(Xinhua) -- A Somali politician here on Thursday called for more American and European help to tackle piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
The Somali government can not deal with the issue without outside help, and the United States and Europe have to engage more in the events occurring in the region that has became a global issue, said Mohamed Hussein Mohamed, Member of the Somali Parliament's Foreign Relation Committee.
The Somali politician made the remarks at an international conference called "Maritime piracy and security of the maritime transport and their relation to the Bulgarian national security."
Pirate attacks in 2009 have increased 10 times compared to 2008, Mohamed said. In 2010, a decline in piracy was observed thanks to international intervention, but it is not enough, the politician said.
Kamen Kichev, Bulgarian Deputy Transport Minister, said that 44 Bulgarian sailors, including three captains, were affected in the region of the Gulf of Aden and the Somali coast.
The two-day conference was organized by the Bulgarian Executive Agency Maritime Administration and several shipmasters, shipbrokers and logistics associations, and supported by the Transport Ministry.
Representatives of the European Commission, Navy League of the United States, Confederation of European Shipmasters' Associations, the International Federation of Shipmasters' Associations, the Black Sea Region countries and insurance companies participated in the event.
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11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The UN Secretary General's Special Envoy to Somalia, Mr Augustine Mahiga has said that he encountered in Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in North-eastern Somalia, a different place than he imagined.
Mr Mahiga was speaking in Garowe town, the capital of Puntland State, 1,000 kilometers north of Mogadishu, at a reception held by the authority's president, Abdurahman Sheikh Mohamed Farole, on Wednesday.
The envoy indicated that he came to Puntland to see the security improvement in the region. He welcomed the facts that Puntland managed to eliminate the threat from terrorists.
Mr Mahiga's remarks came just a week after Puntland declared victory over the militias of the radical Islamist leader, Sheikh Mohamed Said Atam, who have been fighting the authority since July, this year.
"Puntland has achieved success in security and stability that must be emulated by the rest of Somalia," said the UN envoy who hailed the region's close collaboration with the Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu.
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11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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The Mexican Secretaria de Marino (SEMAR) was rightly proud of the conclusion of the operation to capture Gulf Cartel Matamoros commander Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen in a press conference earlier this week, having provided to the press via a You Tube video a summary of its six month long campaign.
Both commanders on the ground, and their commanders in Mexico City as well as Mexican federal authorities may have a much, much bigger problem than just taking down violent drug lords and their armed wings on the eastern Mexican seaboard. And it could well be Mexican politics that decides whether the drug crime problem in Mexico is ultimately resolved.
Since I started with northern Mexican as my "beat" for Rantburg.com, at least until last month if I wanted news about Mexican Army operations in Tamaulipas, I had to go to news websites other than in Tamaulipas. None of news outlets in Tamaulipas, especially in the border cities of Matamoros, Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo published much in the way of crime news.
The difference between those news outlets and those in Juarez have been startling. Juarez has at last count five daily newspapers which operate in the city itself. All five in my opinion bravely report drug crime/drug war news routinely and critically on a daily basis risking the lives of publishers and editorial personnel alike to get the news out.
In Tamaulipas, at last since last summer on a given day when a gun battle was taking place, you could find nothing, but civic and social news in local news outlets. It was almost as if drug war news was being airbrushed.
Comments of readers in the Blog del Narco hinted that some of the reason why news outlet in those cities refused to report on drug war news was that they were owned or under extorted by Mexican drug gangs. Whether that is plausible, I have zero idea.
I do know in Juarez members of La Linea, the armed wing of the Juarez drug cartel boasted this passed summer that they often timed their crimes with local news., so I regard the idea that cartel influence publications to deny the public information hard to credit.
One possible answer why is contained within a report published by the Mexican national news outlet, APRO, which is the news agency of Proceso magazine. The report points to reports it received that said some elements in the Tamaulipas state and municipal police may have helped Guillen escape a Mexican Marine September 8th attempt at capture.
Said APRO in a report published last week:
"The Sept. 21 media reported, based on data from the PGR, which allegedly Ezequiel Cardenas was arrested in Matamoros during clashes between gunmen and soldiers few days earlier.
According to these versions, the afternoon of September 8 was a four-hour firefight in a building of the Del Rio subdivision, where the boss was entrenched.
In the preliminary PGR/TAMPS/MAT-III/2466/2010 is told that unofficially it was learned: that inside the damaged building was Tony Tormenta, who was not caught.
