[Tolo News] Members of the upper house of the Afghan parliament passed the Anti-Money Laundering Law with majority vote and without amending the law on Tuesday. The law now is awaiting the approval of President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... The Central Bank of Afghanistan's Gov. Noorullah Delawari is expected to present the approved law at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) conference in Gay Paree on Wednesday.
Delawari says that he is in touch with the president's office and expresses hope that the law will be available for him in Gay Paree to present to the delegation.
"After the approval of the law by both the House of Representatives and Senate, we were in touch with the president's office ensuring that the law will reach us tomorrow," Gov. Delawari said.
A number of analysts say the president should consider the time limit and sign the law as soon as possible so that Afghanistan is protected from being blacklisted from the international banking system.
"My demand from the president is to sign the law as soon as possible and ignore the administrative process and inform the Gay Paree conference," political commentator Mir Ahmad Joyenda said.
However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... a number of senators on Tuesday wanted to discuss a few articles with the possibility of amending them, but the fear of leading the country into being internationally blacklisted pushed the Senate to vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#5
Well I mean if I had starch in my spine and I was pressed, I'd say you'd be allowed to launder your own cabbage Deacon. However, you can't bake your own bread, if you catch my drift, well, that is unless to say, you are a damn fine baker, a fine, fine baker, in which case maybe a trial loaf is in order.
[Tolo News] A representative of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah's campaign team on Tuesday confirmed that negotiations had begun with Independent Election Commission (IEC) officials following the resignation of Secretariat Chief Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhail amid accusations of fraud. The talks are being mediated by the United Nations.
The departure of Amarkhail was a condition the Abdullah team had set for rejoining the election process after they had announced their decision to boycott the election commission, which they accused of engineering large-scale fraud in cahoots with President Hamid Karzai. Following his televised resignation announcement on Monday afternoon, Abdullah held his own press conference in which he said the door had been opened to talks with election officials.
Syed Fazel Aq Sancharaki, a member of Abdullah's team, said that negotiations with nine IEC commissioners and the UN's special representative to Afghanistan, Yan Kubis, began Monday night. He said although nothing was settled, all the parties involved wanted to resolve the impasse currently facing the election process.
According to Sancharaki, Abdullah's demands before he is willing to return to normal relations with the IEC are that the cases of fraud he is most concerned with are fully investigated and the turnout numbers of the runoff be clarified. Abdullah has claimed up to two million ballots cast in the runoff could be invalid and maintained that the IEC's estimate that seven million Afghans participated is far higher than the true number.
"...our stance entering into negotiations is quite clear," Sancharaki said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a member of Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai's campaign team, Tahir Zaheer, said that no negotiations would change the result of the runoff. "Negotiations are a good thing, but no talks will change the outcome of the election," Zaheer said. "The people of Afghanistan made their decision on June 14."
Although the vote counting process is not yet completed, and audits for fraud still have to be done, many have claimed Ghani to be significantly farther ahead than his opponent. If that is the case, it would be a dramatic turn around from the first round, which concluded with Abdullah holding 45 percent of votes and Ghani only 31.6 percent. Ghani supporters have attributed the potential spike in support to higher turnout in friendly areas of the country as well as the candidate field shrinking from eight to two.
Political commentators and activists responded positively to the news of negotiations between Abdullah and the election commission on Tuesday. Afghanistan Democracy Watch head Zekirya Barakzai said the Afghan public was getting wary of the tensions between the two camps and resulting deadlock in the process.
"People are now tired of the tensions, they want a consensus to be made," Barakzai said. "Any institution that intends to mediate this issue could be effective if the two candidates agree on it."
On Monday, the Attorney General's office said that President Hamid Karzai has assigned a delegation to help resolve the election disputes and avoid a political crisis. However, it is unclear exactly the nature of the delegation's role will be, and whether or not it is a participant in the negotiations that began Monday night.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The former First Deputy President of the General National Congress, lawyer Juma Ateega, has claimed that member of Congress are constitutionally barred from standing in tomorrow's elections to the new House of Representatives.
Speaking on Aljazeera TV last night, he said that under the August 2011 Constitutional Declaration, which for the moment is effectively Libya's acting constitution, they were not allowed to present themselves as candidates. There could be court cases after the elections, he warned, to disbar any current members of Congress who were elected tomorrow.
A handful of Congress members of former members are standing although there has been a social media campaign to try and persuade voters to reject them.
