In a bid to offer more women career opportunities without running afowl of Sharia law, the Saudi Arabian government is putting together a group of all-women cities.
According to Russia Today, construction on the first new municipality, an industrial hub slated to be part of the city of Hafuf in the eastern part of the country, is slated to begin next year, under the direction of the Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon).
Officials say the new hub will focus on the textile industry and create about 5,000 jobs, with women figuring in in both managerial roles and working on production lines.
Im sure that women can demonstrate their efficiency in many aspects and clarify the industries that best suit their interests, their nature and their ability, said Saleh Al-Rasheed, deputy director-general of Modon, adding that plans are already in the works for the second women-only city, with hopes to develop a network of them around the country. The first hub is expected to bring in 500 million riyals (about $133 million) in investments.
Sharia law traditionally allows women to be employed in a limited capacity, but with a 26.9 female unemployment rate four times that of men religious mores may be forced to give way to fiscal prudence.
Tribal militias have joined the campaign against the local franchise of the radical movement. It may have helped oust Al-Qaeda from a few cities but it may not guarantee peace in the long run
Workers in short-sleeve dress shirts spend their days in 82-
degree offices, the new standard. Lights are dimmed and printers are on only when necessary. Companies chart their energy use, and at one bread factory on this northern island, an employee jumps on the PA system when electricity usage spikes, ordering air conditioners off and asking select workers to stop what theyre doing.
But many Japanese companies are tired of cooperating. Asked by the government to use less electricity, companies say the cutbacks curb their productivity, thin their profits and could eventually stall the worlds third-largest economy. I'm an engineer, not an economist, but I understand that!
The energy-saving push was seen on a smaller scale last year after an earthquake and tsunami triggered a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Japans east coast and caused shutdowns at several others, and Japanese companies obliged without complaint.
Unlike last summer, when severe shortages were confined to the northeast, even regions far removed from the Fukushima plant now face shortages, with all but two of Japans 50 viable reactors shuttered amid public opposition. Utility companies are importing record levels of fossil fuels, but even that hasnt covered the gap. Fossil fuels? Global warming fuels? Aren't they worried about going awash when the oceans rise 3,000 feet?
That leaves companies many that were already energy-efficient straining for unorthodox ways to meet peak-hour summer reduction targets. Electronics giant Panasonic told employees at its Osaka headquarters to take a nine-day paid vacation in late July. Manufacturer Nippon Tungsten, in Japans southern island of Kyushu, bumped work shifts to the weekend to avoid peak hours and, to use less air conditioning, started spraying factory rooftops with cold water. Breadmaker Nichiryo, based in Hokkaido, leased a 200 kilovolt-ampere diesel generator, which supplies electricity at four times the cost of the regional utility company.
Anti-nuclear activists and American Democrats and other tree huggers say that Japan could replace nuclear power, which once supplied one-third of the nations electricity, with renewable sources. But that will take years of work and billions in investment. This summers shortages have convinced some corporations that nuclear power is essential, at least until progress on renewable energy is made. Or the twenty-second century, whichever comes first.
In Hokkaido, households and companies are being asked to shave 7 percent from their 2010 peak-hour consumption levels. Were the local utility able to operate even a single reactor, such a request wouldnt be necessary.
The energy shortages are particularly vexing for companies because nobody knows how long theyll last. Energy experts say that the best way for corporations to reduce consumption is with heavy investment, particularly in energy-
efficient lighting and in modern machinery. Companies, though, are hesitant to spend the money before they know Japans long-term plan for the nuclear plants. The ol' uncertainty bugaboo, eh?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2012
14:44 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
..companies say the cutbacks curb their productivity, thin their profits and could eventually stall the worlds third-largest economy..
Ah, working towards the North Korean model. Pass the bark.
#3
Hey, didn't a federal judge just start denying all permits for nuclear construction?
So yeah, whatever fuckage they're getting, guess what, we're signing up for it too.
The liberals are all in joy that the judge is a Reagan appointee, btw. They've made the decisions to lead to this and are pretending they're supporting nuclear power.
Halliburton licenses earthquake generating technology to Mossad.
Two strong earthquakes struck northwest Iran on Saturday, killing 87 people, injuring hundreds and scaring thousands into fleeing their homes as aftershocks continued to hit the area, Iranian state media said.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Saturday's first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 60 km (37 miles) northeast of the city of Tabriz at a depth of 9.9 km (6.2 miles). A second quake measuring 6.3 struck 49 km (30 miles) northeast of Tabriz 11 minutes later at a similar depth.
