Five senior Taliban fighters held at Guantanamo Bay have agreed to be moved to custody in Qatar as part of a peace plan, Afghan government officials say.
The US administration has not approved the transfer but is considering it as an incentive for the militants to enter negotiations in Afghanistan.
None of the five inmates is accused of directly killing Americans.
[An Nahar] South Sudan accused former foe Sudan on Friday of holding 35,000 Southerners as "slaves," stalling talks to resolve to furious oil dispute as tensions remain high between the two neighbors.
"There is unfortunately a disagreement, because the government of Sudan refused the inclusion of the freedom of about 35,000 South Sudanese enslaved citizens," South Sudan's chief negotiator Pagan Amum told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Amum said the abductees were taken hostage during Sudan's bloody 1983-2005 north-south civil war which ended in a peace deal that paved the way for South Sudan's formal independence in July.
Thousands of South Sudanese were allegedly kidnapped by pro-government militia forces during the war and forced to work in the north, claims rejected by the government in Khartoum.
The rivals are in the Ethiopian capital holding the latest round of dragging African-Union led talks. The two countries have been at loggerheads since the South broke away, threatening to reignite conflict between the two former bitter enemies.
Oil has been a major sticking point in the talks, since Juba took 75 percent of Sudanese oil at independence but Khartoum controls processing and export facilities.
But deals must also be made on contentious nationality issues, as well as border demarcation and the future of the contested Abyei region, claimed by both sides but occupied by Khartoum's army.
Juba took the drastic decision to halt crude production in January, despite oil making up 98 percent of its revenue, after Sudan started seizing its shipments in lieu of a deal on transit fees.
Khartoum said the approach from South Sudan was "not constructive" and proposed the creation of a separate high level committee to deal with the sticking points on nationality issues.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... Sudanese negotiator Sabir Mohamed al-Hassan said the talks were stalled because the South insisted on hammering out details about the proposed committee, including how citizens would be repatriated.
"They insisted to go into detail and we refused to go into detail, and the meeting broke down," he said.
Some 500,000 South Sudanese remain in Sudan, and Khartoum has given them until April 8 to leave or regularize their status. However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... has said it is logistically impossible to repatriate all within the timeframe.
Under South Sudanese law any Southern ethnic group member, or with ancestors born in the south, is eligible for nationality.
"That is why we thought it would be important to set up this committee as soon as possible because on the 8th ... if there is not agreement, definitely there will be complications," Hassan added.
Hassan admitted a deal is unlikely to be reached before this round of negotiations close on March 16.
"It takes two to tango. Personally, me ... I'm not really optimistic," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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only 35,000 - that sounds conservative
Posted by: Water Modem ||
03/10/2012 13:54 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Investigators probing violations during Libya's conflict said Friday they are giving the U.N.'s human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... chief a list of people who should face international or national justice.
The commission of inquiry also called for further probes into NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... air strikes on Libya, saying it was unable to tell if the alliance took adequate precautions to protect civilians in some of its attacks.
The commission "has gathered information linking individuals to human rights violations or crimes," lead investigator Philip Kirsch said.
"It will hand over a confidential list containing that information to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights."
Asked for details on the list, Kirsch told journalists: "The principle of a confidential envelope is that you don't talk about what's in it."
Investigators had decided to keep the list confidential to "prevent risk of harm to those who are held in jug and to avoid jeopardizing the fair trial rights of any persons who may be brought to trial in the future."
In their 220-page report presented Monday to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the commission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council accused both Muammar Qadaffy ... who is now cavorting happily with Himmler and Heydrich... 's forces and anti-regime troops of serious crimes.
Qadaffy's troops committed crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, forced disappearances and torture, it said.
Anti-regime troops, the thuwar, also committed "serious violations including war crimes and breaches of international human rights law" such as unlawful killing, arbitrary arrest and torture, said the report.
"The commission further found that the thuwar also perpetrated torture and ill-treatment, and continued to do so even during the commission's visit," said Kirsch.
"These acts are violations of international human rights law and, when committed during armed conflict, constitute war crimes," he said.
While calling for these individuals to be brought to justice, Sherlocks also asked for further probes into NATO air strikes on Libya.
After examining 20 strikes by the campaign by Britannia, La Belle France, the United States and their allies, the commission found five in which 60 non-combatants were killed and 55 maimed.
NATO claimed to have taken "all feasible precautions" to minimize casualties, Kirsch told the Human Rights Council.
But "the commission was not provided with sufficient information to verify this independently, as it has done with other areas.
"The commission recommends further investigations," he added.
Nevertheless, the inquiry found that overall, NATO "did not deliberately target civilians".
Addressing the council after Kirsch's report, Cuba's envoy charged that "NATO assassinated civilians in Libya ... these crimes must be investigated".
