "We are ready for talks aimed at finding a solution."
The MNLA official was speaking from Tinzawatane in the far north of Mali, where the movement has been in congress for the last few days.
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#1
Are Ethnic Tuareg separatists now the [picking winners and losers] winners de jour? Interesting how we're suddenly 'all in' with the French concerning a situation which has been brewing quietly for years. If only Mooomar, could tell us where his guns have gotten off to. I'm sure we'll learn much more from the Hildebeast's upcoming testimony.
#2
Tuaregs have made the startling discovery that the enemy of your enemy sometimes isn't your friend. Sometimes he's a worse enemy.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2013 10:23
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Are Ethnic Tuareg separatists now the [picking winners and losers] winners de jour?
More likely attempting to achieve their objective by any means necessary. Sometimes that means aligning with the unsavory (e.g. Stalin in WWII, or Dostum in AFG).
#4
Is it just me, or is anyone else suddenly seeing a mental image of Mussolini's Boyz in WW2 getting the arses kicked by primitive Ethiopians + skirt-wearing Greeks???
[Dawn] After braving three nights in Quetta's freezing temperatures next to their slain loved ones, the families of dozens of bombing victims ended their protest and buried the bodies amid strict security measures in a Hazara graveyard on Monday.
Relatives, friends and members of Hazara community had camped out at major intersections of the thriving provincial capital for last four days to protest killings of more than 100 persons in twin suicide kabooms.
A total of 83 dead bodies were buried on Monday. A large number of people participated in the funeral while strict security measures were adopted during the burial. Protesters also rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against law enforcement agencies for their failure to provide protection to them.
The community ended their almost four-day demonstration Monday after the federal government accepted their demands for protection by sacking the provincial government.
Following talks by the Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf with Shia leaders in the wee hours of Sunday, President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... invoked Article 234 of the Constitution, dismissing the provincial assembly and instating Governor Zulfikar Ali Magsi as the Chief Executive of the province.
"After holding consultations with all the stakeholders, we have decided to invoke Article 234 of the Constitution. Governor's rule is being imposed in the province and the provincial government is being dismissed," the premier had announced in front of the Hazara representatives.
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[Dawn] Police Sherlocks have rejected the claim of outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) about Saturday's attack on Awami National Party leader Bashir Khan Umarzai.
They said that the prime victim among 15 injured had a blood feud with another influential political family in his hometown Charsadda. The motive of the attack didn't seem political, they added.
"The modus operandi of the attack resembled with the ones carried by Taliban elsewhere in the country but it can't be equated with the liquidations of Bashir Ahmed Bilour, Mian Rashid Hussain and other ANP leaders and workers," police said.
They said that in many cases Taliban received money from people to target their rivals. "TTP harbours criminals in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and pays them for every act of terrorism," they said.
The officials associated with investigation said that Taliban would have received amount from the rival family for targeting Bashir Umarzai, a former provincial minister.
Several persons have been fallen in the long-drawn enmity between the two Charsadda-based influential families.
Alamzeb Khan Umarzai, an MPA of Qaumi Watan Party, was killed in April 2010 along with three other persons and his family lodged FIR against Bashir Umarzai's family.
"Their enmity is talk of the town, therefore, it was not surprising that Bashir's family nominated the family members of late Alamzeb in the FIR despite TTP's claiming responsibility for the attack," the Sherlocks said.
Vindicating the police's version, Provincial Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain told Dawn that TTP had a fleet of criminals, who might have been paid for the attack on Mr Umarzai.
"There is a mechanism of payment to bully boys. The payment for the high-profile liquidations or attacks is more than the ones wherein victims are common people.
Taliban get more money for the attacks, which draw more media attention like the liquidation of Bashir Bilour," Mr Hussain said.
He said that in many incidents of terrorism TTP got two benefits.
"First, through terrorist attacks, gun-hung tough guys give an impression that they are opposed to liberal political parties like ANP. Secondly, they act as hired assassins and receive money from the warring families," the minister said.
He said that such attacks and kidnapping for ransom were big sources of Taliban's income. "The strategy of TTP to target politicians and scare away people from participating in public meetings is a ploy to affect election campaign of liberal politicians," he said.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... the minister said that the strategy of TTP to disrupt political process in the country would force democratically-elected parties to take action against it.
"TTP will never want ANP to get elected in the next elections because it is against its interest. TTP knows that ANP would create problems for it if elected in the elections.
Therefore, it tries to keep the party aloof from elections and get elected the candidates fielded by those parties that can't harm it," he said.
The minister said that they knew that gun-hung tough guys were behind all acts of terrorism but even then they were ready to hold talks with them provided they agreed to stop violence for the sake of the country.
"We are ready to forgive TTP for killing of our workers and leaders if it wants peace through talks," he said.
The minister said that Taliban had already threatened to sabotage the coming elections as they were opposed to democratic process, he said.
Most of the pro-democracy parties were not in the good books of Taliban, especially ANP, which had lost 700 of its workers and leaders while battling them, the minister said.
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[An Nahar] The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are set to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria at a meeting at the end of January, a Russian diplomat said Monday.
Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Bogdanov, told the Interfax news agency that the meeting is likely to take place as Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.'s peace envoy to Syria, presents a new report on the situation in the country.
Bogdanov said the meeting would be held "before the end of January, around the 25th, 26th, 27th."
