[Libya Herald] The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... says she is happy with the trial of Libya's former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... -- despite admitting she has no information on how it is being conducted.
UN trial monitors fled the city last summer at the start of Libya's civil war, and since then the ICC has had little idea what is taking place.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has told Senussi's ICC-appointed lawyers in London there is no reason to review The Hague's original decision to let Libya hold the trial.
"Neither the deteriorating security situation in Libya, nor the apparent change in power in Tripoli, have had a detrimental impact on the trial process," her office said in a statement,
Two years ago, the ICC gave Libya permission to try Senussi, which was conditional on him having a fair trial.
The case has been one of the most controversial in the ICC's short history.
In 2011 the UN Security Council ordered the ICC to investigate war crimes in Libya, and by June it had indicted Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... , his son Saif Al-Islam and Senussi for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Senussi, Qadaffy's chief enforcer and blamed by many Libyans for decades of repression, was enjugged You have the right to remain silent... in 2012 in Mauritania and extradited to Libya.
Saif was captured by Zintan militia, who refused to hand him over to Tripoli authorities.
Later in 2012, Melinda Taylor, Saif's ICC appointed lawyer, was held by the Zintan militia for several weeks when she tried to visit him in the mountain town.
In 2013, ICC judges ruled that because Saif was being held by a militia, Libya could not guarantee a fair trial. But it agreed that Libya could hold the trial of Senussi, handing jurisdiction from The Hague to Tripoli.
Senussi's trial began in April last year in Tripoli amid much confusion.
Libya refused to allow access to the public or broadcast proceedings, and a monitor from Human Rights Watch ... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... was denied entry.
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04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The chief of Warshefana's council of elders tonight angrily denied reports that Warsefana had made a truce with Zawia and Janzour.
Mohammed Tantoush issued a statement saying that reports of a meeting with elders from the two towns were "completely false". There had been no such encounters in recent days and there was no truce, he said. Indeed, he added, festivities between the Warshefana units of the Libyan Army and Libya Dawn ...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar... militias were continuing.
It had been widely reported on social media that an immediate ceasefire had been agreed and that all sides would start exchanging prisoners, both civilians picked up at roadblocks and captured fighters. The deal was also supposed to allow for humanitarian aid to reach Warshefana and towns in the Jebel Nafusa.
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04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Operation Dignity has rejected an invitation from UN Special Envoy Bernardino Leon to join in the military platform of the Dialogue process. It says it is part of the regular army, not a militia, and that it takes its instructions only from the General Staff and the had of the armed forces.
It complained that Leon was treating it as just another militia. It did not negotiate or get involved in talks with militias, a front man said on Karama TV.
Separately, both Wanis Bukhamada, the head of Saiqa Special Forces ...Libya's elite army unit, insofar as they have one, formed from a mixture of paratroopers and commandos. The group emerged from a militia with the same name in 2010. It now numbers a few thousand and reports to the Ministry of Defence. It deployed in Benghazi in an attempt to control the carnage. As a result, it has been attacked and several of its officers murdered. The force is popular in Benghazi for its stance against Ansar al-Sharia group... and Jamal Al-Zahawi, head of 21 Brigade (Shuhada Al-Zawia Brigade) have said that the political dialogue "is dead". Zahawi is reported saying that the "only dialogue in Benghazi is with weapons" while Fadel Al-Hassi, the head of Saiqa's Investigations Unit, reports Bukhamada saying the UN process is finished and that the army is not going to be part of it.
Leon is due to brief the UN Security Council today on the situation in Libya. In its statement, the Dignity Operations Room also called on him to tell the UN to support it in the fight against terrorism and to lift the arms embargo.
The military statements follow the Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... -based General National Congress' rejection of the latest draft proposal from the Dialogue.
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04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] An Egyptian court Wednesday tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! 69 persons for life for torching a church near Cairo in August 2013, as anger flared over a crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohammad Mursi.
The Coptic church was set on fire and a cop shoppe was attacked when violence erupted in the town of Kerdasa on August 14 that year, after hundreds of Mursi supporters died in a crackdown on two protest camps in the capital the same day.
The court also sentenced two minors to 10 years in jail in the same case. A life term in Egypt amounts to 25 years in jail.
The defendants were found guilty of "setting the church on fire, attempting to murder civilians and possessing illegal weapons," a judicial official said.
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04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Sure, until the jail break when a guard lets them out.
[ABC.NET.AU] Nigeria is seeking to identify nearly 300 women and girls rescued from Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , raising hopes they may include schoolgirls seized in a high-profile kidnapping last year.
