The Obama administration is assuring aid workers in the Horn of Africa that they won't violate U.S. laws if some of their food, medicine or money ends up in the hands of al-Qaeda-linked militants accused of worsening the region's famine.
A big green light to the Widows Ammunition Fund...
The revised U.S. guidelines don't lift any restrictions on the al-Shabab network, which controls southern Somalia and has been blamed for aggravating the impact of drought-driven famine by barring international aid workers from the area.
So if any aid gets to al-Shabab they'll have to give it right back...
The change responds to criticism by aid groups and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that U.S. rules were making it harder to get food to starving Somalis. Those regulations have allowed for the prosecution of U.S.-funded aid groups if they pay taxes or tolls demanded by al-Shabab on roads in the area.
Why not let the Euros take the lead on this one? Their laws and morals are a bit more .. flexible...
"Our fundamental goal is recognizing the significance, the seriousness of the famine that's going on right now in the Horn of Africa and the fact that many of the individuals most affected are under areas controlled by al-Shabab," State Department acting spokesman Mark Toner said today.
"We thought it was important to issue new guidance that would allow greater flexibility for NGOs and aid workers to get their assistance into those regions that are controlled by al- Shabab and to the people who need it," Toner said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2011 12:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
anyone else think Obama should just shut the fuck up and play golf the rest of his term?
Posted by: chris ||
08/03/2011 15:30 Comments ||
Top||
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Nominated MP Amina Abdalla said in Parliament Tuesday that she donated Sh500,000 for the construction of Riyadha Mosque in Pumwani.
She said the United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... report, which accused her of funding Al Shaabab, the Somali fundamentalist group, was a conclusion from shoddy investigations.
She said the report would undermine efforts to fight terrorism in the region by inordinately sensationalising it with a view by the UN staff to lengthen their stay in Nairobi.
Speaking on the basis of a Standing Order, which allows an MP to make statement without debate, Ms Abdalla asked for punitive measures against the consultant who compiled the report if they cannot be substantiated.
The report of the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea prepared for the Security Council exposes in great detail the activities of the terrorist group and its links with governments, businesses and individuals across the region.
Riyadha mosque, located near Gikomba in Nairobi, is described by the UN report as the nerve centre of the Al Shaabab terror group's activities in Kenya.
Although the UN report names her and Tourism minister Najib Balala for donating money to the mosque, Ms Abdalla said former Vice President Moody Awori also gave some contributions.
Ms Abdalla told Parliament she met a Nigerian man in her Continental House office last May who claimed to be investigating a "very large donation" she made to the mosque.
She said a cheque was issued on February, 14 months after pledging on the third harambee in September 2009.
Ms Abdalla told the investigator that the huge sum contributed was due to her strong historical ties to the mosque.
She said three generations of her family members have been associated with the mosque since 1930s.
Ms Abdalla said it would be difficult for the mosque committee to fund terrorism activities because the three fund raising events failed to raise 10 per cent of the total budget.
She said the investigator had inaccurately stated that the money had been used by Ahmed Iman, who left for Somalia more than a year before she issued the cheque.
"My interaction with the investigator left me with a view that the UN recruits shoddy Sherlocks or the fellow was a con artist who wanted to extort money from me through his wild claims. I subscribed to the latter and dismissed him," said Ms Abdalla.
She said the investigator amused her when he claimed that Mr Iman had ordered his followers to support her during the 2007 general elections when she in fact did not contest any seat.
She also admitted that terrorism is huge challenge for the Mohammedan community in Kenya, and inaccurate reports similar to UN's will not assist in fighting terrorism.
"Terrorism is a real challenge to the Mohammedan community in Kenya. Recently, we as leaders have fully appreciated the level of recruitment that has been taking place on our soil," she said.
"The main reason for the slow appreciation of the problem has been the sensational reports on the subject by the international community," she added.
Ms Abdalla said sensationalising the report was the best way the UN consultants could justify "the extension of the Somalia Monitoring Group (SMG) mandate" which they got last month.
She said since the 9/11 attacks in the United States, Mohammedan charities rely on local donors such as Mr Balala and herself and the report would scare investors from contributing for fear of being linked with terror activities.