Although he did not go into details of the participants, he said a ministerial meeting was unlikely.
"It will be on a vice minister level," he said.
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#1
Think this meeting is to set the shape of the table (gotta be old to get that one) or to set the menu for the 5 star lunch?
[Bangla Daily Star] Out on bail from jail in an attempted rape case last month, accused Rais Uddin Sheikh was looking for Dire Revenge on a minor schoolgirl in Rajbari.
He finally had Dire Revenge on Saturday when he violated and killed the six-year-old girl.
Six?! Even Mohammed himself waited until Aisha was nine. Try him fair and then start the punishment by pulling out his toenails, then work up from there.
Yesterday, the accused of about 18 admitted the offence before a magistrate in a Rajbari court and was sent to jail, said Abdur Razzak, officer-in-charge of Rajbari Sadar Police Station.
Police quoting locals said Rais, son of Arshad Sheikh of Gopalpur village in Sadar upazila of Rajbari, waylaid the girl on her way home from Brac School in the village around 10:30am.
He pushed a piece of cloth into her mouth and took her in a nearby bush, where he violated and strangled the girl to death.
Seeing Rais coming out of the bush, passersby noticed the girl lying in the bush and caught him red handed. They gave him a good beating before handing him over to police.
Thank you, O Passers by.
On June 15 last year, he had attempted to violate the girl at the same spot, but failed.
Make that trial really short, and the punishment slow and thorough.
Following a case filed with Rajbari Sadar Police Station the same day by the girl's father, police had rounded up Rais and sent him to jail through a local court.
On December 8, he walked free on bail. The trial in the case is underway.
The victim's family has filed a murder case against the accused. Police will investigate the murder and submit charge sheet soon, said the OC.
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#1
tie him out and let the wimminz at him with Sporks O' Death
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2013 10:24
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[Dawn] Businesses and markets remained shut as Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... was paralysed on Monday over a strike call given in solidarity with the Shias and the Hazara community after Thursday's bombings in Quetta, DawnNews reported.
Petrol and CNG filling stations were shut and public transport remained off the roads.
Police and demonstrators blocked several roads, including some of the major arteries of the city.
Protesters also blocked railway tracks in Bloody Karachi's Malir area, disrupting the flow of railway traffic to and from the city.
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JERUSALEM - Israel is advancing a plan to invest in places it considers part of its national heritage, including nine West Bank sites, the government said Monday in an announcement that could appeal to hard-line voters a week ahead of elections. It triggered an angry Palestinian response.
Everything triggers an angry Paleo response...
Israeli Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser said Israel is adding handicapped access to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a sensitive site in the West Bank city of Hebron sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
The U.S. objected to Israel's initial 2010 announcement that it would label the shrine an Israeli heritage site, charging it impeded peace efforts.
The other jihad, the one to erase any Jewish historical connection to the land.
Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli troops in Hebron then, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned the move could spark a religious war.
Nour Odeh, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Authority, called on the international community to condemn the latest Israeli announcement. "The Tomb of the Patriarchs is a Palestinian site, and the Palestinian Authority is the only one in charge of making any changes to it," Odeh said Monday.
Seems like the Israelis outvote you...
With elections set for next week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears likely to win another term, but his party has been losing seats to a hard-line religious-nationalist faction. The timing of the announcement hinted that he was trying to win back his traditional hawkish voters.
Hauser said Israel has an obligation to renovate the sites, and it is not related to politics.
"You can't change history. Many sites of the Bible took place in Judea and Samaria," said Hauser, using the biblical term for the West Bank. "As long as we're in the territory, it's our national and human moral obligation to take care of and preserve these sites."
Other plans include renovating the West Bank site of Tel Shilo, where Jewish tradition holds the Israelite tabernacle once stood, and possibly building a replica of the tomb of King Herod at the Herodion, a hilltop site near the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Archeologists believe it was the burial site of the Jewish proxy ruler who controlled the Holy Land under imperial Roman occupation two millennia ago.
Under the program, Israel has budgeted about $107 million to invest in about 300 cultural sites and other ventures, including renovating Israeli archaeological sites, digitizing archives and building a museum dedicated to famed physicist Albert Einstein.
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North Korea is tightening surveillance of the population using tens of thousands of Chinese-made surveillance cameras. According to Chinese customs data, the North imported a total of 16,420 CCTV cameras worth about US$1.66 million from China from January to November last year.
In 2009, the first year China published statistics on bilateral trade, the North imported a whopping 40,465 surveillance cameras from China. In 2010 the figure was 22,987 and in 2011 22,118. Altogether the North has imported over 100,000 cameras worth about $10 million.
Pundits say the cameras are mainly for the long porous border with China to stop a growing tide of defections.
Meanwhile, crude oil and oil products were the major products the North imported from China between January and November last year with a total value US$526 million. Next came naphtha products ($101.7 million), cargo trucks ($92.2 million), and flour ($58.8 million).
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The IAEA delegation will visit Tehran on Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, speaking live on Iranian television, IRINN reported. According to Mehmanparast, one of the Deputy head of IAEA will be the one visiting Iran.
Recently, chief of the IAEA Yukiya Amano said he is not optimistic about talks with Iran next week on getting access to Parchin military complex in Iran.
"The outlook is not bright," Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in Tokyo. He was referring to talks to be held next week on getting access to the Parchin military base and officials involved in Iran's nuclear programme.