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06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The current security situation in Derna has made the prospect of holding tomorrow's elections there impossible, an official in the town has said.
The official told the Libya Herald on condition of strict anonymity that there had been no campaigning in Derna and no publicity for elections to the House of Representatives and that, tomorrow, designated polling stations in the town would remain closed.
He said the head teachers of Derna's schools had unanimously refused requests by the Higher National Elections Commission (HNEC) to use their schools as electoral centres. Five schools, to be used as polling stations, were bombed and one man killed in Derna ahead of February's elections to the Constitutional Drafting Committee. Classes were cancelled in the aftermath of the attacks and the town was forced to pay for repairs to the schools in the absence of government funding.
The official said many in Derna could see little point to the elections in the face of the current security crisis. He said the candidates who were standing in the Derna sub constituency were not known in the town and added that the government had consistently refused to take responsibility for the town's problems.
A resident in Derna, who also asked not to be named, said he had registered to vote but was well aware there would be no elections tomorrow. He said candidates had not been able to campaign because they would immediately become targets.
Another resident said he had not registered to vote and could not see the point given current conditions in the town.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the space pirate fleet to attack Zemblonia... HNEC member Said Al-Gosbi said the organization hoped elections would be able to proceed in Derna tomorrow and that technically the commission was prepared for voting there. He said, however, on the question of security in the town that this was out of their hands. He added that if voting did not go ahead in Derna tomorrow that elections would have to be held at a later date.
He said all but 16 of greater Derna's roughly 50 polling centres had been supplied with elections materials and added that in the case of any security problems HNEC staff were under instructions to immediately close their polling centres. He said the safety of voters and elections' staff was HNEC's number one priority.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Reports that the leader of Ansar Al-Sharia in Benghazi has died in Jelaa hospital have been denied by a medical official in the hospital.
Earlier in the day intelligence sources told the Libya Herald that it had been confirmed that Muhammad Al-Zahawi had died in the hospital after being badly injured yesterday in a bombing raid by Operation Dignity forces. The source said, however, that he could not say exactly where or when Zahawi was supposed to have been maimed.
A medical official at the hospital, however, said there was no truth to the story. "When I heard the report, I checked out every room myself. He is not here," the official said
Rumours that a major Ansar figure was being treated in the hospital began to circulate yesterday when the Islamist militia moved in and took over security. Some observers felt there was more to this than concern about protecting the hospital, especially since it left Ansar in an exposed position.
The militia was still providing protection at the hospital, the official said this evening.
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06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] He was totally fit on Monday evening after the verdict date was announced at noon. But he suddenly fell ill at midnight in Dhaka Central Jail, hours before the top war crimes accused was supposed to be taken to the International Crimes Tribunal.
Upon doctors' advice, the jail authorities did not place him before the tribunal, and the verdict was postponed.
The tribunal considered it illogical to pronounce the judgement in absence of the accused.
Have another "Weekend at Bernies"...
It also ordered the jail authorities to submit a full report on Nizami's health condition as soon as possible.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I wondered how long until Sergei would be back at it. I guess Putin is paying back his old friends, again... The Pakies love the MI17, but they cant fly them. Sergei will sell them junkers for western prices and everyone will be happy. Sergei will buy a new chalet, Putin will be happy, and the Pakies will get a few flights in their new aircraft and then crash them....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/25/2014 20:18 Comments ||
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[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Turkey today said it has banned entry to more than five thousand foreign jihadists suspected of seeking to head to Syria to join radical Islamist groups fighting the Syrian regime.
You're doing it wrong, Erdogan: let them INTO Syria, just don't let them OUT...
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... said his Islamic-rooted government was taking "all the measures" to stem the flow of jihadists from abroad, who were "using Turkey as a transit point" to enter war-torn Syria.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] A federal judge in Oregon ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department and FBI deprived 13 people of their constitutional right to due process by failing to disclose if and why they were included on the US No-Fly List.
Interesting decision and likely correct on constitutional grounds. The government maintains a list of American citizens barred from a lawful activity -- flying on an airplane -- for "national security" reasons. There's no way for a citizen to appeal being on that list, to know if she/he is on the list before it is applied at the airport gate, and (apparently, from what we've read before here on the Burg) to fix all the many, many mistakes in that list. That the list has those mistakes and is being handled by the most cynical, politicized, and corrupt administration in our republic's history doesn't help.
