[Tolo News] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... on Tuesday said at a presser that Afghan government will never allow security forces to retaliate Pak missile attacks.
Talks are in progress with Pak officials over the issue and we don't want to kill innocent people living on the other side of borders by launching counterattacks, Karzai said.
"We hope that Pakistain is not provoked by any side to attack Afghanistan, and I hope our people are patient and do not decide emotionally and do anything to hurt our friendly relations," Karzai said.
Pakistain has been blamed for the recent missile attacks into Afghan territory, but Pakistain's government has denied that its forces are involved in the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Afghan Taliban again refuted on Wednesday claims they had entered into talks with the West to try and find an end to the war, saying any contacts with foreign countries had only been to negotiate prisoner exchanges.
In a statement emailed to media, the Taliban also repeated their long-standing position of rejecting any negotiations for peace as long as foreign troops were in Afghanistan.
"The rumour about negotiation with America is not more than the talks aimed at the exchange of prisoners. Some circles call these contacts as comprehensive talks about the current imbroglio of Afghanistan," the Taliban said.
"However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... this shows their...lack of knowledge about the reality. It is clear as the broad daylight that we consider negotiation in condition of presence of foreign forces as a war stratagem of the Americans and their futile efforts."
Last month, Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... said the United States was in direct talks with the Islamic fascistibut that talks were not at a stage where the Afghan government was sitting down with the krazed killers.
Washington and London have both acknowledged there have been recent contacts with Islamic fascistialthough former US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he expected it could take months before any headway could be made.
But so little is known about these contacts that they have been open to widely different interpretations and any discussions that may be taking place are still not at a stage where they can be a deciding factor.
Despite trumpeting military gains, particularly in southern Afghanistan, foreign leaders and military commanders have long recognised the need for a political solution to a war that has now dragged on for almost 10 years.
In Wednesday's statement, the Taliban said they had been in contact with "some" countries to arrange prisoner exchanges, including most recently with La Belle France for the release of two French journalists and their Afghan translator last month.
The men were seized outside Kabul on December 30, 2009 and held captive for 18 months.
La Belle France has denied any ransom was paid to secure the release of the two men, and their Afghan interpreter Reza Din. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said revealing details of the negotiations could damage efforts to free other kidnapped Frenchies in Africa.
The Taliban said they were also continuing "direct and indirect" contacts to secure the release of US and Canadian prisoners.
In June 2009, Islamic fascisticaptured US Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in southeastern Afghanistan and have released videos showing him in captivity dressed in both Afghan clothing and in military uniform.
In those videos, Bergdahl is seen denouncing the war in Afghanistan and calling for the United States to withdraw its troops from the country, in what the US military has called illegal propaganda.
Bergdahl's abduction prompted a large-scale manhunt but US officials have declined to comment whether they have tried to negotiate his release.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2011 00:00 ||
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The African Union is asking all of its 53 members not to buckle under to the International Criminal Courts arrest warrant against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The International Criminal Court, or ICC, has never indicted anyone but Africans, and many consider it to be a tool of the United States. The Obama administration gives constant lip service to the Court, even though the U.S. is not a member of the ICC and has refused to make its own policies and military answerable to any outside authority.
The African Union, meeting in Equatorial Guinea, said the ICC indictment against Gaddafi for alleged crimes against humanity complicates the task of bringing about a cease-fire in Libya. Twice, high level African delegations have attempted to forge a cease-fire, that would protect immigrant workers and refugees and allow for humanitarian aid to the civilian population. Both times, the rebels and their American and European backers rejected the African initiative out of hand a display of western arrogance that was deeply humiliating to the African Union. The insult still stings. Although the African Union cant do much to stop NATO from bombing an African nation at will, the AU decided, finally, that it can stand up to the International Criminal Court and its attempt to arrest Gaddafi, a former chairman and great benefactor of the African Union.
The current AU chairman, Jean Ping, spoke for many member states when he said that the ICC was discriminatory in its prosecutions, and only went after Africans, disregarding crimes committed by the West in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. For that reason, the AU recommended that its members not cooperate with the execution of the warrant against Gaddafi.
#1
So does ICC chief prosecutor Luis Morena Ocampo, who wants to deputize the United States military to enforce the criminal courts arrest warrants regardless of what the African world or the Chinese world or anybody that is not European or American thinks. Its sad to say, but at this point in history, the UN serves the Empire.
I agree the icc by issuing a warrant, whatever it is worth, botched any chance of daffy finding an out. The rest I don't think I have the right prescription for, but do agree that the internationalists tend to go after the weakest/most vulnerable targets. Its why they can serve warrants on Africa or why they think they can get river rights in the USA but will not confront China or Russia. France and India go bad guy hunting and nothing, Texas wants to try a child rapist violent murderer and its an international incident.
Islamic extremists have called on British Muslims to establish three independent states within the UK.
The notorious Muslims Against the Crusades (MAC) group have named Yorkshire towns Bradford and Dewsbury and Tower Hamlets in East London as testbeds for blanket sharia rule.
The medieval 'emirates' would operate entirely outside British law, according to a document on the MAC website.