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#1
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IRAN WAR COULD DESTROY AMERICA'S SUPERPOWER STATUS: AMERICAN ANALYSTS.
Lest we fergit, NOSTRADAMUS = "... ... Until the SEVEN/SEVENTH holds the Line".
[1960's Guam Taotamonas + CALHOUN'S COMMAND here]. Mitch Bouyer telling young Scout Curley to escape while he Bouyer stays behind to fight to the end wid Custer.
versus
* WORLD NEWS > [Newsday] IRAN COULD BUILD BOMB [Uranium-based] BY MID-2014.
RELATED SAME > IRAN SET FOR 2014 NUCLEAR CAPABILITY: US THINK-TANK.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SYRIA: 50 TONNES OF URANIUM + NUCLEAR BOMBS | [International]FEARS GROWS OVER SYRIA'S URANIUM STOCKPILE - FT, espec Iran's access or ambitions for same.
US Perts are basically affirming what Iran Officios proclaimed late last year + earlier this Month.
WILL IRAN'S BALLYHOOED "JAPAN/EGYPT", "PEACEFUL", "NUKE BOMBS ARE FOR IDJUTS" CIVIE NUCENERGY MODEL = DEVOL INTO THE MORE MEDIA, GEOPOL AGGRESSIVE "NORTH KOREA" MODEL, I.E. IRAN LOUDLY + PUBLICLY + THREATENINGLY PROCLAIMING IT HAS DE FACTO NUCBOMBS WHILE MOST US-WORLD PERTS ARGUE THE OPPOSITE???
Will Iran = DPRK + start ambiguously subjectively diatribing about its necessity to build NucBombs + to "bolster its War/NucWar Deterrence" due to continuing US-Allied military threats agz the Country + its NucProgs???
"Mid-2014" or 2014 = waiting for the Bammer to become a "Lame-Duck" POTUS???
Lest we fergit, EITHER IRAN GETS ATTACKED + INVADED, OR IRAN GETS ITS NUKES.
A group of lawyers from Turkey went to the Gaza Strip in order to gather evidence of war crimes committed by the Israeli army against the people of Gaza, Anadolu agency reported on Monday.
Lawyers from Turkey will cooperate with lawyers from Egypt and Saudi Arabia as part of an international committee set up to investigate any crimes committed by the Israeli army.
Are they going to investigate war crimes committed by Hamas?
By definition Hamas cannot commit crimes of any sort against those sons of pigs and monkeys, so what's to investigate?
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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday asked the Israeli government to rescind plans for new settlements in the West Bank's E1 area, where Palestinians demonstrating against the construction were evacuated, dpa reported.
Fortunately, no one listens to him...
"Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law," Ban said. "The secretary general repeats his call that any such settlement plans for E1 must be rescinded."
Ban said Palestinians have the right to protest the settlements if their actions are peaceful, and he called for Israel to respect that right.
"In this particularly difficult period for the region, all concerned should make serious efforts towards creating the conditions for a resumption of meaningful peace negotiations and to protect the future of the peace process, which is in danger," Ban said.
Israeli police evicted the protest camp on Sunday. E1 lies between East Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, where Israel has announced controversial building plans despite massive international opposition.
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#1
The UN can easily be ignored. Settlements are effective against the Palestinians and they work. The UN is without any enforcement capability and little in the way of moral authority either.
Hand them some cheese and tell them to go away.
AMMAN - Jordan has set up an office affiliated with its interior ministry to deal with the influx of Syrian refugees fleeing their countrys civil war. The kingdom has sheltered about 300,000 Syrians who escaped the 22-month conflict. But its single refugee camp in Zaatari has had scores of problems, including recent flooding, flimsy tents and miserable conditions.
The state Petra news agency said Monday that Maj. Gen Mohammed Al Zawahreh will head the new refugee office.
The report came as the UN refugee agencys representative to Jordan, Andrew Harper, said 822 Syrians crossed overnight into Jordan. Harper says about 12,000 Syrians entered the country during the first two weeks of January.
Meanwhile, Gulf Arab states are providing $15 million in aid and trailers to help Zaatari refugees cope with winter weather.
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[Dawn] Eight people died while at least four people were killed within an hour in different incidents of violence in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on Monday night, DawnNews reported.
A man, identified as Sardar, was bumped off near Indus Plaza in Sohrab Goth locality while Hussain and Naqeeb sustained injuries in the same incident.
Separate incident of violence in Korangi's Bilal Colony, Mehmoodabad's Chanesar Goth and Layari's Moosa Lane left Atif, Shehzad and Noorul Huda dead respectively.
Earlier, a police official, identified as Shabir Jan, was bumped off in Sohrab Goth neighbourhood.
Zahid was killed in Iqbal Market while Irshad was killed in a knife attack in PECHS Tipo Sultan area.
Saleem, who was injured two days ago in an armed attack, succumbed to his wounds in PIB Colony.
Meanwhile, ...back at the saloon, Butch got the bill for the damage caused by the fist fight, the mirror broken in the shootout, and drinks for everyone...... a fuel station in Surjani Town's Khuda ki Basti came under a hand grenade attack by unidentified myrmidons leaving two station workers injured.
The bomb-disposal squad, in their investigative report, suggested it was a Russian made RGD-1 grenade.
Moreover, unknown cycle of violence riders fled away after hurling a tennis-ball-bomb at a shop in China Mobile Market in Banaras area. The shop was destroyed in the attack.
