[Daily Caller] Excuse me, but what does a uniformed general officer, Keith Alexander or anyone else, have to do with the advocacy of congressional legislation ?
A mass trial of members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood began in Egypt on Saturday, but proceedings were abruptly cut short by the judge who said defence lawyers were being disruptive and "discussing politics", a judicial source said. Judge Saeed Youssef Mohamed would announce his ruling on Monday and requested the lawyers of the 545 defendants to submit their written defence within 24 hours, the source said, declining to be identified.
"I can say no more!"
The charges against the group, on trial in the province of Southern Minya, include storming a police station, attacking persons and damaging public and private property.
Only 123 of the defendants were present, the rest being either released, out on bail or on the run. Most were arrested during clashes which erupted in Minya after the forced dispersal of two Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo on August 14.
Tarek Fouda, head of the lawyer's syndicate in Minya said that the presiding judge had "veered away from all legal norms and that he breached the rights of the defence".
Fouda said he would submit a report on what had occurred at Saturday's hearing to Egypt's Justice Minister.
Hundreds died when security forces cleared the Cairo camps, where protesters had been calling for the reinstatement of former President Mohammed Mursi, ousted by the army in July. The events sparked violent protests all over Egypt.
Shortly after the army takeover, the authorities labelled the Muslim Brotherhood a "terrorist" organisation and thousands of its members have since been arrested. Their trials have become an almost daily occurrence in Egypt, in groups of varying sizes. Mass trials are unusual, although this is the first of two scheduled in one week. Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, in just one of several cases against him, will stand trial with 682 others on Tuesday, accused of incitement to kill.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Public secondary schools in Nigeria's northeast Borno state have been closed indefinitely following deadly attacks blamed on 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... Islamists, teachers and parents said Saturday.
Boko Haram does mean "Western education is forbidden," after all.
The closure reportedly affects 85 secondary schools, catering to some 120,000 students across the troubled state, a stronghold of the bully boy sect waging a five year insurgency in Nigeria.
The murderous group, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the Hausa language, has vowed to stop children attending school.
"We reported to school on Friday last week (March 14) but to our shock the principal of the school told us he had received orders from the ministry of education to close down the school indefinitely," teacher Suleiman Gana told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"He (the principal) told us the decision affects all public secondary schools in the state and was taken as a precautionary measure to safeguard lives of teachers and students from Boko Haram attacks," Gana said.
A Borno state official confirmed the closure of the schools to Agence La Belle France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered...
Deadly attacks blamed on Boko Haram have intensified since the turn of the year, with some 700 killed in more than 40 attacks in 2014 according to Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... , making it one of the bloodiest years since the insurgency began in 2009.
In the restive northeast, tens of thousands have fled for their lives, either in fear of further attacks or after hard boyz razed their homes and businesses.
A wave of attacks on education targets, including the slaughter of boarding school students in their beds while they slept, has prompted international condemnation.
Late last month, 43 students were shot and hacked to death when suspected Boko Haram gunnies stormed the Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, in nearby Yobe state.
On March 14, Boko Haram Islamists attacked a military base in Borno state capital Maiduguri and freed dozens of snuffies from custody -- after opening fire in a residential neighborhood and razing homes according to witnesses.
Some public schools in the northern part of Borno have been closed for over two years due to fears of attacks.
The state commissioner for education had already ordered schools in Konduga, Bama, Mafa, Dikwa and Damboa towns -- where Boko Haram has launched several deadly raids -- to relocate their students to safer schools in Maiduguri.
But Buji Mallum, whose son attends the now shut Mafoni secondary school in Maiduguri, said shutting schools would only embolden Boko Haram to continue attacks.
"My child came back from school unusually early last week Friday and he told me that government had asked all (public) secondary schools in Borno state to be shut," the 65-year-old said.
"We all appreciate the security situation but for (the) government to cave in to Boko Haram's pressure and close down schools is indeed shocking and saddening to every parent."
Nigeria recently shut five government colleges in the country's restive northeast in the wake of deadly attacks on schools in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, which are all under a state of emergency.
