[Tolo News] A number of public leaders and political parties joined the ranks of those backing presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... on Friday. The running mate of former presidential candidate and President Hamid 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... 's brother, Qayoum Karzai, was among them.
With only a few days left for the runoff campaigns, the endorsements Dr. Abdullah received this week came at a critical time as he and his opponent Dr. Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002, Ahmadzai was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. Ahmadzai head into the home stretch of this year's presidential election.
Wahidullah Shahrani, Qayoum Karzai's First Vice President, was perhaps the most high-profile individual to endorse Abdullah on Friday.
"I, personally, and with a number of the Turks of Afghanistan, announce my full support to Dr. Abdullah and will stay alongside him until the end," Shahrani said.
But a number of prominent political parties with influence across the country also joined Abdullah's cause. Hizb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami Party, under the leadership of Mohammad Akbari; Shuray-e-Etefaq Wa Dawat, under the leadership of Kahlid Pashton; and Shuray-e-Ayenda Sazan Afghanistan and Shrayy-e-Sulh Warzesh, under the leadership of the Afghan Olympic Committee Chair Mohammad Zahir Akhbar were among the groups that announced endorsements Friday.
"After series of consultations, we decided to support Dr. Abdullah and his two vices, engineer Mohammad Khan and Mohammad Mohaqeq," Hizb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami Afghanistan leader Mohammad Akbari said.
Abdullah's Second Vice-President Mohammad Mohaqeq welcomed the endorsements and urged Afghans to participate in the June 14 runoff as they did for the first round on April 5.
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06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] The Wadan Afghanistan Party, Ishaqzai Tribal Council and a number of civil society groups operating under the name of Afghanistan Independence Coalition announced their endorsement of presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai on Friday.
Muhammad Sarwar Danish, Ashraf Ghani's Second Vice President, welcomed the endorsements and called on his team's supporters to go out and canvas their communities.
"When choosing between the two teams, consider four criteria: national solidarity, security and stability, economic programs and fourth, a fine administration, free of corruption, that can dispel corruption from Afghanistan," Danish said.
Ghani's running mate also took the opportunity to discourage ethnic politics and urge Afghan leaders and voters to rise above the traditional divisions that have been the source of so much conflict throughout the country's history.
Abdul Ahad Muhammad Yar, the leader of the Wadan Afghanistan Party, said his group decided to back Ghani because of common values. "We have not endorsed him based on any deals, and we don't ask for anything, we have only endorsed him based on the values of Afghanistan and for support of development and stability in our country," he said.
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06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Front-runner candidate Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... was welcomed by thousands of supporters in Kapisa for his campaign rally.
During the event, Dr. Abdullah praised the residents of Kapisa for their huge turnout in the first round of elections and asked that they go to the polls for a second time with that same firm determination.
Dr. Abdullah proclaimed that with the endorsements of political figures to his team, their chance of winning continues to increase.
He asked Kapisa's residents to partake on June 14 and exercise their right to vote and elect their future president.
Former presidential candidate Gul Agha Sherzai ...former governor of Kandahar province. the Taliban got their start protecting people against him... accompanied Dr. Abdullah in Kapisa explaining that his endorsement for Dr. Abdullah's team was only to serve his country.
"We were not offered any position," Sherzai said. "I am a Mohammedan and an Afghan and I swear that I was not offered a provincial seat, directorate or ministry position."
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06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] At a campaign event in Baghlan province, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai's First Vice-President Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... cautioned the Uzbek and Turkmen tribes of the province that they would be branded "traitors" if they do not vote for hist team in the June 14 runoff.
"What happened to our votes? They were stolen. You will not make a mistake my tribes," Dostum, an Uzbek himself, told the crowd. "If you do not cast your votes in favor of Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, you are traitors."
Dostum's have sparked outrage among some election observers who have been adamant about keeping Afghanistan historically fractious ethnic politics out of this year's presidential election.
