[DAWN] DEH SAQI: The release of a Taliban leader accused of orchestrating industrial-scale carnage in Afghanistan's pristine Shomali plains in 1999, torching homes and carrying out summary executions, has horrified villagers for whom memories of the slaughter are still raw.
Mullah Mohammad Fazl was released from Guantanamo Bay along with four other senior Taliban bully boyz -- also accused of a litany of abuses -- last Saturday in exchange for US army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the only American prisoner of war who was held hostage for five years.
The swap has sparked anger and resentment in Shomali villages such as Deh Saqi, which still bear the scars of that cataclysm -- charred, ruined and bombed out houses and an anguished generation with a thirst for vengeance.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
This prisoner swap sends several clear messages; one is to the Afghan people, that if they don't want to suffer under the rule of such Taliban thugs they'll have to kill them themselves. A message long past-due.
#4
The liberal Obama Regime is against everything America has stood for since 1776 and has many more things in common with the 5 released terrorists as indicated by the Regimes actions.
Coalition for Reforms and Democracy leader Raila Odinga says it is time for Kenya to withdraw its troops from neighboring Somalia. The former Prime Minister who addressed members of the Somali community in Eastleigh said the continued stay of Kenya Defence Forces soldiers in Somalia is hurting Kenyans.
"It is high time the Government should evaluate whether there is any reason to still have our soldiers at Somalia. Does their continued stay in Somali bring peace to our country?" he posed. "We went there because there were many attacks then by the thugs."
President Uhuru Kenyatta has insisted that he has no intention of withdrawing the troops from the war torn country until they accomplish their mission.
Odinga also challenged the Government to enhance security instead of launching ad-hoc operations that are allegedly targeted at one community. "The kind of operation we saw here was discriminatory; this should not happen," he argued.
It was certainly discriminatory against thugs...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A Malian army officer has been locked away I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! for "an attempted coup," a senior government official said on Friday, a day after his family reported he had been kidnapped.
"Lieutenant Mohammed Ouattara has been arrested -- and not kidnapped -- for an attempted coup, for a bid to destabilize the institutions of the republic and for a breach of state security," the official said, asking not to be named.
An official document seen by AFP stated that Ouattara, along with other military officers and "accomplices", aimed to overthrow the regime of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was elected last year, marking a return to civilian rule following a March 2012 coup.
The government official said several other arrests had been made and that more would follow, but gave no further details of the alleged coup plot in the west African country.
On Thursday, Ouattara's family, including his father retired Colonel Yaya Ouattara, said the lieutenant had been kidnapped in the capital Bamako "by armed individuals wearing military uniform."
Lieutenant Ouattara is a member of the "Red Berets" paratroop corps, who remained loyal to their former commander, president Amadou Toumani Toure, after his ouster in the 2012 coup led by Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo.
The Red Berets were foiled in a bid to carry out a counter-coup a month later and were hunted down by Sanogo's forces, which plunged the formerly stable democracy into chaos.
Since early December last year, almost 30 bodies believed to be those of Red Beret troops captured by Sanogo's regime have been found in ditches near Kati, a garrison town 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Bamako where the coup leader had set up base.
Sanogo's power-grab paved the way for ethnic Tuareg rebels and armed faceless myrmidons linked to al-Qaeda to seize key towns in the desert north of the country, where the Islamists gained the upper hand until La Belle France led international military intervention in January 2013.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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In diplomacy, if it seems to be, it most certainly is -- in spades. But as these diplomats were not supportive of the Mamluk before the election (cf. President Barack Hussein Obama), will he care after?
Cairo's most important Western allies plan to send low-level representatives to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's presidential inauguration, Reuters reported officials as saying.
A senior State Department official will represent the United States at Sunday's inauguration of the new Egyptian president, but in a sign of U.S. unease, no cabinet-level ministers will attend, Agence France-Presse reported. The U.S. delegation to the swearing-in of Sisi will be led by State Department counselor Thomas Shannon, a senior advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry, a U.S. official said Thursday.
"The United States looks forward to working with president-elect al-Sisi in Egypt and his government to advance our strategic partnership and many shared interests," AFP quoted State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf as saying. But she acknowledged to reporters that the U.S. administration was not yet "satisfied" with the progress made in returning to democracy in Egypt.
Meanwhile, a Western diplomatic source said European states would be represented by ambassadors, Reuters reported.