Last year, Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima said more than 800 blocks of classrooms were burnt by Islamists, some more than twice.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/23/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[Dhaka Tribune] Despite claims of harassment of its supporters in the ongoing local government elections, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ... a Pakistani catspaw remaining active in Bangla politix, loosely affiliated with the Pak religious party of the same name and closely affiliated with most of the terror organizations in Bangla. A member of the BNP's four party governing coalition.... leaders and activists have been busy campaigning for party-backed aspirants across the country.
Candidates supported by Jamaat, meanwhile, won 28 out of 294 chairmen posts in the last three phases of the upazila parishad polls. However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... the Islamist party-backed candidates contested for chairman posts in 81 upazials.
On the eve of the fourth round of polls yesterday, Jasim Uddin, a pro-Jamaat contender from Satkania in Chittagong, told the Dhaka Tribune: "Our activists have been campaigning in Satkania and I am hopeful of winning."
He added that they did not face any untoward situation while canvassing.
AKM Najem Osmani, a Jamaat-backed candidate from Feni's Sonagazi upazila, also said his supporters did not encounter any problems. He, however, expressed doubts about the overall situation on voting day.
Since the Election Commission announced the local polls schedule on January 20, 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... has been making statements to the contrary, claiming repression on its supporters and campaign activities by law enforcers and government supporters.
In a press statement yesterday, the party's acting secretary general Shafiqur Rahman alleged that activists of the ruling Awami League were threatening locals not to vote for candidates other than AL-backed ones. At least 20 pro-Jamaat aspirants are running in the fourth phase today.
Shafiqur also claimed that the police have tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! several party activists, including two in Chuadanga and four in Chittagong's Lohagara, ahead of the polls.
Meantime, Jamaat-backed candidates won 12 chairmen posts in the first phase, and eight each in the second and third phases.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2014 00:00 ||
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The FBI has cleared a federal agent in Boston in the fatal shooting of a friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev last year in Orlando, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.
The same two officials said Friday that a Florida prosecutor conducting a separate investigation into the death of Ibragim Todashev, 27, during an interrogation last May had also concluded that the agent committed no wrongdoing. But the prosecutor quickly denied that he had made a final decision.
The reports on Friday intensified frustration among those closely watching the case. Almost a year after the slaying, FBI and state officials have not said whether Todashev was armed or provided details of the alleged violent confrontation that caused an agent to shoot and kill him in his own apartment. Investigators had been interrogating him about his friendship with Tsarnaev.
On Friday, Todashev's supporters and civil liberties groups complained about the pace of the investigation and urged investigators to release their records to the public. Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said, "We still don't know what happened. Unless we have the documents that support those findings, mere conclusory statements aren't really going to satisfy the public concern."
Hassan Shibly, executive director of CAIR in Florida, said he wanted to read the full reports. However, groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the FBI's internal inquiry because documents obtained by The New York Times showed that the bureau rarely, if ever, faults agents for shootings.
Todashev's family has insisted that he did nothing wrong and that recent knee surgery had left him too weak to attack the armed agent. They have also pointed out that Todashev had voluntarily submitted to FBI questioning before agents showed up at his apartment that final time.
But Todashev had fighting skills and a violent criminal record. The mixed-martial arts fighter was arrested in 2010 in Boston for a road-rage episode and again in Florida, weeks before he was killed, for allegedly beating a man in a fight over a parking space.
Media reports have said that Todashev was ready to sign a confession implicating himself and Tamerlan Tsarnaev in an unsolved triple homicide.
#2
Coincedental how that happens. Three armed officers can't take into custody one unarmed suspect, who've they been talking to for over half an hour. And none of that "we're gonna go downtown and ask some questions" stuff. Right there in his apartment.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/23/2014 9:46 Comments ||
Top||
FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi was indicted for manslaughter in 1997 by the Boundary County, Idaho, prosecutor just before the statute of limitations for the crime of manslaughter expired, but the trial was removed to federal court and quickly dismissed on grounds of sovereign immunity.[68] The decision to dismiss the charges was reversed by an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit, which held that enough uncertainty about the facts of the case existed for Horiuchi to stand trial on state manslaughter charges.[69] Ultimately, the then-sitting Boundary County Prosecutor, Brett Benson, who had defeated Woodbury in the 2000 election, decided to drop the charges because he felt it was unlikely the state could prove the case and too much time had passed. Yagman, the special prosecutor, responded that he "could not disagree more with this decision than I do."[70]
#1
The cable also reflected a grave concern among officials on the ground that the Libyan militia charged with protecting the consulate had been compromised, perhaps even infiltrated by extremists.
