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IDF hits terror cell near Gaza fence
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Another leak: US made flame virus to attack Iran
This leak concerns the "Flame" virus that has collected intel in Iran in advance of any cyber attacks. The Washington Post publishes the leak that Flame came from a joint US-Israel operation. The details in the story may render the virus useless.

The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected critical intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage attacks aimed at slowing Iran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials with knowledge of the effort.

The massive piece of malware was designed to secretly map Iran's computer networks and monitor the computers of Iranian officials, sending back a steady stream of intelligence used to enable an ongoing cyberwarfare campaign, according to the officials.

The effort, involving the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel's military, has included the use of destructive software such as the so-called Stuxnet virus to cause malfunctions in Iran's nuclear enrichment equipment.

The emerging details about Flame provide new clues about what is believed to be the first sustained campaign of cyber-sabotage against an adversary of the United States.


A year ago, the Obama administration moved to classify cyber attacks against the US as acts of war.

Details:

The virus is among the most sophisticated and subversive pieces of malware exposed to date. Experts said the program was designed to replicate across even highly secure networks, then control everyday computer functions to send a flow of secrets back to its creators. The code could activate computer microphones and cameras, log keyboard strokes, take computer screen shots, extract geolocation data from images and send and receive commands and data through Bluetooth wireless technology.

Flame was designed to do all this while masquerading as a routine Microsoft software update, evading detection for several years by using a sophisticated program to crack an encryption algorithm.


The leaker(s) and the Post have just put Iran's IT security on the hunt.

The story's political angle is obvious: It depicts the Obama administration, which has been rightly accused of tilting away from Israel, secretly working with Israel to damage Iran. It adds a dimension to the effort to halt Iran, making the Obama administration look somewhat less feckless. It benefits Obama.

It's past time for a special investigator. Obama's panic should not lead to these holes in our national security.
It is long past time to start hanging the leakers.
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/19/2012 17:54 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Mali Islamists Agree to Talks
[An Nahar] Mali's beturbanned fascisti agreed Monday to start talks on the fate of the desert north they seized this year but mediators Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
said the group should sever all ties with its Al-Qaeda backers.
Sure. Let's talk about it while we quietly rearm.
Ansar Dine joined forces with a Tuareg rebel group to conquer the entire northern half of Mali in early April, effectively partitioning the landlocked west African country and raising fears of regional destabilization.

Regional bloc ECOWAS has a 3,300-strong force on standby to help reunite Mali, which was also rocked by a short-lived coup in the south in March, but the U.N. Security Council has twice refused to back military intervention.

The breakthrough in efforts to look for a negotiated solution to the Malian crisis came during a meeting in Ouagadougou between ECOWAS-appointed mediator Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore and an Ansar Dine delegation.

"We accept Burkina Faso's mediation. We are following the path of this negotiation," said Cheick Ag Wissa, a front man for an Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) delegation that met Compaore in his palace.

He was speaking in Tamasheq, a language spoken by Tuareg in northern Mali, where rebels energized by the return from Libya last year of heavily armed mercenaries revived their decades-old independence struggle.

Djibrill Bassole, Compaore's foreign minister and a seasoned diplomat who has acted as a mediator in Sudan's troubled Darfur, confirmed Ansar Dine's willingness to engage in a negotiation process.

"The Ansar Dine delegation expressed its readiness to commit to the quest for a peaceful and negotiated solution to this crisis" under Burkina Faso's mediation, he said after the meeting.

Iyad Ag Ghaly, Ansar Dine's top leader and an influential former Tuareg rebel leader believed to have developed close ties with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was not in Ouagadougou.

Bassole made it clear that the negotiation process would hinge on Ansar Dine's willingness to break away from AQIM, which has used bases in northern Mali to launch several attacks and kidnap foreigners for ransom.

Ansar Dine's "action should be contained within Tuareg claims ... and any operational links with terrorist groups should be ruled out," he said.

Ansar Dine and the main Tuareg separatist group, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), control the northern half of the bow tie-shaped nation, a territory larger than La Belle France or Texas.

They conquered Gao, the fabled city of Timbuktu and the rest of the north almost without a fight after the March 22 coup in Bamako -- which some observers have described as "accidental" -- created a power vacuum.

The two rebel groups proclaimed an independent Islamic state in May but soon fell out, with the Tuareg defending a secular state while Ansar Dine supported the implementation of strict sharia, the Islamic legal code.

The violence in Mali has annihilated a fledgling tourism industry and displaced 300,000 people, some internally and the rest scattered in neighboring Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.
Posted by: Fred || 06/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine


US 'deeply concerned' over moves by Egypt's military
[Al Ahram] Pentagon spokesperson expresses concern over amendments to constitutional declaration announced by the SCAF late Sunday providing military with sweeping powers
Posted by: Fred || 06/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Notice that its a Pentagon spokesperson not State. Cause political hacks don't want people to get ideas. Feeling a little paranoid?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/19/2012 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  "We're deeply concerned about new amendments to the constitution declaration, including the timing of their announcements as polls were closing for the presidential election," spokesman George Little told reporters.

No concern at all over the Annointed One's recent "moves" just prior to our own national election however. No concern at all regarding MB and AQ "moves" in conjunction with the glorious "Arab Spring" throughout the Middle East. Washington betrayed Hosni Mubarak. I suppose complete betrayal will not be culminated until the military is destroyed as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/19/2012 5:58 Comments || Top||

#3  First thing Mitt better do is bomb the hell out of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, arm the only Christian group that has a spine to fight back in the Middle East, the Copts.
Posted by: Gerthudion Gromoger5444 || 06/19/2012 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  re:Mubarak - Remember another Donk president who 'looked the other way' with a sponsored foreign ruler? Maybe it was karma that caught up a couple of weeks later.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/19/2012 9:49 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Ghulam Azam's petition rejected
[Bangla Daily Star] Former Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
chief Ghulam Azam is facing trial for his role during the Liberation War, not for his political affiliation, observed the International Crimes Tribunal-1 while rejecting a petition on review of charges.

Ghulam Azam, considered by many as the symbol of war crimes during the Liberation War in 1971, was indicted on five charges based on 60 incidents of crimes against humanity on May 13.

"He is not being tried just only for his political affiliation; he is rather being tried for his role during the Liberation War and for killing innocent people," said Chairman of the Tribunal Justice Md Nizamul Huq before rejecting the petition.

Defence counsel Abdur Razzaq gave a submission for the review of charges on June 6.

Justice Nizamul Huq said the charges were duly framed against Ghulam Azam following rules and were clear enough. There is time to prove them wrong during the trial proceedings, so the petition is rejected, he added.

With this order there remains no bar to beginning the trial proceedings against the former Jamaat chief, said Prosecutor Zead Al Malum.
Posted by: Fred || 06/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Home Front: WoT
Inspector General: "Revealing number of US citizens we spied on would violate their privacy"
PDF file.
Senators Wyden & Udall of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence have requested US intelligence officials to give the number of US citizens monitored under the FISA amendments act. Per the IG of the US intelligence community, the NSA has refused to answer claiming that, not only would it be too much work to figure it out, but that figuring it out would violate the privacy of Americans.
RTWT.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/19/2012 11:28 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah yes, our God-given Natural + Constitutional Right Not to Know or be Told Anything???

You know - "Representative Democracy".

The Misinformation of the Disinformation of the Malinformation of the Post-Informnation of the Pre-information of the Ante-Information of the Alt-Information of the Non-Information of the ...
.................................................
................@etc.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/19/2012 19:40 Comments || Top||

#2  [ROBIN "GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM" WILLIAMS + MIL ACRONYM RANT here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/19/2012 19:43 Comments || Top||


Controlled Detonation of Second Bomb in Dallas Suburb
Plano police and FBI agents spent much of the night searching a home linked to a man accused of detonating a bomb beside a neighborhood gas main.

Authorities sealed off a neighborhood around Anchor Drive, about two miles from the gas main, on Monday evening and kept searching and seizing property from the house until about 4 this morning. A handful of neighbors were asked to leave their homes as a precaution.

One neighbor told WFAA-TV (Channel 8) that the man who lives at the home is Taiwanese and in his 20s (police described the suspect as an Asian man in his 20s or 30s).

“He’s always walking through, just barefoot or sandals, carrying a backpack,” Mark Perez said.

At one point, the police bomb squad removed a suspicious device from the home and took it to rural Kaufman County near Combine. Once there, a backhoe dug a hole and the device was placed inside and detonated shortly before 3:30 a.m.

Police say the suspect was injured early Monday while tampering with an above-ground gas main in the 3600 block of West Parker Road. They believe he was carrying a bomb that went off, causing minor damage to the main and critical injuries to the suspect.