Reacting to the commission's report, NATO said it welcomed the finding that the alliance conducted a "highly precise campaign with a demonstrable determination to avoid civilian casualties."
It stressed it did "everything possible to minimize the risk to civilians, but in a complex military campaign, that risk cannot be reduced to zero."
"We deeply regret any instance of civilian casualties for which NATO could have been responsible and we support the Libyan authorities' efforts to review incidents from the conflict which affected civilians."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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It stressed it did "everything possible to minimize the risk to civilians, but in a complex military campaign...
[Magharebia] The National Movement for the Liberation of Azaouad (MNLA), Mali and Mauritania on Sunday (March 4th) started talks to put an end to the months-long armed conflict between Touareg rebels and the Malian government, Aray Almostenir reported on Monday.
The tripartite consultations aim to find a "cease-fire mechanism and the return of displaced people", the Mauritanian website reported. The goal is to launch "multilateral negotiations in northern Mali under regional and international auspices with the subject of Azaouad self-determination on the agenda".
"The two parties to the conflict are moving slowing in deepening consultations," according to Aray Almostenir.
The move came two days after the MNLA declared readiness for a peaceful solution to the confrontation. In a March 2nd statement, the Touareg rebel coalition insisted that the solution be based on "the choice of the Azaouad people and fulfil the legitimate aspiration of their right to self-determination".
The MNLA demanded that the international community assume its moral, humanitarian and legal responsibilities toward the Azaouad people and work to stop what it termed massacres against unarmed civilians.
The statement stems from "the principles set by the MNLA since its declaration on November 1st, 2010, adopting peaceful resolution and political dialogue as an optimal means for resolving the conflict between the Azaouad and Mali for more than fifty years", according to their statement.
In addition, the Touareg coalition praised "regional and international endeavours to find a final solution to the issue".
The push for negotiations came "with direct pressure from the French government on both parties", according to Abou Bakr Sadiq Ogh Ham Hadi, a Touareg professor at the University of Bamako who sought refuge outside Mali.
The talks are "in the interest of all parties because the Malian government seeks all means to end the armed conflict in preparation for holding the next presidential election", he added. "Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again... the French government has found itself compelled to stop the war in the region of northern Mali, where it has hostages held by al-Qaeda, and therefore they want the Malian government to exert maximum efforts to liberate those hostages."
The professor, however, did not pin much hope on the outcome of negotiations, saying that "the previous agreements were not respected".
"In fact, secret negotiations are currently taking place between the two parties to the conflict under Mauritanian -- Algerian -- Burkinabe auspices, but settlement in them will be in favour of granting the wilayas of northern Mali, home to the Touaregs and Arabs, self-rule rather than the demand for independence," said Sidi Mohamed Ould Khalifa, a journalist who specialises in Sahel security.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[Magharebia] Secularism does not conflict with the principles of Islam, according to Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi.
"Secularism appears to be a philosophy that contradicts religious perceptions, but things are not as has been posed," he explained in a March 2nd lecture, hosted by the Centre for the Study of Islam and Democracy in Tunis. "Secularism emerged in the West and evolved as solutions and measures for problems between church and state posed in central Europe within the framework of churches in the Protestant state."
"So secularism is only procedures and not atheist philosophy," he added.
Ikram Koubàa, a Tunisian citizen, considered Ghannouchi's statements positive and reassuring, indicating a new development in the Ennahda Movement's discourse, and a higher level of intellectual awareness among Tunisia's Islamists.
But others saw ambiguity in Ghannouchi's concept of secularism.
"We call for a secularism separating politics from religion and respecting our identity and our religious minorities, in which religion does not interfere with politics," Achref Smairi said.
Ghannouchi stressed that the troubling interactions between the Islamist and secular intellectual elites stemmed from confusion about the concepts of secularism and Islam.
On the other hand, he also noted that if religion and state were completely separated, it would become easier to abuse both.
He added, "Islam grew up combining religion and politics and religion and state, and Mohammedans were constantly influenced by religion and they should seek inspiration from the values of Islam and its teachings to face their civilian lives."
Ghannouchi also stressed that Islam is a civilised religion and does not contradict with civil society.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
This is an important part of Islamic 'reformation', which is getting momentum among intellectuals in traditionally more moderate Islamic countries.
A lot of Muslims crave a 'modern' Islam, that (hypocritically) dispenses with the primitivism, barbarism, ignorance and violence of its current form. This means deemphasizing the nasty parts and emphasizing the "nicer" bits to be preeminent in their doctrines.
Christianity went through this painful process a long time ago.
Either the terms are good or the Libyans got an 'or else' from Vlad...
In an interview with the ITAR-TASS news agency Friday, interim Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Rahim Al-Keeb assured Russia that his country would honour all the contracts that it signed with Russian companies in the era of Muammar Gaddafi. He said Libya would welcome the return of Russian companies, Voice of Russia reported.
