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Enraged Pakistanis burn Obama effigy, slam US
Today's Headlines
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Good evening
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 18:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Afghan soldiers called in deadly NATO airstrike
[Yahoo News] Afghan troops who came under fire while operating near the Pakistain border called in the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
Arclight airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pak soldiers at two posts along the frontier, Afghan officials said Sunday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it's unclear who attacked the Afghan troops before dawn Saturday, but that the soldiers were fired upon from the direction of the Pak border posts that were hit in the strikes. The border area where the soldiers were operating contains a mix of Pak forces and Islamist Death Eaters.

The incident has driven to new lows the United States' already tattered alliance with Pakistain, a relationship that is vital to winding down the 10-year-old Afghan war. The Pakistain army has said the alleged NATO attack was unprovoked and has insisted there wasn't Death Eater activity near the border posts in the Mohmand
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
tribal area. Outraged by the strike, Islamabad closed its border to trucks delivering supplies to coalition troops in Afghanistan and demanded the U.S. vacate a base used by American drones within 15 days.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  I still believe that this attack was 'by design'. Even if the mighty Pak Army unit didn't fire on the Afghan forces (not saying they didn't, just theorizing), a few intelligently placed Talibunny snipers and/or 'rocket boys' could make it appear so. The inevitable 'counter-battery' aimed at the Pak posts was the desired result.

The bunnies (be they Haqqani or other) need the serious 'conflict' between the Paks and US. Even if this separation is short-lived, it buys them some time to resurrect their infrastructure and weapons/cash deliveries that have been 'stressed' of late.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/28/2011 7:54 Comments || Top||

#2  The Pakistain army has said the alleged NATO attack was unprovoked and has insisted there wasn't Death Eater activity near the border posts in the Mohmand

shut your lying pie-holes
Posted by: Frank G || 11/28/2011 7:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Actually, Frank, it's not impossible - the air stikes could have been called in by the Afghan troops who were themselves Taliban, intending to achieve exactly what happened. They could have faked the attack on themselves or had no actual attack underway at all.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/28/2011 10:22 Comments || Top||

#4  The only thing we know for sure, is that 1728 more virgins are gainfully employed.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/28/2011 12:02 Comments || Top||

#5  According to AP, it was Afghan troops who called in the strike because they were being fired upon:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Afghan troops who came under fire while operating near the Pakistan border called in the NATO airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two posts along the frontier, Afghan officials said Sunday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it's unclear who attacked the Afghan troops before dawn Saturday, but that the soldiers were fired upon from the direction of the Pakistani border posts that were hit in the strikes. The border area where the soldiers were operating contains a mix of Pakistani forces and Islamist militants.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/28/2011 14:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Bet the US has FLIR video showing the Paki border outposts firing into Afghanistan.
Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 || 11/28/2011 14:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Of course, we have no idea where the border posts are, and wouldn't cross-check even if we did. Major scew-up or stiff warning?
Posted by: KBK || 11/28/2011 14:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Hopefully this is the trigger that sets our exit in motion. I don't care what the reason is, we need to get out of that hellhole, stop paying the Pakis for access to the hellhole and build our relationship with the Indians. Sooner the better.
Posted by: remoteman || 11/28/2011 16:05 Comments || Top||

#9  Scew up, it seems.

“We told them, hold your horses, these are ours,” the official said. While repeated urgent appeals went up the coalition chain of command, he said, the airstrike continued for an hour and a half against two Pakistani border positions and a contingent of troops.
Posted by: KBK || 11/28/2011 21:32 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Kenya reports Eritrea to UN sanctions team
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Kenya has filed a case at the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
Security Council asking for investigations into Eritrea's links with Al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
terror group.

Kenya's Permanent Representative at the UN Macharia Kamau filed the case days after the Eritrean Foreign minister Osman Saleh wrote to the council, calling for independent investigations into Kenya's claims that his country was funding Islamic Death Eaters in Somalia.

Eritrea wants Kenya reprimanded for "serious and harmful accusations," including claims that Asmara recently supplied three planeloads of arms to Al-Shabaab through Baidoa airport.

"Our ambassador in New York has also filed a case before the Security Council's Sanctions Committee to undertake investigations on what we believe Eritrea is doing in Somalia," Foreign Affairs front man Lindsay Kiptines said on Sunday.

Kenya recently asked the council to support its operation in Somalia by deploying African Union troops to areas taken from Al-Shabaab.

Kenya is also seeking a naval blockade of Kismayu, the port Al-Shabaab derives much of its revenue from.

The British Government has officially endorsed Kenya's military operation in Somalia as have many other countries.

The Inter-governmental Authority on Development, the regional grouping, has made similar allegations against Eritrea.

In Somalia, two youths were on Sunday beheaded in Afmadow by militants for allegedly spying for the Transitional Federal Government and Kenya Defence Forces.

