Every once in a while when Chris Matthews isn't idiotically railing on Michele Bachmann, and Sarah Palin, and lately Glenn Beck, says something interesting, or at least out of character.
Case in point: This morning he popped up on Morning Joe for a Lent segment during which he strongly criticized America's reaction to the Egyptian uprising and Obama's treatment of Mubarak.
Wasn't [Mubarak] our friend for 30 years? Are we denying that?...[After Sadat's assassination] we thought things might come apart over there and he held everything together. He was strong....and now we say it's time for the game...Well we should have prepared this 20, 30 years ago. Where is the State Dept.? Don't we have hundreds of people sitting over there in Foggy Bottom with no other job except to know what's going on in Egypt...what are they doing?
That was just his warm-up. After this he started taking aim, sparing neither Hillary Clinton nor Obama, whom he accused of being "chillingly" transactional instead of relationship-y.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/04/2011 15:15 Comments ||
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#4
Once in a while you get a glimpse of the Chris Matthews that existed before he sold his soul. Not that he used to be conservative, but at least you could have compared his politics to, say, Joe Lieberman's with a straight face. Now he would have to be compared to . . . hmmm. Bill Maher? Joy Behar?? The "van by the river" character from SNL???
Top members of the Egyptian government say they feel betrayed by President Obama, charging that he is acting against American interests.
"Mubarak's regime feels Obama is pushing the advancement of the Muslim Brotherhood against U.S. interests," said WND's Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter Aaron Klein. "They are genuinely trying to understand why Obama is seemingly championing the anti-regime protests."
Klein said that a top Egyptian diplomat with whom he has developed a rapport over the last few years asked him earlier this week to explain Obama's motivation to support the opposition to Mubarak.
According to a senior Egyptian diplomat speaking to WND, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Frank Wisner, specifically told Mubarak on Tuesday the U.S. would not continue to support his rule and he must step down.
Hours later, Mubarak announced he would not seek another term in office.
The Obama administration dispatched Wisner to Egypt last weekend to report to the State Department and White House a general sense of the situation in the country.
WND broke the story yesterday that the Egyptian government has information Wisner secretly met earlier this week with a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Issam El-Erian.
Posted by: George Hupaviger4591 ||
02/04/2011 09:19 ||
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#1
Join the club boys. We have felt like that since day 1.
#4
President Obama is no Muslim, I think. Muslims, after all, must firmly believe that a higher power rules the world, and can at any moment, for reasons inconceivable to us mere men, interfere to help or harm any one of us. Christians do, too, although they add that God lives by laws which we can figure out. I see no sign that President Obama is anything but a materialist, as were his card-carrying Communist grandparents.
The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia has sent a shock wave through the Arab world. Never before has the street toppled a dictator. Now Egypt is shaking, Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old regime faces its most serious threat ever. The prospect of change in Egypt inevitably raises questions about the oldest and strongest opposition movement in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood, also known as Ikhwan. Can America work with an Egypt where the Ikhwan is part of a transition or even a new government? This article seems mostly fair and not over the top. Brookings pretty much argues that the MB coming to power wont be pretty but is not the disaster on wheels other are hyping. Personally I am not that convinced
Posted by: abu do you love ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
That was we were told when Khomeny was on teh verge of toppling the Shah. We were aslo told he was respectful of women rights, of religious minorities and of democracy.
The only question I have si if they weree morons or of they were leftists whose blind hatred for our civilization made them allies of Islamism.
#2
Thank you people smarter than me for saying that MB in Egypt won't be the rolling disaster every Islam based gov't has proven to be everywhere else in the world.
I'll stick with my gut on this one F*U very much.
#3
The Muslim Brotherhood apparently published their plans long ago. I've discovered it's best to believe those who go to the trouble of writing out their ideas and plans for the world to see.
#5
Yes we should fear them and, for God's sake don't trust them.
This is an org that openly proclaims that Quran and Sunnah should be the only guides in running Egpyt. The MB has been very influential in running Sudan and has been involved in the campaign for genocide in Dafur. They also advocate suicide bombers against Israel and against the US in IRaq.
The "MB is nonviolent" meme is garbage. It is similar to the denunciation of terrorism that many Muslims preach while not saying that they consider killing Jewish and Christian civilians as resistance and martyrdom, not terror.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/04/2011 9:15 Comments ||
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I suppose Brookings considers Zawahiri's membership in the MB as no big deal, and the former Mo Atta's membership as 'old news'.