Ms Abdalla said if the SMG did not share the information with the Internal Security ministry, she would demand that the Foreign Affairs ministry send a protest note to the UN secretary general for allowing inaccurate reports to be adopted by the UN Security Council.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
Two Muslim teenagers have admitted drawing burkas on advertisements of scantily-clad women because they offended their religious views.
In one incident, Mohammed Hasnath and Muhammed Tahir, both 18, used black paint to draw the traditional headdress over a model in a poster for Lynx deodorant. The vandals said it was a 'sin' for the woman to remain uncovered and they were 'just trying to do good'. They also painted over faces in several other advertisements, including one for the Nicolas Cage film Drive Angry.
Once again, the Muslim crank turns out to be nothing more than a tarted up criminal. Also, these boys need to retake the sex ed. class they skipped before they dropped out of school. Normal people notice that Nicholas Cage is not a scantily clad woman.
Thames Magistrates' Court in Bow, East London, was told the pair were caught red-handed after members of the public called police.
It takes an awful lot to get the British public to call in the coppers. The lads must have been outstandingly obnoxious.
They had been seen painting over a female angel in the advertisement for Lynx at a bus shelter in February. Paint was also applied to the other side of the hoarding, which carried the poster for Drive Angry.
When police arrived the teenagers gave 'full and frank admissions', said Taiwo Akinrowo, prosecuting. He said: 'They told them that the way the women had been photographed was against their religion and they said it was a sin in Islam for a male to look twice at a woman who is not covered.
Their religion requires their women to dress modestly, and for Muslims to avoid depicting Mohammed's face lest idolatry result. These are merely images of non-Muslim women, intended for the pleasure of the viewer -- how is this a problem?
'Both have admitted painting over them. At first, they did not think it was a bad thing to do but they accept that it was not legal because it was not their property.' The youths admitted six counts of criminal damage.
Hasnath said: 'If someone was to look at our wife or mother or daughter with a bad intention we would not like it, so we were just trying to do good.'
But as these were not your womenfolk, who are you to protest?
Hasnath, of Poplar, and Tahir, of Tower Hamlets, were each told to pay costs of £283 and were released on a 12-month conditional discharge.
A more creative approach would be to also require the clever lads to strip off the damaged posters and replace them with the exact same thing.
The case came only days after Islamic extremists started a poster campaign proclaiming areas where Sharia law 'enforcement zones' have been set up. The messages order that there should be 'no gambling', 'no music or concerts', 'no porn or prostitution', 'no drugs or smoking' and 'no alcohol'.
How is that working for them?
Community leaders in East London denounced those behind the posters as 'small-minded idiots'.
#2
If they don't like the U.K. why don't they just go to some islamic paradise like Yemen, Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, etc. They can enjoy the hell out of Sharia Law.
A legislative committee in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies endorsed the National Security law Tuesday recommending that the Senate pass the law in the next regular session, according to Mexican news sources.
The controversial bill in process since 2009 came within days of being approved in the Mexican senate in regular session last April before it was tabled for possible action in a special session this summer.
The Partido Revolucionario Institucional(PRI) dominated Comision de Gobernacion or Government Commission voted with one vote against to recommend the bill be moved to the next regular session on approval by the Senate.
The law is languishing as Senators determine whether to move the bill during a special session. According to the rules that tabled the bill, the decision must be made by August 12th.
The decision by the Chamber of Deputies streamlines approval of the bill if the Senate approves it during a special session. The vote today ensures the bill would move to a conference committee once it is approved.
Partido Trabajo (PT) federal deputy Jaime Cardenas voted against all parts of the new law while all the remaining members of the commission voted to approve all parts of the new law. Cadenas maintains the law puts the Mexican Army above all civil law, "and that is dangerous," he is quoted as saying in several Mexican news outlets.
Partido Trabajo is a Maoist/leftist political party that usually aligns itself with the more mainstream leftist Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD). Many members of the PRD have voiced their reservations about the law throughout the debate since last fall, however, the members of the PRD on the committee voted for the law. PT's dissent means very little as PT claims less than 3 percent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
Many sectors of the Mexican left have vehemently opposed the new law, including Javier Sicilia, the Mexican leftist, poet and leader of the Movement for Peace Justice and Dignity.