Residents said their heads were displayed in the streets in an attempt to frighten locals from cooperating with the transitional government or Kenyan troops.

In Laikipia, Internal Security minister George Saitoti said the Kenya Defence Forces would only quit Somalia after the militants were defeated.

"They made our lives miserable by their actions of kidnapping tourists and killing them. They even conducted terror attacks within our boundaries. That is unacceptable as the government has a duty to defend its people at whatever cost," he said.

On Friday, Ethiopia accused Eritrea of using the Security Council to deflect attention from its links to militants in Somalia.

East African leaders who met under the umbrella of IGAD in Addis Ababa to discuss the military operation in Somalia also called for sanctions against Eritrea.

"Eritrea must clearly and publicly commit herself to immediately stop all of these activities and present a credible plan and timeline to implement this change in policy. The aim [of taking Kenya to Security Council] appears to be dividing the supporters of sanctions and some possibility to avoid their tightening. Given the unanimity of the IGAD over the sanctions, it seems rather naive to think that any such strategy might work," Ethiopia's foreign ministry said on Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  The UN monitoring committee on Somalia/Eritrea has provided ample evidence of Eritrean support for terrorism, so sanctions would be the next logical step.
Posted by: American Delight || 11/28/2011 8:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Now, that's a very un-nuanced, one might even say "immature", response.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/28/2011 8:34 Comments || Top||


Ethiopian Troops Join Kenyans In Somalia
New convoys of heavily-armed Ethiopian troops have crossed into Somalia and are heading for central areas, residents said Sunday, days after Addis Ababa said it planned to send troops to help Somali and Kenya forces fighting Islamist insurgents.

Ethiopia, which intervened in Somalia between 2006 and 2009, said Friday that it would deploy troops inside Somalia again for a "brief period.

An Ethiopian government official also acknowledged Friday that a small force was already there on a reconnaissance mission. Ethiopia had previously denied scores of military trucks and armoured vehicles had entered Somalia on November 19 and 20.

Sunday, residents from towns in central Somalia said they had seen new, larger convoys.

"We have seen heavily armed Ethiopian troops with tanks heading to Guriel and Baladwayne. There are many more of them and (they are) more armed than last week," Ahmed Muhudin Ugas told Reuters from Balanbal town.

"Since yesterday afternoon I counted over 100 armed trucks with tanks; their convoy has not stopped yet."

A senior official with the pro-Mogadishu Sufi militia group Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca also confirmed the deployment.

"Yes, Ethiopian troops are here and more have entered central Somalia," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters by phone. "Al Shabaab will be ousted from central Somalia but when and how are political points we do not want to disclose now."

Kenya sent troops into Somalia last month to crush al Shabaab, accusing the militant network of frequent attacks on its security forces and tourists inside Kenya.

Ethiopian soldiers previously went into Somalia in 2006, and left the country in early 2009 after ousting the Islamist Islamic Courts Union (ICU) from de facto power in Mogadishu.

They were dogged by accusations that their intervention, hugely unpopular with Somalis, was a rallying call for militias such as al Shabaab, who were not as powerful at that time.

This time, Ethiopia insists the deployment will be brief, although it has not given details on the size of the contingent.

Another resident in Guriel, in the central Galgadud region, said he had seen two different convoys of Ethiopian forces.

"Last night there was a convoy of Ethiopian troops that reached the town," Abdinur Osman Moalim told Reuters. "I don't know their number, but early in the morning we saw more than 40 vehicles of armed Ethiopian troops."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They were dogged by accusations that their intervention, hugely unpopular with Somalis, was a rallying call for militias such as al Shabaab, who were not as powerful at that time.

Who writes this crap and were they born last night?
Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 || 11/28/2011 10:28 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Divided post-revolution Egypt heads to the polls
[Emirates 24/7] Post-revolution Egypt, riven by political differences and violence, heads to the polls on Monday at the start of a chaotic election process to usher in democracy in the Arab world's most populous nation.

Ten months after the end of 30 years of autocratic rule by Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
, ousted by popular protests in one of the seminal events of the Arab Spring, up to 40 million voters are being asked to choose a new parliament.

Voting will take place in three stages beginning on Monday in the main cities of Cairo, Alexandria and other areas in a drawn-out procedure that will finish in March and that has been criticised for its complexity.

The backdrop is ominous after a week of new protests calling for the resignation of the interim military rulers who stepped in after Mubarak's fall. Forty-two have been killed in the latest flare-up and more than 3,000 injured.

And in the early hours of Monday, saboteurs blew up a pipeline supplying gas to Israel, another reminder of the threat to the country's stability.

Masked gunnies planted explosives under the pipeline west of the town of El-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, witnesses told the official Mena news agency. It was the ninth such attack since this year.

On Sunday however, 18-year-old student Raghda was looking forward.

"It's our first chance to vote and the vote will have a value," Raghda told AFP in Tahrir Square, the cradle of Egypt's revolution where hundreds of thousands forced Mubarak's downfall.