The army had appeared to rule out any of them being from the north-eastern town of Chibok, where more than 200 girls were snatched from their dormitories on April 14, prompting global outrage.
But the country's defence front man urged caution, saying it was too early to tell and all those released from camps in the hard boys' Sambisa Forest stronghold were still being screened.
Chibok elders reacted angrily to the latest announcement, which comes after the military previously said some of the girls had been released, only to backtrack.
"It is disheartening for our hopes to be dashed," said Enoch Mark, whose daughter and niece are among the 219 teenagers still being held by the Islamists.
"When we heard of the rescue we thought it was our girls.
"Parents kept contacting one another, hoping to get confirmation that their daughters were the ones rescued.
"However it's not surprising to me that our hopes have been dashed. This has happened several times.
"The government has lied a few times. To us, the government no longer has credibility."
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04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] 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... is providing military training for hundreds of Yemeni rustics to fight the Iranian-allied Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militia, sources familiar with the matter told Rooters.
A Saudi-led alliance has been bombing the group from the air for over a month, but it remains Yemen's dominant force.
The kingdom announced last week it would rein in its strikes to give aid and reconciliation efforts more space, but the warring sides have made no visible progress toward talks.
"You cannot win a war against the Houthis from the air - you need to send ground forces in, but now there's a programme to train tribal fighters on the border," said a Doha-based military source familiar with the matter.
This week 300 tribal fighters trained in Saudi Arabia were deployed back to their home area in the Sirwah district of central Marib province to fight the Houthis and managed to push the militia back, a Yemeni official source told Rooters.
A Saudi defence source said there was a plan to bolster Yemeni forces in the battles raging across the country because locals knew the terrain better than Saudis.
"The problem is the number of tribal fighters being trained is very small and not enough," said the Yemeni source who declined to be named, adding that the training includes giving the fighters light weapons and tactical advice.
Adversary
Asked about the training, Saudi Arabia's coalition front man, Brigadier Ahmed Asseri, told Rooters he could not comment on operations that were still underway, but did not deny that such training was taking place.
"We always comment on what is achieved. We never comment on something in the future. We don't want to put the security and safety of any one of the soldiers in danger."
"We always confirm that we are helping the resistance and the popular groups, the loyal army ... but we cannot go into details on where, how, how much," he said.
Uniting forces
In an attempt to cobble together a united tribal front against the Houthis, Saudi Arabia has invited heads of tribes for a meeting in Riyadh, Yemeni sources told Rooters.
Much of the armed opposition to the Houthi advance has been from local southern fighters, many of whom resent the north and seek secession.
"Saudi Arabia wants to unite tribal leaders in this meeting but the feeling is that there's not much hope for that," said a Yemeni source currently in Riyadh.
Yemen's prime minister and newly appointed vice president Khaled Bahah travelled from Riyadh to Doha on Monday to discuss ways of re-establishing the authority of Yemen's government in exile, sources familiar with the matter said.
One of the options currently under discussion with Gulf states is how to remove al Qaeda elements from the city of Seyoun in the Hadramawt region, which could be a possible base for the government's administration.
"There's a growing sense among everyone that if the government officials stay outside of Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... this in itself will be a gain for the Houthis," said a Yemeni source.
So far the fighting and air strikes have killed more than 1,000 people, including an estimated 551 civilians since the bombings started on March 26, the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... said on Friday. Its children's agency UNICEF said at least 115 children were among the dead.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Yemen's Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rulers have launched an investigation against dozens of public figures, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakul Karman, state news agency Saba said late on Tuesday, following a complaint that could amount to treason.
Saba said a non-governmental organization had filed a complaint with the public prosecutor claiming that 39 prominent figures, including many living in exile, had compromised the country's independence, unity and territorial integrity.
"The first attorney in the office of the public prosecutor has ordered an investigation into an urgent complaint of crimes that impact the independence of the Republic of Yemen, its unity and the safety of its territory," Saba said.
The organization, identified as the Legal Centre for Rights and Development, suggested on its Facebook page that the complaint was linked to Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen, citing attacks on private and public transportation, storage houses and public facilities.
The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... said last week an estimated 551 civilians, including 31 women and at least 115 children, had been killed since Saudi-led military operations began in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... on March 26.
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... says the campaign it leads was aimed at shoring up President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against the Iranian-allied Houthi group and was being carefully conducted to avoid civilian casualties.
