[Al Ahram] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... summoned Washington's ambassador in Kabul to protest a fellow American diplomat's remarks that Afghanistan is experiencing a civil war, the US Embassy confirmed Wednesday.
The comments by James Dobbins, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistain, struck a nerve among Afghan leaders because they are trying to ease growing fears about what will happen once US-led foreign troops complete their withdrawal from this country next year.
Already, as foreign troops have reduced their presence, Talibs have stepped up attacks, and some fear that the years after the 2014 withdrawal could see a return to the bloody civil war of the early 1990s, when ethnic-based factions fought one another for control of the country. The Afghan Taliban are dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, who have long had a rivalry with Tajiks and other ethnic groups in Afghanistan.
In a recent interview with Voice of America's Deewa news service, Dobbins said, "there already is, of course, a civil war in Afghanistan."
That has drawn rebukes from Karzai front man Aimal Faizi, who argued that if Dobbins' assertion was true, then the US was an actor in a civil war instead of fighting terrorism. In a news conference with local media on Tuesday that was later posted to YouTube, Faizi also noted that Dobbins' comments come at a sensitive time as the U.S. and Afghanistan are aiming to sign a deal that could leave some foreign troops in place after 2014.
US Ambassador James Cunningham was summoned to the presidency on Tuesday over the matter, the embassy confirmed.
US Embassy front man Robert Hilton declined to characterize the meeting, but the mission has issued multiple statements downplaying Dobbins' remarks. Its latest says the envoy was merely using "a standard academic term in the context of describing the need for Afghans to speak to Afghans to achieve peace."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[WEEKLYSTANDARD] One year after the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, the survivors may finally begin to talk. Perhaps one of the things they can talk about is what they've been doing for the past year.
In a three-page letter to the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Mike Rogers, CIA director John Brennan says that his agency will provide the "relevant information" to Rogers in order to facilitate meetings between CIA-affiliated personnel in Benghazi and congressional oversight committees. The offer of cooperation, dated September 3, 2013, comes as four committees of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives prepare to reinvigorate separate inquiries into the events of September 11, 2012, and their aftermath. In the next two weeks, the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, Government Oversight and Reform, and Intelligence Committees will all hold hearings looking into different aspects of the Benghazi attacks -- beginning with an Intelligence Committee hearing later this week on the lack of progress in the investigation and apprehension of the perpetrators of those attacks. 60 Minutes is planning to air its investigation into the Benghazi attacks later this fall.
In his letter to Rogers, Brennan responded to several specific questions the Intelligence Committee chairman had posed in a letter dated August 2, 2013, denying that CIA officers on the ground during the attacks had been subjected to polygraphs or required to sign non-disclosure agreements. He also denied that any CIA officers -- "either staff or contractor" -- had been told not to speak to Congress about the attacks or threatened with consequences for any such cooperation. "To the best of my knowledge after inquiry, I am unaware of any officer who has been threatened with reprisals," Brennan wrote. "Nor would I tolerate such behavior. To retaliate or threaten retaliation would be a violation of law."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Perhaps one of the things they can talk about is what they have been doing for the past year.
Daily ECT. Enough shocks and your memory is shot...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/12/2013 8:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Maybe hey should FORCE them to talk, (Naah that'd upset the ONE)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/12/2013 8:37 Comments ||
Top||
#3
THEY dammit
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/12/2013 8:37 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Available and able are, not necessarily, the same thing.
[Al Ahram] Participants in Yemen's national reconciliation talks have agreed on the principle of changing the Arab republic into a federal state, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi said on Wednesday.
"There is an agreement on the principle of federalism," Kurbi told AFP on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.
But differences remain on the number of regions proposed by each party, he said.
Southern delegates to the national dialogue are demanding a federal state consisting of north and south Yemen, while northerners are proposing more than two entities, according to sources close to the talks.
The minister said he hoped the dialogue would end as scheduled on September 18, adding that if necessary the talks would be extended by one week.