The election itself looked in danger last week as unrest gripped the country, but military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi has stuck to the schedule and called for a large turnout.

Much remains unclear about how the new parliament will function and whether it will be able to resolve a standoff with the armed forces over how much power they will retain under a new constitution to be written next year.

In the absence of polling data and a precedent for the vote, the results are difficult to call, but a party set up by the formerly banned Islamist Moslem Brüderbund is expected to emerge as the largest single grouping.

Hardline Islamists, secular parties and groups representing the interests of the former Mubarak regime are all expected to win seats, raising the prospect of a highly fragmented and ideologically split new parliament.

The stakes could not be higher for Egypt, the cultural leader of the Arab world, but the conduct and results of the election will also have repercussions for the entire Middle East at a time of wrenching change.

"For most Arabs, the primary examples of democratic processes in the Arab world are in Iraq and Leb," said Bruce Rutherford, a Middle East specialist and author on Egypt at the US-based Colgate University.

"In both cases, elections produced weak, fragmented, and largely ineffectual governments.

"If Egypt produces the same result, then the appeal of democracy in the region may be weakened. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
if the Egyptian experience is positive... the effect could be very powerful."

Egypt, with a fast-growing population of more than 80 million, is a former British protectorate ruled by military leaders for most of its history since independence in 1922.

The fresh protests last week stemmed from fears that Tantawi and his fellow generals, initially welcomed as a source of stability in the days after Mubarak's fall, were looking to consolidate their power.

They have pushed back the original timetable for handing over power to a civilian government and have demanded a final say on all legislation concerning the army in the future.

Critics say they have also been too quick to resort to the repressive techniques of the Mubarak regime, jailing dissidents and unleashing deadly violence on protesters, in a bid to maintain stability.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow...
the leading new civilian powers, the pro-democracy movement in Tahrir, the Moslem Brüderbund and future presidential hopefuls Mohamed ElBaradei
Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee.
and Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
... who took over as head of the Arab League about the time Jerry and Dean split up ...
, have been caught in the uncertainty.

The Tahrir movement is deeply divided over whether to take part in the elections and lend legitimacy to the military rulers, while the Moslem Brüderbund has supported elections from which it expects to capitalise.

The ruling military council "must task the party which gains the biggest number of seats to form the next government," Brotherhood front man Mahmud Ghozlan told AFP on Sunday in a sign of their confidence.

After two days of voting in the first stage of the elections for the lower parliament, other cities and regions will follow on December 14 and January 3.

After these, another round of voting will take place from January 29 for the the upper house of parliament and presidential elections are to be held by no later than the end of June next year.

Mubarak, who is on trial for murder and corruption in Cairo along with his two sons, is expected to follow events on Monday from a military hospital in the capital where he is reportedly being treated for cancer.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
4 dead, churches burned in north Nigeria attack
[Emirates 24/7] Witnesses and authorities say at least four people died in an apparent attack on a northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
city that saw churches and businesses burned to the ground.

The attack happened Saturday night in the city of Geidam in Nigeria's Yobe state, which sits near the country's arid border with Niger.

Witnesses say attackers blew up a local cop shoppe and attacked a bank, as well as set fire to businesses and at least eight churches.

Yobe state police commissioner Sulaiman Lawal declined to comment Sunday, referring calls to the national police headquarters, where no one answered calls. Emergency officials declined to immediately comment.

The attacks come after a Nov. 4 attack in the state capital claimed by the radical Mohammedan sect known as Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie...
that killed more than 100 people.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Basendowah Charged with Forming New Government
[Yemen Post] A republican decree was issued charging Mohammed Salem Basendowah with forming the national reconciliation council.

Yesterday, the opposition National Council officially handed over to Vice President Abdu Rabu Hadi, their candidate, Basendowah, for the next government.

The implementation of the power transfer deal is moving slowly in Yemen while international powers are observing Yemen closely.

According to the power transfer deal, both the opposition and ruling party will each get 50 percent of cabinet seats in the new government.

Basendowah is a former Foreign Minister and served under President-for-Life Saleh
... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
for more than 20 years.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  charging Mohammed Salem Basendowah with forming the national reconciliation council.


And I'm sure he'll be charged later by HRW for something
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/28/2011 16:09 Comments || Top||


Houthis Kill 24 in North Yemen
[Yemen Post] Local sources in Dammaj, Sa'ada told the Yemen Post that at least 24 non-combatants were killed in the ongoing Houthi attacks in Dammaj Sa'ada against Sunni Moslems.

The injury toll over the last 24 hours is more than 65.

Houthis, a pro Shia movement in Yemen that is expanding quickly with the use of arms, has been able to grow in territory during the 10 months struggle to oust President-for-Life Saleh
... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
from power.

Residents in Sa'ada told the Yemen Post that Houthi snipers are placed on mountain tops shooting anything that moves.