We have a right to national security. But part of that is that our citizens have their rights, and government has to exercise due process in limiting those rights. If the judge's ruling stands on due process, it's likely (IMHO) upheld on appeal.
US District Court Judge Anna Brown ruled that the FBI Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the database, gives no adequate remedy for the 13 individuals to contest their inclusion on the list.
"Without proper notice and an opportunity to be heard, an individual could be doomed to indefinite placement on the No-Fly List," Brown wrote in her opinion. "Moreover, there is nothing in the ... administrative or judicial review procedures that remedies this fundamental deficiency."
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The one said we've destroyed AQ, so why all the need for continued security now that the emergency is over? /sarc off
[DAWN] Police and troops fired warning shots Tuesday to break up a protest over food shortages by people who have fled a military operation against the Taliban.
The offensive has seen the northwestern tribal area of North Wazoo hit by more than a week of shelling and air raids, and more than 450,000 people have fled ahead of an impending ground assault, with many going to the nearby town of Bannu.
The World Food Programme (WFP) began distributing aid through a local aid group on Monday, but there was anger among refugees at long delays.
Anger at problems with food distribution spilled over on Tuesday, with people blocking the main road from Bannu to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... bustling provincial capitalBeautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. An AFP news hound saw around 500 people blocking the road and pelting security forces with rocks in protest, prompting police and soldiers to fire warning shots in the air to disperse them.
Mohammad Nazir Khan, a politician from the region, said many people who should be receiving aid were having problems with registration and documents.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said the government would take strict measures to tackle cranks individuals like Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... to foil their efforts of spreading anarchy in the country, said a report published on Radio Pakistain.
He was speaking to media representatives outside the District Headquarters Hospital in Rawalpindi while visiting coppers who had been injured at the hands of Pakistain Awaami Tehrik (PAT) workers.
He said the world had seen how stick-wielding PAT workers had resorted to violence against police personnel on the directives of PAT chief Qadri, which was highly regrettable and condemnable.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] About 50,000 Paks have crossed into eastern Afghanistan to escape air strikes over the past 10 days and 435,000 have fled within their homeland, which could fuel the spread of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... as many are not vaccinated, UN agencies said on Tuesday.
Pakistain's military gave residents of North Wazoo until the end of Monday to leave the remote mountainous region ahead of a widely anticipated major ground offensive by the army against myrmidons.
The local governing shura, or religious leadership in North Waziristan, has banned polio vaccination for the past two years, demanding a halt to US drone strikes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The number of Paks who have fled to Afghanistan since military operations began on June 15 jumped from 7,000 last Friday to an estimated 50,000, Dan McNorton of the UN refugee agency told a briefing. Most are in Khost and Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... provinces.
"There was a temporary halt to military operations, to air strikes on Sunday ... So that why we have seen the figures rise particularly quickly in the last couple of days," McNorton said.
Most of the 435,000 displaced within Pakistain are in Bannu, Lakki Marsat, Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... and Tank in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but some arrived in Punjab and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#3
Give 'em a full set of inoculations as a prerequisite for registering for aid and such. That'll thin out the objectors considerably... just as Pakistanis are now required to get inoculated before flying out of the country.
[DAWN] Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Tuesday urged the federal government to avoid using 'state machinery' against Canada-based holy man Dr Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... and his party Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT).
"We can differ with Dr Tahirul Qadri on his ideology, but he is a head of a political party and has huge following comprising young men, students, women and elders," he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the MQM.
"We should respect his public support and avoid using state machinery against his party."
Hussain, during an interview today, condemned the killings of at least nine people including PAT supporters when they clashed with Punjab Police in Lahore's Model Town last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Emirates airline plans to file a suit over the damages caused to its reputation by the enforced diversion of its plane carrying Dr Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... on Monday.
Official sources told Dawn that the airline had told the Civil Aviation Authority that it had been upset by the diversion of its flight EK-612 Dubai-Islamabad to Lahore, causing a great deal of inconvenience to passengers on the plane and those waiting at the airport to fly to Dubai.
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06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the current unrest in Iraq is a plot against the Moslem world.
The Iranian foreign minister made the remarks on Monday in a meeting with Sudanese Minister of Human Resources, Development and Labor Ishraqa Sayed Mahmoud.
Referring to the ongoing crisis in Iraq, Zarif said, "What is happening is a foreign conspiracy with the aim of preventing the strong presence of the Moslem world in the arena of regional and international developments."