"There should be efforts to convey their planes to people, there should not be any discussion of ethnicity in the election," Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) front man Faeem Naeemi said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, Bart was wondering if fisticuffs would be appropriate at this point... Ashraf Ghani has defended his running mate, and said his comments have been misunderstood. "Surely, there is some misunderstanding, no one can threaten an Afghan into voting for a particular candidate," Ghani said on Saturday. "We believe in freedom for each Afghan, so they will vote based on their conscience."
The choice to have Dostum as a running mate initially caused a lot of backlash from the international community toward Ghani's candidacy. Foreign officials and human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... activists have accused him of war crimes and human rights violations during the civil war period of the 1990s.
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#1
Nice ring to it, the break-away republic of Dostumistan.
The United Nations refugee agency on Friday said that 62 people are confirmed to have died when their boat sank while trying to cross the Red Sea from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, making it the deadliest sinking accident this year.
"We are still seeking information, but it is now confirmed that a boat carrying 60 people from Somalia and Ethiopia and two Yemeni crew sank last Saturday in the Red Sea," said Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"The tragedy is the largest single loss of life this year of migrants and refugees attempting to reach Yemen via the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden."
The victims were reportedly buried by local residents after their bodies washed ashore in Yemen's Al Jadeed area.
The agency has documented the arrival of 16,500 refugees and migrants on the Yemeni coast during the first four months of the year, significantly less than the 35,000 received in the same period last year.
Over the past five years, more than half a million people, mainly Somalis, Ethiopians and Eritreans, have crossed the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to reach Yemen. According to UNHCR, boats are overcrowded and smugglers have reportedly thrown passengers overboard to prevent capsizing or avoid detection. Search and rescue officials said that the practice has resulted in hundreds of undocumented casualties in recent years.
Just how bad does life have to suck in Somalia for Yemen to look like the promised land?
Apparently half as bad than last year, but still bad enough.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
And the boat was never inspected for safety by the Somali Coast Guard, betcha.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/08/2014 11:36 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Recently elected Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi told President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the peace treaty with Israel "is an important commitment that can be relied and built upon in order to serve both countries' interests," Egyptian media reported Saturday.
Both Netanyahu and Peres called al-Sissi on Friday to congratulate him on his election win.
Al-Sisi told them this was the time to "create the right atmosphere to solve the Paleostinian issue and work to spread peace in the entire Middle East, so the nations of the region could live better."
#1
They better be.
Or else maybe they want to go tour the Mitla Pass and see the blackened boney arms sticking up from the grease spots out in the sand.
You fight the wrong guys and you wind up like a ten mile stretch of Nape and Snake from Basra to Kuwait city.
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 ||
06/08/2014 7:20 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] An Egyptian appeal court overturned a ten year prison sentence handed down to one policeman and the one year suspended sentence given to three others on Saturday, on charges of killing 37 people inside a police van in an Guilincident last summer.
On 18 August last year, the interior ministry said that 37 supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! in protests had died of asphyxiation due to teargas and overcrowding while they were being transferred to Abu Zabaal prison in Cairo in a police van.
Saturday's decision means that investigations into the charges will continue, with a retrial possible.
The appeal case was heard at the police academy in New Cairo under tight security. Journalists were barred from attending the court session.
Policemen Amr Farouq, Ibrahim El-Morsi, Islam Abdel-Fattah and Mohammed Abdel-Aziz were all originally convicted of killing due to negligence.
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[Al Ahram] Egypt has banned unauthorised preachers from giving sermons or teaching Islam in mosques and other public places, according to a decree on Saturday marking a further step in official efforts to curb Islamist influence.
The decree issued by interim President Adly Mansour's office also threatened fines and jail for freelance imams, especially if they wore holy manal garments associated with the respected Al-Azhar centre of Sunni learning in Cairo.
Selected employees of the religious endowments ministry will be empowered by the justice ministry to arrest anyone caught violating the decree, it added.
