Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2011 03:10 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot 9/28
Mira Sorvino aka Linda Ash in "Mighty Aphrodite" aka Marilyn Monroe in "Norma Jean & Marilyn" aka Kate Morozov in "Human Trafficking" aka Dr. Susan Tyler in "Mimic" aka Romy White in "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" aka Meg Coburn in "The Replacement Killers" aka Lucy in "Union Square" aka Kate Davis in "Attack on Leningrad" aka Delila in "The Final Cut" (age 44)
Sofia Milos aka Cheryl in "The Ladies Man" aka Celia Amonte in "Passionada" aka Detective Yelina Salas in "CSI: Miami (TV series)" aka Lt. Dalia Barr in "The Order" aka Boss in "The Cross" aka Carmela Krailes in "Double Bang" aka Special Agent Bianca Lagarda in "The Border (TV series)" (age 42)
Combined Afghan and coalition security forces made a major drug sweep and killed numerous insurgent fighters in separate operations yesterday in Afghanistan, military officials reported.
In Helmand provinces Baghran district, Afghan and International Security Assistance Force members conducted what is believed to be the largest-ever narcotics seizure by combined forces in Afghanistan.
The combined team, acting on intelligence, targeted an area believed to be manufacturing drugs used to finance lethal aid to be used against Afghan and coalition forces. The security force discovered three narcotics laboratories containing drugs with an estimated street value of more than $350 million.
The force destroyed the narcotics labs, along with about 1,800 gallons of morphine solution, 220 pounds of heroin, 176 pounds of opium, and 26,500 pounds of chemicals used to process narcotics, as well as drug processing equipment.
Marine Corps Maj. Gen. James B. Laster, head of joint operations at ISAF Joint Command, said the seizure would disrupt insurgents ability to attack. We are committed to ensuring a more secure and stable future for the people of Afghanistan, he said.
Also yesterday, a combined security force killed numerous insurgents during an operation in search of a senior Taliban leader in the eastern border province of Nangarhar. The man is wanted for orchestrating multiple direct fire and bomb attacks against Afghan forces.
During the operation, the force observed multiple insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles maneuvering to attack. The force engaged the threat, killing the insurgents. Numerous additional suspects were detained.
In other ISAF news yesterday:
-- Combined forces discovered two drug caches in the Zharay district of Kandahar province. The caches contained 308 pounds of cannabis, 88 pounds of poppy seeds and 506 pounds of hashish. The security force seized the drugs for safe disposal at a later date.
-- Also in Zharay, a combined force found and destroyed an improvised explosive device, 132 pounds of homemade explosives, two rifles and two 82 mm rounds.
-- A combined patrol detained an insurgent leader in Helmands Qalah district. The man is known to organize IED and suicide bomb attacks and to supply weapons to insurgents.
-- In Helmands Now Zad district, a combined force detained multiple suspected insurgents while searching for an insurgent who reports to Pakistan-based Taliban leadership. Forces seized multiple weapons and drugs in the operation, including a 40 mm grenade launcher and grenades and 50 pounds of black tar heroin.
-- In the Ghaziabad district of Kunar province, a combined force seized 14 assault rifles, 50 fuses, five radios and 42 shotguns.
-- In the Pul-e Alam district of Logar province, a combined force detained multiple insurgents while searching for a Taliban fighter responsible for vehicle-borne IED attacks in the region.
[Dawn] A station wagon packed with Afghan civilians struck a roadside kaboom in western Afghanistan, triggering an kaboom that killed 16 people, 11 of them children, Afghan officials said.
The vehicle was traveling in Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province's Shindand district when it hit the bomb, said Mohammad Salim, the police garrison chief for the district. Anothr four people in the car were maimed, he said.
Those in the car were part of the same extended family, Salim said. He did not provide further details. Provincial front man Muhiuddin Noori confirmed the casualty figures.
Civilians have been the overwhelming victims of the rise in violence in Afghanistan this year. While civilian deaths attributed to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces have decreased, an increase in roadside kabooms and jihad boy attacks means that the overall number of civilians dying has increased.