Zarif added that Islamic countries must be vigilant and have a strategic view on the developments, noting that they should not allow enemies to sow seeds of discord among them.
The Iranian official further pointed to the relations between the two countries and said, "We have a strategic view of the relations between the two countries, and highly value our ties with the Sudanese government and people."
The Sudanese minister, for her part, called for further cooperation among Moslem nations, particularly Iran and Sudan, in the face of common challenges.
"Nothing can disrupt the trend of the age-old, friendly and brotherly relations between the two Moslem countries and Sudan will always remain allied [to Iran] and stand by Iran," the Sudanese official added.
Militants of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... are wreaking havoc on Iraq.
Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... has repeatedly said that Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , Qatar and some other Persian Gulf Arab states are supporting the militancy in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] The United States continues to claim that it is trying to bring peace and justice to Iraq while terrorism is the modern way Washington has chosen to conduct its wars, a political analyst tells Press TV.
"The US has proved that traditional warfare does not work. Iraq was a dismal failure for the US; Afghanistan was a failure for the US. The only effective means they have to flex their muscles and to force policy out there now is terrorism," Mike Harris, Editor of Veteran's Today, said in an interview with Press TV.
[Iran Press TV] Baghdad has not agreed to grant immunity from local prosecution to US forces that are being deployed to Iraq, which is fighting against Takfiri militants, reports say.
According to Iraqi local media reports, a government source on Tuesday rejected the claims after reports from the Pentagon said Iraq had assured Washington that US forces would not be subject to possible prosecution in Iraqi courts.
The source, whose name was not mentioned in the reports, said that granting immunity to US forces is a "baseless" claim made by "some media outlets." In that case they should be home tomorrow.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... has urged the Iraqi prime minister to form a new government, and calls on Kurdish leaders to participate in the process.
Kerry made the remarks in a meeting with Masoud Barzani, the president of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the Kurdish regional capital Erbil on Tuesday, wrapping up his two-day visit to Iraq.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#6
As per #3 + Maliki's appearance on CNN, IIUC Maliki is refusing to step down as it goes against the post-Saddam Iraqi Constitution, + argues that it is these calls for him to step down so that a new Obama/US-supported
"inclusive" Govt. can be quickly formed that is actually "unconstitutional" vee Iraqi law.
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Iraq's top Kurdish leader warned visiting Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... today that a rapid Sunni Death Eater advance has already created "a new reality and a new Iraq," signaling that the US faces major difficulties in its efforts to promote unity among the country's divided factions.
The UN, meanwhile, said more than 1,000 people, most civilians, have been killed in Iraq so far this month, the highest corpse count since the US military withdrew from the country in December 2011.
Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... , whose powerful minority bloc has long functioned as kingmaker in Iraqi politics, did not directly mention Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... , who is facing the strongest challenge to his rule since he assumed power in 2006.
But al-Maliki has made little effort beyond rhetoric to win the trust of his critics, who are led by disaffected Sunnis, Kurds and even several former Shiite allies.
Instead the Kurds have deployed their own well-trained security forces known as peshmerga and seized long-coveted ground of their own in the name of defending it from the al-Qaeda breakaway group and other Sunni faceless myrmidons who have swept through the north.
The Kurds are unlikely to be eager to give up that territory, including the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... regardless of the status of the fighting.
Al-Maliki, meanwhile, has been entirely focused on the security situation, spending hours each day in the main military command center, rather than politics, officials close to his inner circle say, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... because they weren't authorised to release such details.
Despite the attention, Iraq's mainly Shiite security forces have failed to successfully wage any successful counteroffensives against the Death Eaters.
Kerry traveled to Irbil, the capital of the self-rule Kurdish region today, a day after meeting with al-Maliki and other Iraqi officials in Storied Baghdad where he pushed for them to adopt new policies that would give more authority to Iraq's minority Sunnis and Kurds.
Kerry said after the Storied Baghdad meetings that all the leaders agreed to start the process of seating a new parliament by July 1, which will advance a constitutionally required timetable for naming a president, prime minister and a new Cabinet.
Al-Maliki's political bloc won the most seats in parliamentary elections in April but must assemble a majority coalition in the legislature in order to secure a third term for the Shiite leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[ZEENEWS.INDIA] US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... arrived in Brussels Tuesday flying in from a visit to Iraq to attend NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... talks on a krazed killer assault which has sparked global alarm.
With attention already on crises in Ukraine and Syria, the Sunni jihadist offensive in northern Iraq has added to a packed NATO agenda with Afghanistan also a high priority.
