[Tolo News] The special tribunal to address Afghan parliamentary poll disputes says it will seal ballot boxes in 34 provinces.
The move is to prevent any more irregularities until the Special Tribunal addresses the complaints.
Sediqullah Haqiq, head of the Special Tribunal, says there are allegations against three sitting parliamentarians who will lose seats in case allegations are proved.
The three accused parliamentarians have been summoned to the special tribunal and the court warns to make a decision in absentia if they do not present themselves for questioning.
Mr Haqiq refused to name the accused MPs but said they are from Faryab, Takhar and Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... provinces.
Out of complaints related to 34 provinces, the tribunal will look into complaints from 12 provinces for the investigations.
The tribunal has been ready to start investigations for the last four days, but the Afghanistan Independent Election Commission has not yet expressed its readiness to cooperate, says Mr Haqiq.
"We have made all our decision based on Afghan laws. We have ordered that ballot boxes of 34 provinces be sealed until we finish addressing the complaints," Sediqullah Haqiq, Head of Special Tribunal, said.
The tribunal says the investigations will be done in presence of representatives from 15 governmental and non-governmental organisations including representatives from provincial courts of appeal.
The provinces in which investigations are to start include Kabul, Nangarhar, Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand, Herat, Balkh, Baghlan, Kunduz, Faryab, Samangan and Badakhshan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It does not matter how the people vote, it only matters who counts the votes. Stalin.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/01/2011 20:35 Comments ||
Top||
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Former Ghanaian president Jerry Rawlings ... former lieutenant in the Ghanian air force, then military dictator for 11 years. He was elected President-for-Life of Ghana in 1993, but was forced to step down his at the end of his term-limited second term when his proxy was defeated ...
has been named the African Union's high representative to war-torn Somalia. So they sent a thug to represent a continent of thugs to a bunch of tribal thugs. Might be the first sensible thing they've done.
Mr Rawlings' appointment was announced by AU Commission chairman Jean Ping on the sidelines of the summit in Addis Ababa. His brief will be to enhance the international community's efforts to bring peace to lawless Somalia, which has been without a functioning government since 1991.
The AU and the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society secretary-general, Mr the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon, are due to convene a meeting on Monday to discuss the ongoing conflict in Somalia.
Mr Rawlings served in the Ghanaian military for over a decade and was twice elected president.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Chuck Taylor was unavailable?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2011 9:59 Comments ||
Top||
President Obama said Tuesday afternoon that an "orderly transition" in Egypt "must begin now" in the wake of widespread protests that have thrown the country into turmoil.
The comments came on the same day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced that he would not seek re-election in September - a stance that fell short of the demands of protesters, who want their longtime leader to step down immediately.
Mr. Obama said he spoke to the 82-year-old Mubarak following the Egyptian leader's announcement, a conversation that the White House said lasted approximately 30 minutes. A special U.S. envoy had reportedly informed Mubarak earlier that the Obama administration saw Mubarak's presidency -- which has lasted nearly three decades -- as essentially over.
"After his speech tonight, I spoke directly to President Mubarak," Mr. Obama said. "He recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable. And that a change must take place. Indeed, all of us who are privileged to serve in positions of political power do so at the will of our people. Through thousands of years, Egypt has known many moments of transformation, the voices of the Egyptian people tell us that this is one of those moments. This is one of those times."
He continued: "Now, it is not the role of any other country to determine Egypt's leaders. Only the Egyptian people can do that. What is clear, and what I indicated tonight to President Mubarak, is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful. It must be peaceful, and it must begin now."
#1
Our transition began last November. Too bad it won't end for two more years. But how the Egyptian will be finished before ours. And it won't be as orderly.
Washington — The Obama administration said for the first time that it supports a role for groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned Islamist organization, in a reformed Egyptian government.
What could possibly go wrong?
The organization must reject violence and recognize democratic goals if the U.S. is to be comfortable with it taking part in the government, the White House said.
And after all, the Muslim Brotherhood is famous for their tolerance and democratic ways...
But by even setting conditions for the involvement of such nonsecular groups, the administration took a surprise step in the midst of the crisis that has enveloped Egypt for the last week.
It's not a surprise if you know Bambi...
The statement was an acknowledgment that any popularly accepted new government will probably include groups that are not considered friendly to U.S. interests,
The Egyptian people appear to 'support' the Brotherhood because they were the only opposition group that was even semi-tolerated. No other group has any traction, and few had any right to exist at all. Give the Egyptian people some time and space to organize after Hosni is gone before one concludes that one must accept the Brotherhood in the government.
and was a signal that the White House is prepared for that probability after 30 years of reliable relations with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
It's one thing to prepare, another to acquiesce...
Monday's statement was a "pretty clear sign that the U.S. isn't going to advocate a narrow form of pluralism, but a broad one," said Robert Malley, a Mideast peace negotiator in the Clinton administration. U.S. officials have previously pressed for broader participation in Egypt's government.
The George W. Bush administration pushed Mubarak for democratic reforms, but a statement in 2005 by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not specifically address a role for Islamists.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that a reformed government "has to include a whole host of important nonsecular actors that give Egypt a strong chance to continue to be [a] stable and reliable partner."
Gibbs said the U.S. government has had no contact with the Muslim Brotherhood because of questions over its commitment to the rule of law, democracy and nonviolence. But the group is not listed on U.S. terrorism lists, as the militant Hamas and Hezbollah organizations are.
Gibbs' remarks came after a White House meeting at which administration officials briefed outside Middle East experts, leaving some of the participants with the impression that the administration was not counting on the 82-year-old Mubarak remaining in power.