On the ground, meanwhile, there are growing signs of national disintegration. Earlier this week, the oil-rich eastern region of Cyrenaica with the seat in Benghazi declared itself semi-autonomous, and Libya's third biggest city Misurata in the west imposed restrictions on the entry of Libyans from elsewhere in the country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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Remember, something like 95% of the Libyan military hardware is Soviet/Russian, as is a lot of their heavy equipment. This is simply facing the facts that until the oil fields are fully producing and even expanding, Libya will be dependent to a great extent on Russian parts and goodwill.
[Yemen Post] Yemen witnesses active moves by politicians and foreign ambassadors to carry out the most important provisiions of the GCC deal power transfer deal; the military reconstruction and holding an inclusive dialogue conference.
Aljazeer Net Website quoted sources as saying that ambassadors of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and the Gulf States invited the exiled opposition leaders to take part in the conference that will set to be held lately of the current March under international supervision.
Well-informed sources affirmed that leaders of the southern opposition will come back Yemen to participate, pointing out that they provided to put clear visions and create proper conditions to their return.
According to the front man of the major political coalition, the Joint Meeting Parties, the exiled opposition leaders as well as leaders of the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates.... group welcomed any serious dialogue, and expressed their willingness to participate.
He affirmed that a committee was formed by the JMP had visited Saada and met representatives of the Houthi group that said it has visions and proposals to be offered in dialogue.
A big shot of the Southern Movement, Nasser Al-Taweel, told Aljazeera Net that they do not refuse any dialogue that could lead to lead the southern case.
The Yemeni President Abdu-Rabo Mansour Hadi had said in a meeting with British Member of Parliament, Alistair Burt, that the dialogue will start lately of the current month simultaneously with the military shake-up.
These intensive moves come amid insecurity and escalation of the terrorist acts carried out by groups connected to Al-Qaeda in the southern part of the state.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... a ten-minister commission was formed to engage in negotiations with the Yemeni youth camped at change squares in most Yemeni governorates.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Home Minister Shahara Khatun yesterday said the main opposition BNP is trying to carry out subversive acts centring its March 12 rally.
"A vested quarter is out to sabotage in the name of March 12 rally designed to hinder the trial process of the war criminals, who committed crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971," she said while addressing a discussion as the chief guest.
Ghas Ful, an organization for children and teenagers, arranged the programme at Mirpur marking the Independence Day.
"The law enforcement agencies have taken enough preparation to avert anarchy in the name of political programmes," said the minister, also a presidium member of the ruling Awami League.
She also called upon the leaders and workers of AL to remain alert so that none could carry out any subversive acts.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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The fear rising in places like Bangladesh when an armed group is threatening anarchy is in direct relation to ratio of unarmed citizens. Does anyone have a link to the cheapest 12 gauge shotgun in the world? Preferrably one that breaks down easily.
Iran is ready to invest in the construction of an oil refinery in Port Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, Iranian Ambassador to Bulgaria Golamreza Bageri Mogadam told Sofia News Agency in an interview. During a visit in Bulgaria's Varna in the fall of 2011 Iran's diplomat said his country wanted to build an oil refinery there.
"As far as Iran is concerned there is no problem for realizing this project - whether from the point of view of science, technology, capital, or management. Iran has the needed capabilities. Keeping in mind the historic friendship between our nations, we are ready, in the framework of our mutual interests, to set this project on the table," His Excellency declared stressing that the Bulgarian authorities should decide on how to utilize Iran's offer.
"Now it is up to the Bulgarian authorities to use this capacity. If the Bulgarian statesmen demonstrate a desire, we are ready to discuss with them this cooperation," he added.
Mogadam also stated that Iran could be ready to throw its weight behind the Nabucco gas transit pipeline project as a natural gas supplier if the European Union reconsiders its policies towards Iran.
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03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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The deployment will be the ship's 22nd. Following its return to Virginia in the fall, tens of thousands are expected to be on hand for a deactivation ceremony Dec. 1 that President Barack Obama has been invited to attend.
The following summer, Enterprise will be towed to the shipyard where it was built in nearby Newport News so its nuclear fuel can be removed, a process that will take until 2015. What remains of the ship after that will then be taken to Washington state so it can be scrapped.
The ship, among the first to respond after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, won't be turned into a museum like some other carriers. Crews have to cut large holes in the vessel to remove the nuclear fuel, and it would be too expensive to repair, said Lt. Cmdr. Sarah Self-Kyler, the Enterprise's public affairs officer.
The deployment will be the ship's 22nd. Following its return to Virginia in the fall, tens of thousands are expected to be on hand for a deactivation ceremony Dec. 1 that President Barack Obama has been invited to attend.