He remains hospitalized in bad shape at the Medical Center of Plano. Police are hoping to interview him once he recovers enough for questioning.
Posted by: Gerthudion Gromoger5444 || 06/19/2012 10:02 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There is a curious compulsion about releasing huge amounts of pent-up energy by applying just a little energy in just the right place.
In Guns of Navarone, it was an ammo magazine which, in the movie, went up like a volcano. In Return to Navarone, it was a huge dam which released an ocean of water in slow motion, with slabs bursting in all directions.
It's a staple of a lot of action flicks. An audience pleaser.
Stands to reason some clown would try it in real life.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 06/19/2012 11:58 Comments || Top||


New York man pleads guilty to aiding al-Qaida
[Jerusalem Post] A New York man pleaded guilty on Monday to US terrorism charges for helping the jihad boy group al-Qaeda.

Brooklyn, New York-born Wesam El-Hanafi, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to a terrorist group and one count of conspiracy.

Manhattan federal prosecutors, in a plea agreement with the defense, recommended a 20-year prison sentence.

"In July 2009 I participated in a conversation with others in which we discussed seeking out additional contacts within al-Qaeda," El-Hanafi told US District Judge Kimba Wood.

El-Hanafi was tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
in April 2010, along with Sabirhan Hasanoff, 36, a dual US and Australian citizen who pleaded guilty on June 4 to similar crimes. The men, who were tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
abroad and brought to the United States to face charges, had been under law enforcement surveillance.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/19/2012 00:29 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


India-Pakistan
Pakistan court disqualifies Gilani as PM
Supreme court rules that current prime minister cannot hold office two months after convicting Gilani for contempt.
They got a bus in Pakistan that hasn't already been blown up?
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the nation's ruling party has "accepted" a Supreme Court order that has disqualified Yusuf Raza Gilani from his post as the prime minister of Pakistan.

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, has held emergency talks among top leaders in the ruling PPP following Tuesday's disqualification.

The decision comes two months after Gilani, the nation's longest-running prime minister, was convicted of contempt for refusing to ask Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, state TV has reported.

Yusuf Raza Gilani has become disqualified from being member of the parliament," said chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, reading the order.

"He has also ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan with effect from the same date [April 26] and office of the prime minister shall be deemed to be vacant accordingly."

The high court ordered Zardari to take steps to elect a new prime minister, state media reported.

The court has asked the president to "honour democracy and appoint a new prime minister as quickly" as he can.

Gilani, the nation's first-ever sitting prime minister to be convicted, can have the verdict reviewed but has no formal appeal process available to him, Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab reported from Islamabad.

"It's going to be very difficult for [Gilani] to come back from this," our correspondent said.

"This is bad news for the president ... In many ways Yusuf Raza Gilani was the president's biggest supporter, now this case [Gilani's] goes back to a case involving the president in 2008, when the supreme court ordered Yusuf Raza Gilani to write to the Swiss authorities to begin a corruption."

Any decisions Gilani has made since that April 26 contempt of court declaration will be rendered invalid. In that time, Gilani has made several decisions, including on the national budget.

On February 13, the nation's top court summoned Gilani to charge him with contempt of court over his refusal to ask Switzerland to investigate Zardari, who is also the head of the ruling Pakistan People Party, for money laundering.

Gilani told the court he would never think of violating judicial orders, but said he could not write the letter because the head of state he enjoyed immunity under the constitution.

The court's April decision has been considered controversial.
Posted by: tipper || 06/19/2012 14:27 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistan Based Insurgent Groups Trying to Insecure Tajikistan: NDS
[Tolo News] Terrorist groups based in Pakistain's tribal regions of northern Wazoo and Miranshah
... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...
are trying to infiltrate Tajikistan and conduct terrorist operations, NDS official said today.

Speaking at presser in Kabul, Shafiqullah Taheri, Deputy front man for Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) added that a group of beturbanned goons who were trying to disrupt Kabul Conference were also jugged
Please don't kill me!

"Terrorist groups based in Pakistain's northern Waziristan and Miranshah region including Al-Qaeda and Haqqani networks are trying insecure Tajikistan using Tajik and Uzbek bully boys." Taheri told news hounds in Kabul adding that the Orcs and similar vermin are receiving trainings in Pakistain by Pak instructors.

Mr Taheri warned that insurgency and insecurity in Afghanistan harms stability in the region particularly in south and central Asia.

"Instability in Afghanistan could bring instability in the south and central Asia and the rest of the world." He added.

Pakistain has been continuously criticized over providing safe havens to the bully boy groups.
Posted by: Fred || 06/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


JI to resist Nato supplies even after US apology
[Dawn] The Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
(JI) would not allow resumption of NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
supplies through Pakistain even if the USA tendered an apology over attack on Salala checkpost, said Prof Ibrahim, the provincial chief of the party.