U.S. conservatives such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have warned about its rise, and many draw comparisons to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. But others say fears of the Brotherhood, which has been suppressed for decades by the Egyptian government, are overstated.
A big chunk of the article then devotes itself to reciting the virtues of the Muslim Brotherhood. They run orphanages. They provide social services. They are of the middle class. They look after the poor. Oh, they're also just a touch out of sync with modern Western society in their treatment of Christians and wimmin, but don't let that bother you as you consider their goodness.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who has become the leading symbol of the effort to oust Mubarak, has said the group poses no threat. The Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday announced its support for ElBaradei as a transitional president if Mubarak was toppled.
Quid pro quo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2011 09:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Insanity. Pure insanity. Nothing good can come of this.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/01/2011 10:54 Comments ||
Top||
#2
let's see now... in the 2 years since 0bama has been in office we've lost Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia and soon Egypt - all to Islamic radicals.
Now the world is a much scarier place.
I think we will be at war before 0bama's one term is up.
All modern wars are fought for two reasons:
1) access (or lack thereof) to shipping lanes
2) access (of lack thereof) to natural resources
Losing Egypt to radical powers qualifies on both counts.
Over 1 million barrels of oil pass through the Suez Canal daily.
Look for gasoline prices to " necessarily skyrocket"
#5
Here you can see why the term 'War on Terror' is not only a factually incorrect weasel word but also truly dangerous.
If the method 'terrorism' is the true enemy then the war can be won by giving in to islamofascistic demands. Once they're satisfied they won't engage in warfare anymore, 'terrorism' will have ceased, 'terrorism' will be defeated.
In the real world however this amounts to a surrender to the political enemy 'islamofascism,' a political movement whose goal is anything but non-violence.
Churchill's plan to win the 'War on Military Aviation' in 1940:
Britain gives in to all of Hitler's demands, without conditions. Hitler reins in the militants participating in 'Military Aviation' aka the Luftwaffe. 'Military Aviation' is defeated. Victory!
Unfortunately nearly the entire political class(*) seems to see this conflict through this prism. Hence the appeasement of islamofascists in Egypt and elsewhere.
(*) To my knowledge there's only one western politician who has repeatedly spoken out against the term WoT:
Rep Allen West.
/rant
#6
BHO sees no role for the Tea Party in the US government, but has no problem with the Muslim Brotherhood in the Egyptian government.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/01/2011 14:29 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Whoa whoa whoa.
Mr. Gibbs, you say that no members of the US Government have been in contact whatsoever with the Muslim Brotherhood? No envoys to the OIC, no meeting in 2009, no meeting a couple months ago, none at all?
#8
swksvolFF, there is a rumour reported by World Net Daily that there was a meeting yesterday at the American embassy in Cairo with representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood to discuss the fall of the Egyptian government.
#9
But Gibbsy just said no such thing! (thanks for the link). That line pegged my bs meter and I'm starting to smell something. Between the number of meetings with the MB, them being rather quiet on the whole thing, and El Baradei so willing and available so quickly. Perhaps this had been planned since/during the first infamous trip to Cairo but timetable accelerated to match the riots? Perhaps the best thing for Egyptians would be for Mubarak to stick around a couple months until proper and outside monitored elections - anyone trustworthy and neutral enough for that one? And no, not the UN and I don't think the US on this one.
#13
PEOPLES DAILY FORUM > WHY EGYPT UNREST THREATENS AL-QAEDA?
ARTIC = Despite supporting or having many Pro-Islamist sentiments, the new generation of real or potential Muslim Brotherhood Leaders are highly educated, tech-saavy, + AGZ VIOLENT JIHAD TO SETTLE LINGERING DISPUTES.ITS QUITE
POSSIBLE THAT ONCE IN POLITICAL POWER, THE SAME AS EGYPT-CENTRIC ISLAMISTS WILL DO THEIR UTMOST TO PRESERVE THE 1970's SADAT-BEGIN PEACE TREATY, ESPEC IN UTILZ EGYPT'S HISTORICAL ROLE/PSOITION AS A MAJOR ARAB-MUSLIM POWER TO DETER OR PREVENT THE REVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCE OF ISLAMIST IRAN???
and
* NEWS KERALA > EXPERTS: ISRAEL SHOULD NOT PANIC [fear] A HEZBOLLAH-RUN LEBANON, AT THIS TIME as the latter is curr preoccupied wid consolidating its power + other Internal Affairs.
IIUC, IOW DESPITE ITS "HARDLINE" PUBLIC RHETORIC HEZBOLLAH'S POSITION IN LEBANON IS NOT SECURE ENOUGH AT PRESENT TO CAUSE IT TO SEEK NEW MIL CONFRONTATION + WAR WID ISRAEL.
versus
* DER SPEIGEL > A"NEW [more]DANGEROUS PHASE OF INSTABILITY"[ME Region], as per US-West + Israel + Middle East Arab-Muslim democracy.
* NEWS KERALA > ISRAEL FEARS ISLAMIST/RADICALIST TAKEOVER IN EGYPT WIDOUT FAIR POLLS [national elections].
Isn't this nice? Uncle Sugar gets the DOS to look after his boys.
Egypt ''must remain open'': this is the motivation used by the United States in their request for the release of six Al Jazeera reporters who were arrested today. The six were released soon after.
''We are concerned about the closing of Al Jazeera in Egypt and about the arrest of its reporters'', the Department of State wrote in a statement. ''Egypt must remain open and the journalists must be released''.