The following summer, Enterprise will be towed to the shipyard where it was built in nearby Newport News so its nuclear fuel can be removed, a process that will take until 2015. What remains of the ship after that will then be taken to Washington state so it can be scrapped.
The ship, among the first to respond after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, won't be turned into a museum like some other carriers. Crews have to cut large holes in the vessel to remove the nuclear fuel, and it would be too expensive to repair, said Lt. Cmdr. Sarah Self-Kyler, the Enterprise's public affairs officer.
[Dawn] Pakistain Foreign Office reminded those countries, who have given asylums to Baloch separatists, to discourage anti-Pakistain secessionist activities within their territories.
Why? What motivation do those other countries have to do as Pakistan desires?
Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit while giving weekly briefing to the media representatives said that Pakistain has been handling the situation politically in accordance with its own laws, priorities and constitution.
Replying to a question, about providing shelter to some of the elements who are involved in the disturbance of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , the front man said Pakistain has raised this question with the concerned countries adding that demarche was issued to ambassador of Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... in Islamabad.
Talking on the issue of activities of estranged Baloch leaders taking refuge in England and Switzerland, Basit said Islamabad has made demarches to the relevant countries and have been assured by them that their territories will not be allowed to be used against Pakistain.
"We are cognizant of the developments in Balochistan and necessary steps have also been taken," he added.
The front man said Pakistain is trying to handle the situation in the province politically adding "it is our internal issue and will be dealt with in accordance with the constitution and our own preferences".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Two television journalists' attempt to snoop on a Baloch leader and a US diplomat meeting privately in a hotel here on Thursday ended in a fracas and detention of four Punjab police personnel.
Islamabad police said they were also looking for seven bodyguards of Jamhoori Watan Party leader Shazain Bugti.
They, together with the Punjab coppers, allegedly beat up a private TV channel crew when they started filming Mr Bugti and US Embassy's political counsellor Jonathan Pratt, despite his protests that the journalists had barged in their private meeting uninvited.
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 Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. arrived at the hotel to enquire after the commotion had ended. His sudden appearance gave rise to questions, if not suspicions, among the witnesses of the incident that lasted about 20 minutes.
Police was interrogating the Punjab coppers at the Secretariat cop shoppe but no charges had been pressed till late night.
Local administration and the police were said to be negotiating with Mr Bugti to settle the issue quietly and return the journalist's cellphone.
Witnesses to the fracas in the heavily protected Serena Hotel blamed both sides -- the journalists for intruding into the privacy of two individuals, and the coppers and Mr Bugti's bodyguards for thrashing them.
One of the TV crew members said Mr Bugti flared up when they started recording the scene on his mobile phone. Mr Bugti snatched the phone and ordered his guards, mainly the police escort provided to him by the Punjab government, to push them out.
He said he decamped the scene but Mr Bugti's private guards caught up with him in the basement of the hotel and beat him up.
He said he freed himself and ran back to the lobby at the upper level where more bodyguards had appeared but did not act because other mediapersons had arrived there meanwhile.
Towards the end of the ugly row, he said, the bodyguards were seen putting their weapons in a Land Cruiser which sped away.
It bore registration number LC-22 and belonged to Punjab Chief Minister's escort squad, he said.
At no point did the hotel's security came to the rescue of the journalists under attack, he added.
A guard of Mr Bugti told news hounds on condition of anonymity that the journalists asked Mr Pratt about "the agenda" of his meeting with the Baloch leader, a grandson of late Nawab Akbar Bugti, but the US diplomat declined to comment.
"Sardar sahib and the American told the news hounds that media was not invited to their meeting and it was a private meeting. But since you are here, enjoy tea in the hotel restaurant," the guard said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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the journalists asked Mr Pratt about "the agenda" of his meeting with the Baloch leader, a grandson of late Nawab Akbar Bugti, but the US diplomat declined to comment, other than: "I've always been a big fan of Foster Brooks' work".
that would've puzzled the shit out of the "Pak journalsts"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2012 10:55 Comments ||
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The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed the federal government to produce a notification through which security forces were called in aid of civil power in 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... and to inform whether the period of their stay was extended or not.
A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth directed a deputy attorney general, Mohammad Iqbal Mohmand, to produce the notification to ascertain as to when the government had requested the armed forces to come in aid of civil power in Swat and for how much time they were called.
Hearing several cases of missing persons, the bench directed Mr Mohmand to inform whether the period for which the security forces were called in Swat had expired or not and whether the said period was extended by the government.
The bench also put forward a suggestion to Mr Mohmand that details of those detainees, who were considered not hardened snuffies and put in categories 'B' and 'C', should be provided to the court. They would be set free on bail by attaching strict conditions to their release, the bench observed.
The chief justice observed that the said categories of suspects would be made liable to report to the local cop shoppe each month and would be ordered not to leave their respective districts without permission of police. It was added that heavy bail bonds would be sought from those suspects.
