Four army officials including Kunar's Army Brigade Facility Chief were tossed in the clink Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in connection with supplying forces of Evil with weapons, a front man for Afghan Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.
Spokesman Dawlat Waziri said that the men who had been tossed in the clink Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! were suspected of supplying forces of Evil with weapons. They were not, however, suspected of involvement in the planning or conduct of suicide or terrorist attacks.
"The Army Brigade Facility Manager in Kunar and three of his staff who had gathered weapons and were attempting to pass them to forces of Evil were tossed in the clink Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! with the help intelligence officials," Mr Waziri said.
Separately, Mr Waziri said that more than 1,300 foreign bases will be handed over to the Afghan authorities. They will be used by various government entities including the Ministry of Defense.
"In total, 1,300 foreign military bases will be handed to the Ministry of Defense as ordered by president Karzai," Mr Waziri said. "We will provide the bases to other ministries as well."
Afghan parliamentarians recently asked NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... officials not to demolish their bases when they withdraw from Afghanistan and give them to the control of government.
The joys of fighting season. Does anyone know how this compares to the same period a years ago?
The Ministry of Defense today confirmed a report in the Wall Street Journal saying there had been an 11 percent increase in jihad boy activity in Afghanistan in the past three months.
The increase corresponds with the start of the Taliban's spring offensive, deputy front man for the defense ministry, Dawlat Waziri, said at a presser in Kabul on Saturday.
He said that cut-throats were able to operate during warm nights during the spring and summer rather than seek shelter from the bitter cold at home as they did during the winter months.
The Wall Street Journal article cited a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... official as saying that June had seen the highest number of monthly attacks in almost two years, with more than 3,000 incidents, including firefights and kabooms.
"The real cause of the increase in jihad boy attacks in the past three months is the pressure from Isaf and Afghan forces on terrorist hideouts," Isaf front man Brigadier General Günter Katz told TOLOnews on Saturday. He said this pressure would continue.
The upturn comes as foreign forces continue their withdrawal from Afghanistan and hand over responsibility for proving security to Afghan forces.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Mali's interim president Dioncounda Traore returned to Bamako Friday amid tight security following a two-month stay in Gay Paree for medical treatment after being savagely beaten in his office.
Armed, masked men kept watch on roofs as Traore landed at 5:20 pm (1720 GMT) in a country in a worse state of crisis than when he left it, greeted by embattled Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra.
Ex-junta leader Captain Amadou Sanogo, who led a March 22 coup, was also present.
Traore was attacked by a mob protesting his appointment on May 21, the eve of the official start of a transition period for a return to democratic rule in the troubled west African country after a March 22 coup.
Hardline Islamists have strengthened their hold on the vast desert north of the country, which they seized after the coup. The interim government which took over from the junta has proved powerless to deal with the occupation.
Diarra is trying to cobble together a wider unity government on the orders of mediators from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc to deal with the mounting crisis.
ECOWAS wants to send a 3,000-strong military force to Mali, but is waiting for United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... approval and a formal request from Bamako.
Mali has until July 31 to form the unity government, a process which faces further hurdles after key political parties called for Diarra to step down, accusing him of "incompetence and amateurishness".
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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CAIRO: Egypt's new figurehead prime minister, Hisham Qandil, will announce a cabinet on Thursday, almost a month after President Muhammad Mursi took office amid a power struggle with the military, state media reported on Saturday. The new team will replace one appointed by the military which still has broad powers after formally transferring control to Mursi.
In a sign of the military's continuing influence, it will choose the defense minister. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who ruled Egypt after Mubarak's ouster, served as the dictator's defense minister for two decades.
Qandil has said he wants a government of technocrats and will appoint people based on their competence, which Mursi's aides say is crucial if the government is to implement the president's program.
Mursi pledges to restore security, end fuel shortages and waste mismanagement in months, while bettering Egyptians' livelihoods.
Meanwhile, an alliance of pro-democracy advocates has criticized Mursi for lacking transparency and alienating political groups with liberal leanings. The National Front alliance -- an umbrella group of democracy advocates, secularists and moderate Islamists behind the uprising that drove longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak from power last year -- says Mursi has reneged on campaign promises to form a national unity government.
At a press conference on Saturday, members of the alliance reminded Mursi that they supported him in the decisive round of presidential elections last month, helping him beat old-guard rival Ahmed Shafiq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
The National Front alliance -- an umbrella group of democracy advocates, secularists and moderate Islamists behind the uprising that drove longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak from power last year -- says Mursi has reneged on campaign promises to form a national unity government
I suspect they'll be just as surprised, shocked and disappointed when they're lined up against an open trench in the desert.
[Yemen Post] Minister of Legal Affairs Mohammad al-Mikhlafi has accused the General People Congress (GPC) led by the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... of standing behind impediment of passing the transitional justice law.
In remarks to al-Khaleej, al-Mikhlafi ruled out allegations that the passing of the transitional justice law will create a political crisis in the state, particularly after Saleh threatened to withdraw ministers of the GPC from the government.
The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) and the GPC continue to exchange accusations about the derailment of the Transitional Justice Law.
The transitional justice law is designed to end conflict between Yemenis by compensating the victims of local crises that occurred between 1994 and 2012, while maintaining the immunity clause included in the Gulf Cooperation Council power transfer initiative.
All the concerned parties were called by the Legal Affairs Ministry to present their proposal observations and opinions on the law.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the law "would violate Yemen's human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... obligations."
Transitional justice laws were applied in some countries such as Morocco, South Africa, and Indonesia in the wake of sectarian, ethnic or political conflicts. Through this law, it is hoped that conflicting sides will reach a settlement in a period of political shift.
Jamal Benomar, U.N. Envoy to Yemen, asserted on June 8 that the transitional law is a demand of the Security Council after the reticence of the UN regarding the immunity given to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh which contravened UN principals concerning war crimes and human rights violations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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[Shabelle] A senior Iranian military commander accused some Arab Sheikhs from the UAE,Yemen and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... of sponsoring Somali pirates.
Speaking to FNA, Commander of the IRGC Special Naval Force Unit General Mohammad Nazzeri said that aliens from across the globe are siphoning outSomalia's wealth and are exploiting the sea reserves of that country, adding that this has caused poverty in Somalia and made the region more dangerous.
"The pirates of the Gulf of Aden are simple fishers but their sponsors and main leaders are Sheikhs of the UAE,Yemen and Saudi Arabia," the commander said.
"They provide the Somalis with money, weapons and equipments so that they hijack ships," Nazzeri explained, and added that these Sheikhs leave no trace behind in their financial and arms aids to the Somali pirates.
In similar remarks in June, Director-General ofIran's Ports and Shipping Organization for Maritime Affairs Ali Estiri underlined the necessity of collective efforts by the international community to fight sea piracy in the world.
The phenomenon has various political and security aspects, and consensus and collective efforts by the international community are essential in an all-out fight against piracy, Estiri said.
He said that Iran will maintain its "powerful presence" in the high seas as long as piracy exists.
Estiri further noted that the issue of piracy has been on the rise in the recent years, especially off the coast of Somalia and in the Indian Ocean.
The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.
According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.
The Gulf of Aden -- which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea -- is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West through the Suez Canal.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Find'em and sink'em, that'll fix the problem.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/29/2012 12:14 Comments ||
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Because that's what Yemen needs, by gum, more rallies!
SANAA, Yemen: Thousands of Yemenis rallied the capital Sanaa on Saturday, urging authorities to release 117 protesters arrested during the yearlong popular uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Activist Fathi Al-Baadani said the rally is also a protest against the governments sluggishness to release the detainees despite an order to review their cases and set them free. The delay is due to the fact that Salehs followers still hold influential security and military positions, Al-Baadani added.
Yemens Human Rights Minister Huriya Mashhour confirmed the number of detained protesters on Saturday, but added that others are being held in unofficial detention centers. Youth groups behind the uprising that led to Salehs ouster say that more than 80 people are detained in such unofficial centers.
Sanaa radio said Prime Minister Salem Mohammed Bassindwa expressed strong dissatisfaction with several military, security and intelligence institutions over the lack of action to free the prisoners. The radio quoted Bassindwa as telling a group of youth representatives that he and President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi had already instructed authorities to speed up the administrative process and free those held in unofficial detention centers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has thanked the government of Bangladesh, on behalf of his government, for arresting the alleged killers of Khalaf Al Ali, a Saudi diplomat.
Ali was killed in the capital's Gulshan four months ago.
According to a statement released by the Saudi embassy in Dhaka, Prince Saud said that KSA had full confidence in the ability of the concerned authorities of Bangladesh to track down the criminals.
The Saudi government hopes that the criminals will receive apt punishment, the minister said in the statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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ROME: The Italian coast guard rescued 75 immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa from a drifting dinghy on Saturday after receiving an emergency call for help by satellite phone, a spokesman told AFP.
Strange, they weren't fleeing to Yemen?
There are 75 immigrants, 24 of whom are women. Theyre all exhausted but no one needs immediate medical attention, said spokesman Filippo Marini.
Four of the women are pregnant, according to Italian media reports. It was not yet clear where the 10-meter long dinghy had set sail from or how long it had been at sea.
The immigrants were taken off the dinghy onto two coast guard boats which had gone out immediately to save them. They are being brought back to Lampedusa, where they are expected to land early this evening, Marini said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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Police unions in La Belle France are furious after three officers were maimed trying to check the identity of a woman flouting the country's burka ban and who was later released to "appease tensions during Ramadan".
The officers ordered the 18-year-old called Marie-Louise to produce her identity card around midnight outside a mosque in the southern French city of Marseille, which has a large Mohammedan population.
She was wearing the niqab that leaves all but the eyes covered in contravention of a 2010 law banning wearing any face-covering veil in public.
The woman refused, saying: "I don't obey the laws of the French Republic" and allegedly bit one of the officers. Scuffles then broke out with around 50 people present including the woman's partner. Three officers were lightly injured.
The woman refused, saying: "I don't obey the laws of the French Republic" and allegedly bit one of the officers.
Reinforcements arrived and four people, including the woman and her partner, were tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! and taken to a cop shoppe. But they were released shortly afterwards "in a gesture of appeasement during Ramadan", according to the public prosecutor.
The officers involved, however, now face an administrative inquiry after people present during the incident complained they had used "illegal force".
Police unions were furious. "Nobody can understand how coppers can be attacked...and in the end the people tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! are released before the officers themselves," said David-Olivier Reverdy, of the local Alliance union.
"The niqab, according to laws that we enforce but don't make, is forbidden. We are simply applying the law," he told La Belle France Info.
Yannick of the Unité SGP-Police union, said: "This affair underlines the difficulty we have in applying the law. We get the feeling that many would prefer us to shut our eyes to avoid any incidents.
"In short, you can make police checks but don't make waves, otherwise you'll carry the can. It all smacks of hypocrisy and doesn't make police work in the field any easier."
Marseille's deputy mayor Nora Présozi, supported the police, saying: "If we want to avoid an explosive situation, the police must imperatively enforce the law.
"Many women wearing the burka are looking for confrontation with the police. By doing so, they are conveying a poor image of Islam."
But Mohammedan website aijib.fr claimed the officers were being over zealous as an interior ministry circular advises police not to intervene in or around "places of worship".