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#1
a tennis-ball-bomb
I am so seeing Wiley Coyote with a racket and a tennis ball with a burning fuse. He hits it to the target, it hits, and bounces right back to him.
[Dawn] Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira on Monday said that demands of Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) chief Allama Dr Tahirul Qadri are unconstitutional, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to a presser, he said Dr Qadri is neither a political force nor holds a clear agenda. "On one hand he (Qadri) talks about compliance with the constitution and on the other his demands are extra-constitutional," said Kaira.
Since his arrival in the country, Qadri keeps on changing his demands and there were reports that he was giving new charter of demands, which is beyond comprehension, said the minister.
"It seems Dr Tahirul Qadri wants to become head of the interim setup."
"Gone are the days when a foreigner was appointed as prime minister of the country, casting far-reaching implications on the future of the country," he said.
The Pakistain People's Party (PPP) leader said consultation between the two political parties regarding caretaker setup was not a bargain as Leader of the House Chaudhry Nisar represents all the opposition parties, while leader of the house represents treasury benches in the parliament.
Kaira said that not a single political party was supporting Tahirul Qadri's march because his demands were not within ambit of the constitution.
The minister, by giving references from legal and constitutional documents, said the demand of including military and judiciary in consultation process of forming the caretaker setup is unconstitutional.
Similarly, the procedure of dissolving the election commission is given in the constitution. "It is the same procedure which is used to suspend judges of the higher judiciary.....there is no other way of dismantling the election commission," he added.
Kaira sarcastically advised the TMQ chief to get ready to challenge illegibility of election candidates.
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[An Nahar] Syria's official media lashed out at U.N.-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 Lakhdar Brahimi on Monday, denouncing him as an "aging tourist" after his criticism of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... 's peace plan.
The latest attack on the veteran Algerian diplomat follows stinging criticism by the regime and its media since Brahimi last week termed the plan announced by Assad as "perhaps even more sectarian, more one-sided" than previous initiatives.
"Lakhdar Brahimi is like an aging tourist traveling for pleasure to capital cities across the world," said Syria's official newspaper Al-Thawra.
"He has done nothing but try to make political settlements for Syria's crisis fail."
Al-Thawra criticized the envoy for not denouncing Syrian rebels, which the regime terms "armed terrorist groups".
"If he doesn't have a solution, he'd better leave the Syrians alone," the paper said.
The ruling party mouthpiece al-Baath also targeted Brahimi.
"He tries to choose on behalf of the people which parties to engage with in the settlement," it said referring to Brahimi's frequent suggestions that the solution to the conflict remained in the hands of the Syrian people.
In "three brief visits to Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... ... he has not visited other Syrian provinces in order to hear the opinion of different kinds of people," al-Baath said, adding that the diplomat "has enough" just speaking to U.S. ambassador Robert Ford.
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[Dawn] India's army chief accused Pakistain on Monday of planning a shootout along Kashmire's de facto border in which two Indian soldiers died, and said he had instructed commanders to respond aggressively if there is a provocation from the other side.
"The attack on January 8 was premeditated, a pre-planned activity. Such an operation requires planning, detailed reconnaissance," General Bikram Singh told a news conference in New Delhi.
"I expect all my commanders at the Line of Control to be both aggressive and offensive in the face of provocation and fire," he added.
He was speaking about an hour before commanders from both sides on the so-called Line of Control (LoC) dividing the Himalayan territory were due to hold talks to defuse tension after a week that saw two soldiers killed on each side.
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[Dawn] One person was injured on Monday in Rawalakot's Battal sector after shots were reportedly fired by Indian soldiers, DawnNews reported.
Earlier today, Pakistain had demanded of India to abide by the ceasefire agreement between the countries with regard to Kashmire.
Pakistain had made the demand during a flag meeting held between the Pak and Indian army commanders at the Line of Control (LoC).
The Mighty Pak Army brigadier in Poonch sector also participated in the meeting which was held to discuss the recent violations of the ceasefire agreement.
During the meeting, the Pak commanders rejected the allegations levelled against them by their Indian counterparts.
The Indian commanders accused their Pak counterparts for firing across the border, while the latter registered their own protest against Indian violations of the ceasefire at the LoC, military sources told DawnNews.
Also during the meeting, the Mighty Pak Army demanded that India must comply with the ceasefire agreement.
Earlier on Monday, the Indian Army chief, General Bikram Singh, had threatened aggressive action against any provocation by the Mighty Pak Army.
"The attack on January 8 was premeditated, a pre-planned activity. Such an operation requires planning, detailed reconnaissance," General Singh told a news conference in New Delhi.
"I expect all my commanders at the Line of Control to be both aggressive and offensive in the face of provocation and fire," he added.
Pakistain had also proposed a third party probe into the ceasefire violations recently but India had rejected the proposal saying it did not wish to "internationalise" the issue.
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#1
IIUC, this should be Pakistan's sixth alleged ceasefire violation in tote before + after the flag meeting, + the fourth violation after.
* See BHARAT RAKSHAK > PAKISTAN VIOLATES POST-FLAG MEETING FOR FOURTH TIME, FIRE S AT TWO INDIAN POSTS.
FYI the Indo-Pak "flag meeting" repor lasted only 15 minutes anyway???
* Also from BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Indian] ARMY HAS "DEFINITE PLANS" TO AVENGE LOC KILLINGS: LT. GEN. PARNAIK.