The blast in Herat happened on the same day that a jacket wallah in the south of the country rammed an explosives-packed vehicle into a police truck, killing two civilians.
The attacker in the southern city of Lashkar Gah, the main city in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province, apparently was waiting in the car at the gates of the police headquarters just outside a bakery where officers regularly buy bread in the morning, said the deputy provincial police chief, Kamaluddin Sherzai.
The bomber then slammed into a police truck that was parked at the shop, triggering the bomb, he said.
Two civilians _ one man and one young boy _ were killed in the blast, said provincial government front man Daoud Ahmadi. Another 26 people were maimed, including 10 coppers and six children, he said.
Taliban front man Qari Yusef Ahmadi grabbed credit for the Lashkar Gah attack.
Hours earlier, the Taliban released a formal statement rejecting claims that the insurgency has become splintered or that the group or any of their allies have ties to the Pak government.
The statement said the Taliban insurgency "is at its strongest and unified more than it has been at any other stage," and denied that the movement has bases in Pakistain.
The claim runs contrary to US and international assertions that the Taliban retain numerous safe havens and bases in Pakistain's tribal areas, used to stage attacks into neighboring Afghanistan.
The Taliban also reject US charges that the Haqqani network, a key affiliate, has ties to Pakistain's intelligence service.
The group says Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani is a key member of the Taliban leadership.
The Taliban statement appeared to be an attempt to give the Pak government some breathing room as Islamabad comes under increasing pressure to take action against snuffies within its borders.
In the wake of three major attacks in the Afghan capital in the past two weeks, US officials have ramped up their public comments alleging the Pak government backs the Haqqani network, which is believed to be behind a number of attacks in and around Kabul.
The Afghan government, meanwhile, has upped its protests against cross-border artillery attacks it blames on Pakistain.
On Monday, the Afghan government said that Afghan-Pakistain relations will suffer if the attacks in eastern Afghanistan continue.
A NATO forces front man said Monday that the Haqqani network is still very much operating out of Pakistain.
"We have no credible intelligence indicating that the Haqqani network has eliminated their operating safe havens in Pakistain," said Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a front man for NATO forces in Afghanistan. "They continue to plan and execute operations from across the border."
In Kabul, meanwhile, tensions between different political factions were on the rise as hundreds of demonstrators, led by former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, accused the government of mishandling the investigation into last week's killing of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani ... the murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan...
Saleh told the assembled group that international officials should investigate the liquidation rather than the Afghan government. He said that he did not trust Afghan officials to conduct an honest investigation.
Provisional authority officials in Libya say the military believes former leader Moammar Qadaffy ...whose instability has been an inspiration to dictators everywhere... could be hiding in the western town of Ghadamis near the Algerian border. Sounds credible. Within scootin' distance is his style.
The officials said Wednesday they also believe Qadaffy is under the protection of ethnic Tuaregs. The former leader once supported a Tuareg rebellion in northern Niger, and hundreds of former Tuareg rebels have fought for him.
National Transitional Council officials had previously suggested that Qadaffy was hiding in the town of Bani Walid, southeast of the capital, Tripoli, while other reports said he may be hiding in the south. He has not been seen since anti-Qadaffy forces seized Tripoli last month.
Intense fighting in the besieged Libyan city of Sirte has kept provisional government fighters from advancing in one of the few remaining strongholds of Qadaffy's supporters.
NTC forces say they have captured the city's port, but Qadaffy loyalists still control most of Sirte.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2011 08:58 ||
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#6
I'm sure even a cheap metal detector can find THAT many sprockets, and he's too vain to take them off. Heck, even an airborne magnetometer would probably light up.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/28/2011 17:32 Comments ||
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#7
Heck, even an airborne magnetometer would probably light up.
Using MAD to hunt for the mad. Seems fitting. Anyone got a spare P-3?
[Tripoli Post] Egypt has denied reports "No, no! Certainly not!"
that members of the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Al Qadaffy ...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received for at least 42 years... have crossed into the country from Algeria. "It's... ummm... somebody else."