The dialogue, part of a UN-brokered power transfer deal, is aimed at drafting a new constitution and preparing for elections in February 2014.
Kurbi also said that two compensation funds are planned, one to help reconstruction of the country's northern and southern regions, scenes to several wars over many years, while the second would compensate victims of political violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Ynet] A US research institute says North Korea appears to be restarting a plutonium reactor, in a move that could raise renewed international alarm over its nuclear weapons program.
The five-megawatt reactor at Nyongbyon was shuttered in 2007 under a disarmament agreement. Pyongyang announced in April plans to restart it.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] A few dozen demonstrators attending a rally on the Mall once billed as the Million Mohammedan March were vastly outnumbered Wednesday by a Christian group objecting to their event and a counterprotest consisting of motorcycle riders honoring Sept. 11 victims.
The noon rally, called the Million American March Against Fear took place between 13th and 14th streets in Northwest and was sponsored by the American Mohammedan Political Action Committee.
Speakers -- among them author and Princeton University professor Cornel West -- struck mainstream themes, calling for social justice for Mohammedans while promoting peace and condemning violence. Attendees also held a moment of silence to honor Sept. 11 victims.
Ruby Sous, from Kansas City, stressed that Mohammedans and American-Mohammedans "stand with America against terrorism."
"We want to stand here in solidarity with the American people against hate and violence," she said.
But other speakers addressed fringe topics, condemning what they called the use of U.S. tax dollars to kill innocent people in the Middle East and advancing conspiracy theories around the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Christian counterdemonstrators heckled the group, with some holding signs that read "One nation under God" or disparaging the Mohammedan prophet Muhammad.
"You picked the wrong day," counterdemonstrators shouted at times.
U.S. Park Police gathered in force for the event. Officers deployed around and among the groups to keep them separate.
In the background, staggered clusters of motorcycles could be heard riding in the vicinity, but road closures kept the bikers from the immediate area of the rally. The motorcycles were part of the 2 Million Bikers to DC ride held, which drew thousands of bikers from around the country to a hastily arranged event honoring Sept. 11 victims and protesting the Mohammedan rally.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The group had obtained a permit from the National Park Service several months ago for 1,000 people.
Musta been a typo.
NBC says that about 25 people showed up. You think Cornel West would've gotten out of bed if he knew he'd have an audience of 24?
#2
the organizers of the muslim march thought their message of 'Islam is against terrorism' would resonate with their coreligionists but that message doesn't
this isn't the first time that has happened
there was a 2005 event of the same kind that got far more publicity and was endorsed by dozens of organizations/// they got about 200 or so marchers many of whom were not muslim
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/12/2013 8:27 Comments ||
Top||
#3
One million >> 25, I checked. So they're no better at math than the black racist "civil rights" groups, Nation of Islam, .....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2013 9:31 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Checked the Post last night and today to see how they covered the biker thing.
Basically? What motorcycles?
[Dawn] Former member of Customs, Ramzan Bhatti, on Wednesday submitted his fact finding report regarding smuggling of arms and ammunition as well as evasion of duty on different items at Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Port and Port Qasim.
Bhatti submitted his sealed report to the Supreme Court, Karachi Registry in compliance with the order passed on August 30 by the larger bench of the apex court in the case pertaining to law and order situation in Karachi.
Earlier on Tuesday, big shot of Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) and former minister for ports and shipping Babar Ghauri filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking to become party in the case.
The controversy over the disappearance of thousands of containers surfaced after an inquiry into the matter was ordered by the court on a claim made by Director General of Sindh Rangers Maj-Gen Rizwan Akhtar that 19,000 containers had been stolen from the Karachi Port when Ghauri was the ports and shipping minister.
A Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, tasked the commission to ascertain:
(a) As to whether arms or ammunition are brought or smuggled through the sea and what are the possible measures and ways to be adopted to stop it.
(b) Who can be held responsible for the smuggling of arms and ammunition in the country through ships, vessels as well as launches and what are the reasons for not preventing the smuggling of the same.