Around 300 women have been issued fines of up to 150 euros since the face veil ban took effect on April 1, 2011.
Anyone found guilty of forcing a woman to wear a full veil faces a 30,000-euro fine and a year in prison.
Former French 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... who backed the ban described the full veil as a "sign of enslavement".
Police estimate that around 2,000 women among La Belle France's five-million strong Mohammedan population wear the full Islamic veil.
Dear Reader, why d'you suppose the CIA leaked this just now?
[Hurriyet Daily News] The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in.
The incident, described by three former senior U.S. intelligence officials, might have been dismissed as just another cloak-and-dagger incident in the world of international espionage, except that the same thing had happened to the previous station chief in Israel.
This means the CIA believes that U.S. national secrets are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel.
It was a not-so-subtle reminder that, even in a country friendly to the United States, the CIA was itself being watched. In all the cases, the U.S. government believes Israel's security services were responsible.
Such meddling underscores what is widely known but rarely discussed outside intelligence circles: Despite inarguable ties between the U.S. and its closest ally in the Middle East and despite statements from U.S. politicians trumpeting the friendship, U.S. national security officials consider Israel to be, at times, a frustrating ally and a genuine counterintelligence threat.
In addition to what the former U.S. officials described as intrusions in homes in the past decade, Israel has been implicated in U.S. criminal espionage cases and disciplinary proceedings against CIA officers and blamed in the presumed death of an important spy in Syria for the CIA during the administration of President George W. Bush.
The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency's Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former officials. Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national secrets from spies. This means the CIA believes that U.S. national secrets are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel.
But the Times of Israel quotes Prime Minister Netanyahu as saying flatly the Ay Pee's report is false:
The Prime Ministers Office on Saturday denied the content of an Associated Press article suggesting Israeli agents spy on their American colleagues stationed in Israel and constitute a counterintelligence threat to US interests.
In an unusually brief SMS message to Israeli journalists, the media advisers of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote: In response to the report about the CIA, the Prime Ministers Office states that this a false report.
#1
We are allied with Israel. Israel is not allied with us, however. They see themselves free to play the field, and we're just a bunch of big, dumb oafs.
Israel is not America's closest ally, at least when it comes to whom Washington trusts with the most sensitive national security information. That distinction belongs to a group of nations known informally as the "Five Eyes." Under that umbrella, the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand agree to share intelligence and not to spy on one another. Often, U.S. intelligence officers work directly alongside counterparts from these countries to handle highly classified information not shared with anyone else.
During the Bush administration, the CIA ranked some of the world's intelligence agencies in order of their willingness to help in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism. One former U.S. intelligence official who saw the completed list said Israel, which hadn't been directly targeted in attacks by al-Qaida, fell below Libya, which recently had agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
...
Some CIA officials still bristle over the disappearance of a Syrian scientist who during the Bush administration was the CIA's only spy inside Syria's military program to develop chemical and biological weapons. The scientist was providing the agency with extraordinary information about pathogens used in the program, former U.S. officials said about the previously unknown intelligence operation.
At the time, there was pressure to share information about weapons of mass destruction, and the CIA provided its intelligence to Israel. A former official with direct knowledge of the case said details about Syria's program were published in the media. Although the CIA never formally concluded that Israel was responsible, CIA officials complained to Israel about their belief that Israelis were leaking the information to pressure Syria to abandon the program. The Syrians pieced together who had access to the sensitive information and eventually identified the scientist as a traitor.
Before he disappeared and was presumed killed, the scientist told his CIA handler that Syrian Military Intelligence was focusing on him.
#8
The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in.
I told you my wife hated this neighborhood and that we needed a new residence or assignment in Paris....now look what has been arranged happened. What's more, I loathe these people.... they refuse to speak English, they know everything about this region and share virtually NOTHING !!!
#9
...Well, honestly - if you were an Israeli, would you trust our government right now? They probably think that we're prepared to fight Iran down to the last Israeli.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/29/2012 8:12 Comments ||
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#10
Not much different than all the Euros who expected the Americans to suffer a devastating nuclear war to protect them. Considering some of the actions of those Euros from '48 through '00, they yet considered themselves 'allies'.
Hell, no. I'm American and I don't trust Bambi (except to screw me over in favor of his cronies every chance he gets or manufactures).
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/29/2012 8:42 Comments ||
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#12
Israel is out for Israel, as the US should be out for the US. I should hope we are spying on them also. And I would take it as a compliment if they considered us their main spy threat. But something tells me that might not be the case.
#13
So what! This was just posted in the news so Romney will have to give opinion on it as he returns. Everyone spies on everyone, do ya think we don't spy on them? Or Englad, or France, or Canada? This was just another politically aimed leak to try and sway a few people and make Romney look bad.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
07/29/2012 9:47 Comments ||
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#14
so ... the Mossad does - what the Mossad does. Is anybody surprised about this at all? That is the world of intelligence ... you don't trust anybody. I can't see the point of these stories.
Maybe the CIA station chief should have left some milk and cookies in his secret box in his house. Along with a note: "Hey Mossad - GOT MILK?"
#15
Quite so Raider, the 'Nash equilibrium' holds little application within the intelligence community, nor should it. You make your moves based on the benefits which they are anticipated to produce for your organization, not phueching someone elses. If external positives are derived, those are carefully chalked up and used as credits or markers to be held, or potentially called in at some future date.
#16
this particular news item looks like some sort of political cat fight at a high level. It's above the daily game - played by agents and stations chiefs.
