After winning a bet with a restauranteur, Leon Panetta may ring in the New Year with a $10,000 bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1870 wine, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Ted Balestreri, co-owner of Sardine Factory in Monterey, put the then-CIA director up to the bet at a party in jest five months before bin Laden was taken out in May. When that day came, it was not lost on Panetta. His wife, Sylvia, told the Times that last May Panetta called her: "He said, 'Turn on CNN in 15 minutes. The president will have an announcement --- and, by the way, tell Ted to get ready to open that bottle." That explains it.
#6
CNN? This is their kind of "hard-hitting" news, "Right, Leon?"
OBTW, for the past (2) years, your face has looked like "Forty miles of bad road"... That's what an undeserved, "BEEN KICKED UPSTAIRS" career will do for 'ya. Enjoy!
#7
What a phuecking rectal orifice. If there's any justice, the cork's failed, air has gotten into the bottle and the wine's been turned into vinegar.
OTOH, when I first saw this headline, my immediate thought was that it was a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill purchased through the DoD procurement process :-D
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
10/28/2011 23:40 Comments ||
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[Dawn] The B.O. regime should rethink its commitment of dollars and American lives to the fight in Afghanistan, according to politicians furious with 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... 's recent statement that his country would back Pakistain if it went to war with the United States.
That anger over Karzai's remarks is likely to surface when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Tallyrand ... testifies Thursday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, her first congressional appearance since her trip last week to Afghanistan and Pakistain.
Lawmakers also are expected to press Clinton on the administration's recent decision to temporarily pull its ambassador out of Syria, the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq by year's end and the Paleostinians' push for statehood at the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... over objections from the US and Israel.
In an interview that aired this past weekend, Karzai told a private Pak television station: "If fighting starts between Pakistain and the US, we are beside Pakistain.
If Pakistain is attacked and the people of Pakistain need Afghanistan's help, Afghanistan will be there with you."
He said his government would not allow any nation, including the United States, to dictate its policies.
Those comments drew a sharp rebuke from members of Congress, including some who have been strong supporters of the decade-plus war in Afghanistan.
"Without the assistance of the United States, dollar 468 billion from the United States Treasury and the supreme sacrifice of 1,820 American soldiers who have died during Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan would still be ruled by a gang of Taliban thugs with few individual liberties and no popularly elected leaders," Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said in a statement.
Dicks said Karzai's comments underscore the need for the United States to reconsider its mission and schedule for withdrawing forces from Afghanistan.
The United States has about 98,000 troops in Afghanistan and plans to bring most forces home by 2015.
It intends to withdraw the 33,000 additional troops that President Barack We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us Obama sent to Afghanistan in 2009 by the end of the fighting season in 2012, 10,000 of them by the end of this year. About 3,000 of those have already left.
"Now more than ever, President Karzai's insult to America tells me that it's time for our country to stop pouring our limited taxpayer dollars and losing precious American lives in a country where we aren't even welcome -- and even worse, where they have the gall to threaten to side against us," Sen. Joe Manchin, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said this week.
Rep. Connie Mack, a Republican member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Wednesday that the US "needs to have a foreign policy -- as President (George W.) Bush said -- you're either with us or against us."
Lawmakers have been critical of Pakistain, demanding it crack down on the Taliban-linked Haqqani network, considered a major threat to American forces.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, told Congress last month that the violent Haqqani network "acts as a veritable arm" of Pakistain's intelligence agency.
While in Pakistain, Clinton bluntly said if the government in Islamabad is unwilling or unable to take the fight to al Qaeda and the Haqqani network operating from its border with Afghanistan, the US "would show" it how to eliminate its safe havens.
Clinton's appearance comes as her department's budget is under siege in Congress.
Legislation in the House would provide dollar 39.6 billion for the State Department and foreign aid, dollar 11.2 billion less than what Obama and Clinton requested for the fiscal year that began October, 1.
Separately, it would provide dollar 7.6 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations budget for Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistain.
Clinton has criticized the cuts, especially since foreign aid amounts to just 1 percent of federal spending.
Clinton will be facing a committee that has been the most antagonistic toward B.O. regime foreign policy in the current Congress. The panel, led by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Floria Republican, has voted to slash US contributions to the United Nations, conditionally block assistance to nations overseas and cut funds for global climate change initiatives and programs to help poor women and kiddies in developing countries.
The efforts have largely been a symbolic slap at the US State Department as the committee's bills stand no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate and would face a certain veto by Obama.
Even the GOP-led House hasn't taken up many of the measures.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Legislation in the House would provide dollar 39.6 billion for the State Department and foreign aid, dollar 11.2 billion less than what Obama and Clinton requested for the fiscal year that began October, 1.
#3
Not only is Obama redistributing American incomes domestically, he's gone in overdrive overseas too.
watch how much foreign boodle rolls back to him for his reelection campaign. Same as last time, he'll get massive amounts of illegal contributions and he'll refuse to verify the legality.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2011 10:00 Comments ||
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#4
When Americans go home 30000 Iranian security personnel will provide protection for Karzai. They will move into the green zone that our people paid so dearly for. So he has to play nice. I believe that would give Iran some leverage. Stinks.
Aimed at al Shabaab in Somalia. Other drone bases on the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa are complemented by CIA and Special Forces groups doing whatever it is that they do. Happy hunting, guys!
I'm betting that part of the deal is that we turn over lots of intel on Somalia and Eritrea to the Aethiops. Which is okay...
Egypt (Ma'an) -- A former Egyptian major general and military expert says the deal to release suspected Israeli spy Ilan Grapel was less about prisoners and more about agreements between America and Cairo.
Sameh el-Yazal said Egypt asked the Americans to include Israel in the deal "as a third party" in order to increase the weight of the agreement and bring citizens home.
Egypt has failed to conclude recent agreements with the US that would allow it to purchase F16 fighter jets, as Israel pressured the Americans to prevent the sale of some weaponry to Cairo, he says.
Not to mention that Egypt is about to have starving mobs roaming the streets. Selling them more fighter jets would be throwing an anvil to a man drowning in the ocean
This time, however, Egypt reached an agreement to receive F16s from the US while the Americans mediated with Israel to release over 20 detainees in exchange for an American-Israeli national, el-Yazal says.
I have an idea: let Israel trade their F-16s to Egypt; in return we let Israel buy some F-22s.
A US State Department spokeswoman did not return calls Thursday.
Later they issued a statement denying any connection between the sale of F-16s and Grapel's release.
In 2009, the US and Egypt reached an agreement over a contract for 24 F16s to Egypt, officials said at the time. It was to be implemented sometime in 2010, officials said. Egypt's Air Force is estimated to be the fourth largest F16 operator in the world.
An Egyptian military official told Ma'an that Egypt refused to free suspected spy Odeh Tarabin, another Israeli national who was jugged in 2000, along with Grapel in exchange for 81 Egyptian prisoners. Tarabin has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for spying for Israel.
[Washington Post] The former intelligence chief to Libyan leader Moammar Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years... was maimed Tuesday while in the custody of the National Transitional Council, fueling concerns about the treatment of loyalists to the deposed government.
The cause of Abuzed Omar Dorda's injuries are disputed, ... but he was definitely abuzed...
but a relative of Dorda, a one-time U.N. envoy, has appealed to U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... and the Security Council president to intercede with Libyan authorities to protect the former official, saying he had been the target of an liquidation attempt by his jailers. The U.N.'s special representative to Libya, Ian Martin, has instructed his staff to look into the claim.
"Mr. Dorda survived a murder attempt last night, 25 October, 2011, at the hands of his guards in the building where he was tossed in the clink," Adel Khalifa Dorda, a nephew and son-in-law of the Qadaffy loyalist, wrote on behalf of the Dorda family. "He was thrown off the second floor leading to several broken bones and other serious injuries."
The nephew said authorities were forced to move Dorda to a hospital in Tripoli, where "as of now he is being held under extremely poor conditions."
The militiaman in charge of the hospital on Thursday confirmed Dorda was injured but refused to allow a news hound to interview him. The militiaman, Sadiq Turki, gave varying accounts of how Dorda was injured, first saying he had tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a second-story window, then saying the former official had been trying to escape his detention facility "Yeah, I seen him jump, you betcha. Take my word for it!"
"He's the one who gave orders to kill and rape in Tripoli," Turki told a news hound at the Mitiga military hospital. He declined to allow a news hound to talk to Dorda, saying, "This is confidential."
Dorda was brought to the hospital in an ambulance on Tuesday, officials said. Doctors who treated him said he had a fractured left hip and some hematoma, or internal bleeding, in the area of the injury. "Yes, it's a subdural haematoma!"
"My Gawd, doctor!"
"His general condition is stable," said a surgeon, Faraj al-Farjani, adding that Dorda was being kept in isolation in the intensive care unit.
Al-Farjani and another doctor, Yahia Moussa, said Dorda's wounds weren't life-threatening but were serious for a 71-year-old man. The doctors said they hadn't been able to question Dorda about how he was injured.
Conditions at the Mitiga hospital appeared relatively good overall, and both patients from the revolutionary forces and Qadaffy's military said they had received decent care. Doctors said, however, that there was a shortage of medicine because of the recent fighting.
Dorda had long been a high-ranking official in Qadaffy's government, playing a role during his years at the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... in negotiating the deal that ended U.N. sanctions on Libya imposed after the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and paving the way to a financial payout to relatives of the victims.
He went on to become the director of Libya's foreign intelligence agency. Earlier this year, the United States and the U.N. Security Council imposed a freeze on Dorda's financial assets and those of several other members of Qadaffy's inner circle.
The request for help from Dorda's nephew came hours after Martin, the U.N. special representative, 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 indeed that any thought was actually expended... to the Security Council that the circumstances of the killing of Qadaffy and his son, Motassim, were troubling and merited investigation.
"Moammar and Motassim Qadaffy were mistreated and killed in circumstances which require investigation, and there are other disturbing reports that killings amounting to war crimes were committed on both sides in the final battle for Sirte," Martin told the council. He said the "evidence has mounted of deliberate killings of prisoners by the Qadaffy regime during the conflict, including in its last days in Tripoli, as well as some abuses by the revolutionary fighters."
"Such killings were contrary to the orders of the National Transitional Council, and we welcome their announcement of an investigation," he added. "They are also within the scope of the International Commission of Inquiry mandated by the Human Rights Council."
Martin also privately told Security Council members that he was seriously concerned about the treatment of detainees, officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[AFP] Libya's new leaders vowed on Thursday to bring Moamer Qadaffy's ... who is now deader than a rock... killers to justice in a sharp break with their previous insistence he was caught in the crossfire with his own loyalists.
"You are hereby judged guilty. Get down and give me fifty!"
"That's unfair, yer honor! We appeal!"
"Hokay, make it twenty. But touch the ground each time!"
Meanwhile, ...back at the Alamo, Davy was counting their remaining cannon balls and not liking the results... the UN Security Council unanimously voted to end the mandate for international military action in Libya, ending another chapter in the war against Qadaffy's toppled regime.
"With regards to Qadaffy, we do not wait for anybody to tell us," Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), told a news conference in Benghazi.
"We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. There were some violations by those who are unfortunately described as revolutionaries. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army," the top interim official said.
"We had issued a statement saying that any violations of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. will be investigated by the NTC. Whoever is responsible for that (Qadaffy's killing) will be judged and given a fair trial."
Ghoga, who spoke in Arabic and whose remarks were translated by an official interpreter, was responding to specific questions about Qadaffy's death and potential abuses.
Until now, the NTC had adamantly claimed that Qadaffy was killed in crossfire after he was captured in Sirte, his hometown and final bastion.
Disquiet has grown internationally over how Qadaffy met his end after NTC fighters hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown.
Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.
Subsequent footage shows a now-bloodied but walking Qadaffy being hustled through a frenzied crowd, before he disappears in the crush and the crackle of gunfire can be heard.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Live by the shutter golden gun, die by the round of bullet.
That is the Law of the Upazila Desert.
Another arrangement is in the works to free Israeli prisoners in Egypt, senior Egyptian military officer Colonel Kamal Mazlum told Egyptian television on Thursday, according to Israel Radio.
Mazlum also said that the Grapel prisoner exchange had additional provisions that were not publicized and that probably deal with aid that Egypt will receive.
Egypt needs whatever they can get...and the new civilian government isn't as likely as the generals to be willing to deal with Israel.
Rodong Sinmun newspaper denounced an increase of the U.S. military presence in the South Korean base of Kunsan, where fighter jets and troops joined military forces, already stationed there. Oh boy, more "sea of fire" threats and the like!
Washington "tries to justify this action under the pretext of reaffirming the commitment of creating a dissuasive force to defend South Korea, but such trick has not had the desired effect", the report noted. ???
This action and the construction plan of a base in the South Korean island of Jeju aim at "provoking the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)". Well, yeah. But so does everything else. Personally, I'm hoping Junior has an aneurism.
Such facility would allow the presence of nuclear aircraft carriers and other similar forces in South Korean soil promoting an increase of tension in the region and disrupting peace and security, the newspaper underlined. Dang. Musta beheaded the official insult guy or put him in jail again. Hopefully the latter, because the new guy just isn't up to it.
#1
"More 'Sea of Fire' threats" > IMO No - as many GOVT, MSM-Net Perts believe that Islamist Iran's Nucprogs is in parallel wid NORTH KOREA'S, BY EXTENSION THE CRUX WILL BE IFF POTUS BAMMER WILL INDUCE US-IRAN WAR GOING INTO THE 2012 POTUS ELEX.
Kimmie = Iran = iff it can get away wid overtly andor coverttly developing an indigenous nuclear weapons program it will, ala so-called Geopol, Techs "Franchising".
ALSO, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA ACCUSES JAPAN OF INCREASING [anti-PLA] SURVEILLANCE, demanding that Tokyo stop scrambling Air SDF Fighters to intervene agz PLAAF aircraft flying oer China-claimed sovereign territories, e.g. Daoyus = Senkakus.
When the above is added to the GLOBAL TIMES' warning of the "sound of cannons" poten being heard in the South China Sea between China + Vietnam-Phil-India, IT CLEARLY SHOWS THAT BEIJING WELL-RECOGNIZES THAT IT IS STEADILY BEING DENIED = BLOCKED FROM EFEC STRATEGIC MILPOL ACCESS VEE THE PARAMOUNT NE ASIA CORRIDOR AS WELL AS SOUTH CHINA SEA. ITs only going to get more difficult for China towards 2020 or after as the various ASEAN, NAM Nations modernize their armed forces, perhaps to even dev their own NucWeapons.
The above is exclusive of any Radical Islamist regional threat, terror or Nuke-WMD, to same.
IMO, although Beijing may officially frown upon any UNO, US only, or US-Israeli, etal. punitive mil action agz Iran, IN REALITY SUCH A CONFLICT SERVES CHINA'S INTERESTS VIA "POST-US" GEOPOL AMBITIONS = MANIFEST DESTINY. I suspect that many in the CPC + PLA covertly desire such a conflict despite rhetoric to the contrary.
[Dawn] A French court Thursday cancelled a construction permit for a mega-mosque in the southern city of Marseille that had been touted as a potential symbol of Islam's growing place in La Belle France.
In the meantime, aren't they meeting in an old firehouse or armory loaned them by the city for the duration?
The city's administrative tribunal ruled the project, which had already been under suspension for 18 months, would have to be cancelled because of failures to meet urban-planning requirements.
It raised particular concerns over the project's failure to finalise a deal for a 450-place parking lot and to reassure planners that the mosque would fit with the urban environment.
The tribunal noted "a lack of graphical material permitting the evaluation of the project's integration with neighbouring buildings, its visual impact and the treatment of access points and land."Critics of the project were quick to praise the court for its ruling.
"It's the culmination of a long struggle for the people who live and work here, and who simply wanted for this project to fit in harmony with the neighbourhood's economic and social fabric," said Pierre Metras, a local butcher who led the neighbourhood campaign against the mosque.
The project was granted a permit in September 2009 but construction was suspended following complaints from local residents and businesses.
The 22-million-euro ($31-million) project would have seen the Grand Mosque, boasting a minaret soaring 25-metres (82-feet) high and room for up to 7,000 worshippers, built in the city's northern Saint-Louis area.
Originally scheduled to open next year, it would have also hosted a Koranic school, library, restaurant and tea room.
Mohammedan leaders in the Mediterranean city had hailed the approval of the project as a key step in recognising the importance of Marseille's large Mohammedan community.
La Belle France's second city is home to an estimated 250,000 Mohammedans, many of whom flock to makeshift prayer houses in basements, rented rooms and dingy garages to worship.
The project's architect, Maxime Repaux, said after the court ruling: "I find it pretty amazing that they've cancelled our construction permit because of a parking lot when what we are trying to do is to bring Islam out of the garage and to stop prayers in the streets."
Home to Europe's biggest Mohammedan minority, estimated at between five and six million, La Belle France has for years been debating how far it is willing to go to accommodate Islam, now the country's second religion.
La Belle France in April became the first country in Europe to apply a ban on the wearing of full-face coverings, including the Islamic niqab and the burqa.
The decision triggered a political storm, with rights activists accusing President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... of targeting of one of La Belle France's most vulnerable groups to win back votes from the resurgent far right.
A French court in September slapped the first fines on two women for violating the ban.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Originally scheduled to open next year, it would have also hosted a Koranic school, library, restaurant and tea room.
But no pub......
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/28/2011 11:56 Comments ||
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..but probably a Kaboom Room. Not to be confused with a similarly named corner of Phillip's Follies down on the port.
The Obama administration is consulting Congress on an unusual proposal to transfer US Marine Corps attack helicopters to Turkey, US officials said on Thursday, as Ankara tries to exact revenge for a major attack by Kurdish separatists.
Turkey, a NATO ally, has been seeking AH-1 SuperCobra helicopters to replace those lost in its long struggle against separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
Under the administration's plan, the Marines would get two new, late-model Textron Inc Bell AH-1Z SuperCobras in exchange for the three AH-1W aircraft that would be transferred to Ankara from current inventory, a congressional official said.
Turkey is hosting an armed opposition group waging an insurgency against the government of Syria, providing shelter to the commander and dozens of members of the group, the Free Syrian Army, and permitting them to coordinate attacks across the border from inside a camp protected by the Turkish military.
The support for the rebels comes amid a wider Turkish campaign to undermine Assads government. Turkey is soon expected to impose sanctions on Syria, and it has increased its support for an umbrella political opposition group known as the Syrian National Council, which announced its formation in Istanbul. The harboring of leaders in the Free Syrian Army, composed of defectors from the Syrian armed forces, may be its most noteworthy challenge so far. On Wednesday, the group claimed responsibility for killing nine Syrian soldiers, including a uniformed officer, in an attack in central Syria.
Turkey once viewed its close ties with Syria as a great foreign policy accomplishment, but relations have disintegrated over the antigovernment protests there and the brutal crackdown. Erdogan was personally offended by Assads repeated refusal to keep his promises to undertake sweeping reform. Turkish officials believe that the Assad government may collapse within the next two years.
Analyst Hugh Pope called Turkeys apparent relationship with the Free Syrian Army "completely new territory." He said,"This pushes Turkish policy further towards active intervention in Syria. It is clear Turkey feels under threat from what is happening in the Middle East, particularly Syria."
Pope noted that in speeches Mr. Erdogan "has spoken of what happens in Syria as an internal affair of Turkey."
#1
Offering protection is going to cost some goodwill points with Syria. I guess the PKK might get some assistance from Syria (yes that is a stretch). The Russians I think will stay out of this. This does sound like something Erdogan would do. With the Greek money problems what has become of Greek Cyprus?. They are having financial problems also and need the gas revenue. The reunification of Cyprus I guess is on hold.
#2
either Iran will have to write off Assad or they will be ticked mightily at Turkey
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
10/28/2011 10:53 Comments ||
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#3
Offering protection is going to cost some goodwill points with Syria.
At this point, I doubt that Erdogan & his people are especially worried about what Syria might do to them. Assad and the Alawi can't win any points by retaliating against Sunni Turks the way they can by pestering Israel or beating on Lebanon. There's no PR or street value in supporting the PKK, or some remnant Turkish al-Queda outfit, or ginning up a new evil.
I *am* a bit surprised how quickly the Iran-Turkey understanding went to shit, though. In the regional picture, Syria is becoming a cockpit, not a player. Iran *is* a player, and if I were Erdogan, the mullahs are the ones I'd be leery of pushing too far.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/28/2011 11:13 Comments ||
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Well within the last 48 hours Syria has laid mines at its borders with Jordan and Turkey.
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
Also:
"Bashar Assad fears he is facing Arab military intervention backed by NATO".
CBS News has learned Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee regarding "Fast and Furious." The hearing will take place Dec. 8th.
Judiciary Committee member and head of the House Oversight Committee Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) had requested that Holder appear, in part to dig deeper into when-he-knew-what about ATF's so-called "gunwalking" operation Fast and Furious.
In May, Holder testified that he only first heard about Fast and Furious a few weeks before. However, as CBS News reported, documents and memos indicate he had been sent multiple briefings mentioning Fast and Furious in 2010.
Holder later explained in a letter to Congress that he didn't read those memos, and that in any event, nobody at the Justice Department who knew of Fast and Furious was aware of the specific "gunwalking" tactics used. 'Course, that Dem Rep Cummings had to get involved
Also today, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) requested a public hearing with the former Director of ATF: Kenneth Melson. Melson testified to a small group on July 4th, with his own attorney present.
"A hearing with Mr. Melson would help the Committee and the American people better understand what mistakes were made in Operation Fast and Furious, how these tactics originated, who did and did not authorize them, and what steps are being taken to ensure that they are not used again," wrote Cummings in a letter today to Rep. Issa.
Rep. Cummings says Melson's attorney has indicated Melson would be "pleased to cooperate."
#1
Should be interesting. Internal DOJ memos indicate Holder was briefed as early as July 2010 on Op F & F. In May 2011, he testified before the House committee that he might have known about it a few weeks prior.
#6
Dec 8th - another day that shall live in infamy, albeit shadowed by its' neighbor
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2011 21:04 Comments ||
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Link on Drudge today quoted Hillary as saying she had nothing to indicate the DOJ got the needed permits for export of the arms (ITAR violation) and nothing in the iTAR speaks to retro active gubmint approvals. but i bet that somehow one 'materializes.'
Federal prosecutors are trying again to get a judge to keep a Virginia man accused of acting as a Syrian spy in jail while he awaits trial. Last week a magistrate in Alexandria ordered 47-year-old Mohamad Soueid free on home detention while waiting to be tried on charges that he worked with Syrian intelligence agencies to monitor expatriates in the U.S. opposing Assad's regime.
The magistrate said that he appears to be nothing more than a low-level operative, at worst. Prosecutors strongly dispute this, saying Soueid has contacts in the highest levels of the Syrian regime, even Assad himself. They have appealed the magistrate's bail order, and Soueid remains in custody.
ISLAMABAD - While Pakistan wants China to build a naval base at its southwestern seaport of Gwadar in Balochistan province, Beijing is more interested in setting up military bases either in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan or in the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) that border Xinjiang province. This should be fun.
The Chinese desire is meant to contain growing terrorist activities of Chinese rebels belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) that is also described as the Turkistani Islamic Party (TIP). Perhaps these are the Paskistanis we should be funding.
The Chinese Muslim rebels want the creation of an independent Islamic state and are allegedly being trained in the tribal areas of Pakistan. By the ISI no doubt.
According to well-placed diplomatic circles in Islamabad, Beijing's wish for a military presence in Pakistan was discussed at length by the political and military leadership of both countries in recent months as China (which views the Uyghur separatist sentiment as a dire threat) has become ever-more concerned about Pakistan's tribal areas as a haven for radicals. And therefor the Indians and Afghans have nothing to worry about. These two deserve each other.
#1
The Chinese government is a jealous deity. One of its edicts is "Thou shalt have no other gods before me". If the Chinese administer FATA, a lot of imams are going to become involuntary organ donors.
#2
The PAK Foreign Office is vehemently denying the report as "rubbish".
CHINA = RUSSIA = prefers that US-NATO Troops stay, NOT leave, the AFPAK Region - Beijing fears what many Analysts in the US-West, Region are fearing in that the US is pulling out its Milfors prematurely, leaving behind weak Govts whom are easy prey to Radical Islam.
ADD TO CHINA'S ONGOING STRATEGIC = MARITIME TRUBLES IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA + NE ASIA - I can just hear the spirit of famous PLA General LI PIAO talking "aggressively", + slamming his fist + NOT-OBAMA'S-TOTUS Pointers on various PLA Military Maps.
The deal saw one of Pakistain's most feared forces of Evil walk from jail apparently in exchange for his commitment to nonviolence, help in reining in other fighters and possibly delivering the votes of his followers.
Supporters showered Malik Ishaq with rose petals when he left the prison in the eastern city of Lahore in July.
Days later, he was preaching murderous hatred toward minority Shias to a cheering crowd, energising a network whose members have joined al-Qaeda for terror strikes.
That was too much for Pak authorities, who incarcerated him again last month.
Pakistain has a well-documented history of trying to co-opt or strike deals with forces of Evil of various causes, and a close examination of the Ishaq case shows how that can play out.
It's a cautionary tale, perhaps, for US officials who are urging Pakistain to bring to the negotiating table Afghan forces of Evil who allegedly enjoy safe havens in the country's lawless border regions.
Fifteen years ago, Ishaq founded Laskhar-i-Jangvi, or LJ, which allies itself with al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
The LJ is blamed for scores of attacks on Shias and on Pak and US interests.
Ishaq was locked away in 1997 and accused in more than 200 criminal cases including the killings of 70 Shias.
One judge attempted to hide his face with his hands, but Ishaq made clear he knew his identity in a chilling way: He read out the names of his children, and the judge abandoned the trial, he said.
But the state could never make the charges stick -- in large part because witnesses, judges and prosecutors were too scared to convict. That happens when your country's controlled by gangsters.
Frightened judges treated him honourably in court and gave him tea and cookies, according to Anis Haider Naqvi, a prosecution witness in two cases against Ishaq.
One judge attempted to hide his face with his hands, but Ishaq made clear he knew his identity in a chilling way: He read out the names of his children, and the judge abandoned the trial, he said.
Despite the lack of convictions, Ishaq remained in prison for 14 years as prosecutors slowly moved from one case to the next.
Ishaq proved his usefulness in 2009, when he was flown from jail to negotiate with forces of Evil who had stormed part of the military headquarters in Rawalpindi and were holding hostages there, said Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, who used to advise the Punjab provincial government on religious matters.
A behind-the-scenes effort by the government to co-opt the leaders of turban outfits and bring them into mainstream political life, or at least draw them away from attacking the state, helped Ishaq secure his July 15 release, according to Ashrafi.
"I met Ishaq several times in prison," Ashrafi said, emphasising that Ishaq assured him that he wanted to contribute to peace. "If someone wants to get back to normal life, yes, why not, we do help him," said Ashrafi. "These are our own men." He said he was disappointed to see him back in jail.
Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan denied there was any deal behind Ishaq's release, but said myrmidon leaders were free to join politics if they eschewed violence. "We are in touch with those who have become, or want to become, useful citizens," he said.
The Punjab is the key battleground between the ruling party of President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... and the party of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , currently in power in that province.
Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi, the head of Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistain, or SSP, LJ's parent sectarian group, told a rally last year that Nawaz's brother, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, had promised that Ishaq's release "would be settled in meetings" with him.
"After that meeting, the time is not far when the prison door would break open and Malik Ishaq would be released," he said.
LJ and other turban groups can muster significant support in Punjab and parts of Sindh province through their schools and mosques, making them an important political force.
Mainstream politicians have shown no hesitation in courting them despite their links to violence.
Local SSP leader Mohammad Tayyab said a recent SSP-backed candidate for a regional assembly seat in southern Punjab got 17,000 votes.
"That is what Zardari's party and Sharif's know very well," he said.
Khaled Ahmad, an expert on Pak turban groups in Punjab, said there is "no doubt" that the SSP and Sharif's party would cut deals as they have done in the past. "It is dangerous now because the group and its offshoots are in alliance with al-Qaeda."
Government intelligence reports obtained by The News Agency that Dare Not be Named show Ishaq made threats in his public appearances after his release from prison. He urged his supporters not to be afraid of Pak laws or prisons. "We know how to kill and how to die," he told a gathering near Rahim Yar Khan on September, 4 according to one report.
Ishaq's aides denied he made such remarks. "No,no! Certainly not!"
The government suspected Ishaq of coordinating meetings in recent months of 50 or so alleged terrorists, said Khan, the law minister. Some of the men Ishaq visited directly after his release had allegedly been involved in terrorism and were being watched by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, said the government reports.
LJ's stronghold is south and central Punjab, a neglected, blisteringly hot part of the country that has long been the recruiting ground for turban groups. Wealthy families, disproportionately Shia, own large swaths of land where tenant farmers grow cotton, sugarcane and wheat and work at mango orchids.
Visitors to Ishaq's house in Islam Nagar in the southern Punjabi city of Rahim Yar Khan are greeted by an SSP member with an automatic rifle, against a backdrop of flags and banners glorifying the group. "My father's mission is a true one," said his son, Malik Usman. "We will seek our reward from Allah."
[One Pakistain] Jemima Khan, ...first gained notice in the United Kingdom as a young heiress, the daughter of Lady Annabel and Sir James Goldsmith. She was married to the retired Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan between 1995 and their divorce in 2004. For the next three years, from 2004 to 2007, Khan gained worldwide media attention by sharing the baloney with British film star Hugh Grant. She has nothing to do with pancakes... the former wife of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, ... who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... has donated cameras to Pak tribal leaders to document the death and devastation caused by US drone attacks in the country's tribal areas, according to a media report. "Rupert!"
"Yes, m'lady!"
"Send the natives some cameras so they can take pictures of how oppressed they are!"
"Yes, m'lady!"
A Loya Jirga (Grand Council) of Waziri tribal leaders is being held in Islamabad today, and human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... lawyers will distribute an initial batch of 50 cameras to the community leaders, The Times reports.
The tribal leaders will be asked to photograph the effects of drone strikes with the cameras, which will show when and where the pictures were taken, and the information will go to a central databank accessible to the public, the report said.
The campaign has been organised by Pak lawyers and human rights groups, it added.
"We need complete transparency. The burden of proof is on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to show they are getting it right," Clive Stafford Smith, a British lawyer of the campaign group Reprieve, was quoted as saying.
"The cameras will tell the rest of the world what is happening, and who is actually being killed in an area where the flow of information is being controlled and manipulated by the very perpetrators of the killing machine," Mirza Shahzad Akbar, a lawyer representing civilian victims of drone attacks, said.
About 2000 people have been killed by missiles fired from remote-controlled drones that are principally operated from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.
The 300th strike in Pakistain since 2004 was made last week, and drones are targeting suspected forces of Evil once every four days in Pakistain's tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
Bah, they'll just use them to record beheadings and stonings. And goat pron.
#4
Jemima Khan donates cameras to Pakistan ...
With a name like that, wouldn't it be better for her to go to the Israel for a D9 ride along for a remake of 'St Pancake, the manhole cover'?
[One Pakistan] Pakistain must wake up to the fact that its enemies, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and its affiliates, are some of those "illustrious ex-assets that have support or protection of our friends- the Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda," an editorial in a Pak newspaper has said. Pakistain remains in "obstinate denial of several key facts and their implications for the country," the Daily Times editorial said. My hero, Najam Sethi again risks having his car explode or disappearing into the bowels of North Wazoo.
One of such facts is that the Islamic terrorist landscape is now immensely more complicated than it was during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, it noted.
Most Islamist beturbanned goon organizations in the region have more or less coalesced under al Qaeda's pan-Islamist ideology, it added. Most of them are now owned by al-Qaeda, which through them owns significant portions of Pakistain, to include Abbottabad.
The editorial pointed out that the TTP and its affiliates, "avowed enemies of Pakistain, are some of those illustrious ex-assets that have support or protection of our friends the Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda."
"Why its Frankensteins do not occasion Rawalpindi to pause and rethink its failed strategy has now become nothing less than a stupefying mystery," it wondered.
"If the wise men think the Afghan Taliban will not be a source of invaluable support for the likes of the TTP, that double dealing is solely their preserve, they have a surprise in store," the editorial concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Dean Acheson ... on Thursday renewed her call on Pakistain to close safe havens for cut-thoats, saying the uneasy partner must be "unequivocal" in its approach.
Testifying before Congress after a trip to the region, Clinton said she delivered a "frank" message to Pakistain that it was urgent to act against the cut-thoat Haqqani network, which she blamed for anti-US attacks in Afghanistan.
"I explained that trying to distinguish between so-called good gun-hung tough guys and bad gun-hung tough guys is ultimately self-defeating and dangerous," Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"No one who targets innocent civilians of any nationality should be tolerated or protected.
"We look to Pakistain to encourage the Taliban and other beturbanned goons to participate in an Afghan grinding of the peace processor in good faith, both through unequivocal public statements and by closing off the safe havens," she added.
Clinton used unusually strong language on last week's trip, saying that US tolerance has worn thin after indications that the Haqqani network is targeting Americans, including through a 19-hour siege of the US embassy in Kabul.
The top US diplomat supported the assessment of the outgoing US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, who last month said that the Haqqani network was a "veritable arm" of Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence.
During Clinton's visit, Pakistain's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that both her country and Afghanistan can do more against snuffies but denied any official support for the Haqqani network.
Pakistain, once the primary backer of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, switched sides to join the United States in its military campaign after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
But the partnership has been unpopular with the Pak public and US officials say that official elements, perhaps acting outside the control of the civilian government, have maintained support to cut-thoats.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday renewed her call on Pakistain to close safe havens for cut-thoats, saying the uneasy partner must be "unequivocal" in its approach.
Testifying before Congress after a trip to the region, Clinton said she delivered a "frank" message to Pakistain that it was urgent to act against the cut-thoat Haqqani network, which she blamed for anti-US attacks in Afghanistan.
"I explained that trying to distinguish between so-called good gun-hung tough guys and bad gun-hung tough guys is ultimately self-defeating and dangerous," Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"No one who targets innocent civilians of any nationality should be tolerated or protected.
"We look to Pakistain to encourage the Taliban and other beturbanned goons to participate in an Afghan grinding of the peace processor in good faith, both through unequivocal public statements and by closing off the safe havens," she added.
Clinton used unusually strong language on last week's trip, saying that US tolerance has worn thin after indications that the Haqqani network is targeting Americans, including through a 19-hour siege of the US embassy in Kabul.
During Clinton's visit, Pakistain's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that both her country and Afghanistan can do more against snuffies but denied any official support for the Haqqani network. "No, no! Certainly not!"
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Stopped reading at "Clinton Seeks".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/28/2011 0:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"If you don't crack down on the Talibs, we'll keep sending Hillary over to shriek and hector you, and nobody wants that...except Bill"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2011 10:44 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I don't think Bill wanted that either; he looked elsewhere many times. A marriage of political convenience.
[One Pakistan] The International Monetary Fund expects Pakistain's 2011-12 fiscal deficit to widen to 6.5 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), according to its new report.
Pakistain's fiscal deficit was 5.9 per cent in 2010-11 and 1.1 per cent of the GDP for three months, ending September 30, the Dawn reports.
The IMF Outlook for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistain (MENAP) also forecasts a GDP growth of 2.6 per cent for Pakistain in the fiscal year ending in June 2012, compared with the government's target of 4.2 per cent.
It expects inflation to average at 13 per cent compared with the government's target of 12 per cent.
Similarly, imports are estimated at around 46 billion dollars, while the exports trail behind at an estimated 30 billion dollars during 2011-12.
The IMF warns that the widening deficit could threaten Pakistain's economic stability and hit its sovereign ratings.
The report portrays Pakistain and Libya as among those characterised as having the most difficult business environments in the MENAP region.
Pakistain is also among the countries experiencing smaller increases in import costs, because of weaker economic activity and lower oil intensity.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
The International Monetary Fund expects Pakistain's 2011-12 fiscal deficit to widen to 6.5 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), according to its new report.
[One Pakistan] Pakistain Mohammedan League-N (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... has called for improved ties with India and Afghanistan. He wants to own Afghanistan -- it's "strategic depth." India's where the money is, and he's likely finally come to the conclusion that starting wars with it isn't going to put any of that money into his pocket.
During his meeting with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Nawaz said that Turkey and Pakistain were tied in cordial relations, adding that both countries stood by each other through thick and thin.
The former Pakistain prime minister also said that existing economic, social, political and cultural ties among the countries in the region should be developed to resolve the issues that might lead to terrorism.
Nawaz gave two concrete examples regarding Pakistain's foreign policy concerning its two immediate neighbours, Afghanistan and India.
He pointed out that Pakistain and Afghanistan had always had organic ties with regard to culture and social life, adding that Pak policy regarding Afghanistan was not limited to one or another political party, rather it was Afghani people-specific.
"If there is no peace in Afghanistan, there can't be any peace or stability in Pakistain either," Pakistain Today quoted the PML-N chief, as saying.
About Islamabad's relations with New Delhi, Nawaz said that both India and Pakistain should find a way to resolve their differences on all issues, including Kashmire, in a peaceful way.
"There will be no economic growth in South Asia unless Pakistain and India solve their differences," he said, terming the two countries very important for each other in particular, and for the region in general.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] When Pakistain's military launched an offensive in the Khyber tribal region in 2008, it promised residents they would soon be free of a reign of terror imposed by Islamic myrmidons.
But many of the thousands who decamped are still too scared to return, and new refugees have been escaping in large numbers as the military again cracks down on those same Death Eaters after repeated attacks on security forces and pro-government tribes.
"This is a search operation in a limited area within Khyber Agency to locate and eliminate myrmidon hideouts," a military official told Rooters.
"The situation was becoming unacceptable."
Pakistain needs a tight grip on Khyber.
One of the main supply routes for US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces in Afghanistan runs through the area, a wedge of tan-coloured mountains sandwiched between the city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar and the Afghan border.
People who moved to the Jalozai camp in the nearby town of Nowshera told Rooters about 20,000 had decamped since the latest operation began on Friday.
Over 200 people were killed and about 40 villages destroyed, residents who decamped said.
Khyber's history, and its current troubles, highlight the complexities of trying to stabilise Pakistain.
It is one of seven ethnic Pashtun tribal districts that straddle the mostly non-existent border with Afghanistan and have never come under the full control of any government -- ideal places for militancy to thrive.
The Pak Taliban, the biggest security threat to the US-backed government, is not the main problem in Khyber.
The man causing trouble is Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... , a former bus driver turned warlord who heads a relatively small militia called Lashkar-e-Islam, which seeks to apply sharia, or Islamic law.
Residents recalled how he slowly started to impose his austere views years ago, while the military took little notice.
"People who they catch working for the government are beheaded and the deaths are announced by loudspeaker so everyone knows it is coming," said tribal elder Mir Akbar, as children in dirty plastic sandals looked on in the sprawling camp of white tents.
Tribesmen say they are forced to go to Bagh's people to settle disputes and are forced to pay taxes to them in cash, vehicles, weapons or food.
"The tribes are required to either send members of the family for certain periods of time to serve with Lashkar-e-Islam.
Those who cannot afford to send male members must pay so they can hire fighters in their place," said a primitive.
A similar situation arose in Pakistain's Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... region to the northeast. Talibs led by Maulvi Fazlullah fought the government for years and gradually imposed his radical rule.
The Taliban eventually capitalised on a truce with the government and took control of the valley of over one million, before being driven out by an army offensive in 2009. Fazlullah regrouped across the border in Afghanistan and is now seen as a security threat again.
Stretched Military
At Jalozai, displaced Khyber residents believe Bagh and his fighters will also melt away in Afghanistan if he needs to.
Islamabad has come under immense pressure to crack down on Death Eaters since US Special Forces killed al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who used to be but now ain't... in a unilateral raid in a Pak town in May, where he had apparently spent years.