LTG Parnaik = Chief of Indian Army's Northern Command.
* SAME > IFF HEMRAJ'S HEAD [Pak-beheaded Indian Soldier at LOC] IS NOT RETURNED, GET TEN OF THEIRS [Pak Army LOC Soldiers]: SWARAJ.
Femme Indian BJP Leader Sushma Swaraj.
RELATED TOPIX > LOC CRISIS: BJP LEADER SUSHMA SWARAJ TAKES CREDIT FOR INDIA'S HARDLINE.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK [pre-update = old] > FIVE CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS BY PAKISTAN AFTER FLAG MEETING [2 before, 3 after].
#1
DAMN, the sheer ammount of Wreckage, Artillery, and Bombs LEFT makes me glad thar I wasn't there.
(I was Navy in the Atlantic at the time, a Bitter and unrewarding place, on a Old WW2 frighter (Amphion, Arcturus) going From Norfolk to re-supply the med Fleet, at 6 mph both ways, talk about Crawling, and they Damn sure made sure you didn't go faster.
I remember watches in the Engine Room, Staring at a guage for RPM's and "Dont you dare let it go slower, or faster", 4 hours at a time, My Dad wondered "Why Don't you go Carreer", Never was so glad to see the end of Norfolk.
And good Riddance.)
And all the time being reminded "Beats Vietnam."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2013 13:37
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#4
On further thought, I;m alive, got two children and two Grand Children, so, I guess it WAS a good idea to be as far from that place as possible.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2013 13:57
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#5
I crossed the Atlantic multiple times at 10Kts in the mid 90's. Blew my mind that we took as long or longer than sailing ships of yore.
I couldn't stand 'BoxOps' - staying in a 10nmx10nm box for several weeks while doing workups and training. We used to have contests on the bridge to see who could hold the ship steady for a whole watch in one spot by pointing into the current and wind. The Quartermasters loved it - only had to plot one dot!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/15/2013 14:26
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#6
Redneck Jim, My dad was engine room officer on Liberty & Victory ships crossing the Atlantic in WWII, and they were faster than yours.
#7
The most fascinating picture is near the bottom, of an undocumented crash site they found an f-4 engine. The whole thing is just magnificent and even to a youngling like me, emotional. Too many we left behind. Too many.
On a side note, Military Collectors and Restorers should be hitching a ride over there for recovery of that stuff. Could probably buy dirt cheap.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/15/2013 20:29
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#8
Does anybody know what I need to do to make my Nym stick?
It won't.
I dodn't say it wasn't faster, I said they wouldn't LET it go faster, Completely "On Schedule, I DID get to see Genoa Italy, But otherwise a total waste of time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2013 21:13
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#9
In 1944 they let 'em go as fast as they could without falling apart - even if some fell apart in the process. After VE Day his ship was diverted to the Pacific and he ended the war on the Atlantic (West - look at a map) side of the Panama Canal, because the ship wasn't considered seaworthy for the canal. Probably reasonable - that ship was a diesel, and some part of the engine was fractured and literally held together with baling wire, or at least some kind of wire and tensioner.
[An Nahar] Iraq has freed 335 inmates in the past week, a top minister said Monday while apologizing to detainees held without charge, part of efforts to curb weeks of rallies by meeting key demands of protesters.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has alternated tough talk with offers of concessions to demonstrators amid a political crisis that has pitted him against his erstwhile government partners.
The crisis has been worsened by weeks of demonstrations against Maliki's rule in mostly-Sunni areas, with protesters alleging misuse of anti-terror laws to wrongfully hold members of their community, and claiming they were being targeted by the Shiite-led authorities.
Justice ministry officials released 178 inmates on Monday, front man Haidar al-Saadi said, bringing to 335 the number of detainees freed in the past week, according to Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani.
"I apologize in the name of the Iraqi state for any of you who were tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! and kept for this period of time, and it seems later that you are innocent," Shahristani said.
"This has not only happened in Iraq, it happens in several countries. I ask all Iraqi security forces -- do not quickly arrest but concentrate on real criminals who have committed crimes against Iraqis."
Among the prisoners freed were a number of old men and women, according to an AFP journalist present for the mass release.
Officials did not provide any breakdown of the prisoners, and did not give details on how many had finished jail terms and how many had been held without charge.
"This is a good step," said Mehdi Saleh, a 42-year-old who had been held without charge in various Iraqi prisons since being arrested in 2009 in his hometown of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... a mostly Sunni city west of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... "We were really desperate to be released," he said.
Of four detainees and relatives of inmates interviewed by AFP, all said they were from Sunni-majority cities and towns.
Anti-government rallies have been ongoing since December 23 in mostly Sunni areas of Iraq, with the longest-running of the protests blocking off a key highway linking Storied Baghdad to Jordan and Syria.
Maliki has threatened to direct security forces to intervene in the protests, which were sparked by the December 20 arrest of at least nine guards of Sunni Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi.
Essawi is a leading member of the secular Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc that has urged Maliki to quit although it is a member of his unity government.
Iraq is due to hold provincial elections in April, a key barometer of support for Maliki and his opponents ahead of national polls next year.
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#1
Maliki has threatened to direct security forces to intervene in the protests
Luckily the checks all cleared and intervention became a mute point.