Senior members in the movement said that more than 100,000 fighters listen to commands from their spiritual leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

Sectarian violence is at peak in northern Yemen where Houthis control majority lands that spread in five Yemeni provinces.

They myrmidon group now control strategic border areas with Soddy Arabia.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Two Killed in Government Attacks Near Sana'a
[Yemen Post] Government attacks on pro opposition tribal areas continued Saturday morning in Bani Hushauish district, an outskirt of the capital 15 kilometers south.

Two non-combatants were killed in the government attacks.

Eyewitnesses said that strong air raids continued for more than two hours. At least six other civilians were maimed, one of them a child and is at death's door.

Raids against pro opposition tribes also took place in Nehm, Arhab, and Bani Hareth, all suburbs of the capital Sana'a.

Tribes in those areas have taken over the majority of the military bases claiming that government forces use them to bombard their houses and property.

The Yemen ruling family regime has been clashing with tribes loyal to the opposition for months now, resulting in casualties from both sides.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Four Qaeda suspects killed in Yemen
[Bangla Daily Star] Four suspected al-Qaeda jihad boys, one an Iraqi, have been killed in an ambush by tribal fighters allied to the military in south Yemen's Abyan province, a tribal source said yesterday.

The four were hit with rockets and artillery on Saturday "in a car belonging to Al-Qaeda" on the road from thriving provincial capital Zinjibar to Jaar, two towns held by snuffies linked to the Death Eater group, the source told AFP.

"The vehicle was burned to a cinder and the four people inside, including an Iraqi, were killed," added the source, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Caribbean-Latin America
After 12 years, Colombian soldier gets home
[Emirates 24/7] Colombian army Sergeant Luis Alberto Erazo returned to Bogota Sunday from 12 years of captivity by FARC rebels, a day after managing to escape during a battle as four other hostages were executed.

Erazo, 40, who had been held by the Marxist rebels since December 9, 1999, arrived in the capital by helicopter and was taken in an ambulance to a hospital for treatment, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

The soldier, who suffered shrapnel wounds to the face as rebels in hot pursuit tossed a grenade at him, made no comment to the media. He was reunited with his girlfriend, his 16-year-old daughter and other family members.

Erazo beat feet from a rebel encampment in southern Colombia on Saturday where army forces were hunting for possible hostages. During the clash, FARC rebels executed four hostages but Erazo was later found alive.

President Juan Manual Santos visited Erazo on Sunday, saying it was "really moving to see this national hero" but also hailing the "heroism" of the four hostages killed "in cold blood."

Santos also said he had "mixed feelings, seeing the happiness of this sergeant and his family, while at the same time understanding the pain of the other four families."

The hostages had been held at a FARC encampment in the remote Solano region of southern Colombia.

Those who died were identified as Colonel Edgar Yesid Duarte, Lieutenants Elkin Hernandez and Alvaro Moreno, and Sergeant Jose Libio Martinez, the FARC's longest-held hostage who was kidnapped nearly 14 years ago in a rebel ambush.

After the latest executions, 14 police and soldiers remain in FARC hands. Some have spent more than a decade in captivity.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a narco mob based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border.
(FARC), believed to have 8,000 members, has been at war with the government since 1964. It began a campaign of kidnappings in the mid-1980s, seizing army hostages to serve as bargaining chips for FARC prisoners.

By the late 1990s, civilians and politicians were also being snatched, winning the group greater notoriety.

New FARC chief Timoleon Jimenez has taken a hard line since taking over from Alfonso Cano, bumped off in a November 4 firefight with Colombian government forces.

Several citizen groups meanwhile called for a march December 6 to protest the violence and call for the release of all FARC hostages.

Separately, a representative for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia denounced the killings of the hostages and said that the FARC could face charges of crimes against humanity for such offenses.

"These liquidations reflect a terrible lack of humanity and complete disregard for human life," the agency's representative Christian Salazar said.

"These irrational acts are not isolated or sporadic. They are war crimes which could be classified as crimes against humanity."
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


India-Pakistan
Two scouts gunned down, violence erupts in Karachi
[Dawn] Two young scouts were bumped off and three others injured in an attack by unidentified gunnies on a Muharam-ul-Haram procession at Numaish Chowrangi on Sunday evening, police said.

The incident took place when the procession was passing by a mosque in the limits of Soldier Bazaar Police Station.

An official Shoaib at the cop shoppe said the dear departed were identified as Zain and Ali, volunteers of Abu Turab Scouts. However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning...
identity of the other three severely injured are yet to be ascertained.

The bodies and injured were shifted to Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi.

The armed culprits opened the fire on the volunteers and mourners, when they were going to join the central congregation (majlis) of Imam Hussain (as) at Nishtar Park.