Soon after Al Jazeera announced that the journalists had been released, specifying that their cameras have been impounded. The satellite television network writes on its website that the reporters were arrested the day after its offices in Cairo were closed and its transmissions were cut off in several areas. ''This will not stop us. In fact, we are even more determined to report the news'', a spokesman of the network said
[Maghrebia] Tunisian security forces clashed with protestors engaged in a sit-in at the Tunis Kasbah, on Friday (January 28th). Police fired teargas canisters after they were allegedly attacked by demonstrators, TAP reported. The interior ministry later denied that any protestor died in the clearing operation. The Kasbah encampment was set up after the "Caravan of Liberation" arrived from Sidi Bouzid seeking the removal of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
(Xinhua) -- Egyptian Parliament Speaker Fathi Surour said on Sunday that an upcoming court decision will determine whether to dissolve the country's parliament that was elected late last year in a vote believed to be fraud-tainted.
Speaking at a parliament session on Sunday, Surour also said the Egyptian cabinet led by former prime minister Ahmed Nazif had failed to apply the parliament's recommendations, and there must be new theories.
He said that the People's Assembly provided the cabinet with many recommendations to tackle unemployment and corruption problems, but the government couldn't handle it, so there must be new solutions to face the needs and demands of Egyptian public.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Main point of contention: what type of acid to use.
[Jerusalem Post] The director of the US Jewish foreign policy umbrella called Mohammed ElBaradei, the opposition leader emerging from the Egyptian ferment, a "stooge of Iran."
Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice-president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, accused ElBaradei of covering up Iran's true nuclear weaponization capacities while he directed the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.
"He is a stooge of Iran, and I don't use the term lightly," Hoenlein said in an online recorded interview with Yeshiva World News on the Egyptian crisis. "He fronted for them, he distorted the reports."
ElBaradei, who directed the IAEA from 1997-2009, returned to Egypt after his third term ended. He was soon touted as a possible challenger to the 30-year autocracy led by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
He has emerged, since protests were launched last week, as a consensus candidate of various opposition groups for transitional leader.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted a policy of not commenting on the breaking developments, not wanting to be seen as siding with any player in the Egyptian unrest. Israel's peace treaty with Egypt is the cornerstone of its defense and foreign policies.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Ma'an] Former US president Jimmy Carter, ... the worst president ever... who brokered the existing peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, predicted Sunday that Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak will have to resign because "the people have decided," a report said.
"This is the most profound situation in the Middle East since I left office," Carter said during the Sunday religion class he teaches at a Baptist church in his hometown of Plains, in the southern state of Georgia.
Carter's comments were reported by the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper of Columbus, Georgia. A spokeswoman for the former president did not immediately respond to AFP to confirm them.
Carter brokered the 1978 peace accord between Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. Mubarak was vice president at the time and became president in 1981 when Sadat was assassinated.
Carter, who recently was an official election observer in Sudan, said he expected the street protests to taper off in the next week, but predicted that Mubarak "will have to leave," the newspaper reported.
"The United States wants Mubarak to stay in power, but the people have decided," said the 86-year-old Carter, calling the unprecedented protests "earth shaking."
Earlier Sunday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... called for an "orderly transition" and "real democracy" in Egypt but stopped short of demanding Mubarak step down.
Carter said Mubarak has become corrupt over his 30 years in power, but praised Mubarak's newly appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman: "He's an intelligent man whom I like very much."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
An Islamic extremist who landed a job as a British Airways computer expert conspired with radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki to blow up a plane bound for America, a court heard today.
n secret email exchanges with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, Bangladeshi Rajib Karim, 31, shared details of his BA contacts and access from his home in Brunton Lane, Newcastle, the court heard.
Karim, who came to the UK in 2006, worked for BA in the city and had access to the airliner's offices there and at Heathrow.
Today, Woolwich Crown Court heard Karim established a deep cover, joining a gym, playing football and never airing extreme views.
All the the while, the prosecution allege, he was communicating with a terror cell and al-Awlaki who has never been caught and is believed to be hiding in the mountains of Yemen.
The defendant is accused of plotting to blow up a plane, sharing information of use to hate groups such as al-Qaida, offering to help financial or disruptive attacks on BA and gaining a UK job to ''exploit terrorist purposes'', which he denies.
The jury of seven men and five women were told today that Karim has already pleaded guilty to three terror charges.
Ruslan Umarov, a brother of Chechen bully boy leader Doku Count Doku Umarov, is in an Italian detention center for undocumented Democrats in the city of Gradisca, according to Italian newspaper Il Piccolo.
The Italian Carabinieri jugged 35-year-old Ruslan Umarov on January 6 after he was nabbed in an express train in northern Italy en route to Gay Paree, on suspicion of taking part in terrorist activities.
The Italians carried out the arrest on the basis of information supplied by the French security services.
Ruslan Umarov had no identity documents on him when he was jugged and claimed political asylum "on humanitarian grounds."
The paper says there has been no official statement on Umarov's detention.
The press secretary at the Russian Embassy in Italy, Alexander Paklin, said the reports were being checked for validity and he had no other information.
The issue may be resolved by diplomatic channels between Russia and Italy. A formal request for political asylum by Umarov should be examined by a territorial commission supervising issues surrounding undocumented Democrats and asylum cases. According to Italian law, Umarov cannot be held in the center for more than six months.
Doku Umarov grabbed credit for bombings in the Moscow subway in March 2010 which killed 40 people.
#1
ION RUSSIA = NOT-IN-ITALY, WAFF > [Domededevo Airport Bombing] JIHADI GROUP IN RUSSIA ORDERED WOMAN TO DO SUICIDE BOMBING ["Black Widow"]OR THEY WOULD KILL HER INFANT [baby daughter].