Karman, a mother of three who became a figure of symbolic importance in the 2011 Yemeni uprising, was the first Arab woman and second Moslem woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Apart from her, the list included President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's former chief of staff, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, two brothers who are leaders of the Hashed tribal federation, Hussein and Hameed al-Ahmar, and Hamoud Munassar, chief correspondent for the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television.
The list also included General Ali Mohsen, the commander of the First Armoured Brigade who broke ranks with the then-President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... during 2011 protests against his 33 years in office and sided with demonstrators.
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04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] The Global Research quoted European diplomatic sources as saying on Sunday that, almost 4,000 Saudi forces fled their border bases in anticipation of Riyadh's order for launching a ground assault on Yemen.
"The intel gathered by the western intelligence agencies showed that the Saudi military forces have fled their bases, military centers and bordering checkpoints near Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... in groups," diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by Iraq's Arabic-language Nahrain Net news website.
Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have fled the army battalions and the National Guard, accordiing to the Global Research.
Experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong morale to launch a ground invasion of Yemen and such an attack would be considered as a suicide for 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... .
Media reports mentioned that European intelligence services assert that Saudi does not have a real army and infantry troops to face the Yemeni troops and tribes as well as the Houthis in case Riyadh decide to launch a ground invasion.
The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... considered that the Saudi campaign failed to attain any considerable achievement in Yemen, noting that the battlefield situation have not remarkably changed since the beginning of the Aggression on March 26.
Yemen has been since March 26 under brutal aggression by Saudi-US coalition. Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to Yemen's runaway president Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi who is a close ally to Saudi Arabia.
On April 21, Saudi Arabia declared the end of the aggression, dubbed "Decisive Strom". However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... the Saudi-led warplanes are still conducting Arclight airstrikes on several areas across Yemen.
More than 2,800 people were martyred by the Saudi aggression, most of them are civilians. Thousands more were maimed.
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04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
It appears that KSA has a parade ground army with lots of nifty uniforms and pretty equipment. Unfortunately they are a bunch of hot house pussies that don't have any guts to fight.
#5
I'm not sure, but I have to wonder if Al Manar is Hizb'allah's newspaper, echoing the Iran party line. An Nahar didn't have any reports on Saudi desertions. If so, the above report may or may not be true.
[CNN] With the announcement Interior Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef becomes next in line to the Saudi throne, and the King's own son Defense Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in line after him, 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... 's ruler King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians.... has at a stroke modernized the face of the monarchy.
The question is: In preparing the monarchy for the future, has King Salman modernized the country?
Saudi is typical for the Gulf -- by far the majority of its population is under 30 years old.
But elsewhere in the region, younger leaders are increasingly the norm. Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... is a point in case. The current Emir is just 35 years old, and his father was in his early 60s when he was ousted two years ago.
And yet in Saudi Arabia, since the country's founder, Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, died in 1953, only his sons have been King -- passing the throne brother to brother, resulting an aging monarchy in an evermore youthful region.
Now, the next in line to the throne are from the "next" generation: nephew and son of the King. That is significant and seems in line with Saudi Arabia's changing role in the region.
The Arab Spring of 2011 saw the youthful Qataris get out ahead of bigger neighbor Saudi Arabia, throwing money and influence at a multitude of causes. The Saudis were to a degree caught flat-footed, slow to respond to regional turmoil and protect their interests.
But over the past couple of years the last King -- King Abdullah -- ramped up defense and security spending, setting the stage for a more muscular foreign policy.
Under the new King and his two Crown Princes, Saudi Arabia has flexed that muscle in Yemen, with as many as 100 bombing sorties a day for over a month hitting Houthis and army units loyal to Yemen's ousted President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... .
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali al Khamenei was quick to criticize, targeting, what else, but age: "Despite disputes, Saudis used to display composure with us, but now inexperienced youngsters have come to power and replaced composure with barbarism."
That was early April before the recent reshuffle. So, far from recoiling at sharp barbs over youth, the Saudis seem to wear the criticism as a badge of honor.
In a country where change happens so slowly, these new appointments, if not altogether unexpected, are a sign of a more outward looking future.
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04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[CNN] North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... is continuing to rule with an iron fist, having ordered the execution of about 15 bigwigs so far this year, according to an assessment by South Korean intelligence agents, a politician who attended a closed briefing said.
Shin Kyung-min, a politician with the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, told a handful of news hounds that he had been given the information by the South Korean National Intelligence Service.
CNN cannot independently confirm the executions. The nature of the intelligence supporting the National Intelligence Service allegations was also not immediately clear. North Korea is one of the most closed societies in the world.