The participants of the procession staged demonstration at Numaish Chowrangi against the attack by beturbanned goons and blocked central M.A.Jinnah Road in protest against the incident. Police and Rangers cordoned the area after the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Enraged Pakistanis burn Obama effigy, slam US
[Yahoo News] Hundreds of enraged Paks erupted into the streets across the country Sunday, burning an effigy of President Barack We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us Obama and setting fire to US flags after 24 soldiers died in NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
air strikes.

The rallies were organised by opposition and right-wing Islamist groups in major cities of the nuclear-armed country of 167 million people, where opposition to the government's US alliance is rampant.

In Bloody Karachi, the port city used by the United States to ship supplies to troops fighting in Afghanistan, more than 700 people gathered outside the US consulate, an AFP photographer said.

They shouted: "down with America, stay away Americans, Pakistain is ours, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our army", while Pak riot police were deployed near the consulate.

Outside the press club in Bloody Karachi, dozens of political activists burnt an effigy of President B.O., an AFP photographer added.

In the central city of Multan, more than 300 activists loyal to the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
, as well as local traders erupted into the streets, burning US and NATO flags.

They carried placards and banners, and shouted: "down with America," "down with NATO," "Yankees go back", "vacate Afghanistan and Pakistain" and "stop drone attacks" -- a reference to a CIA drone war against Islamist beturbanned goons.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  I hope whatever shenanigans the Pakistanis were up to that caused NATO to strike them was worth this response.
Posted by: gromky || 11/28/2011 5:08 Comments || Top||

#2  It is so good to see IRB again. What is a protest without that smiling face and tonsils.
Posted by: Steven || 11/28/2011 15:54 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli Warplanes Launch Strikes on Gaza Strip
[An Nahar] Israeli warplanes watched two strikes on the Gazoo Strip overnight in response to rocket fire from the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-controlled Paleostinian territory, an army front man said in a statement Sunday.

"In response to rocket fire towards Israel this weekend, the airforce targeted sites of terrorist activity in the south and the center of the Gazoo strip during the night," said the front man.

Paleostinian in the Gazoo Strip fired a Qassam rocket into the Eshkol region of southern Israel on Saturday morning causing no casualties, Israeli police said.

Earlier this month, the Israeli chief of staff warned MPs that repeated rocket fire from Gazoo would push Israel into taking "aggressive" action in the Gazoo Strip.

Low-level unrest has rumbled in and around Gazoo this month but has not erupted into all-out fighting as it did on October 29-30 when tit-for-tat violence left 12 Paleostinian gunnies and an Israeli civilian dead.

Militant groups say they are observing an Egypt-brokered truce agreement but have reserved the right to reply to any Israeli fire. Israel has said it will target any gunnies poised to fire rockets across the border.

Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Fayyad: Israeli sanctions starting to bite
RAMALLAH, West Bank: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says he will be unable to pay the the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants, as Israeli economic sanctions start to bite.

Israel decided last month to suspend the monthly transfer of about $100 million in tax revenues it collects on behalf of Fayyad’s Palestinian Authority. The transfers, along with foreign aid, are crucial for keeping Fayyad’s government afloat. Nearly one-third of the close to 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza depend on public sector salaries.

Fayyad told reporters Sunday that the sanctions have a “devastating impact” on the Palestinian economy.

Israel suspended the transfers in retaliation for Palestinian attempts to win international recognition for a state of Palestine.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The arrogance of Fayyad:

We will seek statehood status & pose an existential threat to Israel, and expect Israel to keep paying us while we do it.
Posted by: American Delight || 11/28/2011 8:27 Comments || Top||

#2  It's what thet got used to in the last 17 years.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/28/2011 8:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Why was Israel collecting the taxes? I would have thought that would have been the first thing the Pals tried to take charge of.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/28/2011 14:49 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Hotel explosion kills 3, wounds 27 in Philippines
[Emirates 24/7] A powerful blast killed at least 3 people and maimed 27 others in a budget hotel packed with wedding guests in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday.

The kaboom, suspected to have been caused by a bomb, ignited a fire that gutted the two-story Atilano Pension House in downtown Zamboanga city late Sunday.

The blast was so powerful it caused much of the second floor to collapse, blew off the hotel roof and shattered glass panes and windows from nearby buildings, Zamboanga city Mayor Celso Lobregat said.

Two of the maimed were at death's door in a hospital, he said.

Zamboanga, a bustling city where U.S. counterterrorism troops are based, has been hit by deadly bombings blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
cut-throats in the past.

The blast occurred in room 226 on the second floor of the hotel, instantly killing two people staying in two adjacent rooms, which were devastated by the blast. A third body was found dead Monday on the ground floor, pinned by the cement slabs that collapsed from above.

Initial investigation pointed to a bomb, Lobregat said, adding that he has asked Zamboanga residents to stay calm.

