(Sh.M.Network)-President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has shielded a top pirate leader from arrest by issuing him a diplomatic passport, according to a United Nations ...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the sound of artillery... inquiry, which criticizes the "climate of impunity" enjoyed by pirate kingpins in Somalia and abroad.
The United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia said in a report to the Security Council that senior pirate leaders were benefiting from high-level protection from Somali authorities and were not being sufficiently sought by international authorities.
The group said a diplomatic passport had been provided "with the authorization of" Mr. Ahmed to Mohamed Abdi Hassan, a pirate leader also known as Afweyne, who presented it to authorities in Malaysia on a trip there in April.
The report said Mr. Ahmed said the passport was "one of several inducements" for Afweyne aimed at dismantling his pirate network.
Mr. Ahmed, in a letter to the chairman of the Security Council Sanctions Committee, called the report "one-sided" and described its contents as "unsubstantiated allegations."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Yes, Gomer. It's time for some hand wringing and a strongly worded letter.
Egypt's state news agency said Thursday that former spy chief and vice president Omar Suleiman has died in the United States at the age of 76.
Speaking to Reuters earlier, Suleiman's assistant said: "He was fine. It came suddenly while he was having medical tests in Cleveland," said the aide, Hussein Kamal, without giving a reason for Suleiman's death. Acute cirrhosis?
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/19/2012 09:15 ||
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[Al Ahram] Hezb ut-Tahrir, coming in as it the second Islamic group to join Tunisia's political mainstream after renouncing violence, is an international movement that seeks to re-establish the Caliphate, a defunct form of an Islamic empire. It does not endorse democracy nor take part in elections but is focused mostly on preaching.
The Salafi Islamist group is banned in several countries and was repressed in Tunisia before last year's revolution ousted secular dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and brought the current moderate Islamist Ennahda party into government.
Tunisia's secular elites accuse Ennahda of being too soft on hardliners. Ennahda says its strategy is to bring them into the political mainstream to avoid violent protest from the fringes.
In May, the government granted a political licence to another Salafi Islamist party, Islah Front, drawing criticism from secularists.
Ridha Belhadj, who heads the Tunisian branch of Hizb Al-Tahrir, said the government had granted it a licence after it committed itself to peaceful political action. "The goals of Hizb Al-Tahrir are to establish an Islamic Caliphate, raise Islamic awareness and lead the country to achieve radical change and the unity of the Islamic nation," he said.
While Islamists did not play a prominent role in the 2011 uprising that toppled Ben Ali, a struggle over the role of religion in government has since polarised politics in the North African country known as one of the region's most secular.
Banned under Ben Ali, Ennahda won 42 percent of seats in Tunisia's first free elections in October and now leads the government.
Ennahda says it is committed to democracy and freedom of dress but ultra-conservative Salafi Islamist groups have pushed in recent months for the creation of an Islamic state and the imposition of sharia, or Islamic law, causing alarm among secularists.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said Wednesday she has ordered a preliminary inquiry into events in Mali where Islamists have seized control of the vast north.
The probe would seek to establish if the criteria had been been met to open a fuller inquiry that could result in charges being brought for alleged atrocities in the impoverished west African country.
A leading rights body had accused gangs in the north -- which Islamist and rebel factions seized after a March coup -- of rapes, executions and the use of child soldiers.
"I have instructed my office to immediately proceed with a preliminary examination of the situation," Bensouda said in a statement after talks with Malian Justice Minister Malick Coulibaly.
"The government of Mali... refers the situation in Mali since January 2012 to my office and requests an investigation to determine whether one or more persons should be charged with the crimes committed," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] The Yemeni authorities said on Tuesday the Marib oil pipeline has resumed pumping crude and revealed plans to protect the pipeline from more attacks.
The Marib pipeline was subject to many attacks last year and this year and its shutdown since October cost the country $4 billion, officials said.
The last repairs to the pipeline were completed on Sunday and pumping crude from Marib and Shabwa provinces has already started, officials told the Yemen Post on Tuesday.
The 438-km pipeline carries about 110,000 barrels a day to the Ras Isa terminal and its shutdown has also been blamed for shortages.
Tribes in Marib continued to disrupt the repairs to the pipeline in the past adding to the country's woes after the national economy was largely affected by the 2011 events.
The four companies including the state-owned SEPOC, which transport their production via the pipeline, resumed their activities immediately after completing the repairs, in a move which comes ahead of Ramadan, the month of fasting to ensure supply of fuel, the officials added.
Tribesmen and bully boyz usually attack Yemen's oil and gas pipelines and they go unpunished, triggering criticism about the government's attitude toward the saboteurs.
