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Syrian Rebels Claim To Seize Nuclear Facility
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Half of freed Afghan fighters return to Taliban
At least half the Afghan Taliban recently freed from Pakistani prisons have rejoined the insurgency, a Pakistani intelligence official says, throwing into question the value of such goodwill gestures that the Afghan government requested to restart a flagging peace process.

A senior Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity so he could talk freely confirmed that "some" newly freed Taliban have returned to the battlefield.

The development underscores the difficulties in reaching a political deal with the Taliban before the end of 2014, when NATO and US troops are scheduled to have completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Many Taliban released from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay have also gone underground.

Despite some recent signs from the Taliban that they are willing to share power and want to avoid a civil war, the militants may well be playing for time until 2014. That's also when the Afghans are scheduled to elect a new president to succeed Hamid Karzai, whom the insurgents consider an American puppet.

The Taliban have long refused to speak directly with Karzai or his government. They have said they will negotiate only with the United States, which has held secret talks with them in the Gulf state of Qatar. But at Karzai's insistence, the US has since sought to have the insurgents speak directly with the Afghan government. Western officials privately say that the talks have so far gone no further.

At the request of the Afghan High Peace Council late last year, Pakistan freed 24 prisoners to coax a reluctant Taliban leadership to talk peace directly with Karzai's government, according to Ismail Qasemyar, a senior peace council official.

The freed prisoners are all Afghan Taliban, who are battling NATO and US troops in Afghanistan. Many of these fighters use neighbouring Pakistan as a home base, particularly in winter months.

The release of the prisoners appears to have backfired, however, with the intelligence official saying about half of them have returned to the Taliban. The outcome is further testing an already troubled relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and drawing US complaints that Pakistan has not done enough to keep track of the freed Taliban.

Posted by: tipper || 02/23/2013 16:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We should track them, with a boom belt (Hidden) Inside their belly, each.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/23/2013 19:38 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
American troops in Niger to set up drone base
President Barack Obama said Friday that about 100 American troops have been deployed to the African nation of Niger. Two U.S. defense officials said the troops would be setting up a base for unarmed drones to conduct surveillance.

Obama announced the deployment in a letter to Congress, saying that the forces "will provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region."

The move marks a deepening of U.S. efforts to stem the spread of al-Qaida and its affiliates in the volatile region. It also underscores Obama's desire to fight extremism without involving large numbers of U.S. ground forces.

The drone base will allow the U.S. to give France more intelligence on the militants its forces have been fighting in Mali, which neighbors Niger. Over time, it could extend the reach not only of American intelligence-gathering but also U.S. special operations missions to strengthen Niger's own security forces.

One of the two U.S. defense officials who discussed the development confirmed the American troops would fly drones and other surveillance platforms from Niger military airstrips, tracking militant and refugee movement inside Mali and around the border. The U.S. will share that intelligence with Niger's military, the official said.

Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the project.

The drones at the Niger base will be unarmed and used for surveillance, not air strikes. Still, the development of a base in Niger raises the possibility that it could eventually be used for launching strikes.
Posted by: tipper || 02/23/2013 15:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  hope they have ROE to protect themselves
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 17:04 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
18 attempts in four months to kidnap Israeli soldiers
Hamas and other Palestinian groups have made 18 attempts in the past four months to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips for the release of Palestinian security prisoners, an Israeli general said Saturday.

Avi Mizrahi, outgoing commander of the IDF's Central Command, said Hamas was behind most of the attempts.

The general, interviewed on Channel 2′s Meet the Press, was speaking amid a dramatic upsurge in violence surrounding Palestinian security prisoners, several of whom are hunger-striking.

Hamas leaders have repeatedly urged their followers to try to replicate the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier who was grabbed in a raid into Israel from Gaza in 2006, held hostage by Hamas in the Strip for five years, and released in October 2006 in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners, including arch-terrorists.

On Saturday, unrelated to the hunger-strikes, a Palestinian prisoner died in Israel's Meggido Prison, apparently of a heart-related health issue. Palestinian prisoners throughout the country were reported to be planning protests over the death of Arafat Jaradat, 30, on Sunday. Jaradat, who died of heart failure, had previously been injured by an IDF rubber-bullet, according to some reports.

Despite the escalation of protests, Mizrahi said he did not believe Israel was witnessing the beginning of a third Palestinian intifada. "We have all the means to see" if a more major uprising were unfolding, he said. "There's no interest and no 'fuel' to motivate something like this," he said.

During the violence on Saturday, several Palestinians were injured in clashes with settlers at Qusra in the West Bank. There were also demonstrations in Hebron.

In Israel, hundreds of Islamic Movement activists, community leaders, and locals attended a protest in Nazareth to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners hunger-striking in Israeli detention.

Saturday's march was attended by several Israeli Arab MKs, among them Balad MK Hanin Zoabi. Zoabi said Israel's policies on security prisoners "will lead to an explosion" of Palestinian protest.

Demonstrators are principally demanding the release of hunger-striking prisoners Samer Issawi, Ayman Sharawneh, Tareq Qaadan, and Jafar Azzidine. Issawi has been on hunger strike for over 200 days.
This article starring:
Gilad Shalit
Posted by: tipper || 02/23/2013 15:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Talk of peace with Pakistan Taliban angers victims
Posted by: tipper || 02/23/2013 15:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran announces new uranium deposits discovery
Iran announced Saturday that it had designated 16 new sites for nuclear power plants and made a significant discovery of new uranium deposits, days before the Islamic Republic was scheduled to partake in talks with Western powers in Kazakhstan over its controversial nuclear program.

"Following months of efforts, 16 new sites for nuclear power plants have been designated in coastal areas of the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, [southwestern province of] Khuzestan and northwestern part of the country," Press TV quoted the Atomic Energy Organization as saying.

The agency stated that the nuclear plants were being established for electricity generation only, and were in line with international standards.

The organization added that Iran has found significant new deposits of raw uranium to feed its nuclear program.
Posted by: tipper || 02/23/2013 14:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
WaPo Reports Fourth-Quarter Loss
The Washington Post Co. reported a fourth-quarter 2012 loss of $45.4 million, or $6.57 a share, as it took $113 million of after-tax charges for goodwill write-downs and restructuring, mostly in its Kaplan education subsidiary. A year earlier, the company earned $61.7 million, or $8.03 a share

But The Post Co. said that, after excluding those and other special items, net income from continuing operations rose to $78.8 million, up 15 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011. It also stressed that its cash flow and cash positions were strong.
Diversify, you fools! Oh, wait...
Results at the company's four main subsidiaries were mixed. The Kaplan education unit and the newspaper division continued to struggle; revenue at each dropped about 6 percent, and operating income fell sharply. But revenue and profits at The Post Co.'s regional TV broadcast stations surged thanks to a flood of political advertising.
Gee, wonder what happens to that revenue in the next fiscal quarter...
The company's cable subsidiary also reported solid earnings.

Daily circulation at The Washington Post declined 8.6 percent, to an average of 471,800 for all of 2012, and Sunday circulation dropped 6.2 percent, to an average of 687,200.
There they are in the capital, captive audience, politically positioned just so, and they still can't sell newspapers...
But there must be a silver lining?
One benefit of the paper's woes: lower newsprint costs. Those expenses were down 10 percent in 2012 and in the fourth quarter. The company also announced that it had sold its 49 percent interest in troubled Bowater Mersey Paper Co., a forestry and paper mill business based in Nova Scotia, for a nominal amount. No gain or loss was recorded; the investment had already been written down to zero.
A total write-off? Brilliant, just brilliant management...
The company said accounting charges for pension plans depressed the newspaper's earnings, even though the company has made no cash contributions to the overfunded plans for many years.
Imagine that! The future caught up with them, too!
The company's big Kaplan education division, which accounted for 55 percent of The Post Co.'s revenue in 2012, continued to struggle, as well. The once-high-flying division -- which had operating income of $359.6 million in 2010 -- earned a more modest $65.5 million in all of 2012, down 55 percent from the year before. And the company said it expects to incur about $25 million in additional restructuring costs in 2013.

The Kaplan Higher Education unit faces growing competition as well as pressure from federal Education Department requirements.
I keep looking for an Irony Meter.
We have one but it keeps pegging and breaking...
New student enrollments at Kaplan University and Kaplan Higher Education campuses were down 1 percent in 2012, and the total number of students at the two programs was down 12 percent at the end of 2012, compared with the end of 2011.

The bright spots for the company continued to be cable and broadcast television. TV broadcasting revenue jumped 32 percent in the fourth quarter and 25 percent for the year. The television stations continued to benefit from political advertising.
You'll get a little bump in two years, and a bigger bump in four, if you're still around.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/23/2013 13:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I was under the impression that Kaplan was their only consistent money-making operation. If that goes titzup, they'll be down the tubes right after the Boston Globe bites it.
Posted by: Raj || 02/23/2013 14:26 Comments || Top||

#2  The competition the Kaplan higher ed. unit faces comes, one imagines, from the free offerings of the Khan Academy and the Open Courseware Consortium, to which a good many prestigious universities have contributed material.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 16:16 Comments || Top||

#3  and yet - they continue to tell the rest of us how we should live and what decisions are the right ones. FOAD J-school lapdogs
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 16:32 Comments || Top||


Government
Manufacturered Sequestration "Crisis"
Even during this desultory economic recovery, one industry thrives -- the manufacture of synthetic hysteria. It is, however, inaccurate to accuse the Hysteric in Chief of crying "Wolf!" about spending cuts under the sequester. He is actually crying "Hamster!"
Hey! You ever been bit by a hamster? It hurts!
As in: Batten down the hatches -- the sequester will cut $85 billion from this year's $3.6 trillion budget! Or: Head for the storm cellar -- spending will be cut 2.3 percent! Or: Washington chain-saw massacre -- we must scrape by on 97.7 percent of current spending! Or: Famine, pestilence and locusts will come when the sequester causes federal spending over 10 years to plummet from $46 trillion all the way down to $44.8 trillion! Or: Grass will grow in the streets of America's cities if the domestic agencies whose budgets have increased 17 percent under President Obama must endure a 5 percent cut!

The sequester has forced liberals to clarify their conviction that whatever the government's size is at any moment, it is the bare minimum necessary to forestall intolerable suffering. At his unintentionally hilarious hysteria session Tuesday, Obama said: The sequester's "meat-cleaver approach" of "severe," "arbitrary" and "brutal" cuts will "eviscerate" education, energy and medical research spending. "And already, the threat of these cuts has forced the Navy to delay an aircraft carrier that was supposed to deploy to the Persian Gulf."
Remember "The Admiral's Barge" Syndrome?
In the high-stakes pressure campaign against Iran's nuclear weapons program, U.S. policy has been to have two carriers in nearby waters. Yet the Navy is saying it cannot find cuts to programs or deployments less essential than the Truman deployment. The Navy's participation in the political campaign to pressure Congress into unraveling the sequester is crude, obvious and shameful.

Obama, who believes government spends money more constructively than do those who earn it, warns that the sequester's budgetary nicks, amounting to one-half of 1 percent of gross domestic product, will derail the economy. A similar jeremiad was heard in 1943 when economist Paul Samuelson, whose Keynesian assumptions have trickled down to Obama, said postwar cuts in government would mean "the greatest period of unemployment and industrial dislocation which any economy has ever faced."

Federal spending did indeed shrink an enormous 40 percent in one year. And the economy boomed.
Well, maybe so, but that was before Global Warming!
Because crises are government's excuse for growing, liberalism's motto is: Never let a crisis go unfabricated. But its promiscuous production of crises has made them boring.

Remember when, in the 1980s, thousands died from cancers caused by insufficient regulation of the chemical Alar sprayed on apples? No, you don't because this alarming prediction fizzled. Alar was not, after all, a risk.

Remember when "a major cooling of the climate" was "widely considered inevitable" (New York Times, May 21, 1975) with "extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation" (Science magazine, Dec. 10, 1976) which must "stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery" (International Wildlife, July 1975)? Remember reports that "the world's climatologists are agreed" that we must "prepare for the next ice age" (Science Digest, February 1973)?

Today, while Obama prepares a governmental power grab to combat global warming, sensible Americans, tuckered out with apocalypse fatigue, are yawning through the catastrophe du jour, the sequester. They say: Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the hamsters of sequestration.
Sequestration - halfway there!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/23/2013 13:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the high-stakes pressure campaign against Iran's nuclear weapons program, U.S. policy has been to have two carriers in nearby waters.

They've already called your bluff and are driving on with their own priorities. Lots of lower primate posturing (all the screaming and gesturing), but no real action.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2013 15:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Despite the Obama screaming, it's STILL Obama's "Cliff" and he wants to change it to the Republican's Cliff.

Won't work Stupid, you got it and it'll sink you, so sink.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/23/2013 19:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Paging Jimmy Carter - Killer Rabbit Alert
RALEIGH, N.C. (CBS Charlotte) - Officials with both the North Carolina Division of Public Health and the Wildlife Commission are urging hunters to be wary about rabbit fever after two hunters contracted it this month.

Their warning, reported by the Wilson Times, comes just before the end of rabbit hunting season on Feb. 28.

The disease, tularemia, is a rare and possibly fatal affliction that has already affected two members of a hunting party in the state recently -- and has led to a confirmed 17 cases overall since 1999.
Posted by: Raj || 02/23/2013 13:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
French Operation Serval para drop - A short vid
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/23/2013 09:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sweet, airborne engineers, gotta like it.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/23/2013 14:10 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Philadelphia's burqa crisis
by Daniel Pipes
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/23/2013 06:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Philadelphia, the city where I live, has quietly and unassumedly become the capital of the Western world as regards female Islamic garb as an accessory to crime.

By my count, the Philadelphia region has witnessed 14 robberies (or attempted robberies) of financial institutions in the past six years in which the thieves relied on an Islamic full-body cover."
Posted by: Lumpy Turkeyneck6299 || 02/23/2013 8:00 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
4 Somalis in U.S. guilty of supporting terrorism
A Somali terror leader implored his fellow countryman in California to send money 'to finance jihad," triggering a chain of events that ended with four convictions.