North Korea's Kim Jong-Un ordered the execution of 15 bigwigs this year, including several who complained about the young leader's policies, South Korea's intelligence agency said Wednesday.
Those executed included two vice minister-level officials, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing politicians who attended a briefing by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
Both were punished for opposing or complaining about Kim's directives, the politicians said, adding a vice forestry minister was executed for complaining about Kim's forestation plan.
As well as the 15 bigwigs, the NIS said four members of North Korea's Unhasu Orchestra, with which Kim's wife, Ri Sol-Ju, had once been a singer, were executed in March.
The NIS said they were executed by firing squad on charges of spying.
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04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... announced Wednesday that La Belle France would increase its defence budget by close to four billion euros over four years, in response to myrmidon threats after the Gay Paree jihadist attacks.
He also said that military patrols at sensitive sites nationwide that were set up after the January attacks would be made permanent, with a 7,000-strong force dedicated to internal security.
The announcements came nearly four months after jihadists went on a three-day killing spree in Gay Paree, leaving 17 people dead and putting La Belle France and neighbouring European countries on high alert.
Speaking after calling a defence council, Hollande said the decisions were taken to ensure La Belle France's internal security but also the safety of military forces currently engaged in operations abroad, such as in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... or in the Central African Republic.
"We have the duty to support people who may come under threat, but we also defend our own security," he told news hounds.
Paris -- A 15-year-old French Muslim girl has missed school for two days this month in a dispute over her long black skirt, seen as going against France’s law guaranteeing secularism.
A popular Twitter hashtag #jeportemajupecommejeveux (I wear my skirt as I like) popped up on Wednesday after the dispute was made public in a local newspaper in Charleville-Mezieres, in northeast France.
The region’s Academic Services said it backed the decision, stressing that the student was not excluded from school but was asked to change her clothes. School officials want a dialogue with the family. Academic Services said the student insisted on the religious symbolism of her long skirt — contravening the 2004 law banning headscarves and other “ostentatious” religious symbols.
Not sure this is anything other than the traditional French opposition to anything religious in the public space, particularly schools.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[AA.TR] French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... 's top cartoonist Renald Luzier said on Wednesday that he will no longer draw any cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.
The cartoonist, known as Luz, told French magazine Les Inrockuptibles that he is no longer interested in drawing cartoons that depict Prophet Muhammad.
"I will no longer draw the figure of Muhammad," Luz said. "It no longer interests me."
"I will not spend my lifetime drawing them," he added.
The magazine with a history of publishing derogatory depictions of Prophet Muhammad made headlines in January when a deadly attack targeted its Gay Paree headquarters killing 12 people, including its editor and a number of prominent cartoonists.
Following the attack, Luz drew Charlie Hebdo's front cover picture showing a cartoon resembling Prophet Muhammad holding a "Je Suis Charlie" (I Am Charlie) sign.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
So, if Christians started offing some journalists for offense maybe their war of hate will soften?
Notice the lede: it's not about a bad deal with Iran, it's about a GOP "threat". But this is the Guardian so you expect this just as you would from the New York Times...
A bill that would allow Congress to review the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran has fallen victim to presidential politics, as a trio of Republican senators seeking the White House have seized on the debate as a messaging opportunity for their foreign policy agendas.
Next best thing to threatening Iran itself...
The Florida senator Marco Rubio, who launched his presidential campaign earlier this month, is leading the pack with seven amendments to the Iran sanctions bill. The most contentious would force Iran to recognize Israel’s right to exist, a measure that the Iran bill’s proponents have warned could scuttle both the compromise in the Senate and the Obama administration’s broader negotiations.
Excellent. In addition to being a candidate Mr. Rubio is a Senator. He's entitled to step up in the Senate, and it's refreshing to see someone on the right do this with both candor and vigor...
But Rubio, who has cast himself as the GOP’s most hawkish candidate in 2016, showed no signs of backing down on Wednesday in a fiery speech demanding a vote on his amendments. Rubio strongly disputed that his amendment related to Israel’s right to exist would unravel a historic nuclear deal with Iran.
And if it did, what good was it in the first place?
“Somehow I’ve been told that this is going to box the White House in. If it does, it boxes them in with their own words,” said Rubio, who sits on the Senate foreign relations committee and voted last week in favor of advancing the bill outside of the panel.
The Iran bill, a carefully crafted bipartisan surrender agreement, would provide Congress with the ability to review the nuclear accord and give lawmakers 30 days to pass a resolution of disapproval of any final deal. If US lawmakers passed such a resolution, Barack Obama would be unable to waive some of the congressional sanctions on Iran.