#17
What was that equipment doing at the station chief's house? Did he have Marines guarding the place? If not he needs to STFU. I think I would have canned his ass.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/29/2012 15:43 Comments ||
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A recording has emerged of the moment an apartment superintendent inadvertently walked into one of the New York Police Department's supposedly top-secret anti-terrorist safe houses, heaping embarrassment on the force.
During a routine inspection the superindendent, Salil Sheth, came across a sparsely furnished apartment containing pictures of terrorists, photographs of local landmarks and Moslem literature. The building supervisor called police, thinking he had stumbled upon an al-Qaeda terrorist plot.
See something, say something. Let us be grateful for the Mr. Sheths of America.
But Mr Sheth, who manages an apartment complex in New Brunswick, New Jersey, had inadvertently walked into a base for undercover officers investigating a terrorist cell.
The telephone call, in which Mr Sheth reported the discovery to New Brunswick police, has only just been released after the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency won a year-long battle with the police department.
In it he tells police he has found ''suspicious activity'' in an apartment unit in his building.
''What's suspicious?'' the operator asks.
''Suspicious in the sense that the apartment ... has no furniture except two beds, has no clothing, has New York City Police Department radios,'' Mr Sheth says.
''There's computer hardware, software, you know, just laying around. There's pictures of terrorists. There's pictures of our neighbouring building that they have.''
The female operator handling the call sounds just as confused and surprised as Mr Sheth.
''Really?'' she says. ''And pictures of your neighbouring buildings?''
''Yes, the Matrix building,'' Mr Sheth replies, referring to a local development company. ''There's pictures of terrorists. There's literature on the Moslem religion.''
Unaware that the police department was in town conducting an undercover operation, the FBI seized all of the material inside, creating the embarrassing situation of the NYPD having to request that the FBI return its property.
The NYPD then attempted to save its blushes by asking the New Brunswick Police Department not to release the 911 tape to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, a request it initially agreed to.
The NYPD had already come under pressure after a series of other incidents prompted suggestions that its terrorism surveillance operations were infringing the civil liberties of Moslems.
Retired diplomats and columnists
Columnist Nusrat Javeed confided in Express that he was reporting from Islamabad for the past decades but could not help noticing that Pak diplomats had a way of becoming great columnists after retirement. They posed as great world wanderers (jahan-deeda) who had solutions for all problems of foreign policy. They appeared in English dailies with their hair appropriately blackened to hide their senility and wrote insincere and dishonest opinion while appearing to be great philosophers (buqrat).
Faisal Saleh 'King of Corruption'
Reported in Jinnah Federal Minister Housing and Works Faisal Saleh Hayat was the king of corruption in the PPP government with relatives ensconced in high bureaucratic offices easing his corrupt practices (haer-pher). Now the officers had appealed to the Supreme Court to look into the activities of Mr Hayat. They complained that Mr Hayat was in the habit of getting wrong things done through verbal orders for which he had his frontmen. He took 12 percent at the time of tendering and took 2 percent monthly as his share.
Dawood Ibrahim locations
Daily Nawa-e-Waqt reported that India had given to Islamabad locations within Pakistain where the most wanted Indian smuggler and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim could be found. Among the various places where Dawood Ibrahim could be seen enjoying Pakistain's hospitality were houses in Islamabad and 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... . Along with Mullah Umar and the Haqqani brothers, Ibrahim's presence in Pakistain is denied by Pakistain.
No confederation with India, please!
Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt a number of highly respectable citizens led by Dr MA Soofi said that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... politicians and railways minister Ghulam Bilour had gone bonkers recommending that Pakistain join India in a confederation. They said the statement was ghaddaari (treason) against Pakistain. They said that those like Bilour who recommended the confederation were on the payroll of the Americans.
Nor would the Indians be keen on the idea, and who can blame them? They have enough Muslims of their own.
After Haqqani, Dr Afridi
Columnist Nusrat Javeed wrote in Express that first Pakistain caught hold of Husain Haqqani and called him traitor on the evidence provided by an enemy of Pakistain Mansoor Ijaz, blaming Haqqani through red-capped persons that the Americans could not have got to the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse... if Haqqani had not issued numberless visas to American spies. Then after the case against Haqqani became a fiasco because Haqqani bravely ran away to the US, Paks got hold of Dr Afridi who has now been convicted by a jirga in the Khyber Agency on charges that had nothing to do with the death of Osama bin Laden.
Because when you're an army with a country, laws and stuff are for the rubes -- you can do as you please, including venting your spleen on the man who helped demonstrate the extent of your jihadi vileness.
Roedad Khan's secrets
Columnist Nusrat Javeed wrote in Express stating that retired interior secretary Roedad Khan was vociferous about thieves and dacoits (chor lutairay) ruling Pakistain and how they deserved to be removed by the Army. But the columnist recalled how during the East Pakistain crisis when General Yahya threatened East Pakistain with dire punishment it was Roedad Khan in the top bureaucracy who was heard complimenting the dictator for taking a tough line.
And no doubt his wife was among those pleased that the West Pakistan soldiers were improving the beauty of the East Pakistanis by giving their women so many light-skinned babies.
Historian and wandering ghosts
World famous Pak historian Dr Safdar Mehmood
Who?
wrote in Jang that his spiritual mentor Sarfraz Shah Sahib had revealed to him that when people sleep their souls start wandering around and seeing incidents they don't see in real life. That is why often people recognised a new place as a point they had visited before. The historian then propounded the theory that human consciousness didn't register the wandering of the soul but got occasional glimpses of them.
Lovers burnt by panchayat
Daily Jinnah reported that in Multan two lovers were called to the panchayat after it was discovered that they had a liaison. The Panchayat decided that the two should be burnt to death. One Aftab Bhutta carried out the sentence and burnt the lovers. After that the panchayat expeditiously departed at a goodly pace but nine people who sat as judges were hauled by the police but the two lovers were most likely to succumb to the burns.
Pakistan, Land of the Pure.
Good and bad views of Balochistan
Famous retired general of Steel Mills fame Abdul Qayyum wrote in Nawa-e-Waqt that in a seminar in Islamabad Mushahid Hussain and Hamid Mir made good speeches on 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... but it was a pity that Mushahid Husain and his party had joined the PPP coalition. Unfortunately, some speakers led by Asma Jahangir spoke against the Army and it appeared that in their eyes the only enemy of Pakistain were the Army and the ISI.
That certainly is one point of view...
Zardari overdid it!
Writing in Jang Saleem Safi stated that the Army did not want to be excessive in its response to American actions nor to be too intense, but it hoped that some firmness would be good to improve Pakistain's financial position. But President Zardari was scared of the coming elections and wanted to be to on the right side of anti-American public passion and therefore decided to be inflexible towards the Americans. Thus he took a line quite contrary to the Army's plan. This step led to Pak-US relations hitting bottom.
Meera attacks Reema
Reported in Express famous filmstar Meera said that another Pak filmstar Reema had given proof of her lack of intelligence by marrying an aged (buzurg) doctor in the US. She said she was highly ungrateful and selfish by not inviting Mira to her wedding. She said that she had broken a decade-long oath of not talking to Reema by assenting to work in her movie for free but she had ignored her.
The poor darling!
Dr Afridi and Mangal Bagh
Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt Dr Shakeel Afridi was convicted by a tribal court for collaborating with the terrorist organization Lashkar Islam led by Mangal Bagh
F...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... . (The paper did not name the organization lest it kill its news hounds and simply said kaaladam party.) The report said that Lashkar Islam denied that Dr Afridi ever had links with it. But it said that if they ever got hold of Dr Afridi they would kill him.
Dr Afridi deserves sympathy
Columnist Saleem Safi wrote in Jang that Dr Afridi was convicted for treason but such generals as Musharraf, Mehmood Durrani, Hameed Gul, Asad Durrani, Aslam Beg ...occasionally incoherent retired four-star general who was the Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army, succeeding the creepy General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, after the latter was rubbed out died in an air crash in 1988. The general was involved up to his hairy ears in the Mehran bank scandal, shuffling millions in public money to buy or lease politicians, and is believed one of the prime movers in the sale of Pak nuclear technology to Iran. He ranks second only to Hamid Gul in the volume and flavor of his anti-Western vitriol.. , etc, who were found undermining the state were never considered as traitors to Pakistain. ISI too had an agreement of cooperation with CIA but Dr Afridi was being hunted down. Dr Afridi and family are being persecuted without giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Finance Minister turns Christian?
Oh noes!
Reported in Jang Canadian-Pak finance minister Punjab Rana Asif had dual nationality and therefore should not have been elected to the assembly but then he compounded the blunder by turning Christian and thus abandoning Islam which attracts the unofficial penalty of death. This was claimed by Tehrik Insaf leader Inamullah Niazi. He said Nadra record showed the Christian minister as Moslem.
Budget shortcomings
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that Budget 2012-13 had increased the money to be spent on PM's house garden from Rs14 million to Rs19 million while India was leaving Pakistain behind by spending record amounts on the Indian military. Pakistain Navy and Air Force deserved boost to their budgets not the PM's garden.
[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf President Javed Hashmi has described the politicians who accepted funds from ISI in 1990s as traitors and called for making their names public.
Speaking at an Iftar party here on Friday, he demanded that the Supreme Court make public the list of beneficiary politicians submitted to it by former ISI chief Asad Durrani.
Hashmi said those who accepted money from the spy agency were disloyal to the nation and the country and they should be exposed. He said he had not received even a single penny from the ISI and always relied on people's power.
Referring to the ongoing tussle between the superior judiciary and the government over implementation of the NRO case verdict, he said democracy was being put at stake just to save the money President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... allegedly looted from the country and deposited with Swiss banks. He said both PPP and PML-N betrayed the nation and they had no future. Hashmi had been doing politics from the PML-N platform till December 2011, when he joined the PTI.
Former foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri said hundreds of thousands of people from Punjab joined the PTI during the recent membership campaign, reposing their confidence in the leadership of Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... .
He said the PTI would emerge as the largest party in the general election and clean sweep the polls. He said the masses were looking towards Imran Khan because other politicians did not deliver.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. 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. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. has directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to not arrest Abid Chaudhry, a central character in the UK visa scam who is associated with the Dream Land travel agency, DawnNews reported.
Malik reportedly directed FIA authorities to investigate the matter and present a report on it without arresting Chaudhry.
He ordered a report on the subject to be presented before him by Saturday evening and directed authorities to not harass Chaudhry.
Chaudhry's name came to the fore when a British tabloid, The Sun, claimed to have unearthed a 'UK visa scam'.
The Sun's report revolved around an undercover investigator and a network of Pak agents -- Malik Bashir and company known for sending people abroad on forged documents -- with alleged links to the passport and identity card offices.
The paper said the officials first provided its undercover investigator with a genuine Pak passport in a false name. The information was backed by a footage of Abid Chaudhry (Dream Land's travel agent) claiming how for around £7,000 he could get its man a two-month visa...and smuggle him into London 2012 as part of Pakistain's Olympic squad.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The main accused in the Olympic visa scandal, Abid Chaudhry, came out of hiding after his brother's death on Saturday.
Talking to media representatives, Chaudhry alleged the scandal had badly impacted the health of his elder brother Arif Chaudhry, who passed had away after a heart attack.
He said his family had been in constant agony since the start of the scandal.
"The tension even took my brother's life," he said, pleading the government and judiciary for justice.
Chaudhry's name came to the fore when a British tabloid, The Sun, claimed to have unearthed a 'UK visa scam'.
He had gone into hiding after a joint investigation team of FIA and NADRA launched a crackdown.
Earlier on Saturday, the Prime Minister's Advisor on Interior Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. 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. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. had reportedly directed authorities to investigate the matter and present a report on it without arresting Chaudhry.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Minister for Interior Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. 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. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. on Saturday said that investigations show that Olympic visa scam was a conspiracy to defame Pakistain and those involved would be taken to task as per law of the land.
"The news published in the British newspaper, The Sun when Olympics were near to start. I am the person who ordered inquiry so as to find out the real facts behind the scandal," he told a presser.
The minister said about 90 per cent work on inquiry into the scam has been done and after its completion, the report with all documents would be dispatched to the British Newspaper through Pakistain High Commission in United Kingdom.
He said the inquiry teams of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have thoroughly investigated the scam and found that Asad Ali (Sun Newspaper's agent) got his CNIC and passport in 2000 and he provided wrong information in the declaration form he filled to get UK nationality.
Asad Ali now has dual nationality, he added.
"I have directed FIA to register a case against Asad Ali for disinformation and attempt to give bad name to the country," said the interior minister.
In this regard, he said, a team of legal experts have been asked to decide under which article of law a case is to be registered against Asad Ali.
Earlier, the interior minister had directed the FIA to not arrest Abid Chaudhry, a central character in the UK visa scam who is associated with the Dream Land travel agency. That's that guy who hasn't been to the office in eight years because he's been sick.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Pakistan is innocent.The rest of the world is wrong.
ASPEN, Colorado: Pakistans ambassador to the United States says her country will not relent from demanding that the CIA end its drone strikes.
We won't relent in killing terrorists who bother us...
In a debate with White House war adviser Douglas Lute at the Aspen Security Forum, Sherry Rehman said drone attacks have damaged Al-Qaeda but are now only serving to recruit new militants.
I am not saying drones have not assisted in the war against terror, but they have diminishing rate of returns, Rehman said by video teleconference from Washington.
With Pakistans spy chief, Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam, expected to hold his first meeting with CIA Director David Petraeus at CIA headquarters in Virginia next week, the ambassador said, We will seek an end to drone strikes and there will be no compromise on that.
We agree, there will be no compromise. It's the one thing Champ is doing that is working...
Lute would not comment on the drone program. US officials have said privately that it will continue because Pakistan has proved incapable or unwilling to target militants the US considers dangerous.
In addition to the end to drone strikes, Pakistani officials say they will ask the US to feed intelligence gathered by the pilotless aircraft to Pakistani jets and ground forces so they can target militants.
Rehman dismissed as outrageous the claim that Pakistan is harboring Al-Qaeda or other militants who intend to harm the US She said Pakistans army was working hard to combat the militants, including reporting 52 times to NATO in recent months when militants were spotted crossing into Afghan territory.
Pakistan is maxed out on the international border with Afghanistan, she said.
Sovereignty has privileges but also comes with responsibilities, countered Lute who called for Pakistan to step up its efforts and to cease hedging its bets by supporting the Afghan Taleban.
When asked why the Taleban would surrender ahead of the 2014 drawdown of US troops, Lute said a recent security agreement with Afghanistan ensures a long-term US commitment to Afghan security.
The agreement weve made with Afghanistan signals to Taleban that they cant wait us out, Lute said. If they want another decade of this, to get hammered every day and every night, US and Afghan forces can provide it.
If the Taleban are willing to disarm and respect the laws of the Afghan government, the door will remain open to negotiation, Lute said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah. Enough of these pinpoint, surgical strikes. Arclight 'em!
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/29/2012 18:38 Comments ||
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#2
Is the USAF planing to retire the both the BUFF B-52 + B-1 Lancer, in favor of the B-2 + followon B-3 = "new strategic bomber" [NSB]; or in alternate will the USAF transfer the B-52's conventional bombing-strike missions to the B-1, in which case a new acronym besides BUFF is needed???
IIRC the proposed NSB is to be capable of both Manned + Un-Manned missions.
#3
As for Pakistan, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > ISLAMABAD: THE AMERICANS WANT TROUBLE-FREE SUPPLIES FOR NATO FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN | [Dawn.com] THE AMERICANS WANT TROUBLE-FREE SUPPLIES.
HHHMMM, HHHMMMM, my gut is the post-Salala rapprochement between the US + Pakistan may still easily fall apart despite Pakistan's repor acceptance of the MOU???
One of President Barack Obama's top security officials has briefed Israel's prime minister on U.S. plans for a possible attack on Iran, it was claimed today.
National security adviser Tom Donilon sought to reassure Israel that Washington is prepared to act militarily should diplomacy and sanctions fail to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear enrichment programme.
He met premier Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to the country earlier this month, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz.
#2
If such a plan even exists, the ONE will not pull the trigger unless he's several points down in the polls in October. It will be this election's October Surprise.
GAD ZOOKS, can you imagine this guy as a wartime president???
Since we've never ousted a wartime president in an election, he might try it. Wendall Wilkie might have been our wartime president if it were not for the war clouds.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
07/29/2012 12:08 Comments ||
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#3
Washington is prepared to act militarily should diplomacy and sanctions fail
Translation: Let's give the can another kick and wait until after the election.
#4
Ah yes, our very own Tom Donilon conducting formal briefings now as opposed to news leaks?
Quite revealing actually. If key middle eastern player and alleged long time ally Israel, had been a key component of the so-called "U.S. military strike" from the planning onset, no such "briefings" would have been necessary.
