KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Rights group Amnesty International urged Malaysia on Tuesday to withdraw an invitation to Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes, or arrest him if he turns up for an economic forum. At least one high-ranking government official agreed he should be uninvited. Um, right. This is going to happen...
Al-Bashir is among several African leaders scheduled to attend the three-day forum starting Sunday in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya, the Malaysian government has said.
The International Criminal Court has issued warrants of arrest for Al-Bashir for allegedly orchestrating atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region. The Sudanese leader remains in power, rejecting the charges and the Netherlands-based court, which has no police force and relies on member states to execute its orders and warrants.
Malaysia is not an ICC member, but in March it announced its intention to join.
London-based Amnesty said Malaysia's invitation to Al-Bashir "flies in the face of its decision to join the ICC." "Malaysia should not turn itself into a port of call for fugitives from international justice. The Malaysian government should bar Bashir from its territory and arrest him if he turns up," Amnesty said in a statement.
Nazri Abdul Aziz, Malaysia's Cabinet minister responsible for parliamentary affairs, reportedly said he would recommend to his colleagues that the invitation be scrapped.
"I am taking this matter seriously," the Malaysian Insider news website quoted Nazri as saying. "As such, I strongly recommend the government withdraw the invitation." Nazri did not immediately answer calls to his cell phone.
He is one of malaysia's most outspoken government officials, but his views on human rights and other legal controversies have not always drawn support from other Cabinet members in the past.
You'll have noticed that not once in this article is the economic forum named, which makes one suspicious that it's called something like "Applying Sharia Finance Beyond Dar al Islam" or "Money as a Weapon of Jihad", which for Sudan would be a novel concept -- they not having got beyond the traditional violence as a method of jihad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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In a letter made available to journalists, Boko Haram stated that sharia law should be implemented in the northern part of the country and the immediate release of all their members kept in detention in Borno and some parts of the north.
They demanded that former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff should be prosecuted according to sharia for allowing security agents to kill their sect leader Sheik Mohammed Yusuf in July 2009.
The letter also called for the prosecution of the former police commissioner, Christopher Dega, who served during that period of the crisis. The group also insisted that the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) -led government in Borno must resign.
It said "We also request for an immediate investigation into the killing of our brothers through food poisoning which was perpetrated by prison warders with the connivance of former Governor Ali Sheriff. Also we want Federal Government to release the report of committee of inquiry set up by late President Umaru Yaradua which was led by former National Security Adviser (NSA), Rtd. Gen Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar, to investigate the alleged extra-judicial killings of our brothers during the 2009 unrest."
The group further said that if federal government cannot fulfill these conditions, then they won't be permitted to participate in any dialogue.
They claimed that the deployment of Nigerian troops cannot deter them from carrying out their attacks. "We challenge the government to seek assistance of FBI, CIA, the Israel intelligence agency, Mossad or Interpol, all these security outfits would not stop us from fulfilling our mission," they warned.
This snippet about Ali Abdullah Saleh's lack of recovery from the recent blast explosion comes from the other story I put up about the demonstrations in Yemen. I had this past week commented on the fact that the injuries described for His Corpulenceness seemed to be at odds with the surgery described to fix them. Not to say I told you so, but...
SANAA, Yemen --...President Ali Abdullah Saleh went abroad for medical treatment for injuries suffered in an attack on his compound. Saleh is being treated in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, along with several government officials wounded in the June 3 rocket attack on the presidential compound.
A senior Yemeni official in Riyadh said Saleh had developed a problem with his throat, but would not elaborate beyond describing the president's condition as "tragic." The official asked not be named because of the sensitive nature of the information.
Problem with this throat? Let see: how about a tracheostomy because the thoracic surgery required to remove the minor insignificant wood splinter from near his heart left Saleh ventilator-dependent. Oh, it could be worse: the surgeons might have had a 'therapeutic mis-adventure' when doing the trach. It happens and it's really not fun at all to be in a situation in which, absolutely needing to secure the airway, you can't secure the airway.
Or he could have had a throat injury: a tracheal laceration from another tiny, insignificant wood splinter. Or an injury to a major vessel from said splinter. Or perhaps a neck catheter had a problem. Dear, dear...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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Mexican security forces nationwide seized 5,970 kilograms of marijuana, 2,049.90 kilograms of methamphetimine, 32.10 kilograms of cocaine, 2.60 kilograms of raw peyote, 14 kilograms of heroin, and USD $29.542.41 in cash since June 7th.
Mexican Policia Federal seized more than 132 kilograms of marijuana in Guanjuato last Thursday. Arrested was Vicente RodrÃÂguez Golpero who was ordered to pull over while driving a pickup truck in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanjuato. Acting on suspicions about the cargo aboard the truck, the vehicle was moved to a Policia Federal facility in Leon, Guanjuato where a search found the drugs glued inside of plastic boxes.
Mexican Policia Fdereal agents seized 2.85 kilograms of heroin in Sinaloa state last Wednesday. Agents detained VÃÂctor Manuel Silvano Manzo , 44, at a checkpoint in Escuinapa on the Escuinapa-Guajolote Bridge road after agents found a suspicious modification in the passenger side door of the car Silvano Manzo was driving. The car was moved to a Policia Federal facility where the door was dismantled and the heroin was discovered.