The Egyptian security has been reported saying there is no truth in what the Algerian daily newspaper el-Khabar reported, that the same Al Qadaffy relatives who decamped to Algeria have entered Egypt.
Earlier, the Algerian newspaper, which is close to the government, reported that on Saturday evening eight of members of Al Qadaffy's family, possibly including his daughter Ayesha who had entered Algeria on August 29 boarded an Egypt Air plane to Algiers' Houari Boumediene Airport.
The report came a day after the Algerian government criticised the release of an audio recording by Ayesha on the Syrian based Arrai TV channel. Algeria's foreign minister, Mourad Medelci, had denounced as "unacceptable" Ayesha's message criticising Libya's National Transitional Council.
Medelci, who was attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York, at the time pledged to "take measures" against Al Qadaffy's relatives. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... neither Algerian nor Egyptian officials have confirmed the reports, Al Arabiya said..
In her first public remarks since the fall of Tripoli a month ago, on Saturday Ayesha accused Libya's new leaders of being traitors, noting that some of them were members of her father's regime before defecting in the civil war.
"Those who have betrayed the pledge they offered (to Qadaffy), how will they not betray you?" she said in a warning to Libyans.
When the Al Qadaffy's decamped to Algeria, the Algerian authorities said they gave them asylum n humanitarian grounds. A day after their entry, the Algerian health ministry reported that as she was fleeing across the border Ayesha had given birth to a baby girl.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2011 00:00 ||
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#insert obligatory "These are not the Kadafffys you are looking for" reference.
[Tripoli Post] Libyan National Transitional Council fighters battling to capture Sirte, one of the remaining bastions still loyal to the former Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi, made an important strategic gain as they managed to take control of the port in the easter side of the Mediterranean coastal city.
Commander Mustafa bin Dardef from the Zintan brigade, confirmed the gain by saying: "There were clashes in the night and we now are controlling the port."
Fighting for Al Qathafi's hometown, that is rumoured to be housing one of the his sons, Muatassim, reportedly directing the loyalist troops, intensified in the past days after a lull on Sunday when the NTC fighters made a tactical retreat to allow NATO to carry out its raids that continued on Monday.
Sirte has been besieged by NTC fighters on three fronts, the south, east and west. Tuesday morning they were preparing to make another push towards the centre of the city the site of Al Qathafi's heavily fortified compound and military bunkers.
Monday witnessed some street fighting and more face-to-face fighting is expected Tuesday as the anti-Al Qathafi forces move advance further into the centre of the city.
On Monday , as they ventured into the city, NTC fighters picked up light weapons dropped by members of the Al Qathafi forces as they fled the scene, and also captured a large weapons cache belonging to the fugitive leader's loyalists.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tripoli Post] There has been heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... in the former Libyan leader Muammar Al Qadaffy's ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years... hometown of Sirte where hundreds of loyalists keep offering strong resistance to defend the city on the Mediterranean coast against the National Transitional Council's fighters, but later in the day there were reports indicating that an elder from inside the city talked about a truce, that was however rejected.
Touhami Zayani, commander of the El-Farouk brigade on the western edge of Sirte, which is encircled by NTC forces and under bombardment from NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... warplanes, was reported telling Rooters that he was in talks with Al Qadaffy loyalists about a truce, but the head of another anti-Al Qadaffy unit rejected negotiations.
Touhami Zayani, said that an elder from Al Qadaffy's tribe, whom he did not identify, had contacted him on his satellite phone from inside Sirte and told him they were looking for a safe passage for the families and for the militia to leave the city.
Zayani said he had given his agreement for families from Al Qadaffy's tribe, who make up the majority of Sirte's population, to be allowed to leave and was still negotiating terms for armed Al Qadaffy loyalists to surrender.
"We didn't really get into details and we didn't talk much about how they will leave but I think the scenario will be that they have to give up their weapons," Zayani said.
Asked about the prospect of a truce, another commander in the anti-Al Qadaffy ranks, Omar Al-Qatrany, who is on the eastern front line, said: "Those people don't want to negotiate and we don't care about them any more. Our main concern is to evacuate families out of Sirte and then we will bomb the city."