The letter includes testimonials from people who witnessed the shooting. Witnesses said Ezequiel Cardenas walked out of the building and no uniformed blocked his way."
How does this conflate to Mexican journalism and its failures in Tamaulipas?
In nearly every other northern Mexican state Mexican news outlets rely on the state attorney general's (PGJE) office for their news, and there is a practical and professional reason for this. When a crime get committed, it is the state attorneys general who usually get the preliminary reports, who then work with police and its own personnel on the scene to process information, which then gets released to the press.
Some states use their official websites, others have conference calls transmitting information. That's the practical reason.
While it may seem strange to Americans since we regard police news as public record and we expect our reporters to develop their own news, Mexican press seem to like the current set up. It saves time and resources if the PGJE's do the minutia; to separate the wheat from the chaff, if you will.
A professional reason is that Mexican press is vigorous and sometimes boisterous with information. News outlets routinely use untrained Mexican writers who use regional idioms and dialects to report the news. Facts can get lost in translations and sometimes facts are distorted. The State PGJEs activity in providing crime information also serves to temper that enthusiasm as well.
What happens when the PGJE flat refuses to provide any information as a matter of policy? What you get is Tamaulipas and a virtual blackout of news.
To be fair, there may other reasons, such as for public safety that news about roadblocks, a common tactic with Los Zetas, are not reported, however, city officials from border cities are often left with Twitter, Facebook and other social media to provide concurrent information about such events so that they can warn the general public about imminent danger.
But working the other wide of the argument that the dearth of drug and gang crime news goes to the top, what if the PGJE has nothing to report? What if cartels have police commanders at the municipal and state level on the payroll, so that as soon as a shooting takes place, police personnel go to the area, call ambulance staff to cart off the bodies and then tell the PGJEs there's nothing to see, no news?
Whatever the reason for reporting, we know the drug war rages on in the border cities of Tamaulipas whether information gets out or not. We get to rely on sources often outside of Tamaulipas such as SEMAR and SEDENA for news about shootings and other crimes.
One final note which points to a screaming need for better official information in Tamaulipas:
Last Friday evening someone posted in the O-club news that 47 individuals had died in Matamoros that day, sourced from the Brownsville Herald, which got the news from an unnamed source.
I do not like using unnamed sources, and I never have. Oftentimes when writing news using unnamed sources,you get a lot of agenda, with a smidgen of truth. Very good reasons sometimes exist for using an anonymous, for example, if the source is in imminent danger, or if you need a quote that no one else is willing to say as identified.
But anonymous sources can just as easily burn the organization as the person providing information. They can cheapen whatever information that is in an article that is untainted by the agenda of the source. It is besides that a crappy way to run a free press.
In the case of Guillen's capture the huge death toll sent out a red flag, so combing through the Mexican publications I normally use and through Google, I found confirmed eight and later, nine dead, total. I also found that El Universal and other publications had already picked up the story, including the Associated Press, which probably dropped the story on its international wires.
How did the press get the story so wrong?
I have several theories, the most likely being a Brownsville Herald staffer, perhaps hired on temporarily for election coverage, wanted to show the publication that he or she had the mad skills needed to report on Mexican drug crime news probably spoke to someone from Mexico over the phone and misinterpreted 47 captured to 47 killed. That, or misinterpreted AK-47 to 47 killed.
Whatever the ultimate explanation, a diligent Tamaulipas PGJE would have provided the information accurately and quickly, and this little lapse in judgment would never have occurred.
North Korea has been importing a number of luxury goods despite UN sanctions, according to a report submitted to the UN Security Council.
For some strange reason the Norks continue to defy the sainted Security Council ...
Experts monitoring the North said many luxury items have entered the country in violation of sanctions put in place after the North's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2008.
Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun on Thursday reported that 36 pianos, two yachts and four Mercedes cars were found to have been smuggled into the Stalinist country.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a U.S. Representative from Florida and the expected new head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Wednesday that the U.S. should view the report as a "wake-up call" and increase pressure on Pyongyang.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Norks Continue to Import Luxury Goods'
Fine by me, I can't think of anything more likely to forment revolution than a pampered "Upper" Class, and a starving "Under" class.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/12/2010 9:43 Comments ||
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#1
It defines a terrorist group as a group of two or more persons which has been established and operates for a specific amount of time with the purpose of committing terrorist acts.
...and the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club.
The Congressional Muslim Staff Association has held Friday prayer sessions for more than 10 years now. Sponsorship by Keith Ellison gave the group official standing in 2006.