Mexican Policia Federal agents seized 179 kilograms of marijuana from an abandoned minivan in Sonora Thursday. A Policia Federal patrol found a Toyota Sienna minivan on Mexican Federal Highway 15 near Nogales, Sonora with its doors left open and no driver. The minivan was found to have been stolen from Nevada in April, although it had a different license plate.
Mexican Policia Federal agents detained Cohaila Freddy Valerio, 57, a US citizen, after 2.60 kilograms of raw peyote were found in his luggage. The detention took place at the Mariano Escobedo Monterrey International Airport Thursday. Agents' suspicions were raised while Valerio was at a ticket counter and a search ensued where agents found the cactus.
Mexican Policia Federal agents detained two men and seized more than 130 kilograms of marijuana in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua Friday. Agents detained Hector Martin Ulivarria, 48, of Sinaloa, and Ismael Contreras Roman, 27, of Chihuahua near the intersection of calle Cactus del Desierto and Taräntula in the Colinas del Norte colony and searched a Chevrolet Silverado extended cab pickup truck finding 139 kilograms of marijuana in the back seat hidden among five bags of dog food.
Mexican Policia Federal agents detained a Columbian national and seized more than USD $29,000.00 in cash at the Mexico City airport Sunday. Detained was Mauricio Fernando Muñoz, 27, whose shoes were searched after agents detected the smell of glue during a random checks of the airline passengers who were bound for Bogota, Columbia. Agents found USD $29,500.00 wrapped in several plastic bags. Inside the detainee's luggage agents also found MP $500.00 (USD $42.41).
A detachment of the Mexican 9th Military Zone discovered a large amount of drug and weapons in the Badiraguato municipality of Sinaloa state last Wednesday. Soldiers found abandoned 1,190 kilograms of marijuana hidden in foliage in the Sindicatura de Surutato. Also found were 27.9 kilograms of marijuana seeds, nine kilograms of poppy seed, eight rifles, two handguns and eight weapons magazines.
A unit of the Mexican 9th Military Zone found a hidden drug laboratory in Sinaloa state Wednesday. In the village of Higueras de Culiacancito in the Cruz de Elota municipality 10.1 kilograms of methamphetamine were found along with 3 liters of liquid methamphetamine, one kilogram of methamphetamine in semi-solid form, 440 liters of toluene, 360 kilograms of tartaric acid, 350 liters of ethanol. 50 liters of hydrochloric acid and 40 liters of red caustic soda. No detainees were reported.
A detachment of the Mexican 45th Military Zone found a truck with a false bottom and a large amount of marijuana hidden inside in Sonora state Saturday. The seizure took place in Nogales in the Granja colony where soldiers found 2,830 kilograms of marijuana in 344 packages. One unidentified man was detained at the scene.
A unit of the Mexican 6th Military Zone in Coahuila state seized a large amount of methamphetamine and heroin Sunday. The seizure took place in Castaños municipality where soldiers found four underground water tanks containing 1,998 kilograms of methamphetamine in 958 packages and 11.2 kilograms of heroin in 10 packages.
A detachment of the Mexican 13th Military Zone detained five unidentified individuals and seized more than a ton of marijuana in Nayarit state Sunday. The bust took place in the village of Los Mezquites in the Ixtlan del Rio municipality where 1,500 kilograms of marijuana, three vehicles, one rifle, two handguns, five weapons magazines and 102 rounds of ammunition were seized.
A unit of the Mexican 14th Military Zone searched a tourist shuttle bus in Aguascalientes and seized an amount of drugs. The search took plce in Cosio municipality where soldiers found 32.10 kilograms of cocaine, 11.70 kilograms of methamphetamine (Ice) and 18.90 kilograms of methamphetamine (crystal) in the bathroom of the vehicle.
A detachment of the Mexican 35 Military Zone arrested an unidentified man and seized an amount of drugs and weapons in Guerrero state Sunday.The arrest took place in the village of Tenamazapa in the Tlacoapa municipality where soldiers seized 7.30 kilograms of opium gum, three rifles, three handguns, three weapons magazines, 2,273 rounds of ammunition and two vehicles.
A unit of the Mexican 36th Military Zone found an amount of methamphetamine in Chiapas state Sunday. The drugs were found on a farm near the village of Santa Teresa y Guadalupe in the Tapachula municipality, where 11.2 kilograms of methamphetamine were found buried.
Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Russia-backed president, has lost a defamation case against a prominent Russian human rights activist.
A Moscow court absolved Oleg Orlov of accusing him of personal involvement in the murder of fellow activist Natalya Estemirova in Chechnya in 1999. It found the leader of rights group Memorial had simply expressed an opinion.
Nobody has been prosecuted for the murder of Estemirova, who was abducted from outside her home in Grozny in July of 2009. Her bullet-riddled body was discoverd hours later in the neighboring region of Ingushetia.
Hours after the murder, Orlov was quoted by Memorial as saying: "I know, I am sure who is guilty of Natalya Estemirova's murder. We all know this person. His name is Ramzan Kadyrov... We do not know if he gave the order himself or if his close associates did so to please their superiors. But evidently [Russian] President [Dmitry] Medvedev is happy having a killer run one of the Russian Federation's regions."
Kadyrov, who had vowed to catch Estemirova's murderers while condemning the victim herself as someone "devoid of honor", took a civil action against Orlov, winning symbolic damages from him in 2009. He then pursued a criminal action.