Addressing a rally at Chakdara Bazaar on Sunday, he criticised the rulers for seeking money from the US and other western countries.

More than 300 JI activists attended the rally, which was also addressed by Maulana Asadullah, Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, Sultanat Yar, Advocate Rahimullah, Dr Bashir Ahmad, Noorul Haq and others.

"The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
government is promoting vulgarity and obscenity in the name of so-called cultural shows and musical concerts," alleged Prof Ibrahim.

He said that government wanted to get money from the US in return of reopening NATO supply route. He termed it a shameful act. He said that NATO supply route should not be reopened even if the US tendered apology over killing of Pak soldiers at Salala last year.

The JI leader said that the Supreme Court of Pakistain and its judges were being targeted under a conspiracy. He said that rulers, both at centre and provinces, were involved in corruption cases.

"That is why they (rulers) want to defame and pressurise the judiciary," Prof Ibrahim said, adding that JI workers would support judiciary.

Other speakers accused the government of devising anti-people policies. They said that uncontrolled corruption was destroying foundations of the state.

The participants of the rally marched on Chakdara-Timergara Road and gathered outside Chakdara Press Club. They rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against the government and demanded end to unscheduled power outage, conspiracies against judiciary and
corruption.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pound, Zebulon finally found just the friend he'd been looking for...
a local jirga of Adenzai on Sunday settled an old blood feud between two families of Kiteyari village.

The jirga, consisting of Dr Bashir Ahmad, Sultanat Yar, Rahimullah and Madad Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami and Hussain Shah Yousafzai of ANP, initiated efforts to resolve dispute between the families of Hayat Khan and Haji Fazal Mabood.

The members of the two families on Sunday embraced each other during a ceremony held at the hujra of Hayat Khan.

JI provincial chief Prof Ibrahim was chief guest while hundreds of local elders and notables were present on the occasion.
Posted by: Fred || 06/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

#1  See TOPIX > PAKISTAN WANTS "APPROPRIATE" APOLOGY FROM US, SAYS ENVOY [Rehman].

The Maha-Rushian questionne' of the day is whether Econ-troubled POTUS Bammer is willing to make a "soft" apology, + how "soft" will it be.

and

* SAME > [NewsKerala] PAKISTAN WILL RESTORE NATO SUPPLIES THIS MONTH, IFF US APOLOGIZES.

versus

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > KABUL ACCUSES PAKISTAN OF SHIITE ATTACK. Mass-casualty Ashura incident back in 12/2011 | AFGHANISTAN SAYS PAKISTAN INVOLVED IN SECTARIAN ATTACK.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/19/2012 23:56 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas leader congratulates Egypt on democracy
[Al Ahram] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leader Ismail Haniyah congratulated Egypt on Monday after the Moslem Brüderbund candidate Mohamed Mursi's campaign announced that he had won the election.
Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip celebrated Mursi's self-declared victory on Monday, with fireworks and parades of cars and cycle of violences.

Haniyah said that he prayed for Egypt's stability and security, and he called on Egypt to rein in Israeli aggression.

He also refuted Israeli accusations that Hamas had fired rockets from Egypt's Sinai peninsula into Israel, saying that these charges allow Israel to attack Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip, as in the recent case of two Paleostinians killed by an Israeli air raid on Beit Hanun in northern Gazoo.
Posted by: Fred || 06/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria, Iran, Russia and China plan joint war games, Iranian news agency reports
Largest joint exercise in Mideast history, reportedly involving troops, tanks, planes and even Russian nuclear subs, set to take place within a month along Syrian coast

Iran, Syria, Russia and China are planning the “biggest-ever wargames in the Middle East,” according to an unconfirmed report on the semi-official Iranian news site Fars News.

According to the article, the four countries are preparing 90,000 troops, 400 aircraft and 1,000 tanks for the massive joint maneuvers, which are to take place along the Syrian coast within a month.

The report states that Russian “atomic submarines and warships, aircraft carriers and mine-clearing destroyers as well as Iranian battleships and submarines will also arrive in Syria” and that Egypt has agreed to let 12 Chinese warships cross the Suez Canal for the exercises.

The IDF spokesman’s office called the report a “political matter” and declined to comment.

Iran is currently holding talks with six Western powers over the fate of its nuclear program. The talks, said to be held in a tense atmosphere in Moscow, seek to alleviate world concerns that the Islamic Republic is developing nuclear weapons.

Syria meanwhile faces international pressure to end a 15-month crackdown on local rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.