Champ and Harry Reid are counting on being able to filibuster a disapproval in the Senate, so the treaty goes through. I prefer the old-fashioned way of having the Senate vote a treaty by a 2/3 majority.
The Tennessee senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the foreign relations committee, has said the legislation has the 67 votes required to override a presidential veto in its current form. As a result, both Corker and Republican leaders have urged Rubio and Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul – also 2016 candidates – to withhold so-called “poison pill” amendments that would revive a veto threat from the White House.
Cruz filed an amendment last week that would require congressional approval of any Iranian nuclear deal before sanctions relief can occur – essentially granting lawmakers an up or down vote on a final agreement. Paul has not offered any amendments to the Iran bill yet, but is eyeing a debate over the National Security Agency’s bulk surveillance program as lawmakers near an end-of-May deadline to renew central components of the USA Patriot Act.
The Obama administration has made clear that if any Republican amendments geared toward upending the deal make their way into the final bill, the president will rescind his support for it.
Most excellent!
“There will be a lot of pretty awful amendments, quite frankly,” Wendy Sherman, a top official at the State Department, said Monday. “The president has said that if the Corker-Cardin legislation stays where it is, he will not veto it. If it becomes something else, then he’ll have to consider his options.”
As many as 60 amendments have been filed, but it’s unclear how many, or which ones, will come to the floor for a vote. The Senate rejected one amendment on Tuesday, offered by the Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson, that would have required any nuclear deal with Tehran to be considered an international treaty.
That would have been awful.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said on Tuesday he expected lawmakers to work with the bill’s sponsors – Corker and Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking member of the foreign relations committee – to schedule votes.
Cardin pushed back against Rubio’s Israel amendment on Wednesday, telling the Florida senator on the floor that the bill already states – at Rubio’s request – that the president “should determine the agreement in no way compromises the commitment of the United States to Israel’s security nor its support for Israel’s right to exist”.
Which he's already done...
But Rubio is seeking public recognition from Iran’s leaders that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, a notion that Obama said this month is “akin to saying that we won’t sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms”.
Which is a great idea stated in those terms...
Rubio’s amendment would put lawmakers in a tricky position, given their strong ties to Israel. Democrats in particular would be pressured to buck the White House and vote for the amendment, despite the concerns raised by the administration.
“I hope that we will be able to move on these amendments. I don’t think they undermine this one bit,” Rubio said on the floor. “It’s about time that this body takes this up.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
That's how non-totalitarian systems work: the opposition uses any excuse to criticize these in power---motivating the later not to screw up too egregiously.
[AnNahar] The U.S. trial of Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev heard witness testimony Wednesday that his elder brother Tamerlan traveled to Dagestan ...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca... a year before the attacks to "get involved in jihad."
Defense lawyers, working to save Dzhokhar from the death penalty after he was convicted of carrying out the 2013 Boston bombings, is portraying his elder brother as the real culprit.
The double bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line killed three people and maimed 264 others on April 15, 2013.
Tamerlan, 26, was rubbed out by police four days after the attacks, leaving Dzhokhar, now 21, to stand trial and face conviction alone.
Dzhokar's using his brother as a speed-bump while trying to escape had nothing to do with the elder jihadi's ultimate condition, of course...
In January 2012, Tamerlan went to Dagestan in southern Russia for six months to make contact with his mother's extended family, the court heard.
He asked for connections to radicals, distant cousin Magomed Kartashov told the FBI in Dagestan, excerpts of which were read out in court.
He "was under the impression that there was jihad on the streets," Kartashov told U.S. Sherlocks in June 2013.
Tamerlan said he had come "with the intention to fight jihad in the forest," his cousin added, explaining that he had little understanding of the realities in Dagestan.
He said his cousin had become radical by listening to online sermons from American-Yemeni holy manAnwar al-Awlaki ... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and Undieboomer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list... , who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... in 2011.
Tamerlan "said he wanted to go and fight in Syria," but "had no knowledge and knew nothing," his cousin said.
Kartashov said he saw Tamerlan around a dozen times during his stay in Russia and that his cousin thought jihad was "mandatory."
"It was not a decision he made yesterday," he said of his motivation.
The defense also told the court that the Russian security services tipped off the FBI in March 2011 and the CIA in September 2011 about Tamerlan and his mother's radicalism.
But a Boston investigation concluded there was no terrorist activity, after questioning the Tsarnaev parents.
#1
But a Boston investigation concluded there was no terrorist activity, after questioning the Tsarnaev parents.