* SAME > CHECHEN PRESIDENT ORDERS WOMEN TO COVER UP BECAUSE THEY HIM HORNY.
* SAME > SPAIN WILL GO FULLY ISLAMIC AGAIN | SPAIN'S MUSLIM POPULATION TO JUMP, 82% from present by Year 2030 according to ne PEW Survey.
* DER SPEIGEL > THE GERM OF HATE SPREADS TO RUSSIA. Post-DOMEDEDEVO rising Russ backlash agz Muslims + those wid Mixed backgrounds; + EGYPTIAN CRISIS SPREADS TO CENTRAL EUROPE. Fear by already-troubled Central Euro Govts, Banks as per the market(s) consequences via interruptions in Suez Canal = Egypt trade.
Nope, not a Tea Party activist. Sorry Media Matters.
Dearborn — A decorated Army veteran accused of plotting to blow up a Metro Detroit mosque served time in federal prison for threatening to kill President George W. Bush and bomb a Vermont veterans' clinic in 2002.
Definitely coo-coo for cocoa-puffs.
Roger Stockham, 63, who flew 600 combat helicopter missions in Vietnam, is behind bars in Michigan after he drove from his home in California last week and parked a car with a trunk full of explosives outside the Islamic Center of America, authorities said.
Acting on a tip, Dearborn police thwarted the alleged plot by arresting Stockham outside the sprawling religious center, one of the largest mosques in North America. At the time, 500 members were attending a funeral at the mosque. Stockham had high-end fireworks outside the 70,000-square-foot mosque, which has a 150-foot dome height and 10-story-tall minarets, said Dearborn Mayor John B. O'Reilly Jr.
Stockham, who lives in Imperial Beach, Calif., is charged with one count of a false report or threat of terrorism and one count of explosives/possession of bombs with unlawful intent. He is being held on a $500,000 cash bond. He will be in court Friday for a hearing on the charges before 19th District Judge Mark Somers.
Perhaps this time they can do a psych evaluation and NOT release him after a year.
FBI special agent Sandra Berchtold confirmed Sunday the FBI is investigating the incident, which was referred to the federal agency by Dearborn police.
According to federal records, Stockham pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to federal charges stemming from the case in Vermont in 2004. That included threatening the president, mailing threatening communications, threatening by use of the telephone to use explosives, and threatening witnesses. A psychiatric examination found that Stockham suffered from bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and personality disorder with anti-social features.
In the Vermont incident, he told authorities at the time of his arrest at a Veterans Affairs Department complex in Colchester that his minivan was full of explosives. A search found no explosives. Before the arrest, Stockham called a local paper twice to say he was going to explode bombs in the neighborhood. In one call, he identified himself as "Hem Ahadin," saying he was "a local Muslim terrorist on a roll."
He ranted against the VA, the FBI and Bush, largely because of the things the president had said about Iraq in a speech earlier in the week. According to affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, Stockham threatened to carry out "jihad," or holy war, against the VA office in White River, Vt.
In May 2005, a federal order of conditional release was issued for Stockham. It said the warden of the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Miss., certified that Stockham had recovered from his mental disease and that his conditioned release under a regimen of treatments would not create a risk of bodily injury or harm to others.
I'm just guessing here but perhaps the 'regimen of treatments' broke down recently?
Just two weeks ago, Stockham was on Facebook, posting a rambling statement in which he again refers to himself as "Hem Ahadin," calling it his Muslim name.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan chapter, said he learned from police that Stockham had been drinking at a Detroit bar on Monday when he threatened to do harm to a mosque in Dearborn. A bar employee followed the man outside and wrote down his license plate number and called Detroit police, who in turn contacted authorities in Dearborn, Walid said.
A big attaboy to the bartender.
Dearborn police began searching around mosques in the city and found Stockham inside his vehicle outside the Islamic Center of America, Walid said, with a load of M-80s and other explosives in his trunk.
"We thank law enforcement authorities for their quick and professional actions in this troubling incident," Walid said. "The increased number of bias incidents targeting American Muslim institutions must be addressed by local, state and national officials and law enforcement authorities."
Investigators chose to keep the arrest quiet during the week while detectives determined whether Stockham was acting alone or with others, O'Reilly said. Police worked with the mosque's imam during the investigation, he said. O'Reilly said it appears Stockham was acting alone.
The rest of the article notes that he had trouble at his local VFW and that he was known as a 'nut'. No, really...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
I've known several attack helicopter pilots who served in Vietnam, and they were a high intensity, high risk bunch, known for their derring-do. It is not surprising that a few of them later developed head problems.
One in particular had the reputation of walking as much as flying, being given particularly hairy, major and critical targets, because using him would guarantee that they would be obliterated, yet invariably, either enemy fire or flying debris would nail his helicopter.
Well worth the price of a helicopter. After the war he became an aircraft insurance claims adjuster.
#6
A psychiatric examination found that Stockham suffered from bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and personality disorder with anti-social features.
Bipolar symptoms don't usually wait until middle age to show up. That he flew through the highs and lows is to his credit. One doesn't like to lock people up, especially such a man, but it sounds like he can't remain stable on his own.
#7
I've seen more than a few bipolar disorders surface in mid-life, and I'm not a psychiatrist but a generalist. BPD is fairly common, although less common than regular depression. Mania &/or hypomania are essential parts of the diagnosis. If you've ever known someone in & out of mania, it is something to behold. One in particular had the reputation of walking as much as flying, being given particularly hairy, major and critical targets, because using him would guarantee that they would be obliterated, yet invariably, either enemy fire or flying debris would nail his helicopter. That pattern is consistent with hypomania, which can go on for many months at a time. I'm not saying the pilot referred to was ailing from anything, just that a hypomanic could very well function that way. With enough self-discipline a hypomanic can be hyperfunctional.
AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan's King Abdullah II fired his government Tuesday in the wake of street protests and asked an ex-prime minister to form a new Cabinet, ordering him to launch immediate political reforms.
The dismissal follows several large protests across Jordan-- inspired by similar demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt -- calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Samir Rifai, who is blamed for a rise in fuel and food prices and slowed political reforms.
A Royal Palace statement said Abdullah accepted Rifai's resignation tendered earlier Tuesday.
The king named Marouf al-Bakhit as his prime minister-designate, instructing him to "undertake quick and tangible steps for real political reforms, which reflect our vision for comprehensive modernization and development in Jordan," the palace statement said.
Al-Bakhit previously served as Jordan's premier from 2005-2007.
The king also stressed that economic reform was a "necessity to provide a better life for our people, but we won't be able to attain that without real political reforms, which must increase popular participation in the decision-making." Ooohhh... shit. Things are really about to get interesting. He can smell the meat cooking from Cairo...
The Southern Command is preparing for an increase in anti-tank missile attacks against patrols near the Gaza Strip after the IDF last week completed the deployment of Merkava Mk. 4 tanks equipped with Rafael Advanced Defense SystemsÂ’s Trophy active-protection system.
Just a routine deployment, of course...
The Trophy was deployed together with Battalion 9 of the 401st Armored Brigade, which took up positions near Gaza last week, about a month after Hamas fired a Russian-made Kornet antitank missile at a Merkava. The missile penetrated the tank but none of the crew was injured.
On Tuesday, an explosion took place next to an IDF patrol near the Kissufim crossing into Gaza. The military is investigating whether it was an anti-tank missile or a roadside bomb. No one was injured.
The Trophy system creates a hemispheric protected zone around armored vehicles such as the Merkava tank, which operated prominently in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Using an advanced radar, the system is designed to detect and track a threat, normally an anti-tank missile, before intercepting it with a projectile.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
IDF MBTS IN GAZA
versus
* RENSE > EGYPT BURNS, ISRAEL WANTS THE SINAI, MUBARAK FIGHTS [deserved] DEATH.
You can be many things, Benji, but 'shocked' isn't one of them. You knew Bambi could sell out anyone given your own dealings with the man. But the events in Egypt the past week have more to do with ordinary people finally becoming tired of being scared and less to do with Bambi, no matter how important he thinks he is.
If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday.
Not Bibi, but Israeli op-ed writers, many of whom take a New York Times view of the universe.
Political commentators expressed shock at how the United States as well as its major European allies appeared to be ready to dump a staunch strategic ally of three decades, simply to conform to the current ideology of political correctness.
Or maybe we realize it's Hosni's time. He had a good run, helped us out, but the average Egyptian man and woman on the streets got tired of being oppressed. Wonder why? So they're rioting and Hosni's going to go. That evil men like ElBaradei and the Muslim Brotherhood wait in the wings hasn't occurred to these people, and by the time it does it will be too late.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told ministers of the Jewish state to make no comment on the political cliffhanger in Cairo, to avoid inflaming an already explosive situation. But Israel's President Shimon Peres is not a minister.
"We always have had and still have great respect for President Mubarak," he said on Monday. He then switched to the past tense. "I don't say everything that he did was right, but he did one thing which all of us are thankful to him for: he kept the peace in the Middle East."
Newspaper columnists were far more blunt.
One comment by Aviad Pohoryles in the daily Maariv was entitled "A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam." It accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks. Who is advising them, he asked, "to fuel the mob raging in the streets of Egypt and to demand the head of the person who five minutes ago was the bold ally of the president ... an almost lone voice of sanity in a Middle East?"
"The politically correct diplomacy of American presidents throughout the generations ... is painfully naive."
They don't seem to like President Obama or Secretary of State Clinton. So much for the world loving us once President Obama became America's public face.
Netanyahu instructed Israeli ambassadors in a dozen key capitals over the weekend to impress on host governments that Egypt's stability is paramount, official sources said.
"Jordan and Saudi Arabia see the reactions in the West, how everyone is abandoning Mubarak, and this will have very serious implications," Haaretz daily quoted one official as saying.
Egypt, Israel's most powerful neighbor, was the first Arab country to make peace with the Jewish state, in 1979. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed the treaty, was assassinated two years later by an Egyptian fanatic.
It took another 13 years before King Hussein of Jordan broke Arab ranks to made a second peace with the Israelis. That treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated one year later, in 1995, by an Israeli fanatic.
There have been no peace treaties since. Lebanon and Syria are still technically at war with Israel. Conservative Gulf Arab regimes have failed to advance their peace ideas. A hostile Iran has greatly increased its influence in the Middle East conflict.
"The question is, do we think Obama is reliable or not," said an Israeli official, who declined to be named. "Right now it doesn't look so. That is a question resonating across the region not just in Israel."
You didn't really need Egypt to see that Bambi hasn't a clue, did you?
Writing in Haaretz, Ari Shavit said Obama had betrayed "a moderate Egyptian president who remained loyal to the United States, promoted stability and encouraged moderation."
Again, Bambi may not have done very much to incite this. Hosni's at least as good as any thug in pushing Obama off. The difference here is that people reached a tipping point. It's peculiar how it happens sometimes. Discontent and unhappiness can bubble under the surface for years, even decades, and then something sets it off. Like police officers shooting a young man in a provincial town in Tunisia. All of a sudden, kaboom.
To win popular Arab opinion, Obama was risking America's status as a superpower and reliable ally.