(c) As to whether the Customs officials posted at the Ports of Bin Qasim and Karachi manage to recover hundred per cent customs duty and the revenue or there are certain mechanisms on the basis of which these duties are evaded, which cause loss to the public exchequer and ultimately such black money is used for illegal activities and promoting crimes in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... chief Altaf Hussain condemned the arrest of a former provincial politician belonging to the party, Nadeem Hashmi, whereas a shutdown was observed in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and in some areas of Hyderabad on Wednesday, DawnNews reported.
In a statement issued from the MQM's London secretariat, Altaf claimed that the Sindh government was conducting one-sided action against the MQM office bearers and activists and asked the provincial government to explain the reasons and clauses of the law under which the former Member of Provincial Assembly was taken into custody by law enforcers.
The MQM chief further said that he had always advised his party workers to remain calm and patient and appealed for the same today.
Altaf Hussain's statement concluded with the remarks that he had handed over the responsibilty, for the resolution of issues faced by party, its workers and citizens on the lam, to the members of the Rabita committee and the Tanzeemi (organising) sector, according to the MQM's official website.
The MQM chief said that those given the responsibility were completely independant in making their decisions and he hoped that they would make their deicions with complete honesty while remaining withing the parametres of party discipline, the statement added.
An emergency session of the MQM's Rabita (coordination) committee was also held at the party's London and Karachi headquarters to decide the further course of action to be taken over the arrest of party members.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Al Ahram] The Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, Islamist group ruling Gazoo sought to ease tensions with Cairo on Wednesday by ordering Moslem preachers to mute their criticism of the Egyptian government over what some of the holy mans have called its war on Islam.
"Preachers should avoid speaking of the internal affairs of Egypt and focus on our Paleostinian national issues and our struggle for the liberation of our land and the freedom of our prisoners (held by Israel)," said Ismail Rudwan, the Hamas-appointed religious affairs minister in Gazoo.
He told Rooters he delivered that message in meetings he had held with scores of preachers in mosques in the southern Gazoo Strip and planned to see more holy mans in other parts of the Paleostinian territory.
Events in neighbouring Egypt have resonated strongly in the Gazoo Strip. Hamas is an offshoot ofEgypt's Moslem Brüderbund. Brotherhood figure Mohamed Morsi was tossed as president by the military in July following mass protests.
Efforts by the army-backed government in Egypt to crush the Brotherhood and its closure of cross-border smuggling tunnels used to move weapons and goods into the Gazoo Strip have dealt a major blow to Hamas.
Gazoo preachers, in fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... sermons, have accused Egypt's army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, of waging war against Islam. Egyptian army officials have said Hamas is interfering in Egyptian affairs and suggested that Paleostinians were helping Islamist hard boyz in Sinai, which borders Gazoo and Israel.
Hamas denies such allegations, and Rudwan said it regards Egypt as a "strategic supporter of the Paleostinian cause". The group, spurned by the West over its refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence, won a Paleostinian election in 2006 and seized control of Gazoo in 2007 from forces loyal to Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
LA Times, so hold your nose
Signaling a possible thaw in long-frozen relations, the Obama administration and the new leadership in Iran are communicating about Syria and are moving behind the scenes toward direct talks that both governments hope can ease the escalating confrontation over Tehran's nuclear program. And a certain bridge is available in Brooklyn...
President Obama reportedly reached out to Iran's relatively moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, through an exchange of letters in recent weeks. The pragmatist cleric is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24, and after years of the United States cold-shouldering his ultraconservative predecessor, U.S. officials say it's possible they will meet with Rouhani on the sidelines. Mahmoud was an evil ultraconservative! Because...conservatives are evil.
Beyond that, U.S. and Iranian officials are tentatively laying the groundwork for potential face-to-face talks between the two governments, the first in the rancorous 34 years since radical students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and founded the Islamic theocracy. Diplomatic relations have been broken ever since. I've been laughing at Obumble over Syria because I thought the damage was mostly to him personally. But if this is related - via his craven stupidity - then the damage to the nation is potentially grave.
[Ynet] A former US Marine held in Iran for two years said in a letter to the US secretary of state that he has endured "miserable prison conditions" and believes Tehran is holding him hostage for use in a possible prisoner exchange.
Amir Hekmati's letter, handwritten and dated Sept. 1, was addressed to John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... and first published Wednesday by Britannia's Guardian newspaper.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/12/2013 10:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Good luck. We called his Senate office five years ago. Still waiting for the callback.
WASHINGTON -- Syria's top leaders amassed one of the world's largest stockpiles of chemical weapons with help from the Soviet Union and Iran, as well as Western European suppliers and even a handful of American companies, according to American diplomatic cables and declassified intelligence records.
It certainly illustrates how difficult it is to keep thugs from gaining access to chemical weapons. We might be able to restrain -- somewhat -- the quest for nuclear weapons, since centrifuges and the rest are expensive and finicky. But any country that can manufacture basic petrochemicals and pesticides can make chemical weapons. If your goal is to beat another country's military chemical weapons are next to useless. But to terrorize a population? Chemical weapons are just the thing.
While an expanding group of nations banded together in the 1980s to try to block the Syrian effort, prohibiting the sale of goods that would bolster the growing chemical weapons stockpile, the archives show that Syria's governing Assad family exploited large loopholes, lax enforcement and a far greater international emphasis on limiting the spread of nuclear arms.
Now, as President Obama confronts enormous difficulties in rallying a reluctant Congress and a skeptical world to punish the Syrian government with a military strike over what is said to be its apparent use of deadly nerve agents last month, he appears to be facing a similar challenge to the one that allowed the Assads to accumulate their huge stockpile. While countries around the world condemned Syria for adding to its arsenal as most nations were eliminating their own, few challenged the buildup, and some were eager to profit from it.
There's always a few...
"It was frustrating," Juan C. Zarate, a former deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism in the George W. Bush administration, recalled Friday.
"People tried. There were always other understandably urgent priorities -- Iran's nuclear program, North Korea," said Mr. Zarate. "It was an issue that was always there, but never rose to the top of the world's agenda."
Proliferation experts said President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and his father before him, former President Hafez al-Assad, were greatly helped in their chemical weapons ambitions by a basic underlying fact: often innocuous, legally exportable materials are also the precursors to manufacturing deadly chemical weapons.
Soon after Mr. Obama came to office, newly installed officials grew increasingly alarmed by the ease with which Mr. Assad was using a network of front companies to import the precursors needed to make VX and sarin, deadly chemical poisons that are internationally banned, according to leaked diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks.
Sarin gas has been identified by the United States as the agent loaded atop small rockets on Aug. 21 and shot into the densely populated suburbs of Damascus, killing more than 1,400 people, according to administration officials.
The growth of Syria's ability was the subject of a sharply worded secret cable transmitted by the State Department under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's name in the fall of 2009. It instructed diplomats to "emphasize that failure to halt the flow" of chemicals and equipment into Syria, Iran and North Korea could render irrelevant a group of antiproliferation countries that organized to stop that flow.
Another leaked State Department cable on the Syrians asserted that "part of their modus operandi is to hide procurement under the guise of legitimate pharmaceutical or other transactions."
Publicly, American officials contend that they have done much since then to limit the flow of raw materials that feed Syria's chemical weapons industry, in particular Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center, which has been identified as a principal government enterprise for weapons development. Israel struck a missile convoy outside the center in January, American intelligence officials have said, on suspicions that weapons were headed for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"For several years, the Treasury Department, working with our partners across the U.S. government, has taken steps to expose and disrupt the Syrian regime's W.M.D. proliferation activities," David S. Cohen, the Treasury under secretary in charge of sanctions, said in an e-mailed statement. "We will continue to use all of our authorities to undermine the Syrian government's W.M.D. proliferation efforts within Syria as well as around the world."