Oh well, if the parents insist they are good lads, we'll just have to go with it. No sense linking the Tsarneaev's to Anwar al-Awlaki or Nidal Hasan's e-mail network. Let's not open that can of worms please. Can't we somehow just take care of this quietly with a drone strike or something ?
By the way, how is Tamerlan's widow doing? Is she still non-cooperative, no book deals right? Great, great! That media thing about her pressure cooker buying spree had me concerned.
[Rudaw] According to Peshmerga commanders in Kirkuk province, an estimated 90 percent of disputed territories are now under the control of Kurdish forces, marking a significant advance in trying to implement article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution.
Following the surrender and departure of Iraq's army from these territories--after the swift takeover of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... myrmidons--Kurdish Peshmerga forces were deployed along the disputed areas to "fill the power vacuum," Kurdish military officials have said.
According to Peshmerga commanders, at least 36 villages--one district and three areas--inhabited by people brought to the region during the "Arabization" campaign of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, have been recaptured from ISIS militias by Kurdish forces in Kirkuk province.
"We took military and security steps to protect the disputed areas... now we are closer than ever to implementing article 140," a Kurdish Peshmerga commander told Rudaw Monday. He added that the Peshmerga expect Kurdish leaders and politicians to take final steps in order to implement the article.
Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution defines disputes areas as territories previously inhabited by Kurds and later "Arabicized" by transferring and settling Arab tribes in the region.
The Constitution requires that Iraqis displaced by "Arabization" be compensated and moved back to their original areas, a process that many Arabs, who have lived in disputed areas for decades, have resisted. Kurds see article 140 as a way to remedy the injustices of "Arabization" policies and strengthen the Kurdistan Region, but the article is among the most contentious in the Constitution.
Earlier this month, the Kurdish Ministry of Peshmerga released a statement and declared that except for some areas, "the entire Kurdish territories outside of the Kurdistan Region were now in the hands of Kurdish forces."
The statement added "the Kurdish troops have no intention of leaving the area" and were "here to stay."
"Basically, all Kurdish villages and localities are now protected by the Peshmerga forces," it continued.
Shakhawan Abdullah, a Kurdish politician and a member of the Iraqi Security Council, announced Monday steps are being taken to return back the farm lands of the disputed areas to their Kurdish owners, adding that "it would be a helpful step in resolving problems within disputed territories."
Rebwar Tanah, a Kurdish politician in the Iraqi Parliament, has also made a similar claim. "As we are in a different situation, Kurdish factions have been taking serious steps to work on article 140 in the Iraqi Parliament."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#2
I respect them more than the arabs,Sunni or Shiite.Give them Ramadi,Fallajuah and Mosul too LOL
Posted by: paul ||
04/30/2015 4:37 Comments ||
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#3
Maybe that's why the Diplomats dont want to help the Kurds: they can, and will fight. In some respects, that's the easy part - now lets see if they can govern.
[AA.TR] The U.K. will continue to support Peshmerga forces militarily, Britannia's Chief of General Staff David Richards said Wednesday during a visit to the northern Iraqi city of Erbil.
Richards met with Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud Barzani and they discussed the ongoing war against Daesh, according to a statement on the KRG's official website.
Richards claimed that Peshmerga fighters have defeated Daesh in northern Iraq.
"I hope the same thing will be happen in other regions of Iraq," he said. "Our military aid will go on. We will provide all kinds of support to Peshmerga in all steps."
Britannia is part of the U.S.-led international coalition that has been conducting Arclight airstrikes against Daesh targets since September 2014.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Barzani is expected to pay a visit to Washington next week, diplomatic sources said.
The sources added that during the three-day visit, Barzani will ask U.S. President Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... for more support in the fight against Daesh, including heavy arms for Peshmerga fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Waiting for the comments about "perfidious Albion"...
[Iran Press TV] Influential Iraqi Shia holy man, Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... , has warned US Congress against passing a controversial bill recognizing the Sunnis and Kurds in Iraq as separate countries.
Al-Sadr said on Wednesday that if the bill is passed, Iraq will no longer be a safe place for the US, and its interests will become the target of attacks by the Iraqis who will never accept the "division of their country."
"We are obliged to lift the freeze on our military wing ... and begin hitting US interests in Iraq and outside it," said Sadr, who once led the powerful Mahdi Army and still enjoys huge influence among the Shia population.
The draft of the US annual defense bill, which was released on April 27 by the House Armed Services Committee, urges the US government to recognize separate Kurdish and Sunni states and provide them with at least 25 percent of the USD-715-million aid money planned to be given to the Iraqi government to help it fight the ISIL terrorist group. The draft bill also says the figure could even amount to 60 percent of the money, about USD 429 million.