U.S. government agents recorded dozens of such calls a few years ago, according to the Department of Justice.

And on Friday, a jury found four Somali nationals guilty of supporting terrorism in their native country.

The verdict came after prosecutors played the recordings to jurors in a San Diego federal court during weeks of trial.

The four, who included an imam and a cab driver, had raised $10,000 and wired it to the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab, according to the original indictment.

Cab driver Basaaly Saeed Moalin had many phone conversations with former Al-Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Ayrow, before a U.S. missile strike ended the latter's life in May 2008.

Investigators from the FBI, Homeland Security and a San Diego anti-terror agency recorded dozens of them.

Federal prosecutors filed charges in November 2011. The group pleaded not guilty. But the recordings convinced the jurors otherwise.

The money wasn't coming fast enough for Ayrow, who implored Moalin in at least one recorded call to hurry it up. "You are running late with the stuff," Ayrow told him. "Send some, and something will happen."

Ayrow pushed the cab driver to get his local imam to come up with some funds. Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud ran the City Heights mosque in San Diego, which many in the Somali community attended.

Together with a second cab driver, Ahmed Nasiri Taalil Mohamud, and an employee at a money transfer company, Issa Doreh, they raised the cash and wired it to Al-Shabaab , the Justice Department said.

It wasn't the only favor Moalin did for the terror group.

Moalin had kept a house in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, one of the world's most embattled cities at the time. He offered to let the terrorists use it, the Department of Justice said.

"After you bury your stuff deep in the ground, you would, then, plant trees on top," Moalin told Ayrow in a recorded conversation. Prosecutors argued he was "offering a place to hide weapons."

For months, they talked about "bullets, bombing and Jihad," said U. S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy. After hearing the recordings, the jury no longer bought the defendants' explanation that they "were actually conversations about their charitable efforts for orphans and schools," she said.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 16.

Al-Shabaab is one of about 50 groups that have been designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations.
The Times of Israel adds a bit of background:
In December, 26-year-old Nima Ali Yusuf became the first woman sentenced in the crackdown within the Somali community. Yusuf, who fled war-torn Somalia as a child, received eight years in prison for sending $1,450 to members of al-Shabaab.

Most of the 87,000 Somalis living in the United States have arrived through US-sponsored refugee resettlement programs. The largest two US Somali communities, and the sites of most of the arrests in the crackdown, are in San Diego and Minnesota.
And it looks like we're clearing out those least able to make the transition fairly quickly.

This article starring:
Aden Hashi Ayrow
Ahmed Nasiri Taalil Mohamud
Basaaly Saeed Moalin
Issa Doreh
Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud
Nima Ali Yusuf
Posted by: tipper || 02/23/2013 06:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Amish?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2013 9:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud ran the City Heights mosque in San Diego.

Not sayin it’s fair but with a name like that you gotta figure there’s gonna be some eyes on you. Oh well, guess it’s better than Jihad Jihad Jihad.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/23/2013 9:42 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran May Be Advancing New Way To Produce Nukes
More technical data at link, for those interested.
[Jpost] Ahead of renewed nuclear talks, UN report says Iran will complete installation of research reactor in 2014.

Iran has almost completed installation of cooling and moderator circuit piping in the heavy water plant near the town of Arak, the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a confidential report issued to member states late on Thursday.

Nuclear analysts say this type of reactor could yield plutonium for nuclear arms if the spent fuel is reprocessed, something Iran has said it has no intention of doing. Iran has said it "does not have reprocessing activities", the IAEA said.

Iran has repeatedly declared it has no plans to reprocess the spent fuel. But, "similarly sized reactors ostensibly built for research" have been used by India, Israel, and Pakistain to make plutonium for weapons, Fitzpatrick said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 06:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Tis only Plutonium for NucEnergy - what could possibly go wrong???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/23/2013 20:52 Comments || Top||


Iran's Revolutionary Guards Begin 3-Day Military Exercise
They seem to do an awful lot of exercising...
[Jpost] Iran's Revolutionary Guards began a three-day ground and air military exercise on Saturday, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.

Fars quoted the front man for the Great Prophet 8 war games as saying the drills included intelligence-gathering drones as well as tests of the IRGC's cyber-defense systems.

According to Fars, the drills are aimed at "maintaining and improving the combat preparedness of the IRGC ground forces, testing the latest combat systems of the IRGC Ground Force and exercising different asymmetric warfare tactics."

The exercise was being held in the regions of Kerman, Siriz and Sirjan in southeastern Iran.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 06:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Spanish Police Nab 3 Suspected Of Spying For Iran
[Jpost] According to media outlets in Spain, police suspect 3 of infiltrating an NGO that helps asylum seekers, sending information to Iran.
Those Iranians sure do keep themselves busy..
.The Spanish police jugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
three people in Madrid and Torrelavaga on suspicion of involvement in a network spying on dissidents of the Iranian regime, the Spanish media reported Friday.

According to a blurb from the Spanish police cited by media outlets, the suspects allegedly infiltrated a Spanish NGO that aids asylum seekers, and communicated to the Iranian secret services the identities of people who fled the country for ideological reasons. The police suspected the three of violating the confidentiality of data and information of Iranians who fled the Islamic Theocratic Republic and expressed interest in seeking asylum in Spain.

The police reportedly believed the three to be members of a spy network allegedly controlled by the Iranian intelligence services from the seat of its own embassy in Madrid.

The aim of the network was allegedly to monitor, pursue and even threaten countrymen living in Spain, considered to be dissidents of the Iranian regime.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that a Spanish citizien working for an NGO in Torrelavega recommended that a specific interpreter aid the asylum seekers, but that interpreter was in fact a spy who passed along personal information of all those that he helped.

The three people jugged
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
in Madrid include: the NGO's legal adviser, the interpreter and an embassy employ
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 06:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
UK Court Finds 3 Guilty In 'Spectacular' Plot
[Times of Israel] Mohammedan bully boyz face life in prison for plan to carry out 'another 9/11′; watchdog decries 'disturbing example of would-be anti-Semitic terrorism'

Three men were found guilty Thursday of planning a "spectacular bombing campaign" in the UK, including an attack on a synagogue.

Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, wanted to carry out "another 9/11" by using eight jacket wallahs armed with guns and explosives-filled rucksacks to target "crowded places" in their native city of Birmingham, Woolwich Crown Court found.

The trio had not decided on a specific target, but in conversations secretly recorded by police, Naseer said that even if the group could not make a bomb, it could "get guns, yeah, from the black geezers, Africans, and charge in some like synagogue or charge in different places."
Jihadi wanted: no brains required.
Two of the men, Naseer and Khalid, traveled to Pakistain twice for training, including a two-month stint at an al-Qaeda facility. They recorded martyrdom videos before returning to the UK in 2011, where they recruited Ali and experimented together in building bombs.

Naseer also helped send four other men to Pakistain for training, and recruited two others for his own plot. All six have already pleaded guilty to related terrorism charges.

In addition to 12 counts of preparing acts of terrorism between December 2010 and September 2011, Naseer, Khalid and Ali were convicted of raising money for terrorism and recruiting others for a terror act.

The Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors anti-Semitism and provides security for the Jewish community in Britannia, welcomed the guilty verdict, but said the plot "is yet another disturbing example of would-be anti-Semitic terrorism here in Britannia. This is the third recent case in which hard boyz have contemplated British Jews amongst other UK targets, the others being an al-Qaeda plot of 2011 and the Stock Exchange plot of 2010.

"Worse still, it follows last year's Khans case, in which a married couple solely targeted the Jewish community of North Manchester."

"In Britannia, terrorism threatens all of society. We are all at equal risk when using public places, such as transport hubs or famous buildings, but these cases demonstrate that British Jews face an additional level of threat, due to the sheer number of hard boyz who regard Jews as amongst the priority targets for their actions."

Sentencing will take place in April or May. The judge, Mr. Justice Henriques, has already warned the men they face life in prison.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 06:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  Pakistan is the common denominator in all these plots.
Posted by: Snomomp Schwarzeneggar3438 || 02/23/2013 11:49 Comments || Top||


Europe
Hezbollah Agent Gathered Data On Israel Flights
[Jpost] Cyprus bomb plot suspect testifies that he was told to record landing times; NYT: Hezbollah paid Yaacoub $600 per month.
The man is singing like a bird. Going home after all this is probably not an option -- could it be that secretly he worked for Mossad all along? They're sly like that, you know.
Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, one of the suspects in a thwarted terrorist attack against Israelis in Cyprus in July, said on Friday that he was sent to record the time of arrival of flights from Israel, Army Radio reported.

According to the report, Yaacoub testified in court on Thursday that he was told by his superiors to document the landing times of flights from Israel.

The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported the Cyprus bomb-plot suspect was payed "$600 per month since 2010" by Hezbollah.

The Times quoted a written testimony read before the court where Yaacoub described acting as a courier for the group in Turkey, La Belle France and the Netherlands.

Providing a rare insight into the operations of the Lebanese cut-thoat group, Yaacoub said that if his handler wished to contact him, he would send a message "about the weather," The Times reported.

"I work for my party," Yaacoub said. "Whenever they asked me to do something, I delivered," The Times quoted his testimony as stating.

Yaacoub was also given the code name "Wael," The Times reported, quoting the bomb-plot suspect as saying that "in general, the party is based on secrecy between members. We don't know the real names of our fellow members."

The bomb-plot suspect said that as a member of Hezbollah, he had the right to refuse to participate in terrorist operations, The Times reported. "If I was asked to participate in attacks, I had the right to refuse," he said.

On Thursday, President Shimon Peres called on the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
to place Hezbollah on its list of terror organizations. Peres said it was time for every organization, particularly the EU, to list Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

"In Syria the president is slaughtering his own people and the children of his country," Peres said, looking to the northeast. "Close by, in Leb, [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, wearing the robe of the religious, is pushing Leb toward war, even though Leb has no enemies."

Yaacoub, a 24-year old Lebanese-Swedish citizen, faces eight charges in the criminal court in the city of Limassol. The Cypriot authorities charged him with membership in a criminal organization whose aim is "carrying out missions in any part of the world, including the Cyprus Republic, against Israeli citizens," among seven other crimes -- reduced from an original 17 terrorism-related charges.

The Cypriot prosecution began its cross-examination of Yaacoub on Thursday, and the case may run until March 7, with a verdict anticipated in mid-March.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 06:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Rebels Claim To Seize Nuclear Facility
[Times of Israel] Al Khibar site, described as a research center,
They all seem to be research centers, for some reason...
They're researching better ways to kill all the Jooooz, though you could think of it as 'research and development' if you wish...
is believed to have housed a nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel in 2007.

Syrian rebels claimed overnight Friday that they had taken control of a nuclear facility that was bombed by Israel in 2007.

In messages posted online, rebel sources described the site as a "nuclear research facility."

The al-Kibar site, located in the Deir ez-Zor region of eastern Syria, is believed to have previously housed a nuclear reactor, which according to foreign reports, was destroyed by the Israeli Air Force.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 06:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  wasn't it scraped clean after the attack?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 10:14 Comments || Top||

#2  So they've laid claim to a pile of rubble?
Posted by: Alanc || 02/23/2013 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Next up, potholes!
Posted by: BrujoTejano || 02/23/2013 12:45 Comments || Top||

#4  The Crater is ours!
Posted by: Shipman || 02/23/2013 14:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
America's New Mandarins
... I think that we are looking at something even deeper than that: the Mandarinization of America.
Or to use a Russian word, the new nomenklatura.
The Chinese imperial bureaucracy was immensely powerful. Entrance was theoretically open to anyone, from any walk of society--as long as they could pass a very tough examination. The number of passes was tightly restricted to keep the bureaucracy at optimal size.

Passing the tests and becoming a "scholar official" was a ticket to a very good, very secure life. And there is something to like about a system like this ... especially if you happen to be good at exams. Of course, once you gave the imperial bureaucracy a lot of power, and made entrance into said bureaucracy conditional on passing a tough exam, what you have is ... a country run by people who think that being good at exams is the most important thing on earth. Sound familiar?

The people who pass these sorts of admissions tests are very clever. But they're also, as time goes on, increasingly narrow. The way to pass a series of highly competitive exams is to focus every fiber of your being on learning what the authorities want, and giving it to them.

...All elites are good at rationalizing their eliteness, whether it's meritocracy or "the divine right of kings." The problem is the mandarin elite has some good arguments. They really are very bright and hardworking. It's just that they're also prone to be conformist, risk averse, obedient, and good at echoing the opinions of authority, because that is what this sort of examination system selects for.

The even greater danger is that they become more and more removed from the people they are supposed to serve.

...I think that to some extent, the current political wars are a culture war not between social liberals and social conservatives, but between the values of the mandarin system and the values of those who compete in the very different culture of ordinary businesses--ones outside glamour industries like tech or design.

...the final problem, which is that this ostensibly meritocratic system increasingly selects from those with enough wealth and connections to first, understand the system, and second, prepare the right credentials to enter it--as I believe it also did in Imperial China.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2013 04:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To a large degree this has been occuring at least in the minds of some people. The so called "working slobs" that did not go to college (or the "right" college) and earn at least a masters degree (pretty soon with degree inflation a BS or BA will qualify you as aworking stiff)deserve little or no respect let alone a chance at a better life no matter how hard they work or how skilled they are. This type of person should remember the Judge's advice to Danny. "the world needs ditch diggers too"
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 02/23/2013 10:13 Comments || Top||

#2  My solution -- and I think Dave Barry originally proposed this --would be to have a waitress named Helen or a truck driver named Butch on every federal board, with veto power over all spending initiatives.

Chairman with Hahvahd PhD: "So we are in agreement to spend $150 million of public money researching the mating habits of the left-handed sea slug?"