Foe the second day, despite efforts to push forward from the east of the center of Sirte, anti-Al Qadaffy fighters were pinned down by intense sniper and artillery fire, and a Rooters correspondent reported, that NTC forces brought up reinforcements to a roundabout two kilometres from the centre. In an effort to break through they attacked with two tanks and about a dozen trucks carrying infantry.
Later, Al-Jazeera reported that NTC fighters had taken control of the eastern portion of Sirte, which is 450 km east of Tripoli, and would bring Libya's new rulers closer to gaining control of the whole country, if they manage to capture it. It would certainly be a huge symbolic victory.
Libya's new rulers are under pressure to bring the fighting to an end. Humanitarian organizations have raised the alarm over conditions for civilians in Sirte and in Bani Walid, which lies southeast of Tripoli.
Scores of civilians in cars laden with personal belongings streamed out of Sirte to both the east and west over the past few days, with Georges Comninos, who heads the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) in Libya saying they were very concerned about the people inside and near Bani Walid and Sirte.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2011 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state click here.
A Mexican Army unit killed four armed suspects in an small arms encounter in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas Saturday, according to Mexican news reports.
The army unit was on patrol on calle Prolongacion Nicaragua in the Los Olivos colony when armed suspects travelling aboard a sedan opened fire on the unit.
Army return fire killed four suspects.
Soldiers at the scene seized four rifles, 56 weapons magazines, about 1,500 rounds of ammunition and the vehicle.
For a map click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon state, click here. For a map of Monterrey, click here.
Armed suspects attacked five locations in eastern and southern Nuevo Leon state Monday night including four police stations, according to Mexican news accounts.
In Monterrey near the intersection of avenidas Cuauhtemoc and Carlos Salazar near the Zona Centro, two unidentified municipal police officers were fired on and wounded Monday night following a brief vehicle pursuit by the suspects.
At the headquarters of the Zona Norte of the Nuevo Leon state police near the intersection of calles Aztlan and Apolo in San Bernabe colony, armed suspects attacked the building using grenades. The projectiles landed in the parking lot. A nearby civilian couple were wounded in the detonations, and evacuated for medical treatment.
The headquarters of the municipal police of Allende was attacked by armed suspected using small arms fire. No one was hurt and damage was limited to the building.
In Santiago, a single armed suspect attacked a headquarters of the Agencia Estatal de Investigaciones (AEI) using a grenade. Police were present during the attack but no one was reported hurt. Three vehicles, including a police patrol vehicle were damaged.
In Santiago, the headquarters of the Nuevo Leon state Policia Estatal de Caminos (PEC) or Highway Patrol, was attacked by armed suspects using two grenades. Two nearby buses were damaged in the attack.
For a map click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon state, click here. For a map of Monterrey, click here.
A Mexican Army detachment encountered several armed suspects and killed three in eastern Nuevo Leon state Monday night, according to Mexican news accounts.
The army unit was on patrol on the Allende Cadereyta highway when they were fired on by armed suspects who were travelling aboard a Chevrolet Malibu sedan.
The gunfire prompted a vehicle pursuit which lasted for about a kilometer with soldiers continually firing on the suspects. At the end of the pursuit, three armed suspects were dead by army counterfire.
The suspects used UZI 9mm submachine guns in their attack.
The Allende Cadereyta road which runs north to south is about 20 kilometers due east of Monterrey and has been in the past the scene of several armed confrontations between Mexican security forces and criminal drug gangs.
[An Nahar] More than 150 Spanish police raided a suspected al-Qaeda financing ring Tuesday, arresting five Algerian men and seizing computer material, the government said.
Police suspected the men sent money to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has its roots in Algeria and carries out attacks and kidnappings in north Africa, the interior ministry said in a statement.
"According to the investigation, those jugged had links with other European countries -- Italia, La Belle France, and Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... -- and provided financial cooperation with these al-Qaeda linked terrorist organizations."