WASHINGTON, June 14 (Yonhap) -- The United States still believes that there is no better tool than the six-way talks in dealing with North Korea's nuclear weapons drive despite a protracted stalemate, Washington's point man on Pyongyang was quoted as saying Tuesday.
The options of ignoring them and turning several mountainsides to rubble having been vetoed...
In a keynote address at a closed-door post-forum dinner hosted by the Brookings Institution here, Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, said the long-dormant six-way talks are "useful" for the denuclearization of the communist nation, "not immediately but with an incremental approach," according to a participant who requested anonymity.
Bosworth was quoted as saying that the six-party negotiations are necessary to maintain bilateral and multilateral contacts with Pyongyang.
Also necessary in order not to reward Kimmie with the prestige of a bilateral meeting, prestige that he desperately wants.
Meanwhile, another participant in the meeting said later that the U.S. seems to have concluded that the food situations in North Korea are not that serious. The Barack Obama administration dispatched a team of officials and experts, led by Robert King, special envoy for North Korea's human rights, there last month in a bid to verify Pyongyang's claim that its people urgently need food aid.
And if they are serious, let China fix the problem.
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North Korea's test launch of a KN-06 surface-to-air missile into the West Sea early this month appears to have been successful, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said at a hearing by the National Assembly's Defense Committee on Monday.
"We believe North Korea was testing its latest weapon system and we have concluded that it was a success," Kim said, offering the first such confirmation of the test launch.
North Korea unveiled the missile at a military parade celebrating the 65th anniversary of the founding of its Workers Party on October 10 last year. South Korea officially verified it as a KN-06 in its 2010 Defense White Paper.
The KN-06 is a surface-to-air missile. Unlike previous North Korean missiles, such as the KN-02 inter-continental ballistic missile that follows an arch-like trajectory, the KN-06 is stored in a launching tube and fired vertically toward a flying target. It is similar to the Russian S-300, which is used to shoot down other missiles, and seems to be based on technology that North Korea secretly obtained from China, Russia and other countries. Showing its evolution from the S-300, which had a range of between 75 km and 90 km, the KN-06 is apparently capable of hitting targets up to 150 km away. Each launcher truck can hold two to three missiles.
The key word in all this is 'apparently'. The electronics will be everything in this, and I suspect a Nork variant of a Chinese rip-off of Soviet Russian missile avionics won't exactly be 2011 technology.
North Korea developed its latest weapon after it encountered difficulties in acquiring new fighter jets from China and other countries. In contrast, the South Korean military has been able to upgrade its stable of fighter jets by acquiring cutting-edge F-15Ks. Seoul's Air Force will possess 60 such fighter jets by next year, capable of launching precision strikes against North Korean nuclear weapons and missile bases.
And now for the more worrisome news:
Pyongyang may also have produced a lighter nuclear device, Kim told lawmakers at the hearing, in what amounts to a rare admission by a high-ranking defense official.
"It has been a long time [since the North's nuclear test], so we believe the North had enough time to make a smaller or lighter nuclear weapon," he said. "Considering cases involving other countries, there is a strong chance that the North has succeeded."
Meanwhile, Kim confirmed a report by AP last month claiming that North Korea was nearing the completion of a second long-range missile base in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province. Kim said his intelligence reports showed the new base to be larger and more complex than Pyongyang's existing missile base in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province.
In a bid to allay fears of a surprise attack from the North, the defense minister stressed that the South Korean military is capable of delivering effective attacks in case of provocation from across the border. It can also detect signs that the North is mounting nuclear warheads onto its missiles, he said.
Even the new light ones?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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"Miniature" warheads.
DPRK Copy of PLA DF-21 ASBMS???
* ION PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > SOUTH KOREA DEFENSE CHIEF: LIKELIHOOD OF "SURPRISE PROVOCATION" BY NORTH KOREA ON RISE.
Kimmie's best card remains US-China nuclear "brinkmanship", i.e. induc US-China mil confrontationism iff not conflict in NE Asia, espec iff the DPRKs' famine, econ woes continue unabated or worsen; or in the alternative that Kim family dynastic/ruling power becoms untenable. KIMMIE + REGIME ARE WILLING TO SUPPORT THE NEW SINO-DPRK FTAS ONLY AS LONG AS THEIR DOMINANCE IN DPRK GOVT. REMAINS INTACT, I.E. ARE NOT EXECUTED + STRUNG UPSIDE DOWN LIKE MUSSOLINI + MISTRESS BY THE DPRK PEOPLE + ARMY.
* SAME > [ROK's new NorthWest DefCom]SOUTH KOREAN SETS UP DEFENSE COMMAND FOR YELLOW SEA ISLANDS NEAR NORTH KOREA.
Words have consequences, Mr. President. Even though your people are now saying the U.S. will veto a UN move to establish a Palestinian state in September, clearly there are those who believe you can be swayed.
(Ma'an) -- The European Union is advocating an international peace plan as an alternative to a unilateral Palestinian plan to secure state recognition at the UN in September, Israeli media reported Tuesday.
In a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, called for the urgent convening of the Middle East Quartet, the Haaretz daily reported.
Ashton's letter was coordinated with the governments of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, a senior European diplomat said, according to the report.
"This is no time for unilateral moves on either side, since this could lead to escalation. This is in nobody's interest, least of all that of the Israeli and Palestinian people," she said.