The chief justice observed that it would help in reducing burden on the security agencies to a great extent.
Mr Mohmand said that he would be having meeting with security high-ups in the afternoon and would convey the suggestion to them.
In one of the cases pertaining to two missing minor brothers from Bara, Khyber Agency, the bench summoned Fata additional chief secretary, directing him to produce record of the case.
The bench fixed Apr 12 for next hearing directing the official to explain why proceedings should not be taken against political administration and all authorities managing and controlling Fata on civil side when they were unable to protect life and liberty of people of that area.
The two boys, Syed Nazeem and Ijaz, who were aged about 11 and 12 years, respectively, were allegedly taken from their school by security forces on Jan 7, 2010, and since then their whereabouts were not known. The petition was filed through their mother, Shan Bibi.
Advocate Auranzeb Khan appeared for the petitioner and stated that the agency education officer and principal of the said school had appeared and informed the court on Oct 13, 2011, that the two boys were taken away by security forces.
The counsel said that a recently released detainee had told them that the two boys were in a detention facility in Peshawar. However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... the bench observed that this information was not enough as the released detainee had not been appearing before the court.
The bench disposed of another petition filed by wife of an alleged detainee with the direction to officials of Mingora cop shoppe to register an FIR regarding his disappearance.
The petitioner, Anwer Begum, and her sister-in-law Nek Amala had sent an application to the chief justice last year wherein they had stated that their husbands, Akhter Ali and Sher Ali, who are brothers, were picked on May 24, 2009, by security forces in Swat following which there whereabouts were not known.
While the petition was pending the detainee Sher Ali was set free whereas Akhter Ali was still been missing. Sher Ali appeared on Thursday and stated that he was kept at Pak Austrian Institute for Tourism and Hotel Management at Swat. "Sergeant, keep him changed in the dungeon until he passes the Room Service Exam!"
"Yes, Your Immensity! Come along, you!"
"No! No! Not the Room Service Exam! Mercy!" However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... he added he was not sure where his brother was kept.
In another petition the DAG said that the detainee Mohammad Jamil had been shifted to internment centre. The petition in this regard is filed by mother of the detainee, Gul Ikhtiara, stating that his son was taken into custody on May 13, 2011, at Zareef Korona area in Charsadda.
The bench directed the DAG to verify in which of the internment centre he had now been kept and convey the same to the petitioner so that they could adopt future legal course in that regard.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... in another petition the bench directed provincial home secretary to produce copy of the minutes of an apex committee meeting held last month on the order of the high court for discussing the issue of missing persons.
The petition is filed by a resident of Shabqadar, Izzat Khan, claiming that his 15-year-old son Arab Gul, whose right leg was paralysed, was taken into custody by officials of Frontier Corps around 10 months ago when he was going to the residence of his brother near Warsak area.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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Recent kabooms on railway tracks across the Sindh province indicate the rise of a separatist movement that takes inspiration and strength from the freedom movement in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , political analysts say.
At least 16 bombs targeted railway tracks in various parts of Sindh on February 25, stopping all train traffic. Low-intensity explosives were planted on railway tracks in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Hyderabad, Benazirabad, Mirpur Mathilo, Pud Eaidan, Khairpur and Ghotki, damaging tracks in the entire province, according to a senior Pakistain Railways official. There were no trains close to the sites of kaboom, he said, therefore there was no major damage and no casualties.
"The police found leaflets from the bombing sites in which Sindhu Desh Liberation Army (SDLA), an underground separatist outfit, grabbed credit for the attacks," said Muzaffar Sheikh, a Railway Police officer. He said the group had bombed railway tracks in the past.
Denouncing alleged atrocities against the Sindhi people and vowing to continue its struggle until Sindh's freedom, SDLA's chief commander Darya Khan Marri asks other Sindhis, in the leaflet, to take up arms and join the movement. The SLDA says Sindhi separatists must get the same worldwide recognition as the separatists in Balochistan, and asks people to stand up against the "opportunist" People's Party government, the army, and the ISI.
Sindhi separatist groups, which have never been popular in the province, have taken strength from recent move by a group of US Congressmen calling for the right of self-determination for the Baloch people. "Because of bad governance, nepotism, corruption and incompetence of the politicians, there is a lot of frustration and disappointment among Sindhi people, especially the young," according to Imdad Soomro, a senior journalist who studies Sindh's ethnic politics. Some of them might be involved in subversive activities, he says, but a majority of them believe in a peaceful political and democratic struggle.
The PPP seems to have taken the threat seriously. "The kabooms on railway tracks in Sindh could be due to a sense of deprivation among the Sindhi people, a sentiment that is also prevalent in the province of Balochistan. This sense of deprivation has been created after the liquidation of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... ," Sindh home minister Manzoor Wasan told news hounds. The government, he said, had been trying to tackle the problem by creating jobs.