A senior Israeli official denied on Sunday a newspaper report that US President Barack Obama's national security adviser had briefed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on a US contingency plan to attack Iran should diplomacy fail to curb its nuclear program.
"Nothing in the article is correct. Donilon did not meet the prime minister for dinner, he did not meet him one-on-one, nor did he present operational plans to attack Iran," the senior official, who declined to be named given the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters.
#13
AGain, ala the "JAPAN/EGYPT MODEL", Iran desires the ability to quickly produce NucWeaps in time(s) of contingency = military crisis.
Iran wants NucWeaps becuz ...
> Defense of the Islamist Revolution.
> Small-country/state Israel has Nukes.
> PERHAPS MOST IMPORTANTLY, IRAN IS WANTS NUKES BECAUSE TO HAVE SUCH IS CONSISTENT WID THE DOGMATIC + POPULAR PREMISES ANDOR PROMISES OF POST-COLD WAR "GLOBALISM", I.E. THE WORLD'S "GREAT" OR MAJOR POWERS, INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO NUCLEAR STATES, SHARE POWER + AUTHORITY WID THE LESSOR POWERS.
IOW, in Iran's mind for their Country to NOT have NucWeaps [advanced technologies] directly infers that "Globalism" + related is a FAKE/FARCE. Iff revealed as a "fake/farce", Iran + other world "Rogue" Govts-States will only become more motivated to dev NucWeaps irregardless of the whims of the US-West + UNO.
By the scope of Iran's desired "Japan/Egypt MOdel", ITO there is no reason for the US = US-Allies, UNO to attack their Country as IRAN WILL ONLY BE NUCWEAPS-"CAPABLE", NOT DE FACTO NUCWEAPS-ARMED.
The only rationale, then, for a US or US-led milstrike scenario agz Iran is that somehow IRAN POSES A CLEAR-N-PRESENT-DANGER ["realistic/real-time" immediate threat] TO WORLD TRADE, e.g. closure of the Straits of Hormuz + Iran attack on Saudi, ME oil fields, NOT AS PER NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
The POTUS Reagan Admin had the Gulf of Sidra, vee Libya's Uncle Muammar, + later the Kuwaiti Reflagging, both of which took place while Iran was preoccupied wid Uncle Saddam's Baathist Iraq + 1980's Iran-Irag War [SCUD-led "War of the Cities"] - ITS HIGHLY DOUBTFUL POTUS BAMMER WILL HAVE THE LUXURY OF A DE FACTO BLOODY, PROTRACTIVE IRAN-VS-KSA MIL CONFLICT TO DIVERT IRAN'S ATTENTION FROM MIL-TERROR COUNTER-RESPONSE AGZ THE US THIS TIME AROUND.
Lastly, Iran may dev the Tech = Proficiencies for advanced Uranium or Post-Uranium NucWeaps, + indigenous LRBM = ICBM? delivery system] circa 2015. By then the "defense of trade" motive for US war agz Iran will no longer suffice.
The raging civil war just across the cease-fire line in Syria is posing an uncomfortable political choice for the Druse people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Do they maintain their traditional loyalty to the government of Bashar Assad, whose family has vowed to take back the territory? Or should they support the burgeoning Arab revolt against Assads harsh rule?
In the shifting sands of the Middle East, the Druse again find themselves a people caught in the middle.
In Druse villages close enough to hear the fighting, families and friends are divided between backers of the revolt and supporters of the regime. A Druse doctor predicted his people would demand Assads downfall, while a butcher in a nearby town denounced the Syrian uprising as a foreign conspiracy.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. In 1981 it annexed the strategic plateau, 65 kilometers (40 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide, because militarily, it commands Israels north. The international community has not recognized the Israeli annexation. In negotiations, Israel has offered to exchange the territory for full peace, but talks broke down a decade ago over exact borders and other issues.
The Druse residents of the Golan Heights were offered Israeli citizenship, but only a few accepted. Many assumed that someday the territory would revert to Syria, by peace or by war, and those who identified with Israel would certainly might be treated as traitors.
The Druse - there are 20,000 in the Golan Heights - follow a secretive offshoot of Islam whose adherents live primarily in Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. Over the centuries, they have tried to keep to themselves, offering allegiance to whoever was in control of their territory.
The four main Golan Druse villages are near the cease-fire line with Syria. In the early weeks of the uprising against Assad last year, Golans Druse staunchly lined up behind him. Now new voices are being heard.
Most of the people here cannot distinguish between Assad and their homeland. They are looking to him as the face of the homeland and waiting for him to liberate us from the (Israeli) occupation, said Ali Abu Awad, a doctor in the village of Bukata. But these days, when they can see what Assad is doing there, the big lie has started to fall. I think they will demand the fall of Assad.
Over the past week, he said most people in Bukata have climbed nearby hills to watch the fighting nearby. Its a different feeling to see with your eyes. You feel very useless, very empty, to see this army demolishing the civilian population, Abu Awad said.
In nearby Majdal Shams, Assad supporters spoke out. Hasan Fakhr Deen, a butcher, called the Syria conflict a conspiracy of outside states.
He insisted that Syrians remained united and felt the nearby shelling and smoke across the border were legitimate attacks against people who want to change the regime in Syria.
Besides its strategic importance, the Golan Heights are also a major source of water and recreation. Israelis flock there for hikes, an Israeli winery and the countrys only ski resort. The Druse are a part of that landscape, and Israeli tourists as well as soldiers frequent their restaurants.
Still, the Druse stay in touch with their Syria relatives and are sometimes allowed to cross over for weddings, university studies and religious pilgrimages. Golan-grown apples are also annually transferred over land to Syria to help Druse farmers market their crop.