"I believe that what is needed now is a clear signal to the parties, and a reference framework that should enable them to return to the negotiating table. President Obama, in his speech on May 19, laid down two important elements that can be the basis for a resumption of negotiations: Borders based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, and firm security guarantees."
Why go all the way back to 1967, when there's Oslo (also not a wonderful idea) and all those other agreements which the Palestinians refused in the last few months and years?
#2
Oslo did not work, so Israel's enemies will try something new or at least different than Oslo. Oslo did not work because the Paleos and their friends did not honor their side of the agreement. The EUniks gave that a pass, just like they gave the Arafish a pass over his lack of *ahem* financial transparency in the billions he got from them.
Accommodation and compromise by Israel has been seen as a sign of weakness to be exploited by making further demands on Israel.
Well, they are running out of land, room, time, so the accommodation must stop.
An independent Paleostinian state carries with it responsibilities. Serious ones, like shooting rockets into Israel becomes an act of war.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/15/2011 14:22 Comments ||
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OTOH its being repor that not all NATO-EU Member-States are onboard wid the plans.
#1
Turkey is considering creating a buffer zone on the border between the two countries, in case the bloody repression of demonstrations continues and the flow of refugees increases.
[Al Jazeera] Turkish police have jugged 32 suspected members of the online cyberactivism collective Anonymous, over possible links to attacks on a number of websites.
The arrests were in response to a complaint from Turkey's Directorate of Telecommunications, whose website was taken down last Thursday as part of a protest against what Anonymous has said is government censorship of the internet.
The Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday that nine minors out of the group of 32 suspects had been released without charges, but that the remaining 23 were still being questioned.
Turkey, whose ruling AKP party won a parliamentary vote on Sunday, plans to introduce a new internet filtering system in August, under which users will have to sign up for one of four filters - domestic, family, children and standard.
Anonymous, a loose activist collective that previously attacked websites including Amazon and Mastercard, says the system will make it possible to keep records of people's online activity.
Last week access to Turkey's telecoms authority website, identified as a main target in the group's "Operation Turkey" campaign was blocked at 1500GMT on Thursday.
In a posting on its official website, Anonymous issued a statement pledging to fight what it said was internet censorship there.
There has been a crackdown on the group in recent days.
Last week Spanish police tossed in the calaboose three suspected members of the group on charges of cyber attacks against targets including Sony Corp's PlayStation Network, governments, businesses and banks.
Police on Friday alleged the three tossed in the calaboose 'hacktivists' had been involved in recent attacks on the Japanese electronics manufacturer, Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia and Italian energy group Enel SpA.
The arrests are the first in Spain against members of Anonymous following similar legal proceedings in the US and Britannia.
Police said all three men were Spanish and in their 30s. One worked in the merchant navy.
The suspected Anonymous members, who were tossed in the calaboose in Almeria, Barcelona and Alicante, were guilty of co-ordinated computer hacking attacks from a server set up in a house in Gijon in the north of Spain, the Spanish police said.
Sony shocked gamers in late April by revealing that hackers had stolen personal information from the accounts of 77 million users of its online video-games network.
A week later, it said hackers had stolen data from another 25 million users of its computer games system.
Sony's PlayStation Network was crippled for a month as the company tried to find and fix the problem.
Anonymous, a loose grouping of activists which has carried out cyber attacks on organisations including Sony in the past, said at the time it was not responsible for those attacks and had no interest in stealing credit-card details.
Its members describe themselves as internet freedom fighters and have previously brought down the websites of the Church of Scientology, Amazon, Mastercard and others they saw as hostile to WikiLeaks.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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They are not the smartest bunch of knives in the drawer, and often deviate from good true purpose to silly rhetoric. Damage is minimal and they as said do not disclose those information which would be damaging.
More high school kid in the basement than anything.
#3
The nice thing about belonging to 'Anonymous' is that anyone can claim to belong, and anyone the authorities arrest can be put in that category. There is no official membership.
[Dawn] Pakistain is trying to persuade rustics in a key bad turban sanctuary near the Afghan border to take up arms against al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in their midst, a top political official said Tuesday.
The US has repeatedly demanded that Pakistain launch a military offensive in North Wazoo to try and sap the strength of faceless myrmidons who regularly attack foreign forces in Afghanistan, jeopardizing Washington's hopes of drawing down troops.
The latest effort to bring rustics on board appeared to be a new attempt to replicate the successes of the US military in Iraq to turn the tribes there against al-Qaeda.
So far, it has been less promising in Afghanistan and Pakistain, and at least two prominent North Waziristan locals said it would never work in their area. It is also unclear whether the government and the US have the same faceless myrmidons in mind for targeting.
A good point, O Dawn journalist. Probably not the same faceless myrmidon groups, come to think of it.
The Pak government has promoted the creation of tribal militias elsewhere in the northwest, but many of their members have been killed in bad turban attacks. Others have complained that the government has not given them enough support.
Tariq Hayat, the top political official for Pakistain's entire semiautonomous tribal region, said talks with the North Waziristan rustics began in recent days and the government has promised "moral and material support," but not weapons.
"If they feel now that they are strong enough and they are getting signals from the authorities about all our support, yes they would love to throw the Death Eaters out from their homes," said Hayat.
Kamran Khan, a politician from North Waziristan, said he was not aware of the recent negotiations, but said people are too angry over US Arclight airstrikes in the region to back the effort.
"As long as the American drones are hitting us every day, no such idea can get public support," said Khan.