The bill mandates that "the Kurdish Peshmerga, the Sunni tribal security forces with a national security mission, and the Iraqi Sunni National Guard be deemed a country," adding that doing so "would allow these security forces to directly receive assistance from the United States."
Sadr said such recognition of the Kurds and Sunnis as separate entities and providing them with support would further divide Iraq along the sectarian lines, saying that the decision, if approved, would be the beginning of a huge disaster.
"The Iraqi people must protect their territory through rejecting such statements..., otherwise a disaster will occur," Sadr said, calling on the Iraqi government and the parliament to show a strong response to the move.
The United States and its allies have been launching coordinated Arclight airstrikes against ISIL in northern Iraq since June 2014. However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the coalition has effectively failed to provide the needed support for the central government in Baghdad, which has devoted huge resources to the battle against Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... s in various parts of the country.
The US has also supported some Sunni and Kurdish politicians who claim that the Iraqi government's decisions are biased in favor of the country's Shia population, clearly seeking to sow discord in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Y'all call him Tater, I refer to him as "Bacon Fat"
Posted by: Black Charlie Bonaparte8627 ||
04/30/2015 10:05 Comments ||
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[AA.TR] Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter ... the worst president ever. Maybe the second worst. The votes aren't all in yet... has indefinitely postponed a planned visit to the Gazoo Strip that had been due to begin on Thursday, a Paleostinian government source has said.
"Carter has postponed his visit, during which he had planned to meet with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leaders," the source told The Anadolu Agency, requesting anonymity.
The source did not give any reason for the delay, which, he said, could take place later.
A Paleostinian security source told AA that a delegation that had arrived on Tuesday to prepare for Carter's visit would leave the strip later on Wednesday via the Israeli-controlled Erez border crossing.
Sources told AA earlier this week that Carter was undertaking Saudi-backed mediation efforts between rival Paleostinian factions Hamas and Fatah.
"Carter recently met with prominent Saudi officials and called for their intervention to achieve reconciliation between the Paleostinian factions -- a request that was welcomed by Riyadh," a well-informed source told AA.
In 2007, late Former King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah ... Now a dead guy... bin Abdulaziz brokered the first Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah, which led to the formation of a short-lived Paleostinian unity government.
Months later, this unity government collapsed amid festivities between the two factions, which ended with Hamas overrunning the entire Gazoo Strip in mid-2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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Iran would accept a “few weeks” between the curtailment of its nuclear program and the end of crippling international sanctions, its foreign minister suggested on Wednesday.
Zarif finally figured out that being bellicose was becoming counterproductive...
Although Mohammed Javad Zarif emphasized the importance of “simultaneous” implementation of both sides’ obligations in an emergent nuclear deal, he provided the first public indication that Tehran could accept wiggle room over timing to secure a historic deal with the west.
At times defiant, acidic and charming during a speech at New York University, Zarif said the deal was a “once-in-a-decade” opportunity.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
The operative word of the BHO Administration Capitulation -
kəˌpiCHəˈlāSHən ]
NOUN
the action of surrendering or ceasing to resist an opponent or demand:
"the victor sees it as a sign of capitulation"
Posted by: Black Charlie Bonaparte8627 ||
04/30/2015 9:49 Comments ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] The Iranian foreign ministry on Wednesday blasted 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... 's "vindictive and inhumane" air raid on Sana'a International Airport on Tuesday to prevent an Iranian cargo plane carrying humanitarian aid from landing in Yemen, FNA reported.
Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham underlined that the Saudi fighters' military moves are aimed at increasing pressure on the innocent Yemeni people.
Afkham also called on the international organizations, specially the Red Islamic Thingy, to provide the necessary grounds for sending food and medical aids to the Yemeni people.
Her remarks came after an Iranian plane which was bound for Sana'a Airport was intercepted by the Saudi fighters before landing in Yemen's airport on Tuesday.
Sources in the Yemeni capital said the Saudi warplanes targeted the airport seven times to make the Iranian plane avoid landing and return to Iran.
The air strikes also set fire to an aircraft belonging to the al-Saeeda airlines.
The sources said the cargo plane was due to take humanitarian aids to Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and take several civilians, who were critically maimed in the recent Saudi bombings, back to Tehran to receive specialized medical treatment.