The officials said a special plan has now been drawn up to protect this key pipeline by the security authorities in coordination with the local government.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... has called Iran to stop interfering in Yemen's affairs, pointing out that Yemen does not interfere in the affairs of other countries.
In a speech delivered on Wednesday to cadets of the War College, he urged Iran to take into account that Yemen is currently facing critical conditions, stressing that Iran to stop its interventions in Yemen.
He affirmed that the GCC-mediated imitative is the best solution to Yemen, asserting that the military reconstruct on the base of national principles will lead to stability and security of Yemen.
He indicated that the situation in Yemen got better, confirming that some political forces do not know realities in Yemen and singling out that Yemen still faces economic, political and security crises.
Hadi reaffirmed that he will hunt the Death Eaters anywhere in Yemen, appreciating victories made by the army in Zinjibar, Jaar and other regions of Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
He said that the war against Al-Qaeda does not start so far, emphasizing that the army will dislodge all Yemen of beturbanned goons.
He further cited that there no longer fears of breaking out a civil war, reiterating that all "brotherly and friendly states" stand by Yemen and hinting that they know well that turmoil in Yemen will affect on the region and world as a whole.
The Yemeni Defense Ministry declared on Wednesday that an Iranian spy cell was tossed in the calaboose Book 'im, Mahmoud! by the security forces, pointing out that the cell had been working in Yemen for seven years.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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A planned bomb attack on Jewish sites in the English city of Manchester was foiled when the husband-and-wife team behind the plot became embroiled in a domestic dispute, prosecutors said in a case that led to the wife's conviction Thursday.
Prosecutor Bobbie Cheema told Manchester Crown Court that police were called when 33-year-old Mohammed Sajid Khan and his 38-year-old wife Shasta got into an argument at their home last July. Shasta's family was drawn into the squabble, and at one point the dispute got physical, with Mohammed assaulting his father-in-law.
Officers called to deal with a domestic violence episode got a little more than they bargained for, Cheema told the jury in opening remarks delivered last month.
She said that one of Shasta's brothers told the officers Mohammed was "a home-grown terrorist." Shasta joined in too, proceeding to "spill the beans" on her husband's terrorist activities - all while denying she had anything to do with them.
Officers searching the home found beheading videos, al-Qaida propaganda, bomb-making guides, safety goggles, syringes, peroxide, bleach and electrical equipment. Detectives perusing the pair's computer records found evidence of Web searches for information on how to make explosives from acid and bleach, as well as notes referring to firearms and addresses at the heart of Manchester's Jewish community.
An examination of the satellite navigation in Shasta Khan's car showed several trips to Jewish areas of the city.
Cheema said the pair - who met on a Muslim dating website in July 2010 and married shortly thereafter - had been radicalized by material such as al-Qaida's "Inspire," an online magazine aimed at English-speaking Muslims. But she said that the "path from radicalization to atrocity" appeared to have broken by the deterioration of "internal domestic affairs."
Shasta Khan, who denied all wrongdoing, burst into tears Thursday when she was convicted of one count of preparing for acts of terrorism and two counts of possessing information useful for the purposes of terrorism. She wailed as she was led into the cells.
Her husband had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing. Both are due to be sentenced Friday.
British police said on Thursday four people have been charged with offenses under the anti-terrorism law but they were not connected the Olympic Games that start in just over a week.
The four were incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! during a series of police raids on July 5 and 7. Police said from the start the arrests were the result of a long-running intelligence operation and were not connected to the pending Games.
Police said three men, Richard Dart, Imran Mahmood and Jahangir Alom, had been charged with travelling to Pakistain for training and preparing attacks, while one woman, Ruksana Begum, had been charged with possessing documents useful to terrorists.
The four lived in various areas of London. They will be formally charged in court on Thursday.
Six years after investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in a Moscow apartment building, investigators announced Monday that charges would be brought against a former police officer suspected of conspiring to murder her.
According to the investigation, former police Colonel Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov used his official powers to monitor Politkovskaya, whose reporting exposed corrupt officials and brought to light atrocities committed by Chechnya's Moscow-backed authorities.
Pavlyuchenkov learned the address of Politkovskaya's apartment and the routes she usually took and gave this information to other conspirators in her killing. He also instructed subordinates to monitor Politkovskaya, according to the Investigative Committee. Pavlyuchenkov also obtained the weapon and the ammunition that were later used in the murder, their statement said.
Pavlyuchenkov has cooperated extensively with investigators since his arrest in August 2011. In February it was reported that he had accused billionaire Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev, both of whom live in exile in London, of masterminding Politkovskaya's murder.