"Throughout Asia, Africa and South America, leaders are now looking at what is going on between Washington and Cairo. Everyone grasps the message: "America's word is worthless ... America has lost it."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"The question is, do we think Obama is reliable or not," said an Israeli official, who declined to be named. "Right now it doesn't look so. That is a question resonating across the region not just in Israel."
#2
About the only entity not thrown under the bus yet are his union connections and power base. However, in the end, even Mao had to turn on his Red Guard.
Posted by: Martini ||
02/01/2011 11:38 Comments ||
Top||
#5
During Carter it wasn't just Iran. The Soviets smelled weakness and supported trouble in Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, Ethipia, Somalia, Afganistan, Nicaragua and El Salvidor. 79 was a big year.
#6
Rjschwarz, how about a world war within 5 years?
It's a slo-mo trainwreck. One can see it coming, but because of the sheer mass of its kinetic energy, nothing anyone can do.
[Ennahar] Glued to their computers and mobile phones, Paleostinian students live on the uprising in Egypt, where they bet on the fall of the regime, after Tunisia, assisting for once as spectators the convulsions of the Arab world.
"It's good that the people of Egypt expresses its determination to achieve what was accomplished by the Tunisian people," said a student, Mohammad Taha, installed in a cafe in Ramallah, the Paleostinian Authority headquarters in the West Bank.
"What is happening now in Arab countries is natural, the Arab peoples are rising after decades of oppression and repression by dictatorial governments," said Mohammad Mourrar, 20, a student at Bir Zeit University, for whom the Algerian government is next on the list.
Most students of Bir Zeit deem the awakening of the Arab people occurs much later.
"The Arab leaders do not simply cling to their seats, but they try to transmit more power to their children, which is the strongest evidence of the deprivation of the right of peoples to decide their fate", said Shadi Sadr, a communications student.
Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak is reportedly preparing his son Gamal to succeed him, the image of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad succeeded by his son Bashar in 2000.
The uprisings in the Arab world" are the best proof that people are not stupid and it is not logical that the presidents of some states remain in power for more than 20 or 30 years without any change and getting 99, 99% of the votes," noted one student, Nuwar Nazzal.
"Is it conceivable that the masses of demonstrators in the streets today represent only 0.01% who did not vote for them?" She adds.
Jokes are flourishing in the Paleostinian population teetering on the Arab regimes.
One of them, as a game, proposes to nominate the Arab leader the most worthy of winning a one way ticket to Soddy Arabia where the deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali sought refuge.
Another introduced Mr. Ben Ali calling a music show on the radio to dedicate to Mubarak a tube called "I'll wait for you."
But the Paleostinian Authority, closely linked to the Egyptian regime, both for negotiations with Israel and efforts of reconciliation with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, did not hear it that way.
President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday called the Egyptian head of state to express his solidarity with Egypt and his commitment to its security and stability," said a statement from Abbas' office.
Sunday, Paleostinian police dispersed a rally of several dozen people outside the Egyptian embassy in Ramallah.
Human Rights Watch denounced the intervention in a statement, adding that "security forces of the Paleostinian Authority had repeatedly called one of the organizers and ordered him to remove information about the event he had created on Facebook".
Although they consider their situation as radically different from that of other Arabs because of the Israeli occupation, Paleostinian youths also discuss the role played by the websites to mobilize the population.
"What has the most favored the outbreak of the revolution in Egypt and Tunisia, are Facebook and Twitter," said Iba Ftiha, "these social networks have enabled young people to organize themselves far from the eyes of authorities."
But for Ammoun al-Sheikh, another student, "it is only the instrument and not the engine of the revolution, otherwise the youth would not have continued to protest after they were restrained" by the authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Now if only can get these youths to express their anger and start an uprising against the truly oppressive governments of Gaza, Syria and Iran.
But of course, 0bama will do all he can to prevent that from happening
[Straits Times] SEVEN accused Somali pirates, captured by Malaysian forces in a raid to free a hijacked oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden, arrived on Monday in Malaysia for possible prosecution.
The seven, dressed in orange detention suits and handcuffed behind their backs, arrived at Port Klang south of Kuala Lumpur and were taken under heavy security to a cop shoppe and then a hospital, an AFP news hound saw.
Transported in a convoy of a dozen vehicles, they spent an hour undergoing medical checks as some 50 police with automatic weapons stood guard outside the hospital's emergency department.
Authorities had said the pirates would arrive in Malaysia on board the rescued tanker MT Bunga Laurel, which along with its crew of 23 was seized on January 20 in the Gulf of Aden, the centre of Somalia's piracy crisis.
The chemical tanker was headed to Singapore with a cargo of lubricating oil worth more than US$10 million (S$13 million) when bandidos armed with AK-47 assault rifles boarded and took control of the ship.
Malaysian naval commandos from a vessel protecting shipping in the area, along with a navy attack helicopter, responded to a distress call and captured the pirates after a brief firefight.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
[An Nahar] Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem ... Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... stressed on Monday that Leb is now powerful than it has ever been, as it has it has stood strong before "the winds of U.S. hegemony".
Uh huh. There's that alternate reality thingie, again.
He added that Israel's threats against Leb have also weakened, emphasizing the Resistance's That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... readiness to confront all challenges.
Addressing Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati's mission to form a new government, Qassem stated: "Hizbullah supports the participation of all sides without exception."
"Miqati's appointment was the choice of the parliamentary and popular majority that is seeking to save Leb and protect it from external dangers, especially the Zionist one," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[Iran Press TV] A top Iranian military official warns extra-regional forces that their movement in the Persian Gulf is closely monitored by the country's naval forces.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said Monday that the Iranian Navy is stationed in the region and controls the passage of warships.