Helen and Butch: "Bullshit we are!"
Posted by: Matt || 02/23/2013 10:18 Comments || Top||

#3  What the 'Mandarins' fail to grasp is that China runs in cycles; Consolidation, Centralization, Expansion, Corruption, Disintegration, Regionalization, - rinse and repeat. Han, T'ang, Song, Yuan(Mongols), Ming, Manchu(Qing). Of course they have no need of real history [ie human behavior] cause they're so modern, but is of note that a lot of the bureaucrats don't quite make it (alive) into the next era.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2013 12:22 Comments || Top||

#4  P2K: sounds like a prediction for the USA. Got to figure out how to move NH to TX.
Posted by: KBK || 02/23/2013 19:06 Comments || Top||


Britain
Moody's downgrades UK rating
LONDON -- Credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Britain's government bond rating one notch from the top AAA to AA1, citing weaknesses in the economy's medium-term outlook.

Moody's said Friday that "subdued" growth prospects and a "high and rising debt burden" were weighing on the British economy. The British government is in the midst of a program of spending cuts designed to reduce the nation's hefty deficit, but a flat-lining economy has led it to downgrade its own estimates of future growth.
This is what the medium-term future looks like. It's coming to the USA real soon now...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Olde Tyme Religion
Cardinal calls for priests to be allowed to marry
[ABC.NET.AU] Britannia's most senior Roman Catholic, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, has spoken out on the issue of celibacy, saying priests should be allowed to marry and have children.
I actually don't care if they do, but I'm guessing that giving in on that most reasonable demand would start Rome on the path to Anglicanism.
Cardinal O'Brien says the next pope will be allowed to change the current policy because the principle did not come directly from Jesus Christ.

"There was a time when priests got married, and of course we know at the present time in some branches of the church - in some branches of the Catholic Church - priests can get married," he said.

"So that is obviously not of divine origin and it could get discussed again," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I see a divorce, with a Priest as defendant, should be delicious, the Tabloids will go nuts.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/23/2013 19:36 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Iran Rejects Nigeria Spying Allegation
[An Nahar] Iran on Friday rejected it had committed any "illegal act" in Nigeria after the West African nation's secret police incarcerated
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
three Nigerians accused of spying for the Islamic republic.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was quoted in media reports as saying he "rejected Nigerian and Western media reports of illegal activities by the Islamic republic in Nigeria".

Amir-Abdollahian said relations between Iran and Nigeria were "developing" and urged officials of the two nations to prevent such accusations from being made.

On Wednesday, the Nigerian secret police paraded a 50-year-old Islamic holy man and two accomplices who they alleged were spying on prominent individuals and targets for Iran.
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Even for Iran, isn't this a low point?
Posted by: Raj || 02/23/2013 0:04 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
'Doubleheader' funeral service held for NY couple
[TIMESUNION] Norman Hendrickson was known for telling jokes and never wasting money. So when he died suddenly while en route to his wife's funeral, the couple's daughters knew there was only one thing to do: Hold a doubleheader service.

The 94-year-old World War II veteran's impromptu wake was held Saturday at the same eastern New York funeral home where his wife Gwen's funeral was already scheduled. She was 89 when she died on Feb. 8. After Norman died just steps from the funeral home, the daughters decided their parents would be mourned together at the same time.

The daughters said it was a fitting way to say goodbye to a couple who had been together since meeting in Europe during World War II and who had been married for nearly 66 years.

"After we had a little time to process the shock and horror, we felt we couldn't have written a more perfect script," Norma Howland told the Post-Star of Glens Falls (http://bit.ly/VL01Jx ). "My sister said the only thing he didn't do was fall into the casket."
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sure wouldn't want touchy into the inheritance
Posted by: chris || 02/23/2013 12:42 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Nine Suspected Boko Haram Members Killed In Borno
[Guardian Ng] In Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, about nine suspected Boko Haram members were feared killed yesterday after several gunmen attacked the Ibrahim Taiwo Divisional Police Station on Baga Road, which was repelled by men of Joint Task Force (JTF) in the early hours of the day.

Confirming the attacks in Maiduguri, the Borno State Police Command spokesman, Gideon Jibrin, said the attacks began at about 11pm Thursday and continued into the early hours of Friday, when the armed hoodlums were repelled by a combined team of police and JTF.
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  Suspected no more...
Posted by: Raj || 02/23/2013 0:01 Comments || Top||

#2  "feared killed"? WTF? Is this the Al-Guardian?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 9:49 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Nine killed in Karachi
[Dawn] A young man was bumped off in an apparent sectarian attack near North Nazimabad on Friday night, bringing the dead toll from day's violence in the city to nine. Police said the incident took place near Kati Pahari where unknown suspects on a cycle of violence attacked Syed Fayyaz Hussain Zaidi, 24.

In another incident, an unidentified young man was killed in Jamshed Quarters.

Police said the incident took place in the vicinity of a wedding hall near Patel Para where the unidentified man in his mid 40s suffered a gunshot wound in the chest.

Earlier in the day, seven people including two coppers were rubbed out in separate acts of violence in the city.
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Open season on Hazaras
[Dawn] "AM I next?" asked the placard carried by a little Hazara girl in the aftermath of the most recent atrocity against her community in Quetta.

It speaks volumes for our collective impotence that not a single person in Pakistain from the president downwards can reassure her about her safety. So sadly, until she can move to a less violent and more tolerant country, she will have to live under the constant shadow of a terrorist attack.

The international community seems to be more aware of the danger the Hazaras are in than we are. Days after the most recent massacre, the Australian government has generously offered to take 2,500 families. And thousands of Hazaras have already fled abroad, legally or illegally, seeking asylum in safe, normal societies.

After days of peaceful protests that paralysed parts of several cities, things are back to normal, and the Hazaras have buried their dead. But apart from the routine, well-practised drill -- suo motu
...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard...
proceedings, cabinet committees, transfer of the police chief, etc -- little has changed.

Immediately following the Feb 16 slaughter, a front man for the 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 ...
called the media to claim responsibility and threaten more attacks, boasting that his organization had 20 similar vehicles ready to kill yet more Hazaras. And given the incompetence of our security services, who can doubt the LJ's ability to carry out their threat?

In a bid to distance themselves from any responsibility, both the ISI and 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.
claimed that they had warned the provincial authorities about an impending attack on the Hazaras. But as hundreds of tankers daily bring water into a parched Quetta, this vague warning was like telling the cops to look for a needle in a haystack. What they have failed to explain is how the LJ was able to buy nearly a ton of kaboom in Lahore and transport it across hundreds of miles without let or hindrance.

I'm glad Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
has finally climbed off the fence and condemned the LJ for this attack. But he needs to take the next rational and moral step, and realise that you cannot cherry-pick between these groups of killers. When he calls for negotiations with the Taliban, he should know that the LJ is not only the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain's ideological clone, but is believed to often coordinate attacks with them.

Indeed, the presence of Ejaz Chaudhry, the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
's senior vice president, at rallies organised by the establishment-supported Difa-e-Pakistain Council last year, raised many questions. On the stage with him was Malik Mohammed Ishaq, a key LJ leader. Despite the ban on the LJ, leaders from this group have hardly bothered to conceal their presence in public.

This should not surprise us, given the fact that Ishaq was freed on bail by the Supreme Court in 2011, despite being accused of over 100 sectarian murders. Understandably, the Hazaras see a link between his release and the increase in the attacks targeting their community. In 2008, two LJ leaders mysteriously beat feet from a high-security jail in Quetta's army cantonment.

Rehman Malik has tried to pass the buck to the provincial authorities. But he needs to remember that after the Jan 10 attack that left over 100 Hazaras dead, 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...
was placed under governor's rule, thereby making the federal government responsible for security. Indeed, why he hasn't had the decency to resign long ago is beyond me.

Some in government have tried to spin the recent attack as a foreign reaction to the decision to hand over Gwadar port to a Chinese firm for operational purposes. But this is clearly a red herring as no such decision had been finalised when the January attack took place. Indeed, Shias have been relentlessly targeted for years. A Shia doctor and his young son were bumped off in Lahore only days ago.

The desperate Hazaras have demanded that Quetta be handed over to the army to ensure security. But the truth is that the army is part of the problem as it has been the real power in the province for years. In an effort to quell the insurgency there, it has allegedly used bad turban groups like the LJ to kill and kidnap Baloch nationalists. This is one reason the LJ feels it has carte blanche to go after the Hazaras.

The harsh reality is that over the years, Balochistan has become a cauldron of armed and dangerous gangs and militias of all kinds, pushing a wide range of religious, political and sectarian agendas. From the Afghan Taliban to the Baloch National Army to Jundullah, the province encompasses a witch's brew of violent forces that are tearing it apart.

None of this provides any solace to the unfortunate Hazaras. Clearly, they cannot continue living in Balochistan with any degree of security. Even with the most efficient police and army -- something we can hardly claim to have -- there is little that can be done to stop determined jacket wallahs.

As long as the poisonous Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
ideology justifying the murder of other Moslems is freely propagated in mosques and madressahs, deranged killers will continue to wreak havoc. And as long as our civilian and military security agencies can't get their act together, innocent men, women and kiddies will continue to be slaughtered.

No country in the world has suffered as much as Pakistain from religious violence, and no other country facing this threat has done so little to counter it. One would have thought that after two decades and over 40,000 dead, we would have figured out a way to tackle the terrorists. Other states have enacted robust laws, and put in place highly trained and well-armed anti-terrorist forces. Intelligence-sharing between agencies is routine.

In Pakistain, despite years of mayhem, our intelligence agencies keep information close to their chests, and federal and provincial governments seldom coordinate operations. And there is still no consensus among political parties about the existential danger extremism poses to Pakistain.

Tensions between the civilian government and the military leadership means that they are working at cross-purposes in what should be a united struggle against bad turban forces.

Despite the outrage after the latest atrocity, I don't expect things to change. The state has always relied on our short attention span: as soon as there is another attack, our focus will be diverted from the Quetta carnage. Soon, it will be business as usual for everybody except the Hazaras.
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Protesters across Syria Vent Fury at Assad, Hizbullah
[An Nahar] At least 12 people, including children, were killed on Friday and dozens maimed when three surface-to-surface missiles struck in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo district, a watchdog said.

"At least 12 bodies have been recovered so far and there are more than 50 people maimed," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse by phone.

The Britannia-based Observatory said the number of victims was likely to rise, as many people were trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings in the eastern district of Tariq al-Bab in the area of Ard al-Hamra.

In a video posted to YouTube, a billowing cloud of dense smoke was seen rising from the neighborhood at dusk after one of the missiles struck.

The voice of a young man can be heard saying "surface-to-surface missiles," while another yells "Hey guys, come help the ambulance!"

In another video filmed after sundown, moments of panic could heard as men rushed to rescue people from the rubble.

People could be heard screaming "Car car!" to transport the maimed, while others shouted insults against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
In the most gruesome footage, which could not be immediately verified, the mangled bodies of the victims, including a toddler, could be seen lying in a dark room alongside others swaddled in blankets.

The head of one of the victims was completely severed.

Just four days prior, 33 people including 15 children were killed in a missile attack on the nearby district of Jabal Bedro according to the Observatory.

Earlier on Friday, thousands of people held an anti-regime protest under the banner of "Raqa the proud on the road to freedom" in solidarity with the embattled province of northern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the protesters were "greeted by bullets fired indiscriminately by the security forces" in the district of Mishlib and February 23 Street of Raqa city.

"One person was killed by regime forces during the demonstration and three others were killed by snipers in the same area shortly after, but we cannot confirm who was firing," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone.

Elsewhere in Syria, protesters vented their anger at Leb's Hizbullah, the international community and President Bashir al-Assad with chants, banners and caricatures.

In the Idlib town of Kfar Nabal, which has seen deadly air raids in the past week, demonstrators carried banners to denounce the escalating violence.

"World! Your carelessness produced Orcs and similar vermin like Assad. Now, we need Orcs and similar vermin to get rid of your products," read an English banner held by men and boys standing in front of a bombed-out building.

The message came a day after a spate of bombings across Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
, including a suicide boom-mobile condemned by the regime and opposition, killed at least 83 people in the deadliest day for the capital since the March 2011 start of the Syrian conflict.

In the town of Irbin, just northeast of Damascus, that has been the target of continuous bombardment by regime warplanes, a young boy stopped for a photo during a march to show his message to Assad: "We are coming to get you."

Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos...
the Facebook group "Lens of a Young Isqati" showed a demonstrator in the northwestern town of Isqat holding a cartoon of Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
facing Israel and striking matches to light the fuse of a bomb.

But the fuse is facing the opposite direction and the matches land in Leb and Syria, where Hizbullah fighters accused to have attacked opposition-held towns and villages from across the border last week.

Despite the ever-rising brutality of the conflict, which has left an estimated 70,000 people killed, demonstrations continue to be held every Friday nationwide.

In the Turkish border town of Ain al-Arab, demonstrators, including maidens of tender years and dancing teenagers, shouted for freedom as they held aloft Kurdish flags alongside the Syrian revolution banner in a video posted on YouTube.

At the Zaatari camp in northern Jordan for Syrian refugees, some 300 demonstrators rallied to urge the international community to arm the rebel Free Syrian Army, an Agence La Belle France Presse journalist said.

"Oh world, we want arms ... The people demand the arming of the Free Army," they chanted.