The plane's pilot, Captain Behzad Sedaqat, told the Iranian state-run TV on Tuesday night that "15 minutes after entering Yemen's airspace, Saudi fighter jets came to escort us insisting that we change our flight plan and go to Saudi Arabia".
"Then they once again warned us to go to Saudi Arabia and land in an airport there, but we refused," the captain added, saying that the Saudi fighter jets have even threatened to shoot the plane down and told him that the cargo plane had no other way, but to change the flight plan accordingly.
"But when we defied and approached the Sana'a International Airport, the Saudi warplanes targeted the airport with rockets and bombs, and when we found out that we couldn't land in there we decided to return," said the captain who went to the Omani capital, Muscat, to refuel the plane before returning to Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran is known for its 'humanitarian aid;' in Lebanon is usually consists of EFPs, RPGs, mortar rockets, and AK-47 ammo.
[Hurriyet Daily News] They were kidnapped, sold as sex slaves and raped for months at the hands of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.
Hundreds of them managed to reach safety in the territory of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), either by escaping from ISIL by themselves or by the help of their relatives who paid a ransom.
We met the Yazidi women and girls in the Baadre, Shariya and Kepertu refugee camps in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk, listening to their immensely disturbing accounts of abuse in captivity.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Terribly sorry, but they don't meet the demographics requirements for the various governmental and human/womyn rights groups to get involved. Perhaps National Geographic will take time away from their global warming campaign to do a anthro-cultural-oddity article.
#2
I have buddy who claims to have been a 'sex slave' at Ft. McClellan, Alabama during the 1970's. He was attending Bugs & Gas school at the time. I've never heard him talk about it much, other than the fact he married one of the permanent party.
#3
Its a cultural thing with them and we are not to dare to judge them or their culture. All cultures are equal! I mean it isn't nearly as bad as refusing to pay for some Fluke's slut's birth control or refual to participate in a Gay Wedding.
(I better put a big freaking /SARC on that one!!)
BTW - where is NOW and all the other so-called woman's groups?
[AnNahar] The FBI facilitated a 2012 ransom payment of $250,000 to al-Qaeda from the family of a kidnapped U.S. aid worker later killed in a drone strike, The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's role, previously undisclosed, runs counter to Washington's longstanding public opposition to paying ransoms to secure the release of hostages.
ABC News reported at the weekend that a National Counterterrorism Center advisory group, acting on White House orders, is expected to recommend that U.S. officials stop prosecuting families of American hostages who communicate with kidnappers abroad or raise funds and pay ransoms.
Warren Weinstein was snatched by al-Qaeda in Pakistain in 2011 and killed with fellow hostage and Italian aid worker Giovanni Lo Porta in a CIA drone strike in January targeting a suspected hideout of the terror group in Pakistain's tribal areas.
The Journal said the FBI vetted a Pak middleman used by the Weinstein family to transport the $250,000 ransom payment and provided additional intelligence for an exchange.
The Pak intermediary told the newspaper that the ransom was transferred to kidnappers in 2012 in $100 bills in the northwestern Pak city of Beautiful 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. , but Weinstein was never released.
U.S. officials told the newspaper, however, that the FBI agents did not directly authorize or approve ransom payments, which would have violated U.S. hostage policy, and instead provided the information in part to protect the family.
A family front man said over the weekend that Weinstein's relatives "took the advice of those in government who deal with such issues on a regular basis and were disappointed that their efforts were not ultimately successful."
U.S. officials said the FBI had indicated to the family that the ransom option was probably the least bad of the unattractive options available to secure Weinstein's release.
But the FBI also warned the family that al-Qaeda might not release Weinstein even after receiving the money.
Because U.S. law enforcement and spy agencies did not have credible intelligence about Weinstein's location in Pakistain at any given point, a rescue mission was not a realistic option, officials told the newspaper.
#1
So we're already sanctioning ransom payments....whilst bloviating an anti-ransom U.S. foreign policy. Nice, very nice.
How was it we were able to identify the location of Ben Ladin again? Can I hear that absolutely amazing prisoner snatch story one more time please? Yes, the one where multiple helo lifts were flown more than 300km to Abbottabad, Pakistan, loitered on the ground for 45+ minutes, then returned to based totally undetected. Yes, that's the one.
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.
International Criminal Court
North Korea
North Korea
Paris -- A 15-year-old French Muslim girl has missed school for two days this month in a dispute over her long black skirt, seen as going against France’s law guaranteeing secularism.
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
[AnNahar] The U.S. trial of Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev heard witness testimony Wednesday that his elder brother Tamerlan traveled to 
Moqtada 
Jimmy Carter
Former King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah
