[Dawn] International military forces worked on Monday to recover every last piece of a Chinook helicopter that crashed over the weekend, killing 30 American troops, seven Afghan soldiers and an Afghan interpreter, NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... said.
German Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a front man for the US-led coalition, told news hounds that troops had secured the crash site in a rugged area of eastern Wardak province and nobody was being allowed in or out of the area while the investigation was ongoing.
Jacobson said the coalition still had not yet determined the exact cause of the crash, but some officials have said the heavy and lumbering transport helicopter was apparently shot down. Officials said the helicopter was hit as it was flying in and approaching the area.
"We are still investigating this incident so we have no picture of what was the cause for the incident. That is what the investigation is basically all about," Jacobson said.
The helicopter was ferrying a group of Navy SEALs to reinforce a group of Army Rangers who were under fire. It remains unclear if the Rangers and SEALs were taking part in a night raid to capture or kill an bad boy leader.
It was deadliest single loss for US forces in the decade-long war.
Another NATO helicopter made a hard landing Monday in eastern Paktia province, the US-led coalition said. It did not report any casualties and said the cause of the hard landing was under investigation. The coalition said there was no enemy activity in the area at the time.
The helicopter was a CH-47 of the same type that crashed on Saturday. It was flying in to pick up special operations troops, but apparently suffered a mechanical failure and crash landed, an officer in the war zone said. He could not be named because he was not authorized to comment publicly. The crew was rescued by the troops.
The fatal crash on Saturday highlights the risks confronting the US-led coalition as it looks to rely more on special operations forces while reducing the overall number of troops in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
A current and a former US official said the Americans included 22 SEALs, three Air Force members and a dog handler and his dog. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because military officials were still notifying the families of the dead.
All but two of the SEALs were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who went titzup one dark and stormy night... in Pakistain last May, officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. None of the SEALs killed in the crash took part in the bin Laden mission.
The Rangers, special operations forces who work regularly with the SEALs, secured the crash site in the Tangi Joy Zarin area of Wardak province, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, one of the officials said.
Many of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still ongoing.
Eight Taliban fighters were also killed in the battle, Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement.
Jacobson said that despite the tragedy, the coalition was undeterred in its mission.
"The incident, as tragic as it was in its magnitude, will have no influence on the conduct of operations.
It was a tragic day. It was a tragic loss," Jacobson said. "The campaign is going to continue. We will continue to relentlessly pursue the enemy in the fight that we are taking to them."
SEALs, Rangers and other special operations troops are expected to be the vanguard of the American military effort in Afghanistan as international military forces start pulling out, handing over control to the Afghan forces they have spent billions of dollars arming and training.
Special operations troops are expected to remain in the country after the troop withdrawal for counterterrorism missions and advisory support.
Just how many will remain has not yet been negotiated with the Afghan government, but the United States is considering from 5,000 to 20,000, far fewer than the 100,000 US troops there now.
Special forces are frequently used to target bad boy commanders as part of an effort to force the Taliban's leadership to agree to a negotiated peace. The operations, mostly night raids, are often carried out by Afghan and coalition special operations forces.
Night raids have drawn criticism from human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... activists and infuriated Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... , who says they anger and alienate the Afghan population.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
The Rangers, who were being assisted by the Seals on Saturday, apparently lost only one man - my co-worker's son. He was wounded on Saturday and died after being flow out on a medivac.
My friend is a naturalized Italian immigrant, so his son a was first-generation hero. From New Jersey.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2011 3:58 Comments ||
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(KUNA) -- EU High Representative Catherine Ashton Monday expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done...
Or even actually thought, merely that it was expressed.
the second visit of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. Omar's peculiar talent lies in starting conflict. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its imminent secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. to Chad, a State party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
There are worse ways to die, but a great many better ones.
(ICC), on Sunday.
"She urges Chad to respect its obligations under international law to arrest and surrender those indicted by the ICC," said Ashton's spokesperson Michael Mann in a statement.
"The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... is a staunch supporter of the ICC and the fight against impunity. The Court is a valuable instrument of the international community to ensure that there is no impunity for the most serious crimes of international concern; genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," he noted.
The ICC which is based at the Hague has issued an arrest warrant against al-Bashir for genocide and war crimes committed in Darfur.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] A rebel blueprint for a post-Moammer Qadaffy ...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received... Libya would retain much of the current regime's infrastructure in the hope of averting an Iraq-style descent into chaos, the London Times reported Monday. Whatever they have in Libya now, thank goodness it isn't chaos!
A 70-page plan prepared by the National Transitional Council (NTC) with help from Western powers and seen by the paper concedes they have little chance of toppling the long-serving ruler but that internal divisions will force him out.
In that event, the rebels plan to establish a 10,000-15,000 strong "Tripoli task force" to secure the capital and capture prominent Qadaffy supporters.
Around 5,000 coppers will be recruited to serve as the interim government's security forces, according to the plan.
The rebels claim that 800 current Qadaffy government officials have already been recruited to their cause, and could form a key plank of a post-conflict security apparatus, the paper reported.
The document also maps out how telecommunications, power and transport infrastructure will be secured in the immediate hours after the regime's collapse.
The plan relies heavily on defections from the old regime, which threatens to cause friction with those within the rebel faction who want a complete purge of the existing order.
The rebels estimate that around 70 percent of high-ranking Qadaffy officials will commit to the new regime.
The NTC confirmed the report's authenticity, but requested that the British newspaper withhold key details which could compromise the ongoing operation.
Aref Ali Nayed, the head of the planning cell for the task force, said it was important that the general public "knows that there is an advance plan".
"What you have obtained was an early draft," he told the paper. "We are now working on a much bigger picture."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
You forgot the Unicorn 's Horn.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/09/2011 1:34 Comments ||
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#2
Never Mind, I see it now.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/09/2011 1:35 Comments ||
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#3
Not sidesaddle so this is 'shopped.
Posted by: S ||
08/09/2011 13:01 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Chittagong tribunal yesterday rejected bail prayer of former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar in two cases relating to 10-truck arms haul in 2004.
During half and hour's hearing from 11:30am at Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1, counsels for jugged Babar termed pressing charges against their client politically motivated. They sought bail for him on health grounds.
All of the eleven incarcerated accused, including Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... and Babar, were produced before the tribunal at 11:25am.
The two cases -- one for smuggling firearms and the other under the arms act -- were filed a day after ten truckloads of arms and ammunitions were seized at a jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd in the port city on April 2, 2004.
The court also fixed September 7 for submitting report on execution of arrest warrant against Ulfa leader Paresh Barua, one of the two absconding accused in the cases.
The report on the other runaway, former additional secretary of industries ministry Nurul Amin, was sent to the special tribunal yesterday. But police failed to produce anything on Barua in this regard.
Public Prosecutor Kamal Uddin Ahmad told The Daily Star the court order to arrest Paresh Barua was sent to the foreign ministry to forward it to the separatist leader's village home at Dibrugarh in Indian state of Assam. A copy of the order was sent to the same address by mail.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
The elephant got busted?
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/09/2011 19:43 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Top leaders of United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) slipped to Bangladesh after their lives came under threat in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman of the separatist group, told an Indian English daily.
"When lives are in danger, it is natural recourse to seek refuge.... No government invited us, we went on our own and established bases," Rajkhowa said when asked why he sought refuge in Bangladesh.
It really improves housing values when thoughtful, considerate terrorists squat in the house next door...
The Ulfa used Bangladesh as a corridor to smuggle firearms into Assam, the 57-year-old separatist leader said in an interview with the Hindustan Times on August 5.
For the first time, Rajkhowa admitted that Pak fundamentalists had long been backing them.
Quelle surprise!
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... Ulfa Vice-Chairman Pradip Gogoi yesterday denied the media reports about Ulfa being backed by Pak fundamentalists, reports our correspondent from New Delhi.
"These reports are false. Our chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa did not say any such thing.
"It was just a robot that looked and sounded exactly like him. Our Pakistani masters will prove it was a clever Hinjoo plot involving the Mossad, RAW and the CIA, just you wait."
The question of being influenced by fundamentalists does not arise," said the Ulfa second-in-command.
Rajkhowa told the Hindustan Times that sophisticated weapons were being brought in ships to Bangladesh and then transported inland in trucks.
"One big consignment was caught in Chittagong, many ships were captured and in one case an entire shipload of arms was dumped into the sea to evade seizure. But many made it through," Rajkhowa said.
"Ironically, the seized weapons are being used by the elite Rapid Action Battalion of Bangladesh (Rab) now, the same force that nabbed me."
Sometimes there is justice in the world.
According to Indian newspapers, Rab captured the Ulfa chief in Bangladesh on November 30, 2009. He was later handed over to Indian security agencies.
In 1979, Rajkhowa and his associates formed the Ulfa at Rang Ghar in Sivasagar, to start an armed rebellion for Assam's independence. Since then, the conflict has claimed more than 12,000 lives.
And not achieved independence. Perhaps the next generation should seek a different path.
.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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In what can be seen as a stunning challenge to the independent Mexican left, a leader of Mexico Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) said today she endorses the new national security law as long as it defines national security in a "human approach".
Maria de Dolores Padierna Luna, General Secretary of the PRD in a press briefing Monday said that changes to Article 29 and Article 89 in the Mexican constitution must have constraints on presidential powers.
The new national security law makes changes to both articles to allow the Mexican military a good deal more independence in its counternarcotics operations. As matters stand now only presidents can declare states of emergencies. The president can only do so subject to a vote of both houses of Mexico's legislature and by the council of ministers, the president's cabinet.
The new law seeks to permit regional states of emergencies for limited periods of time and subject to little if any confirmation. It also seeks to allow Mexican military field commanders to cancel public events, cut power and to monitor and even hack into social media websites. Current law disallows the Mexican military from even monitoring websites. Military commanders must learn information from websites by independent information provided by citizens.
Many members of the PRD were involved in Mexico's Dirty War from 1968 to 1982, and are reluctant to provide the kind of power to a national administration the law seeks to give. This is so especially with the specter of a PRI president starting in 2012, since it was a series of PRI presidents who prosecuted the Dirty War.
The new position of the PRD comes in the final week before an August 12th vote the that decides if the national security law is brought before the senate in a special session or if it is tabled for the next regular session to start as early as September. It is increasingly unlikely the law will go to a special session.
Until the start of peace marches headed by Mexican leftist poet and writer Javier Sicilia, in the form of one of its founders, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the informal position of the PRD has been a call for a return of the military to the barracks and a shift of resources towards income supports for the poor. The ending of the military's involvement in the war on drugs was parroted by Sicilia as his movement has grown in relative stature due in part to the three peace marches since last spring.
The PRD has done horribly in the last three state elections in Guerrero, Baja California Sur and in Mexico state. Elections currently contested for governor, state legislature and municipal seats in Michoacan are a major test for the PRD since the outgoing governor, Leonel Godoy Rangel, is a PRD governor.
In fact the Michoacan elections are so important and are currently seen by the three main political parties as a bellweather for the future, all three leaders of Partido Accion National (PAN), Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), and PRD have taken up temporary residence in the state to oversee the campaigns. It is also not lost on any of the contestants, that the sister of Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa. Luisa Maria de Guadalupe Calderon Hinojosa, is the PAN candidate for governor of Michoacan, even though Calderon is considered a lame duck president with little pull for new national initiatives.
Lopez Obrador's insistence last spring of giving a voters a real choice by denying alliances with PAN and other non-leftist parties have cost the PRD dearly in local and state elections. Lopez Obrador was attacked heavily by members of PRD in the days following the Mexico state elections because of PRD's poor showing. The move by the PRD to endorse the national security law subject to changes, while running counter to Lopez Obrador, can be seen as a shift to shore up their support in Michoacan and in the elections for president in 2012. To read Rantburg's report on the elections in Mexico state and other states, click here.
This summer has seen a massive shift of security forces to Michoacan as the national Secretario de Seguidad Publica (SSP) is attempting to put down the new drug cartel Caballeros Templarios, a new cartel formed to replace La Familia, which has suffered horrific losses in counternarcotics campaigns at the hands of Mexican security forces since the start of the year. To read the Rantburg report on the SSP reinforcement in Michoacan, click here
The thinking appears to be the new shift towards the new national security law will shift voters from PAN and PRI towards the PRD, and perhaps start a trend.
Meanwhile Sicilia has begun to raise funds for another peace caravan, this time to the south. The new campaign dubbed Un Peso por la Paz,or A Peso for Peace has raised MP $50,000.00 (USD $4054.30) so far.
The new peace march is intended to demonstrate his displeasure of a procedural vote a week ago which advanced the new national security law subject to changes to the next regular session where it will be finalized in a conference with the Mexican senate. The vote came just a few days after an informal meeting between Sicilia and legislators from both the Chamber of Deputies and Senate which ended in promises for reforms as they could apply in national security.
Because of the vote, Sicilia has cut off subsequent meetings not only with legislators, but also with a delegation of the Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB) also known as the interior ministry. To read the Rantburg report on the vote to move the national security law, click here
Sicilia said Monday the legislative route is not the route his peace movement wants to go. He said in a radio interview he is in discussions with Universidad Nacional Autonoma Mexico sociology professor Emilio Alvarez Icaza for a public conference on national security, and for a meeting with the Mexican judiciary.
Emilio Alvarez Icaza was formerly the head of the Mexican Human Rights commission until September 2009.
#1
So the regional governors can declare states of emergency? Who invokes the federal military in gather breaking, power shutting and website watching?
Governors can request federal assistance, or they can "request" federal assistance after they sit down with with a presidential plenipotentary who tells them to make the "request".
Happened in Durango earlier this summer, when the governor had a sit down with Cordero, minister of the interior.
About website, I don't know if legidslators would detail it to specific instances, or the Mexican military would be allowed to establish digital commands. A lot of the law is still under discussion in Mexico City.
[Dawn] Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. said on Monday that action against criminals will be taken regardless of their political affiliation, DawnNews reported.
Malik further said that from September 1 onwards only weapons with computerized licenses from Nadra will be allowed while all others will be canceled.
Speaking to the media in Bloody Karachi Malik said that people have acquired numerous weapons on a single license which needs to end.
"Strict action will be taken against people found with invalid licenses. The sentence for such a crime will be 7 to 14 years in jail," said Malik.
He further said that strict action will also be taken against extortionists.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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A Paleostinian commission of inquiry has concluded that ousted Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Dahlan was involved in the "poisoning" of former Paleostinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. After all, no one dies of natural causes at the tender age of 76 or whatever he made it to, not even if they look like they've walked into death's door...
The commission's report was published on Sunday by a number of Arab news websites, including al-Jazeera. According to the 118-page report, which was prepared by top Fatah officials Azzam al- Ahmed, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Othman Abu Gharbiyyeh and Nabil Sha'ath, the deposed Fatah official was involved in sending poisoned medicine to Arafat before the latter's death.
If true, this would be the first time the Paleostinian leadership accuses a Paleostinian of being behind the "liquidation" of Arafat. Until now the PA and other Paleostinians had held Israel fully responsible for the mysterious death of Arafat of an unknown disease in November 2004. Yeah. It's a..."mystery".
PA officials in Ramallah would neither confirm nor deny the report. However, Houston lies southeast of Dallas... The Jerusalem Post was told that a senior aide to Abbas had leaked the report to al-Jazeera.
The commission of inquiry was set up to look into allegations that Dahlan had plotted to stage a coup against PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
[An Nahar] Hizbullah official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq accused on Sunday the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... camp of smuggling arms to Syria, in an attempt to transform Leb into a launching pad for attacks against the Arab state.
He said: "The camp can no longer bank on Israeli wars or the Special Tribunal for Leb to return to power, but they now can only exploit the developments in Syria to achieve this goal."
"The March 14 camp has stooped so low as to take part in the war against Syria and its unity," he stressed.
"It is ready to commit any action that would weaken Leb and allow them to return to power," he added.
On the government's functioning, Qaouq remarked: "The new cabinet created a state of harmony with the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... and all its decisions complemented the Resistance's equations to create an equation of strength for Leb based on dignity, rights, and illusory sovereignty."
"The government managed to achieve in the past few days what past cabinets have failed to accomplish for several years," stated the Hizbullah official.
"Israel only fears the equation that protects Leb's petroleum wealth," he said.
"Israel does not fear international resolutions or maritime laws, but only one equation deters it, and that is that of the Resistance and oil," he declared.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Monday that Leb supports all efforts to reach an end to the violence in Syria.
He said during a cabinet session that was held earlier in the day: "Leb's steady position is based on refraining from meddling in Syria's internal affairs."
He also called on "the sides in Leb who are critical of this position to stop exploiting the developments in Syria to achieve circumstantial political gains."
According to a statement from his press office, the premier said that the violence in Syria is "unfortunate", condemning the fatalities that have taken place among the citizens and army.
"Constructive dialogue should pave the way for desired reforms that should be based on national convictions that any change must be aimed at serving the people and achieving security and stability in order for Syria to play its role in the region and the world," Miqati added.
"Based on this conviction, Leb took its stand at the United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... Security Council, which served as a message to the Arab and international communities," he said.
"It's important that we protect Leb and fortify its internal scene from the repercussions of the regional developments," he stressed.
Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour then discussed his visit to Syria on Sunday, saying: "The Syria officials are comfortable with the general situation in Syria and with Leb's position at the Security Council, which enjoyed the blessing of all the council members."
Last week, Leb chose to "disassociate" itself from a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the use of violence against anti-regime protestors.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The head of the 22-member Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... on Monday urged Syrian authorities to launch a "serious dialogue" with protesters seeking change in the autocratic country.
"What is happening in Syria worries the vaporous Arab League and all countries," Nabil al-Arabi told news hounds.
"We hope that it (Syria) will be able to overcome (the crisis) by peaceful means and by launching a serious dialogue towards the reconciliation that the people have been demanding," he said.
Arabi made his remarks a day after calling on the Syrian authorities to "immediately" stop the violence that has rocked the country since mid-March, when protesters first erupted into the streets to demand greater freedoms.
"When people take to the streets ... and seek change, presidents and governments must reach that solution through dialogue without making use of violence or force," he told news hounds on Monday.
Asked what measures could be taken to end the violence in Syria, where human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... groups say more than 2,000 people have been killed in the crackdown on dissent, he said: "Do not expect drastic measures, expect step by step persuasion."
But Arabi also quickly added: "There is no action to expect from the Arab League."
On Sunday the pan-Arab organization issued a statement quoting Arabi as saying that he "calls on the Syrian authorities to bring an end immediately to acts of violence and campaigns by the security forces against civilians."
He also called for an "impartial probe" into the violence, in the first official statement issued by the Arab League since the protests began.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The top Sunni Mohammedan authority on Monday called on Syrian authorities to immediately end" the bloodshed, saying that the crackdown on protesters is a "tragedy" that has gone too far.
"Al-Azhar was patient for a long time and avoided talking about the situation in Syria because of its sensitive nature ... but the situation has gone too far and there is no other solution but to put an end to this Arab and Islamic tragedy," the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, said in a statement.
Al-Azhar "asks Syrian leaders to work immediately to end the bloodshed and to respond favorably to the legitimate demands of the Syrian masses," said the statement carried by the official Egyptian news agency MENA.
"The vast repression, the use of the highest levels of violence, arrests and intimidation represent an unacceptable human tragedy," the statement added.
The criticism from the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's top center of religious learning, came as Arab heavyweight Soddy Arabia recalled its ambassador from Syria for consultations, a move emulated by Kuwait and Bahrain.
On Sunday the Egypt-based Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... issued its first official statement on Syria, urging the government to immediately stop its deadly crackdown of nearly five months of pro-democracy protests.
Growing Arab concerns over the unrest comes on top of mounting international condemnation of the regime of 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... , who has defended his crackdown on "outlaws."
"To deal with outlaws who cut off roads, seal towns and terrorize residents is a duty of the state which must defend security and protect the lives of civilians," state news agency SANA quoted Assad as saying on Sunday.
Kuwait and Bahrain on Monday recalled their ambassadors from 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 consultations, following the example of Arab heavyweight Soddy Arabia.
"Bahrain is recalling its ambassador in Damascus for consultation, and has called for a resort to reason," Bahrain's Foreign Minister, Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, said in a brief statement on Twitter.
Earlier on Monday, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed al-Sabah told news hounds: "We have decided to recall our ambassador from Syria for consultations."
"No one can accept the bloodshed in Syria ... The military option must be halted," said Sheikh Mohammed.
He also announced that the foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states will meet shortly to discuss developments in Syria.
"There will be a meeting for the GCC foreign ministers soon and a joint GCC move to discuss the issues related to Syria," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
so Al Azhar gets the word from the Saudis that it is time to jump and Al Azhar asked how high
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/09/2011 16:40 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
International Criminal Court
[Emirates 24/7] A rebel blueprint for a post-Moammer 
A Chittagong tribunal yesterday rejected bail prayer of former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar in two cases relating to 10-truck arms haul in 2004.
[Bangla Daily Star] Top leaders of United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) slipped to Bangladesh after their lives came under threat in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman of the separatist group, told an Indian English daily.
[Dawn] Federal Interior Minister 
A Paleostinian commission of inquiry has concluded that ousted Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Dahlan was involved in the "poisoning" of former Paleostinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat.
If true, this would be the first time the Paleostinian leadership accuses a Paleostinian of being behind the "
Prime Minister 
The head of the 22-member 
The top Sunni 
President-for-Life Bashir 