"No preacher will mount a minbar next Friday without a permit," the ministry said on its Facebook page, referring to the traditional raised pulpit in a mosque. The decision was taken to "preserve national security," it said.
The interim government sees mosques as recruiting grounds for Islamist parties and has moved to bring them under tighter control since last July's ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator...
It said in April it had licensed more than 17,000 state-approved holy mans to give Friday sermons to stop mosques from falling "into the hands of myrmidons." It also disclosed it had removed 12,000 unapproved preachers.
Many Egyptians pray at small neighbourhood mosques beyond the control of the state, where outsiders can easily move in to take over and preach their brand of Islam.
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An Egyptian court sentenced 10 supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death in absentia on Saturday, but postponed sentencing of the movement's leader and other senior members on trial in the same case, judicial sources said.
Those sentenced were convicted on charges including inciting violence and blocking a major road north of Cairo during protests after the army toppled President Mohammed Mursi last July. All 10 were assumed to be in hiding amid a state crackdown on the group since Mursi's ouster. One of those sentenced was Abdul Rahman Al Barr, a member of the Brotherhood's Guidance Council, the movement's executive board.
Death sentence recommendations in Egypt are passed on to the country's Mufti, the highest religious authority. His opinion can be ignored by the court. The rulings can be appealed.
Judge Hassan Fareed said the verdict for the rest of the defendants would be announced at a hearing on July 5.
Those 38 defendants include the Brotherhood movement's General Guide Mohamed Badie and senior member Mohamed El Beltagy, along with former ministers from Mursi's government. Badie was among 683 people sentenced to death in April.
Hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and members of the security forces have been killed since Mursi's ouster. Secular activists are also in jail. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said last month 16 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt.
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[Al Ahram] The president of the United Arab Emirates on Saturday issued a law implementing compulsory military service for Emirati men, a move highlighting the Gulf state's concern over turmoil in the region.
The UAE, a federation of seven emirates with a mostly expatriate population, faces no immediate threats from neighbours and has been spared Death Eater attacks that have targeted other countries like Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
Like other Gulf Arab states, the U.S. ally has strong military ties with Western powers that say they are committed to helping the OPEC member country deter or repel any threat.
But the UAE, a big buyer of Western military hardware, has a territorial dispute with its much bigger neighbour, Iran, over three Gulf islands controlled by the Islamic republic.
It is also wary of a neighbourhood fraught with conflicts, including in Syria, Iraq and Israel and the Paleostinian territories.
The state WAM news agency said President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan had issued the federal law, which was published in the official gazette. The UAE had first said in January that it would introduce the law.
"The issuing of the law comes with the goals of affirming the instilling of the values of loyalty, affiliation and sacrifice in the souls of the sons of homeland," WAM said.
The law applies to all males between the ages of 18 and 30 and in good medical health. Men who have a high school degree or its equivalent will serve nine months, while those who do not have a high school diploma will serve for two years, WAM said.
Participation for women, who can only serve for nine months, is optional and will require the approval of their legal guardians.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The MIGHTY Paki Army once attacked and killed about 3 million hindu civilians in just eight months during the Bangla Desh War. Will the Emirati soldiers be as brave as all that. Moslems tend to make soldiers of that quality. OR Moslems attack EACH OTHER when they can. PLUS they might be like the Egyptian military and lay out by the Pool and order some snacks from the subservient fellahin.
Islam tends to produce soldiers who shoot each other and then get down and put their fannys in the breeze for Allah. Can't have too many fannys in the breeze. Allah just loves that.
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 ||
06/08/2014 7:15 Comments ||
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#2
Volunteer soldiers want to be there. Drafted soldiers not so much. Given how complicated modern warfare is how much use is an unmotivated off the street stiff going to be?
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian officials say they will ask Arab and Muslim-majority countries to re-evaluate relations with Australia after Canberra dropped the term "occupied" when referring to East Jerusalem.
In a letter to Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister, the PLO's chief negotiator blasted that decision and said Palestine would respond by asking two regional Arab and Muslim state blocs to review their ties with Australia.
Oh! Oh! Review their ties, will they! I'm sure that has the Aussies just shaking in their kangaroo boots...
"Palestine will request that the Arab League and the Islamic Conference review the relations of the Arab and Islamic world with Australia in light of Australia's unlawful recognition of the illegal settlement regime in occupied Palestine," Saeb Erekat wrote in the June 5 letter, which was obtained by Ma'an.
Unlawful? According to whom?
He condemned Attorney-General George Brandis' pronouncement in Australia's senate this week that the use of the word "occupied" to describe East Jerusalem was "neither appropriate nor useful."
The remarks demonstrate that Australia "does not intend to comply with its duty under international law not to recognize Israeli sovereignty over any part of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967, including East Jerusalem," Erekat wrote.
He added: "Palestine views these developments in the gravest terms and is weighing the appropriate legal and diplomatic response."
Keep it peaceful, Erekat, or you might find yourself being visited by the Aussie SAS...
Israel occupied East Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 after a Middle East war. It later annexed the city in a move that was never recognized internationally.
The issue flared in Australia's Senate this week after Brandis issued a statement to clarify Canberra's stance on the question of the legality of settler homes in East Jerusalem.
"The description of areas which are the subject of negotiations in the course of the peace process by reference to historical events is unhelpful," he said Thursday. "The description of east Jerusalem as 'occupied' east Jerusalem is a term freighted with pejorative implications which is neither appropriate nor useful.
"It should not and will not be the practice of the Australian government to describe areas of negotiation in such judgmental language."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
It's so nice to watch and read people who support Apartheid. Cute
[DAWN] Irked by hoisting of national flag by rustics in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... and Mirali as a proof of their allegiance to the state in order to escape bombings, the banned turban group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has said that it is responding by hoisting black flags.
People in Miranshah, the headquarters of North Wazoo, said on Friday that sale of the national flag had increased as more and more people in the town, adjoining villages and Mirali wanted to hoist it to demonstrate their allegiance to the state and escape bombing.
"The sale of Pak flag has increased and we also have hoisted one on our rooftop," a resident said. "Big flags on high masts can be seen everywhere," he said.
But the move has irked the turban group which criticised what it called "weak-hearted Moslems" for using flags as a "defence" to ward off bombing and vowed to counter it with black flags with the Kalma inscribed on it, terming it a "battle of the flags".
In a message posted on a turban website, IMU's Abu Ibrahim said local rustics frightened by army attacks and bombings by military planes and helicopters and artillery had begun hoisting the national flag on roofs of their houses.
"We still have not understood how effective this 'defence system' is against bombs and rockets," he said.
The IMU, comprising snuffies from Uzbekistan and of Turkic origin, has its main base in the town of Mirali.
It has released statements and videos on the aftermath of military action in the town's main bazaar and nearby areas.
The action prompted local tribal people to leave for other places, while others who could not do so started hoisting Pak flag to ward off air strikes.
He even took a swipe at a "commander of the local people in Taliban clothing" for suggesting to the IMU to remove the black flags from the market.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
From the headline I thought it would be about LA.
#3
How long is it going to take the death eaters who hide amongst the population to raise the flag over their own houses? If it was me, I was would raise a banner that said "I am not with stupid" which then pointed to the bad guys. I would use English assuming that the Pak pilots know it. Can't hurt with SOCOM either.
[DAWN] In its first ever reaction over Pemra's decision to suspend Geo News for 15 days, the Ministry of Defence said Saturday that it is not satisfied with the penalty awarded after the private TV channel was declared guilty of misconduct.
In a formal complaint filed late April, the defence ministry had sought revocation of the private news channel's licence and prosecution of its editorial and management teams under regulatory laws for electronic media for allegedly bringing premier spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence into disrepute and harming national interest.
On Friday, the Pakistain Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) suspended the licence of Geo News for 15 days and fined it Rs10 million to be paid before the expiry of the suspension period. It said the suspension period may be extended if the fine is not paid, and that proceedings for the revocation of Geo News' licence shall be initiated in case the licensee persists in its violations. But the defense ministry appears to be seeking a harsher punishment for the private media group.
"We reserve the right to take it up the matter at the next appellate level for enhancement of punishment awarded to Geo," Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif said in an official statement today.
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06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] KHAR: Tribal elders and peace volunteers from Mamond tribe in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... on Friday assured security forces of the continued support for peace efforts and decided to patrol hilltops in the region's border areas to check cross-border attacks.
The decision was made during a jirga in Sevai area, where a large number of tribal elders, heads of local village defence committees and senior members of Mamond Qaumi Lashkar were in attendance.
Continued on Page 49
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Gunmen who stormed the University of Anbar in the Iraqi city of Ramadi and briefly took students and staff hostage have now deserted the campus, police sources have told Al Jazeera, while fighting between security forces and rebels in a northern city killed 59 people, Alarabiya reported.
The hostages fled to safety after the armed men left and security forces then secured the area.
There were no reports of casualties in Saturday's incident, which the police blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
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[Ynet] UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... voiced concerns on Friday about the worsening health of Paleostinian hunger strikers in Israeli detention and demanded that they either be formally charged or released immediately.
This affects nothing, of course, but the Secretary-General of the United Nations will have burnished his credentials for something or other.
#4
Dear, dear Cindy. What hell it must have been to be married to her. And no wonder her so-publicly mourned son fled as far as he could in the opposite direction.
[Ynet] Egyptian authorities have expresses a willingness to open the Rafah border crossing on the condition the new Paleostinian unity government would administer the post, according to a report by Paleostinian news agency Ma'an.
The report cites a senior Egyptian source, who added that the matter would be decided at a meeting expected between president-elect Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil al-Sissi and Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... who arrived Friday to participate in al-Sisi's swearing in on Sunday. A senior PA official also said new arrangements would be made for the Rafah crossing.
[Ynet] Asharq Al-Awsat claims that string of Hezbollah deaths in Syria leave the organization without experienced leadership.
Let us hope they are right.
"The Syrian swamp is swallowing the old and new guard of Hezbollah," said a Thursday report in the London based publication Asharq Al-Awsat. The report tried to explain how leaders of the Shiite terrorist organization, who once spent all their time fighting Israel, became bogged down in Syria's civil war against rebel forces.
The most recent incident that illustrates this is the laconic announcement that Fauzi Ayub, a senior Hezbollah commander, had been shot and killed in fighting with rebels.
Anti-climactically, Hezbollah satisfied themselves with the routine sentence repeated for every person who dies while serving the organization in Syria. "He was killed while fulfilling his duty to Jihad." It's a generic statement that ignores additional facts about Ayub's position and past in Hezbollah. According to sources within the opposition, he was killed in battles in Aleppo.
While Ayub was a senior figure with Hezbollah, he was also well-known in Israel and the US. A Lebanese-Canadian duel citizen, Ayub was tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! in 2002 by Israeli forces in the West Bank for training Paleostinian gunnies to carry out terrorist attacks and prepare homemade explosives.
According to reports, he was under orders to help create a Hezbollah cell in the West Bank and was also part of a unit created by Hezbollah's Operations Officer at the time, Imad Mughniyah.
In addition, Ayub was wanted by the FBI for using a fake American passport to enter Israel to carry out a terrorist attack. Two years after his imprisonment in Israel he was released to Leb as part of a prisoner trade to bring home captured Israeli Elhanan Tannenbaum.
The report by the London paper in Arabic noted that in looking over the pictures of Hezbollah commanders who have been killed in Syria, it's easy to notice that the majority are older veterans who, more likely than not, took part in combat against Israel.
Commentators who were cited in the Asharq Al-Awsat report have come to the conclusion that this is, "a waste of human resources in Syrian territory," but on the other hand stressed that, "faced with the public loss of senior military figures, the organization's new recruits are gaining proficient fighting skills during battles in Syria."
Besides Ayub, the publication listed the names of three senior members of Hezbollah who were killed over the last year in Syria and also served in central positions when the organization was engaged in combat with Israel.
Mohammed Muntish, who was killed last April in an ambush set up by rebels on an Al-Manar news crew in the town of Maaloula near Damascus, was labeled by Asharq Al-Awsat as being in charge of Hezbollah's military PR. Hezbollah said that he was merely a cameraman at Al-Manar.
According to the paper, Muntish served in the same position since the days of Israel's occupation of southern Leb. On private websites closed to all but the terrorist organization, Muntish was said to have passed several courses in Jihad and administration in Hezbollah and took part in military actions against Israel before the withdrawal from Leb, earning praise from Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Sources from within Hezbollah said that he had a key military role in the Second Leb War as well and documented the war for Hezbollah's military media wing.
Hassan Meri, another senior Hezbollah figure mentioned in the report, was killed six months before Muntish and his death preoccupied the organization. His specific actions remain unclear, but there have been claims that he held senior positions within Hezbollah.
Today, estimates claim that several thousand members of Hezbollah are active in Syria and more than 350 have been lost.
#12
At last check, there were Repors that the Hezzies Huzzies Hizzies Hassies were setting up new wings in Syria + Iraq + possibly the Arabian Peninsula.
Ostensib SSSSSSSHHHHH ... PCCCCCCCCC wid the covert or silent approval of the Bammer Admin = USA due to the need to fight the Qaeda Boyz + aligned in the ME widout need of US-NATO/EU intervention.
[An Nahar] The Syrian government on Saturday condemned the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's criticism of its presidential election, branding it a "violation" of national illusory sovereignty.
The EU has described Tuesday's poll, which saw Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... secure nearly 90 percent of the vote, as "illegitimate".
The comments amounted to "a flagrant violation of international law, which stipulates respect of the illusory sovereignty of states and non-interference in their affairs," the foreign ministry said.
"The EU's position is contrary to basic principles of democracy and respect for the right of peoples to elect their leaders and decide their future at the ballot box," it added.
Assad was elected to a new seven-year term in an election that he was widely expected to win and declared a "farce" by the Western-backed opposition.
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06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday warned regional countries of the "high price" they would eventually pay for supporting turban Sunni Moslem groups fighting Tehran's key ally Syria.
Shiite Iran is a staunch supporter of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's regime in its struggle against mostly Sunni rebels backed by Arab nations and Western powers.
Khamenei made the comments during a meeting with the visiting Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah whose trip to Tehran has been widely seen as an attempt to warm up the frosty ties between Iran and Sunni-ruled monarchies in the Gulf.
"Unfortunately, some regional countries do not take heed of the danger of Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... groups which will threaten them in future and they are still backing these groups," the leader's website khamenei.ir reported.
Takfiri is a synonymous term Iranian officials use for Sunni turbans.
"Some of the regional countries are backing the Takfiri groups and supporting their massacres and crimes in Syria," said Khamenei.
"Eventually these countries will be forced to eradicate these turbans, with a high price," Khamenei added.
Syrian opposition groups and Western countries have accused Tehran of supplying Damascus with military and financial backing.
Iran says it only has military experts on the ground in Syria and that it is providing the Assad regime with humanitarian assistance.
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06/08/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
That's why the United States has ramped up its support for the moderate vetted opposition, providing lethal and nonlethal support where we can to support both the civilian opposition and the military opposition, added Rice.
"Vetting" is an intelligence term she's probably heard many times in briefings on the subject. Rice is undoubtedly referring to support for General [and U.S. citizen] Khalifa Haftar. Notice how seldom the U.S. Citizen piece is mentioned. My underlining.
#3
...well, the Left has always said the USA was the bad guy. Obviously, with them in charge, they're demonstrating once again their deep seated Freudian projection.
#4
Real good choices in Syria. No matter who you pick in Syria, you lose.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/08/2014 11:34 Comments ||
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#5
Every bullet we send to Syria could potentially wind up in Libya, Iraq, or Afghanistan.
Worse, every RPG, SA-6, and block of C-4 has the great possibility of becoming "a terrorist event" in the United States or aimed at a US interest overseas.
Much like fast and furious, while I was in favor of more US involvement in Libya, we have missed the boat in Syria and are a day late and a dollar short. Had we gone into the Syrian rebellion early on, we MIGHT have had a chance to control who does what to who and orchestrate the moderate factions into the major players.
Our nuisance and complex thinker in oval office is such a micro manager and so indecisive that he has procrastinated every potentially good consequence of the Libyan rebellion and the Syrian rebellion into a no win situation for the US.
Thanks for being so complex a thinker. Give me a single minded decisive person of action any time.
Patton once said "A poor plan violently executed is better than a good plan never finished" or something like that...one of you erudite military historians correct me on this PLEASE.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/08/2014 14:08 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Thanks for being so complex a thinker. Give me a single minded decisive person of action any time.
"The 75% solution executed with extreme VIOLENCE AND ENTHUSIASM will produce SUCCESS."
~ Can't remember who said it.
#7
See also GROONG > [Arminfo] EXPERT: BASHAR ASSAD'S VICTORY AT ELECTION MAY HERALD THE ENDING OF THE CONFLICT OF THE SYRIA.
In addition to proving or affirming his Electoral Legitimacy = "Right to Rule".
IIUC, US schemas to support the Anti-Assad Rebels may backfire on the Bammer Admin = US-Allies by prolonging the conflict + general ME instability in favor traditional Assad family despotic rule, NOT end the conflict in favor of post-despotism Syria "democracy".
Assad is there to keep the Hard Boyz down + prevent them from destabilizing the ME + expanding their jihad into Europe + Russia - IFF HE WASN'T DOING THAT, RUSSIA WOULD'VE REMOVED HIM + REGIME LONG AGO, + IRAN WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO KEEP ITS NUCPROGS.
[Al Ahram] Iran and the United States will hold their first bilateral talks in decades, it was announced Saturday, in a major step toward securing a comprehensive nuclear deal with the West.
The head to head discussions will take place in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday, Iran's foreign ministry said in a surprise statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.
A State Department official confirmed the meeting, noting the US delegation would be led by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Undersecretary Wendy Sherman, who is responsible for Iran negotiations.
The two-day meeting is the most senior direct bilateral contact on the nuclear issue so far, with Iran to be represented at vice foreign minister level.
The discussions in Geneva are also the first between Iran and the US to fall outside the P5+1 group of leading nations (Britannia, China, La Belle France, Russia, the United States plus Germany) which is pursuing talks in the quest for a landmark nuclear agreement.
Iran and the US, at odds since the 1979 Islamic revolution and the hostage crisis that followed, have in the past year taken tentative steps on the path to rapprochement.
President Hassan Rouhani, a self-declared moderate elected last June, spoke by telephone with his US counterpart Barack Obama Jedi mind meld... shortly after taking office.
Such a step had not occurred since the revolution and would have been considered unthinkable under Rouhani's predecessor Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, under whom relations with the West plummeted.
US 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... also briefly met Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Geneva last year.
The apparent thaw in relations is aimed at ending decades of enmity between the countries, with an accord on Iran's nuclear activities the apparent prize sought by the US and other world powers.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
[Tolo News] At a campaign event in Baghlan province, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai's First Vice-President Abdul Rashid 
Wazoo
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[Ynet] Asharq Al-Awsat claims that string of Hezbollah deaths in Syria leave the organization without experienced leadership.
The report by the London paper in Arabic noted that in looking over the pictures of Hezbollah commanders who have been killed in Syria, it's easy to notice that the majority are older veterans who, more likely than not, took part in combat against Israel.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