But the army says it has its hands full fighting the Pak Taliban and can't possibly go after all Death Eaters at once.
So Bagh and his men -- who hang black flags on their turf -- could gain breathing space if the military is distracted elsewhere.
People like Syed Marjan remain on edge in Jalozai, originally set up in the 1980s for Afghans fleeing war in their country.
"They kidnapped my brother because he is a soldier. They said they would kill him unless he quit the army," he said.
Lashkar-e-Islam has several enemies, including the Pak Taliban, local warlords and tribes which the government has recruited to fight myrmidons.
But residents say it's the most dangerous player in Khyber and acted with impunity for years. Lashkar-e-Islam first raised concerns when it began making forays into the placid provincial capital Peshawar to impose their Taliban-style ways.
Bagh's men kidnapped people, attacked music and video shops and ordered barbers to stop shaving men's beards in line with hardline Taliban edicts.
"If they think you gamble or drink, they just execute you in a public square and everyone has to watch," said Fazal Azim, 25, a labourer.
"They announce it in mosques."
This article starring:
Mangal Bagh
Lashkar-e-Islam
Maulvi Fazlullah
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami
Back in 2004, in an effort to rebuild Iraq, the United States flew at least 20 planes full of money tightly-wrapped stacks of $100 bills into the country. In total, $12 billion was airlifted to Iraq, all in cash. This June, when the books were closing on Development Fund for Iraq, which was under the rule of the Coalitional Provisional Authority (which dissolved in 2004), it was reported that $6.6 billion of the cash was missing. The cash wasnt Americas; it was money from seized Iraqi assets, oil sales, and surpluses. We were just, essentially, returning it to them. Still, its a hefty sum to misplace (or, as some believed, to have stolen).
This week, however, a report based on a Pentagon audit revealed that the money was never stolen it was transferred to the Central Bank of Iraq. That money is not missing, Inspector General Stuart Bowen told Bloombergs Tony Capaccio and David Lerman. CNNs Charley Keyes points out that the Inspector Generals report concludes, sufficient evidence exists showing that almost all of the remaining $6.6 billion was transferred to actual and legal CBI (Central Bank of Iraq) control.
...Palestinians are supposed to do the same, to see how far apart their positions are.
It might even happen the way Mr. Blair wants.
In a departure from the government's previous policy, Israel is now agreeing to put forward a comprehensive proposal on borders within the next three months, according to a Quartet communiqué issued Thursday.
The statement, put out following separate meetings the Quartet envoys and Quartet representative Tony Blair held in Jerusalem with Israeli and Palestinian officials on Wednesday, said the parties agreed with the Quartet to "come forward with comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months."
#1
I suspect the Paleo border starts on the Med shore
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2011 10:48 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"World leaders attend funeral of Saudi heir to the throne Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz in Riyadh Tuesday".
Among them US VP Biden. Talk of new push on Israel and Palestine next week. I wonder if Biden is going to mix it up a bit. I haven't heard much of anything lately on Biden which I think is unusual.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah is preparing its military arsenal and fighters to launch an operation to occupy the Galilee area in Israel, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Thursday.
The party's Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... on February 16 sent "military notification... declaring that preparations to occupy the Galilee is ongoing," a source close to Hizbullah told the daily.
"Hizbullah began preparing after the 2006 war for any new confrontation with the enemy," the source said.
Nasrallah called on the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... fighters in a speech on February 16 to stand ready to occupy the Galilee area should another war "be imposed on Leb," in a response to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's threats to invade Leb once again.
Al-Akhbar daily also reported that Nasrallah has warned that Tel Aviv will be the first target in any war Israel decides to launch against Leb.
Security sources told the daily that "the resistance leadership was secretly on high alert after receiving reports that Israel will probably launch a war on Leb."
"Obtained information confirmed these reports, showing that it was supposed to take place in August, however, changes occurred at the last minute," the source said.
Sources told al-Joumhouria that the "resistances' military preparations are ongoing."
According to information obtained by the daily, a delegation from Hizbullah military experts visited areas in Bekaa and the South to check on the resistances' positions, while 727 fighters from Hizbullah finished their military training in Tehran.
"Israel will be surprised by attacks from within the Israeli towns via the Paleostinian resistance cells," sources told the daily.
They added that "the battles will be on the Israeli grounds; therefore targeting the Galilee is a definite option."
The sources didn't rule out Syria's participation in the war "especially if the interior situation deteriorated further more."
Iran's Fars news Agency reported that Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... has warned that he would "set fire" to the Middle East if foreign forces launched a military strike on his country and would ask for Hizbullah's help to attack Israel.
The party, established nearly 30 years ago to confront Israel's occupation of south Leb, fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.
Israel and Syria are technically at war, but their frontier had been calm since the war in 1973, when Israel repelled a Syrian assault to recapture the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Mmmm, a new Cemetary in the area sounds good.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/28/2011 0:46 Comments ||
Top||
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.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
told a private Pak television station: "If fighting starts between Pakistain and the US, we are beside Pakistain.
"Mr. Dorda survived a murder attempt last night, 25 October, 2011, at the hands of his guards in the building where he was 
Libya's new leaders vowed on Thursday to bring Moamer 
Rodong Sinmun newspaper denounced an increase of the U.S. military presence in the South Korean base of Kunsan, where fighter jets and troops joined military forces, already stationed there.
Nawaz Sharif
[One Pakistan] Pakistain must wake up to the fact that its enemies, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and its affiliates, are some of those "illustrious ex-assets that have support or protection of our friends- the Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda," an editorial in a Pak newspaper has said. Pakistain remains in "obstinate denial of several key facts and their implications for the country," the Daily Times editorial said.
Hillary Clinton
The International Monetary Fund expects Pakistain's 2011-12 fiscal deficit to widen to 6.5 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), according to its new report.
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