Officers incarcerated the five men, aged between 36 and 49, and made detailed searches of their homes in morning raids in four cities in the northern Basque region and Navarra.
"Abundant amounts of computer material and documents were seized which will be analyzed," the ministry said.
More arrests could not be ruled out, it added.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claims allegiance to the global bad boy network. It carries out attacks and kidnappings and runs smuggling routes in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... that spans north Africa.
Spain suffered its worst terror attack on March 11, 2004 when bombs went kaboom! on packed commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and wounding 1,841 others in a strike by a local cell of Islamic Islamic fascisticarried out in the name of al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2011 00:00 ||
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A 26-year-old Massachusetts man has been arrested and accused of plotting to destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol with large remote-controlled aircraft filled with explosives.
Rezwan Ferdaus of Ashland was arrested Wednesday in Framingham when undercover federal agents delivered materials he'd requested for his alleged plan, including grenades, six machine guns and what Ferdaus believed was C-4 explosive.
*snicker*
Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen and Northeastern University graduate, was scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Worcester on Wednesday afternoon.
A message for comment was left for his attorney, Catherine Byrne.
According to the federal affidavit, Ferdaus began planning "jihad" against the U.S. in early 2010. He allegedly believed he would have a large psychological impact by killing Americans, who he described as "enemies of Allah."
Instead he will have no psychological impact at all, as only the professionals and people like those at Rantburg will even notice his failed attempt.
#1
Rezwan sounds vaguely Iranian to me in my ignorance, but where would Ferdaus be from? Or was it chopped off from something considerably longer and more ethnic?
#4
Aren't the bulk of Mass. residents trying to destroy the USA via their voting habits?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/28/2011 16:48 Comments ||
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#5
... like "Ferdosi," the poet, also spelled "Ferdausi."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2011 16:51 Comments ||
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#6
And, from the US Attorney, the obligatory...
She added, I want the public to understand that Mr. Ferdaus conduct, as alleged in the complaint, is not reflective of a particular culture, community or religion. In addition to protecting our citizens from the threats and violence alleged today, we also have an obligation to protect members of every community, race, and religion against violence and other unlawful conduct.
Yes, not all Methodists are in favor of jihad, so let's cut 'em some slack, okay?
#7
. He allegedly believed
he would have a large psychological impact by killing
Americans, who he described as "enemies of Allah."
This Allan has a lot of enemies in this world, and they are not only American. Unfortunately, sheeples seem to use their vote economically and ignore the deeper agendae of political movements. Related> Voting for greed/self-interest. This was mentioned in a report here re the Arab interpretation of the 21st Century world that is not the submissive, wife-beating, acid-throwing. amputating, murderous plague. Greed is reprehinsible in Allan's eyes, but so is the choice.
Mmm, I would rather have the choice, oops for rant that may have rambled.
Telegraph: Pakistan has freed a senior al-Qaeda commander, who served as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden, according to a senior security source, raising fresh questions about the country's commitment to tackling terrorism. Amin al-Haq, who escaped from Afghanistan with the al-Qaeda leader in 2001 and went on to become a key financial aide, was detained in Lahore three years ago by Pakistan's intelligence agency.
A senior security source in the north-western Pakistani town of Peshawar, where he had been held, said the Inter-Services Intelligence agency had passed al-Haq on to the police before he was released earlier this month.
[Dawn] Threats from banned bully boy outfit Lashkar-i-Islam have forced official teams to leave Bara subdivision of Khyber Agency without completing census and voters` registration process, according to sources.
Sources said that Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... , the chief of Lashkar-i-Islam, issued threats to census and voters registration officials through his private FM radio channel and forced them to leave the area.
Khyber Agency Assistant Election Commissioner Qayum Shinwari, when contacted, confirmed premature return of census staff, saying the process would be resumed as soon as security situation improved in the areas under the influence of Lashkar-i-Islam.
Mangal Bagh has threatened the officials and tribal people to award them harsh punishment for conducting and participating in the ongoing process of census and voters` registration in Khyber Agency.
In his address, broadcast through his FM radio channel in Spin Warand town of Tirah valley, he placed ban on officials to conduct census and register voters. He warned the official teams of dire consequences if they didn`t stop their activities.