"The arrival of American, British, French and Russian warships to the Persian Gulf has for years been a routine [matter] and shows their greed for our oil resources," he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
Reminding that the Persian Gulf is considered Iran's southern coast, Firouzabadi said that Iran probes every ship, which intends to sail in these waters, and only allows them passage after documenting their details.
"The Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran does not need the presence of extra-regional countries nor their friendship and has always said that the absence of the extra-regional countries will ensure the security of the Persian Gulf," he concluded.
There are currently over 31 warships docked in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, nineteen of which belong to the United States.
The nuclear-powered super carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group are the two well-known US warships in the region.
Last year, the Iranian Navy unveiled its first domestically-manufactured destroyer, Jamaran, in the waters of the Persian Gulf. The 1,420-ton destroyer, equipped with a variety of anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles, is patrolling the southern waters of the Persian Gulf.
In September, top military adviser to Islamic theocracy'>Iran's Fearless Leader, the doddering but still vicious Ali Khamenei, Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, said US warships in the Persian Gulf waters are within the reach of the country's defense systems. He said that Iran's 2,000-kilometer-long coastal strip along the Persian Gulf allows the country to target any hostile navel activity in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Last year, the Iranian Navy unveiled its first domestically-manufactured destroyer, Jamaran, in the waters of the Persian Gulf. The 1,420-ton destroyer, equipped with a variety of anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles, is patrolling the southern waters of the Persian Gulf.
Ummm, yeah, about that....
Here's a pic of the Iranian missile frigate (and that's being generous; it's more properly a corvette) Jamaran:
...And here's a picture of the design they stole, the RN's Type 21 Frigate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Amazon_(F169)
Since Amazon herself went to the Pakistanis in '93, it's more than possible the Iranians had full access to complete blueprints for the Type 21s. In other words, the Iranians have succeeded in building a brand new, 40 year old warship.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/01/2011 0:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The 1,420-ton destroyer... is patrolling the southern waters of the Persian Gulf.
[Iran Press TV] Leader of Leb's Progressive Socialist Party Walid Wally Jumblat ... who's been on every side in Leb at least four times... says his new National Struggle Front will support Hezbullies resistance movement.
"The National Struggle Front [in the parliament] has the same principles, which are based on the history of the party and the struggle for Arabism," Jumblatt said.
"Now the [policy of the] party is in line with [the policies of] Syria and the Resistance," That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... he added.
He made the remarks at the first extraordinary general assembly of the bloc, after the split of his Democratic Gathering bloc in the parliament, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday.
The Democratic Gathering bloc split up when four politicians formerly affiliated with Jumblatt decided to side with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri while the Druze leader and seven politicians loyal to him voted for opposition candidate Najib Miqati for the position of premiership.
The division prompted Jumblatt to re-establish his National Struggle Front.
The recent move tilted the balance of power in Leb in favor of the Lebanese opposition led by Hezbullies and came as a shock to the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... th alliance led by Saad Hariri.
The move as indicated by Jumblatt's Press Secretary Ramy Rayis was due to the recent release of videos in which former Prime Minister Saad Hariri was holding talks with one of the false witnesses who gave fake testimony in the case of the liquidation of his father and the former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Special Tribunal for Leb probed the liquidation of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri who was killed on February 14, 2005 in a massive car boomkaboom in capital Beirut.
Saad Hariri's government collapsed earlier this month after 11 Hezbullies ministers and their allies resigned over tensions stemming from the tribunal.
According to unconfirmed reports, the US-backed tribunal is likely to issue an indictment against some Hezbullies members.
The popular Lebanese Resistance Movement has vehemently denied involvement in the liquidation, denouncing STL as an Israeli-American plot trying to sow discord in the country.
Leb's President Michel Suleiman appointed Miqati as prime minister designate on Tuesday after 68 out of the 125 members of parliament expressed support for him.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... who's been on every side in Leb at least four times... accused former Premier Fouad Saniora of hoping for the failure of Saad Hariri as prime minister so that he returns to the premiership.
In an interview with the Qatari al-Watan daily on Monday, Jumblat said: "If I was Sheikh Saad I would have participated in Najib Miqati's government without hesitation."
Al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... bloc leader Saniora "hopes (to see) Hariri failing so that he returns to the premiership," the Druze leader said without naming him.
When asked about Hariri's remarks that he was betrayed by his former allies who named Miqati as premier, Jumblat told al-Watan: "Betrayal and political liquidation are emotional words."
Hariri "is out of the government today but could return tomorrow. This is the political game in democratic systems," Jumblat said. "The best thing for him is to learn the lessons of geopolitics. Geopolitics means (to have) special ties with Syria based on the Taef accord and (to consider) Israel the enemy."
The PSP leader reiterated that he named Miqati as premier when he saw that "the door to the Syrian-Saudi settlement's success had been shut."
He stressed that Damascus was not interfering in the cabinet formation process. "Our interests lie in having good relations with Syria. Saad Hariri had a historic chance to strike a personal deal and a political trust deal with President Bashar (Assad) when he went to Damascus but I don't know why he didn't succeed."
Asked why he stopped backing the international tribunal, Jumblat said: "The court could be used to attack Lebanese unity and civil peace. Eventually, such tribunals could be seen as seeking justice but in reality they would be after political gains."
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... addressing the developments in Egypt, the MP commented in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: "The Egyptian people have taken their stand and geriatric President Hosni Mubarak has no choice but to listen to their demands and calmly leave with the symbols of his regime."
Furthermore, he questioned the "silliness" demonstrated by some western observers and analysts who fear that the substitute to the current Egyptian regime is an Islamist one.