China and Russia have come to the aid of both countries in recent months at the UN Security Council, vetoing military intervention in Syria and expanded sanctions on Iran.
Posted by: Beavis || 06/19/2012 12:04 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Or maybe not.
Russia, Syria deny war games with China, Iran
Russian and Syrian officials dismissed as provocation on Tuesday Iranian media reports that Iran, Russia, China and Syria are to conduct joint military exercises in Syria next month.

Iran's semi-official Fars News outlet, which has ties to the Iranian government, cited "certain unofficial sources" had confirmed the war games but did not say where those sources were from.
Posted by: tipper || 06/19/2012 14:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Chinese fire drill.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 06/19/2012 14:54 Comments || Top||

#3  "Chinese fire drill."

That's very un-PC, EU.

We say "ethnic fire drill" now. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 06/19/2012 20:20 Comments || Top||

#4  True or not, I'll bet a dollar to a dog turd that Obean was ready to fold.
Posted by: gorb || 06/19/2012 20:22 Comments || Top||

#5  OTOH DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Deputy Chair, Turkey's Labour Party] ESINOGLU: US CIA [vee Blackwater] RECRUITED 6000 ARABS, AFGHANS, + TURKS TO COMMIT TERRORIST ACTIONS IN SYRIA.

Blackwater is now in Turkey???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/20/2012 0:01 Comments || Top||


Syrian opposition to meet in Brussels
[Al Ahram] EU chief Catherine Asthon reveals European financial and political backing to an expected meeting for the Syrian opposition in Brussels aimed at uniting the anti-regime front
Posted by: Fred || 06/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Obama, Putin Unite in Warning to Syria
[An Nahar] U.S. President Barack Obama
This is a teachable moment...
and Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
Monday called for an end to violence in Syria and said its people should be allowed to democratically decide their future.

"In order to stop the bloodshed in Syria, we call for an immediate cessation of all violence," the leaders said in a joint statement, after meeting in Mexico following days of antagonism between Moscow and Washington on the issue.

"We are united in the belief that the Syrian people should have the opportunity to independently and democratically choose their own future."

Putin told news hounds after meeting Obama for the first time since he returned to the presidency that the two leaders had found "many common points" on Syria, where violence is spiraling into an all-out civil war.

Washington has become increasingly frustrated over Moscow's refusal to allow the U.N. Security Council to take firmer action against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
over his brutal crackdown on civilians.

Obama said after the two hours of talks that both he and Putin agreed on the need for a "political process" to prevent civil war in Syria and pledged to work with U.N. envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
to try to end the crisis.
Posted by: Fred || 06/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  In other news Gary Kasparov and 'Larry the Cable Guy' sit down to a game of chess.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/19/2012 6:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Washington has become increasingly frustrated over Moscow's refusal to allow the U.N. Security Council to take firmer action...

Rim-Shot please.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 06/19/2012 20:50 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
31[untagged]
4Govt of Pakistan
4al-Shabaab
4al-Qaeda in Arabia
2al-Qaeda in Pakistan
2Jamaat-e-Islami
2Arab Spring
2Govt of Syria
1Taliban
1al-Qaeda
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Ansar Dine
1Boko Haram
1Hamas
1Islamic Jihad
1Pirates

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Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2012-06-19
  IDF hits terror cell near Gaza fence
Mon 2012-06-18
  Nigeria: 21 killed, 100 wounded in church blasts
Sun 2012-06-17
  Baghdad bombs target Shiite pilgrims, 32 killed
Sat 2012-06-16
  Yemen army seizes Shuqra after Qaeda pullout
Fri 2012-06-15
  Syria Violence Kills More Than 60
Thu 2012-06-14
  Army takes over in Egypt
Wed 2012-06-13
  At Least 73 Dead in Shelling and Clashes across Syria
Tue 2012-06-12
  Helicopter Gunships Deployed as More Than 100 Dead in Syria
Mon 2012-06-11
  Church Bombing Kills 15 in Nigeria
Sun 2012-06-10
  Syria Army Kills 70 Civilians in Protest Cities
Sat 2012-06-09
  Tuareg Rebels, Islamists, Clash in Northern Mali
Fri 2012-06-08
  UN monitors shot at trying to get to Syria massacre
Thu 2012-06-07
  47 Die in Hama Countryside 'Massacre' as Clashes Rock Damascus
Wed 2012-06-06
  Armed groups kill 15 Syrian soldiers in Latakia
Tue 2012-06-05
  U.S. Official: Al-Qaeda's No. 2 Killed In Drone Strike


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