The Cairo appellate court on Wednesday set May 11 for the resumption of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubaraks retrial in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that deposed him. Mubarak remains in custody on new corruption charges, though a court ordered him released earlier this week before his retrial over the deaths of protesters.
The decision to transfer him back to Tora prison, where his two sons are being held before facing a corruption trial, came after the prosecutor ordered the formation of a medical committee to look into Mubaraks health.
Mubarak appeared in court Saturday for the first time since his conviction in June 2012. After he was wheeled into the courtroom on a hospital gurney, he sat upright, grinned and waved to supporters from inside the metal defendants cage.
In January, an appeals court overturned a life sentence against Mubarak for failing to prevent the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising in 2011. He was the first Arab leader to appear in a defendants cage and stand trial by his own people.
The new date for the retrial was set after the judge in the case recused himself last weekend. The judge had ordered acquittals in October for 25 Mubarak loyalists accused of organizing a deadly attack in which assailants on horses and camels stormed downtown Cairos Tahrir Square during the uprising.
President Mohammed Morsis Freedom and Justice Party, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, criticised the judiciary for several recent acquittals.
The acquittals of corrupt and criminal Mubarak-era figures confirms that the revolution is not complete, party spokesman Murad Ali said in a statement. He said the acquittals highlight dysfunction in the judiciary system.
They aren't judging the way Morsi wants 'em judged...
Activists and lawyers connected to Mubaraks retrial say there is no guarantee that new evidence will be submitted in the case. They complain about a lack of a comprehensive transitional justice program to hold Mubarak and former regime officials accountable for crimes committed during his rule, as well as the killing of protesters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2013 10:28 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] The Grand Mufti of Tunisia is warning against the spread of radical fatwas out of step with Islam.
"Anarchic fatwas issued usually by ignorant people or those unacquainted with Islamic law have become a danger to the community," Sheikh Othman Battikh told Shems FM on Thursday (April 11th).
A day earlier, Battikh called on the prime minister to dedicate a new weekly programme on state TV "to combat the spread of the phenomenon of anarchic fatwas".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Is this the gentleman who a few years ago organized and led the debates on jihad -- based on the books by Dr. Fadl and his prison mates -- that were piped into the prisons, resulting in some giving up on Al Qaeda-style jihad altogether?
[MAGHAREBIA] Algeria renewed its pledge to support the Libyan army and police.
To mark the partnership, Algerian National Security (DGSN) chief Abdelghani Hamel welcomed Libyan General Abou Ghrara Mohamed El Ferdjani on April 4th.
The high-level Libyan delegation also visited the Forensic Science and Technical Police Laboratory, the Police Academy and the National Security College to observe how Algerian security officers use modern technology to combat crime.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Ghariyan has become the latest town to see militiamen hand in their weapons and uniforms.
The local battalions also passed control of the local prison to the authorities and surrendered 13 militiamen wanted for investigation into crimes allegedly committed during the fighting in Bani Walid. For good measure the militia commanders also pledged to find the owners of vehicles that they had seized and used and then to hand them back.
In passing all security in the mountain town to the police and army, the militiamen also agreed that the only people who could now wear uniforms in public were legitimate members of the police or armed forces.
It is reported that a wide range of light and heavy weapons and munitions was handed over to the authorities at a low-key ceremony in the town on Monday. The surrender of the equipment , the prison and the militiamen's role in the town was the result of an agreement reached last week with the authorities, according to the town's social media page.
Militia commanders reportedly refused to hold a larger celebration for the handover and the return of their men to civilian life " in order not to waste the state budget and in solidarity with those innocent people who died in all parts of Libya".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... signalled on Wednesday he would consider offering an amnesty to Islamist orc group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , in an effort to end an insurgency that has killed thousands.
"Goodluck Jonathan has approved the constitution of a Presidential Committee to constructively engage key members of Boko Haram and define a comprehensive and workable framework for resolving the crisis of insecurity," his office said in a statement.
Boko Haram, a group fighting to create an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria, has become the greatest threat to stability in Africa's biggest oil exporter and most populous country, since an uprising in 2009.
The group mostly targets security forces but has attacked several churches, mosques, schools and markets, increasingly using suicide bombs.
Christian southerner Jonathan has been largely unsuccessful in quelling the violence through military means and, in recent weeks, traditional leaders in the predominantly Mohammedan north have put pressure on him to offer Boko Haram a deal.
Western governments are increasingly concerned about Nigerian Islamists linking up with other groups in the region, including al Qaeda's West African wing, particularly after a spike in kidnappings of foreigners this year.
Jonathan had previously said that he would only engage Boko Haram in dialogue once it had ceased attacks and when its secretive leaders come out of the shadows for talks.
Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau has said in the past he was not interested in talking with the government. Any grinding of the peace processor would be complicated by the group's ill-defined leadership structure and the existence of spin-off Islamist groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The main opposition BNP yesterday warned of dawn-to-dusk hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... for Sunday in Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions, if its leaders are not released by Saturday.
Joint Secretary General of the party Mizanur Rahman Minu made the announcement at a presser in Rajshahi city.
He said the party had also decided to bring out processions and hold protest rallies in the divisions on Saturday to press home its demands.
The other demands Minu mentioned in the media briefing include putting an end to "mass killing", restoration of caretaker government, withdrawal of "false" cases against BNP leaders and activists, and release of Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman.
Party leaders Asadul Habib Dulu, Harunur Rashid and Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul were also present in the presser.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Grassroots-level activists of 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... are preparing to unleash again vicious protests in the country sensing the international crimes tribunals may convict their former chief Ghulam Azam and leader Kamaruzzaman of war crimes charges.
The two tribunals are set to deliver any day the verdicts in the cases against the two top figures of the party.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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Yhe Four Lions
The terror plot involved targeting British reserve troops using a toy-car packed with explosives.
But investigators said Thursday Britain's domestic spy agency of MI5 and police were able to stop Zahid Iqbal, Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed, Umar Arshad and Syed Farhan Hussain before they could launch the deadly attack.
So they weren't named William, Christopher, Ian and Nigel...
Iqbal and Ahmed were given extended sentences of 16 years and 3 months, which means they will be in jail for more than 11 years and put on parole for the rest of the time. Arshad was sentenced to more than six years in jail, while Hussain received more than five years.
The British men -- aged between 22 and 31 -- pleaded guilty in March to engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism.
The four were arrested a year ago in the town of Luton, north of London, after an operation by police and the MI5.
Prosecutors said the Britons downloaded files containing instructions for an attack, bought survival equipment and collected money for terrorist purposes. They also admitted "facilitating, planning and encouraging" overseas travel for terrorist purposes.
The men were recorded discussing sending a remote-controlled toy car carrying a homemade bomb under the gates of an army reservist centre in Luton and speaking of using instructions in an al-Qaida manual to make an improvised explosive device.
"Using a toy-car as an explosive device may seem childish, but if they had succeeded in pulling this off, the consequences could have resulted in deaths and injuries, much like we have seen in recent days in Boston," said a British security official with knowledge of the investigation and who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be named.
A retired top Mexican Army military commander was released from prison Wednesday following a court order that said he was in fact innocent of the charges, according to Mexican news reports.
General de Division Tomas Angeles Dauahare was detained a year ago in the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign in which he was part of a slate of at-large candidates for Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) for Mexico's national Chamber of Deputies. At the time, news of the detention caused then presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto to suspend his campaign briefly.
The revelation was possibly one of myriad reasons why PRI failed to win a clear majority in the Chamber of Deputies in 2012.
According to a news account which appeared on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily, General Angeles Dauahare was accused, along with five other military officers, of taking money from Beltran Leyva cartel top boss Édgar Valdez Villarreal AKA La Barbie to provide security for Valdez Villarreal.
According to press accounts the judge who issued the release order, Juzgado 3 de Distrito Raul Valerio also issued a rebuke to the Calderon era Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR), saying that the PGR manufactured evidence against the general and four others. At the time the five military officers -- including General de Division Ricardo Escorcia Vargas, retired General de Brigadier Roberto Dawe Gonzalez, retired Lieutenant Colonel Silvio Isidro de Jesus Hernandez Soto and Major Ivan Reyna Muñoz -- were ordered to spend 80 days in preventative detention, an unusually harsh order. Even high profile narcotraffickers usually only receive 40 days for their crimes.
Preventative detention is a prosecutorial tool used to keep suspects in high profile drug cases in detention as the prosecutor solidifies the case against the accused. Preventative detention, colloquially known as arraigo or "rooting" is considered by civil rights advocates to be a violation of the Mexican constitution. Preventative detention can only be imposed by order of a federal judge.
Last January newly appointed PGR Jesus Murillo Karam admitted that the PGR had no evidence to proceed against General Angeles Dauahare, who had continually maintained his innocence while in prison.
General Tomas Angeles Dauahare had another connection to another corruption case against General Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, who had been charged, then later exonorated of corruption. General Angeles Dauahare was involved in investigating General Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro.
General Acosta Chaparro was shot to death a year ago to the month in Mexico City.
General Dauahare Angeles was an aide to former Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA) Enrique Cervantes Aguirre during the term of president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, and at one time had been considered for the top army job before General Guillermo Galvan Galvan was appointed SEDENA by president Felipe Calderon.