One of the many downsides of contracted, host-nation security. Apparently, no one has yet to solicit comment from the UK's Blue Mountain security firm Program Manager. Yes, that's the bloke who unassed, and flew back to London a few days prior to the attack.
#3
Yes, while I've not read the actual reason for his departure from Benghazi, he was indeed very likely recalled by the 'home office' [no pun intended]. Pardon my crude, catch-all descriptor.
Posted by: Herb Bluetooth3529 ||
03/23/2014 14:24 Comments ||
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#5
From what I can recall, there was an undisclosed 'dispute' between Blue Mountain and the State Department. I don't remember whether or not it was with the "Tripoli office".
[DAWN] JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... says there is a need to keep the army in the loop on negotiations with the Taliban to achieve positive results.
Talking to newsmen here on Friday, the Maulana said the "governments come and go but the army is a permanent institution so there is a need to engage it in negotiations".
He said though the JUI was not satisfied with the mechanism of negotiations adopted by the government, it was ready to provide its assistance (in negotiations) whenever required.
He said peace could be maintained by engaging tribal jirga and all the gangs.
"The negotiation process will become more effective by giving a role to the tribal jirga and I have suggested this to the prime minister as well," he said.
He said the time had passed to debate the launch of an operation (against the Taliban). Rather, it was time to debate a peaceful settlement.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2014 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Saturday agreed to hold direct talks within a few days at a mutually agreed place, but both would not divulge the location to the media. The decision to this effect was announced after the four-member government committee headed by federal secretary Habibullah Khattak on Saturday held a detailed meeting with the Taliban coordination committee led by Maulana Samiul Haq, head of his own faction of the JUI.
"The two sides (TTP and the government) have agreed upon a venue for the next phase of negotiations, which will take place soon," Samiul Haq informed. "The process of directly contacting the Taliban will start in two to three days; both sides have agreed on the venue," he told reporters after a two-hour meeting held at the Punjab House Islamabad, which was also attended by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
The Taliban coordination committee was represented by its chief Maulana Samiul Haq, Professor Ibrahim and Maulana Yousuf Shah, while Habibullah Khattak led the government team, which included Fawad Hasan Fawad, Rustam Shah Mohmand and Arbab Arif.
And there was no drone overhead?
Samiul Haq, meanwhile, said the reports regarding the Taliban having rejected talks' venue outside Waziristan were mere speculations.
Earlier, media reports said that the TTP had proposed its stronghold of North Waziristan as the venue, while the government wanted to hold talks in Bannu. Sami, however, stopped short of specifying the negotiation venue. Officials say it could possibly be Bannu, KP.
"Both sides are showing flexibility and willingness for success of the talks," he added, saying the chosen place would be declared a "peace zone". He, however, didn't specify the location. Another member of the committee, Maulana Yousuf Shah, said Saturday's meetings between the two committees were an important breakthrough. "The nation will soon hear a good news," he asserted.
Meanwhile, sources said the Punjab House meeting also deliberated upon the list of 'prisoners' in government detention, which was provided by the Taliban. The two sides also discussed the release of persons kidnapped and held hostage by the militants, the sources said.
The keenly observed peace talks between the government and Taliban are likely to be held at a venue in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the option to hold parleys at Bannu airport is seriously being considered due to many important reasons, security sources told Daily Times on Saturday.
"Bannu airport is located in an area where the government has its writ. Secondly, the government held talks at the same venue with former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan leader, Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in August 2009," a security official told this scribe on the condition of anonymity.