"It was a collective decision," said the source, adding that the move highlighted concerns over the political transition.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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Libya has lost $30 billion due to 10 months of protests at oilfields and export terminals but has sufficient foreign currency reserves to keep the country running, a central bank official said, Reuters reported.
A wave of protests at oil facilities has reduced the North African country's oil output to less than 200,000 barrels a day down from 1.4 million bpd in July before the strikes started. The protests are part of wider turmoil in the North African country since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The government is unable to control militias and armed tribesmen who helped oust Gaddafi but now seize oilfields or state institutions at will to make political or financial demands.
"The damages the state has now suffered after more than 10 months, Libya has lost not less than $30 billion," Musbah Alkari, director of the central bank's reserves department, told Reuters. Reserves are currently around $110 billion, down from around $130 billion last summer when protests started.
The situation could get worse in the next few days. State oil firm National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Wednesday that it might be forced to use crude from its two offshore oilfields, so far unaffected by protests, to feed a domestic refinery. That could mean Libya stops exporting oil for the first time since 2011.
Alkari said Libya was currently earning around $1 billion each month in oil revenues, having brought in between $4 billion and $5 billion a month before the oil protests started.
Oil and gas exports are the only source of revenue for the country's $50 billion budget and to fund food purchases and other imports worth $30 billion, as Libya has no sizeable industrial production outside the oil sector.
Rather typical of the Arab oil states. You wonder if they would have done better to forego the oil and build mixed economies...
"The reserves will last (cover the budget and imports) for three and a half years ... (but) we want suitable solutions for these problems," he said.
Alkari said the central bank had diversified its foreign currency reserves, which are split between cash, short-term deposits, foreign bonds and equity stakes in banks and insurers.
Discussing the bank's little-known investment strategy, he said it favored dollar bonds such as U.S. Treasuries as its oil is sold in dollars.
Easier to get Treasuries into Swiss and Cayman banks...
"We have a good mix geographically and in terms of risks," Alkari said. The bank still buys overseas assets sometimes "but less than before".
"We receive $1 billion (a month) in this hand, but in the other hand we pay $3.6 billion so how can we invest new money?" Alkari said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
You wonder if they would have done better to forego the oil and build mixed economies...
Camels, dates (but I am redundant) and tourism? Libya was a fertile area once when it was wetter and warmer (don't tell Mystery Mann) as was much of North Africa, but most of the Arabian Peninsula has always sucked, noted for being a massive wasteland full of savage raider cultures.
[An Nahar] Four Nigerian newspapers said soldiers stopped and seized copies of its editions on Friday over security concerns, with one likening the raids to censorship during the country's military rule.
The military confirmed the searches, but officers denied that the moves were designed to muzzle critics, even though at least two of the newspapers had published damning articles about the army in recent days.
Four dailies -- The Nation, the Daily Trust, the Leadership and Punch -- all said they were affected, while The Nation said soldiers stormed one of its circulation offices.
"One of the military men told us that they were acting on (an) order from above as there were allegations that newspaper circulation vehicles were being used to smuggle arms and ammunition," one of The Nation's distribution managers said.
The early morning raids did not appear to target specific editions and the copies seized were destined for all parts of the country, the newspapers said online.
Defense front man Chris Olukolade said the search "followed intelligence report(s) indicating movement of materials with grave security implications across the country using the channel of newsprint-related consignments."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The bail application submitted for the release 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) chief Altaf Hussain was accepted and he was released early Saturday, days after he was picked up by London police on suspicion of money laundering, DawnNews reported.
A large number MQM activists along with party leaders Rauf Siddiqui, Babar Ghauri, Farogh Naseem and MPA Khawaja Izharul Hassan were present outside the cop shoppe waiting to welcome their party leader over his release on bail.
The London Metropolitan Police had shifted Altaf Hussain to the cop shoppe earlier after he was discharged from the hospital,where he was interrogated for by police for nine hours in the presence of his lawyers.
Upon his release Mr Hussain was expected to address his supporters, who have been staging protests in urban Sindh, particularly 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... 's Numaish Chowk, ever since his arrest four days ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[MEDIAITE] Six of the men Bowe Bergdahl served with sat down with Megyn Kelly on Thursday, and Kelly asked them how they feel about the White House saying the attacks on Bergdahl are just "swift boating" and are motivated by partisanship. All six of them insisted their criticisms are not based in partisan politics, but in fact.