Past attendees uncovered by Fox News include the leader of a designated terror group, an al Qaeda notable and a self-described jihadi-in-training.
It is uncertain whether other questionable characters have attended the prayers, since no public record of people invited seems to be available. The groups website, included in the official congressional staff associations directory, displays an error message. And very few associated with the CMSA are willing to speak.
[Emirates 24/7] Pakistain's former leader Pervez Perv Musharraf called Wednesday for a more gradual approach against Islamic gunnies such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, saying they enjoyed sympathy for fighting India.
The United States and India have urged Pakistain to rein in movements such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, or "The Army of the Pure," which is blamed for planning the bloody siege of Mumbai that killed 166 people two years ago.
"You can't rock the boat so much that the boat capsizes," Musharraf, a military ruler who stepped down in 2008 and is attempting a political comeback, said at the Atlantic Council think-tank in Washington.
"While these things have to be done, allow piecemeal, gradual action through a well thought-out strategy which does not disturb the entire law and order situation in Pakistain," Musharraf said.
Musharraf acknowledged that Lashkar-e-Taiba and like-minded groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad were "involved in terrorism in Pakistain" but said they have been "very popular" for fighting Indian rule in divided Kashmir.
"Since they were going to Kashmire and fighting the Indian army, it went along with the psyche of the people of Pakistain -- with everyone," Musharraf said.
Musharraf said the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, "did an excellent job" in relief operations following major floods this year and "the best work" in the wake of the 2005 earthquake on the Pak side of Kashmir.
"It's a difficult situation for any government in Pakistain. So the root is (to) resolve the Kashmire dispute, frankly," Musharraf said.
Musharraf renewed criticism of President Barack B.O. Obama for not raising Kashmire during his recent visit to India and for not stopping in Pakistain, the frontline US partner in the war in Afghanistan.
Musharraf banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad in 2002 after they were accused of storming the Indian parliament. But many US experts say the ban has been half-hearted, with Pakistain believing the groups serve its strategic purpose.
An Islamic insurgency broke out in 1989 aiming to end Indian rule in Kashmir, which is majority Mohammedan. At least 47,000 people have died by official count.
While the armed rebellion has waned, Kashmire was rocked this year by street protests in which Indian security forces have been accused of killing 111 people, mostly teenagers and students.
Musharraf, who was born in New Delhi before the subcontinent's partition, fought against India in 1965 and 1971 wars and led The Mighty Pak Army in the 1999 Kargil conflict in which gunnies infiltrated India's zone of Kashmir.
But Musharraf, speaking at a separate event at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said he was determined to make peace with India.
"I may be a man of war, but I am a man for peace because I know the ravages of war," Musharraf said.
Confirming earlier press accounts, Musharraf said India and Pakistain had managed through back-channel diplomacy to finalize agreements on territorial disputes over Sir Creek near the Arabian Sea and the Siachen glacier.
"It was ready to be signed yesterday," Musharraf said.
Musharraf said he invited Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistain to sign those pacts, even though Kashmire remained in dispute. But Musharraf said momentum faded as Singh did not come and Pakistain entered a political crisis that led to his downfall.
"You put me back there and we will start again," Musharraf said.
India has recently resumed dialogue with Pakistain after cutting off talks in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Until Pak army inc Perv changes its policy of using Islamic terrorists as proxies this war will continue!
BAGHDAD - Iraqs fractious politicians have agreed to return Shia Nuri al-Maliki as prime minister, ending an eight-month deadlock that raised fears of renewed sectarian war, but leaving some Sunnis sceptical he can forge national unity.
The deal on top government posts brings together Shias, Sunnis and Kurds in a power-sharing arrangement similar to the last Iraqi government and could help forestall a slide back into sectarian bloodshed that raged after the 2003 US-led invasion.
Sunnis would have reacted with outrage had the Sunni-backed Iraqiya alliance of ex-premier Iyad Allawi been totally excluded from government. Some may still feel cheated because of Malikis return. The deal will see Kurd Jalal Talabani retain the presidency and give Allawis bloc the speaker post in parliament and other Iraqiya members cabinet jobs, such as foreign minister. Allawi himself will head a council of strategic policies.
Thank God last night we made a big achievement, which is considered a victory for all Iraqis, Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani said at a news conference in Baghdad.
OPEC producer Iraq, trying to rebuild its oil industry after decades of war and economic sanctions and to quell a stubborn Sunni Islamist insurgency, has been without a new government since a March 7 election that failed to produce a clear winner.
The most important issue now is that we are out of the bottleneck, said Amer al-Fayyadh, the dean of political science at Baghdad University. The formation of a government is now in sight.
Lawmakers were scheduled to meet later on Thursday in only the second parliamentary session since the election and should pick a speaker, the next step toward a new government.
A senior Iraqiya leader said the alliance would nominate Sunni Arab lawmaker Osama al-Nujaifi for speaker.
Lawmakers must then pick a president who in turn nominates a prime minister, who has 30 days to form a government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Iraqi politicians have walked out of a breakthrough session of parliament only hours after apparently cementing a power-sharing agreement that would have seen a government formed after eight months of disagreement.
Politicians belonging to the the Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition left parliament on Thursday night after newly elected speaker Osama al-Nujaifi declined their request to vote on removing members names from a list of those associated with former ruler Saddam Hussein's Baath party.
Iraqiya politicians claimed that the removal of three senior politicians' names from a list of alleged Baath party members kept by a "de-Baathification" committee was part of a broad power-sharing agreement that all sides in Iraq's ongoing political dispute had agreed to, Al Jizz's Rawya Rageh reported from Storied Baghdad.
"There's an atmosphere of a lack of confidence about the sessions," she said.
Al-Nujaifi, a member of the Iraqiya coalition who had just been elected by his colleagues as speaker of parliament, would not allow the de-Baathification vote to come before politicians chose a new president, as mandated by the constitution.
He told parliament his loyalty was to Iraq's government and no longer to the Iraqiya coalition.
But after Iraqiya members continued to protest and began the walk out, Al-Nujaifi joined them and left his two deputies - also just elected - to lead the session, Rageh said.
Iyad Allawi, the Iraqiya leader and former prime minister favoured by the US, also walked out.
'Great victory'
Earlier on Thursday, it appeared that Iraqiya, which had been opposing allowing Nouri al-Maliki, the incumbent prime minister, to remain in power, had finally decided to join his government.
Iraqiya won two more seats than al-Maliki's State of Law coalition in the March 7 legislative election, but neither alliance had enough seats for a majority in parliament, forcing the factions into a negotiation process that had seemingly come to an end on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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Greek commandos boarded a Gaza-bound aid ship -- whose mission went awry and turned into a hostage situation after a dispute with the ship's captain -- in a harbor off the country's coast Friday, an official with the activist organization sponsoring the vessel said.
The people on board, who had been described as hostages by the charity group that sponsored the voyage, were safe and uninjured, but still awaiting word from Greek authorities on their legal status, said Ellie Merton, a representative of the Road to Hope organization in London, England.
Greece's merchant marine ministry said the ship, Strofades IV, had docked in the Greek port city of Pireaus.
Merton said the ship was taken over in Libya by its captain on Thursday after the ship captain "went nuts" and allegedly kidnapped the convoy members on board after an argument, according to the charity.
"Everyone was astounded. Nobody could have scripted this. It's just bizarre," said Merton, who said she had been in touch with members of the Gaza-bound convoy via text message and Facebook.
Ten convoy members -- seven Britons, two Irish citizens and an Algerian -- were taken hostage, the group said. As many as seven Libyans, including customs inspectors and border police, were also being held on the ship, according to Road to Hope.
Road to Hope's Facebook page stated that four Libyan naval vessels and two fighter jets had surrounded the ship, before it headed into international waters.
"The matter is a serious breach of every maritime law possible. We have asked all relevant embassies to supply urgent, immediate, consular assistance. We are extremely concerned for the safety of all the nationals on board," Road to Hope said in a statement Thursday.
Merton said Friday that other members of the convoy, left behind in Libya after the boat set sail, remained determined to reach Gaza before Eid, the upcoming Muslim holiday that commemorates the prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son for God.
"That's the urgency of the situation, because they want to get the aid into the besieged people," she said.
According to Road to Hope, if all had gone according to plan, the boat would have left Libya loaded with aid for Gaza. And 55 more volunteers would have been on board. The ship was originally destined for Egypt, with the intention of delivering goods via land into Gaza.
But after the captain's argument with an Egyptian broker, the ship left behind the aid group's cargo and a large group of volunteers.
(KUNA) -- Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas affirmed on Thursday that his authority adheres to the national principles whatever the challenges might be.