Sicilia opposes the new national law and has recommended on several ocaisions that drugs be legalized. Despite that proposal, Sicilia has recommended several new laws with regard to the national security law,human and civil rights.
Sicilia, whio lost a son to a drug murder in late March, has gained no fewer than two face to face meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, who has soundly rejected all of Sicilias recommendations.
Despite that, Sicilia and a number of human rights groups in Mexico did have a six hour meeting with a number of federal deputies and senators including the leaders of each house, in Mexico City at the Castillo de Chapultepec last Thursday.
At the conclusion ogf the meeting legislators agreed to take up several reforms including comprehensive care for victims of crime, a reparations fund, creating a truth commission and audits of police and public security systems.
At the meeting's conclusion, PRI Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones said that no certain date has been set to deal with the new proposals.
The new national security law is very controversial as it seeks several changes in Article 29 of the Mexican Constitution.
As matters currently stand the president can declare a state of emergency with the approval of his cabinet, the Council of Ministers, and both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate for an unspecified limited time. Nothing in Article 29 sets forth what president may or may not do.
The new national security law adds specific actions the president may do through the military forces under his command.
For example, the new law allows the military to define regions where a local commander may declare martial law, a specification not included in Article 29. The law also exempts the military from any culpability for their actions during an emergency unless intentional misconduct can be proven.
The martial law declaration part is what the Mexican left opposes the most. Many members of the PRD and PT were victims of the Dirty War from 1968 to 1982, prosecuted by a series of PRI presidents who sought to destroy left reform movements, armed and otherwise in Mexico. The idea of a return to Los Pinos of a PRI president with the new national security law in place is seemingly a fear that is now held.
But it is the military exemption that is potentially the most controversial.
Last July the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that military personnel involved in wrongdoing must be prosecuted by civil courts, essentially turning the concept of military justice on its head.
That is because since 2005, all three branches of the Mexican defense forces, army, navy and air force have installed human rights directorates whose sole purpore is to investigate and recommend for prosecution military personal who have violated human rights of civilians during counternarcotics operations.
Since 2006, less than two percent of all human rights cases filed with SEDENA, the agency for the Mexican Army, for exmaple, have been dismissed. Some military officials have publicly characterized the other 98 percent of complaints as "jokes".
Calderon has recommended in light of the new decision to separate rape and forced disappearances as a list of offenses in which military personnel are exempt from the new ruling, however nothing has been addressed in the new law that exempts military personnel from any crimes.
Forced disappearances were the issue in the Supreme Court decision last month. In the Dirty War as many as 1,200 individuals have been listed as missing.
At the meeting also was a group from Coahuila state which claimed as many as 120 missing since the state of the drug war in 2006.
A North Korean document supports the conclusion that North Korea attacked the Navy corvette Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island last year to whip up domestic support for the succession of leader Kim Jong-il's son, Jong-un.
The document, which the Chosun Ilbo obtained from a source in China on Tuesday, claims that Kim junior was deeply involved in both attacks. Titled "Lecture Materials," the document was apparently drawn up for military propaganda officers early this year.
According to its wording, Kim Jong-un told military leaders that the inter-Korean situation "will become very tense in February and March." He made the comments around the end of January last year, two months before the attack on the Cheonan. The document claims South Korea and the U.S. "concocted a plot about the sinking of the Cheonan, but it failed."
The source, who claims to do frequent business with trading companies under the North Korean Workers Party, said that propaganda officers have been indoctrinating North Korean soldiers to show absolute loyalty to Kim Jong-un based on those materials. "They even have to take a test after their indoctrination classes," he said.
Whether or not Kim junior anticipated the tensions resulting from the attacks, it is clear that the regime is determined to make political capital from assigning the responsibility to him.
As for the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, it read: "As the South made a fuss about defending the Northern Limit Line [the de facto maritime border], [Kim Jong-un] stressed the need to kick the enemy in the teeth."
"He made sure that multiple rocket launchers and coast artillery batteries would be mobilized and a torrent of shells would pound waters near Baeknyeong and Yeonpyeong Islands several times," the document added.