"We should not show that we're panicking because that is what these troublemakers relish to see," Lobregat told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named by telephone. "We have good leads; we will get all of them."
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Dupe entry: Report: Explosion rocks Iran city of Isfahan, home to key nuclear facility
Semi-official Fars news agency says blast heard distinctly in several parts of the western Iran city; a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan went online in 2004.
An explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan on Monday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, adding that the blast was heard in several parts of the city.

According to reports, frightened residents called the fire department after the blast, forcing the city authorities to admit there had been an explosion.

Speaking with Fars news agency, Isfahan’s deputy mayor confirmed the reports and said the authorities are investigating the matter. However, after the incident was reported in Israel, the report was taken off the Fars website.

It seems that city authorities and the Iranian government were embarrassed by the reports of a blasts, releasing contradictory versions of the alleged events. One example is a statement given by the same deputy mayor to the Mehr news agency, saying he had no reports of an explosion.
Posted by: tipper || 11/28/2011 15:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Dupe entry: Report: Explosion rocks Iran city of Isfahan, home to key nuclear facility
Posted by: Durnham Freebody || 11/28/2011 14:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Tens of Thousands Rally in Tripoli Against Syria, Hezbollah
[An Nahar] Tens of thousands of supporters of the opposition gathered Sunday in the northern city of Tripoli to denounce the Syrian regime and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah, under the slogan "The Fall of Weapons, The Spring of Independence."

The rally organized by the Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
Movement, the main opposition party headed by ex-premier Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
, came amid mounting tension over the financing of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb and the revolt in neighboring Syria.

"We initially backed Sheikh Saad for the sake of Leb's freedom, but now we also support him for Syria's freedom and to rid the country of Hizbullah's weapons and the regime of (Syrian President) Bashir al-Assad," said Mohammed Alameddin, 27.

Mohammed Hamdash, a 40-year-old bank employee, said he was taking part in the demonstration in the northern port city to denounce the Hizbullah-led government.

"We are here to say that we are against this government imposed by Hizbullah," he said, as fellow demonstrators waved Lebanese and party flags as well as pictures of Saad Hariri and his father Rafik.

In the the first speech during the rally, Mustaqbal bloc MP Mohammed Kabbara said "Assad's hegemony over Leb must be toppled and we should put an end to the criminal weapons that are accused of killing our deaders."

"This government will first fall in Tripoli before it falls in the rest of Leb and there is nothing called the Resistance
That'd be the Hezbullies, natch...
, as those who send gunnies to Syria to attack its people are not a resistance movement," Kabbara said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati has threatened to resign should his cabinet refuse to pay Leb's 49 percent share of funding to the STL. The ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
have also hinted that they might resign over dissatisfaction with the government's performance and Miqati's policies.

"Haven't they learned from the Beirut Spring that people are stronger than all tyrants and that police states would fall in the face of the people's resolve," Mustaqbal bloc MP Samir al-Jisr said in his speech at the rally.

"This government does not need to be toppled because it is already toppled in people's minds, as it rose to power through a coup perpetrated on a black day ... after the disavowal of the promises and the pledges," he added.

"What kind of a 'resistance act' was being plotted in Tripoli and why are the seized weapons being described as arms belonging to the Resistance?" Jisr wondered, accusing Hizbullah of arming groups in the northern city.

For his part, MP Marwan Hamade -- who had broken from the Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc of Druze leader Walid Wally Jumblat
... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
over refusal to vote for Miqati for the premiership in the binding parliamentary consultations -- urged the premier "not to allow the killers to remain on the loose."

"I will not feel sorry for Hizbullah's falling and tumbling government and I will never forgive Assad's criminal regime," Hamade stressed.

"I call on him (Miqati), from here, not to let justice be defeated at the hands of his limping government and never to forgive those who had first slaughtered his friend, ex-PM martyr Rafik Hariri, before slaying the son of his city, the hero and young martyr (slain Intelligence Bureau officer) Wissam Eid," Hamade went on to say.

He urged President Michel Suleiman
...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
and Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet...
"not to let Leb be captivated by the grand prison."

"I will not urge the party which has described the accused as being sacred (Hizbullah) or the Aounist movement (of MP Michel Aoun
...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
) ... because they are part of the grand prison of totalitarianism," Hamade charged.

"Who would fear the tribunal other than the accused, the criminals and the accomplices who are covering up for them."

Hamade called for returning to "the democratic roots."

"No to eliminating anyone in the name of fake proportional representation," the MP said of the proposed proportional representation electoral system, which has been slammed by Jumblat on fear it might slash his parliamentary bloc.

"No my brother, Najib, tomorrow will not be another day as you have claimed, as those present here are pursuing the path of freedom and justice," Hamade vowed.

He also called on the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
to launch "an initiative that would besiege the killer of Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
," calling on the Lebanese authorities to "implement the Arab initiative in its entirety."

Meanwhile,
...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. It smelled phony...
MP Boutros Harb said that Hizbullah's weapons have "impeded national dialogue and put us before two choices: compliance or civil war."