"The Paleostinian National Authority will never cede any of the national constants (rights) outlined in 1988," he said, apparently referring to the Algiers Declaration of the Paleostinian State by the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Abbas made the remarks in an address to a mass rally held to commemorate the anniversary of late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.
"The Paleostinian position is firm - we seek a state without settlements and Jerusalem as our capital. We press also for unconditional return of the refugees to our homeland and the release of (Paleostinian) prisoners at the prisons of the (Israeli) occupation," he underscored, noting that peace is the main prerequisite of stability in the Middle East region.
Abbas wondered why Israel refuses the Arab peace initiative which provides for Israeli withdrawal from occupied Paleostinian territories, the Syrian Golan Heights and Leb's Ghajar village.
He accused the government of Tel Aviv of planting obstacles before the peace processor through insistence on continued settlement activity as well as the demand (for the Paleostinians) to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
"This will never happen. We will never achieve their goals and dreams," he stressed, warning that the Israeli government closed all doors for peace.
"The Arab Peace Initiative is an opportunity which is still on the table. Yet, the Paleostinian leaders still believe in the peaceful popular resistance, " he said, adding that he supports resistance as long as there are settlements and the separation wall.
He explained that the Paleostinian Authority was seeking to end the Paleostinian division and achieve reconciliation, noting that the authority is waiting what will come of the ongoing Damascus dialogues.
Abbas reiterated the desire of his Fatah movement to continue the dialogue with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and to achieve reconciliation away from personal or partisan agendas of both sides.
In his speech, Abbas spoke about the late President Arafat and praised him, saying, "He dreamt for just and comprehensive peace in the holy land."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"and a pony!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2010 10:07 Comments ||
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Six years already? My how time flies. Good times, good times ...
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories Tens of thousands of Palestinians marked the sixth anniversary on Thursday of the death of Yasser Arafat, whose dream of an independent state seems no closer than when he died.
Waving Palestinian flags and the yellow banners of the Fatah party that Arafat founded, the crowds poured through the shut-down streets to the square across from the white mausoleum where their iconic leader is buried.
Personally I'd make sure he's still there, and sprinkle new garlic around ...
In an address from the grave site, where a new museum is being built to honour the veteran leader, Arafats successor Mahmud Abbas vowed he would not negotiate while Israel continued to build settlements on Palestinian land.
Wonder if the museum will have a section on Arafat's communicable diseases?
A string of other senior cronies politicians, including Arafats nephew Nasser al-Qidwa, a former Palestinian representative to the United Nations, also addressed the massive crowd. Qidwa, who has long blamed Israel for being behind his uncles death, said Palestinians were determined to pursue the last piece of evidence in the assassination of Yasser Arafat.
Arafat died in a French hospital on November 11, 2004, after several weeks of treatment. French officials, citing privacy laws, refused to reveal the precise cause of death or the nature of his condition, fuelling a host of rumours and theories as to the cause of his illness.
AIDS being the most likely ...
To mark the anniversary, the Palestinians are holding a series of events, including film screenings, to celebrate the life of a man remembered by many as a passionate proponent of Palestinian rights who led his people through nearly four decades of armed struggle and peace negotiations.
But in a sign of continuing Palestinian divisions, Gazas Hamas rulers banned any public commemoration of the anniversary, a rights group and Fatah officials said. The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said Hamas officials had ruled out any anniversary events, citing violence that marred a 2007 rally, when Hamas forces opened fire, killing seven.
Cheez guys, lighten up, it's just Paleo self-expression to shoot off their guns ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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Wonder if the museum will have a section on Arafat's communicable diseases?
Of course not, GODS never get sick.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/12/2010 9:56 Comments ||
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#2
do they still have the Dread Red Notebook under glass?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2010 10:09 Comments ||
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LONDON - Aid workers on a ship originally intended for the Palestinian territory of Gaza are instead being taken to Greece against their will after an apparent dispute with the captain, a charity said on Thursday.
So they couldn't wait til they got to Gaza to display their freak ...
The Road to Hope charity said the Greek ship the Strofades IV left the port of Derna in Libya early on Thursday taking 10 aid workers seven Britons, two Irish people and an Algerian to Greece. The charity said three Libyans, two port policemen and the port manager, were also aboard the ship.
We think the ship is several miles out to sea in the Mediterranean now. Theyve been making slow but steady headway. I have no idea what that Greek ship owner is up to, a charity spokesperson said in a statement.
Maybe the charity workers didn't pay their bar tab ...