The Pak government is also extremely unpopular in North Waziristan, a poor region that is effectively controlled by faceless myrmidons despite the presence of thousands of Pak troops.
A leading member of one of the two main tribes in North Waziristan ruled out local militias, known locally as lashkars, because of the danger of retaliation by the bad turbans.
"Only an insane person would think about an anti-Taliban lashkar here," he told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... for fear of being targeted by either the faceless myrmidons or the army.
It's unclear whether Pakistain's attempt to establish tribal militias is a precursor to an operation in North Waziristan or an attempt to deflect US pressure, which has increased following the American raid last month that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who was potted in Pakistain... in an army town not far from Islamabad.
Also unknown is whether the government has been pushing the rustics to target the same faceless myrmidons the US wants taken out. Washington is most focused on the Haqqani network, which it considers the most dangerous bad turban group fighting in Afghanistan.
But many analysts believe Pakistain is reluctant to target the group because of historical ties and the belief that it could be a useful ally in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.
Instead, the more likely target could be groups like al-Qaeda and the Pak Taliban, which have declared war on the government and have carried out scores of bombings throughout the country.
Hayat, the political official, said the government wanted the rustics to target foreign faceless myrmidons and members of the Taliban, but did not indicate whether that group includes the Haqqani network and other Afghan fighters battling foreign forces.
The Mighty Pak Army did not respond to requests for comment on the recent talks or on whether a North Waziristan operation was imminent. Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... recently called on the people of North Waziristan "to evict all foreigners from their soil."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] The House Appropriations Committee has approved a defense spending bill that imposes limits on US aid to Pakistain and creates a special bipartisan group to review the US role in Afghanistan.
The panel gave the go-ahead to the bill on a voice vote Tuesday. The legislation would provide $530 billion for the Defense Department and $119 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill is $9 billion less than President Barack B.O. Obama requested.
The bill would withhold 75 per cent of the $1.1 billion in US aid to Pakistain until the administration reports to Congress on how it would spend the money. Reflecting the frustration with Pakistain's effort in battling terrorism, the committee adopted an amendment that gives Congress even more power to review the spending.
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A leaked Syrian government document shows that the regime orchestrated last monthÂ’s border clashes with Israel.
Syrian security forces were told to grant free passage to 20 protester-filled buses and allow them to cross the cease-fire line with Israel, according to the memorandum, which was obtained by the Daily Telegraph.
“All security, military, and contingent units are hereby ordered to grant permission of passage to all [20] vehicles (47-passenger capacity) with the attached plate numbers that are scheduled to arrive at [10] in the morning on Sunday, May 15, 2011 without being questioned or stopped until it reaches or frontier defense locations,” the memorandum says.
The document, which bears the Syrian state emblem, was written and sent after what it describes as an “urgent meeting” between the army’s deputy chief of staff and senior intelligence officials in Al-Qunaitera province, which is adjacent to Israel.
“Permission is hereby granted allowing approaching crowds to cross the cease-fire line [with Israel] towards the occupied Majdal-Shamms [a town in the Israeli-held Golan Heights], and to further allow them to engage physically with each other in front of United Nations agents and offices,” it says.
The document, which also bears the signature of the mayor of Al-Qunaitera province, is dated May 14, 2011, the day before the clashes, which occurred simultaneously with similar rushes on IsraelÂ’s borders with Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
The memorandum says that “it is essential to ensure that no one carries military identification or a weapon as they enter, with a strict emphasis on the peaceful and spontaneous nature of the protest.”
A Syrian Embassy spokesman did not return a voice-mail request for comment and did not answer subsequent calls for comment.
The Washington Times could not independently verify the authenticity of the document.
Michael Weiss, the Daily Telegraph blogger who obtained the document, told The Times that his source is a “very well-informed Syrian in a position to authenticate state documents,” though not currently in the government himself.
Tony Badran, a Syria specialist for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said he “didn’t need the document” to know that the Syrian government was behind the clashes.
“Just like busing jihadis from the airport and downtown Damascus to the Iraqi border was not a spontaneous event that happened without the regime’s knowledge and/or coordination, having buses move through a restricted military area was also not a spontaneous event,” he said.
The clashes last month turned deadly when Israeli forces fired on infiltrators. Syrian state television claimed that 13 were killed.
“There’s a media blackout on Syrian television on the domestic repression, but somehow they had cameras ready at the border,” Mr. Badran said.
The document has emerged as the death toll from SyriaÂ’s crackdown on anti-government protesters reached 1,300, according to opposition figures.
The Reform Party of Syria, a Washington-based opposition group, previously claimed that the regime had paid the protesters $1,000 each and promised a payment of $10,000 to the family of anyone killed by Israeli fire.
Israeli officials had no comment about the document leak Tuesday, but Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
Mr. Lieberman also called on the European Union to withdraw its ambassadors in Damascus.
[An Nahar] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... will meet Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, chief Khaled Meshaal in Cairo next week to finalize a new government put together by the two factions, a top official of his Fatah movement said Tuesday.
The meeting was announced as Paleostinian factions were in Cairo for reconciliation talks aimed at choosing a prime minister to head the unity government.
"Today, during the talks between the Fatah and Hamas delegations, a meeting was scheduled for next Tuesday between President Abbas and Meshaal to finalize the formation of the new government," said Azzam al-Ahmed, who heads the Fatah delegation at the talks.