All of them agreed that "the truth needs to come out, he's not a hero," and that it was "hard to watch" him get such a glowing welcoming in the Rose Garden, given they believe Bergdahl abandoned them to seek out the Taliban and the attacks got worse when he left. And so they took offense at Susan Rice saying he served with honor and distinction.
Evan Beutow, Bergdahl's team leader, says that's just "spitting in the face to anyone who deployed." When asked about the "swift boat" charge, Beutow insisted this is not about politics, "this is about the fact that Bergdahl walked away from us." And Cody Full added that political affiliation has nothing to do with their service, especially when they're serving in the trenches.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
'Swift Boating': the airing of facts that make some people uncomfortable.
Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein ...Dem Senator-for-Life from Caliphornica. She has been a politician since about the time she was weaned. Feinstein was the author of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and tried it a second time in 2012. Feinstein has chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence since 2009. At age 80, Feinstein is the oldest currently serving United States Senator.... said she has not seen any evidence that the Taliban would have killed Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl if details of an agreement had leaked, contrary to what Obama administration officials have said.
When asked whether there was a "credible threat" on Bergdahl's life if word had gotten out, the California Democrat responded: "No, I don't think there was a credible threat, but I don't know. I have no information that there was."
At a briefing Wednesday, administration officials told lawmakers that they couldn't give Congress advance notice on the Bergdahl deal because the Taliban vowed to kill him if any details about the prisoner exchange came out.
The unnamed administration officials are, of course, lying...
Feinstein and several other lawmakers have accused President Barack Obama of violating the law â specifically, a part of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act â by not informing Congress of a prisoner exchange at least 30 days before.
Champ did it because Champ wants to close Gitmo. Expect more of this Diane, especially if all you do in response is to shake your tiny fists in hapless rage...
Top national security representatives House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) have blasted the administration for not keeping Congress in the loop. Rogers in particular said he hadn't been briefed on Bergdahl by the White House since 2011.
Was he briefed by the Pentagon?
Feinstein said White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken called her this week to apologize for not keeping her informed about the deal that returned Bergdahl to the U.S. and released five senior Taliban officials from Guantanamo Bay prison.
Did he promise never to do it again?
The senator added that the administration has an "absolute obligation" to fully investigate the nature of Bergdahl's capture. Some media reports and many Army personnel have suggested that the solder was a deserter given that he likely voluntarily walked away from his platoon.
She also said that she couldn't definitively say whether Bergdahl's life was in serious jeopardy, another argument that the White House has made to justify acting swiftly and without consulting Congress.
Of course it wasn't. The Taliban knew that Bergdahl was a first-class bargaining chip. You generally don't slay the golden goose...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
First Canada now Feinstein? WTF is going on in the world?
#2
Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) have blasted the administration for not keeping Congress in the loop. Rogers in particular said he hadn't been briefed on Bergdahl by the White House since 2011.Was he briefed by the Pentagon?
More likely briefed by the Klingons, who are undergoing what appears to be something of an estrangement from the regime. You simply don't 'out' a Chief of Station and iggy prisoner release guidance with total impunity. I am more convinced than ever that ValJar and the Beast are responsible for Benghazi.
[DAWN] A representative jirga (tribal elders) of North Wazoo Agency on Friday agreed to oust imported muscle from the area in 15 days as they assured Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan that all efforts would be made for restoration of peace in the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The North Wazoo jirga's track record for creating policies that promote anything approaching goodness is non-existent. Why would this help? "Sorry, you are no longer welcome. Please leave."
Riiight.
Now if they agreed to plan GPS tracking dots on the bully boys that might help.
[DAWN] Geo News is suing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for defamation over accusations of being anti-state, it said on Friday.
Geo News, part of the privately-owned Jang Group, has also given the ISI 14 days to issue a public apology.
"Geo and Jang Group (have) served a legal notice on the Ministry of Defence, Inter-Services Intelligence and Pakistain Electronic Media Regulatory Authority for defaming and maligning the group," the channel said in a report published in a newspaper owned by the media house.
"More than 8,000 journalists, workers and professionals attached to the group and their families are not only being harassed but also attacked and tortured across Pakistain."
The suing by Geo News was followed by a suspension of the channel's license for 15 days along with a fine of Rs10 million.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Six former Shayetet 13 commanders talk about everything from the Gazoo flotilla operation to stopping Arafat's boat, and even the disaster that befell the unit in Leb in 1997.