The North fired a barrage of shells in the waters near the east of Baeknyeong Island in late January of last year. Ten months later, it shelled Yeonpyeong Island in a similar manner.
The document apparently acknowledges that sailors were wounded aboard a North Korean patrol boat that was partially destroyed as a result of bombardment by a South Korean Navy patrol boat in a skirmish near Daecheong Island in November 2009.
Immediately after the skirmish, Kim Jong-un ordered the North Korean Navy to take steps to evacuate and treat the wounded, the document claims.
"You must save their lives at all cost so that they can take their revenge. This is my order," he is quoted as saying. At the time, the regime kept quiet about the casualties in the humiliating defeat.
The document attempts to present the younger Kim, who is in his late 20s and has no military experience, as a warrior figure.
"We must lay down the South Sea at the feet of the leader [regime founder Kim Il-sung], who rests his head on Mt. Baekdu," the document quotes him as saying. "I'll drive a tank to Seoul myself."
A Beijing-based North Korea expert said the regime made an all-out effort to establish a record of military achievement for Kim junior, and the document evidently aims to show that he masterminded the attacks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"rests his head on Mt. Baekdu." ...while he was busy "masterminding."
" stressed the need to kick the enemy in the teeth." and "pound the waters near Baeknyeong and Yeonpyeong Islands."
steely-eyes and wearing his Movado. Does anyone ever still just call them Gooks? You could have fooled me.
Posted by: de Medici ||
08/03/2011 4:52 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Sunk a South Korean corvette on his first try? Is like that how Daddy hit seven holes in one his first round of golf?
#3
ION KOREA TIMES > BEIJING TOOK WRONG FOREIGN POLICY [Policies = Political, Military] WID PYONGYANG.
ARTIC = DPRK worried about merits of post-KorWar "Blood Alliance" wid China due to latter's failure to overtly ot strongly affirm same on the same level as the US does wid its Regional Allies [ROK, Japan, etc.]; + A NUMBER OF CHINESE SCHOLARS HAVE CALLED FOR CHINA TO FORMALLY SCRAP SAID "BLOOD ALLIANCE" WID PYONGYANG + TREAT NORTH KOREA AS A "NORMAL COUNTRY".
versus
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > CHINA VOWS TO CRUSH ETIM TERRORISTS TRAINED IN PAKISTAN.
Prolly a combo, i.e. Chinese demand for Pak to take strong unilater action agz the ETIM + covert PLA-led raids, selective assassinations agz hardline key ETIM, UIghur Leaders???
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > JAPANESE WANT TO ENCIRCLE CHINA WID US, JOINT ASEAN.
* SAME > HOW NORWEGIAN KILLER BREIVIK DESCRIBES CHINA + ITS PEOPLE.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > CHINA LASHES AT MANILA OVER ISLAND CLAIMS [South China Sea at UN Building].
* SAME > [Yomiuri Shimbun]JAPANESE NEWSPAPER SAYS CHINA HAS DESIGNED AN INDIGENOUS AIRCRAFT CARRIER. Its first wholly of Chin design, + wid same to be built in Shanghai.
* WAFF > CHINESE "LONGSWORD"-10 [CJ-10 LACMS] POSES THREAT TO US AIRCRAFT CARRIERS.
> SHORE-To-SHIP VERSION rumored to already be in possess wid the PLA.
> CJ-20 = Upgraded version.
Ay Pee summarized: Also banned will be the niqab or any other face-covering veil. The bill will be forwarded to the parliament for a vote after the summer recess. If passed, Italy will join France, Belgium and a city in Spain in banning Muslim face coverings.
Posted by: Paul D ||
08/03/2011 17:07 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Paul, you aren't the first Brit I've met who seems to me to be very passive on such issues. I know the UK is a constitutional monarchy, not a republic, but you do have elected MPs. What are you and others like you doing to influence them?
If you *don't* try to do so, for sure the power of the party leaders will continue to control policy.
Ay Pee summarized: Also banned will be the niqab or any other face-covering veil. The bill will be forwarded to the parliament for a vote after the summer recess. If passed, Italy will join France, Belgium and a city in Spain in banning Muslim face coverings.