And you see how well that turned out...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2014 00:00 ||
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For convicted Palestinians in Israeli prisons, terrorism pays. The more heinous the act of violence and the longer the sentence, the higher their salaries--and the cost is subsidized by American taxpayers.
Israeli Evyatar Borovsky, 31, was a therapeutic clown with a big heart. His life mission was to inject comic diversion into those who needed it most--hospitalized children. In his pocket he always carried two puppet eyes. He'd just slip them on the fingers, show his lustrous smile, and a child would laugh. All the children, including his own five kids, adored him.
[An Nahar] Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... warned Saturday of action if Israel failed to release the fourth and final batch of veteran prisoners as agreed under a U.S.-backed deal.
"We are awaiting the release of the fourth batch of prisoners, as agreed upon with the Israelis through the United States," he told members of the central committee of his Fatah movement.
"We are saying, if they are not released, this is a violation of the agreement and allows us to act however we see fit within the norms of international agreements."
Israel agreed to release a total of 104 long-term prisoners when talks kick-started by U.S. Secretary of State 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... began in July.
It has freed 78 so far, nearly all of them who had been imprisoned for over 20 years.
But Israeli ministers have warned that should the Paleostinians not agree to extend talks beyond their April 29 deadline, they will not release the remaining detainees as scheduled on March 29.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... said Saturday that the Paleostinian leadership will not agree to anything less than a fully-autonomous Paleostinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
During a meeting of the Fatah Central Committee to discuss the PA president's Washington meeting with US President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... , Abbas also noted the leadership will not let up on Paleostinian national rights, no matter what pressures they face.
Once again firmly grasping the opportunity to miss the opportunity. Truly Israel is blessed in its enemies.
The "fully autonomous state" is step one in the Paleo plan to kill all the Joooz. Step two is killing all the Joooz...
And thus the flaw in their clever ruse is revealed.
[Ynet] Members of the Israeli extreme-right are deluding themselves thinking that they could empty the Paleostinian territories of their inhabitants and send them all to Jordan, Jordanian King Abdullah II told Al-Hayat on Saturday.
"We will not, in any way, agree to a solution that comes on the expense of Jordan and the Jordanian people," the king said.
Smart man that king; he knows the trouble that Paleos can cause...
[AnNahar] The number of Syrians that have arrived in Leb after fleeing the village of al-Hosn in central Syria has risen to 300, the state-run National News Agency said Saturday.
"300 Syrian men, women, children and elderly have crossed the Grand River stream and arrived in Lebanese border towns," the NNA detailed, adding that many of these refugees were concentrated in the villages of the Wadi Khaled region in the North.
"They temporarily took refuge at the houses of Wadi Khaled residents, until they relocate."
The same source noted that a delegation of relief organizations visited these newly displaced Syrians, and provided them with urgently-needed supplies.
The influx of Syrian refugees has been on the rise after regime forces seized the famed Crusader fort Krak des Chevaliers on Thursday, marking a significant advance in their drive to seal the Lebanese border and sever rebel supply lines.
The number of refugees also increased after Syrian troops took full control of the town of Zara and its surroundings in the western Homs countryside, as well as of the former rebel stronghold of Yabrud, with the help of Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... fighters.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/23/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Paper affiliated with the organization claims Israel believed its Leb strike will be unanswered -- and was wrong.
In an opinion piece written by Ibrahim Al-Amin, editor of Leb's heavily pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar, it is claimed that Hezbollah knows everything about Israel -- however Israel does not know much about the organization, thus did not anticipate the response.
"Israel tried its luck when bombing the Hezbollah facility on the Syria-Leb border in the Leb Valley area," the article read. "Israel did not ignore Hezbollah's message, that stressed there will be a response, but it did not know how and when. And then the tables have turned: Rocket fire towards a Mount Hermon outpost and an attempt to place an explosive in the Golan Heights."
The writer further noted that even though Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the attack, Israel accused the organization out of hope that it was the anticipated response. "In such a situation, Israel can use the space of denial and thus shut down the game. Hezbollah knows Israel well and knows what happens within it a lot more than really needed. The organization knows when Israel gets the message and helps it take it in, and even pulls the strings to have Israel operate according to its wishes."