His trip to meet Iraqi leaders in Storied Baghdad on Monday, followed by Kurdish officials in the autonomous northern region early Tuesday, had been shrouded in secrecy and unusually the top US diplomat arrived in Belgium on the US military plane he had used for security reasons.
Kerry was due to first have talks with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, before attending a dinner of foreign ministers from the 28-member alliance.
US President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... announced earlier this month that the US will scale back its troops in Afghanistan to 9,800 before withdrawing them completely by the end of 2016.
That will shape plans by other NATO members who have forces in Afghanistan on how many the troops to leave in the country, with a top US official predicting a total force of around 12,000.
But the formal meetings, which will open Wednesday, are also set to be "very, very focused on the situation in Ukraine," the official told news hounds.
The ministers would also discuss the implementation of new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan, "the ceasefire efforts, and also efforts to negotiate with eastern players," the official said, asking not to be named.
The White House on Tuesday welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... 's call to his politicians to revoke his authorisation to invade Ukraine.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Vladimir Putin's call to his politicians to revoke his authorization to invade Ukraine.
Old Russian custom: you've to be asked three times before accepting.
#2
Kerry's plan: take the Kurdish Pershmuga to Ukraine as a peace keeping force. He's also thinking about some crack troops from Nigeria to Iraq. Sure there's drawbacks, but no plan is perfect...
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/25/2014 7:37 Comments ||
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#3
Smile, be polite, then get on with business ignoring the dude, since he doesn't have anything of real substance to offer other than his self importance.
[VOA News] The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... accuses the krazed killer group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... of wide-ranging human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... violations. Investigators say the Sunni Islamist group has killed hundreds of civilians and maimed many more since its invasion of Iraqi cities began early this month.
According to U.N. Sherlocks, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has been accumulating a large and grisly record of gross human rights violations since its invasion of northern Iraq early this month.
Human rights Sherlocks working with the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq say they have verified numerous alleged violations perpetrated by this group. But they assert that the numbers they cite of civilians killed and injured are underestimated.
The U.N. report finds at least 757 non-combatants were killed and 599 injured in Nineveh, Diyala and Sala al-Din Provinces between June 5 and 22. U.N. Human Rights front man Rupert Colville said these figures include summary executions and extra-judicial killings of civilians, police, and soldiers who were not fighting.
"At least another 318 people were killed, and a further 590 injured during the same period in Storied Baghdad and areas in the south, many of them as a result of at least six separate vehicle-borne bombs," said Colville. "Abductions continue to be reported in the northern provinces and in Storied Baghdad. These include a number of cases of foreigners, such as the 48 Turkish citizens kidnapped from Turkey's consulate when ISIL captured djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... ."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#6
We'd like to help but the new model LGBT military is in 'transition' and the DHS army can't deploy overseas because the local natives are restless. However, we might be able to spare some drones. One of which is now overseas consulting with NATO allies.
[VOA News] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... on Monday pledged "intense" support for Iraq against the "existential threat" posed by a major murderous Moslem offensive pushing toward Storied Baghdad from the north and west.
Kerry pressured Iraq's top Shi'ite leaders on Monday to create a more inclusive government in order to face down the Death Eaters, who have captured vast territories in northern and western Iraq.
The United States' "support will be intense, sustained, and if Iraq's leaders take the steps needed to bring the country together, it will be effective," Kerry told journalists in Storied Baghdad.
"The future of Iraq depends primarily on the ability of Iraq's leaders to come together and take a stand united against ISIL....Not next week, not next month, but now," he said.
He said ISIL's "campaign of terror, their grotesque acts of violence and repressive ideology pose a grave danger to Iraq's future. ISIL is not, as it claims, fighting on behalf of Sunnis. ISIL is not fighting for a stronger Iraq. Quite the contrary, ISIL is fighting to divide Iraq and to destroy Iraq. So, this is a critical moment for Iraq's future."
The danger to Iraq, he said, is dire.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Not if you believe the Daily Show's opening skit the other night...apparently ISIL is fixing potholes and rescuing kittens as opposed to Darth Cheney's approach. Then they giggled around the assassinations and executions and bombings for some sub-skit about Cheney crying.
#2
* WORLD NEWS > [HuffPo] IFF ISIS IS SUCH A THREAT, WHY NO AIRSTRIKES?
At minima, USAY, USN heavy airpower includ Drones could be BUFF'ing the ISIS/ISIL Hard Boyz while the Bammer's 300 SPECOPS Advisors are still in the process of arriving in-country - the US = US-Allies would be saving or helping a friendly Govt.???
As opposed to inspiring the Hard Boyz to ..
* WORLD NEWS > [DailY Beast] ISIS COULD OPEN A THIRD FRONT IN LEBANON.
* SAME > [Middle East Online] ISIL CONTROL OF IRAQ-SYRIA BORDER THREATENS TO EXPAND SCOPE OF WAR.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > AL-NUSRA FRONT PLEDGES ALLEGIANCE TO ISIL [ISIS], SAYS NGO |MIDDLE EAST EYE.
* DAILY MAIL.UK > COULD ISIS NOW BE TWICE AS POWERFUL? MEMBERSHIP OF EXTREMIST GROUP SAID TO DOUBLE IN SIZE AS IT MERGES WID AL-QAEDA'S 15,000
-STRONG SYRIAN OFFSHOOT [Al-Nusra] ON BORDER WID IRAQ.
Nb: a single sourced story from World Net Daily. It has the feel of something released for propaganda effect, though it is certainly plausible -- who knows what ugly things are to be found in Saddam Hussein's "sealed" WMD bunker... and Pakistan could likely be induced to share from their stash, for a price, as well.
WASHINGTON -- The well-organized army of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, claims it has access to nuclear weapons and a will to use them to "liberate" Palestine from Israel as part of its "Islamic Spring," according to a WND source in the region.
Franklin Lamb, an international lawyer based in Beirut and Damascus, said the move is part of the ISIS aim of creating a caliphate under strict Islamic law, stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to Iraq.
Lamb, who has access to ISIS fighters and sympathizers, said ISIS has been working with a "new specialized" unit organized at the beginning of 2013 to focus "exclusively on destroying the Zionist regime occupying Palestine."
This is why Israel is clearing Hamas so expeditiously from the West Bank. This is the thing they need to prepare to face.
Lamb added that the ISIS "Al-Quds Unit" is working to broaden its influence in more than 60 Palestinian camps and gatherings from Gaza, across "Occupied Palestine," or Israel, to Jordan and from Lebanon up to the north of Syria "seeking to enlist support as it prepares to liberate Palestine."
Lamb added that the ISIS "Al-Quds Unit" is working to broaden its influence in more than 60 Palestinian camps and gatherings from Gaza, across "Occupied Palestine," or Israel, to Jordan and from Lebanon up to the north of Syria "seeking to enlist support as it prepares to liberate Palestine."
ISIS is also know as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. "Sham," or "Greater Syria," refers to Cyprus, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and southern Turkey.
ISIS also is known as DAASH, the Arabic acronym for al-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fi al-Iraq wa-al Sham.
The Sunni militant group, which has taken over much of the Sunni region of Iraq, could leave the Shiite-dominated region of the country and head toward Jordan and Turkey.
Lamb said that in Iraq alone, some 6 million Iraqi Sunnis recently have become supportive of the ISIS lightning strikes in the Sunni portion of the country.
Some of the Sunni supporters are secular, such as the Naqshbandia Army of former top officials of executed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. As WND reported, the Sunni group may have given ISIS access to its ongoing sarin production facility in northwestern Iraq.
WND also reported ISIS already has captured towns bordering Iraq and Turkey.
The militant group also has steamrolled through the Iraqi desert in the west and taken over the major al-Walid crossing with Syria and the Turaibil crossing into Jordan.
Lamb said ISIS has established a capital for its caliphate in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
"The Islamist organization believes it currently has massive regional support for its rapidly expanding "'revolution of the oppressed,'" Lamb said.
Meaning Saudi Arabia and the rich Gulf oil states?
ISIS estimates it will take 72 months to "liberate" "Occupied Palestine," or Israel, according to Lamb.
That'd be Saddam Hussein's generals thinking strategically, I s'pose.
Lamb quoted an ISIS member as saying: "Zionists call us masked, sociopathic murderers, but we are much more complicated and representative of those seeking justice than they portray us.
Nah. Y'all are just a new and improved version of standard issue jihadis: vicious land pirates who torture, rape, and steal with a religious gloss.
"Are we more barbaric than the Zionist terrorists who massacred at Dier Yassin, Shatila, twice at Qana, and committed dozens of other massacres? History will judge us after we free Palestine."
History needn't wait that long. The rows of headless bodies in Mosul are quite enough evidence for judgement to be rendered.
Lamb said ISIS can do what no other Arab, Muslim or Western backers of resistance have been able to accomplish.
He quoted the ISIS member as saying: "All countries in this region are playing the sectarian card just as they have long played the Palestinian card, but the difference with ISIS is that we are serious about Palestine and they are not. Tel Aviv will fall as fast as Mosul when the time is right."
Except that the Arab Jews of Israel are Jews first, and the Arab Israelis in the IDF have learnt a new way of thinking. Six years? You and your Saudi backers have forgotten in your elaborate planning that the enemy always has a vote.
The WND source said ISIS appears "eager" to fight Israeli armed forces "in the near future despite expectation that the regime will use nuclear weapons."
"Do you think that we do not have access to nuclear devices?" Lamb quoted the ISIS member as saying. "The Zionists know that we do, and if we ever believe they are about to use theirs, we will not hesitate.
Clearly the ISIS savants lack an understanding of the effects of a nuclear bomb. It's not just a bigger IED, guys.
After the Zionists are gone, Palestine will have to be decontaminated and rebuilt just like areas where there has been radiation released."
ISIS access to nuclear weapons could come from Sunni Pakistan, which is home to more than 30 terrorist groups. Pakistan possibly has transferred nuclear weapons to the chief bankroller of its nuclear development program, Sunni Saudi Arabia, as WND previously has reported.
The Saudis, who also have provided billions of dollars to ISIS, have threatened to acquire nuclear weapons if Iran were to develop its own.
The WND source said ISIS denies any interest in training and directing foreign fighters to attack Europe, claiming its goals are to establish the al-Sham caliphate and "liberate Palestine."
The source said the West, and especially the Israelis, may already be aware of ISIS plans and tactics to take over "Palestine." He said Western intelligence sources were in possession of an "encyclopedia of information" obtained by Iraqi intelligence less than 48 hours before Mosul fell two weeks ago.
He said an ISIS messenger who was captured and "under Iraqi torture" turned over more than 160 computer flash sticks with the detailed information.
"The U.S. intelligence community is still decrypting and analyzing the flash sticks," Lamb said.
He indicated that the information already has been handed over to members of Congress, some of whom are sharing it with the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
Good.
"The current sense on Capitol Hill is reported to be that the Obama administration is not in the mood to share anything with Israel these days and certainly not with the Netanyahu regime which it loathes," he said.
Golly. What a surprise that is!
Lamb said only time will tell whether or not ISIS reaches both of its objectives. He added that if the "Zionist regime"
...a telling language choice by an international legal type. Was he frothing at the mouth and twitching by this point, d'you suppose?
can be ejected from Palestine, it will set in motion "historic currents" that will be "rather different from the Ehud Olmert-Condoleezza Rice fantasy of "'a New Middle East.'
"In any event," Lamb said, "it is unlikely that Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Lebanon among other countries in this region are going to look much like what George Bush and Dick Cheney and their still active neo-con advisers had in mind when they were beating the drums for a U.S. invasion of Iraq, Libya and now Syria and Iran."
A little confused about who is sitting on the Washington seats of power these days, but that's ok.
Posted by: Hupiper Slesing1993 ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
ISIL left out Dearborn, Michigan for their future conquests...
[Dhaka Tribune] A Bangladesh-born youth has been found calling the British Moslems to join jihad, in a recruitment video for the Islamic Death Eater group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The youth who has been identified as Raqib lived at Aberdeen in the UK. BBC revealed the youth's identity in a video report early yesterday. The 13-minute video surfaced on Friday. The footage posted by accounts linked to the ISIS. The video shows them urging other British Moslems to join their war.
Quoting an acquaintance, the BBC report said Raqib had moved to the UK from Sylhet some years ago. The acquaintance said he had not seen Raqib for the past couple of years and believed that his family had moved to Leicester.
Raqib is identified in the video as "Brother Abu Bara' al Hindi." He says: "Are you willing to sacrifice the fat job you've got, the big car you've got, the family you have? Are you willing to sacrifice this for the sake of Allah? Definitely! If you sacrifice something for Allah, Allah will give you 700 times more than this."
Two of the six fighters shown in the film urging Moslems to join a holy war have been identified as Nasser Muthana and Reyaad Khan from Cardiff.