Ay Pee summarized: Also banned will be the niqab or any other face-covering veil. The bill will be forwarded to the parliament for a vote after the summer recess. If passed, Italy will join France, Belgium and a city in Spain in banning Muslim face coverings.
A trade embargo imposed by authorities in Pristina has led to severe shortages of food and medicine among ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo, media reports said on Sunday.
Suppliers from Serbia have been unable to deliver bread and milk to the towns of Lesak, Leposavic and northern Mitrovica, the Belgrade-based Beta news agency reported. Shops in the towns were also on the verge of selling out of meat and sugar products and customers have been stockpiling flour and yeast, it added. Supplies of bottled water were also running low, while doctors at the main health center in the major town of Mitrovica expressed concern over shortages of medicine, the Beta said. Long queues could also be seen at petrol stations throughout northern Kosovo. But this is not Gaza, so who cares/
#1
Albanians mix well with Muslims and Christians. Inter marriage of faiths are common. Why Pristina would block basic human needs from Serbia is my question. They say Serbs look the other way. What does that mean. Kosovo is a landlocked country. The UN is a buffer at the border with Serbia. What are they trying to accomplish cutting off basic needs of these people.
#2
Perhaps trying to prove that Northern Kosovo is more directly connected and dependent on Serbia than on the rest of Kosovo? Come on Kosovo, step and take care of your Northern Provinces....
#3
What are they trying to accomplish cutting off basic needs of these people.
From the article:
"[T]he mainly ethnic Albanian government in Pristina decided earlier this month to implement a new ban on imports from Serbia, as they suspected ethnic Serb officers of turning a blind eye. NATO peacekeepers subsequently took control of the border crossings, which have been effectively closed since Thursday."
From other reports, "imports' is an euphenism for smuggling.
[An Nahar] The man behind the deadly twin attacks in Norway on July 22 wants a Japanese psychiatrist to carry out his psychological evaluation, his lawyer was quoted as saying Tuesday.
"My client has expressed a wish for a Japanese expert. This wish has to do with the concept of honor. He believes that a Japanese person will understand him better than someone from Europe," defense lawyer Geir Lippestad told financial daily Dagens Naeringsliv.
Two Norwegian psychiatrists have been tasked with evaluating the mental state of 32-year-old rightwing krazed killer and confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik.
They are set to make their recommendation by November 1 of whether he is sane enough to be tried for the attacks that killed 77 people and injured dozens of others.
"He has not said anything to me about refusing to talk to them," Lippestad stressed in the Dagens Naeringsliv interview.
Thomas Hegghammer, a Norwegian expert on terrorism and Islamic extremism, told Agence La Belle France Presse in a recent interview that Behring Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto detailing his "crusade" against a "Mohammedan invasion" of Europe, showed he was fascinated by the Japanese and Korean cultures.
Based on the initial information available about Behring Breivik's reasoning and personality, several psychiatrists told AFP he was probably sane enough to be held accountable for his actions, meaning he could be tried and sentenced to prison instead of being locked up in a mental institution.
According to existing laws, he could be sentenced to up to 21 years behind bars if found guilty of "terrorism," although the sentence could be stretched to 30 years if he is also found guilty of "crimes against humanity."
On the afternoon of July 22, Behring Breivik first bombed government offices in Oslo, killing eight people, before going on an 80-minute shooting rampage on the nearby island of Utoeya, where the ruling Labor Party was holding a youth summer camp, killing another 69 people, most of them teenagers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Civil libertarians argue the screening is TSA showmanship — coming just weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — and could quickly devolve into profiling. “It’s an ineffective waste of taxpayer dollars that has the potential and the reality of leading to profiling based on race and ethnicity,” said Massachusetts ACLU executive director who cares what her name is. ACLU don't like it? I like it already!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/03/2011 18:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Agree - if the ACLU is against it - it's GOT to be good!
Problem is A) its the TSA doing it and B) I'm sure they will have all sorts of downright stupid silly rules.
I have no problem profiling by religion (a choice).
#1
This is almost eerie, in that it identifies no threat or type of threat, and actually states that local communities are better equipped than the federal government to determine the threat.
Thus it is either an empty document meant to achieve nothing, an admission of federal failure and weakness, or something hopelessly insidious and menacing.