A group of soldiers clad in wetsuits heads towards the pool for a training session, jogging past the amphitheater where the graduation ceremonies take place for Shayetet 13, the Israeli army's elite naval special forces unit.
Six of the most prominent Shayetet 13 commanders, returning to Atlit especially for this interview, give the young men a quick once over and chuckle to themselves: it's a different era to those of their service.
Continued on Page 49
[An Nahar] Australia has decided to remove the term "occupied" when referring to East Jerusalem in a move blasted by an opposition party leader Friday as "inflammatory" and "at odds with the grinding of the peace processor."
The issue flared in the upper house Senate this week with Attorney-General George Brandis issuing a statement to clarify Canberra's stance on the controversial question of the legality of settler homes.
"The description of areas which are the subject of negotiations in the course of the grinding of the peace processor by reference to historical events is unhelpful," he said in the statement Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
and our own Regime and Kerry? FOAD
Posted by: Frank G ||
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More than 1,000 high-powered firearms have been sold to communist insurgents since 2011 with the unwitting assistance of 19 senior police officials at Camp Crame, Philippine police said on Thursday.
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) discovered the irregularity by investigating President Aquino's disclosure in December last year that AK-47 assault rifles had disappeared after their papers were being processed.
Director Benjamin Magalong, head of the CIDG, said that among those to be charged is Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta, the director of the Central Luzon police. Magalong said two more active police directors, an active police chief superintendent and a retired chief superintendent would also face charges for facilitating the licensing and sale of the firearms to New People's Army (NPA) militants in Mindanao.
Besides Petrasanta, Directors Gil Meneses and Napoleon Estilles, Chief Supt. Regino Catiis and retired Chief Supt. Tomas Rentoy will also be charged along with 14 other police officials and 10 private individuals.
On Thursday, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), claimed that it was buying ammunition from sources in the Philippine Army.
[An Nahar] President Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... 's top foreign policy adviser Susan Rice on Friday said Washington was providing "lethal and non-lethal" support to select members of the Syrian opposition, offering more detail than usual on U.S. assistance.
Top B.O. regime officials typically decline to say exactly what equipment, arms or ammunition the United States is providing to moderate Syrian opposition forces.
But President Barack Obama said in a major foreign policy speech last week that the United States would "ramp up" support for rebels fighting Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs...
National Security Adviser Susan Rice said in an interview with CNN while she was traveling with Obama to D-Day 70th anniversary celebrations in Normandy that she was heartbroken about the carnage in Syria's civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#2
Hey, give her a break. She had to wash down her Sunday talk show "Bergdahl served with honor and distinction" with something. Might as well be gun running.
[VOA News] The head of the Lebanese bad boy group Hezbollah says this week's re-election of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... proves that any political solution to the country's bloody conflict "begins and ends" with Assad.
Hassan Nasrallah said Friday those who desire a political solution must negotiate with Assad. He said the resignation of the Syrian president is no longer a pre-condition for a resolution to the civil war.
Nasrallah has been a staunch ally of the Assad regime during the Syrian conflict. Hezbollah Death Eaters have been fighting alongside Syrian forces during the three-year-old civil war against rebels Assad's ouster.
In Washington Friday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf urged parties that have influence over the Syrian regime - including Hezbollah, Iran and Russia - to push Syria's government toward a diplomatic solution.
"We've called on parties who have influence over the regime, Iran, Hezbollah, Russia, to use their influence with the Assad regime to push them toward a diplomatic solution, push them to a better place," she said. "It's in no way a change of policy, but it's a recognition of the reality that there are outside actors who have influence on the regime and should be using it."
Assad won a landslide victory in the Syrian presidential election on Tuesday to secure a third seven-year term.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 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.
[DAWN] DEH SAQI: The release of a Taliban leader accused of orchestrating industrial-scale carnage in Afghanistan's pristine Shomali plains in 1999, torching homes and carrying out summary executions, has horrified villagers for whom memories of the slaughter are still raw.
[An Nahar] A Malian army officer has been 
In what seemed to be a diplomatic snub, 
[An Nahar] Four Nigerian newspapers said soldiers stopped and seized copies of its editions on Friday over security concerns, with one likening the raids to censorship during the country's military rule.
Wazoo
[An Nahar] President 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