But he wondered "among whom would civil war erupt if all the Lebanese do not want that."

"Weapons would eventually kill those carrying them and we don't want to kill or be killed," Harb stressed.

The STL has indicted four Hizbullah operatives in connection with the murder. The party has refused to hand over the four members and has dismissed the court as an "American-Israeli plot."

Miqati was appointed premier after Hizbullah and its allies forced the collapse of Saad Hariri's government over its refusal to cut ties with the court based in The Netherlands.

Although Miqati pledged after taking office to uphold Leb's international commitments, Hizbullah and its allies in the cabinet are insisting that the country stop all cooperation with the tribunal.

The funding of the STL is due to be discussed at a crucial cabinet meeting next Wednesday.

Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Iran MPs Vote to Expel British Ambassador
[An Nahar] Iran's parliament voted Sunday to expel the British ambassador in retaliation for fresh Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program and warned that other countries could also be punished.

The bill they adopted, which now has to go to the Guardians Council for approval, demands Iran's ambassador to Britannia also be withdrawn as diplomatic relations are reduced to the level of charge d'affaires.

Economic and trade relations with Britannia, already meager, would be pared "to the minimum" under the text, which requires the measures be effected within two weeks.

The politicians also raised the possibility of punishing "other countries that behave in a manner similar to that of Britannia."

"This is only the beginning," parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani warned.

The session, carried live on state radio, saw 179 deputies vote in favor of the text, four against, and 11 abstain.

On Wednesday, when the bill was introduced, Britannia said "it would be regrettable" if its ambassador to Tehran, Dominick Chilcott, were to be expelled. Chilcott took up his post last month.

Britannia, whose City of London is the world's biggest financial center alongside New York, said on November 14 it was "ceasing all contact" between its financial system and that of Iran.

That measure, announced in coordination with similar sanctions by the United States and Canada, came a week after a report by the U.N. atomic energy watchdog strongly suggesting Tehran was researching nuclear weapons.

Britannia and Canada have embassies in Tehran. The United States does not, having closed it after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Canada's mission is already headed only by a charge d'affaires.

Iran has dismissed the U.N. report as "baseless" and insists its nuclear program is for entirely peaceful purposes.

On Wednesday, Britannia called for senior levels of contact to be maintained despite the strains.

Prior to Chilcott taking up his post, the British mission in Tehran was run by the embassy's charge d'affaires.

"We believe that it is important to maintain senior channels of communication and especially at times like these. It is only through dialogue that we can solve the problems we face," a front man for Britannia's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.

But Larijani said Sunday that "the British government should be aware that the Majlis (Iran's parliament) is monitoring its actions carefully."

The bill's author, Allaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, said: "Should Britannia cease its hostile approach to Iran, then we can upgrade ties once more."

Several politicians had wanted to take the bill further, by cutting off all diplomatic relations with Britannia.

"We must sever all ties with Britannia," said one, Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash. "We must place a lock on the British embassy and ignore them until they come begging like the Americans."

Another, Hossein Sobhaninia, said: "Lawmakers should give a crushing response to British threats."

And another, Zohreh Elahian, charged Britannia had an "agenda of sedition aimed at toppling the Islamic republic" following Iran's contested 2009 presidential election.

A protest against the new sanctions was planned for Tuesday in front of the British embassy, the Fars news agency reported.

EU nations were expected to unveil more sanctions against Iran at a foreign ministers meeting next Thursday. La Belle France has called for a freeze on Iranian central bank assets and an embargo on Iranian oil.

Iran is already subject to four sets of U.N. sanctions designed to pressure it to halt its uranium enrichment activities, as well as unilateral Western sanctions.

Russia and China have slammed the latest Western sanctions, calling them illegal and a barrier to resuming stalled negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Turkey Backs Arab League Sanctions of Syria
[An Nahar] Turkey will support a raft of sanctions on neighbor Syria agreed by the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
at a meeting in Cairo, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday.

"Turkey is supporting the decisions and measures taken by the vaporous Arab League against Syria," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency on the sidelines of the Cairo meeting, to which non-Arab Turkey was invited.

Davuoglu said the Arab League and Turkey were "in full agreement" concerning the Syrian crisis.

"Nobody can expect Turkey and the Arab League to remain silent on the killings of civilians and the Syrian regime's increasing oppression of innocent people," he said.

But the minister emphasized that the Syrian crisis should be handled in a way that would not lead to any outside intervention.

"I hope the Syrian administration will understand our message and the problem will be resolved within the family," he said.

On Sunday, Arab foreign ministers agreed a list of sweeping sanctions designed to cripple the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad,
Lord of the Baath...
which has defied international pressure to halt a bloody crackdown on protests.

Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Turkey: Hey, look at us, we're important Muslims too. Acknowledge us!!
Posted by: American Delight || 11/28/2011 8:37 Comments || Top||


Syrian Forces Shoot Dead 15 Civilians, 6 in Homs
[An Nahar] Syrian forces killed at least 15 civilians on Sunday, six of them in the flashpoint region of Homs that has been under siege for several weeks in an operation to crush dissent, a rights group said.

The latest violence came as the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
voted to impose a raft of diplomatic and economic sanctions against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
's regime for defying an ultimatum to allow observers into the country.

Security forces killed one person during a raid in the Bayyada district of Homs city, and another civilian was rubbed out from the roof of a building in the town of Qusayr, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Four civilians were also killed in Al-Khalidiyeh when troops and security forces raided the neighborhood in Homs city, said the Britannia-based watchdog.

"Several people were maimed, some seriously, and the corpse count could rise," it added.

Near Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
, six people were killed, including a 14-year-old boy, and 13 civilians were maimed as troops fired "indiscriminately" and made arrests in a raid on Rankuss district, said the Observatory.

Security forces killed at least two people and maimed eight others when they shot at mourners during the funeral of a man who had died in the eastern oil hub city of Deir al-Zour, it said.

Another person was killed in the Kafarnubol area of Idlib province in the northwest after being tossed in the calaboose by security forces "for selling fuel to cut-thoats," the group added.

Clashes also erupted between regular troops and deserters in the region of Talbisseh, another town in Homs province, said the watchdog in statements received in Nicosia. "Two troop transporters were destroyed."

In the southern province of Daraa, cradle of eight months of dissent against Assad's autocratic regime, mutinous soldiers attacked a military bus, wounding several troops, it said.

Security forces also tossed in the calaboose 17 people in raids on the village of Muhsen in Deir al-Zour province, it added.

Syrian authorities said security forces killed 12 gunnies during festivities with "terrorist groups" in Homs, state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
SANA said, adding that similar festivities had occurred in Idlib and Daraa.

The Observatory's chief also reported that regime forces were carried out acts of vandalism in the Kafarnabuda region of Hama, further north of Homs province.

"Troops and security forces plundered shops, torched homes and cars owned by activists and tossed in the calaboose several cut-thoats," in Sunday morning raids, said Rami Abdul Rahman.

The Local Coordination Committees which organize anti-regime protest said several rallies were staged across the country, including four small ones in Damascus where demonstrators urged foreign intervention.

"He who says no to military intervention is a traitor," read one sign held by protesters, according to a YouTube video, in the restive Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun.

On Saturday, at least 23 civilians and 12 members of the security forces were killed in festivities across the country, activists said.

The 22-member Arab League agreed on Sunday to ban Syrian officials from visiting any Arab country, to freeze government assets, suspend flights and halt any transactions with the Syrian government and central bank.

State television said in a terse statement that the Arab decision to impose sanctions on a member state was "an unprecedented measure."

Several hundred Syrians gathered in a central Damascus square to denounce the move.

Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Jordan says has hosted 100 Syrian deserters
[Al Ahram] Jordan's foreign minister, Nasser Judeh's Sunday remarks were the first official public confirmation that Jordan hosts Syrian defectors. In September, officials said privately that Jordan had received 60 Syrian army and police deserters, who ranged in rank from corporal to colonel.

Judeh told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the Syrian soldiers and coppers, whom he claimed were conscripts rather than officers, had arrived in batches over the last eight months.

Many Syrians fleeing Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Sonny, disguised as Fredo, trying to be Mike...
's crackdown have also sought refuge in neighboring Turkey.
Posted by: Fred || 11/28/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  The Canada of the Middle East...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/28/2011 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  The Canada of the Middle East...

Unfortunately without a good hockey team.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/28/2011 7:55 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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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.
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In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2011-11-28
  Enraged Pakistanis burn Obama effigy, slam US
Sun 2011-11-27
  US told to vacate Shamsi base
Sat 2011-11-26
  Pakistan stops NATO supplies after raid kills up to 28
Fri 2011-11-25
  47 Syrians Dead, Including 29 Civilians, as Homs Clashes Rage
Thu 2011-11-24
  Police continue attacks on protesters, Tahrir chants for field marshal to go
Wed 2011-11-23
  Yemen's president signs power transfer deal
Tue 2011-11-22
  Yemen Opposition: Saleh Agrees to Sign Peace Plan. Really.
Mon 2011-11-21
  Colombia Farc rebel radio station 'shut down' by army
Sun 2011-11-20
  Libya: 'the executioner' Abdullah al-Senussi captured
Sat 2011-11-19
  Saif al-Islam Gaddafi captured in Libya
Fri 2011-11-18
  Sufi Mohammad's sons acquitted by Swat ATC
Thu 2011-11-17
  Saleh again refuses to sign power transfer
Wed 2011-11-16
  Missile raid targeted top Shabaab leaders
Tue 2011-11-15
  Suspected suicide bomber killed near Afghan loya jirga site
Mon 2011-11-14
  Syria Calls for Urgent Arab Summit

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