#2
Instead it points to federal outreach programs by the Homeland Security and Justice departments and FBI that have been initiated in the years since the 2001 terror attacks. It also refers to the nation's approach to countering criminal gangs as a model to embrace for countering violent extremism, involving police, schools, probation officers, youth agencies, government and local grass roots organizations.
Sounds like a beefed up Neighborhood Watch Program. I suggest the Feds supply local Neighborhood Watch Programs with the guns they walk over to Mexico for the cartels.
The psychological aspects of radicalization have been studied for years, and while there are some similarities among terrorism cases, there is not a single profile of a violent extremist in the U.S.
The Obama administration is well-poised to understand the roots of radicalism as his first administration was filled with 1960s radical wannabees following the Alinsky bible "Rules for Radicals."
Somehow this sounds like the Feds are saying we need to watch the white right-wing Christian extremists.
The Bush administration also sought ways to counter violent ideologies, but the problem became more pressing for President Barack Obama, as there have been more attempted attacks and plots against the U.S. during his time in office.
This is curious. There have been more attempts since the Bush administration? It doesn't seem like it. Is this one of the ginned up crises to issue some executive order (statist ideology) via the backdoor--such as gun control?
Be watchful and very wary of such open-ended non-problems. Maybe the govmint is anticipating the food and gas riots and the widespread looting and criminal activity when the wheels come off.
#3
Preparing to push the costs of local defense down to the States thereby avoiding the 'carry/no carry/open carry' and 'illegal immigration' discussions. Look for medical to follow, I think.
[Dawn] Addressing the National Assembly on Tuesday, Muttahida Qaumi Movement's ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... deputy parliamentary leader Haider Abbas Rizvi said the MQM had put its political integrity on the line and that whatever was happening in Bloody Karachi was not assassination but indiscriminate and mass killings, DawnNews reported.
Participating in a debate in the National Assembly on the situation of Bloody Karachi, Rizvi said MNA Iqbal Mohammad Ali's home had been attacked four times and if conditions did not improve by the end of MQM's deadline, which was put forward by Altaf Hussain earlier, then the government would be responsible for a backlash.
He added that the Police and Rangers in Bloody Karachi were not authorised to act against the terrorists. Furthermore, Rana Tanveer of Pakistain Mohammedan League -- Nawaz (PML-N) said that the government was constantly being apathetic towards the situation in Bloody Karachi and not a single office bearer was willing to resign or take responsibility.
Moreover, Aftab Sherpao said that the whole nation was tense about the circumstances in Bloody Karachi and advised compiling a report of all incidents of violence that have taken place in the last three months along with a list of all those locked away.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the bail application of former minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi in the Haj corruption case, DawnNews reported.
A two-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Jawwad Khwaja heard the plea requesting bail for the former minister.
The bench rejected the application after hearing the arguments.
During the proceedings, Additional Attorney General K K Agha said that evidence had been found of the involvement of Mr Kazmi, MNA Shagufta Jumani and Joint Secretary Raja Aftab Islam in the corruption.
Mr Agha further stated that the government would not protect the corrupt in its ranks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] The United States said Monday it is making progress toward encouraging Pakistain to lift curbs it said the authorities there had imposed on US diplomats travelling in the country.
"There was an incident last week, I believe, where diplomats were prevented from travelling between Islamabad and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar," State Department deputy front man Mark Toner told news hounds.
"We obviously raised our concerns. We feel that we're making progress towards...resolving the issue," Toner said after saying the issue was raised between US and Pak officials in both Islamabad and Washington.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Iraq's political leaders have given the go-ahead for negotiations on allowing some US troops to stay in the country, hours after the US military chief urged Iraq to come to a "quick decision" on the controversial issue.
Leaders from Iraq's major parties agreed on Tuesday to allow Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, to negotiate with the United States over whether US troops should stay to train Iraqi forces after the December 31 deadline for their departure.
"The leaders agreed to authorise the Iraqi government to start the talks with the United States that are limited to training issues," the parties said in a joint statement.
Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said, "After weeks of wrangling and lots of US pressure it appears to be a breakthrough."
"After a five hour meeting in presidential compound here in Baghdad there was an announcement that a deal has been reached that presence of US military trainers would be raised in parliament," she said.