Syrias Sunni majority makes up the backbone of the opposition, and minorities such as the Druse and Christians fear they will be marginalized - or even targeted - if Sunnis take over. Assad and the ruling elite also belong to a minority sect, the Alawites, a Shiite offshoot. Assads regime always pushed a secular ideology, which was seen as giving minorities a measure of protection.
Residents say demonstrations break out every few weeks, some in favor of the regime and some against. The divisions have even pitted family against family and friend against friend.
Alaa Alwely, a driver, said the Syrian civil war would likely delay any chance of the Golan returning to Syria. Given what was happening across the border, he said he was fine with that.
Ive lived a respectful life here, he said. I was born under occupation. Im not sure if Syrian rule would be better or not.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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A five-day Saudi fundraising campaign to support the people in Syria has raised more than $ 72.33mn, Interior Minister Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz was quoted as saying yesterday.
The campaign, launched on Monday, received donations worth 271.245mn riyals, the state news agency SPA reported quoting Prince Ahmed. The national fundraising effort saw a donation of 20mn riyals from King Abdullah. Crown Prince Salman, who is also deputy prime minister and defence minister, followed by donating 10mn riyals.
The campaign also collected food, medical equipment, clothes, tents, blankets, and jewellery as part of its drive to support the people of Syria.
More than 19,000 people have been killed across Syria since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assads regime erupted in March 2011. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states have repeatedly voiced support for Syrian rebels against the Assad regime.
France urged the U.N. Security Council to rapidly intervene in the conflict to pre-empt an all-out civil war. French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday he would try again to convince Russia and China to support harder sanctions against Assad in order to break a diplomatic deadlock and prevent more bloodshed.
Good luck with that...
"I will once more address Russia and China so that they recognize there would be chaos and civil war if Bashar al-Assad isn't soon stopped," Hollande said, speaking to the press during a visit to a farm in the southwestern town of Monlezun.
"The regime of Bashar al-Assad knows it is doomed and so it will use force until the very end," he said. "The role of the member states of the U.N. Security Council is to step in as quickly as possible."
"The role of the countries of the Security Council is to intervene as quickly as possible," he said, specifically addressing Damascus allies Russia and China and warning that failure to do so would mean "chaos and civil war."
"The only solution which will allow Syrians to reconcile and reunite is the departure of Bashar al-Assad and the formation of a transitional government," Hollande said.
"It is not too late but with every passing day it's more repression, upheavals and consequently massacres."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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Russia has made no agreement to grant Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asylum and is not even thinking about doing so, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.
Lavrovs remarks fell short of a statement that Russia would not consider taking in Assad but were among Moscows strongest indications yet that it is not planning to do so.
But a modest dacha on the Lower Volga would solve a lot of problems...
We have said more than once publicly that we are not even thinking about this, Lavrov told reporters when asked about media reports Russia was ready to offer Assad asylum.
Russia on Saturday warned a tragedy was looming but said it was unrealistic to expect the government would stand by when rebels were occupying major cities.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Russia is not closing its options to saying NO if Assad wants asylum
#2
The only solution which will allow Syrians to reconcile and reunite is the departure of Bashar al-Assad and the formation of a transitional government, Hollande said.
Auh yes, "reconciliation and unity" working so well in Iraq, Lybia, Afghanistan, Francafrique, and elsewhere.
#3
"Russia has made no agreement to grant Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asylum and is "not even thinking about" doing so, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday."
Of course not. Since his gorgeous wife already flew to Moscow a week ago - why let a husband spoil the party???
A Syrian TV presenter has quit her post in the state TV refusing to serve the regime of President Bashar al-Assad which she described as trying to awaken the monster of sectarianism.
Ola Abbas read out a statement in a video aired by Al Arabiya TV saying that for about 40 years the Syrian regime has denied people their full citizenship rights and refused to allow the country to transition into a democracy.
Forty years have passed and the regime persists in breaking our humanism and works to monitor our defects and here it is today re-produces the mechanisms and methods of his tyranny by exploiting the a misled group of the Syrian people and using it to awaken monster of sectarianism, Abbas said.
Several people have recently deserted the Assads regime diplomatic and legislative organs, amid reports of him losing large portions of the country to advancing opposition forces.On Friday, lawmaker Ikhlas Badawi, who represents the northern province of Aleppo in the parliament elected in widely criticized May polls, defected to Turkey.
Intensified ground and aerial bombardment on Syrian cities by Assads forces in recent weeks has prompted diehard Baathists and Assads loyalists to defect. They have been mostly Sunni Muslim, from the majority sect at the forefront of the 16-month uprising against Assad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2012 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Four army officials including Kunar's Army Brigade Facility Chief were 
[Yemen Post] Minister of Legal Affairs Mohammad al-Mikhlafi has accused the General People Congress (GPC) led by the former president 
Somali pirates
Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has thanked the government of Bangladesh, on behalf of his government, for arresting the alleged killers of Khalaf Al Ali, a Saudi diplomat.
ROME: The Italian coast guard rescued 75 immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa from a drifting dinghy on Saturday after receiving an emergency call for help by satellite phone, a spokesman told AFP.
A recording has emerged of the moment an apartment superintendent inadvertently walked into one of the New York Police Department's supposedly top-secret anti-terrorist safe houses, heaping embarrassment on the force.
Unaware that the police department was in town conducting an undercover operation, the FBI seized all of the material inside, creating the embarrassing situation of the NYPD having to request that the FBI return its property.
Retired diplomats and columnists
[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf President Javed Hashmi has described the politicians who accepted funds from ISI in 1990s as traitors and called for making their names public.
President Asif Ali 
[Dawn] Minister for Interior 
ASPEN, Colorado: Pakistans ambassador to the United States says her country will not relent from demanding that the CIA end its drone strikes.