The LI chief also warned the tribal people of punishment for registering themselves in the voters list and participating in census. He said that opposition to government policies would continue unless it held talks with Lashkar-i-Islam leadership.
He said that elected representatives and elders of the area were taking interest in voters` registration and census instead of law and order situation in Khyber Agency.
"Hundreds of people have died in Khyber Agency but no government agency or public representative has bothered to list their names or establish a team for the purpose," he said.
Opposing Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), he said that Lashkar-i-Islam would not let the programme succeed in the tribal area.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the Lashkar chief said in his fresh speech on his FM radio channel on Sunday night that in case of US attack on tribal areas his fighters would back the government and military forces to defeat forces of `bigger enemy`.
He said his men would fight against American forces with full strength to defend frontiers of the motherland. He said that it would be a jihad and every Pak was required to take part in it according to his capacity.
Officials of the political administration said that threats to local residents over enrolling themselves in the new voters list were verified by pro-administration local elders in Tirah valley.
"We are devising a security plan to ensure that people of Tirah and some localities in Bara are not left out from voters list," said an official, who requested not to be named.
The election commission, meanwhile, has dispatched its staffers to Landi Kotal and Jamrud tehsil and started enrollment of new voters and expunging bogus names from the old list.
Mr Shinwari said that the new list would be prepared in accordance with the new rules and voters with computerised national identity cards would be enrolled while names of those enrolled with the old national identity card would be deleted.
The election commission have also started enrollment of new voters at Jalozai camp where at least 4,000 families from different parts of Bara are residing.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Ruby Curly-toed Slippers of Command Pass to New Ownership
[Dawn] Pak intelligence officials say an American missile strike has killed at least three people in a turban stronghold near the Afghan border.
The two officials say a pair of missiles struck a house near the town of Wana in South Wazoo on Tuesday.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with news hounds.
Washington has fired scores of missiles into northwest Pakistain since 2008 to target Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives.
The latest strike comes at a time when tension are already high between Washington and Islamabad following a recent claim by a top US military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, that Pakistain's main spy agency backed those gun-hung tough guys who carried out attacks against American targets in Afghanistan. Pakistain has denied the allegation.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/28/2011 00:00 ||
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BETHLEHEM (Maan) -- The Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Othman, said Wednesday that Egypt is not responsible for the recent deaths of three Palestinians in smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Nope. Wudn't us...
Othman said the deaths were very unfortunate, but Egypt is not responsible as it follows clear safety procedures when sealing off smuggling tunnels, which are "harmful to Egyptian national security," he told Ma'an. Yo! Anybody down there?
Okay, boys. Start pumping...
The deaths were caused by the absence of safety and security means within the tunnels, high risk in this profession, as well as the high rate of child labor involved in these tunnels which makes it more dangerous, he said. Awwwwwww, see what you made us do?
Three Palestinians were pronounced dead on Tuesday morning after Egyptian authorities pumped sewage inside a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza border on Sunday, medics had said. ...and they didn't smell too good either, that's for sure.
BETHLEHEM (Maan) -- The Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Othman, said Wednesday that Egypt is not responsible for the recent deaths of three Palestinians in smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Nope. Wudn't us...
Othman said the deaths were very unfortunate, but Egypt is not responsible as it follows clear safety procedures when sealing off smuggling tunnels, which are "harmful to Egyptian national security," he told Ma'an. Yo! Anybody down there?
Okay, boys. Start pumping...
The deaths were caused by the absence of safety and security means within the tunnels, high risk in this profession, as well as the high rate of child labor involved in these tunnels which makes it more dangerous, he said. Awwwwwww, see what you made us do?
Three Palestinians were pronounced dead on Tuesday morning after Egyptian authorities pumped sewage inside a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza border on Sunday, medics had said. ...and they didn't smell too good either, that's for sure.
[An Nahar] Syrian forces mounting raids on dissidents killed at least nine civilians on Tuesday, rights groups said, as Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... accused the West of trying to break up the country with "total chaos."