The agreement edges Iraq a step closer to deciding if some US soldiers will remain, but a final deal is distant, as tough questions remain on whether trainers would be civilian contractors or active US troops. There is also a disagreement over the issue of granting legal immunity to US troops.
A US embassy official told the Reuters news agency that they were reviewing the decision.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the US military chief, had said on Tuesday that Iraq must decide as soon as possible whether it wants US troops to stay in the country. Mullen, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said that US troops must be given immunity from prosecution as part of any agreement to keep them in Iraq and that this protection must be approved by the country's parliament.
IAny agreement would still need to be approved by Iraq's parliament, where some of Maliki's allies have rejected any continued presence of US troops in Iraq.
The issue is putting pressure on the fragile multi-sectarian alliance of Sunni, Shia and Kurdish blocs and risks upsetting Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Shia militia once fought US troops but now is an ally of Maliki. Sadr representatives refused to vote to approve the talks on training, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said after the meeting of Iraq's political leaders on Tuesday.
Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the National Alliance Shia parliamentary bloc and the parliamentary committee of security and defence, said it was too early to decide on the issue of immunity.
"Political leaders agreed that there was need for trainers, a move they have been resisting for some time. The move was also bitterly opposed by one of the allies of al-Maliki, the Sadrists," our correspondent said. "Their representatives walked out of the meeting leaving what it appeared to be an important political reconciliation between Maliki and his closest rival Ayad Allawi.
"Other elements of the plan appear to be that Allawi's party will get to nominate a defence and interior minister. Allawi may negotiate coming back into the government as head of powerful new security council. All these details of course are to be worked out, but all in all, an extremely significant first step."
Maliki has said repeatedly Iraqi army and police can manage internal threats, but Iraqi officers acknowledge gaps in their capabilities, especially in air and naval defence of their frontiers and in intelligence gathering.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2011 12:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
ANBAR / Aswat al-Iraq: Anbar border command concentrated its security measures along the Iraqi-Syrian borders fearing armed groups penetration, security sources here said today.
The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the border forces are afraid of armed men penetration, following Syrian forces withdrawal from the area. The border forces will make patrol search in the desert and nearby Syrian cities.
The source added that many places and areas lack Syrian security forces, which were withdrawn to a number of cities that live in a state of demonstrations.
Ramadi city, center of Anbar province, lies 110 km west of the capital, Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: To grant the US soldiers an immunity, if their stay extended, needs a parliamentary resolution, legal expert said here today.
Advisor Tariq Harb said that "immunity means non-implementation of Iraqi laws on American soldiers, which matter cannot be done without a law endorsed by the parliament".
US Joint Chief of Staffs Mike Mullen said today that any agreement on US forces stay, after the withdrawal period, should grant the forces a legal immunity.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
This should not even be an issue. Our military gets prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice--end of story. Do we have a bunch of weak- kneed, PC-obsessed wienies running this show?
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... noted on Tuesday that Leb enjoys a deterrent power, embodied in the equation of the army, people, and Resistance, capable of defending the country against an Israeli attack.
Such fantastical tales are told in that part of the world.
He said after the weekly Change and Reform bloc meeting: "This equation won't end until the Arab-Israeli conflict is resolved, which is very difficult under the current Israeli and American policies."
"Israel does not want peace ... if we abandon resistance and surrender, the country will be permanently destroyed," he remarked.
On Monday's Wazzani festivities between the Lebanese and Israeli armies, the MP said: "We congratulate the army on the occasion of Army Day and we wish it constant success, especially since we have an enemy that continuously reminds us that the army is the guarantee for Leb's stability and independence."
Aoun pointed out however: "The arms present under the state's control are not enough to put the Lebanese at ease."
He clarified however that this is not a response to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's statements on Monday who said that the Lebanese people are uneasy with the spread of arms outside the state's authority.
"The army alone is not capable of defending Leb and neither is Hizbullah," he remarked.
"We refuse to rely on international resolution," he stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council began a second day of talks on Syria Tuesday after 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... 's tanks shelled the protest hub of Hama on the opening day of the Mohammedan holy month of Ramadan.
At least 24 civilians were reported killed across the country on Monday, among them 10 during protests after special evening prayers, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdul Rahman said.