The Greek captain ... was reported to be saying he wanted to proceed to Greek islands and drop off the convoyers (aid workers) and Libyans, so that the Greek people could deal with them as illegal immigrants, the Road to Hope statement said.
Britains foreign ministry said it was aware of the incident. We understand that the ship now is heading towards Greek territorial waters, the ministry said in a statement.
Our Embassy in Athens has spoken to the shipping company and is also in close contact with the Greek authorities. Our priority remains that there be a safe resolution to this incident, the statement continued.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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excerpt from AFP tells quite a different story. One that makes more sense...
The police said they were investigating what had happened, while an Ionian Bridge official, Maria Georgoulia, said a dozen activists had tried to storm the ship in the Libyan port of Derna on Thursday.
"They wanted to go to Egypt and then to Gaza," she said. "There is no contract between us and the activists, what they did was illegal."
She said that some 100 militants had gathered on the port at Derna on Wednesday wanting to board the Strofades IV.
"We called on the Libyan authorities to help us but finally seven Libyan police stayed on board the ship throughout the voyage without doing anything," Georgoulia added.
She said the crew had given food to the militants, "who put on a whole show on the deck, wearing lifebuoys and pretending to be in danger."
Seven years after an American student, Rachel Corrie, was killed in Gazoo by an Israeli military bulldozer she tried to block, becoming a global symbol of the Paleostinian struggle, her parents and her older sister sit in an Israeli court in this northern city with two hopes: to confront the men who ran over her and to prove that the army investigation into her death was flawed.
On both counts, it has been a frustrating effort. To guard their identities, the bulldozer operators are called only by their initials and testify behind a screen, disembodied voices claiming vague memories. The Corrie lawyer presses them with props: Mr. A, he said to a commander this past Thursday, arranging a plastic toy bulldozer, an orange lump of putty and a Raggedy Ann doll, Where was she when you saw her?
Mr. As answer differed markedly from that of Mr. Y, the driver of the bulldozer who testified two weeks earlier, although both denied seeing her before she was crushed under their vehicle. The army said Ms. Corries death was an accident. The Corries believe the drivers either saw Rachel or were so careless toward the protesters as to be criminally negligent.
#1
If you hadn't noticed; there are no court cases against Hamas activists who kill people with rockets. But the Jews are the barbarians? We can only shake our heads in wonder.
Posted by: Pearl Whugum8365 ||
11/12/2010 9:50 Comments ||
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#2
The Corries believe the drivers either saw Rachel or were so careless toward the protesters as to be criminally negligent.
Of course they "Believe" it, their poor Innocent child COULDN'T be guilty.
Morons and enablers, Never let FACTS stand in their way.
Very glad MY parents were NOT like that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/12/2010 9:53 Comments ||
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#3
I'm confused about the props -- is the Raggedy Ann dolls supposed to be St. Pancake, or is the lump of putty?
Or is it a before and after thing?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/12/2010 10:00 Comments ||
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#4
no IHOP condiments? FOAD, Corries. You raised a shrieking anti-American, anti-Jooooo b1tch. She was stupid and unaware that her status as an American didn't overcome gravity.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2010 10:12 Comments ||
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#5
Lawyer goes into a bar with a toy, a doll, and a lump of putty and the bartender asks, "Why the long face?"
#7
Ok. Where the hell can I get a D9 toy so I can Play "Pancake verses Bulldozer"?
If you don't really care about it being a D9, your local John Deere dealer sells toys and they have the JD equivalent.
Its just my guess, but i think they would all look pretty much the same from the ground, looking up..]]]]]]]]]]
A radical Muslim cleric who preached hatred of the West from his base in north London for 20 years has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Lebanon. Omar Bakri Mohammed, known as the "Tottenham Ayatollah", was on the run after a court in Beirut found him guilty of funding al-Qaeda and starting a militant group to weaken the Lebanese government.
Bakri, who now lives in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, was one of 54 people convicted in the latest of a series of trials against suspected militants who fought clashes with the Lebanese army in 2007.
The Syrian-born preacher became an irritant to the British government after he hailed the September 11, 2001 terrorists as the "magnificent 19" and told the British public it was responsible for the attacks on tube stations in London four years later.
#1
Bakri received a life sentence because he failed to turn up in court. He has been ordered to report to prison within 15 days but has said he will not do so on religious grounds, insisting that he was answerable to no "man-made court".
He added that it was as wrong to send him to prison as it was to cage a lion.
Perhaps he could be shot while "resisting arrest"...