Activists identified the missiles as Scuds, but the reports could not be verified.
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Home Front: Culture Wars
'Scared' Globe staffers press for sale answers
Schadenfreude comes to Morrissey Boulevard...
Blindsided Boston Globe employees -- still reeling after The New York Times Co. put the Hub paper up for sale again -- are slated to come face-to-face this morning with a top Gray Lady exec for the start of what could be a messy split, including the likely demand for contract talks from the paper's 10 unions, insiders said.
Oh, sure. We all know how much the Times supports unions, right? Right? Hello?
"People are very nervous and scared, very scared," said one longtime Globe staffer, who requested anonymity. Another compared the paper's pending sale to "a divorce, a bad divorce."
Heh heh heh heh...
The poor darlings. One's own suffering always seems so much more painful than anyone else's.
New York Times Co. vice-chairman Michael Golden -- who was openly pushing to dump the beleaguered broadsheet -- is expected to join Globe publisher Chris Mayer in a series of so-called "Town Hall" gatherings with staff.
Ah. Town hall meetings. I would PAY to be there to see this. I see much whining and teeth gnashing, rending of garments. Words like "brigand" and "scalliwags"...
"We are certain you have many questions," Mayer wrote to staff in a broadly circulated email.
So long, suckers...
Golden's presence could rub more salt in the wounds at the Globe, where most staffers learned of the sale from a Times press release.
"There are a lot of vice presidents who didn't know anything, and they are not happy about it," one staffer said.
Probably why they're vice presidents at the Globe...
The sale's announcement, which one Globe boss said was slated for Monday before the press release hit the wires Wednesday, apparently caught newly minted editor Brian McGrory off-guard as well, according to staffers."He said he found out the same way the rest of us did," said a Globe reporter who attended a newsroom meeting. "His message was, 'Stay calm, stay focused. It is what it is.' "
Wow. I'd follow him to Heck. And back...
Word of the sale comes almost two months after all 10 of the Globe's labor contracts expired, prompting some union brass to say the sides will need to come to the table now before a new owner emerges.
C'mon, dammit! We gotta get together NOW and screw the new guy while we got the chance!!
Among the Globe's likely suitors is Rick Daniels, a former Gatehouse Media New England president and Globe exec, who is reportedly eyeing a bid with Stephen Taylor. Taylor's family sold the Globe to the Times for $1.1 billion in 1993.
Wow. Shrewd. At least for the Taylor's...
Analysts said the sale could fetch anywhere from $100 million to $180 million, assuming the Times takes on the tens of millions of dollars in the Globe's unfunded pension obligations. Alexia Quadrani, an analyst with JP Morgan, said she "wouldn't be surprised" if the Times absorbs that.
Make 'em spend it ALL!
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  tu3031, you magnificent bastard!
Posted by: Raj || 02/23/2013 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  How is this going to affect Johnson? The man has seniority and knows stuff.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/23/2013 1:34 Comments || Top||

#3  millions of dollars in the Globe's unfunded pension obligations

This should be fully funded out of the sale price. Take the money and put it under the mattress if necessary, but, cut this unfunded obligation bulls***.


Personally, living in Globe land, I'm laughing my ass off. 8^)
Posted by: Alanc || 02/23/2013 8:02 Comments || Top||

#4  are they required to be pre-pink-slipped under the WARN act? Will they all be 29 hrs/week part-timers to avoid Obamacare?

The New Globe™ - it's Schadentastic!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 9:20 Comments || Top||

#5  hmmm
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 9:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Fixed, Frank.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 10:28 Comments || Top||

#7  "Schadentastic" is the best new word of the year so far.

Thank you.
Posted by: no mo uro || 02/23/2013 11:01 Comments || Top||

#8  ..assuming the Times takes on the tens of millions of dollars in the Globe's unfunded pension obligations.

Hostess Bakers Union negotiators to the white courtesy phone. Who better to sabotage represent the pensioners?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2013 12:01 Comments || Top||

#9  thx TW
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 12:32 Comments || Top||

#10  The Taylor family looks like a bunch of financial geniuses. Sell asset for $1.1 billion, buy it back for $100 mil, put a couple hundred mill into the company, sell for $ 1.1 bill.

Rinse lather repeat.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 02/23/2013 18:33 Comments || Top||

#11  "Schadentastic"

That's a keeper, Frank.

I am sooo stealing that! :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 02/23/2013 22:41 Comments || Top||

#12  "There are a lot of vice presidents who didn't don't know anything"

Isn't that their general job description?
Posted by: Barbara || 02/23/2013 22:43 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Chalo, chalo Shahbag chalo
[Dawn] There are only a few occasions when I really miss 'East Pakistain'. These days are one of those. Had we been together, Shahbag would have won at least a two-column on page 3 and chalo chalo Shahbag chalo graffiti on some town walls. Maybe the Dhaka bureaus of few channels would have covered the massive youth gathering there and improvising further on my wish list, perhaps the demands of the Shahbag mass could have triggered a parallel youth movement over here. But pity me, I came to know about what's happening in that Dhaka city compound through New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
despite the fact that it is related to us -- Paks -- in more than one direct ways.

It started on 5th February, the day Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal awarded life sentence to a person nicknamed 'Butcher of Mirpur' for his part in the mass murder and rape of Bengalis in 1971. He is a leader of Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
. The sentence was the second from the Tribunal. The first one had awarded death sentence to another Jamaat leader who was tried in absentia -- the police suspects he had escaped to Pakistain sometime back.

The international community is not happy with the death penalty and also found the trial falling short of meeting the international standards of justice. Many also see the whole matter of trying war criminals as a ploy by the ruling Awami League to divert the Bangladeshi public's attention from its abysmal performance over past four years. The country will go to polls early next year. Awami League will face the four party alliance led by Khaleda Zia
Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
's Bangladesh Nationalist Party with Jamaat as its second largest partner. Hence, hitting at Jamaat will also supposedly batter the opposition alliance.

All of this may be true, but only partly. The crowd at Shahbag has shown some characteristics that distinguish it from what a conspiratorial power can assemble. Starting with a small spontaneous gathering powered by social media, it has sustained itself to date and its ranks have been swelling continuously. Moreover, I feel that the energy emanating from it can't be artificial. But if you think I am getting carried away, do compare it with the crowd that had gathered in Islamabad a few weeks ago to purge the country of yazids.
Anybody know which particular persecuted minority they are?
The two are in complete contrast and their stark differences can exemplify conspiracies and movements.

Critics are also skeptical of the main demand of the Shahbag movement -- death for war criminals, no less and nothing else. This should, however, be viewed in the light of the fact that Jamaat has a history of dodging efforts for a war crime trial in Bangladesh. But this time around, it seems they are left alone and exposed. After the first death sentence by the Tribunal, the government and the court were publicly criticised by western countries and the pressure is likely to have softened the second sentence to life imprisonment. One can expect that the next sentences would be even milder and in the end the initiative of settling the issue of war crimes would fizzle out, again.

The Shahbag youth, I believe, is not frustrated at the 'leniency' of the verdict as much as it is infuriated by the Jamaat getting away with murder. Jamaat's volunteer corps were known to be the ears and eyes of the Pakistain Army in 1971 and served as its point men at the time. But what surprises me most is the absence of Pakistain from the Shahbag protest. One can understand the legal limitations and diplomatic expediencies of the Bangladeshi government but the same does not hold true for the 'vengeful crowds'. You don't hear any slogan against Pakistain, see no flag or effigy burning, not even some pressure for the government of Pakistain to offer an apology. I have scoured through the internet and have found no trace of Pakistain at Shahbag -- just that the star and the crescent appears on the caps of hated holy mans in posters and placards. The Bangladeshis are strictly observing the protest as an internal affair -- the matter is between the people and the Jamaat, Pakistain comes only as a reference. So the context may be historical, the fight is all about the present and the youth does not need any forensic evidence as their daily lives can stand to witness as to what Jamaat and Shibir mean to their freedom (the student wing of Jamaat is called Jamaat in Pakistain and Shibir in Bangladesh).

Jamaat-Jamaat seem to stand against everything that most of the youth loves -- arts, culture, freedom and friendship. To me, they signify a force that wants to obscure knowledge, stifle creativity and dissent; a force that intrigues, maneuvers, manipulates and conspires. The happenings of 1971 seem to epitomise what the party stands for and that was also the time when Jamaat was at its fiercest. If it can be seen to get away with the most heinous of its acts, nothing should stop it from ruling over every aspect of the present-day lives of Bangladeshi youth.

The fundamentalist narrative of Islam has come to dominate the lives of middle classes across the Moslem world for over half century now. It was presented to them as a viable option to build egalitarian societies while staking claim to a unique identity in compensation for their traditional ones that they had lost to colonial machinations. Its champions, the Jamaat-e-Islami included, have deceived the populace and have traded our dreams for the clergy's vested interests, pushing us into the lairs of blood thirsty dictators and auctioning our souls to the highest bidder in the geopolitics bazaar.

What was once 'East Pakistain' has seen the most merciless of the faces of religious nationalism and 'West Pakistain' is still bleeding from the thousand cuts it has endured from the same. As a matter of fact, middle classes across North Africa, Middle East and Far East are suffering in various ways and degrees from the myopic narrative of political Islam that bars them from accepting who they are and stopping them from living lives to the fullest.

A counter narrative raises its head only occasionally. It has proven to be meek and elusive. It has dropped some hints, tweeted a few times, but has largely remained confined to academic circles. Can Shahbag be seen as a step to take the debate to the populist realm, an attempt to make familiar the alternative intellectual discourse? I wish it to be so. Challenging the conservative narrative in bold terms and brave ways shall give way to a new discourse on what role religion should have in our collective national lives. And if it has to start with a few bold steps in Dhaka, so be it, and let us chalo, chalo Shahbag chalo.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Abandoned Russian cruise ship located
A Russian cruise ship abandoned and drifting in the North Atlantic has been located about 1,300 nautical miles off the west coast of Ireland, according to a US intelligence agency. With no crew or warning lights, the ship Lyubov Orlova has been drifting for two months and maritime authorities had been uncertain of its exact location.

According to a document from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Lyubov Orlova has been spotted at roughly 1,300 nautical miles from the Irish coast. The details were listed in a maritime update put out by the intelligence agency, which analyzes satellite imagery and creates detailed maps for the US government.

With rats as its only passengers, the Lyubov Orlova had left Canada's shores on January 23 to be towed to a scrapyard in the Dominican Republic. But the next day, the cable snapped, leaving it stranded in international waters. It was then secured by the Atlantic Hawk, a supply vessel in the offshore oil industry, which managed to tow the ship before it drifted off yet again.

Canada's transport authority has said the ship -- abandoned for two years -- was no longer its concern, as it had left the country's waters. But authorities said the owner was responsible for its movements.

Earlier this week, Canadian officials acknowledged they did not know the location of the vessel, since the ship's global positioning system was no longer working. But the information gathered on the ship's location shows the derelict vessel is slowly heading towards Europe, having drifted at least 435 nautical miles toward the European coastline.
Posted by: ryuge || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  With rats as its only passengers, the Lyubov Orlova had left Canada's shores on January 23 to be towed to a scrapyard in the Dominican Republic.

Jeez...maybe Carnival will buy it?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/23/2013 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Why you'd think the wiley chinee or Russian rosats would know where it was? No? No lights? It was running quiet? Stormy weather?
Posted by: Shipman || 02/23/2013 1:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Use the damn thing for target practice. Justify it as a hazzard to navigation
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 02/23/2013 10:05 Comments || Top||

#4  With rats as its only passengers

Democrats using it for a conference?
Posted by: Alanc || 02/23/2013 11:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Haven't we already seen that movie? Or was it that movie?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2013 12:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Why would a worthless Russian ship be towed for scrap from Canada to the Dominican Republic? What could possibly make it cost effective? If it wasn't Canada's concern, why not recoup any expenses by scrapping it there? Incidentally, that is the same port Menendez and Melgen tried to get a lock on security contracts, as only 5% of cargo is inspected;it also is a hub for drugs from South America on to No. America and Europe. A pointless story or are we missing the point?
Posted by: Kojo Wholuse5660 || 02/23/2013 12:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Kojo, ship-breaking requires lots of extremely cheap human labor. It's popular in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka for the same reasons.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/23/2013 13:17 Comments || Top||

#8  Also, ship breaking is more profitable if one does not need to be concerned about safety or environmental regulations.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/23/2013 13:46 Comments || Top||

#9  "Also, ship breaking is more profitable if one does not need to be concerned about safety or environmental regulations."

... or large man-eating rats.
I say scuttle the thing.
The US Navy must have some new secret weapon that they need to test :-)
Posted by: Raider || 02/23/2013 14:04 Comments || Top||

#10  The rats have to be dead by now.

Right?
Posted by: Charles || 02/23/2013 17:50 Comments || Top||

#11  The Rats are NOT dead, they're cannibals.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/23/2013 19:30 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Musharraf refuses to appear before Lal Masjid commission
[Dawn] Former President General (retired) Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
has refused to appear before the one-man commission constituted by the Supreme Court to probe into the Lal Masjid operation of 2007.

The commission on January 31, 2013, had decided to summon Mr Musharraf and former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz after recording the statements of a number of witnesses who alleged that the former president was responsible for the military operation that left 103 people, including 10 military personnel, dead.

An official of the commission confirmed that Mr Musharraf had refused to appear before the commission.

He said the commission had summoned the former president thrice with the last summon sent to his residence abroad through the foreign ministry. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
he did not receive it.

According to him, the commission would not take any coercive measure against Mr Musharraf for defying the summons because it had no power to compel any witness to record their statement.

It may be mentioned that Maulana Aziz, the Khateeb of Lal Masjid, his spouse Umme Hassan and some other holy mans have held Gen Musharraf responsible for the operation.

Testifying before the commission, Maulana Aziz on December 31, 2012, said "Gen Musharraf was against our religious ideology.
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: Politix
Obama Gets Economic Advice from Al Sharpton, Other 'African American Leaders'
[WEEKLYSTANDARD] Participants in the meeting included:
  • Melanie Campbell, President, National Coalition of Black Civic Participation
  • Ralph Everett, President, Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies
  • Wade Henderson, President, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
  • Ben Jealous, President, National Association of the Advancement of Colored People
  • Avis Jones-DeWeever, Executive Director, National Council of Negro Women
  • Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks, Executive Director, National Black Justice Coalition
  • Al Sharpton, Founder and President of National Action Network
  • Rev Derrick Harkins, 19th Street Baptist Church
  • Judith Browne Dianis, Co-Director, Advancement Project
  • All of them noted economists.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  More...Free...Stuff.
    Posted by: tu3031 || 02/23/2013 0:05 Comments || Top||

    #2  Can I get me a ... free EBT card here?
    Posted by: John Kerry || 02/23/2013 0:10 Comments || Top||

    #3  The shadow government.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/23/2013 1:08 Comments || Top||

    #4  The shadow government.