It was Calderon's PGR which levelled the charges against the general.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com
North Korea on Thursday demanded the lifting of United Nations sanctions and ponies an end to joint American-South Korean military exercises as preconditions for starting dialogue to defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula. ponies are edible
Americans looking for information in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings were greeted with silence if they turned to the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) for real-time alerts.
As of Thursday morning, the Department of Homeland Security notification system has still not sent a single message alerting citizens about the ongoing investigation into the terror attack. In fact, since its inception in April 2011, not a single alert has been sent through its website or social media accounts associated with the NTAS.
Naturally, some obvious questions emerge. To begin: If theres a supposedly-useful and important alert system that hasnt been employed in two years, whats the purpose of having one in the first place? To answer this, its important to first look at the stated purpose of the NTAS.
According to the DHS website setup to describe the system, the public is only notified when there is credible information about a threat. Heres how it works, as per DHSs description:
When there is credible information about a threat, an NTAS Alert will be shared with the American public. It may include specific information, if available, about the nature of the threat, including the geographic region, mode of transportation, or critical infrastructure potentially affected by the threat, as well as steps that individuals and communities can take to protect themselves and help prevent, mitigate or respond to the threat. The advisory will clearly indicate whether the threat is Elevated, if we have no specific information about the timing or location, or Imminent, if we believe the threat is impending or very soon.
[JTA] Israel Police Chief Yohanan Danino in U.S. meetings with FBI and law enforcement officials is expected to discuss the Boston Marathon attack, among other topics.
If you can, learn from the best.
Danino and other senior Israel Police officers left Israel on Tuesday for 10 days of meetings in New York and Washington. The visit had been scheduled several weeks ago.
The officials will look at strengthening cooperation between Israeli police and police departments throughout the United States.
Interesting. Why would they feel a need to do that at that level?
The meetings with the FBI were to discuss cooperation in fighting terrorism and now, according to Israeli reports, will discuss Monday's attack in Boston.
The Saudi National, Abdul al-Harbi, who has been questioned after the Boston Marathon bombing, is being immediately deported on "national security grounds."
Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs reports:
He is from a very powerful Saudi family with many terrorist ties. Abdul al-Harbi is a devout Muslim from Medina.
I said it takes longer than 15 hours to investigate all of Abdul al-Harbi's relatives, friends, acquaintances, and business and school friends.
Perhaps a quick look at the Arabic sources should raise the eyebrows of every American relative to the extent of the problem at hand. Many from Al-Harbi's clan are steeped in terrorism and are members of Al-Qaeda. Out of a list of 85 terrorists listed by the Saudi government shows several of Al-Harbi clan to have been active fighters in Al-Qaeda:
When I heard he was from a very powerful Saudi family, I worried about this kind of thing happening.
Why suddenly is al-Harbi being sent out of the country as the terror investigation is yet, ongoing?
On Wednesday evening, Reuters reported that President Obama held an unscheduled meeting this afternoon with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal at the White House.
The meeting, was closed to the press, as was Secretary of State John Kerry's Tuesday meeting with al-Faisal.
White House spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden, described the curiously timed meeting in a statement, saying: "The president and Prince Saud al-Faisal reaffirmed the strong partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia and discussed developments in the region, including the conflict in Syria."
Curiously enough, the Boston Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation scheduled a press conference for Wednesday afternoon to give an update on the investigation, and perhaps, to announce an arrest.
#1
In the same vein with more detail from Frontpage Magazine here, linking to an even deeper discussion of the topic by Walid Shoebat. The al Harbis, it turns out, are another proud jihad-supporting Saudi like the al Ghamdis of 9/11 fame, apparently lauded at home as the Lions of Manhattan. These families even have their own websites, where they boast of their sons' achievments. Is that not sweet?
#2
Appears we can now elevate the DEBKAfile article and Steve Emerson's statements from last night from possible, but unlikely to it fok'n happened, now deal with it.
#5
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was on Fox this morning with some sort of.... "we don't want to jump to conclusions" statement in reference to the release of fotos. As many here are already aware, it won't be much of a "jump".
POTUS/FLOTUS travel to Boston today for a news smothering "interfaith service".
[An Nahar] Two Saudi nationals were maimed in the bombings in Boston but neither is accused of involvement even though one was initially put under armed guard at a hospital, the embassy said Tuesday.
The Saudi embassy in Washington said that two of its nationals, one man and one woman, were maimed in Monday's blasts. Police earlier said that the 20-year-old man was being guarded but was not under detention.
U.S. authorities told the embassy late Monday "that no Saudi national was a suspect in the Boston Marathon attack and that the Saudi national in question was a witness, not a suspect," mission front man Nail al-Jubeir said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Remnants of Iraq's Baath party, loyal to former dictator Saddam Hussein, are making a strategic alliance with al-Qaeda hard boyz to spread terror in the country, an analyst tells Press TV.