The demand for the separation of Sindh from Pakistain has been made time and again, but the separatist movement has not posed a serious threat to the state so far. Low-scale thug attacks from the SDLA have been reported intermittently in recent years.
The SDLA is believed to be an offshoot of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), a Sindhi nationalist political party headed by Shafi Muhammad Burfat. Some of its members also broke away from various factions of the Jeay Sindh Tehrik (JST), founded by prominent Sindhi ethnic leader GM Syed. The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Sindh police has added Burfat to its Red Book, Sindh IG Ghulam Shabbit Sheikh told news hounds on February 27, and was gathering information on him. Yaqoob Jatt, a senior officer in Hyderabad, said police believed the attacks were orchestrated by SDLA leader Lala Aslam Pathan, and carried out by suspects he identified as Shahnawaz Bhutto, Ramzan Jamali, Bashir Malah, and Faqir Najeeb Qureshi.
Sindhis are predominantly represented in parliament by the PPP, but Sindhi ethnic parties that follow the political ideology of GM Syed also have a strong influence on provincial politics. After the demise of GM Syed, his JST split into at least 11 political groups: Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Bashir Qureshi Group, Burfat's JSSM, JST led by Dr Safdar Sarki, JSQM-Arisar Group, Jeay Sindh Mahaz Riaz Chandio Group, Jeay Sindh Qaumparast Party led by Qamar Bhatti, Sindh United Party led by GM Syed's grandson Jalal Mehmood Shah, Jeay Sindh Mahaz (JSM) led by Abdul Khaliq Junejo, JSM Rasool Bux Thebo Group, JSM Sufi Hazoor Bux Group, and JST Shafi Karnani Group. Dr Qadir Magsi's Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party, Rasool Bukhsh Paleejo's Awami Tehrik, and Amir Bhambaro's Sindh National Party were not aligned with GM Syed's ideology.
Burfat belongs to Tehni, a small village of Taluka Sehwan in Jamshoro district. He was a close associate of Dr Qadir Magsi in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was accused along with Dr Magsi of orchestrating the September 30, 1988 carnage.
"Pakistain's intelligence agencies are targeting our leaders and activists only because we are demanding our fundamental political rights," said a JSMM leader in Hyderabad. He said the party's secretary general Muzaffar Bhutto had been picked up several months ago and its vice chairman Serai Qurban Khuhawar, leader Rooplo Choliani and central committee member Noorullah Tunio were killed in Sanghar on April 21, 2011. He accused intelligence agencies of creating "a Balochistan-like situation" in Sindh.
The SDLA emerged as a serious threat in February last year when it bombed several railway tracks, a CID official said. A suspected terrorist died on March 2 apparently trying to plant a bomb on a railway line near Jumma Goth in Bloody Karachi. After an accidental kaboom in a house that killed SDLA-linked Zulfiqar Kulachi and injured Ismail Abubakr and Sardaruddin Allahdino when they were trying to make a bomb on March 7 2011, police seized SDLA literature and other evidence. Information gathered from the literature and questioning of the injured men led to a crackdown in which all key members of the group were tossed in the calaboose. Eleven months later, the group has resurged with new attacks, apparently after being inspired by Baloch separatists, according to CID officials. But the SDLA is not as popular as the Baloch separatists, and that is why law-enforcement officials believe they can bust the group before it becomes a major threat.
Continued on Page 49
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A cyber attack on the Paleostinian internet network on Saturday evening originated in Italia, the PA minister of communication and information technology Mashour Abu Daqqa told Ma'an.
The poor darlings. What do the Italians have against them, that they would do such a thing?
Paleostinian servers and websites have been disabled by a series of cyber attacks in recent months. Abu Daqqa said internet communications had been disturbed by hackers for three months, but the attacks on Paleostinian internet providers since Wednesday used new tactics to shut down servers.
Earlier, presidential communications adviser Sabri Saidam said huge quantities of emails are being sent in order to disable Paleostinian servers.
Abu Qaqqa said his ministry will ask Paleostinian security services to coordinate with Italian security to combat the attack.
While the server is being hacked from abroad, recent attacks on Paleostinian websites are from local cyber activists, he said.
Last week, hackers shut down Wafa, the Paleostinian Authority's official news agency, and several websites affiliated with Ma'an Network, including its news page.
The ministry of communication and information technology have called the national team for information security to convene Sunday morning, he said.
Due to Israel's occupation, Paleostine does not have its own connection to the internet but hires lines from international companies, increasing the country's vulnerability to foreign cyber attack, he added.
SIRKIN SPECIAL FORCES BASE, Israel -- Fearing a surge in tunnel and bunker construction by Leb's Hezbullies and Paleostinian myrmidons, Israel is training its troops to hunt below ground with robot probes and sniffer dogs.