#6
Bakri received a life sentence because he failed to turn up in court. He has been ordered to report to prison within 15 days but has said he will not do so on religious grounds, insisting that he was answerable to no "man-made court".
He added that it was as wrong to send him to prison as it was to cage a lion.
...
Although he was now back in the Arab world, Bakri found he had much less freedom to operate than in London. In a partial acknowledgement that perhaps not everything in his former home was as evil as he proclaimed, he complained yesterday that Lebanon's "corrupt" judicial system was inferior to its British equivalent.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi stressed on Thursday that there is information confirming that an indictment against Hizbullah and the possibilities of the eruption of an Israeli war against Lebanon are connected. He told As Safir Thursday that should the war erupt, it would not only include Lebanon, but Syria as well.
"The American political decision to wage a new Israeli war on Lebanon and Syria has not been taken yet due to political reasons linked to the U.S. soldiers in Iraq and the Israeli army's readiness to go through a war," the MP said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The American political decision to wage a new Israeli war on Lebanon and Syria
But, I thought that the Juice controlled America, not the other way around!!??
I'm so confused 8^(
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
11/12/2010 9:06 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Telecoms Minister Charbel Nahhas fought it out in Cabinet.
While Nahhas accused the majority March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces of succumbing to Washington and Israel, Hariri vowed to make him pay dearly.
When Nahhas accused those "evading voting under U.S. and Israeli pressure," Hariri replied: "These statements are not acceptable. Israel puts pressure on you and people like you, but not on us."
"I won't accept what you (Opposition) impose on me no matter the outcome," Hariri stressed.
Cabinet, which met Wednesday under President Michel Suleiman, failed to agree on the controversial false witnesses' issue and a vote demanded by the Opposition has been put off.
Al-Akhbar newspaper said Hariri pointed his finger at Nahhas at the end of Cabinet meeting, telling him: "You are going to pay dearly for your comments."
Nahhas reportedly hit back, saying: "Such words are not supposed to come out from a distinguished person like you."
Hariri told Cabinet: "I have agreed to discuss the false witnesses' issue and I have acknowledged their presence, not in order to create a political crisis aimed at targeting the (International) Tribunal."
"If you want to discuss this issue at a political level, then let us start from the beginning, starting with Ahmed Abu Adas all the way to those who accused other countries," he told the Opposition.
"All this talk will only lead to further fragmentation and chaos, " he stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday his group will "cut off the hand" of anyone who tries to arrest any of its partisans over the 2005 liquidation of ex-premier Rafik Hariri.
"Whoever thinks the resistance could possibly accept any accusation against any of its jihadists or leaders is mistaken -- no matter the pressures and threats," Nasrallah said in a speech on closed-circuit television to mark Hizbullah's Martyr Day.
"Whoever thinks that we will allow the arrest or detention of any of our jihadists is mistaken," he said, describing his political rivals as "in a hurry to see an indictment" in the five-year-old case.
"The hand that attempts to reach (our members) will be cut off," he added, prompting thunderous applause from hundreds of his party supporters gathered in the southern suburb of Beirut to commemorate the occasion.
The Special Tribunal for Leb (STL), a U.N.-backed investigation into the Hariri murder, is reportedly set to issue an indictment soon that will implicate high-ranking members of Hizbullah.
Nasrallah, whose party fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006, said his movement would defend itself against any accusation through whatever means it found appropriate.
"Whoever thinks that the resistance will not defend itself and its honor against any accusation or attack by whatever means it finds appropriate, in agreement with its allies in Leb, is mistaken," he said.
The Shiite leader also said his party -- the most powerful military and political force in the country -- was ready for another round with its arch-foe.
"We await the day the indictment will be released," he said. "We are ready for any Israeli war on Leb and will again be victorious, Inshallah.
"Whoever thinks that threatening us with another Israeli war will scare us is mistaken," he added. "On the contrary, whoever speaks of another war is bearing good news and not threatening us."
Nasrallah's speech Thursday was the latest move in an increasingly heated campaign Hizbullah has launched to fend off the anticipated STL accusation against high-ranking members in connection with the killing of Hariri and 22 others in a Beirut bombing on February 14, 2005.
The head of the Iranian- and Syrian-backed movement has warned against any accusations by the tribunal and said further Lebanese cooperation with the court would be tantamount to an attack on his powerful group.
Despite Nasrallah's warnings, Prime Minister Saad Hariri -- son of the slain ex-premier -- has vowed to see the tribunal through.