An image of the organization's public mascot, taken on a pleasant day:
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/04/2011 12:15 Comments ||
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#11
One thing that kind of complicates the analysis is that Mubarak and his goon squads have done such a thorough job of suppressing dissent before now that there is no organized opposition party other than the Muslim Brotherhood. The MB was tolerated only because Mubarak could use them as a foil when dealing with the US and other western countries. He could go to a Kissinger or Holbrooke or one of these other "realist school" foreign policy idiots experts who puts a premium on "stability" and say, "Look, it's in your best interests to keep me in power because, as much of a thug and a kleptocrat as I am, the only alternative is these crazies over here, and they're worse!"
The unintended and unfortunate consequence of that was that if Mahmoud Q. Public, ordinary Egyptian citizen and no fanatic by any means, disliked the regime and wanted to actually do something about it, the Muslim Brotherhood was the only organized and functioning game in town. The same sort of thing happened in Iran in 1979--a lot of people who just wanted the Shah gone and were no fans of the mad mullahs "supported" the revolution because "the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend, but he's someone I can work with."
So the question is, how many people are marching alongside the MB because they want to see sharia law and burkhas and beheadings and all that fun stuff, and how many are there only 'cause they want Mubarak gone? There is probably no way to tell for sure, but there is probably a non-trivial fraction of the protesters that fall into the second category. Once Mubarak is gone, will those folks be able to get control, or will the MB do like Khomeni and take over, imposing their own brand of tyranny in place of Mubarak?
It's by no means certain that the Mubarak kleptocracy will be replaced by something better, but it's not inevitable that it be replaced by something worse.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/04/2011 13:09 Comments ||
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#12
Brookings is not noteworthy anymore. It's a useless rag now.
Depends on whether you're talking about their immediate capabilities or their stated intentions.
Consider the M1A's and F-16s that the Egyptian military has and figure three years down the road after MB has purged the army of the "undesirables" ala Turkey.
#14
The MB was tolerated only because Mubarak could use them as a foil when dealing with the US and other western countries.
I don't think the Ikhwan is tolerated at all. Operating under various pen names, it's made six attempts on Mubarak's life. The reason it continues to exist is simple - until Mubarak's security services become all-seeing and all-knowing, there's no way to completely stamp it out, any more than the Shah could prevent Islamists from infiltrating his security services. The guy also has to balance the long term need to continually suppress the Ikhwan with the immediate danger of yet another assassination attempt.
#15
Consider the M1A's and F-16s that the Egyptian military has and figure three years down the road after MB has purged the army of the "undesirables" ala Turkey.
The Iranians had the latest M60's and F-14's at the time of the revolution. They barely held their own against the downgraded Soviet crap fielded by the Iraqis. The fact that they're using US equipment means they can't get supplies if they do anything we don't like.
#16
The Egyptians also have M60s and could likely get parts for those. A MB-purged Egyptian Army wouldn't stand up to Merkavas, but they would be more than adequate for, say, a venture into South Sudan in support of their northern Sudaneese 'brothers'.
#17
The Egyptians also have M60s and could likely get parts for those.
No military that wants to continue buying equipment from Uncle Sam will sell to Egypt if we tell them not to. The Iranians, on their part, probably want to *buy* parts from Egypt for the American equipment left over from the Shah's reign.
[Asharq al-Aswat] In a new step of escalation on his part, Dr. Muhammad Badi, the Mohammedan Brotherhood's [MB] General Guide, has called on those protesting against the authorities in Egypt to be patient and persevere to ensure the success of what he called the "blessed uprising" until the ruling regime of geriatric President Hosni Mubarak departs despite Mubarak's response to several of the protesters' demands. According to observers, the guide has apparently installed himself as the speaker on behalf of the people by saying that "the Egyptian people, from all groups, refuse to negotiate with the ruling regime" and warned of what he called attempts by some "to demoralize."
Dr. Najih Ibrahim, Al-Jamaa Islamiya's theorist, told Asharq Al-Awsat that those rejecting the call to dialogue offered to them by the Egyptian regime "are seeking chaos and will cause Cairo to burn." He pointed out that the MB "are masters of inciting the street and bouncing on revolutions."
"Nice little country ya got there. Be a shame if something happened to it..."
Contrary to the MB's stand toward the Egyptian regime, Dr. Ibrahim criticized the MB and its statement of yesterday that was signed by the general guide. He said the "brothers are masters of inciting the street and bouncing on revolutions. This is damaging for them. Ultimately, revolutions always damage them."
But we're told how peaceful and democratic the Muslim Brotherhood are. Surely such good and gentle men would not engage in taqiyyah!
He pointed out that what President Mubarak announced represented 90 percent of the demonstrators' demands because "it included an end of his rule, an end of succession, an end of the corrupt privatization era, and the start of the amendment of the constitution." He asked: "What do we want after that? Do we need chaos or humiliate the president? This man fought for Egypt for 30 years. I am saying this though I was jugged under his rule with the brothers in the Jamaa Islamiya for more two decades."
Ibrahim went on to say: "The (protesting) youths should return (to their homes) because this could lead to the legitimization of chaos, which is worse than a corrupt constitutional legitimization." Referring to the MB's hard-line language and their rejection of Mubarak's statement or dialogue with his rule, he added: "This language is demanding the impossible. We cannot overstep what is possible. We do not want to repeat the Cairo fire. Chaos will ruin everyone. The brothers supported the 23 July revolution and it was a reason for finishing them off. They should not reject the call to dialogue. They might cause a military coup or a Cairo fire (like the one of 1952)." He disclosed that 12 of the Al-Jamaa Islamiya leaders in jails refused to escape during the chaos in Egyptian jails during the protests.
That certainly is interesting.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Algeria's 19-year state of emergency will be lifted in the "very near future", state media has quoted Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the president, as saying.
During a meeting with ministers on Thursday, the president also said Algerian television and radio, which are controlled by the state, should give airtime to all political parties.
He added that protest marches, banned under the state of emergency, would be permitted across the country of 35 million except in the capital.
His comments come as anti-government protests escalate in Egypt and follows a wave of similar uprisings in other Arab states including Tunisia and Yemen.
Opposition groups in Algeria had recently made the repeal of emergency powers one of their main demands, ahead of a protest planned for February 12.
Last month several hundred pro-democracy protesters erupted into the streets in Algiers, the capital, demanding the government overturn a law banning public gatherings.
It came after riots erupted over rising food costs and unemployment.
Bouteflika said on Thursday the government should adopt new measures to promote job creation in the former French colony.
Egypt experience
Tarek Masoud, a political analyst from Harvard University, told Al Jizz that "Arab regimes are learning from the Egyptian experience".
"I think others who are maybe in similar positions to Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, are learning from this experience and perhaps the counter-productive thing to do is to crack down on protests," he said.
The state of emergency was enforced in Algeria following a brutal 1990s conflict with Islamist fighters, which left tens of thousands of people dead.
The government had said at the time it needed the extra powers to fight groups linked to al Qaeda.
But on Thursday Bouteflika said he "ordered the government to immediately draw up appropriate provisions which will allow the state to continue the fight against terrorism until its conclusion, with the same effectiveness".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, ... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old... who is currently convalescing in the Moroccan city of Casablanca following a successful back surgery, on Wednesday received a telephone call from King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain.
The Bahraini ruler inquired about the king's health and wished him speedy recovery, the Saudi Press Agency said, adding that the two leaders discussed major regional developments and ways of strengthening bilateral relations.
King Abdullah thanked King Hamad for his gesture.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Also discussed were retirement options and gated communities
[Bangla Daily Star] BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, two major components of the 4-party alliance, have agreed to forge united movement against the government`s `failures and misrule`.
The stand was forged at a meeting between BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... and leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, held at the BNP chief`s Gulshan office on Thursday night.
After about an hour-long meeting from 9:15pm, acting Secretary General of Jamaat ATM Azharul Islam told news hounds that they have agreed to build united movement against the government`s `misdeeds and failures`.
He further said during the meeting they have discussed overall situation of the country, including price hike of essentials, scarcity of gas-electricity-water, worsening law and order and killing of Bangladeshi nationals at border areas by Indian BSF.
Asked about their support to February 7 countrywide hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... called by BNP, Azhar said they will take the decision over the matter in their party forum.
Acting Ameer of Jamaat Mokbul Ahmed and Dhaka city unit Acting Ameer Hamidur Rahman Azad, MP, were also present at the meeting.
Leaders of some like-minded political parties also met with Khaleda Zia on Thursday night, according to party sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
Way back in early July, 2010, a story was posted which detailed a major firefight between Command X, an armed group tied to the Sinaloa drug gang and a group of Los Zetas gunners that took place in the Altar desert near Tubutama, Sonora. The gun battle, which was really a Los Zetas buzzsaw Command X was probably duped into, cost the lives of 21 shooters.
Then barely a month later, a less reported second firefight nearly as bloody also took place between drug gangs in El Saric, Sonora just a few kilometers away.
In the intervening time, I read in comments in various Spanish language publications about how the area around El Saric, Tubutama and Caborca was a major communications hub operated by Los Zetas drug gang, complete with shortwave radios and other more sophisticated equipment. It seemed to be common knowledge in Sonora that Tubutama was a communications center.
On October 15th, 2010, the Sonoran Procuradora General Justicia Estado, said that a joint counternarcotics sweep was taking place in the very area where the two firefights took place. The joint operation involved the Mexican Army and a detachment of the Mexican Policia Federal and totalled 400 armed effectives.
My first reaction was, "Great! They're going to clean out that area with direct action." So I waited. And waited. And waited...
Nothing.
Usually when a massive operation such as counternarcotics sweeps takes place, unmolested, the Mexican Army is extremely effective. The bad guys suffer large numbers of dead, wounded and detained while the army barely breaks a fingernail.
It did occur to me that such a massive operation in a remote sparsely populated area would turn up something. Even a report of nothing found would have been better than what was released.
They couldn't even find such much as a dropped cell phone, or a spent shell casings. It was as if Los Zetas decided: "We've done enough killing; let's find something else to do."
Not bloody likely.
The national attorney general's office announced today that 18 Mexican Federal agents were placed in preventative detention pending an investigation of a purported nexus between these Policia Federal agents and La Linea, the armed wing of the Juarez drug gang.
A drug gang with an armed wing? I thought gangsters are generally pretty well armed...
All drug bosses have their security details. All their underbosses do as well. And those top people are personally heavily armed as well have heavily armed personal bodyguards. However, Sinaloa has at least two armed wings like the Juarez cartel, groups of shooters who do the road clearing and the intimidation they need for such tasks as getting remote farming communities to grow drugs and demonstrating to newly recruited corrupt cops and shooters within their organization the reach and power they have.
Three agents had already confessed to the ties between top Policia Federal officials in Sonora and La Linea.
I don't really know if actual ties exist between Los Zetas and the Juarez gang. Los Zetas tend to be a band of mercenaries. They have in the past conducted campaigns for Beltran-Leyva and they have helped La Familia Michoacana and, like the Juarez gang, they are mortal enemies of the Sinaloa drug gang.
Paying off Policia Federal officials would explain the dearth of news, or the lack of results in the mid October sweep in Sonora.
Proceso, the Mexican leftist weekly, published back in December a news feature which detailed the extent to which drug gangs suppress news about their operations, usually through threats of violence. I had at the time no doubt parts of it were true. I read tons of information about army counternarcotics operations in Nuevo Leon, next door, but very little about Tamaulipas, the state detailed in the December Proceso article.
With the newly elected and seated state government in Tamaulipas, things have gotten better, much better in fact, but time will tell whether cartels will change that.
At the moment, it appears the Secretaria Defensa Nacional (SEDENA) is mixing detachments from Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, and that change appears to be helping with the news issues in Tamaulipas.
There is little reason to doubt the Policia Federal officials may have ties to La Linea save for the fact that La Linea shooters want the media spotlight, especially if it involves their contract hits. A report I read last summer detailed a confession by a detained La Linea shooter who stated that La Linea assassins sometimes time their hits to local Juarez television news.
Los Zetas, in the other hand, only want the attention they want and nothing more. Suppression of drug war news seems to be a signature of Los Zetas, but maybe now La Linea shooters are getting into the censorship swing of things.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Amnesia Amnesty International has urged Britain to help ease the "harsh and punitive" detention conditions of Bradley Manning, the US soldier suspected of leaking information to WikiLeaks.
The rights group put pressure on the British government yesterday to ensure that the army private's detention conditions adhered to international standards after it emerged that the soldier's Welsh mother made him a British citizen.
"His (Manning's) Welsh parentage means the UK government should demand his 'maximum custody' status does not impair his ability to defend himself," Amnesty's UK director, Kate Allen, said.
"We would also like to see Foreign Office officials visiting him just as they would any other British person jugged overseas and potentially facing trial on very serious charges," she added. Extracts from a new Guardian book, "WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's war on secrecy," detailed how the soldier spent four years in Wales after his parents split up in 2001.
In another excerpt, published in today's Guardian, it is claimed that Manning "spends 23 hours a day alone in a six foot (1.8 metre) by 12 foot cell, with one hour's exercise in which he walks figures-of-eight in an empty room." "Manning's friends say he is being subject to near-torture in an effort to break him.'' Sing it, Bob...
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Manning sits like Buddha in a six-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
..."spends 23 hours a day alone in a six foot (1.8 metre) by 12 foot cell, with one hour's exercise in which he walks figures-of-eight in an empty room."
Hundreds of thousands of Americans do that voluntarily for weeks, just after the newest release of Halo or Gears of War or the latest patch to WoW, and it's not considered punishment. How is that torture? /rhet question
#3
....Little Brad's lawyers should be careful what they wish for - IIRC, the old English treason laws (with some spectacularly vicious penalties) have never actually been repealed, and even the modern ones are taken far more seriously than ours. If I were little Brad, I'd hope like hell that nobody finds a single Tommy or other subject of Her Majesty has been harmed in any possible way by his actions.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/04/2011 11:36 Comments ||
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#4
Both Manning and Assange have private rooms already assigned to them in ADX Florence. And instant promotion to any of the 94 U.S. Marshals, or 3,324 Deputy U.S. Marshals and Criminal Investigators in the Service, if they can get their hands on Assange.
I would even hazard to guess that there are at least a half dozen such folks within eye shot of where he is right now. Watching and waiting.
A 2007 briefing by General Patrick OÂ’Reilly, director of the US Missile Defence Agency, disclosed that the radar system would be unable to detect long-range missiles in the launch phase because it could only see in a straight line, not over the horizon. Better get DARPA to work on that one right away.
By the time the radar "saw" the missile, it would be too late to launch an interceptor in time to stop it striking its target.
#1
But the (update the radar - ed) plan was abandoned by President Barack Obama in September 2009, on the basis that the threat from Iran could now be countered by shorter-range systems.
If defense in layers really worked, fortifications would have been built with inner sanctums.
/sarc
#2
Duh. That's why we have the Aegis cruisers and the mobile radars on those large barges. Its a SYSTEM not a single site. Multiple radars, multiple engagement zone, multiple weapons, starting with the modified Standard III ER+, THAAD, mid course and terminal interceptors.
This sint exactly news - here is an article from 2007 about the mobile radar and how it ties back to the BMD in CONUS.
#3
Um... radar only works on line of sight. There are also the cruisers like OS said, satellites and other systems to see a launch, track the missile and warhead.
Seriously, does ANY reporter actually do some fucking homework or do they just go with what is handed to them?
#4
Shoot Darth, most reporters don't even rely on what is handed to them but instead make stuff up on the fly to fit preconceived notions and ideological bent.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
02/04/2011 16:45 Comments ||
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Seriously, does ANY reporter actually do some fucking homework or do they just go with what is handed to them?
The Brit press is either 100% cheerleader on British ops or 100% critical on American ops. It is also 100% amateurish on both. But it's not alone in this. The Wall Street Journal had a reporter (Greg Jaffe, who now works for WaPo) call a carrier a "battleship".
#6
TOPIX/WORLDNEWS > [Controversial Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara] JAPAN SHOULD DEVELOP NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO DEFEND ITSELF, agz China + DPRK.
ISHIHARA = Iff Japan had NucWeaps, CHINIA would not had encroached on the SENKAKUS [China = Daoyus/Daoyutai], + no NORTH KOREAN abduction of Japanese Citizens.
* ASAHI NEWS > RUSSIA: SOUTH KOREA FIRMS MAY JOIN KURILS PROJECTS, arguing that Russia can invite any number of Third-Party Nations to collude in dev the former Japanese Kurils irregardless of its dispute wid Japan.
IMO this is a PCORRECT-DENIABLE SLAP AT SCO-CSTO ALLY + "STRATEGIC PARTNER" CHINA, + ultimat NORTH KOREA as well, by Russ NOT overtly inviting China or North Korea first before South Korea???
A new Senate report on the 2009 Fort Hood shooting blames the FBI and Department of Defense for failing to recognize or act on alleged shooter Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan's extremist views. But being PC feels sooooo good. The handwringing brings orgasms. And the denial is divine.
So perhaps PC doesn't have much of a place in the military, but I'm sure it will continue to work wonders for our politics.
#2
That's our Gov, always two steps ahead of the power curve
/ sarc
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
02/04/2011 13:27 Comments ||
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Fanatical Islamists are very tight with each other. Nidal said over and over he did not want to be deployed against Islamic Jihad. When he was ordered to go, he saw the enemies of his Islamic brothers was the army he was a part of and did the honorable thing a fanatic would do, fight them from where he stood.
America has fought fanatics throughout history, but this generation has lost all sense of what past generations knew. And they have put these these people in the midst of us anyway, at all levels.
When he was ordered to go, he saw the enemies of his Islamic brothers was the army he was a part of
Oh, I'm sure he saw that long before he was ordered to go. He was just contributing by screwing up those he was supposed to be counseling, and the Army was contributing to it by allowing the charade to proceed.
#6
General George Casey immediately after the shooting: "Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think thatÂ’s worse".
#7
General George Casey is the anti-thesis of the General who fought to establish this nation, General George Washington who said, "The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man, will endeavor so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country." General George Washington, July 9, 1776
Posted by: Jack Glomose2315 ||
02/04/2011 16:46 Comments ||
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#8
I disagree with the premise. First of all, the Pentagon gets shirty when outsiders like the FBI start sniffing around on their turf. But that being said, military medical works off very different rules than the rest of the Army.
Had he been in a regular line unit he would have been spotted quick, but if he was doing his job, he would have all sorts of Hawkeye Pierce slack. Doctors are too rare and valuable to pitch out just because they act weird, unless they go really overboard.
The United Nations was paying one of the world's most notorious terrorist groups after getting "too close" to it, secret documents disclose.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) had to suspend activities in southern Somalia after being manipulated by al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda. In a meeting last year with the UN ambassador Susan Rice, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the special representative for Somalia, said the WFP had been withdrawn "because it had become too reliant upon al-Shabaab and its system of pay-offs".
The WFP suspended operations in the rogue state in January last year, saying that the safety of its staff was compromised in the region.
The programme had been supporting up to a million people in the region. Dozens of aid workers have been killed in the failed state.
Al-Shabaab, an Islamic group fighting to overthrow the Somalian government, controls much of south and central Somalia and part of the capital Mogadishu, where it has imposed a form of Islamic law. Mr Ould-Abdallah said the WFP's "way of distributing assistance didn't function in Somalia".
[Asharq al-Aswat] Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told US diplomats in 2009 that neighbouring Iran and Syria were providing weapons to cut-thoat groups within Iraq, a leaked document showed on Thursday.
Maliki's comments to then-US ambassador to Storied Baghdad Christopher Hill came in the midst of a year-long diplomatic row with Damascus that prompted both Iraq and Syria to withdraw their respective ambassadors, while US officials have long alleged that Iran backs militia groups operating inside Iraq.
"Iran and Syria have both been providing weapons -- including "Strela" (SA-7B) shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles -- to cut-thoat groups within Iraq," Maliki told Hill in a September 22, 2009 meeting, read the cable published on Wednesday by whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
"Five members of the Sadrist-affiliated Promise Day Brigade (also linked to the Iranian al-Quds force) were captured recently attempting to smuggle such missiles in the false floor of a Toyota Land Cruiser, Maliki alleged."
The Sadrist movement is the political grouping loyal to radical Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010... , whose former militia arm, the Mahdi Army, held violent festivities with US forces in the aftermath of the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003. They were eventually routed by US and Iraqi forces in 2008.
The document, classified by then acting embassy deputy chief of mission Gary Grappo, said Maliki "hoped each would receive a death sentence."
US military officials have persistently alleged that Iran funds, trains and backs Shiite Mohammedan militia groups in Iraq, charges Tehran denies.
Maliki's remarks, meanwhile, came in the midst of a major diplomatic row with Syria which only ended in September 2010 when the two countries agreed to restore their respective envoys.
The neighbours' tit-for-tat recall of envoys on August 25, 2009 came six days after massive truck bombings against the ministries of finance and foreign affairs in Storied Baghdad left 95 dead and around 600 maimed, the worst day of violence in Iraq in 18 months.
Iraq accused Syria of sheltering two cut-thoats, Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmed and Sattam Farhan, who orchestrated the attacks, charges Damascus denied.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Inspired by the uprising in Egypt, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Fatah are taking to Internet as supporters set up rival Facebook pages calling for revolutions against their Paleostinian rivals.
With factions seemingly uninterested in reconciliation, parties have turned wholesale to gaining the upper hand on the Internet, with officials attempting to incite bored students online.
On Jan. 28 a group of Fatah supporters set up a group on the social networking site Facebook, where they called for a revolution in Gazoo, appointing Feb. 11 a day of protest against the Hamas government. Fatah officials have been putting in requests since early in the week for Ma'an to cover the page.
Four days later, a group was set up on the same site, calling for a revolution in Ramallah and the ouster of President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas. The same Fatah officials are less enthused about that one.
The Hamas-affiliated news site Paleostine Information Center, ran with the headline, "Citizens of the West Bank in Turmoil," and said the Facebook page could start a revolution to overthrow Abbas.
Referring to Fatah's page, Maj.-Gen. Tawfiq At-Tirawi, former director of the PA general intelligence and Fatah central committee member, called for the people of Gazoo to rise up in revolt against the Hamas government.
The page itself outlines five points:
1. This page is not affiliated to any party or religion but it is working for Paleostinians
2. Friday 11 February will be the day the Paleostinian people say no to division and yes to national unity, they will stand in the face of the challenges facing the Paleostinian cause
3. We call on Hamas to stop its coup and go back seriously and immediately to reconciliation to unite again with our people
4. Overthrow the unjust government in Gazoo by coordination with the rest of the national parties in the Paleostinian arena
5. Initiate an intifada against the current situation in Gazoo. A peaceful intifada to say yes to unity and enough to the emirate of darkness.
Shortly after noon, the page reported a hack attempt.
The Hamas-affiliated page also has five demands:
1. The end of the regime of the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
2. We demand a Paleostinian leadership honest nationalistic and elected
3. The release of the kidnapped politicians in the prisons of the Paleostinian authorities
4. Freedom of expression and opinion in the West Bank
5. Immediate shut down the detention of resisters and security cooperation with the enemy
As if division is not enough in the parliament, politics, media, the judiciary, the ministries, the streets, and the cities, the parties now are trying to pass it on to our youth through Facebook.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Isn't it cute? They're trying to do what they see the big kids are doing. Only they don't understand that the big kids are doing it on their own, without government interference. On the other hand, if it catches on, they'll be much to busy to "resist" Israel for a while.
[Arab News] Jordan's powerful Islamist opposition on Wednesday urged the country's newly appointed prime minister to step down, calling him the wrong person to introduce democratic reforms and tackle deepening poverty and unemployment.
Also, Jordan's King Abdallah made a surprise visit to an impoverished northern village. It was his first such trip since the unrest broke out in neighboring Egypt, and appeared to be an attempt to defuse popular anger over the country's troubles and portray himself as a caring leader.
On Tuesday, Abdallah named Maruf Bakhit prime minister, bowing to public pressure from protests inspired by those in Egypt against geriatric President Hosni Mubarak.
Hamza Mansour, a leader of the opposition Mohammedan Brotherhood's political wing, rejected Bakhit's nomination, saying he "is not the right person for the job." "Bakhit is a security man, a former army general and ex-intelligence official. He doesn't believe in democracy," Mansour told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. Instead, he said the country needs "a national figure who can tackle Jordan's serious economic and political crisis." Jordan is grappling with a soaring foreign debt estimated at $15 billion, an inflation rate which has swelled by 1.5 percent to 6.1 percent in December and high unemployment and poverty rates -- set at 12 and 25 percent respectively.
Mansour also criticized Bakhit for signing off on Jordan's first casino, which the Brotherhood strongly opposed on the grounds that it violated Islamic principles and encouraged vice. The project was later canceled.
On Tuesday, Abdallah, facing public pressure inspired by the revolt in Tunisia and Egypt, sacked his government and named Bakhit as prime minister, ordering him to move quickly to boost economic opportunities and give Jordanians a greater say in politics.
Bakhit, 63, is a former ambassador to Israel who supports strong ties with the US and Jordan's peace treaty with Israel -- policies which the Brotherhood and the leftists oppose. The Brotherhood advocates the introduction of Shariah law, close relations with Mohammedan nations and Israel's destruction.
Many Jordanians see Bakhit as a tough enforcer of security, which goes against their calls for greater democratic freedoms. Bakhit is an ex-army major general who also served as the chief of Jordan's National Security Agency in the last decade. He is credited with maintaining Jordan's stability following the 2005 triple attacks on hotels in Amman, claimed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] ... Asharq Al-Awsat spoke with former Syrian Mohammedan Brotherhood Secretary-General Ali Sadreddine Bayanouni who confirmed that the situation in Syria is far worse than that in Egypt, which this week witnessed huge anti-government protests resulting in Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak pledging not to stand at Egypt's next presidential elections, scheduled for September. Bayanouni told Asharq Al-Awsat that at the very least, the Egyptians have a media outlet and are able to talk about and demonstrate against the situation in the country, whilst it is dangerous for a Syrian citizen to even whisper such concerns. He also made reference to human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... lawyer Haitham al-Malih, aged 80, who has been imprisoned for more than a year in Syria for pursuing human rights cases. Bayanouni also spoke about a young Syrian blogger Tal al-Molouhi, who was nabbed last year for making statements against autocracy. Bayanouni also told Asharq Al-Awsat that there are thousands of political prisoners in Syria, and he denounced government restrictions that include a travel ban on hundreds of government critics, Syria's emergency laws, as well as the prohibition of any [political] opposition.
The Syrian Mohammedan Brotherhood statement discussed 10 points, including "constitutional change to ensure the end of totalitarian rule, removing Article VIII of the constitution that imposes single-party rule; removing the emergency laws and the martial laws; eradicating corruption and prosecuting the corrupt, as well as recovering any money, and quickly resolve the problems of poverty, unemployment, starvation, and illiteracy."
Seriously? The West has been working on those problems for a century thus far.
In addition to this, the Syrian Mohammedan Brotherhood also called for "the immediate withdrawal of all the suppressive steps and decisions taken which have resulted in the arrest of teachers, university professors, for their religion or beliefs or their commitment to Islam."
The Syrian Mohammedan Brotherhood statement also called for all imprisoned Syrians to be released, and an immediate end to Syrian citizens being imprisoned for their ideological or religious beliefs. The Mohammedan Brotherhood also demanded the formation of a national government that reflects the will of the people and which represents every segment of Syrian society. The Syrian Mohammedan Brotherhood said that they believed that the Tunisian revolution could prove to be the spark that would incite the Syrian people to demand their rights if the Syrian regime continues to ignore them. Syrian Mohammedan Brotherhood Secretary-General Mohamed Riyadh Al Shaqfa has called on the Syrian regime to learn from what happened in Tunisia and return to popular decisions for the sake of national interests. He said "if the [Syrian] regime continue to ignore the views of the people and corruption and discrimination continues, we will incite the people to demand their rights until this reaches the point of civil disobedience." Al-Shaqfa also threatened to resort to the street and civil disobedience if the Syrian regime continues its policy of restricting and suppressing the freedoms of the people of Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
#1
Hmm. You'd think they'd already figured out if the younger Assad was likely to repeat his father's Hama performance if pushed, and they haven't eaten him alive yet. Maybe this is their kabuki-style flyer on trying to leverage the Egyptian chaos for some patronage concessions from the Syrian regime?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/04/2011 8:40 Comments ||
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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
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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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.
Trust me. 
King Abdullah,
Khaleda Zia
[The Nation (Nairobi)] 
A 2007 briefing by General Patrick OÂ’Reilly, director of the US Missile Defence Agency, disclosed that the radar system would be unable to detect long-range missiles in the launch phase because it could only see in a straight line, not over the horizon. 
Moqtada 
[Arab News] Jordan's powerful Islamist opposition on Wednesday urged the country's newly appointed prime minister to step down, calling him the wrong person to introduce democratic reforms and tackle deepening poverty and unemployment.