The men are believed to be among 500 Britons fighting in the conflict in Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[Daily Caller] On Monday, the White House memo used to justify drone attacks on U.S. citizens was released, and it appears to confirm the worst suspicions of its libertarian critics. The Obama administration had sought to keep the memo secret, and now we know why: Because there are no checks and balances; there are no classified courts. Indeed, the memo reveals that the president of the United States ordered the targeting killing of U.S. citizens overseas "-- in violation of their constitutional right to due process "-- sans any type of oversight outside of the executive. Why would the Champ subscribe to a system of legal 'checks and balances' for drone activities? He fails to use 'checks and balances' anywhere else. Remember, he's "good at killing people".
He is the Lightbringer, in whose presence women faint and strong men grow weak at the knees. He is the smartest man in the room. And he's better, in his own experience, at everything, than the various experts with which he is surrounded. (In the military, they think logistics; in the executive suite, it 's personnel. It is left to the Reader to draw his own conclusions.)
There are as many checks and balances, and as much vetting, on the drone-zap list as there are on the no-fly list...
#2
Well, the NY Slimes sought out the memo, no doubt to clear the Lightbringer of all the scurrilous charges. Now that they have the memo, how long will it take them to report on its contents, and how can they spin it into something positive?
You gotta give the Pubs credit - they sure are good a drumming up bad news on Champ! Too bad half the country doesn't believe them. Or care.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/25/2014 7:47 Comments ||
Top||
#3
And the drones of the Left keep talking about Bush's "illegal" war. Never mind he went to Congress and the UN and got authorizations. It was all about power, never about morality, suckers.
#4
Shaykh Anwar al-Aulaqi and 14 year son got drone-zapped? al-Aulaqi might have been dirty but his 14 year old son was probably not. His son might have had little to say about being in Yemen. al-Aulaqi had reported links to terrorism (911) in the U.S. although I don't think he was ever adjudicated through our court system. The FBI let him go and he fled to Yemen as I recall. He was then accused in absentia of stirring up trouble in Yemen and the U.S. from afar. al-Alaqui was not the most lovable of citizens and most likely was guilty of scheming in nefarious activities but who will ever know now? Unilateral power plays are scary things. What criteria was used by Obama and his henchman to drone zap this guy. What about the next guy that mouths off and ticks off Obama? Suppose then, he extends his criterion to drone zap domestically to someone in the Tea Party. (assuming the IRS doesn't/can't trump enough up against them to jug them). Such decisions made in isolation and not subject to public scrutiny via the courts is similar to the FISA court or the TSA no-fly lists--there is no appeal.
#5
This entire PAK drone zap affair is little more than a beta-test for Champ's domestic dooms day scenario. It will be quite easy to sort it all out from the air. Just avoid targeting the Law Enforcement MRAPS.
#6
The proper way to do this is to try the person In absentia, have them found guilty, and then declare them an outlaw. Drone zapping an outlaw would be quite legal.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
made the prospect of holding tomorrow's elections there impossible, an official in the town has said.
[Dhaka Tribune] He was totally fit on Monday evening after the verdict date was announced at noon. But he suddenly fell ill at midnight in Dhaka Central Jail, hours before the top war crimes accused was supposed to be taken to the International Crimes Tribunal.
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Turkey today said it has banned entry to more than five thousand foreign jihadists suspected of seeking to head to Syria to join radical Islamist groups fighting the Syrian regime. 
[Iran Press TV] A federal judge in Oregon ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department and FBI deprived 13 people of their constitutional right to due process by failing to disclose if and why they were included on the US No-Fly List.
[DAWN] Police and troops fired warning shots Tuesday to break up a protest over food shortages by people who have fled a military operation against the Taliban.
[DAWN] Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said the government would take strict measures to tackle .png)
Wazoo
[DAWN] 
...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him...
[Iran Press TV] Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the current unrest in Iraq is a plot against the 
Nouri al-Maliki
[Iran Press TV] The United States continues to claim that it is trying to bring peace and justice to Iraq while terrorism is the modern way Washington has chosen to conduct its wars, a political analyst tells Press TV.
[Iran Press TV] Baghdad has not agreed to grant immunity from local prosecution to US forces that are being deployed to Iraq, which is fighting against Takfiri militants, reports say.
[Iran Press TV] US Secretary of State 
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Iraq's top Kurdish leader warned visiting Secretary of State 
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] US Secretary of State 
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[VOA News] The 
[VOA News] U.S. Secretary of State 