And as China expressed its concern at the wider implications of the turbulence, the United States warned of signs that President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... 's opponents were turning to violence.
Six people were killed in the central city of Homs, two more in the northwestern city of Idlib and another in southern Daraa province, where the protests began in mid-March, the Syria Observatory for Human Right said.
Powerful guns, some mounted on tanks, were used on people in Rastan, Talbisseh and Tir Maala, all in central Homs province, the Observatory added, a day after reporting four soldiers were rubbed out trying to desert in Idlib.
"At least 20 people were maimed, seven seriously, when soldiers using heavy machine guns on tanks began to open fire at sunrise in Rastan," it said, adding "loud kabooms were also heard."
The Local Coordination Committees, which organizes protests on the ground, reported a "massive deployment" of security forces in Rastan.
In a blog he launched on Tuesday, British ambassador to Damascus Simon Collis said Assad's regime sees "only one way out -- the return to authoritarian rule where fear surpasses a desire for freedom."
"This is a regime that remains determined to control every significant aspect of political life in Syria. It is used to power. And it will do anything to keep it," Collis wrote.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, speaking at the annual U.N. General Assembly, said foreign governments sought to undermine the co-existence among Syria's different religious groups.
"How can we otherwise explain media provocations, financing and arming religious extremism," he asked.
"What purpose could this serve other than total chaos that would dismember Syria -- and consequently adversely affect its neighbors."
Muallem said anti-regime protests in which at least 2,700 people have been killed have become a "pretext for foreign interventions."
Damascus does not accept the existence of popular opposition to the authorities, instead blaming "armed gangs" and "terrorists" for trying to sow chaos.
Asked later if the U.S. was ready to aid opponents of Assad's regime who are reportedly arming themselves, State Department front man Mark Toner said overnight that resorting to violence was unsurprising.
"I would say that the opposition's shown extraordinary restraint in the face of the regime's brutality and demanding their rights through peaceful unarmed demonstrations," Toner told news hounds.
"It goes without saying that the longer the regime continues to repress, kill and jail these peaceful activists, the more likely that this peaceful movement's going to become violent."
On the political front, meanwhile, the opposition Syrian National Council announced plans to meet in Istanbul this weekend in a bid to unify the fragmented coalition.
"We will meet on October 1 and 2, in principle in Istanbul," spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani told AFP. "Then we will talk about setting up committees."
The council, which was set up in August and consists of 140 people. Half of them live in Syria and their names have not been made public for security reasons.
In New York, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi expressed Beijing's concern over the protracted crisis.
The global community should "handle the Syrian issue in a prudent way so as to prevent further turbulence in Syria and its repercussions on regional peace."
Yang, whose country has joined Russia in opposing sanctions against Syria, said "we hope that parties in Syria will exercise restraint, avoid any form of violence or more bloodshed and conflict, and act quickly to ease tension."
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... European powers have drawn up a new resolution on Syria that would call for a threat of sanctions rather than demand international measures, diplomats said.
"There is a need for a strong Security Council response to the repression," said one European diplomat in New York.
"There are hopes that this resolution can quickly get a majority in favor on the council," said a diplomat from a second council member.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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] A station wagon packed with Afghan civilians struck a 
The attacker in the southern city of Lashkar Gah, the main city in 
Qadaffy
[Tripoli Post] Egypt has denied reports 
[Tripoli Post] Libyan National Transitional Council fighters battling to capture Sirte, one of the remaining bastions still loyal to the former Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi, made an important strategic gain as they managed to take control of the port in the easter side of the Mediterranean coastal city. 
[BBC] The United States has launched a series of attacks by unmanned drones on the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, local residents say.
[An Nahar] More than 150 Spanish police raided a suspected al-Qaeda financing ring Tuesday, arresting five Algerian men and seizing computer material, the government said.
A 26-year-old Massachusetts man has been arrested and accused of plotting to destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol with large remote-controlled aircraft filled with explosives.
Pak intelligence officials say an American missile strike has killed at least three people in a
President-for-Life Bashir 