British authorities have repeatedly refused Russian requests to extradite Berezovsky and Zakayev, saying they don't believe they would live long enough to get a fair trial in Russia. Britain's refusal to extradite them has led to tension between the two countries.
French judicial authorities Wednesday launched a probe into television channel TF1's airing of recordings of self-proclaimed al-Qaeda gunman Mohamed Merah negotiating with police shortly before he was rubbed out.
A judicial source said an investigation had been opened into breaches of professional secrecy and into revealing details of an ongoing probe.
Prosecutors had opened a case shortly after the broadcast on Sunday and the opening of a judicial probe will see an investigating magistrate assigned to the case.
Merah, who killed seven people in March including three Jewish children, was rubbed out in a police assault after a 32-hour siege of his apartment in the southern city of Toulouse ...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France...
The extracts, aired on the Sunday evening news, sparked fury among his victims' families.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls condemned the move, saying it showed a lack of sensitivity towards the families and came at a time when several cases relating to the killings were ongoing.
La Belle France's media regulator CSA also gave the channel an official warning about the broadcast.
In the extracts, the 23-year-old Merah said he was "not afraid of death".
"I work for al-Qaeda, I have superiors, I'm not alone... I'm alone in La Belle France, I work alone here, but I was sent by al-Qaeda, I was trained by the Pak Taliban, there's an entire organization behind this," Merah said in the tapes.
"They asked me to make bombs, I didn't want to... I told them 'train me in using a gun.'"
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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Relatives of three Americans killed in drone strikes in Yemen are suing top Pentagon and CIA officials, saying the killings were unconstitutional. Issue: Does a person have a constitutional right to make war on the United States?
Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan died in September. Awlaki's son Abdulrahman, 16, died in October. Issue: Is there a minimum age at which one can make war against the United States?
Relatives accuse Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, CIA Director David Petraeus and two military commanders of approving and directing the strikes.
Curiously, they're not suing the one other person who claims that HE approves each and every strike...
The legality of US use of drones has been in the spotlight in recent weeks.
Put there by the radical progressive Left...
Issue: Can officials of a sovereign state be sued for carrying out their lawful duties?
Awlaki, a radical Islamist cleric born in the state of New Mexico, was a key figure in the Yemen-based group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). His 16-year-old son was born in Colorado. Samir Khan was a naturalised US citizen who was involved with Inspire, al-Qaeda's English-language magazine.
The lawsuit was filed by Nasser al-Awlaki, the father of Anwar al-Awlaki, alongside Sarah Khan, mother of Samir Khan.
So perhaps Samir's mother loved him after all. Cheez, Whoda thunk it...
Military commanders Adm William McRaven - head of US special operations - and Lt Gen Joseph Votel were also named in the lawsuit, which is seeking unspecified damages.
"The killings violated fundamental rights afforded to all US citizens, including the right not to be deprived of life without due process of law," the legal complaint says.
What about the fundamental responsibility of all US citizens to refrain from treason and terrorism?
#1
"The killings violated fundamental rights afforded to all US citizens, including the right not to be deprived of life without due process of law," the legal complaint says.
A lot of Americans were killed without 'due process' between 1861 and 1865 when they became members of an organization that waged war against the interests of the national government.
[Dawn] Pak rustics endorsed a Taliban ban on polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccinations Wednesday, closing the door to the prospect of any child being vaccinated in North Wazoo as part of a nationwide campaign.
Officials had pinned their last hopes of inoculating children in the northwestern district on talks with rustics, which were successively delayed until Wednesday, the last day of the nationwide campaign.
"Polio vaccination will be banned until drone attacks are stopped," tribal elder Qadir Khan told a gathering of more than 200 elders and Islamic scholars in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , the main town of North Waziristan.
"Drones martyr so many children, while polio afflicts one or two out of hundreds of thousands," said tribal elder Maamoor Khan.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"Polio vaccination will be banned until drone attacks are stopped,"
Just like the "Don't move or the you-know-who gets it" scene from Blazing Saddles, only with turbans & AK-47s. But it's a fine line between funny and stupid.
Computer virus with Persian words in program code that infected Israeli computers turns on recording devices, steal files.
A new computer virus with Persian words in its programming code infected sensitive computers across the Middle East, including Israel, and gathered information on critical national security infrastructure, an Israeli security expert who helped uncover the virus told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.
The Trojan horse has been dubbed "Mahdi" after the Shi'ite Iranian messiah-like figure, since the programmers appear to have used a key folder with that name and also included a text file named mahdi.txt in the malicious software.
Aviv Raff, deputy chief technology officer at the Petah Tikva-based Seculert company, which discovered the new virus, said that like the earlier Flame virus discovered in Iranian computers, the new Trojan horse could turn on microphones in computers, record in-room conversations, take screenshots and steal file content.