The MAC group, led by Abu Assadullah, was set up last year and has become notorious because of its violent protests, most provocatively burning poppies during the Remembrance Day silence.
Under the heading 'Muslims should set up Islamic emirates in the UK', MAC says: 'We suggest it is time that areas with large Muslim populations declare an emirate delineating that Muslims trying to live within this area are trying to live by the sharia as much as possible with their own courts and community watch and schools and even self sufficient trade.
'Likely areas for these projects might be Dewsbury or Bradford or Tower Hamlets to begin with. In time we can envisage that the whole of the sharia might one day be implemented starting with these enclaves.'
The call is likely to cause anger among moderate Muslims and dhimmi community leaders in the areas concerned. Ian Greenwood, dhimmi leader of Bradford Council, said people would 'not allow extremists to provoke them into violence'.
In 2007, it was alleged that a number of Muslims in Dewsbury were running an illegal Islamic court from a school and similar claims have been made in Tower Hamlets and Bradford.
Tower Hamlets council was last year accused of falling under the control of extremist groups following a documentary by the Daily Telegraph journalist Andrew Gilligan.
The plan is part of the MAC's response to the government's revised Prevent strategy to combat Islamic extremism. In its document, called Islamic Prevent, the fanatics also call for an end to CCTV cameras in and around mosques.
It says: 'Muslims must get rid of all CCTV cameras from Muslim institutions. Sadly many mosques have today adopted CCTV cameras to spy on Muslims on behalf of the police and local authorities.'
Other inflammatory instructions include demanding the release of all Muslim prisoners, a ban on Muslims joining the police or armed forces and a rejection of British democracy.
The document ends: 'We can conclude that measures by the UK government are nothing more than an attempt by them to strip the Muslim community of their Islamic identity and to integrate them into the non-Islamic way of life.'
Dhimmi Councillor Greenwood added: 'Extremism is less likely to emerge when people get the opportunity to come together. With multiculturalism!
'Local voluntary, community and faith groups, the council, and other public and private sector partners, all work together in Bradford to strengthen community relations and encourage better understanding and respect between all our communities.
'We believe that this is one of the best ways to build a tolerant society in which extremism plays no part.'
Tower Hamlets and Kirklees Council, the local authority for Dewsbury, refused to comment.
#1
...er, ok, like the Brits say, '8ring it on'. Going to be interesting how the Vth column portrays the EDL response, more smears with a thicker brush, I would hazard.
Ronnie Fraser, a doctoral student and director of the Academic Friends of Israel, accuses UCU of breaching UK's Equality Act.
Delicious! Hoisted with/by their own petard and all that.
LONDON A British academic has initiated legal proceedings against his own trade union, accusing them of anti-Semitism and harassment of its Jewish members after its decision to not recognize an internationally-accepted definition of anti-Semitism.
Fraser, a doctoral student and director of the Academic Friends of Israel, has written to the University College Union (UCU), Britains largest trade union for academics representing roughly 120,000 university lecturers accusing them of breaching the UKs Equality Act of 2010.
Last month, the UCU voted to disassociate itself from the European Union Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobias definition of anti-Semitism, leading to accusations it is institutionally racist.
Mostly because it is, but go on...
The union passed the resolution at its annual conference in Harrogate in Yorkshire, claiming that the definition stifles debate and is used to deflect criticism of Israel.
In the letter, Fraser says that after 11 years as a member he has had enough of the UCUs anti-Semitic policies.
With his options limited to either resign or take legal action, he has chosen the latter.
In a letter sent to UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt, Anthony Julius the eminent lawyer and deputy chairman at London law firm Mishcon de Reya, which is representing Fraser accused the union of attempting to legislate anti-Semitism out of existence as a result of it being unable to defend itself against the charge of a certain institutional anti-Semitism.
Julius sets out Frasers demands for resolution which includes an acknowledgement of the UCUs institutionally anti-Semitic policies, an apology to its Jewish members, the drawing up of a code of conduct in relation to its Jewish members and a commitment to sponsor an education program on the dangers of anti-Semitism.
The letter states that failure to meet these demands, responding by August 5, will result in an Equality Act claim at an employment tribunal led by Fraser, which it says he will likely win.
He expects to win, and in winning, to perform a service not just to his fellow Jewish UCU members and ex-members, but to the cause of decent, principled trade unionism, Julius said.
Julius also listed some of the institutionally anti- Semitic acts by the union over the years, including the calls to boycott Israeli academia and an invitation for committed anti-Semite Bongani Masuku, international secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
Masuku addressed the union in 2009 at a forum to discuss the boycott, divestment, sanctions campaign against Israel. In the same year, the South African Human Rights Commission found Masuku guilty of using inflammatory, threatening and insulting statements against the South African Jewish community after he issued threats against Jewish businesses and supporters of Israel and pronouncements declaring that Jews who support Israel must leave the country.
Mexican Army units have seized since June 28th 6,811.9 kilograms of marijuana, 182.16 kilograms of cocaine, 50 kilograms of opiium, 57.36 kilograms of glass methamphetimine and USD $9,500.00 in cash.
A Mexican Army unit arrested a top Los Zetas commander in Veracruz state June 28th. Abraham Barrios Caporal, AKA Erasmo and three other unidentified individuals were detained in an apparent traffic stop in Coatzacoalcos. The four were guarding a person who was being held hostage. Seized in the arrest were two rifles and two pistols. Barrios Caporal is wanted in connection with the mass murders that took place in San Fernando, Tamaulipas from September 2010 to April, 2011, particularly about the bus hijacking campaign that took place in March. A total of 193 individuals were discovered in a number of graves in and around San Fernando.
A detachment of the Mexican 8th Military Zone seized almost three tons of marijuana in Tamaulipas state June 30th. The find was made in the village of Guardados de Abajo in the Miguel Aleman where soldiers found an underground storage vessel containing 2,910 kilograms of marijuana in 371 packages.
A unit of the Mexican 2nd Military Zone seized a quantity of cocaine in Baja California state July 1st. The seizure took place in the ejido Merida in Mexicali municipality where soldiers made a traffic stop of two vehicles. Soldiers found 179 kilograms of cocaine, and they arrested three individuals.
A detachment of the Mexican 8th Military Zone discovered a large amount of marijuana in Tamaulipas state July 3rd. The drugs were found in an underground vessel next to a latrine near Camargo municipality. A total of 3,894 kilograms of marijuana in 876 packages were seized.
A unit of the Mexican 13th Military Zone seized a quantity of opium and weapons at a traffic stop in Nayarit state July 3rd. The stop took place on the Mesa del Nayar-Santa Teresa highwayin the Nayar municipality, where soldiers detained three individuals and seized 50 kilograms of opium. Weapons seized included two rifles, a handgun, two weapons magazines and 15 rounds of ammunition. A truck was also seized.
A detachment of the Mexican 4th Military Zone discovered a quantity of various drugs and weapons July 5th. The discovery was made in Hermosillo, Sonora in the Cuatro Olivas colony, where soldiers seized 29.1 kilograms of glass methamphetimine, two kilograms of cocaine and 7.9 kilograms of marijuana. Weapons seized included one rifle, three handguns, 11 weapons magazines and 70 rounds of ammunition.
A unit of the Mexican 2nd Military Zone detained two individuals in Baja California state in an apparent traffic stop July 5th, seizing a quantity of drug and guns. The arrests took place in the Monte Carlo colony of Mexicali municipality. Drugs seized included 28.26 kilograms of crystal methamphetimine and 1.16 kilograms of cocaine. Weapons taken included one rifle, two handguns, 751 rounds of ammunition, three weapons magazines, USD $9,500.00 in cash and a vehicle.
#2
Two soon to be adopted children persuaded by school indoctrination to betray their family and turn their father over to the police. Even if he doesn't voluntarily give them up, the state CPS will probably take them.
Heck, even in the 1960s, wise parents would tell their children to never, ever talk to a policeman or a reporter without permission from their parents, or the result might be to destroy and tear apart their family and make everyone's life miserable.
#5
Meanwhile, the White House begs and pleads with Texas to not execute a rapist-murderer, who bashed a woman in the head with a 30 to 40 pound chunk of asphalt, then biting her hard enough to draw blood, while raping and strangling her. Then bashing her in the head with a large stick with a screw protruding from it that remained stuck in her head.
Oh, yes, because the rapist-murderer was born in Mexico, before being brought to the US when he was two years old, and remaining here, since.
I think the problem is not that US States have a death penalty, but that Mexico does not.
Meanwhile, the numerous baskets of dead fish surrounding Zemin's house have been explained away, that "he likes to eat rotting fish", and has been a big fan of surströmming ever since visiting Sweden.
[Straits Times] North Koreans staged rallies Wednesday to denounce South Korea's government as 'traitors', the official news agency reported, two days after a reported 100,000-strong protest in Pyongyang.
Soldiers and civilians gathered in South Hwanghae and Kangwon provinces and in the border city of Kaesong 'to condemn the crimes of the Lee Myung Bak group of worst traitors', it said, referring to the South's president.
Speakers condemned what they called insults to the North's leaders and its army and system, and threatened a 'merciless retaliatory sacred war' if the Seoul government tries to ignite a new conflict.
The agency gave no numbers for those taking part in the protests.
On Monday it said more than 100,000 people packed a major square in Pyongyang to denounce 'crimes' by the South's conservative government.
Tensions between the two countries have been high for well over a year, since the South accused the North of torpedoing a warship in March 2010 and killing 46 sailors.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
The South Koreans replied "Can't talk. Eating!"
A former Qantas cabin cleaner facing a retrial over a do-it-yourself jihad manual was released on bail in Australia on Thursday, free for the first time in almost three years.
Lebanese-born Belal Khazaal was bailed out on strict conditions ahead of his November retrial for knowingly making a document connected with assistance in a terrorist act - a charge on which he was convicted in September 2008.
A Supreme Court jury found Khazaal guilty of producing a 110-page manual called "Provisions of the Rules of Jihad: Short Judicial Rulings and Organisational Instructions for Fighters and Mujahideen Against Infidels".
He was originally sentenced to 12 years, of which he had to serve at least nine. But his conviction was quashed by an appeals court last month - the reasons for which were suppressed - and a retrial ordered.
The vice chairman of Egypt's top secular party told the Washington Times in an interview last week that the September 11 terror attacks, the Holocaust and Anne Frank's diary are all historical fabrications.
"The Holocaust is a lie," Ahmed Ezz El-Arab, Wafd Party leader told the Washington Times in Budapest where he was attending the Conference on Democracy and Human Rights....
Despite his Holocaust-denying views, it seems as though El-Arab's overall opinion on the Jewish people is favorable, telling the Washington Time that he believes that there was once a Jewish temple in Jerusalem, entitling the Jews to a historical claim on Israel's capital.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
07/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
A Muslim moderate is somebody who'd give infidels (as long as they're not Jews, of course) a chance to convert---rather than just killing them.
Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea were the first with sources and then did the research, that took them to Sen. Sessions, then to Sen Grassley with Project Gunwalker. They also took the sources and what they knew to CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson, now known as "breaking the story" on "Fast and Furious." Another source has now stepped up about Project Gunwalker into Honduras
Virginia O'Brien, Special Agent in Charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious, it was reported to these correspondents this evening via private correspondence from a proven credible source.
United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton, Virginia O'Brien, Special Agent in Charge of central and northern Florida Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operations, and Susan McCormick, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, Tampa Field Office announce the initial results of Operation Castaway, an intensive and wideranging Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) firearms trafficking investigation conducted by ATF, ICE, the Orange County Sheriff's Office, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, and the Miami-Dade Police Department. ATF describes Operation Castaway as the most significant firearms trafficking investigation in Central Florida history.
According to court documents, a group of defendants connected to Hugh Crumpler, III, were involved in a major international gun trafficking operation. . . . Firearms like those involved in this investigation are often smuggled through Honduras and other Central and South American countries before being used in violent crimes in Mexico and other countries in the region. A number of the firearms trafficked by the defendants in Operation Castaway have been linked to violent crimes around the world.
The press release concluded, "This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys J. Bishop Ravenel and E. Jackson Boggs. Operation Castaway remains an ongoing investigation."
SAC O'Brien was previously the Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division, was later promoted to the Deputy Assistant Director of ATF, but then stepped down to the position in Tampa. Whether the allegations of our source refer to the ongoing Operation Castaway remains at this hour unclear, but our source is certain that O'Brien has allowed the "walking" of straw-purchased firearms to Honduras using the same failed strategy as the Phoenix Field Division's Operation Fast and Furious. That Operation Castaway involved arms smuggling to Honduras is also certain.
#3
Fascinating piece over there in Opinion, Sherry. Thank goodness the pajama-clad bloggers do for practically nothing the investigative reporting that highly paid, unionized journalist will not,
For the last month, there have been hints that on a day in October, some top level folks from lots of alphabet soup letters had met. And several days later, the word went down to Phoenix, AZ..... and thus began Project Gunwalker. An email confirms "Gunwalker" was known throughout the Justice Department -- but there were other gov't agencies there. Bob Owens reports: Bob Owens has the tenacity of the best old-time reporters. The MSM can ignore this all they want, Mr. Owens will get to the bottom of it.
An email cited in Senator Charles Grassley's testimony in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Operation Fast and Furious indicates that knowledge of the program was spread across the highest levels of the Justice Department. This lends even greater suspicion to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's claim that he knew nothing about the program until well after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed.
The October 27, 2009 email from ATF Phoenix Field Division Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William Newell regarded a Southwest Border Strategy Group meeting that focused on Fast and Furious. It contained a laundry list of high ranking Justice Department officials that attended the meeting, including:
Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer
Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF
William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF
Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA
Robert Mueller, Director FBI
Four other Justice Department directors
or their representatives came from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), Bureau of Prisons (BOP), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA). The chair of the Attorney Generals Advisory Committee (AGAC) also attended the session.
While it has been known since the beginning of the investigation that the ATF, DOJ, DHS, and the IRS were heavily involved in Gunwalker, the Newell email confirms that every major agency within the Department of Justice was briefed on Gunwalker, including the AGAC, which has the formally ordered functions of giving U.S attorneys a voice in department policies and advising the attorney general.
Mexican government officials are infuriated by the scandal, and unlike the New York Times and Washington Post that seek to minimize it, they want justice.
Senator Rene Arce is chairman of Mexico's Commission for National Security, a congressional panel similar to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He told Fox News that the American officials that authorized Gunwalker should face felony charges in the United States, and then be extradited to Mexico to stand trial there. Rumors that Dept of State was brought into the "Circle of Walkers," because of the treaty of exporting guns to foreign countries (had to have State's approval).
And going for the brass ring, Holder has testified, "I know nothin'"
#1
The IRS????? The effin' IRS??? Maybe they'll be too busy running guns or testifying or shredding records to look at my return?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/07/2011 9:32 Comments ||
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#2
I don't like the general principle of sending US officials abroad to face trial, but we can certainly spare Eric "Place" Holder for this purpose. He's been utterly useless as a US Attorney General.
#3
..I think the play would be to look the other way when Mexico conducts one of those American type extraordinary renditions. Then like other countries in the world, file an official objection and make loud noises but go on with business as usual.
#5
Ahh... no, Procopius. It'd set a hell of a precedent if we did. In fact, don't give Holder Ideas along those lines, we've already seen way too many "Obama officials do what leftists only imagined that Bush officials were doing" stories.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/07/2011 11:50 Comments ||
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#6
I wasn't there. I was at Disney World. Probably Epcot.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/07/2011 16:17 Comments ||
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#7
I was at Universal. Casey Anthony was working her shift and saw me there. Ask her
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/07/2011 16:25 Comments ||
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#8
Any parrallels between my small war v Terrorism and this selling out exist no more.
In an attempt to stem the tide of radicalization in American prisons, Tuesday Rep. Frank Wolf and Rep. Peter King called on the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to remove "inflammatory written, audio and video materials produced by the 'Nation of Islam' and Louis Farrakhan," and examine all the other Islamic materials circulating in their facilities.
They can keep the calypso music...
The pair further asked for an audit of the manner in which texts are vetted prior to providing them to inmates.
Who does the auditing?
In a letter to BOP acting director Thomas Kane, Wolf and King, Republicans from Virginia and New York, respectively, cite the June 15, House Homeland Security Committee hearing, led by King, titled "The Threat of Muslim-American Radicalization in U.S. Prisons," and testimony from former Bureau of Prisons (BOP) director Harley Lappin explaining the susceptibility of convicts to radical propaganda.
"Inmates are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by terrorists," the letter quotes Lappin. "[BOP] must guard against the spread of terrorism and extremist ideologies."
Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce-Justice-Science, Wolf's committee is responsible for funding the BOP.
#1
IMO read, INDONESIA - where Islamic fundamentalism including pro-violence jihadi concepts is repor spreading among that country's prison populations, + a large % of same end up committing new crimes once released.
Many of those released whom don't end up getting killed in shootouts wid local police profess to had committed their new crimes in the name of Islam.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, released documents that he said proves that North Korean officials paid millions of dollars to top members of the Pakistani military establishment in exchange for nuclear technology.
One of the documents provided by Khan included a North Korean letter dated July 15, 1998, which reported that $3 million had been paid to Jehangir Karamat, then the chief of staff of the Pakistani army. The letter also stated that $500,000, as well as three "diamond and ruby sets," had been paid to Lt. Gen. Zulfiqar Khan. Both officials denounced the letter as a fake.
A senior U.S. official said that the signature on the letter appeared authentic, and that the account was consistent with the U.S. government's knowledge of events. The former IAEA official charged with investigating Khan said that he had also heard similar accounts of bribes paid by North Korea to Pakistani military officials.
The Taliban says it carried out the kidnapping of two young Swiss tourists in a volatile southwestern Pakistani province four days ago. A spokesman for the militant group has been quoted as saying that the Swiss have been moved from Balochistan to the neighbouring Taliban heartland of South Waziristan near the Afghan border.
The couple, who were travelling across Pakistan in a camper van, were abducted by gunmen on Friday. They were driving an RV across Pakistan?
The Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday that the kidnappers would soon be making their demands, which could include a ransom or exchange of prisoners.
Pakistani officials have not confirmed the information. They said that they were working on the case but that there were no clues so far as to where the Swiss might be.
#1
Maybe the "Hi! We're Spies!" t-shirts wasn't such a good idea.
There are more "couples" in Switzerland, who have obtained Swiss citizenship, yet spend all their time globe trotting as "tourists", with little or no visible means of support, uniquely to dangerous trouble spots. I think it is the motif of 2nd rate intelligence agencies.
#2
These two hostages are natural born ethnically Swiss from the Emmental region within the Canton of Berne. Both are trained police officers (source in German).
In all likelihood they're terminally naive and ignorant people who missed the news that taking the Hippie Trail became an act of suicidal madness about 30+ years ago.
[Dawn] The Saleem Shahzad murder commission has directed ministry of interior to present the email data of the dear departed journalist, while the Pakistain Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has already asked two mobile companies for the complete data of mobile calls of Saleem Shahzad. The commission has also summoned 16 prominent figures for recording their statements.
This was stated by Federal Secretary Information and Broadcasting Timur Azmat Usman after the meeting. The commission sat on Wednesday at the Supreme Court Registry, while Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, senior judge of the Supreme Court, chaired the meeting.
The commission members Chief Justice of Federal Shariat Court Agha Rafique, IGP Islamabad Binyamin, IGP Punjab Javed Iqbal and Pakistain Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President Pervez Shoukat were also present on the occasion.
Federal secretary for information told news hounds that it was the second meeting of the Saleem Shahzad murder commission.
Timur Azmat Usman said the commission has summoned 16 prominent personalities from the media and human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... organizations for recording their statements.
The personalities who were summoned included Hamid Mir, Hameed Haroon, Zahar Shah, Imtiaz Alam, Zahid Hussain, Umar Cheema, Najam Sethi, Irtaza Sheikh, Nasim Zahra, Ali Dayan, Matiullah Jan, Talat Hussain, CR Shamsi, Ibsar Alam and Zafar Sheikh.
"The legal process has started and we will try to reach the facts, while the police investigation is also in progress and the inquiry is being conducted independently, the secretary information added.
The third meeting of the commission will be held in Islamabad on July 9, 2011. PFUJ President Shoukat Pervez told news hounds that the PFUJ has presented ten names who wanted to give their statements in the Saleem Shahzad murder case.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... on Wednesday vowed to eliminate terrorism from the country and said the people of Pakistain and the state institutions were united in their resolve to take this campaign to its logical end.
"Pakistain's commitment is total and unwavering. Despite the challenges, the politicianship, the parliament and other state institutions stand united for the elimination of terrorism," Gilani said in his address to the "National Seminar on De-radicalisation".
The conference was also addressed by Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... . Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Barrister Masood Kausar and federal and provincial ministers were present at the seminar besides several foreign speakers.
Prime Minister Gilani expressed the hope that "with collective support and struggle of the masses, political parties and military leadership, we will overcome extremism and terrorism."
He termed the war against extremism and terrorism a matter of national survival.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] It is more than two years since the Taliban roamed Pakistain's Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... valley with impunity and threatened to kill him, but Mohammad Karim is still scared when he remembers how they paralysed life.
"The bad days are over...they (the Taliban) are in the past now and I don't think they will ever come back," he told AFP as he prepared to close up his music and video shop and rejoin his family for the evening.
It was his merchandise of popular songs and films that saw the Taliban effectively shut down his shop two and a half years ago, after the picturesque mountain valley first started to slip out of government control in July 2007.
Radical holy man Mullah Fazlullah led hundreds of Taliban in sowing terror in an area once loved by holidaymakers for its balmy summers and snowy winters.
His supporters beheaded opponents, burning schools and fighting to implant a harsh brand of Islamic law.
But in April 2009, Pakistain launched a major offensive to reclaim Swat from the Taliban, along with the neighbouring districts of Buner and Lower Dir.
Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... displaced an estimated two million people, but the military declared the region back under control in summer 2009 and tentative efforts began to kick-start development and revive the economy.
Two years later, the army is still a heavy presence in Mingora, the main town of Swat, and commanders confirm they are preparing to create a military-run cantonment area in a bid to protect long-term stability.
"They (the Taliban) ruined my business," Karim said. He grew so frightened of their threats for running an "un-Islamic" shop that, after watching helplessly as his sales fell 70 per cent, he closed down for several months.
"Let me tell you very frankly, I got scared after they warned me of serious consequences."
Standing behind big wooden shelves displaying CDs and DVDs of popular Urdu, Pashto and Indian songs and movies, Karim said it had been difficult to survive.
"We're in safe hands now but one thing I'm at a loss to understand is where did the Taliban come from and where did they disappear to so quickly?"
Nowadays shops, small restaurants and cafes are open in Mingora until late at night, with little outward sign of fear.
It may look like any normal Pak city, with people going about their routine business and markets crowded, but heavily armed police and soldiers are still deployed in large numbers, searching vehicles and even pedestrians.
"This is one big problem that we're facing. An over presence of military and civilian police on all roads and areas has been causing lots of problems for people," local grocer Zahid Iqbal told AFP in Saidu Bazaar.
He wants things to be more relaxed and for the army to hand over power to a civilian administration since Mingora and other areas of Swat are now peaceful.
"Gone are the days when we used to receive threats and collect dead bodies from different areas of the city," he said.
But Major General Javed Iqbal, commander of Swat, said it would take time before the situation fully returns to normal.
"As soon as the government and the general headquarters (of the army) determine that the job is done, the army will go out of Swat and hand over administrative control to civilians," Iqbal said.
He told news hounds on the sidelines of a seminar on de-radicalisation in Swat that the area was experiencing a "victory of peace. Military solution is the temporary phase of a permanent solution."
The army has endorsed or organised a series of public events in Swat this year to revive tourist interest, such as a skiing competition in March and a public festival in June to showcase what is on offer.
But the rumble of violence is never far away in northwest Pakistain. On June 1 and June 3, hundreds of Orcs and similar vermin besieged an area in Upper Dir on the Afghan border, some 70 kilometres northeast of Swat, sparking prolonged fighting that killed at least 34 people.
Sporadic outbreaks of violence in Swat have led to fears that the Taliban who held it are regrouping elsewhere in the northwest.
"Larger efforts are needed to sustain whatever we have achieved in Swat," said Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik, supervising all military operations in the northwest.
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07/07/2011 00:00 ||
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The government has not accepted a request by United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... about sending its mission to Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... to assess situation and begin humanitarian services in the wake of military operation in the tribal region, according to sources.
"The UN has requested the federal government to facilitate its access to Kurram Agency to assess the situation after military action and subsequent mass displacement," sources said. They added that the request by UN had not been accepted by the government owing to security reasons.
The government launched a military operation in Kurram Agency On July 3. The action led to exodus from the area as so far 500 families have been registered in the lone camp, established to cope with displacement of people.
Sources said that government denied access to UN agencies as it could not assure them of foolproof security for their staffers in the conflict-hit Kurram.
"The UN is still waiting for security conditions to improve and start working there. The government cannot take risk by allowing the UN staff to visit the region," they said.
The World Health Organisation had already dispatched an emergency medical kit to Fata Health Directorate. The kit is enough for treatment of 6,000 persons for one month. "We have also requested WHO to send one more emergency medical kit so that it can be supplied to New Durrani Camp in Kurram," officials at Fata Health Directorate said.
They added that agency surgeon of Kurram had also sent a letter to the health directorate, requesting for human resources. They said that the agency surgeon had asked for more staff to cope with the situation in case the number of internally displaced people grew. The authorities in Kurram also needed ambulances to be utilised for transportation of patients from camp to health facilities, sources said. "The UN is ready to send medical supplies to the affected part of Kurram but it wants its mission to visit the area to assess the scale of displacement of people and fulfil their needs," they added.
Officials said that the displaced people lost their belongings, livelihoods, schools, health units and businesses and specific concerns existed for chronically sick persons.
"Before launching work there, the UN security experts would visit Kurram to have firsthand information about law and order situation," sources said, quoting United Nations officials.
The UN, they said, were sending more medical supplies after the government`s response to its request for intervention. The global humanitarian agency, sources said, was concerned over massive scale displacement from Kurram and was insisting that government should facilitate its access to the area to extend humanitarian assistance to the people.
"We want to provide life saving humanitarian aid to help the civilian population which needs food, clean water, shelter, medicine and restoration of basic services immediately," the UN told government, according to sources.
The UN mission, including representatives of WHO, UNHCR, Unicef and other organs, would visit Kurram Agency after government`s permission. "At present the UN has been asked to stay away from Kurram owing to law and order situation," sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2011 00:00 ||
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A group of Muslims tries to seize forcibly a Christian hospital in Taxila, 32 kilometres from the capital Islamabad by making false claims with police. The intervention of Christian leaders and Bishop Rufin Anthony stops the threat.
Lahore (AsiaNews) -- An attempt by a group of Muslims to take over the Christian Hospital in Taxila was recently foiled. On Saturday, Malik Nur Muhammad, Malik Riaz and Malik Abdul Razzak, influential local Muslims,
According to Wikipedia, this Arabic term for "king" came to be adopted as a term for "tribal chieftain" in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan, especially among Pashtuns, for a tribal leader or a chieftain. Maliks serve as de facto arbiters in local conflicts, interlocutors in state policy-making, tax-collectors, heads of village and town councils and delegates to provincial and national jirgas as well as to Parliament.
filed a First Information Report (FIR) with police against the administration of the hospital. The facility, which is located almost 32 kilometres from Islamabad, was established by United Presbyterian Church. They complainants say they bought the hospital and accuse the administrators of refusing to hand it over. They also accuse the current administration of blasphemy but did not include such an accusation in their original application.
After filing their complaint, Malik Nur Muhammad, Malik Riaz and Malik Abdul Razzak went to the Christian hospital to have the administrators arrested based on their charges. Four members of the staff were held by police. However, the hospital director Ashchenaz M. Lall rejected the claims made by the Muslims.
"The property was not sold," he said. "Malik Nur and his sons, with the help of a local politician from the PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) fabricated a case against the administration of the Christian hospital. The Christian hospital was established in 1922 by missionaries from the United Presbyterian Mission. Only the Presbyterian board holds the right to sell the property. This is an attempt to take over a missionary property by force."
* WORLD NEWS > OSCE: CHRISTIANS ARE THE LARGEST PERSECUTED RELIGION WORLDWIDE, wid 105,000 Christians of all faiths being murdered every five minutes for their beliefs.
[Dawn] Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... and Tehran pledged on Wednesday to strengthen ties and put the past behind them, even as Washington accuses Iran of supplying new and more lethal weapons to anti-US militias.
Iran and Iraq, which fought a 1980-1988 war that was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the past century, killing an estimated one million people, have drawn closer since the US-led invasion of 2003.
But US officials have expressed concern at the Islamic republic's growing influence in Iraq, which is strategically important to both Tehran and Washington.
"I would like to announce to all Iraqi people that we have forgotten all the pain of the past," Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at a ceremony to sign several agreements to boost cooperation in culture, technology, science, communication, health and tariffs.
"All of what Iranians love exists in Iraq," Rahimi said, referring to the most revered shrines of Shia Islam in the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, where Iranian pilgrims throng, braving the bombings which rock Iraq each day.
"We are ready to stand beside Iraq and build this country, to provide security," Rahimi said.
Maliki owes his premiership in large part to Tehran. It was Shia Iran that pressured its powerful Shia proxies to throw their weight behind Maliki, after an inconclusive March 2010 election which he lost by a single vote.
Staying on for a second term, Maliki formed a unity government in December, after a powerful Shia alliance announced its backing.
"We would like to thank the Iranian side for this initiative and this visit, which confirms the desire of both Iraq and Iran to improve relations," the premier told his guest.
Maliki said that relations between the two Mohammedan neighbours should be improved even more, inviting all Iranian companies and businessmen to Iraq with open arms.
"We invite all Iranian companies who want to invest to come," said the prime minister. "The invitation is open for all businessmen in the private sector."
Last week, Iraq signed a $365-million (252-million-euro) contract for Iran to build a pipeline to supply natural gas to power stations in Storied Baghdad.
Meanwhile, ...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to an abrupt and watery end... Iraq's parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi stressed the need for good relations with Iran, but "on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs."
He also called for a halt to Iranian "shelling of villages and land" in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
Iran's forces regularly shell the border regions of Iraqi Kurdistan, home to members of the separatist Iranian-Kurdish rebel group PJAK, or the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan.
In his comments in Storied Baghdad, Rahimi noted that the room where they were standing, inside the Republican Palace of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-dominated regime, was where the battles against Iran were planned during the war.
Last weekend, the US ambassador in Storied Baghdad, James Jeffrey, told news hounds that Iraq was tremendously important to the United States and the world, because its growing oil and gas production were critical to meet rising global demand.
But he also added that his top concern for the future stability of Shiite-majority Iraq was over bad turban Shia groups that were beholden to Iran.
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07/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"All of what Iranians love exists in Iraq."
But I thought uranium only exists in Africa.
Posted by: American Delight ||
07/07/2011 8:36 Comments ||
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Maan -- The popular committee for Palestinian refugees intends to organize a sit-in protest in front of Gaza UNRWA offices on Tuesday, after reports said that the organization is changing its name.
Mueen Okal, head of the popular committee, said the sit-in will be peaceful.
Changing the name of the organization will carry many implications that will affect the services offered to Palestinian refugees, he added.
UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, is reportedly considering changing its name to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
GAZA CITY (Maan) -- An UNRWA spokesperson said Thursday that the Palestinian refugee agency has not changed its name, after reports of a new title sparked protests in Gaza on Tuesday.
Adnan Abu Hasnah said the only change was a logo update which actually added the term UNRWA, in English and Arabic, to the image.
The organization's 60th anniversary, Hasnah said, and attracting donors and other partners was behind the update. But the no word in the title had been changed, he said.
Reports that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency was considering changing its name to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, had led to fears that services to Palestinian refugees could be affected, and a sit-in in front of Gaza UNRWA offices on Tuesday.
But Hasnah noted that the mandate of UNRWA was determined in 1949 and cannot be changed without a resolution of the UN General Assembly.
UNRWA: Serving Pali refugee needs for probably another 62 years...
Hat tip www.jihadwatch.org
Barry Soetero's new best buds.
In a June 11, 2011 article on the website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, veteran movement member Sheikh Ahmad Gad argued that the implementation of shari'a in Egypt must be achieved gradually, by preparing the peoples' hearts and minds for it and introducing it in stages. He proposed learning from the methods of the early Muslim Brotherhood, which worked in a step-by-step fashion, and called on Al-Azhar to focus on promoting the implementation of shari'a.
[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian military commander says US President Barack B.O. Obama should be the pioneer of putting his predecessor George W. Bush on trial.
"The current president of the United States should be pioneer in putting Bush and his criminal colleagues on trial. Otherwise, he will be named as a criminal along with Bush and (former British Prime Minister Tony) Blair," said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi on Wednesday.
The time is ripe for the American and British people as well as Mohammedan countries to separately file complaints against Bush and Blair at international courts, he added.
He stated that the Islamic awakening in the region has proved that Washington's warmongering policies have failed.
Firouzabadi further emphasized that the US should pull out its forces from the region.
Regional nations are seeking to establish an Islamic democracy, Firouzabadi said, adding that there is no room for the US, Britannia and Israel in the region.
"An Islamic region can have a peaceful coexistence with the West; Westerners should not be deceived by the Zionists and endanger future peace," the Iranian commander concluded.
In recent months, a wave of revolutions and anti-government uprisings has swept across the Arab world.
In January, a revolution in Tunisia ended the 23-year rule of former President-for-Life Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. ...who departed by popular demand in January, 2011, precipitating the Arab Spring...
In February, another revolution led to the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... after three decades of authoritarian rule.
Revolutions have also begun in Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain, while anti-government demonstrations have been held in Soddy Arabia, Jordan, Oman, and Algeria.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2011 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.
[Dawn] The Afghan Taliban again refuted on Wednesday claims they had entered into talks with the West to try and find an end to the war, saying any contacts with foreign countries had only been to negotiate prisoner exchanges.
Fraser, a doctoral student and director of the Academic Friends of Israel, has written to the University College Union (UCU), Britains largest trade union for academics representing roughly 120,000 university lecturers accusing them of breaching the UKs Equality Act of 2010.
North Koreans staged rallies Wednesday to denounce South Korea's government as 'traitors', the official news agency reported, two days after a reported 100,000-strong protest in Pyongyang.
Punjab
Prime Minister 
[Dawn] It is more than two years since the Taliban roamed Pakistain's 
Kurram Agency
[Dawn] Storied 
[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian military commander says US President 