    Or just another set of suckers?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2013 1:46 Comments || Top||

    #5  Do not disparage our Africanized-America. We shall not be intimidated by western civilization, our tribal ethos will not allow it.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/23/2013 6:49 Comments || Top||

    #6  Obama Gets Economic Advice from Al Sharpton, Other 'African American Leaders'


    Ah, yes, shake down artists. Seems to match the modus operandi of the Administration doesn't it? From their bubble, it's 'normal' which is why the general economy won't recover.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2013 8:54 Comments || Top||

    #7  Sheesh… having to meet with that list of hat-in-handers the President actually comes off a sympathetic character.
    Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/23/2013 10:06 Comments || Top||

    #8  Thomas Sowell has a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. Odd that he didn't make the list.
    Posted by: Matt || 02/23/2013 10:08 Comments || Top||

    #9  Detroit on the Potomac
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 10:26 Comments || Top||

    #10  Besoeker, I don't doubt their rapacity, or their hostility to "whitey". Nevertheless, with Obama's election, they cut their own collective throat.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2013 10:27 Comments || Top||

    #11  Funny - I don't see a single entreprenur on that list...
    Posted by: Raj || 02/23/2013 10:38 Comments || Top||

    #12  Not certain about "slit throats' g(r)om, but while on the subject, I do think Jodi Arias and 'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius would make a delightful pair.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/23/2013 10:57 Comments || Top||

    #13  Only a, very, wealthy society can support such parasites, Besoeker.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2013 11:01 Comments || Top||

    #14  Like the great King Dingane, these people are no threat to the Obama throne. He will listen to them and grant them privileged status as trusted confidants and advisors. All others [the elected US Congress] must be ignored or purged.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/23/2013 11:14 Comments || Top||

    #15  I csn't think of a one I'D ask for advice, or listen to.
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/23/2013 11:22 Comments || Top||

    #16  There are African-American capitalists Obama will not have anything to do with. They on higher roads. They are the true American Eagles. Obama only likes the smash and grab gangsters. Soon to find themselves in desperado status as the treasury runs deeper into debt.
    Posted by: wr || 02/23/2013 13:02 Comments || Top||

    #17  No reason it can't be both, #4 grom.
    Posted by: Barbara || 02/23/2013 13:42 Comments || Top||

    #18  They need to put John Galt in charge of the economy. He will save them.....
    Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/23/2013 17:13 Comments || Top||

    #19  Compound stupidity.
    Posted by: newc || 02/23/2013 18:15 Comments || Top||


    Africa North
    National Association for Change urges boycott of parliamentary elections
    [Egypt Independent] The National Association for Change (NAC) issued a statement Friday calling for a mass boycott of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
    Yep, best way to get what you want is not to vote.
    In the statement, the NAC declared that Morsy lost legitimacy after he violated the independence of the judiciary with his 22 November Constitutional Declaration, and further lost his credibility after his administration was involved with the abduction, torture and killing of protesters. The statement slammed the administration's attempts to reconcile with figures from the Mubarak regime at the expense of national interests.

    Morsy has failed to achieve social justice or ensure national security, and the price of basic goods and services like electricity and water have continued to increase under his rule, the statement alleged.

    The NAC called for a widespread boycott of the parliamentary elections slated to kick off on 28 April in order to fight for the rights of those killed and injured by government forces during recent festivities.

    The decision to boycott came after the president refused to respond to the Nour Party's initiative to reconcile with opposition political forces, or the National Salvation Front's demands to dismiss the Cabinet, form a neutral body to monitor the elections, dismiss the prosecutor general and dissolve the Moslem Brüderbund, the statement continued.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Gemayel Demands Suspension of Ties with Damascus over Samaha Case
    [An Nahar] Phalange Party
    The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology.
    MP Sami Gemayel lashed out on Friday at Lebanese authorities for not suspending diplomatic ties with the neighboring country Syria after the judiciary demanded the death penalty for a Syrian security official.

    Gemayel wondered how the Syrian Ambassador to Leb, Ali Abdul Karim Ali, wasn't expelled or summoned.

    On Thursday, State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr referred a death penalty request against ex-Minister Michel Samaha and Syrian security official Ali Mamlouk to the military court to kick off trials.

    The criminal court of cassation confirmed earlier on Friday receiving the file.

    The MP addressed in his statements President Michel Suleiman
    ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
    , Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, demanding an explanation.

    "The Syrian regime is protecting him (Mamlouk) and confirming that he is a security official," Gemayel said.

    He slammed the Lebanese authorities, stressing that the death penalty request requires the implementation of certain diplomatic measures concerning the relations between the two countries."

    "We either respect our judiciary or we don't," the politician added.

    Earlier this week, First Military Examining Judge Riyad Abu Ghida indicted Samaha and Mamlouk on terrorism charges.

    A search warrant to identify a Syrian colonel known only by his first name Adnan who plotted for the bombings with the other suspects was also issued.

    Abu Ghida said Samaha and Mamlouk should be given the death sentence "for transporting explosives from Syria to Leb in an attempt to assassinate Lebanese political and religious leaders."

    The indictment also said that Samaha told the Syrian colonel and general that he would recruit people to carry out attacks in the northern Akkar region targeting Syrian rebels and weapons smugglers to Syria.

    Samaha was tossed in the slammer
    Please don't kill me!
    in August, but Mamlouk remains free.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


    Africa North
    Coptic activists slam Morsy's decision to hold elections over Easter
    [Egypt Independent] Coptic holy mans and activists are speaking out against the president's decision to hold parliamentary elections over the Easter holidays.

    The move is clearly aimed at excluding Copts from the voting process, and is disrespectful toward an entire segment of the population, activists argued. Coptic movements have threatened to stage several marches and protests until the president reverses his decision.

    Priest Morqos of Shubra al-Kheima Church said that Coptic voter participation would be affected by these dates, and that he hopes the president would change his mind.

    27-28 April, the dates of the first round of the elections, coincide with the beginning of the Holy Week and Palm Sunday, while the runoffs scheduled for 4-5 May clash with Holy Saturday and Easter, said Bishop Rafiq Gereish, the head of the Catholic Church's media office.

    "Didn't the president consult anyone before setting the dates?" Gereish asked, saying that the president should retract his decision.

    Vice-president of the Evangelical Church Andrea Zaki called on President Mohamed Morsy to postpone the elections to 7 May. The currently scheduled dates mark one of the holiest periods for Copts, and the president's decision came as a huge shock, he asserted.

    Coptic activist John Talaat threatened a mass boycott of the election. He also argued that the new Parliamentary Election Law and the method of dividing voter constituencies were flawed. For instance, adding Shubra voters to the Central Cairo district would fragment the Coptic vote, he alleged.

    Copts have a history of boycotting elections in cases of intransigence on the part of the Shura Council and the president, said Andrawos Eweida, the Maspero Youth Union coordinator. He called on all Coptic movements to take a united stand against such a clear affront from the Morsy administration.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

    #1  Remember, it's only 'insensitive' when WASP/Cs do it to others, as amply pointed out by the Left(tm).
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2013 9:02 Comments || Top||


    More Suicide Bombs Hit Mali after Battle that Kills 20 Islamists
    [An Nahar] Five people, including two jacket wallahs, died Friday in boom-mobileings in northern Mali, a day after fierce urban battles between French-led forces and Islamists left up to 20 snuffies dead, officials said.

    Two kamikaze vehicles targeting civilians and members of the ethnic Tuareg rebel group the MNLA went kaboom! near the town of Tessalit, killing three and wounding several others, a security source said.

    A front man for the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in Burkina Faso
    ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
    confirmed the report. Mohammed Ibrahim Ag Asseleh said "the two kamikazes were killed and in our ranks there were three dead and four seriously maimed".

    The blasts came after al-Qaeda-linked rebels claimed a car kaboom on Thursday near a camp occupied by French and Chadian troops in the city of Kidal, local officials said.

    At least two civilians were reported maimed in that attack. The vehicle, apparently driven by a suicide bomber, was targeting the camp but went kaboom! before it reached it, killing the driver, an official in Kidal governor's office said.

    La Belle France sent in its troops in January to help the Malian army oust Islamist bully boyz who last year captured the desert north of the country. Thousands of soldiers from African countries have also deployed since then.

    The French-led forces are increasingly facing guerrilla-style tactics after initially meeting little resistance in their drive to oust Islamists from the main northern centers of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

    The Tuareg MNLA blamed Friday's car kabooms on the al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of Mali's main Islamist groups.

    The MUJAO made no comment on the latest attacks, but on Thursday it told Agence La Belle France Presse that it was responsible for the boom-mobile in Kidal.

    "More kabooms will happen across our territory," MUJAO front man Abu Walid Sahraoui warned.

    He also said the group had sent fighters to Gao, 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) from the capital Bamako, where battles erupted overnight Wednesday after about 40 Islamists infiltrated the city.

    The Islamists briefly occupied the courthouse and the city hall but French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Malian and French forces backed by French helicopters repelled the attack on Thursday.

    Le Drian said initially that five Islamists were killed in the fierce street fighting, but on Friday the French defense ministry between 15 and 20 had died.

    Sporadic gunfire was heard on Friday morning in Gao, an AFP journalist there said.

    MUJAO front man Sahraoui said the rebels were determined to recapture the city: "Our troops have been ordered to attack. If the enemy is stronger, we'll pull back only to return stronger, until we liberate Gao."

    Mali's Prime Minister Diango Cissoko said this week thon the lam-scale military operations in the north were winding down, but sporadic fighting has continued.

    A French legionnaire was killed on Tuesday in the mountainous Ifoghas region. The French military said that their "Panthere 4" operation in the Ifoghas had already left 30 Islamists dead since the start of the week.

    Ethnic Tuaregs in northern Mali, who have long sought greater autonomy, initially backed the rebellion but later fell out with the Islamists and regained control of Kidal before the arrival of French troops.

    About 1,800 Chadian troops were then deployed in the city as part of the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA), a military force organized by west African countries which La Belle France hopes will eventually become a U.N. stabilization force.

    Asked whether it was coordinating its efforts with the Tuaregs of the MNLA, the French military said Thursday it was working with "groups that have the same objective" as La Belle France.

    In Nouakchott, the capital of neighboring Mauritania, dozens of Malian Arabs demonstrated Thursday to denounce abuses they said had been committed by Malian troops against light-skinned Malians, particularly Arabs, in the north.

    Human Rights Watch
    ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
    has urged Bamako to act.

    "The Malian government should urgently investigate and prosecute soldiers responsible for torture, summary executions, and enforced disappearances of suspected Salafist tough guys and alleged collaborators," it said.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Syrian Opposition to Form Government in Rebel Areas
    [VOA News] Syria's Opposition National Coalition has announced plans to form a provisional government in rebel-held areas of the country.

    An opposition front man made the announcement Friday following a meeting in Cairo about whether to hold peace talks with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's
    Light of the Alawites...
    government.

    The front man said the coalition will meet in Istanbul on March 2 to chose its prime minister.

    Mr. Assad has not commented on the announcement, which comes as violence continues to plague the country.

    The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said at least 12 people were killed and dozens maimed Friday in a missile strike in the northern city of Aleppo. The corpse count is expected to rise, as many are believed to be trapped under the rubble of damaged buildings.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

    #1  Can't get USAID if you're not government?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2013 6:08 Comments || Top||


    Sidon Tense as Armed Supporters of al-Asir Deploy around His Mosque
    [An Nahar] Salafist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and his supporters deployed Friday with their weapons around the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in Sidon, amid a heavy deployment by the army and security forces.

    "Armed supporters of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir deployed around the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque and the army has called in reinforcements from outside Sidon," MTV reported.

    Al-Jadeed television said al-Asir himself was carrying a weapon.

    "Asir's supporters deployed with their weapons after he claimed that Hizbullah is trying to kidnap him," OTV reported.

    "Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir told his supporters to 'prepare for martyrdom'," al-Jadeed said.

    A front man for al-Asir told Voice of Leb radio (100.5): "We reject the presence of monitoring locations belonging to Hizbullah around the mosque and the party's repeated attacks against us."

    Later on Friday, LBCI television said "the armed supporters of al-Asir withdrew from around the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque and the army withdrew its vehicles from the area."

    OTV for its part said the army is staging patrols in Sidon and the situation is under control despite al-Asir's "provocations."

    Al-Asir issued a statement later on Friday, clarifying that "a number of young men who belong to the (Hizbullah-affiliated) Resistance Brigades, accompanied by members of 'Iran's party' (Hizbullah), roamed the area around the mosque while carrying visible weapons."

    "They made provocative moves, prompting the mosque's guards to go on alert," Asir added.

    The Islamist holy man said the incident "led to a state of tension among supporters and neighbors who rejected these provocative moves," urging security forces to shoulder their responsibilities and "protect civilians."

    On Wednesday, al-Asir accused Hizbullah of "renting apartments" in the vicinity of his mosque in Abra, east of Sidon, with the aim of "monitoring" his movements.

    "Recently, the mosque's neighbors, and we're among them, noticed some rented apartments that are inhabited by young men who are not residents of the area, and the neighbors thought that they are students," Asir said, adding that "a dispute happened recently and heavily armed young men came out of these rented apartments and threatened the neighbors."

    "We have irrefutable evidence that the mission of these men is to monitor me, my movements and the movements of the mosque goers," Asir went on to say, noting that "when we started to raise the issue, a lot of security agencies, including the army, deployed around these apartments to protect them."

    The anti-Hizbullah Salafist holy man urged officials and authorities to force the evacuation of the apartments to avert a possible "strife or any dangerous incident."

    Interviewed by al-Jadeed in the wake of Friday's armed deployment, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said "there is nothing going on in Sidon and no Hizbullah members are monitoring al-Asir's movements."

    "Anyone carrying a weapon will be fired at and the deployment of gunnies is prohibited in Sidon," Charbel warned.

    "When someone voices sectarian remarks, the judiciary must act and must issue arrest warrants," he added.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


    India-Pakistan
    Ugly scenes
    Pakistani lawyers are an active bunch... possibly even hyperactive.
    [Dawn] ON Thursday, lawyers in Faisalabad
    ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after...
    and Sargodha were staging a sit-in for the establishment of benches of the Lahore High Court in their respective cities. But despite the relative calm in the protest camps, violence lurked in the background. A day earlier, lawyers in Faisalabad had resorted to familiar, violent action, apparently instigated by an impatient bar member who threatened to immolate himself in support of the demand for a bench. Sessions and district courts were ransacked. The courtrooms were locked, an image which apart from conveying the desired message of the lawyers conjured up a host of other distressing thoughts. Not least disturbing of these was the symbolism in relation to the many litigants for whom the doors to justice now appeared closed. The summary closure has added insult to injury in the case of these Pak citizens. The call for new LHC benches notwithstanding, there is plenty of reason to focus on reforming the subordinate courts. This is what the stranded litigants have been waiting for, only to find a lock blocking them.

    The phenomenon of professionals, trained to uphold the principles of justice, taking the law into their own hands has been a common occurrence, and the repeated violence has added an element of despair to the pain such happenings inevitably cause. The tendency for violence is often blamed on "arrogance", which is then readily linked to the lawyers' victory in the free-judiciary movement a few years ago. This is as bad an advertisement for justice as there can be. Obviously, a counter-explanation can be attempted by terming such behaviour a sign of desperation among a group that has been denied its demand. In reality, this is disappointment mixed with a sense of power, as if the rampaging protesters enjoy immunity due to their proximity to the law.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


    Africa North
    Tunisian president asks Islamist to form government
    [Egypt Independent] Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on Friday asked Interior Minister Ali Larayedh, a hardliner from the main Islamist Ennahda party, to form a government within two weeks, his spokesperson said.
    Step by step we march shoulder to shoulder into the inevitable glorious Islamofascist order!
    Marzouki's front man told a news conference Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi had formally nominated Larayedh to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who resigned on Tuesday.

    Tunisia plunged into political crisis on 6 February when the liquidation of secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid on 6 February ignited the biggest street protests since the overthrow of strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two years ago.

    Ennahda's choice for prime minister raised hackles among opposition parties, some of whom accuse Larayedh's Interior Ministry of failing to curb Islamist violence, although he is credited for acting firmly against Al-Qaeda-linked bully boys.

    "The decision deepens the crisis because Larayedh headed the ministry responsible for the killing of Belaid and violence that has spread throughout the country," said Zied Lakhdar, a leader in the Popular Front, in which Belaid was secretary-general.

    The Interior Ministry and Ennahda have denied they had any hand in Belaid's killing, which they have condemned.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


    Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
    Two terrorists killed on Chechen-Ingush border
    Two suspected terrorists militants were killed on Friday on the border between two Russian republics, Chechnya and Ingushetia, a spokesman for the region’s security council said. He said, “A counter-terrorism operation regime was imposed in Ingushetia’s Sunzhensky district on the border with Chechnya. Two active members of armed groups have been killed."

    The republic’s interior ministry said, however, the terrorists militants were killed in Chechnya’s Achkhoi-Martan district.

    Both bodies have already been identified. The men were on the federal wanted list.
    Posted by: ryuge || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


    India-Pakistan
    When a state is dysfunctional
    [Dawn] WHO knows what a failed state is? Such definitions are for the academics and experts. But what one can easily ascertain is a state that is dysfunctional.
    The dictionary entry has a picture of Pakistan...
    For what would you call a state that has neither the power to generate resources and tax those who need to be taxed, nor the system or even the need to ensure that it accounts for what it spends? It can keep piling up a huge deficit without question and have nothing to show for it.

    What would you call a state that cannot deliver the very least: the safety of life and limb to its citizens? Where if you particularly happened to be in the smaller provinces the only thing you could get by on is your faith. Yes, God remains the only recourse.

    It has to be a dysfunctional state where those who call for their legitimate inalienable rights can be picked up in the dead of night and be found weeks or months later in a ditch with telltale signs of what happens if you take your fundamental rights too seriously; where in one part of the country coppers such as Malik Saad, Sifwat Ghayur and hundreds of nameless others whose sacrifices are as worthy as those named, write a final, valiant chapter in their blood.

    At the same time an 'anti-terror' police boss in another part of the country cuts deals with sectarian murderers to leave his jurisdiction alone reportedly in exchange for safe passage for operations elsewhere and is rewarded with promotions. The sectarian groups are much stronger as a result.

    Take Benazir Bhutto
    ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
    , Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti and more recently Bashir Bilour. All these politicians stood like a rock in defying the terrorists, bigots and intolerant ideologies -- until they were cut down by the terrorists.

    Have you ever seen a person with greater courage than that Pakhtunkhwa minister Mian Iftikhar whose son was mowed down in a hail of Taliban bullets? Neither his grief nor personal loss forced him to bend his resolve.

    These are high-profile figures. Can we look at those they left behind in the eye and assure them that the sacrifices of their loved ones were not in vain? Go ahead if you can but I, for one, will be too ashamed to even contemplate doing any such thing.

    Is there a point in trying to remember Asiya Bibi? Well done, we can say to ourselves for at least we recall her name.

    Do we recall a single name of the many, many Christians who died when their entire neighbourhood was torched in that Punjab village? Godhra, was it?

    Surely, we have expressed such outrage over the mass murder of Shia-Hazaras in recent days that we'd be able to think of the victims in terms other than mere statistics. But we can't. If it was 200 Shia Hazaras killed last year, a greater number has fallen in the first two months of 2013 alone.

    We are not supposed to have photographic memories so how can we name a single Hindu woman converted forcibly to Islam. Of course, if (yes, if) the state was not dysfunctional such incidents would be the exception, not the norm. We'd remember the one or two victims.

    Now that the state has stood by, paralysed by fear or expediency, we have let armed zealots show all minorities their place. Christians and Hindus couldn't be more marginalised. The Ahmadi community has been taught how safe it is for them to bow before their God in their place of worship.

    Yes, now it is the turn of the 'minority' Moslem sect, the Shias, they consider an 'arrogant' lot who openly exercise their religious freedom. This too must end. Bomb their congregations; shoot their community notables and who knows they'll also be subdued into abandoning their faith.

    What next? Oh yes plenty left. There are many whose Islamic rituals and practices differ from ours. And religion must not have room for diversity. We must find and exterminate all who don't agree with what we believe Islam to be.

    Next it'll be women. Lock them up for they aren't equal citizens of the country; shameless that we have women working side by side with men in most urban centres. They even go to schools, colleges and universities and aspire for careers! Do they think they live in the 21st century?

    Surely, they don't. We'll make them see their reality. What else will be our fate when we await an ever-elusive consensus while an existential threat snowballs? You and I can simmer and explode all we want.

    The vision and the wisdom of the decision-makers can hardly be expected to deliver in such 'unimportant' areas. When the Kerry-Lugar legislation was passed, nobody needed a consensus to oppose the principle of civilian supremacy in matters of the state.

    When memogate surfaced whatever its merits, extremely dodgy to the naked eye, neither the politicians nor the defenders of our territorial and ideological frontiers needed a consensus. And the courts to this day believe none is needed. Those were bigger threats to our integrity.

    We have lost more of our brave sons, soldiers including officers of both regular and paramilitary forces, over the past five years than perhaps in any war that we have fought. And yet we await a consensus to establish whether the state or armed hard boyz will rule over swathes of our territory.

    An elected government came into being five years ago. It says its unprecedented achievement is completing its term; its unparalleled legislative record which will provide the glue to hold the federation together. All we can count is our dead. Men, women and kiddies.

    Now we are told a huge percentage of new young voters have been added to the electoral rolls. Youth represent a hope for tomorrow. Let's hope that over the next five years we have to count fewer dead. Anything more will be too ambitious an ask.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

    #1  A Top Shia Cleric has repor said that iff the Army of Iran's BFF Pakistan can't or won't protect Pak Shias = Hezaras, THEN IRAN'S ARMY MUST DO THE JOB!

    Emphasis on "M-U-S-T".
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/23/2013 1:05 Comments || Top||

    #2  China vee Japan, or Iran ala the Hezaras, looks like just everybody is sending their Army southward???
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/23/2013 1:06 Comments || Top||

    #3  A Top Shia Cleric has repor said that iff the Army of Iran's BFF Pakistan can't or won't protect Pak Shias = Hezaras, THEN IRAN'S ARMY MUST DO THE JOB!

    Iran's army unfortunately is busy exercising, JosephM.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 7:00 Comments || Top||

    #4  A Top Shia Cleric has repor said that iff the Army of Iran's BFF Pakistan can't or won't protect Pak Shias = Hezaras, THEN IRAN'S ARMY MUST DO THE JOB!

    I'd pay money to see it.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2013 7:07 Comments || Top||


    Africa North
    Protesters fight at High Court after some chant for military rule
    Pining for the good old days already? And so they should.
    [Egypt Independent] Fights broke out between protesters outside the High Court on Friday evening after some demonstrators began chanting in favor of military rule. Other demonstrators intervened to stop the scuffles.

    Earlier in the day a march had arrived at the court from Talaat Harb Square. Hundreds raised pictures of the deaders of the revolution, as well as images of forks, knives and loaves of bread. They chanted, "The people want to bring down the regime," and, "Where is bread and oil?"

    One of the demonstrators in front of the court dressed his three daughters in red clothes, the color of the uniforms worn by prisoners on death row, to draw attention to his poverty.

    "It is more honorable for me and my children to die than live in poverty and hunger," he said.

    The demonstrator's daughters held banners that read: "To eternal paradise Christie," referring to a protester who died in recent festivities.

    Another march of dozens from Tahrir Square then arrived at the High Court. On the way, some participants in the march attacked a Central Security Forces vehicle on 26 July Street, claiming that the police use force against protesters and detain activists. The driver escaped through another street, and other protesters in the march chanted to keep the demonstration peaceful.

    Actor Tayseer Fahmy, one of the participants in the march coming from Sayeda Zeinab to the High Court, said she took part in the protest to demand the ouster of President Mohamed Morsy and the dissolution of the Moslem Brüderbund. National Salvation Front leader Karima al-Hefnawy said she participated in the protest to demand the dismissal of Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah and Prime Minister Hesham Qandil's Cabinet.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


    India-Pakistan
    Alerts spoke of Pak-based group, say Indian officials
    [Dawn] A specific alert warning of an attack by a 'Pakistain-based terrorist group' was shared by India's central security agencies with Hyderabad police on Thursday hours before two bombs there killed 16 people and maimed over a hundred, Home Ministry officials were quoted by Press Trust of India as saying on Friday.

    Two blasts destroyed a crowded market in Hyderabad on Thursday.

    The ministry had sent specific alert on Thursday morning to four cities -- Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore and Hubli -- warning them of probable attacks by terrorists, the officials said. Maharashtra and Gujarat
    ...where rioting seems to be a traditional passtime...
    police forces were also sent the alert, the officials said.

    According to Home Ministry officials, the alerts were also sent to all states on February 19 and 20 that Pakistain-based terrorist groups might carry out attacks in a major city to avenge the hanging of Mumbai terror mascot Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

    They said the central security agencies had sent an advisory on Tuesday asking all states to tighten security in sensitive places as Lashkar-e-Taiba
    ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
    , Jaish-e-Mohammad
    ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
    and Hizbul Mujahideen might launch attacks.

    The security agencies sent another advisory on Wednesday saying the banned shadowy group called the Indian Mujahideen
    A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor...
    might carry out terror attacks to avenge the hanging of Kasab and Guru.

    Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had on Thursday said all states were alerted about a possible terror strike by orc groups but did not identify any group.

    In the past Hindu Islamic fascisti have been caught for their alleged roles in bombings across India, including Hyderabad.

    However,
    a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
    Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had said those were general alerts which often kept coming from the centre.

    Meanwhile,
    ...back at the pound, the little lost dog backed into the corner and showed its teeth. And what big teeth they were!...
    Mr Shinde told Parliament on Friday that government would make all possible efforts to apprehend the perpetrators and criminal masterminds behind the twin blasts in Hyderabad.

    Making a statement in the Lok Sabha after touring the blast sites, Mr Shinde said the situation was under control and the government was committed to combat such cowardly terror attacks.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba


    Southeast Asia
    MILF: Sulu sultanate part of the peace process
    The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Friday said the peace talks are anchored on “people-centered agenda” and the Sulu sultanate should feel it is a part of the process. The MILF, which has been in peace negotiations with Philippine government, brokered by Malaysia, reacted on Friday amid the current standoff between the Malaysia and the armed followers of the Sulu sultanate in the Sabah land dispute.

    The MILF on its website said the discussions have been inclusive and that all factors have been considered and accommodated particularly the sentiments of the sultanates. The statement said, “It is fully admitted that the role of the sultanates is well recorded in the niche of Moro history and we are always proud of it. Had they not withstood the invasions of colonizers, there would have been no Moros and Islam today in Mindanao."

    “The core is to restore back to our people the right to govern themselves, which was deprived of them when the so-called Philippine Republic was established in 1946,” it continued.

    New attention was brought to the claim when hundreds of armed followers of the Sulu sultanate sailed to Sabah and started to camp at Lahad Datu more than week ago. The group’s leaders asked the Malaysian government to return to them authority over Sabah, now a Malaysian state, but formerly part of the Sulu sultanate.

    The descendants of Sultan of Sulu said they decided to reclaim Sabah after being sidelined in the negotiations between the government and the MILF. They have refused to vacate the area amid appeals from the governments of Malaysia and the Philippines. The MILF said it recognizes the power once held by the sultanates in southern Philippines.

    The MILF are expected to sign a comprehensive agreement with the Philippine government next month to formally start the transition process in creating the new Bangsamoro region.

    The Philippine Navy has increased its cross-border patrols in the waters between Malaysia and the Philippines to prevent movement of armed groups during the standoff in Sabah.
    Posted by: ryuge || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  See TOPIX > [The Star] LAHAD DATU STANDOFF: PHILIPPINE NAVY SHIPS IN TAWI-TAWI TO HELP STABILIZE SITUATION.

    and

    * RELATED SAME > PHILIPPINE NAVY DEPLOYS SIX SHIPS NEAR MALAYSIA.

    Rising China to send in any PLAN, as it has defined Malaysia-Indonesia as part of its "core" interests???
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/23/2013 1:01 Comments || Top||


    International-UN-NGOs
    UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praises President Ts.Elbegdorj
    [UBPOST.MONGOLNEWS.MN] During the visit of the President of Mongolia and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Mongolia, Ts.Elbegdorj, to Mongolian troops who are participating in the UN peacekeeping operations in South Sudan, the Secretary General of the United Nations
    ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
    , Ban Ki Moon, expressed his gratitude to Ts.Elbegdorj on the phone.

    The UN Secretary General said, "It is a prideful thing that you, the President of Mongolia, Ts.Elbegdorj, have become the first head of a foreign country to visit South Sudan and the first president of Mongolia to visit its peacekeepers."

    President Ts.Elbegdorj replied by saying, "We are getting familiar with the operation and activity of our peacekeepers in South Sudan. Mongolia will continue to actively participate to maintain peace in the youngest UN member country." He also talked to Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
    ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
    about the UN helicopter with Russian passengers which was shot and destroyed in South Sudan.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Southeast Asia
    Abu Sayyaf release trader held captive in Philippines
    A Filipino trader being held captive by suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists militants in the southern Philippines was released on Friday, local police said later that day.

    Chief Inspector Ariel Huesca said the victim, a man named Edgar Fabella, was abandoned by his captors around 10:00 a.m. at the port of Jolo in Sulu province.

    Fabella, who was seized last month in southern Philippine city of Zamboanga by the Abu Sayyaf, said that he was treated well and no ransom had been paid to the kidnappers in exchange for his freedom.
    Posted by: ryuge || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf


    Home Front: Culture Wars
    NYT Exec "reassures "Boston Globe drones on Future Ownership
    New York Times Co. vice chairman Michael Golden told Boston Globe employees Friday that the company has a duty to seek the highest bidder in a sale but hopes to leave the newspaper in responsible hands.
    "Pinch sez: 'we're blowing the place out! Any deal will be considered! No offer too small!"
    "We have no intention to send the New England Media Group to the slaughterhouse," he said in one of three town-hall style meetings with employees.
    "If we do, it will be halal, which I know means a lot to you ethnics"
    Golden came to Boston to discuss the Times Co.'s plan to sell the Globe, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and their related web sites. In the meetings, he was pressed to respond to questions about what kind of buyer the Times would seek.
    "Any. I mean...really. Do you people ever read what you put out?"
    "We will take what we consider to be the best bid,'' Golden said, describing a process that he estimated would take six to nine months. Price is important, he said, but there will be latitude as the Times reviews buyers. When pressed by employees, he said leaving the Globe in responsible hands will be a consideration.
    "responsible should be construed as 'any'"
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  These morons will lose another few million in that six to nine month timespan; they're dead meat...
    Posted by: Raj || 02/23/2013 0:14 Comments || Top||

    #2  State press is funded by the state, Raj.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2013 6:07 Comments || Top||

    #3  The Worcester T&G is my local paper. We used to subscribe before the NYT purchase turned it from a center right (for Massholia) good local coverage to a typical left-wing rag that read like the Globe.

    Too bad, so sad, don't let the door hit...on second thought let it hit you on the way out.
    Posted by: Alanc || 02/23/2013 8:07 Comments || Top||

    #4  In the meetings, he was pressed to respond to questions about what kind of buyer the Times would seek.

    Oh, I don't know. A buyer who could maybe afford to...PAY YOU?
    Better lose that sense of entitlement, Globies, or you'll be writing ads at the Penny Saver for minimum wage...
    Posted by: tu3031 || 02/23/2013 11:53 Comments || Top||

    #5  New York Times Co. vice chairman Michael Golden told Boston Globe employees..

    Have some Twinkies, Ho Hoes.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2013 12:13 Comments || Top||

    #6  Manolo! Send the limo up to Teterboro to pick up Michael. I'm sure he had a rough trip. And make sure it's stocked with my finest Napoleon brandy and best crack whores!
    Posted by: Pinchy || 02/23/2013 12:45 Comments || Top||

    #7  And make sure it's stocked with my finest Napoleon brandy and best crack whores!

    *blink* Each being best in class?
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 13:07 Comments || Top||

    #8  ...at least listed as five stars by the Secret Service.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2013 13:14 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    ASWJ ends protests after talks with authorities
    [Dawn] Activists of Ahle Sunnat Waljamaat (ASWJ)
    The false nose and mustache of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain.
    late on Friday ended their sit-ins in Quetta and Bloody Karachi after successful conclusion of talks with the authorities, DawnNews reported.

    The sit-ins were staged against security forces operation to arrest its workers in Quetta.
    The organization is "banned," which would seem to necessitate some sort of action against it in any kind of normal universe.
    Security agencies had launched a targeted operation against ASWJ and 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 ...
    (LeJ) when more than 90 people, mostly Hazara Shias, bit the dust in a blast in Quetta's Hazara Town on Feb 16.

    It was the second most deadly attack this year on the ethnic minority following a Jan 10 bombing at a snooker club in the city which killed over 100 people.

    The LeJ had grabbed credit of the Feb 16 Kirani Road attack.

    The ASWJ activists shouted slogans against the arrests of their fellow workers as they staged sit-ins in Quetta and Bloody Karachi.

    The announcement of ending protests was made after prolonged talks with the home secretary Balochistan
    ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
    and the CCPO Quetta, in which it was agreed that cases would be registered against personnel of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) involved in arresting the ASWJ activists.

    Subsequently sit-ins in Bloody Karachi were also called off upon receiving reports of successful conclusion of the talks.

    Meanwhile,
    ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread...
    angry mobs erupted into the streets in Bloody Karachi's Sohrab Goth and Malir City areas. Shops and small businesses were reportedly shut after the uproar.

    In a related development, LeJ leader Malik Ishaq was tossed in the clink
    I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
    under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law on the orders of the Punjab provincial government in Rahim Yar Khan.

    Ishaq is said to be one of the founders of the LeJ, which is accused of sectarian violence and has claimed several attacks on the ethnic Hazara Shia population in Balochistan.
    He's been "in jug" umpty two times, most of them house arrest, and he's been sprung every time. Judges in Pakistain do that when you threaten to murder them.
    Attacks targeting Shias in Pakistain have claimed almost 200 lives already this year. Human Rights Watch
    ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
    said more than 400 were killed in 2012, the deadliest on record for Shias.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan


    Caribbean-Latin America
    UN 'will not pay' for Haiti cholera
    [IRISHTIMES] The United Nations
    ...an international organization whose stated aim of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
    has said it will not pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation claimed by cholera victims in impoverished Haiti, where an epidemic has killed thousands of people and been blamed on UN peacekeepers.

    Cholera - an infection causing severe diarrhoea that can lead to dehydration and death - has killed some 7,750 Haitians and sickened almost 620,000 since October 2010. It occurs in places with poor sanitation.

    In November 2011, the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti filed a petition at UN headquarters in New York seeking a minimum of $100,000 for the families or next-of-kin of each person killed by cholera and at least $50,000 for each victim who suffered illness or injury from cholera.

    UN secretary general the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
    ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
    's front man Martin Nesirky said the world body advised the representatives of the cholera victims that "the claims are not receivable pursuant to Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities."
    "We're from the UN, and we're here to help."
    Under Section 29 the United Nations is required to make provisions for "appropriate modes of settlement" of private law disputes to which the world body is a party or disputes involving a UN official who enjoys diplomatic immunity.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Is it wrong to be overcome by schadenfreude?
    Posted by: Alanc || 02/23/2013 8:10 Comments || Top||

    #2  I'm surprised they don't charge them for it...
    Posted by: tu3031 || 02/23/2013 13:04 Comments || Top||

    #3  Can I sue them for the flu I had in January
    Posted by: chris || 02/23/2013 13:22 Comments || Top||


    Good Morning
    Posted by: badanov || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Birthday Gam Shot

    Natalia Verbeke [Argentine][Filmography](age 37)



    Hermosa Trasero


    Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/23/2013 0:04 Comments || Top||

    #2  A dog lover as well.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/23/2013 1:34 Comments || Top||

    #3  Most excellent link Mr. B.
    Posted by: Dale || 02/23/2013 7:17 Comments || Top||

    #4  68 years ago today...

    Posted by: tu3031 || 02/23/2013 15:56 Comments || Top||

    #5  Hermosa nena mirando por decir lo menos, incluyendo su parte trasera, lo que bellos ojos
    Posted by: Cleating Ebbavish1197 || 02/23/2013 16:19 Comments || Top||

    #6  A great photograph, one for the ages. But truth be told the combat on Iwo was just getting cranked up.
    Posted by: Shipman || 02/23/2013 16:22 Comments || Top||

    #7  My Dad is near 90, he was (is LOL) in the 4th Division. He was on the plains below working a radio and laying way damn low. The 4th Division went back to Maui so shot up it was not capable of action for 6 months. Next stop was Operation Coronet. Ima way damn happy that didn't go down, for reasons obvious. I'm here.

    Posted by: Shipman || 02/23/2013 16:28 Comments || Top||

    #8  Most of the guys in that picture never got off the island.
    Posted by: tu3031 || 02/23/2013 16:33 Comments || Top||

    #9  No, Capt. Kangaroo was never on Iwo Jima and Lee Marvin got his "Million Dollar Wound" on Saipan.
    Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/23/2013 16:52 Comments || Top||

    #10  If you haven't already, read "Flags of our Fathers", by James Bradley,son of PM2 John Bradley. It tells the life stories of the six flag raisers, plus the details of the Battle of Iwo Jima. PM2 Bradley got the Navy Cross (second only to the Medal of Honor) for his actions on Iwo. (Not for the flag raising). The book covers the stories of what happened to the three survivors as well.

    The book also tells the stories of the first flag raisers. The iconic photograph was actually the second flag raised on Mt Suribachi. However, the flag was too small, so they ordered a larger flag to be raised.

    Don't bother with Clint Eastwood's film, at least until you've read the book.
    Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/23/2013 17:25 Comments || Top||

    #11  Three of the six got off the island, but the one that went back to a reservation drank himself to death.

    One - the Navy Corpsman - raised eight children, one of whom wrote an excellent book about the six.

    I suppose many of you knew that, being military historians and such like. But perhaps TW did not know....
    Posted by: Bobby || 02/23/2013 17:34 Comments || Top||

    #12  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdNV9JX-Xi8
    Ballad of Ira Hayes, sung by Johnny Cash
    Posted by: Glenmore || 02/23/2013 18:29 Comments || Top||

    #13  From US Naval Institute Proceedings: 'Photographer Joe Rosenthal admitted that when he took a shot of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima’s Mt. Suribachi on 23 February 1945, he had no idea that he had captured something extraordinary. He was setting up for a different shot when he spotted the group of men planting the flag and quickly took a snap without even looking through the viewfinder. The chance photo would become iconic overnight and go on to win the Pulitzer Prize.'
    Posted by: Glenmore || 02/23/2013 18:43 Comments || Top||

    #14  But perhaps TW did not know....

    You are ever kindness itself, Bobby. TW did not know, as is so often the case. :-)
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 21:12 Comments || Top||

    #15  Bobby, could you repost the link for the son's book? It didn't work for me.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2013 21:17 Comments || Top||

    #16  I had the pleasure of meeting one of the many sculptures(about 100) involved in that project. He lived near Peace Cross in Bladensburg Maryland. Thin man maybe 80 pounds. Long gray white beard and hair to his shoulders and lower. Clothes just rags hanging on him. He was dying of emphysema. He had a sketch of the memorial on his wall not framed. One corner turned under. His bed was a simple military cot with just one thin blanket. He told me his story. A small part anyway. Should you ever see the top most hand closely you will see its that of an old man. He said he made a copy of his hand for there. He died shortly later. OH, many will dispute this story but I am inclined to believe him. No one believes you even if you were there. I have seen that happen many times.
    Posted by: Dale || 02/23/2013 22:05 Comments || Top||

    #17  Can we say, for this image, its symbology and the following 60 years, there was indeed some Intelligent Design?
    Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2013 23:35 Comments || Top||


    Africa North
    Egypt imports 140,000 teargas canisters from US
    [Egypt Independent] In January, the Interior Ministry ordered the import of 140,000 teargas canisters from the United States at a cost of LE17 million.

    Letters between Interior Ministry and Defense Ministry officials revealed that the order was made to address the country's shortage of teargas after months of violent festivities between police and protesters.

    When the shipment was delayed via sea, the Defense Ministry was asked to transfer the shipment by military jet, according to a 30 January letter from Major General Osama Ismail, head of the Interior Ministry's department of information and public relations, to Staff Brigadier General Mohamed Farid Hegazy, secretary general of the Defense Ministry.

    "In light of the ongoing incidents and growing need for gas bombs to deal with rioters and preserve the nation's safety, Al-Guindy Company for Imports and Exports, a representative of the US Combined System Company in Egypt, has been contracted to import 70,000 gas bombs and 70,000 long-range gas projectiles from the US to Egypt," the letter stated.