"The Egyptian revolution can also do without (U.S. Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... 's enlightened advice seeing as it wasn't waiting for the West's approval to be launched, which explains the American and French confusion with dealing with the revolution," he noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
[Ma'an] The Middle East is diseased with stagnation and its leaders must "upgrade" themselves and their societies to keep up with the demands of their people, Syrian President Bashir Al-Assad said Monday. Did someone just hear a methane bubble pop in the swamp of Middle Eastern dictatorship?
"We have took keep up with this change, as a state and institutions," said Assad in a rare interview with the Wall Street Journal newspaper as protests in Egypt entered their seventh day.
"You have to upgrade yourself with the upgrading of the society. This is the most important headline."
Many analysts see Syria -- "in the middle of the Middle East," in Assad's words -- as a potential bell-weather for how other Arab leaders will respond to demands for change.
"Real reform is about how to open up society and how to start dialogue," said Assad, who took power in July 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who himself ruled Syria for three decades.
Decades of political and economic stagnation, ideologically weak leaders, foreign interventions and war have driven the discontent that went kaboom! in the streets of Tunisia and Egypt, he said.
"If you have stagnant water, you will have pollution and microbes, and because you have had this stagnation for decades ... we were plagued with microbes," said Assad, 45, drawing metaphors from his background in medicine.
"So what you have been seeing in this region is a kind of disease. That is how we see it."
This month's uprising in Tunisia inspired the ongoing revolt in Egypt, analysts say, prompting speculation that the Arab world is on the threshold of a period of greater democracy.
"It is a new era," said Assad, "but it did not start now. It started with the Iranian revolution. What is new is that it is happening inside independent countries in the Arab world."
The Syrian leader refused to address events in Tunisia and Egypt directly, saying it was too early to judge their impact on the region, but he said the situation in his own country was stable.
"Syria is stable although it has more difficult conditions than Egypt, which enjoys financial support from the United States while Syria is under embargo by most countries of the world," he said.
Sketching out his vision in Syria, Assad said 2011 would see political reforms geared towards municipal elections, as well as a new media law and relaxed licensing requirements for non-governmental organizations.
"You cannot have a democracy that is built on the moods of self-interested people," said Assad. "So the beginning is dialogue and the institutions."
He said Arab societies had become more closed-minded since the 1980s, leading to extremism and less development and openness. The challenge for leaders was how to open societies and build up institutions.
"If you didn't see the need of reform before what happened in Egypt and Tunisia, it's too late to do any reform," he said, cautioning however against rushing through reforms in response to events in those two countries.
When he took power, Assad hinted in his inaugural speech at a new era of openess and reform for Syria, but the so-called "Damascus Spring" by most accounts was brief.
According to Human Rights Watch, Syria has nabbed political and human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... activists, restricted freedom of expression, repressed its Kurdish minority and held people incommunicado for long periods, often torturing them.
Assad has put economic reforms at the top of his agenda, but he said Western embargoes were hurting Syria -- still in a state of war with Israel -- at a time when it needs technology to upgrade its institutions and enhance its economy.
"Today is better than six years ago, but it is not the optimal situation," the president said. "They tell you move faster and at the same time they impose an embargo."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Did someone just hear a methane bubble pop in the swamp of Middle Eastern dictatorship?
As they say, it is easiest to ride a horse in the direction it is going. The trick, of course, is to not get run over in the ensuing stampede.
#2
RENSE > {Reuters] IFF EGYPT FALLS, SYRIA MUST FOLLOW. IIUC, Syria must be destabilized + militarily occupied ASAP in order for the US-WEST/NATO to save the ME from being dominated or controlled by Iran + Mullahs???
ARTIC = SYRIA MUST BE SEEN AS A "CLEAR + PRESENT DANGER" TO PEACE, + NO LONGER AS A COUNTRY HELPING TO STABILIZE THE ME REGION.
IIUC AGAIN, ARTIC = its Author recognizes the likelihood that Israel risks becoming de facto surrounded by HOSTILE, PRO-ISLAMIST = PRO-IRAN, NUCLEAR-ARMED? MUSLIM GOVTS-STATES, + that POST-JASMINE the region may in time become an "IRANIAN LAKE" = SPHERE OF INFLUENCE/EMPIRE???
Ironically, a US-led INVASION OF SYRIA also has the effect of "SAVING SYRIA FOR SYRIANS", NOT IRAN.
I see shades of KIMMIE'S LOGIC ala INDUCING A SECOND KOREAN WAR in NE ASIA in order to "SAVE NORTH KOREA FOR NORTH KOREANS/KOREANS" from CHINESE MILITARY OR ECON TAKEOVER DUE TO WAR, PRO-CHINA FREE TRADE.
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.
[Tolo News] The special tribunal to address Afghan parliamentary poll disputes says it will seal ballot boxes in 34 provinces.
Washington — The Obama administration said for the first time that it supports a role for groups such as the 
[Jerusalem Post] The director of the US Jewish foreign policy umbrella called Mohammed ElBaradei, the opposition leader emerging from the Egyptian ferment, a "stooge of Iran."
[Ma'an] Former US president 
Doku 
AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan's King Abdullah II fired his government Tuesday in the wake of street protests and asked an ex-prime minister to form a new Cabinet, ordering him to launch immediate political reforms.
Somali pirates
[An Nahar] Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh 
[Iran Press TV] Leader of 
[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader 
[Ma'an] The Middle East is diseased with stagnation and its leaders must "upgrade" themselves and their societies to keep up with the demands of their people, Syrian President Bashir Al-Assad said Monday.