[Yemen Post] Yemeni police raided at dawn Monday an Al-Qaeda hideout in the capital Sanaa and tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! two suspected gunnies with equipment including explosives, the interior ministry reported.
"The hideout in the Jadder district north of Sanaa was used as a place to make explosives and bombs as well as for plans to carry out political liquidations in the country," the ministry quoted an official as saying.
"Mines, explosives, detonators, aerial bases, electric detonators and other equipment including those used to make bombs were seized during the raid," the official said, adding there were books including the guide of liquidations.
The arrestees were part of one of the most dangerous cells which had been involved in liquidations and planned to attack public targets, the ministry quoted the source as adding.
Tens of senior security and military officers, mostly intelligence officers, were assassinated last and other politicians escaped plots.
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[Dawn] Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. on Monday challenged Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) chief Tahirul Qadri's prior claims that four million people had participated in his long march from Lahore to Islamabad.
The federal interior minister further said that the number of participants in the long march could not be greater than 25,000-30,000, adding that he would inform Qadri about the actual numbers when the latter would arrive in Islamabad.
The interior minister also threatened to issue a 'white paper' against Qadri and demanded that the latter leave Islamabad on moral grounds.
He added that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was probing the expenditure of the long march.
The interior minister further said that fool-proof security arrangements had been made for the long march and that the interior ministry had provided security for the long march as promised.
Malik has previously dismissed Qadri's long march as "nothing more than a blanket march" and a "suicide kaboom on democracy."
He has also accused the TMQ chief of attempting to derail the democratic process and postpone the upcoming general elections.
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[Dawn] The Awami National Party paid tribute to its late leader Bashir Ahmed Bilour at a reference held here on Saturday.
Ghulam Ahmed Bilour ... the guy who offered a $100,000 reward for bumping off the makers of a film making fun of Islam...
told participants of the reference that the sacrifice rendered by his younger brother, Bashir Bilour, should serve as a wakeup call and there should be an immediate and permanent solution to the problem of terrorism.
According to a blurb issued by Bacha Khan Markaz, the participants, including ANP provincial president Afrasiab Khattak, information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, CM's adviser on local government and rural development Haroon Ahmed Bilour and others praised the zeal with which late Bilour campaigned for much-needed peace on the Pakhtun soil.
Ghulam Bilour said that Bashir Bilour battled terrorism bravely and remained undeterred despite being on the hit-list of Talibs. His liquidation will not go in vain as he fought for peace till end of his life, he said.
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[An Nahar] Islamists based in northern Mali, under daily bombardment by La Belle France's warplanes, vowed Monday to avenge the assault on French soil as well as in Africa.
"La Belle France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of La Belle France," said Abou Dardar, a leader of Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), an offshoot of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), speaking to Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone.
Asked where they would strike, he said: "Everywhere. In Bamako, in Africa and in Europe."
The French offensive has blocked the advance of Islamist forces towards the capital Bamako from their bases in the north which they have controlled since last April.
On Sunday, French aviation struck at targets in the central Islamist strongholds of Gao and Kidal.
Sixty Islamists were killed in Gao alone on Sunday, according to residents and a regional security force.
The MUJAO official also referred to La Belle France's eight hostages held in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... "We will make a statement on the hostages today. From today all the mujahedeen are together."
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SANAA - Yemen on Monday put on trial nine Al Qaeda suspects accused of involvement in a suicide attack in Sanaa that killed 86 soldiers last May.
Try them fair and then hang them fair...
The hearing, at a Sanaa court specialising in terrorism cases, was being held under tight security, an AFP correspondent reported. The defendants, identified as members of a group known as the Saawan cell, are accused of having planned to assassinate security leaderships and targeting civilian and military establishments using explosive belts and silent guns, according to the chargesheet read out in the court.
They are also accused of participating in the May 21, 2012 attack which killed 86 soldiers and wounded 173, the chargesheet added.
Al Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the blast, which it said was aimed at Defence Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed and his aides. The minister escaped unharmed.
The attack saw a man dressed as a soldier detonate explosives under his uniform in the middle of a battalion. The massive blast echoed loudly across Sanaa, causing panic among residents. It was the biggest assault on Yemeni troops since President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi came to power in February last year, following a year long uprising that ousted his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh.
After the charges were read, one of the defendants, 24-year-old Hisham Sharaabi, shouted: This case is political and involves high-ranking officials.
The defendants denied the charges and claimed they had confessed under pressure.
Prosecutors have demanded capital punishment for the nine, who are also charged with joining Al Qaeda and taking jihadist and incitement lessons from Ansar Al Sharia (Islamic law) in Abyan, said the judge, referring to jihadists who fought the army for over a year across south Yemen.
The next hearing will take place on January 21.
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[BBC.CO.UK] Islamist fighters in Mali have seized a town in government-controlled territory, though La Belle France said the Islamists were "in retreat" elsewhere.
French officials said Diabaly, 400km (250 miles) from the capital, Bamako, was taken in a counter-attack.
La Belle France began a military intervention on Friday in an effort to halt Islamists who took control of northern Mali last year and were advancing towards Bamako.
The UN Security Council has convened to discuss Mali at La Belle France's request.
Aid workers said many people had been fleeing areas targeted by French air strikes over the past four days.
The Islamists began a counter-attack on Diabaly, home to a key Mali army base, on Sunday night, hours after French warplanes had targeted the town.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told BFM television: "They took Diabaly after fierce fighting and resistance from the Malian army that was not able to hold them off at that moment."
One resident told the BBC that the fighting had lasted for about 10 hours.
"About five [rebel] vehicles entered the town," he said. "Now they're stationed about 200m (650ft) from the military camp but they haven't taken the camp. They've killed a few soldiers."
A Malian military source told AFP news agency that rebels had come from the Mauritanian border area after being attacked by French planes.
Rebels 'in retreat' The BBC's Mark Doyle reports from Bamako that although the Islamists are still hundreds of miles away, the war was felt in the Malian capital as the president visited maimed soldiers in hospital there.
La Belle France intensified its air strikes on rebel targets over the weekend, with its aircraft also bombing the town of Gao in eastern Mali. On Monday witnesses told AFP there had been air strikes on Douentza for a fourth consecutive day.
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#1
Note the absence of enemy WIA/KIA stats, which must indicate there have been buttloads. Somewhere US Army JAG's and State Department 'Nation Builders' are wringing their hands and sobbing uncontrollably.
#2
I do hope everyone knows what they are getting themselves into. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the south of Africa. At one time there we Catholics, Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, Methodists, and even Jews, but they all had evil, exploitive colonial roots and have been in rapid decline.
[Yemen Post] Mohammed Samih, General Coordinator for the recovery of stolen funds in Yemen told al-Jazeera on Sunday the group had been hard at work since September 2012, date of its creation, bent on guaranteeing the recovery of all the money the former regime it believes swindle out of Yemen. Former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... and his eldest son, Gen. Ahmed Ali Saleh- former Commander in Chief of the Elite Republican Guards - are believed to have a combine net worth of several billions of dollars, spread out through the Middle East, the United States of America, and western Europe -- La Belle France, Germany and the UK--
Under the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Convention Against Corruption - UNCAC- the international community can and must enable any government which seeks to investigate and take actions against individuals or groups they believe embezzled public funds or benefited from criminal activities. Signed in 2003 UNCAC is the most recent of a long series of developments in which experts and politicians have recognized the far-reaching impact of corruption and economic crime that undermine the value of democracy, sustainable development, and rule of law.
UNCAC deals with forms of corruption that had not been covered by many of the earlier international instruments, such as trading in influence, abuse of function, and various types of corruption in the private sector. A further significant development was the inclusion of a specific chapter dealing with the recovery of stolen assets, a major concern for countries that pursue the assets of former leaders and other officials accused or found to have engaged in corruption.
Under Chapter IV of UNCAC, States Parties are obliged to assist one another in every aspect of the fight against corruption, including prevention, investigation, and the prosecution of offenders. Cooperation takes the form of extradition, mutual legal assistance, transfer of sentences persons and criminal proceedings, and law enforcement cooperation.
According to Samih, Germany prevented Gen. Ahmed Ali from from completing a series of order on his accounts -- transfer of funds and property deeds - Although only a fraction of Saleh's sons and nephews money is actually believed to be hidden in Europe, Samih said he was pleased Germany had agreed to assist Yemen in its fight against corruption.
However he noted how disappointing Gulf countries had been in their refusal to come forth with Saleh and his coterie's financial information.
It has been rumoured - although without proof so far - that Saleh's family members have been using screens to hide their wealth, their money hidden away within foreign companies, properties bought under agents and funds transferred to off-shore accounts through proxies -- Gen. Yehia Saleh - former Head of the Central Security Forces - quite openly bought multi-million dollars properties in Leb where he relocated in 2012 months prior to his dismissal by President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
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[An Nahar] Russia's defense minister expressed horror on Monday that soldiers were still wrapping cloths around their feet instead of wearing socks, and vowed the historic practice must end this year.
"I would like to give an order that in 2013, at least by the end of the year, we forget the word 'foot cloths'," a grim-faced Sergei Shoigu told military top brass at a televised meeting.
"I ask for extra funds to be issued if necessary so that we completely give up this concept in the armed forces."
Russia's military leaders have repeatedly vowed to ban the practice, dating back a hundred years, as part of an attempt to modernise the sprawling armed forces.
Soldiers wind pieces of cloth around their feet, which some say is more practical for use with tall boots, but the practice is seen as shamefully old-fashioned.
The Russian armed forces modernized its uniform in 2008 with help from top fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin, including cotton socks.
"This is 2013. We are still talking about foot cloths," Shoigu said, adding that he had seen the practice while visiting units in recent months.
"Listen, I am amazed at such an attitude to our troops. Find the level of demand and solve this task," the former emergencies minister ordered brusquely.
Foot cloths and tall boots were taken off the list of essential elements of uniform for the armed forces in 2007 but their use continued and was never banned, a source in the defense ministry told the state RIA Novosti news agency.
Soldiers still wear tall boots for some tasks and foot cloths are more suitable than socks, the source admitted.
"It's very uncomfortable wearing socks with tall boots. The feet quickly get rubbed raw and socks wear out instantly."
Shoigu was appointed defense minister by President Vladimir Putin in November last year after the sacking of his predecessor Anatoly Serdyukov, who is currently being questioned as a witness in a vast corruption scandal.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Apparently Russian industry hasn't discovered multi-layered socks yet???
#5
WTF??!!! They are going with cotton socks instead of wool in Russia??? Hello frostbite!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/15/2013 11:31
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#6
Use of cotton socks in cold weather is utterly ridiculous.