The diplomatic cables and other intelligence documents show that, over time, the two generations of Assads built up a huge stockpile by creating companies with the appearance of legitimacy, importing chemicals that had many legitimate uses and capitalizing on the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. A Russian general responsible for dismantling old Soviet chemical weapons, who died a decade ago, was identified by a colleague as the man who helped the Syrian government establish its chemical weapons program.
As early as 1991, under the first Bush presidency, a now declassified National Intelligence Estimate concluded that "both Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union provided the chemical agents, delivery systems and training that flowed to Syria." The same report concluded that Syria most likely possessed 500-kilogram aerial bombs containing sarin -- larger, it appears, than the warheads mounted atop rockets that killed so many in the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus on Aug. 21.
While investigations by the United Nations into the attack remain incomplete, a group of outside academic experts reported last week that some of the warheads used contained 100 kilograms or more of sarin agent.
But even with such a large stockpile of weapons on hand, the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., reported to Congress earlier this year that Syria "remains dependent on foreign sources for key elements" of its program. That dependence points to an important vulnerability that the West may be able to exploit as it tries to stop Syria from expanding its program.
Didn't seem to bother Assad much when he gassed his people...
The most detailed and highly classified cables in the WikiLeaks trove underscore that, while Syria has the ability to make chemical weapons, it relies heavily on other nations for getting precursor ingredients that can also be used for medicine.
Crucial chemicals and the missiles to deliver them have come not just from nations long allied with the Assad government, like Iran and Russia, but also from China (sometimes operating through North Korea) and a variety of Western nations, the cables and other documents show. In a few instances, American companies became players in Syria's efforts to add to the sophistication of its stores.
One of the best-known cases in the United States involved a Waterville, Me., company once known as Maine Biological Laboratories. The company and several top executives were found guilty of allowing a series of shipments to Syria in 2001, including restricted biological agents.
That was one of several instances that involved deals with American firms, the cables show. In another case, an unidentified American company sold potassium cyanide to a Syrian pediatric hospital in 2006, but made no effort to check whether it was used for treating patients, as the Syrians had insisted was done, or instead was diverted for making chemical weapons.
Because potassium cyanide is so useful in the pediatric population...
A March 2006 State Department cable from the American Embassy in Damascus described how Syrians seemed to be exploiting trade with the West. "Syrian businessmen regularly report on the ease with which their fellow businessmen illegally import U.S. commodities with seeming impunity, as well as express concerns that the USG's lack of enforcement of the economic sanctions" are "hurting those that choose to play by the rules."
Those transactions presumably included chemicals that could be precursors for chemical warfare.
The Americans were not the only ones concerned. According to another leaked cable, the Netherlands discussed how monoethylene glycol, an important raw material used to manufacture urethane and antifreeze, was shipped by a Dutch concern to the Syrian Ministry of Industry, considered a front for the Syrian military. The Dutch outlined how the chemical could also be used as a precursor for sulfur mustard, and possibly for VX and sarin.
These and other instances caused diplomats to seek more international control of goods that could aid Syria's chemical weapons program. In 2009, the State Department pressured its delegation to the Australia Group, the 40-nation organization aimed at stopping the spread of chemical weapons, to push harder to constrain such trade.
"Emphasize that failure to halt the flow of AG-controlled goods into Syria, Iran and North Korea," said a leaked State Department cable sent out over Mrs. Clinton's name, could "call into question the AG's relevance and important role in nonproliferation."
Proliferation-monitoring officials attribute some of this failure to a simple lack of government resources to police the enormous volume of international chemical transactions, the globalization of that industry, and a greater concern about monitoring nuclear weapons.
"Precursor chemicals have not gotten the same attention as the nuclear trade," said one Congressional expert, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk about investigative findings. "It's been a known problem for a long time, and yet it happens."
You can't stop this by trying to limit the flow of goods. I appreciate what the good people in Treasury, etc are trying to do but it won't work. You stop this by removing the people at the top who direct it. That means, in a just world with responsible leadership, Pencilneck would be whacked. But we don't have responsible leadership so the public is uninformed and unappreciative of what's happening.