"They also decided that this meeting will be the last to finalize the issue of the government," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Fatah met with a Hamas delegation headed by Moussa Abu Marzouq at the Egyptian intelligence headquarters.
Fatah has said it wants to retain prime minister Salam Fayyad ...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either... to head the government, but the nomination was immediately rejected by the Islamist Hamas movement.
Fayyad told news hounds in the West Bank city of Ramallah that he would not want to be a stumbling block in the reconciliation deal.
"I assure you that there is no way I can accept that the formation of the unity government be delayed because of me," Fayyad said.
"I will not impose myself on anyone, and I do not want any side to perceive me as being imposed on them. But if there is an agreement on my (nomination), I will be willing to take on the task," he added.
Both Fatah and Hamas said they were optimistic they would come to an agreement.
"God willing, this will be the last round of talks regarding the formation of the government," Ahmed told AFP ahead of the meeting.
"We hope to agree on the name of a prime minister and the members of the government ... We, in Fatah, insist on ending the chapter of division and to implement the deal on the ground. We are optimistic," he said.
The Egyptian-sponsored talks are the fruit of a reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo in May aimed at ending years of bitter feuding and laying the groundwork for presidential and parliamentary elections within a year.
Fatah's central committee agreed on Saturday to throw their support behind Fayyad, a former World Bank official and preferred candidate of the international community.
But Hamas has rejected Fayyad, blaming him for the arrest and alleged torture of its leaders, and plunging the Paleostinian Authority into debt.
Izzat al-Risheq, a member of the Hamas politburo, said ahead of the Cairo talks that the best way forward in forming the unity government was to exclude controversial candidates.
"A main principle we have agreed on is that thorny issues or disagreements be dealt with by both sides through consensus. Therefore the government will be one of consensus and no side will impose its view on the other," Egyptian state news agency MENA quoted Risheq as saying.
"We feel the best way is to exclude controversial choices," he said.
On Sunday, Hamas front manSami Abu Zuhri ...a senior front man for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gazoo. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest... reiterated his movement's rejection of Fayyad.
"Hamas informed Fatah during the last meeting of its rejection of the choice of Salam Fayyad to head the new government," Abu Zuhri told AFP.
"The Fatah central committee's nomination of Salam Fayyad to head the government is a Fatah nomination and any head of the new government must be chosen by consensus and not, of course, by one of the parties."
Hamas has yet to put forward a candidate for the prime minister's post.
Risheq said the two sides will also be discussing the release of political prisoners
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Eventually, IDF will have to take over "finalizing" Palestinians.
The Pheu Thai Party has vowed to renew Thailand's diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia if it leads the next government, said the party's candidate Yingluck Shinawatra during a visit to the southern Thailand yesterday. She said if her party won the July 3 election and she became prime minister, she would find an opportunity to visit Saudi Arabia.
Her priorities seem clear enough.
Bilateral ties with Riyadh have been tense following the theft of gems belonging to the Saudi royal family by a Thai employee in 1989, the murders in 1989 and 1990 of four Saudi diplomats in Bangkok and the disappearance in 1990 of Saudi businessman Mohammad al-Ruwaili, who lived in Thailand at the time.
Ms Yingluck said trade relations with Saudi Arabia must be recovered. However, she said she would rather concentrate on future opportunities than the past.
She said that she hoped to increase the quota of Thai pilgrims going on the haj.
Also, Pheu Thai plans to turn the three southern border provinces into a special administration zone, said Ms Yingluck.
Ms Yingluck and her campaign team travelled to court voter support in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat yesterday. She told party supporters in the region that if the party could form a government after the July 3 election, then it would push for try to establish a special administration zone, similar to Bangkok and Pattaya, in the deep South.
The Matubhum Party called the special administration zone idea an election ploy. Most of the people in the region do not regard the special administration zone as the best way of governing the area, said Phaisal Toyip, Matubhum's candidate in Constituency 1 of Narathiwat. He added he was confident Pheu Thai could not dent his party's popularity in the southernmost provinces.
[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian official has disclosed new plots hatched by certain Western powers to violate non-proliferation regulations and conduct illegal acts pertaining to weapons of mass destruction.
"The British regime is renewing the Trident nuclear system which will last at least for one century," Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Baqeri said at the end of second International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Monday.
"In a quite illegal move, the British regime signed a nuclear deal with La Belle France to share know-how needed to build and renovate nuclear bombs and to reduce spending to expand their nuclear arsenal," he added, Fars news agency reported.
He further disclosed a reality about domestic situation in the US and stated, "The budget allocated by the US in 2011 for storage and development of nuclear weapons showed more than 50 percent increase in comparison with 2001."
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... according to US statistics, 45,000 Americans die annually due to lack of social welfare insurance, Baqeri noted.
The SNSC official said the US has been a major obstacle in the way of an effective fight against nuclear disarmament for years, adding that Washington only agreed with negotiations about a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) but it still opposes inspection of its fissile material depots.
He pointed to unconditional US support for Israel, saying "The US provides all-out support to the Zionist regime (Israel) which is the only possessor of nuclear warheads in the Middle East and has so far decried to implement the international law and resolutions of the UN Security Council."
"The Israeli regime has a background filled with crimes, oppression and occupation and is expanding the number of its nuclear warheads at its covert nuclear facilities."