Such preparations reflect concerns that should Israel or the United States carry out attacks on Iran's disputed nuclear program, Tehran may retaliate through its allies on Israel's borders.
"You can see a growing threat," said a major from the Israeli engineering corps' Yahalom ("Diamond") commando unit.
"We're gathering the information, studying it and building training facilities to train our soldiers," the officer, whose name was withheld under secrecy regulations, told Rooters Television during an exercise put on for the foreign media at Sirkin special forces base in central Israel.
The Yahalom men were armed with pistols and snub-barreled assault rifles to ease movement through narrow passages. Oxygen masks are an option, should ventilation prove problematic.
After the soldiers blew up the door of a mock tunnel, a camera-carrying robot was pulled out of a backpack and tossed inside. A "battle" -- with blanks fired -- ensued against comrades playing Hezbullies fighters.
The Israelis use dogs to sniff out booby-traps in the tunnels and, if needed, to tackle the defenders.
Outgunned and outnumbered, Hezbullies dug tunnels to hold off Israeli ground forces during the 2006 Leb war. Israel suspects the Iranian-backed militia has since built underground networks to carry out ambushes in any future conflict.
"Israeli troops were completely taken by surprise at the extent and sophistication of these underground systems," said Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based Jane's analyst and author of "Warriors of God: Inside Hezbullies's Thirty-Year Struggle Against Israel".
Blanford said the tunnels enabled Hezbullies to launch rockets into Israel in 2006. "Seeing as they had some bunkers extremely close to the border, it would not surprise me at all if they had burrowed under the border for use at a later date," he added.
Resistance
Militants in the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-ruled Gazoo Strip used a cross-border tunnel to capture Gilad Shalit, a soldier for whose return, after more than five years in captivity, Israel last year freed more than 1,000 incarcerated Paleostinians.
"We are ready to confront them above ground and underground, and such propaganda and drills do not frighten us," said Abu Attaya, front man for the Popular Resistance Committees faction, of the Israeli media exercise.
He called Gazoo's tunnels "tools of the resistance".
Paleostinians also use the underground networks to smuggle building materials and energy supplies into Gazoo from Egypt, which cooperates with an Israeli blockade on the enclave.
Demolition is among Yahalom's specialties, and its major said destroying tunnels and bunkers with explosives was a "good solution".
"But there are cases where the real mission of the force is getting in the tunnel, exploring it, maybe taking out high-value intelligence or releasing a kidnapped soldier," he said.
"We prefer not to get in, but if we have to, we know how to do it."
#3
Dump seawater or raw sewage into the tunnels. Oh, better yet, send in sniffer-pigs strapped with explosives.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/10/2012 1:43 Comments ||
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#4
Pump in propane, ignite the mixture, then inspect the tunnels. Of course, your guys need to wear oxygen masks since the fuel air mixture will have exhausted all of the oxygen in the tunnel.
#7
HTA = Heavier Than Air. I would suggest CO2, but it would give the Glow-bull warming crowd ammunition ("see we told you it would kill people"). Propane is a great idea. Israel can play it as "we were offering them free fuel as a humanitarian gesture" ;)
Posted by: abu do you love ||
03/10/2012 9:22 Comments ||
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#8
after further thinking, seems there should be some sort of psychotropic substance that is both HTA and encourages extreme paranoia and let the 'activists' take care of one another.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
03/10/2012 9:24 Comments ||
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#9
hose too tail pipe problem solved.
Posted by: chris ||
03/10/2012 9:58 Comments ||
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#10
Would a simple line charge along the border collapse the tunnels? I understand they aren't built very well, and aren't that deep.
#13
Actually, HTA gases are almost certainly out, not as WMD (they are not per se) but because they are chemical weapons. No can do. Fill it up with water? - yes. Flame throwers - possible, although some may wince at the excessive injury aspect.
#14
Upon rereading this -wait a minute -they are smuggling in building materials and energy supplies. Not one word of weapons. Why is this tunnel deemed to be a military target again?? Just because Israel claims a blockade doesnt mean you can do jack to these tunnels. And isnt that what we called the people from Sarajevo heros for -by supplying themselves for over a year by a single tunnel? Think again. If your country was blockaded for years -what would you do??
#15
"If your country was blockaded for years -what would you do??"
1. Give up trying to murder the inhabitants of the other country, for starters. Particularly give it up as a tenent of my country's very existance.
2. You must have missed the part at the beginning about "tunnel and bunker construction," so they can smuggle in and hide weapons to be used to murder Israelis. (And the Hezzies don't care if the murderees are Jewish Israelis or Arab Israelis.) I doubt the Israelis would care if they were just building homes, business buildings, and especially sewage treatment plants.