In other news, Russian soldiers have been ordered to use belts to hold up their pants instead of ropes and rags currently being used. The order has been put on hold pending issuance of belts to the troops.
#1
"the gun as an instrument of peace and stability"
Nice find! Not your usual TED talk, which tend to fall into the strange attractor of eco-hipster douchery and unicorn-flavored twaddle; not to say there are no pearls amongst the swine.
The audience reaction shots were interesting. More scowls than the usual gleeful delight most TED talks invoke. I put it down to the congnitive from hearing someone from a despised culture stand before them and make sense.
#4
"A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that."
#5
I'm saving that, Leftys WON'T See this,(Close their Minds and Look away) "But it's true", and powerful.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2013 12:28
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#6
If the day ever comes when I should have to fire a gun
Well, it won't be done for money and it won't be done for fun.
Though I pray each day that such a thing should never come to pass
If you tamper with me liberties then, buddy, it's your ass.
For a gun is just an instrument like any other tool
And to be afraid to use it is to be a bloody fool.
So before you come to visit me remember where I'm from
For I'll help you get to Heaven if that day should come.
Josh Stanton reviews the current economic situation, political repression, border murders, and the state of Kim Jong Un's sexual repression. Yes, they're all related.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
EEEEEEWWWWWWWW ...
We missed the "Thats Too Much Information" Conference at Berkeley again last year, didn't we???
[An Nahar] Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi visits on Tuesday Iran, his country's key regional ally, a week after Syrian rebels freed 48 Iranians held hostage for more than five months, the foreign ministry said.
"The Syrian prime minister, leading a high-ranking political and economic delegation, arrives in Tehran tomorrow," foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted by the ISNA news agency on Monday.
He did not provide further details about the visit.
Halaqi's trip comes as an air strike on a rebel town near Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... killed 13 women and kiddies on Monday, a watchdog said, fueling international calls for a war crimes probe into the nearly two-year Syrian conflict.
On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi urged Middle East nations to promote a solution for Syria's conflict that excludes "foreign intervention," after talks in Cairo with Egyptian leaders.
The renewed statement of Tehran's position on its key ally came as fighting dragged on in Syria, where more than 60,000 people have been killed since March 2011, according to a U.N. estimate.
It also came a day after the Damascus regime freed more than 2,100 of its detainees in exchange for 48 Iranians the Syrian rebels had been holding for more than five months.
Iran has repeatedly advocated a political solution and dialogue between the government and opposition groups to end the Syrian crisis and in October Salehi gave Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi a six-point plan to end the crisis.
Tehran is committed to the survival of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... and his regime.
It has supplied financial aid and admitted to sending Revolutionary Guards military advisers to Damascus, but does not consider that "foreign" interference on its part.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2013
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the Rental Power Projects (RPP) scam, a major blow to the government and the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
[Yemen Post] The specialized penal court started on Monday the trial of ten suspects accused of involvement in the bombing that killed and injured scores of central security soldiers while performing a military parade rehearsal in the Sabeen Square in downtown in Yemen's capital Sanaa in May 2011. 
A man told police he was on a military mission when caught shoplifting Sunday afternoon at a supermarket in east Athens.
[An Nahar] At least 26 children were killed in violence in Syria on Monday, a watchdog said, fueling international calls for a war crimes probe into the 22-month conflict.
International Criminal Court
[Dawn] THE news today may bring you to the edge of your seat, but apathy to the violence that endures may soon take over, given the general societal attitude.
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
[Dawn] The Sindh government imposed a ban on 
[Dawn] Terrorists who use improvised 
President Asif Ali 
[Dawn] Police 
[An Nahar] The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are set to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria at a meeting at the end of January, a Russian diplomat said Monday.
[Bangla Daily Star] Out on bail from jail in an attempted rape case last month, accused Rais Uddin Sheikh was looking for 
The IAEA delegation will visit Tehran on Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, speaking live on Iranian television, IRINN reported. According to Mehmanparast, one of the Deputy head of IAEA will be the one visiting Iran.
A group of lawyers from Turkey went to the Gaza Strip in order to gather evidence of war crimes committed by the Israeli army against the people of Gaza, Anadolu agency reported on Monday.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday asked the Israeli government to rescind plans for new settlements in the West Bank's E1 area, where Palestinians demonstrating against the construction were evacuated, dpa reported.
Eight people died while at least four people were killed within an hour in different incidents of violence in 
[Dawn] Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira on Monday said that demands of Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) chief Allama Dr Tahirul Qadri are unconstitutional, DawnNews reported.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] India's army chief accused Pakistain on Monday of planning a shootout along 
[Dawn] One person was injured on Monday in Rawalakot's Battal sector after shots were reportedly fired by Indian soldiers, DawnNews reported.
[Dawn] Federal Interior Minister 
[Dawn] The Awami National Party paid tribute to its late leader Bashir Ahmed Bilour at a reference held here on Saturday.
[An Nahar] Islamists based in northern Mali, under daily bombardment by 
[BBC.CO.UK] Islamist fighters in Mali have seized a town in government-controlled territory, though 
[Yemen Post] Mohammed Samih, General Coordinator for the recovery of stolen funds in Yemen told al-Jazeera on Sunday the group had been hard at work since September 2012, date of its creation, bent on guaranteeing the recovery of all the money the former regime it believes swindle out of Yemen. Former President 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