Baqeri, who is a member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, said the US has stationed more than 200 nuclear warheads in Europe and emphasized that the move is a blatant violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
According to the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the US plans to develop tactical nuclear weapons from Europe to the Persian Gulf region, he added.
The official further elaborated on Britannia's role in acts of terror against Iran, saying, "The UK government officially and explicitly announced that Iran's peaceful nuclear activities should be stopped through an operation based on information."
He noted that an Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated exactly 10 days after the announcement and asked, "Isn't it a clear sample of nuclear terrorism?"
On November 29, 2010, unidentified snuffies attached bombs to the vehicles of Iranian university professors Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi, and detonated them.
Professor Shahriari was killed immediately, but Dr. Abbasi and his wife sustained minor injuries and were rushed to hospital.
Iran has blamed the Israeli regime and Western powers for the terrorist attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
IOW, IIUC Iran wants SLBMS, SLCMS, + SUBS - all the goody goodies + trappings, etc. of a major world power or superpower.
D *** NG - I KNEW IT!
Clearly this means they want TOM CRUISE to play AHMED, the wily crazy anti-US Iranian F-14 Ace-Maverick in TOP GUN: BAHRAIN BUGALOO???
#2
BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Guardian.UK] AHMADINEJAD CALLS FOR REGIONAL SECURITY ALLIANCE [SCO Member-States] TO COUNTER US INFLUENCE | IRAN'S PRESIDENT CALLS ON SCO MEMBERS TO UNITED AGZ [US-led]WESTERN "COLONIZERS + ENSLAVERS".
* SAME > CHINA + [SCO] ALLIES BACK RUSSIA AGZ US MISSLE SHIELD.
Ever-more evidencia/indicia that Iran desires for it + Shia Islam to dominate the future [nuclear-armed?]OWG ISLAMIST CALIPHATE = GLOBAL ISLAMIST-JIHADIST STATE.
* SAME > TURKEY IS THE NEW EGYPT [pre-Jasmine/Mubarak] OF THE MIDDLE EAST. Arab-Muslim World + Sunni Islam.
[An Nahar] The Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... bloc warned the new government on Tuesday against adopting vengeful and spiteful practices, adding that Prime Minister Najib Miqati wasted an opportunity to form a government of independent figures.
It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: "A Cabinet of independent figures would have led the country towards dialogue, instead he chose to serve Hizbullah's arms, succumbing to its 'black shirts policy'."
"After a 140-day delay, a one-sided government was formed, which could have been established a week after Miqati's appointment, but it seems that those in power were waiting for the appropriate moment for permission to form it," it continued.
"The new government is a product of a mission to confront the other and eliminate it on the local scene, and confront the other on the regional and international scenes," the statement noted.
The Mustaqbal bloc predicted that the new government will not abide by Leb's Arab and international commitments.
"It adopted a unilateral political approach therefore making it a March 8 and Hizbullah Cabinet that will go against the developments in the Arab world and Miqati's commitments to national principles," it added.
The bloc announced that it will take the position of a "responsible democratic opposition in order to protect Leb, its constitution and citizens."
"The bloc would like to remind the new government that the Lebanese greatly value their coexistence and general and personal freedoms," it said.
"Passed experiences with totalitarian parties have taught us that their coups begin with the presentation of seemingly independent figures who will eventually suppress society through oppression and persecution," the statement continued.
"The danger of this plague spreading to Leb has now more than ever become a serious possibility under this new government," it warned.
"Any vengeful and spiteful practices on its part will be met with unwavering resistance," it stressed
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Philander C. Knox ... on Tuesday accused Iran of backing Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... "vicious assaults" against pro-democracy protesters.
"Iran is supporting the Assad regime's vicious assaults on peaceful protesters and military actions against its own cities," Clinton said, comparing its response to Iran's crackdown on pro-reform protests in 2009.
"Two years ago this week, Iranian citizens went to the polls in the hopes of expressing their democratic rights. But the authorities in Tehran had no interest in the will of the people," she said.
"When the people reached for their aspirations, the government responded with brutal repression. Two years later, that repression continues."
Syria's uprising was triggered in mid-March by the arrest and torture of 15 children and adolescents accused of spraying anti-regime graffiti in the southern town of Daraa, which then became the epicenter of the revolt.
The U.N. children's agency UNICEF has since said that at least 30 children have been rubbed out in the revolt against the Assad family's 40-year rule.
The revolt gained new strength last month with the release of gruesome pictures of the body of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib, whom activists say was severely tortured, a charge denied by authorities.
Clinton compared Khatib to Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman who became an emblem of the 2009 protests after she was shot during a demonstration and shown bleeding out on a widely circulated online video.
"The world was shocked by images of a 13-year-old Syrian boy, tortured and mutilated by Syrian security forces. It reminded us of a young Iranian woman, killed in the street two years ago for all to see," she said.
She added that the United States would "stand with citizens -- including the citizens of Syria and Iran -- who yearn to be free and to exercise their universal rights."
Washington has repeatedly called on Syria to halt the violent crackdown that has killed hundreds of civilians and sent thousands of people streaming across its border with Turkey.
Last week maimed refugees being treated in Turkey accused Iranian forces of taking part in the fierce assault in and around Jisr al-Shughour, a northwestern town where tens of thousands have decamped the violence.
The United States has demanded that Assad lead a peaceful political transition or step aside, but has stopped short of calling for his ouster.
It has also blacklisted Iranian officials for their alleged role in the crackdown.