On the other hand, Nasrallah noted that Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom "has stated that the indictment will lead to the implementation of (U.N. Security Council) Resolution 1559, which was engineered by the U.S. and France."
"The Lebanese today have a golden opportunity to save their country from an American and Israeli plot," Nasrallah said, as he renewed his charge that the STL was a U.S.-Israeli ploy to "guillotine the resistance."
"The Lebanese have one of two choices: either they hand the country over to ... (U.S. envoy Jeffrey) Feltman and (U.S. Secretary of State Hillary) Clinton, or they cooperate with Syria and Soddy Arabia."
Leaders of regional power-houses Syria and Soddy Arabia, which back Leb's two rival coalitions respectively, have met several times in an attempt to stem tensions in Beirut.
Western countries have stepped up their backing for the tribunal, with the United States announcing a 10-million-dollar donation to the court and both Feltman and U.S. Senator John I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry ... the Senate's current foreign policy expert, filling the empty broghans of Joe Biden... visiting Beirut.
Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has urged the U.N. Security Council to "pay very close attention" to Leb, pushing for "pre-emptive diplomacy" to calm the volatile situation.
Analysts have warned the standoff could lead to the collapse of the government and a repeat of the 18-month political deadlock that degenerated into deadly festivities and brought Leb close to civil war in May 2008.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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#4
I have a theory working that if one were to snap their fingers and fulfill the wet dream world is all muslim idea, ten minutes later there would be a civil war about who was more pure, now justicfied.
* WAFF > NASRALLAH PROVOKES IRAN: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "PERSIAN CIVILIZATION", in IRAN, only ISLAM + "ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION".
ARTIC = Be it the AYATOLLAH "WHY YES, VIRGINA, I VISITED GUAM INCOGNITO" KHOMEINI, or curr El-Hefe Supreme Cleric AYATOLLAH KHAMEINI, ALL OF IRAN'S LEADERS, ETAL. ARE ARAB DESCENDANTS FROM ARABIA + THE PROPHET MOHAMMED.
Also read, IRAN = ARAB = NOT-PERSIA/PERSIAN VEE MOHAMMEDAN CONQUEST.
TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has suggested the UN nuclear watchdog would pass information about Irans nuclear programme to the United States, underlining worsening relations between Tehran and the Vienna-based body.
Now that El-Baradei is no longer in charge of the IAEA that agency is no longer Iran's lead blocker, so of course it's going to be criticized ...
Ahmadinejad, who is sending uncompromising signals ahead of a possible resumption this month of talks with the major powers on Irans nuclear programme, also ruled out giving the agency wider inspection powers in the Islamic Republic.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano told the UN General Assembly this week that Iran has not provided the necessary cooperation to permit the agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.
The IAEA wants Iran to implement what it calls the Additional Protocol, which permits unfettered inspections beyond declared nuclear sites to ferret out any covert atomic activity.
The acceptance of the Additional Protocol would be tantamount to placing all of our nuclear activities under the supervision of the IAEA which would in turn pass our information to America, state broadcaster IRIB quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on its website.
We said we would not accept this protocol, Ahmadinejad added.
Irans relations with the IAEA have become more tense since Amano took office late last year. He has adopted a blunter approach than his predecessor Mohamed ElBaradei, including stating in a report that intelligence indicates Iran could be trying to develop a nuclear-armed missile. At a meeting of the IAEA board in September, Amano accused Iran of hampering the agencys work by barring experienced inspectors. Iran said two inspectors it had banned from entering the country had provided false information about its work.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
IRAN
versus
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > UN: NORTH KOREAN EXPORTING NUCLEAR + MISSLES TECHNOLOGIES TO IRAN, SYRIA, + MYANMAR.
and
* SAME > STRATFOR: TAIJIKISTAN SECURITY SWEEPS + POSSIBLE RETURN OF THE IMU [Islamic Movement of Uzebekistan].
IOW, ARTIC = The IMU is a violent but budding MilTerr Org that needs a whole lotta love + TLC + proper nurturing, etc. in order to dev into the righeous State, Regional = Central Asian Terror threat its trying hard to be.
[1970's future CA Governator DA ARNUULD + MULTI-EGG/HIGH-PROTEIN WETGHTLIFTING MILKSHAKES, or POPEYE-THE-SAILOR'S BELOVED SPINACH, here].
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.
North Korea has been importing a number of luxury goods despite UN sanctions, according to a report submitted to the UN Security Council. 