    "Due to the company's failure in importing the shipment, citing the difficult procedures governing importing from abroad, and the Interior Ministry's urgent need [for teargas], we thought we would write to you to take the necessary steps to approve transferring the shipment on board of a military jet from the US to Egypt. Al-Guindy Company is willing to pay for the shipping costs," Ismail continued.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

    #1  I really lack the heart to come up with adequate snark for this. We are shipping them mass quantities of the stuff we figuratively kneecapped Mubarak for using.
    Posted by: tfsm on the rd || 02/23/2013 20:01 Comments || Top||

    #2  It's different, now, Thing. It's not in our national interest, therefore Obama is all for it
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 20:27 Comments || Top||

    #3  When the shipment was delayed via sea, the Defense Ministry was asked to transfer the shipment by military jet...Due to the company's failure in importing the shipment, citing the difficult procedures governing importing from abroad...


    Let's hear it for U.S. Customs,Homeland Security, et al.
    Posted by: Pappy || 02/23/2013 21:18 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Hyderabad blast probe: Terror hunt spreads to 3 States
    [FIRSTPOST] The investigation into the Hyderabad blasts on Thursday have spread to three other States - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkand - and s dragnet has been spread for three suspects.

    Forensic investigation of the blast site suggests that the kabooms were set off by improvised bombs that used ammonium nitrate, urea, petrol and shrapnel. In the method of planning and the modus operandi, Sherlocks see parallels with the August 2012 blasts in Pune.

    CNN-IBN reports that Sherlocks are following up on a raid on a lodge in Hyderabad on 18 January, from where a suspect managed to escape. The suspect had been staying in the lodge under an assumed name and had slipped the net barely a few hours before the place was raided.

    ]The site of one of the blasts in Hyderabad. PTI The names of three other suspects - belonging to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand - have emerged; they are being looked at closely as potential leads by the Nation Investigation Agency and the local police.

    Given the similarities with the Pune blasts, Sherlocks are working with other State police forces on active leads. A team of the Delhi Police special cell is now in Hyderabad with details of an alleged Indian Mujahideen
    A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor...
    operative Syed Maqbool, who had told interrogators after his arrest in October last year that in 2012, he had reconnaitred the Dilsukhnagar area, where the blasts occured on Thursday.

    Maqbool's interrogation report is now an important source of information for the Sherlocks. Investigators say Maqbool's interrogation report and similarities with previous blasts suggest that the Indian Mujahideen may have a hand in the twin blasts in Hyderabad but it is too early to conclude as the probe is not over yet.

    On Friday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy stepped up to take responsibility for the blasts. Referring to the alert issued by the Union Home Ministry recently with regard to a possible terror attack, the Chief Minister said that the intelligence information had been sent on 16 February to all the states. He further asserted that whenever such alerts come from the Central government, the police took cognisance of it and acted on it. Reddy told CNN-IBN that in his estimation, snuffies were working to disturb peace in Hyderabad and the rest of Andhra Pradesh.

    The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, accused the government of being soft on terror and demanded that confidence-building measures with Pakistain must be suspended. Speaking at a presser in Hyderabad, party president Rajnath Singh said the central government was to blame for the blasts as it had failed in providing specific details to the state government.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Indian Mujaheddin


    Home Front: Politix
    White House will cede Benghazi docs in Brennan fight
    Posted by: ryuge || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Blood stained bargaining chips, how thoughtful and professional.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/23/2013 1:25 Comments || Top||

    #2  Weekends are wonderful.
    Posted by: Shipman || 02/23/2013 1:36 Comments || Top||

    #3  The sad but circular irony is that Brennan may very well be the one responsible for getting those four fellows in Benghazi killed in the first place.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/23/2013 2:09 Comments || Top||

    #4  ...now the Obama administration has agreed to surrender email messages between top national security officials that discuss how to describe the Sept. 11.

    IOW, the sacrificial goats have been chosen, given ample time to update their resumes, and their new assignments have been finalized.
    Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/23/2013 9:27 Comments || Top||

    #5  "And then [REDACTED] said [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] pizzas with [REDACTED] toppings for [REDACTED] before Secretary [REDACTED] told General [REDACTED]about the inflammatory video. But despite [REDACTED] most of them lived happily everafter."
    Posted by: Matt || 02/23/2013 11:48 Comments || Top||

    #6  The hearings continue...
    Posted by: tu3031 || 02/23/2013 11:58 Comments || Top||

    #7  So, Mr. President, thank you for providing these documents that previously didn't exist. And regarding Mr. Brennan's confirmation, HAHAHAHAHAHHAHH
    Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/23/2013 12:19 Comments || Top||


    Caribbean-Latin America
    US Consulate in Matamoros extends travel warning as kidnappings soar in Tamaulipas -- UPDATED

    For a map, click here. For a map of tamaulipas state, click here.
    UPDATE: Updating with new information that Wendy Soto Misell was with her biological mother.


    By Chris Covert
    Rantburg.com

    The US Consulate in Matamoros in Tamaulipas state has extended a warning to its citizens and employees about travelling on the highway in Tamaulipas, according to Mexican news accounts.

    According to a news report posted on the website of Milenio news daily, the US Consulate based in Matamoros in Tamaulipas has extended an advisory it originally issued last November against travel in northern areas of Tamaulipas state. According to the report, the specific concerns listed were of armed robbery and kidnapping, especially on the roads linking Matamoros and Reynosa.

    This writer was unable to locate the specific warning extension. The November 20th, 2012 travel warning was issued by the US State Department for the entire nation of Mexico. The US Consulate in Hermosillo, Sonora state had issued travel restrictions for US government employees travelling in Mexico, especially between Nogales and Hermosillo in Sonora. Those warnings were issued just days after the massive intergang shootout in Tubutama in Sonora early July 2010.

    A separate warning was released December 14th, 2012 by the US Consulate in Matamroros due to the threat of kidnapping and carjacking, which occurred outside of Matamoros and Renosa.

    Nuevo Laredo, west of Reynosa, has experienced a severe spike in kidnapping, particularly of teens in the past week. A news report posted on El Manana news daily said that four cases of kidnapped youths from age 13 to 20 have been reported in Nuevo Laredo. The article claims that Tamaulipas government authorities are helpless or are unable to investigate the abductions.

    The report also said that parents have been forced to investigate the disappearances of their children.

    A separate article which also appeared on the website of El Manana reported that a nine year old girl, identified as Wendy Soto Misell, disappeared and was presumed kidnapped last Wednesday at around 1200 hrs. The report said that Wendy attended La Primaria Luis Donaldo Colosio school in Nuevo Laredo.

    A separate article which also appeared on the website of El Manana reported that a nine year old girl, identified as Wendy Soto Misell, disappeared and was presumed kidnapped last Wednesday at around 1200 hrs. The report said that Wendy attended La Primaria Luis Donaldo Colosio school in Nuevo Laredo.

    However a later news brief in El Manana said that Wendy had been with her biological mother right along.

    Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
    Posted by: badanov || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  and tourism is down. Wonder why?
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2013 10:16 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Global efforts failing to stamp out terror: Zardari
    [Dawn] In what can be described as an indictment of global efforts to stamp out terrorism and extremism from the society, President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
    ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
    said on Friday the efforts were likely to end in failure.

    Speaking at the concluding session of the National Conference on Inter-faith Harmony organised by Ministry of National Harmony at the presidency, he said he had been pleading with world leaders that the manner in which the problem was being addressed was wrong.

    Apparently opposing the use of force as the sole means of tackling the menace, President Zardari remarked: "We believe in 'tolerant Islam' and have to counter those who believe in hate with peaceful efforts."

    Referring to the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, the president said that even three decades of war in the country would not bring peace there. "And Pakistain is affected particularly badly by the turmoil in Afghanistan."

    There was a time, he said, when no one in Pakistain thought of blowing himself up because "Islam was against suicide".

    People lived in peace and harmony and there were no sectarian issues. "But then the global politics changed and religion was used as a weapon of war."

    The world had yet to realise fully the dangerous consequences of using religion and faith as a weapon of war, Mr Zardari said.

    The world needed to adopt peaceful means to eliminate the menace of extremism and terrorism, he said.

    The president also recalled the words of Benazir Bhutto
    ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
    who told former American president George Bush during a conversation that "a Frankenstein is being created to defeat the rival ideology".

    Mr Zardari said it was disturbing to see that values like tolerance and harmony were fast eroding. "Extremism is not confined to one religion or country. It is growing across the world," he remarked.

    "We must act before rationality is completely destroyed," he added.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


    Southeast Asia
    Bomb injures two Thai soldiers
    Two soldiers providing teacher security were seriously wounded by a bomb blast in Patani’s Khok Pho district on Friday morning. The bomb blew up about 7:53 a.m. near a school building. Two soldiers were seriously injured and admitted to the hospital.

    Earlier this morning, police received a report of another bomb blast in front of a health station, but no one was hurt. Witnesses said that the improvised explosive device buried near the side of a rural road was detonated as six soldiers patroling on foot passed in front of the health station. Fortunately, the bomb exploded after the soldiers had passed safely by.

    Police blamed terrorists insurgents for both bombings.

    According to Deep South Watch more than 5,000 people have been killed and over 9,000 injured in more than 11,000 incidents, or about 3.5 a day, in the three southernmost region since the violence erupted afresh in January 2004.
    Posted by: ryuge || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


    Iraq
    Gunmen Execute Seven Iraqi anti-Qaida Militiamen
    [An Nahar] Gunmen executed seven Iraqi anti-Qaeda bully boyz and maimed one at a checkpoint they were manning northeast of Storied Baghdad
    ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
    , officials said on Friday.

    The attack took place in the village of Halaiwat, near the disputed town of Tuz Khurmatu, at about 2:00 am (2300 GMT on Thursday), said a police officer.

    Gunmen dressed in military uniforms gathered the bully boyz -- known as Sahwa, or Awakening -- from the area then shot them, the officer said, adding that one survived but was at death's door.

    A doctor from Tuz Khurmatu hospital confirmed the toll.

    The Sahwa are made up of Sunni Arab rustics who joined forces with the U.S. military against al-Qaeda from late 2006, helping turn the tide against the insurgency.

    Sunni faceless myrmidons still linked to al-Qaeda regularly target Sahwa fighters in because they regard them as traitors.

    The Iraqi government announced at the end of January that about 41,000 Sahwa fighters are to receive 500,000 Iraqi dinars ($415) a month, up from 300,000 dinars ($250).

    An increase in wages for the Sahwa, as well as their incorporation into the security forces and civil service, has long been a demand of Iraq's Sunni community.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


    -Lurid Crime Tales-
    Gang Member Found With 100 Bags Of Heroin Hidden In His Anus
    [THESMOKINGGUN] Meet Rasoul Speight.
    Hey, Rasoul. Howya doon?
    The Bloods gang member is facing a narcotics charge after New Jersey cops yesterday discovered a whopping 100 bags of heroin hidden in his anus, police report.
    "Awright! Bend over and spread yer cheeks!... Yer other cheeks, Rasoul!"
    Speight, 32, was driving on the Palisades Interstate Parkway when his 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer was pulled over during a routine traffic stop. When cops detected the smell of marijuana they asked for--and received--permission to search the car.
    "Yeah, sure. Go ahead... Unh!"
    "Wossa motta, Rasoul?"
    "Gas pains!"

    While Sherlocks found "nothing of evidentiary value" inside the vehicle, Speight and passenger Gary Sylak, 25, were both jugged
    Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
    due to outstanding traffic warrants, according to cops.
    "Hmmm... Computer sez you have 159 outstanding traffic citations, Rasoul. You ever been in court at all?"
    While Speight was being processed at police headquarters, he "was found to be in possession of 100 bags of heroin which were concealed in his anus and undetectable at the scene." Police estimated the heroin's value at $1000 in New York City, and $2000 in upstate New York, "where both subjects were traveling to."
    "Rasoul, you're sittin' on some big money, here!"
    "Yeah. If I make two trips I can buy a used car that might run."

    Speight, who cops noted is "also listed as a Bloods gang member," was incarcerated
    Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
    in lieu of $38,500 bail on a pair of felony drug counts.
    Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  He's got a monkey up his ass!
    Posted by: tu3031 || 02/23/2013 0:24 Comments || Top||

    #2  Too bad a bag didn't break, there'd be no need for a trial, just a burial.

    (Minus the coke, of course)
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/23/2013 19:28 Comments || Top||



    Who's in the News
    32[untagged]
    5Arab Spring
    4Govt of Pakistan
    3Govt of Syria
    1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
    1al-Qaeda in North Africa
    1Boko Haram
    1Govt of Iran
    1al-Qaeda in Iraq
    1Abu Sayyaf
    1Hezbollah
    1Indian Mujaheddin
    1Jamaat-e-Islami
    1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
    1Lashkar e-Taiba
    1Salafists
    1Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
    1Thai Insurgency

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    On Sale now!


    A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

    Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

    Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
    Click here for more information

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

    Two weeks of WOT
    Sat 2013-02-23
      Syrian Rebels Claim To Seize Nuclear Facility
    Fri 2013-02-22
      Boko Haram Denies Ceasefire, Pastes Threat Posters In Borno
    Thu 2013-02-21
      Bombing in Indian Hyderabad, at least 11 killed
    Wed 2013-02-20
      French nationals kidnapped in northern Cameroon
    Tue 2013-02-19
      Mortars land near Syrian presidential palace
    Mon 2013-02-18
      Five killed in attack at government office in Peshawar
    Sun 2013-02-17
      Egyptian police publicly beat to death man suspected of killing officer
    Sat 2013-02-16
      Bomb kills at least 20 in Pakistani city
    Fri 2013-02-15
      Meteorite Hits Urals, Up to 500 Injured
    Thu 2013-02-14
      Pakistan asks Taliban to announce 30-day cease-fire for talks
    Wed 2013-02-13
      Syrian rebels say they captured military air base near Aleppo
    Tue 2013-02-12
      KCNA confirms: Pudgy sets off a nuke
    Mon 2013-02-11
      Seven killed, 11 injured in attacks across southern Thailand
    Sun 2013-02-10
      Syrian troops, rebels clash over Damascus highway
    Sat 2013-02-09
      India Executes Man Convicted in 2001 Attack on Parliament

    Better than the average link...



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