Iran has meanwhile stood by Syria, its main Arab ally, and condemned U.S. "meddling" in its affairs. It has accused the United States and Israel of backing the revolt and said the foreign media is exaggerating the violence.
Iran suppressed its own wave of protests following 2009 elections that returned President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad to power and were slammed as fraudulent by the opposition and a movement of tech-savvy young activists.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan telephoned Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... Tuesday and urged him to stop a bloody crackdown on protesters and launch reforms, Anatolia news agency reported.
Erdogan told the Syrian leader to "refrain from violence and end the unrest" that has swept Syria since anti-regime protests erupted in March, the report said.
Erdogan stressed "it would be useful to draw up a timetable of reforms as soon as possible and urgently implement them," it added.
The two leaders have enjoyed close personal ties amid flourishing Turkish-Syrian ties in recent years, but Ankara's insistent calls on Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... to initiate reforms have gone unheeded so far.
Last week, Erdogan toughened his tone, accusing the Syrian regime of perpetrating an "atrocity" against the demonstrators, as thousands of fleeing Syrians crossed into Turkey to seek refuge from bloodshed.
Most of them came from Jisr al-Shughour, a flashpoint city in the anti-regime uprising roughly 40 kilometers from the Turkish border, where, the Syrian authorities say, 120 police and troops were massacred.
Refugees said Monday that troops were burning crops and slaughtering livestock in villages near Jisr al-Shughour, the main focus of a crackdown which began at the weekend.
Ankara has insisted that democratic transition in Syria should take place under Assad's leadership and its criticism of the bloodshed has stopped short of calling for his departure.
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06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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The terrorist described as the linchpin in the hunt for Osama bin Laden has rejoined al-Qaida after the Bush administration released him from a secret CIA secret prison Boy! There's a missed opportunity!
under pressure from Pakistan, according to former and current U.S. intelligence officials. Who asked not to be named, because then their story might be checked.
Shortly after the CIA decided to close the hundreds of secret prisons, the U.S. intelligence agency returned al-Qaida operative Hassan Ghul in 2006 to his native Pakistan, which had been demanding his release since his capture about two years earlier. No doubt, the media cheered on the demands from his native Pakistan, but we don't need to bring that up!
Pakistan held Ghul for at least a year before he was released, eventually making his way back to al-Qaida as fast as his curley-toed slippers could carry him to help with operations against the U.S., the nameless, secretive officials said.
Pakistan's decision to free Ghul, a midlevel al-Qaida operative, is yet another troubling revelation in a time when the U.S. is rethinking its relationship with the Pakistan and whether it can be a trusted ally in the war on terror. Wow. Somebody must've really cheesed the media. They could've easily blamed Bush for springing him for Gitmo. Of course, they could've blamed all the whiners who wanted Gitmo closed, 'cuz all the plain folks Cheney locked up there were all innocent.
Maybe this is part of Soros's plan? Whip up a war frenzy with Pakistain to distract attention from Zero's "bumps in the road to recovery." Incumbents love wartime economic gains!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/15/2011 05:58 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Families of two detainees who died at Guantanamo Bay in 2006 say the prisoners were tortured to death, challenging Washington's claim that they did away with himself.
Relatives of Saudi national Yasser al-Zahrani and Yemeni Salah al-Salami have demanded a federal appeals court reconsider their cases claiming they have new information backing up their case including direct eyewitness accounts from four US military guards.
"They have direct eyewitness accounts of a cover-up of the actual circumstances of the deaths" their attorney, Padriss Kebriaei said, according to AFP.
At the time of their death, Al-Zahrani, 21, and Al-Salami, 33, had been held in jug without charge, jugged incommunicado for about four years at Guantanamo Bay.
The Pentagon says the two men, along with another individual that his family has not filed a complaint, did away with himself by hanging themselves in their own cells.
However, we can't all be heroes Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... Joe Hickman, a US soldier that was on guard at the night of their death claims that he had seen the three prisoners being transferred to another facility known as "Camp No."
"Guards nicknamed the facility 'Camp No' because anyone who asked if it existed would be told, 'No, it doesn't,'" the families' petition said.
The accounts indicate that the men were killed either by accident or during torture sessions at a remote facility outside the main compound.
A medical examination has confirmed signs of torture on the body of one of the inmates.
The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 with the claimed goal of flushing out the al-Qaeda group. Many people were locked away and tried in Guantanamo prison without clear charges since it opened in 2002.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
There is so much going on the world now that this sort of news gets short shrift even from the MSM.
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.
Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Russia-backed president, has lost a defamation case against a prominent Russian human rights activist.
Pakistain is trying to persuade 
The Pheu Thai Party has vowed to renew Thailand's diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia if it leads the next government, said the party's candidate Yingluck Shinawatra during a visit to the southern Thailand yesterday. She said if her party won the July 3 election and she became prime minister, she would find an opportunity to visit Saudi Arabia.
A senior Iranian official has disclosed new plots hatched by certain Western powers to violate non-proliferation regulations and conduct illegal acts pertaining to weapons of mass destruction.
Najib Miqati
Hillary Clinton
President-for-Life Bashir 
The terrorist described as the linchpin in the hunt for Osama bin Laden has rejoined al-Qaida after the Bush administration released him from a secret CIA secret prison 
Families of two detainees who died at Guantanamo Bay in 2006 say the prisoners were tortured to death, challenging Washington's claim that they 