He named the five states with the highest number of infected computers -- Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... and the UAE -- with first Iran, then Israel the most affected.
"The aim was to create a document containing information [and send it out to a remote user], which was to be used for [an unknown] future mission," Raff told the Post on Wednesday.
In Israel, as in other countries, computers found to be infected by Mahdi belonged to people working on national infrastructure projects as well as engineering students.
Raff said that while the program code was effective, it was not so complex and was created quickly. "Whoever did this needed to have some kind of financial backup.
It's a big threat to any state's security," he added.
Seculert asked the large Russian Kapersky Lap computer security company to investigate the virus. In a joint blurb on Tuesday, Seculert and Kapersky said the Trojan Horse has been operating for the past several months, and had also gathered information on financial bodies and academic institutions.
[Al Ahram] Following a dispute within the Israeli government over the expansion of a military conscription law to include ultra-Orthodox Jews that saw the exit of Kadima on Tuesday, Avigdor Lieberman claims he has no intention of leaving
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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Irish priest Father Michael Sinnott is returning back to his country -- 58 years after arriving in the southern Philippines where he was kidnapped in 2009 by Muslim terrorists militants and freed after a ransom was paid. Sinnott is flying Friday to Ireland where he is to retire.
On Tuesday, Filipino priests and friends held a going-away party for Sinnott at the historic Malate Church. The missionary said it was difficult for him to decide whether to return home or stay in the Philippines.
He said, "It really was a very difficult decision to make. I realized that I'm going home and not going back but I still think I made the right decision that there is really nothing more I can do here in Manila that there's more I can do at home. I will live a big part of my heart here in the Philippines and I will always remember the people that I met and helped me."
Sinnott was kidnapped by terrorists rebels in October 2009 from his missionary quarters in Pagadian City and freed a month later in Zamboanga City after government negotiators allegedly paid huge ransom for his freedom.
Posted by: ryuge ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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This is basically a secondhand report in the Jerusalem Post of an original article in the NYT that I was unable to find.
The United States and Israel were in discussions over whether Israel should take out Syrian weapons facilities as the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad falters, The New York Times reported Thursday.
According to the report, which cited two administration officials, the United States is opposed to such an attack "because of the risk that it would give Mr. Assad an opportunity to rally support against Israeli interference." The whole thing's at the link; they wring their hands that no matter what we do things will get worse, and also say that Assad is going to fall in the near-term. One thing they don't really want to talk about, I suspect, and can't even talk about how they don't want to talk about it... the current US regime got into office by accusing its opponents of lying about Weapons of Mass Destruction for a massive five-year election cycle. And now Hezbollah is about to gain unsupervized control over a weapons stockpile, much of which The New Establishment has spent the last decade saying doesn't exist.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
07/19/2012 11:28 ||
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#1
One small quibble: the US government is an administration, not a regime. Zimbabwe has a regime.
We may not like Champ (I sure don't) but he has an administration. Unless he decides to indulge his inner communist just after the election, of course...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/19/2012 13:25 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them - whatever decisions they make - to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that,"
#5
As somebody said, these WMD never existed but somebody is always acknowledged to have massive stocks on hand.
Problem with busting these things is that poison gas, and some biological agents, if they get loose in the attack, will kill a lot of folks who were not supposed to be killed. Some munitions are going to be prepared and if they're opened one way or another bad things will happen and bulk stocks will be on hand to fill more. Binary stocks might not be too dangerous if let out by explosions.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/19/2012 14:54 Comments ||
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#6
What would happen if we secured the chemical weapons and found a large portion came from Iraq after our invasion nearly a decade ago?
#9
Golf Bravo. In that case, two possibilities. One is that they never see the light of day, and the other is that Bush is blamed for letting them get away. Obama and his fitty-twoers are capable of thinking both simultaneously.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/19/2012 19:02 Comments ||
Top||
#1
cThese Iranian-designed, Venezuelan-built drones were reported on earlier this year by the head of U.S. Southern Command, Air ForceGen. Douglas Fraser, who stated that they were of “fairly limited capacity” and most likely were to be used for “internal defense.”em>
Similar to our own university and law enforcement models I reckon.
#2
Is the Monroe Doctrine passe as is the Constitution, The Lord's Prayer, 10 Commandments, etc. in current Constitutional law thinking? Is this one of those things where you can selectively choose which laws you want to obey?
In speech marking Second Leb War's 6th anniversary, Hezbollah leader says 'shahids' killed in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... blast were 'our comrades in struggle against Israeli enemy'
"Israel is rejoicing today because the pillars of the Syrian Army were hit. That's what Israel wants - that Syria won't have a strong army, only a police force," Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah told supporters in Beirut Wednesday via video feed.
Â
Nasrallah, who addressed the crowd to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the Second Leb War, pointed out the ties between his organization and the Syrian regime and praised the top Syrian officials who were killed in Wednesday's blast in Damascus for their support of the Paleostinians.
He mentioned Damscus' support of Hezbollah during the war. "In the war, the most valuable weapons we had in our possession were from Syria. The missiles we used in the Second Leb War were made in Syria. And it's not only in Leb but in Gazoo as well." Where did these missiles come from? The Saudi regime? The Egyptian regime? These missiles are from Syria."
Â
Nasrallah referred directly to the top Syrian officials who were killed, Defense Minister Daoud Rajha and his deputy Assef Shawkat. "When Gazoo had nothing to eat Syria sent missiles and food. Rajha and Shawkat (symbolize) the Syria which helped the resistance in Paleostine. While other Arab regimes blocked (the transfer) of food and donations to Gazoo, it was Syria that sent food and weapons to Gazoo and took a chance. This is the Syria of Bashir al-Assad, this is the Syria of the shahid leaders. We denounce this blow which only serves the interests of the enemy."
Â
"These shahids were our comrades in arms, in the resistance and in our struggle against the Israeli enemy. The Syrian army has many leaders which can shatter their enemies' hopes," claimed Nasrallah, while calling for political negotiations. "The solution can only come from dialogue, and we need to hurry up to get it going," the sheikh said.
Â
Nasrallah pointed an accusatory finger towards the US and Arab countries. "The Syrian army is the only army in the region not receiving training or weapons from America. There was an interest to destroy this army. America, the West and its pawns in the Arab world used the just demands of the Syrian people and threw Syria into war," he claimed.
Â
Nasrallah's speech was broadcast on giant screens during a Hezbollah gathering in a southern suburb of Beirut. "If it be Allah's will, you will remember the 33 days of fighting," he said, referring to the war.
Â
Nasrallah warned that Hezbollah has a surprise in store should Israel choose to attack first in any future conflict. "We're preparing a big surprise for Israel, but I won't say what it is because then it won't be a surprise. We know that Israel is constantly gathering intelligence about us and, like in previous wars, it's preparing to land the initial blow."
Â
"All Israelis - the generals, the military, the politicians are still under the shock of their surprising defeat (during the war). The Israelis keep on conducting symposiums, write articles and hold discussions with present and past leaders - and they're all talking about the defeat," the Shiite group's leader said.
Â
He quoted Meir Dagan, former director of the Mossad, who told former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the war was "a national disaster."
Â
"That's good enough for us," said Nasrallah, and claimed that during the war the "resistance" was prepared to bomb Tel Aviv.
[Al Ahram] A number of Paleostinian refugees living in Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... have joined the uprising in Syria, according to activists and rebels, with some taking up arms alongside rebel Free Syrian Army fighters.
The majority of at least 500,000 Paleostinians in Syria have been living in the country since the 1948 creation of Israel, and the Syrian regime has systematically striven to control their political activity.
Most of the refugees joining the anti-regime revolt are not affiliated to traditional Paleostinian factions or movements, according to activists.
"Many of us -- especially the youth -- are in sympathy with the revolution, and now that the fighting is in Damascus, we cannot stay put," a Paleostinian from Yarmuk refugee camp, on the outskirts of the capital, told AFP.
"Many Paleostinian youth have joined the FSA, and they are fighting side by side with the Syrian revolutionaries in the Tadamon and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad districts," said the activist, who identified himself as Abu al-Sakan.
Abu al-Sakan said sympathy for the uprising has grown among Paleostinians, especially as more and more Syrians displaced from Homs, Daraa and Hama in the provinces seek refuge in or around the refugee camps in Damascus.
With fighting raging in nearby Tadamon, Al-Midan and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad districts, hundreds of civilians have sought shelter since last week in Yarmuk camp, activists say, stoking fears the army might launch an attack on the area.
Though the camp was calm on Tuesday, it was difficult for people to leave and gunfire could be heard from neighbouring areas.
Demonstrations in the camp have become common, activists say. Last Friday, thousands of people -- Paleostinians and Syrians -- took part in a protest that started off from mosques in the area, a witness said.
Colonel Kassem Saadeddine, front man for the FSA's Homs-based joint command, told AFP on Tuesday that "Paleostinians are fighting alongside us, and they are well trained."
The regime has accused the West, Gulf states and Israel of conspiring against Syria, while boasting it hosts half a million Paleostinian refugees and supports their people's struggle for statehood.
"The regime says it supports the Paleostinians and gives us equal rights," said Abu al-Sakan.
"In fact this means we are treated in exactly the same brutal way as the Syrians. It is just as ready to kill us," he said, adding that "just like the Syrians are divided over the revolt, so are the Paleostinians."
Activists say the most support for the uprising comes from young Paleostinians disaffected with traditional party factions.
The mainstream Fatah has historic qualms with the regime. Its activists were heavily persecuted by the Syrian regime during the 1980s, but they have tried to remain neutral in the domestic conflict.
An ex-Fatah member and former political detainee in Syria's dreaded prisons, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Fatah loyalists in Damascus silently despise the regime but fear the consequences if Islamists take over.
"Paleostinians have also paid the price of Arab countries' struggles for decades. So most Fatah supporters are trying to stay on the fence," explained the former detainee.
"But it is difficult because even if they do not go to the revolt, the revolt is coming to them."
The Paleostinian Islamic movement Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, the bulk of whose politburo was based in Damascus until February, may have distanced itself from the regime but without publicly supporting the revolt.
Another Damascus-based faction loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... , the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine-General Command, argued on July 3 that the uprising was not a genuine local movement.
It was part of "a change in the foundations of this region in order to create a new Middle East."
Echoing the Assad regime, PFLP-GC front man Anwar Raja said the Paleostinians were "convinced that the political regime in Syria is facing a war to divide the country and to dismantle its relations with the (Paleostinian) resistance."
Raja said most of the demonstrators were Syrians from outside the camp and "there was only a limited number of Paleostinians. We think the (Israeli spy agency) Mossad benefits from all the destructive actions in Syria."
In a statement issued on Monday night, the FSA's joint command warned that pro-regime Paleostinian leaders on Syrian soil were "legitimate targets."
For his part, Abu al-Sakan slammed the PFLP-GC's stance. "As Paleostinians we have two revolutions: one against the Paleostinian factions which do nothing for us, and another against the Syrian regime," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama were unable to solve their differences on Syria in a phone conversation Wednesday after the Damascus bombing, the Kremlin said. "Differences in approaches remain that concern practical steps in achieving a settlement," Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Glad you two idiots have a handle on it. People that live there so not seem to have it locked up so nicely.
[Al Ahram] Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday scoffed at US claims that it could clear Gulf waters of mines in case of conflict, after Washington announced plans for a multinational anti-mine operation. "Yeah. We laff. Haw haw!"
"The Americans boast a lot about many things, but they are facing problems in practice," General Mahmoud Fahimi, deputy chief of the Guards' naval forces, told the Fars news agency. "We have no doubt that the United States cannot do anything in the area of minesweeping."
The United States and about 20 other nations are to hold a major anti-mine operation near the Gulf on September 16-27, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, after Iran threatened it could block oil shipments through the waterway.
Pentagon front man George Little said the operation was "a defensive exercise aimed at preserving freedom of navigation in international waterways in the Middle East."
Washington has warned Tehran not to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic republic has threatened to do if international sanctions against its controversial nuclear programme begin to bite.
It has deployed the USS Ponce to serve as logistical backup in the anti-mine effort, and doubled to eight the number of minesweepers in the Gulf and sent in four MH-53 Sea Stallion anti-mine choppers as well as underwater drones.
"Look how weak they are. They want to use minesweeping drones. If they had the ability and capability, they would carry out the minesweeping by manned systems," Fahimi said.
He boasted Iran was "a master of mine designing and has an unbeatable capability to mass-produce different types of mines."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran's seeming strategeery to isolate the US CVNS + Gator Boyz, etal. to the Sea of Oman + beyond shows they do care about the deadly after-effects of having to detonate Nukes-WMDS near or on their own soil in order to defeat a foreign invasion, occupation force.
Fighting major conventional sea war inside the Persian Gulf agz the USN is undoubtedly one of Iran's last L-A-S-T options/resort to save its budding NucProg - its only real or best weapon at this time to counter the US CVNS + Gator Boyz, etal. is the various "Arab/Muslim/Islamic Spring" + the Nuclear Ummah + US-NATO-vs-Russia-China.
#3
A large explosion will "Clear" every mine there is, Say a smallish Nuke, good for about 15-20 Miles around.
(seal the ship and don't breathe the Vaporized sea water for a month or so)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/19/2012 9:48 Comments ||
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#4
RJ - perhaps it could happen now with non-traditional isotopic signature?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
07/19/2012 11:23 Comments ||
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#5
So, they'll just to remove restrictions on drilling at home?