"The remnants of the Baath party and the remnants of the former regime, the Saddamists, are taking advantage of al-Qaeda and making a strategic alliance with al-Qaeda to spread terror in the country," political analyst, Intifad Qanbar said in an interview with on Wednesday.
The analyst noted that the two groups are using terror tactics to intimidate the people in light of the upcoming provincial elections in the country.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
PRAY for Iraq.
At the rate things are going over there, the only hope for that country rests upon divine intervention.
Anyone else think Paul Bremer screwed this thing up beyond all recognition?
Anyone think we should have stayed longer and done more to help the country transition?
Actually, I think the Dems wanted out so they could look at Iraq go down the tubes and say "yep George should have never gone in, look at the mess they are in now"
Of course they did the same thing in Viet Nam so where is the surprise. They do have such a limited selection in their play book.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/18/2013 12:27 Comments ||
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Washington -- In a critical indication of growing U.S. military involvement in the civil war in Syria, CNN has learned Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is ordering the deployment of up to 200 troops to Jordan, according to two Defense Department officials.
The troops, from the headquarters of the 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas, "creates an additional capability" beyond what has been there, one official said. The group will give the United States the ability to "potentially form a joint task force for military operations, if ordered," he said.
The new deployment will include communications and intelligence specialists who will assist the Jordanians and "be ready for military action" if President Obama were to order it, the official said.
Paving the way?
There have been several dozen American troops, mainly special forces, in Jordan for the past year assisting the Jordanians. But that group has been very ad hoc, the official said. This new deployment makes the U.S. military presence more official and is the first formalized ongoing presence of an American military unit in the Kingdom in recent years.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon has warned Leb that it would "pay the price" of any attack carried out by Hizbullah on the Jewish state.
Hizbullah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, are armed with tens of thousands of rockets of different types and on the day they receive the order, "they'll fire them at our cities and civilians," Ya'alon said during an Independence Day speech he delivered in Herzliya on Tuesday.
"Lebanese citizens and their leaders must understand that for every Hizbullah attack on us, the organization and Leb itself will be considered responsible and will pay the price," he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[FRANCE24] Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... accused the West on Wednesday of supporting al Qaeda faceless myrmidons in Syria's civil war and warned they would turn against their backers and strike "in the heart of Europe and the United States".
Assad also launched his strongest criticism yet of neighbouring Jordan for allowing thousands of fighters to cross the border to join a conflict he insisted his forces would win and save Syria from destruction.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The March 14 General Secretariat renewed on Wednesday its call on Hizbullah to cease its fighting in Syria, "which will leave a deep scar on Lebanese-Syrian ties."
It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: "Hizbullah's fighting alongside the Syrian regime and at Iran's behest will pave the way for Sunni-Shiite strife, which the party only warns of in words, but is actively working for."
"This strife will not only threaten Leb and its national unity, but the entire region and even the world," it cautioned.
It therefore demanded that Hizbullah "completely" withdraw from Syrian territory in order to avoid future acts of retaliation against it that have started in al-Hermel and may spread to the whole of Leb.
In addition, the March 14 General Secretariat reiterated its condemnation of Syria's violation of Leb's eastern and northern borders, demanding the Lebanese state to deploy the army along those areas with the support of the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... Interim Force in Leb.
"Any shelling of Lebanese land or kidnapping on Leb territory, by Syrian rebels or regime forces, is a red line," it declared.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Fearless Leader of the Islamic Revolution ...Iran's doddering head theocrat... Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei ...the successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the actual dictator of Iran... says the Islamic Theocratic Republic condemns the death of innocents in the US or anywhere else in the world.
"Pursuant to Islamic logic, the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran opposes any blast or the killing of innocents be it in Boston in the US or Pakistain, Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria and condemns it," Ayatollah Khamenei told a group of Army commanders on Wednesday.
"The US and other so-called human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... advocates remain silent on the massacre of innocents in Pakistain, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, but they cause a ruckus after a few blasts in the United States," the Leader stated.
Ayatollah Khamenei underscored the "contradictory" behavior of the US and its allies regarding human rights issues, calling their position on the Islamic Theocratic Republic "illogical".
"What kind of logic is this[?] ... if children and women are killed by Americans in Afghanistan and Pakistain, and [if] in Iraq and Syria the bully boyz backed by the US, West and Zionists cause tragedy, it is not considered a problem but if an kaboom happens in the US or another Western state, the entire world must pay the price for it?"
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2013 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.
Goodluck Jonathan
[Bangla Daily Star] Grassroots-level activists of 
North Korea on Thursday demanded the lifting of United Nations sanctions and 
[Iran Press TV] Remnants of Iraq's Baath party, loyal to former dictator Saddam Hussein, are making a strategic alliance with al-Qaeda 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