And anyway, if they whacked Mr. Assad the Younger, he'd be replaced with the even more vicious Salafists, who'd as lief gas Israelis as obdurate fellow Syrians.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Much of Syria's stockpile came from Saddam, trucked across the border as the Americans came near.
#5
You stop this by removing the people at the top who direct it. That means, in a just world with responsible leadership, Pencilneck would be whacked.
Coming from the people who blame Fast and Furious on Low Level Rogue Employees? The same people who blame IRS targeting on Low Level Rogue Employees? NSA snooping a la LOVINT? Making the case against Assad is making the case against themselves.
#6
What did they do in the days before there was an 'international community'?
Well, nuttin.
No one wants to address fundamentals which in the world means national sovereignty. Under what conditions can one violate the national sovereignty of a country that poses no immediate threat to their neighbors but does horrible things by modern western standards (not to be confused with post-modern progressive every cultural is equal non-standard)? What real legitimate authority exists to act? And in absence of a player like the United States, who even has the means? If it makes no difference in the absence of the US, why should it be otherwise even if the sole means were available - in other words, why one place and not another?
We're not the world's policeman. Better get use to it, cause it's going to happen someday. More likely sooner than later.
#7
The "International Community" seems happy to deride the US for not doing something (or enough) and equally delighted to criticize when the US actually does something.
I guess that makes the US the plaything of the "International Community". Ya think Champ will ever figger it out?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2013 12:44 Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] Interior Minister Marwan Charbel urged on Wednesday the people to attend to Leb's security, but rejected the phenomenon of autonomous security.
He said: "All forms of autonomous security are rejected by the state."
He made his remarks during a presser ahead of a meeting of the Central Security Council.
The minister added that the people should allow the state's official security agencies to perform their duties, calling on them to contact them through the hotline 112.
Moreover, Charbel stressed that only the state's security agencies are entitled to set up checkpoints.
Municipal police are prohibited from setting up checkpoints and their security role is limited to monitoring people and suspicious vehicles, he explained.
The municipal police should report any suspicious activity to the security forces, he added.
He also rejected political parties' erection of checkpoints.
Hizbullah had set up checkpoints in and around its stronghold of Dahieh in Beirut's southern suburbs in light of a bombing the Ruwais area.
Twenty-seven people were killed and 280 maimed in the bombing that took place on August 15.
Commenting on the security of foreign embassies, Charbel said: "We are keen to avoid attacks against embassies."
"We will study the security of embassies with the concerned authorities in order to take the appropriate measures," remarked the interior minister.
The American embassy in Beirut said Friday that its non-essential staff and family members are being evacuated from Leb because of "threats to U.S. mission facilities and personnel."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[Al Ahram] UN leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said Wednesday there has been a "collective failure" to protect Syria's population as he again urged the UN Security Council to act on the war. "Our collective failure to prevent atrocity crimes in Syria of the past two-and-a-half years will remain a heavy burden on the standing of the United Nations and its member states," Ban told a UN meeting on preventing genocide.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Collectivism is a failure, but I don't think that's what he meant...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/12/2013 8:32 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Our collective failure to prevent atrocity crimes in Syria of the past two-and-a-half years will remain a heavy burden on the standing of the United Nations and its member states,"...
[Al Ahram] Somalia's Al Qaeda-linked Shabaab bully boyz on Wednesday celebrated the anniversary of the 11 September, 2001 attacks with a Twitter eulogy for the "courageous" hijackers.
In a series of posts on Twitter, the Islamists vowed "the mujahideen will continue with their jihad against the West until the world is ruled by one sovereign state, an Islamic state".
"A single attack by the mujahideen shattered US dreams of global domination, tarnished their reputation and severely crippled their economy," the Shabaab said in one of a series of posts.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
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.
[WEEKLYSTANDARD] One year after the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, the survivors may finally begin to talk.
North Korea
[WASHINGTONTIMES] A few dozen demonstrators attending a rally on the Mall once billed as the Million 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[Al Ahram] Somalia's Al Qaeda-linked Shabaab 