[An Nahar] The Appeals Chamber of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb issued Wednesday a decision rejecting the request of the Defense to reconsider its ruling of February 16, 2011, "which defined terrorism for the first time in international law," the STL said in a statement.
The Defense argued that the content of the decision should be revisited. They also challenged the procedure followed to issue that decision.
The Appeals Chamber decided that in order to reconsider its decision, the Defense must show that the accused suffered a prejudice from that decision.
"The Chamber found that the Defense failed to show any harm against the accused and rejected the request," said the STL.
On February 16, 2011, the Appeals Chamber had issued a decision on 15 questions of law submitted by Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen to assist him in the confirmation of the indictment against the four accused.
In that decision, the Chamber explained how the Tribunal should apply Lebanese law and defined the crimes of terrorism, conspiracy and homicide.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Hizbullah Secretary-General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... on Wednesday stressed that Syria is a "real military supporter of the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... ," extending condolences over the death of three top Syrian officials in a blast that rocked the headquarters of National Security in Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
The bombing killed Defense Minister General Daoud Rajha, Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime's crisis cell on the uprising, state media said.
Nasrallah described the three slain officials as "martyr leaders" and "comrades-in-arms," in a televised speech marking the anniversary of the July 2006 war with Israel.
"We reiterate our call for preserving Syria and the only solution is accepting dialogue. As we feel the loss of today's deaders, we extend our condolences to their families and to the Syrian leadership," said Nasrallah.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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#3
Possible scenario: Assad brother Maher al-Assad the enforcer "sez gas'em baby gas'em". Reluctant Assad inner circle sez.... "no way." Maher al-Assad gives inner circle a kaboom present, relocates to the Med?
I'm surprised they haven't done it yet. Must be the Ruskies telling them not to. But if Pencilneck gets his back to the wall...I mean, what's the point of having those kinds of weapons if you can't use them in that kind of situation?
#6
Rumor is that among the casualties in the suicide attack was a Iranian big shot who was in charge of coordinating Iranian 'advisers' to Assad's forces.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/19/2012 21:22 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] Syria's rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) grabbed credit for a deadly Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... attack on Wednesday that killed two top regime figures, the defence minister and the president's brother-in-law.
The command of the FSA "announces the good news of the outstanding operation this morning that targeted the National Security headquarters and the killing" of the officials "responsible for barbaric massacres," it said in a statement.
Officials said the bomber struck as ministers and security officials were meeting at the heavily guarded National Security headquarters in Damascus.
Defence minister General Daoud Rajha and Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat were killed and interior minister Mohammed al-Shaar and General Hisham Ikhtiyar, head of National Security, were maimed, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
and security officials said.
The FSA statement made no reference to how the officials were killed.
The rebels said this operation "is the first in a series ... aimed at bringing down Assad and the pillars and symbols of the regime, whether civilian or military."
The statement recalled the ultimatum the FSA had issued "to all those who do not have blood on their hands" to defect before the end of July, or else be deemed "accomplices with Assad in the murders."
The FSA's command also said the killings were "part of the Damascus volcano and earthquakes of Syria operation" launched on July 16.
The FSA announced the launch on Monday night of a full-scale attack operation "in response to massacres and barbaric crimes" of the regime, and said it started to conduct "attacks on all security stations and branches in the city and the countryside."
The offensive was launched hours after fierce fighting started to engulf several districts of the capital, in what has widely been described as a "turning point" in the anti-Assad revolt.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Maher al-Assad, the brother of the Syrian president decided to not attend the bombing ?
[Al Ahram] As fighting unfolds in Damascus, Britain rejects calls for international military intervention in Syria, recommends peaceful settlement of 16-month uprising
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Moscow, a key ally of the Assad regime, describes the killing of top Syrian regime officials as an "act of terrorism" But they'll want to sell them weapons when Pencilneck's gone...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Maher al-Assad asked his own grade-school daughter what she had planned to do in class that day. The girl answered her father with trademark fierceness of Syria's ruling family. "Break heads, is what she answered him," his sister-in-law Majd Jadan told Rooters from exile in the United States. "He even taught his little kids brutality."
Jadan fled to America two years ago, after an argument with Maher, younger brother of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... and the man most Syrians say is the enforcer of the Assad clan's grip on Syria.
She wasn't the first member of the family to leave in a hurry: brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, who was killed in a kaboom in Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... on Wednesday, once had to be flown to La Belle France for lifesaving treatment after Maher shot him.
With rebels closing in on Damascus 16 months into an uprising against the Assad family's four decades of iron-fisted rule, the world's attention is focused on Bashir al-Assad's inner circle, where none is more influential than brother Maher.
Syria's second most powerful man almost never appears in public, but those who have had dealings with him paint a picture of a man of supreme self confidence, who treats his brother's country like family property.