Syrian tanks shelled the outskirts of Hama, he said.
The fresh violence came as the Security Council held a first session of emergency talks on the deadly crackdown, with Western powers again demanding a condemnation of the violence, but the closed session ended with no agreement.
A top U.N. official told the meeting 140 people were reported killed in an army assault on Sunday, mostly in Hama, while 3,000 people have gone missing and 12,000 taken prisoner since anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March.
Britannia, La Belle France, Germany and Portugal hope to revive a formal resolution condemning Assad's crackdown. Russia and China -- two of the five permanent Security Council members with veto power -- threatened to block past attempts to pass a resolution on Syria.
Brazil, India and South Africa have also spoken out against a resolution or statement.
As fresh talks got underway Tuesday, European nations distributed the text of a new draft resolution, but Russian and Indian envoys said it was barely different from a version they had already rejected.
"It is not new," said Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.
Indian envoy Hardeen Singh Puri, president of the council for August, said "there has been no change to the text which was on the table; there has been some technical update."
The 15-nation council is under mounting international pressure to take a stand on violence in Syria but some diplomats say it is more likely it will now try to agree on a less formal statement, with no warning of U.N. action.
The international community's stand on the Syria crisis does not include any plans for a Libya-style military intervention to halt the bloodshed, La Belle France said on Tuesday.
"The situations in Libya and Syria are not similar" and "no option of a military nature is planned," French foreign ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said in Gay Paree.
The U.N. meeting came after Assad showered praise on his troops to mark Syria's Army Day on Monday, saying in a speech that the military had "proved its loyalty to its people, country and creed."
"Its efforts and sacrifices will be admired. These sacrifices succeeded in foiling the enemies of the country and ending sedition, preserving Syria," the president said.
State news agency SANA reported that "saboteurs" stormed the main courthouse in Hama and set fire to offices on Monday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... U.N. human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... chief Navi Pillay warned the Syrian regime that the "world is watching" its deadly crackdown against protesters and that attempts at impose a news blackout were not working.
Pillay also reiterated that the government must halt the violence immediately and that an international and independent probe must be launched to investigate the deadly crackdown.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad, on a three-day visit to India, called on New Delhi to use its influence on the Security Council to thwart the West.
"I am here to brief the Indian leadership against the prefabricated misinformation and on the unrealistic propaganda machinery against Syria," Muqdad said in a television interview.
Diplomats in New York said all countries expressed concern about the intensifying crackdown and there was now wider acceptance that the Security Council must act.
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 John Foster Dulles ... asked the holdouts to reconsider. "And we call on the international community to come together behind the people of Syria in this critical time," she said.
The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... on Tuesday added Syrian Defense Minister Ali Habib Mahmoud and four others, including Assad's uncle Mohammed Makhlouf, to its blacklist of individuals and businesses associated with the repression.
"The message is clear and unambiguous: those responsible for the repression will be singled out and held accountable," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
The latest measures bring to 38 the number of people and businesses targeted by the 27-nation bloc, including members of Assad's family and three commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard accused of aiding the crackdown.
Italia recalled its ambassador in 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... for consultation given the "horrible repression against the civilian population," the foreign ministry said in Rome on Tuesday.
More than 1,600 civilians and 369 members of the army and security forces have been killed since March 15 in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
I feel neglected---when was the last time they met to condemn Israel?
#2
With the left and Donks calling for downsizing Defense, it's ridiculous to open new programs, particularly at universities that have a long record of intolerance to the uniform services. The absurdity is that these are the very institutions that have generated the failed leadership and self selected 'elite' that have dragged us to the mess we now find our selves in. They're part of the problem, not part of the solution.
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.
Two Muslim teenagers have admitted drawing burkas on advertisements of scantily-clad women because they offended their religious views.
The man behind the deadly twin attacks in Norway on July 22 wants a Japanese psychiatrist to carry out his psychological evaluation, his lawyer was quoted as saying Tuesday.
Addressing the National Assembly on Tuesday, 
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the bail application of former minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi in the Haj corruption case, DawnNews reported.
Michel Aoun
President-for-Life Bashir 
Hillary Clinton