In the article that somewhat signifies the terror organization's responsibility for the recent attack, Al-Amin added that Hezbollah's desire to set new ground rules led its people to place two explosives on the northern Israeli border, after a special commando force managed to cross all security barriers.
"One (bomb) went kaboom! when a command patrol passed and the other was left for the soldiers, for them to find it at a later time. The nature and power of the devices were prepared within 'a small and special mailbox' so that Israel would know the sender's identity."
It was further claimed in the article in that the explosive in the Golan, which Israel claims was skillfully prepared, made Israel attack an outpost within Syria. According to Al-Amin, "the non-fatal hits caused Israel to not be able to expressly say Hezbollah is behind the attack, but it responded against Syrian army outposts and claimed they were liable for the action."
Al-Amin, who is considered Nasrallah's mouthpiece, wrote that compared to the Syrian arena, where according to reports Israel had struck and calm was maintained, in Leb the situation is different. "Israel's problem is not only its wrongful speculation about the nature of the response of the Syrian regime or Hezbollah over the ongoing escalating tensions, but it thinks that things can be done while it chooses to act unilaterally," it was claimed.
"It is true that enemy forces attacked Syrian outposts in front of the occupied Golan, but Israel knows that an attack would not change a thing in the new reality."
Hezbollah defined their recent operation as an incident designed to draw the attention of Israel to the reality in the field. "It forces Israel to face to limited options: Either hide the pain, scream to resolve the problem or respond with an under-the-belt attack that would make the other side retreat," Al-Amin wrote.
#3
I'll leave extraterrestials and spoon bending to others, but I like to 'worst case' all potential scenarios. Scenario and COA development... you remember those brein-storming sessions I'm sure. I've found it doesn't cost any more to pull one's thumb from one's arse and think large, especially when no other clear evidence is available. Besides, it provides humor for the idle and curious who sit around waiting for something to turn up.
#5
I have no idea Glen, certainly not an area of expertise for me. New debris has been sited by the French. Appears no one has actually recovered any debris however. I'm more than a little perplexed at the strange lack of involvement or commitment by our DoD. One or two planes, on and off. No surface ships. Is this notional effort ?
#6
As I said, Zero is very good at doing stuff about things he cares about, and as for the stuff he doesn't... he'll say he does and send over a couple pallets of MRE's. Less argument that way.
#7
.. you remember those brein-storming sessions I'm sure. I've found it doesn't cost any more to pull one's thumb from one's arse and think large, especially when no other clear evidence is available.
True. Yet we were always taught to leaven it with probables. The 'nuke effect' is a probable. An aircraft rigged as a "dirty bomb" is more likely. An aircraft packed to its load point with explosives or explosive/inflammables, even more likely. In any case, the list of options and 'solutions' while varying slightly, are pretty much the same.
One thing left unconsidered is the black-market resale of the aircraft.
As for the lack of DoD assets: At this point I think it boils down to both availability and costs. There likely aren't available assets in area. And for reasons various and sundry "there isn't the money."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A mass trial of members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood began in Egypt on Saturday, but proceedings were abruptly cut short by the judge who said defence lawyers were being disruptive and "discussing politics", a judicial source said. Judge Saeed Youssef Mohamed would announce his ruling on Monday and requested the lawyers of the 545 defendants to submit their written defence within 24 hours, the source said, declining to be identified.
[AnNahar] Public secondary schools in Nigeria's northeast Borno state have been closed indefinitely following deadly attacks blamed on 
[Dhaka Tribune] Despite claims of harassment of its supporters in the ongoing local government elections, 
The FBI has cleared a federal agent in Boston in the fatal shooting of a friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev last year in Orlando, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation. 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Saturday agreed to hold direct talks within a few days at a mutually agreed place, but both would not divulge the location to the media. The decision to this effect was announced after the four-member government committee headed by federal secretary Habibullah Khattak on Saturday held a detailed meeting with the Taliban coordination committee led by Maulana Samiul Haq, head of his own faction of the JUI. 