A Syrian businessman who accepted a dinner invitation from Maher before the revolt against the family's rule erupted 16 months ago says Maher took him with a group of French and Syrian executives to a restaurant on a mountain overlooking Damascus.
All the staff who served them were women, rare in the conservative country.
"The restaurant seemed open only to us. I was looking in astonishment because we are not used to seeing waitresses in Syria. Maher leaned toward me and said in front of everyone something to the effect that I can chose any waitress I like to take home," said the businessman, on condition of anonymity.
"He does not shy away from showing how base he is."
Maher al-Assad does not give interviews and efforts to contact him for comment on this story were not successful.
Opponents of the Assad family revile him as the most ruthless of a "family council" trying to survive the revolt against the iron-fisted dynastic rule founded by their late patriarch, Hafez al-Assad.
During the crackdown against the anti-Assad revolt, Maher has solidified his violent reputation as the leader of core military units drawn mainly from the family's Alawite sect that have used tanks and artillery to lay waste to swathes of Sunni Mohammedan areas.
At 44, he is two years younger than Bashar. He commands the Fourth Armoured Division and is de facto head of the Republican Guard - praetorian units set up to defend the family's seat of power in Damascus.
The family council, aided by top secret police and intelligence operatives, comprises Bashar, Maher, their now slain brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, and Mohammad Makhlouf, their uncle from the side of their mother Anisa.
All are now on various U.S. or European sanctions lists.
Jadan describes her brother-in-law as a stubborn and ruthless man who beats his junior aides. Athletic and introverted, he is careful about what he eats and listens more than he speaks.
"He reads but is not cultured and his English is weak," Jadan said. "When he is convinced of something, nothing changes his mind, even when he is presented with evidence to the contrary."
A rare photo of Maher taken during his father's funeral on a scorching June day in 2000 shows him standing between Bashar and Shawkat, all looking grim in dark suits and sunglasses.
An undated video on YouTube shows him on a hunting trip, posing with dead birds on his 4x4. In 1999, Maher went for bigger game, shooting brother-in-law Shawkat during an argument. Shawkat had to be flown to La Belle France to save his life, according to diplomats.
"Disciplined use of violence by a dictator is an immoral but a rational choice," said W. Andrew Terrill, Middle East expert at the U.S. Army War College. "When you lose control of the emotions and shoot your sister's husband in a dispute, that's pretty stunning."
"I don't know how much worse you have to be to consolidate a reputation for violence," Terrill said.
When Hafez died in 2000 and western-trained ophthalmologist Bashar became president, control of the military went to Maher, an engineer who had lived all his life in Syria.
Opposition sources say the only serious operation he was directly involved in was when the Fourth Division helped put down a mutiny in the notorious Saidnaya prison north of Damascus in 2008, killing an estimated 170 unarmed political prisoners.
Lacking experience, Maher relies on better trained officers around him, defectors said. But even his vaunted Fourth Armoured Division has failed to put down the revolt that began last year.
"Maher is not being effective. These are not the results of a very effective commander," Terrill said. "He has been doing other stuff with his life, including various businesses ... I don't know if he has actually done a lot that proves his military competence."
His business dealings in neighbouring Leb came under scrutiny when a bank collapsed there in 2003 and authorities opened a money laundering investigation that implicated a number of Syrian officials and Assad family associates.
Two senior Lebanese officials told Rooters that assassinated statesman Rafik al-Hariri had sought to have the investigation examine Maher's affairs at the time Hariri was killed in 2005.
Militarily, Maher's growing role has drawn comparisons with the 1980s when Hafez relied on the Defence Brigades, the forerunner of the Fourth Division, then led by his brother Rifaat, to crush secular and Islamist threats.
That crackdown killed tens of thousands of people, according to human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... lawyers who documented the era of repression.
"It is the 1980s all over again. But the regime, incredibly, is more savage this time. Another difference is that Bashar and Maher think they are winning, but they are not," said one Western diplomat who served until recently in Damascus.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2012 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(Sh.M.Network)-President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has shielded a top pirate leader from arrest by issuing him a diplomatic passport, according to a 
International Criminal Court
French judicial authorities Wednesday launched a probe into television channel TF1's airing of recordings of self-proclaimed al-Qaeda gunman Mohamed Merah negotiating with police shortly before he was 
Relatives of three Americans killed in drone strikes in Yemen are suing top Pentagon and CIA officials, saying the killings were unconstitutional.
Pak 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama were unable to solve their differences on Syria in a phone conversation Wednesday after the Damascus bombing, the Kremlin said. "Differences in approaches remain that concern practical steps in achieving a settlement," Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