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/10/2012 15:19 Comments ||
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#16
The country has been blockaded for years because they are smuggling in weapons, dear Northern Cousin. At one point they did some smoke tests, and discovered that some of the Gaza tunnels came up in Egyptian army camps. Also, they've been smuggling in missiles from Iran for years; the locally made Kassems aren't capable of reaching very far, yet somehow recently Gaza has been sending missiles winging toward the big cities, a neat proof of the accusations.
#20
please provide sources for this if possible, thanks
I can't off the top of my head, Kojak, although I'm sure it's somewhere in the Rantburg archives. However, I did find this, about the scale and impact of the tunnel economy, which mentions in passing the smuggling of weapons. Interesting, if not helpful.
[An Nahar] U.N. humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos said on Friday that Syria had agreed to allow a preliminary assessment of the relief needs in areas hard hit by the year-old conflict.
Amos, who has toured the battered city of Homs and refugee camps in Turkey this week, also said Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... must allow aid groups "unhindered access to evacuate the maimed and deliver desperately needed supplies".
The regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... has cracked down on protesters and rebel fighters over the past year in a brutal military campaign that, according to the opposition, has claimed nearly 8,500 lives.
Amos, the U.N. Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, told news hounds in Ankara that "we have agreed on a joint preliminary humanitarian assessment mission to areas where people urgently need assistance".
She said a proposal had been submitted to the Syrian government for delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid, and that she had asked for an urgent consideration of the matter.
Currently, no U.N. aid agencies are allowed into Syria, and information is scarce on the details of the civilians' needs.
In Geneva, a U.N. spokeswoman said that 1.5 million people might be in need of food aid in Syria, according to latest available data, but that the real number would need to be evaluated from inside the country.
"We have an estimated figure of 1.5 million people potentially in need of food assistance," the spokeswoman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Elisabeth Byrs, told a press briefing.
On Wednesday, Amos visited the battered Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr, which was left "totally destroyed" after the former rebel stronghold was bombarded for a month and then stormed by Syrian troops on March 1.
"There were hardly any people left there," Amos said.
Amos saluted three of Syria's neighboring countries for allowing in refugees who continue to escape amid the escalating violence.
"I would like to thank all three countries for continuing to keep their borders open for Syrians who are crossing because they are fleeing conflict," said Amos, referring to Turkey, Jordan and Leb.
Following the Homs crackdown, more Syrians have started crossing into Turkey, fearing a similar crackdown in their towns closer to the border.
Turkey's border province of Hatay now houses more than 12,000 Syrians, according to a Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
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[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... has slammed what he called the alleged "myth" that Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... is a reformist, urging the Lebanese authorities not to hand over Syrian activists to the regime of the neighboring country.
Jumblat told An Nahar daily following talks with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe in Gay Paree on Thursday, that the minister is among the rare "westerners who didn't believe the myth that Bashir al-Assad is a reformist."
The PSP chief said in his remarks published Friday that he discussed with Juppe the repercussions of the neighboring country's crisis on Leb, stressing that they agreed on the "need to protect Syrian refugees escaping to Leb from the violence of the Syrian authorities."
They also discussed the duty of Lebanese authorities to respect the stance of the international community from the refugees and provide them with the necessary assistance.
"Some Lebanese circles with close ties to the Syrian regime are hesitating in assisting them," Jumblat told An Nahar.
He also said that he agreed with Juppe on their rejection for Lebanese authorities to hand over members of the Free Syrian Army and other Syrian activists to the authorities in Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... "The fate of those previously handed over to the regime's apparatuses has been the death penalty," he warned.
Jumblat and Juppe also agreed to urge the Lebanese authorities to respect the international sanctions imposed on the Assad regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[7 views]
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#1
Lets not mince words. The MEK are terrorists. Moreover, they have American blood on their hands. However, Rendell is so well connected that this type of activity is not only tolerated but accepted as practice by his fellow global interventionists. Not to mention, ole Ed endorsed Billary for president. Expect Holder to shepard this through the motions and then quietly dismiss.
#2
I have to side with Rendell on this one. There are entities with more American blood on their hands with which we've made peace, including Cambodia, China, Russia and Vietnam. And that's leaving out the Axis powers. Heck, we made peace with the PLO (and are now shoveling 100's of millions in aid at them), Mookie al Sadr's Jaish al Mahdi and are in the process of making peace with the Taliban. It's impractical - and peace-making is all about practicality - to get hung up over the handful of US military advisers killed during the Shah's reign, when each of the three guerrilla movements has killed many more Americans under less defensible circumstances, especially when it's clear that the MEK isn't fundamentally anti-American. In fact, it is reputedly, in the here and now, the most effective anti-mullah movement extant, in terms of the stack of Iranian regime capos killed.
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.
...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...
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A cyber attack on the Paleostinian internet network on Saturday evening originated in 
SIRKIN SPECIAL FORCES BASE, Israel -- Fearing a surge in tunnel and bunker construction by 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