The second quake struck near the town of Varzaghan. "The quake was so intense that people poured into the streets through fear," Fars news agency said of the town.
Tabriz is a major city and trading hub far from Iran's oil producing areas and known nuclear facilities. Hmmm.
Though buildings in the city are substantially built, homes and businesses in Iranian villages are often made of concrete blocks or mud brick that can crumble and collapse in a strong quake.
Local police chief Bayes Ahmed says 20 other people were injured by the lightning late Friday in Sylhet district. The victims were struck by the lightning as they were exiting the mosque following special prayers tied to the holy month of Ramadan.
Ahmed said Saturday that some of those who were killed died at the scene, while others died on the way to the hospital. He said the imam who led the prayers was among the dead. Sounds like Allah was displeased. Maybe it was the sermon...
As I did two years ago, I'm asking the Rantburg community to suggest politicians for the House or the Senate to support financially.
I've been saving a little each month since the 2010 elections to donate to financially conservative politicians (I don't care about their social stuff, just whether they'll get/keep the fed out of my pocket).
As with 2 years ago, this would be $25 or $50 donations, perhaps once, perhaps more than once. I'll do my own research on the candidates suggested, and - to be completely upfront here - will not donate to candidates who don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. At this critical time in our country's history, I can't afford to waste what little I can donate on a "feels good" but non-winning candidate.
I already have the following on my donations list, so please don't bother to suggest them again:
Allan West
Richard Mourdock
Tom Cotton
Mia Love
And of course, the presidential ticket, but that goes without saying.
The idea here is to keep the House and flip the Senate.
Thanks.
(Fred/Mods - please delete if you don't think this is appropriate. Obviously there's no "source" link.)
Moved to Opinion, because this is not news, as well as for more exposure. Barbara, I think this is utterly appropriate. Let's hear what you think, O Rantburgers!
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/11/2012
12:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How about Sean Bielat running in Massachusetts against Joe Kennedy?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/11/2012 12:51
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Romney/Ryan has raised $1.2 million in the last 4 hours. Heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2012 13:39
Comments ||
Top||
#3
I'm keen on Josh Mandel, running for the Senate against Über-liberal Sherrod Brown. Here is google's scandal search, so you can decide if there is reason to dislike this nice Jewish Marine.
#2
Just returned from the funeral of GySgt Daniel J. Price USMC.
Minimum of 2500 people turned out on word that Westboro might show up. Lined the road from the church to the cemetery, two deep, both sides, about a bazillion flags.
I talked to a Patriot Guard Rider who said he'd heard a minimum of 500 bikes--I counted more, so perhaps he wasn't talking about other clubs, of which there were probably half a dozen. He said that, with so many bikes, if WB showed, the family would never notice.
Apparently, some Baptist pastors in Holland, MI, wanted to reclaim the good name of Baptist, and were first to start a call for their congregations to turn out.
Impressive in all ways.
Go with God, Marine.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/11/2012 13:58
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Impressive, RA. While I can't speak for the Price family, I can say that such public and unexpected honoring of a loved one was meaningful to our family four years ago, when my father-in-law (Army Air Corps instructor, 1940's) died. As the cortege left the small town funeral home for the church, we went by the pre-school/day care center, and there were dozens of little children standing on the embankment waving flags. That left some tears of joy mixed in with the tears of grief.
#6
Glenmore. My Dad is still with us. In assisted living, when there's a party of some kind with the relatives and friends visiting, one of the songs you always hear is "God Bless America".
I was reminded of that when I noticed that an assisted living facility on the route had about two dozen folks, and the staff, in chairs on their lawn, with flags.
I also note that, in many of the rooms you'll find references to service in WW II--my father's Silver Star cite framed--or Korea.
Take fifty years off these folks and there'd be hell to pay in some quarters. Domestically, I mean.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/11/2012 17:22
Comments ||
Top||
Long piece about 'recovery plans' and 'resolution plans' by the big five U.S. banks to deal with any new disaster. This shouldn't be big news; it's much like the military having a plan in case we're invaded by Canada.
Interesting read if you're curious, and it does represent some quiet competence (for once) by the Fed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2012
09:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'll have to read it and see what the plans are for keeping the executives' assets protected; i'm sure THOSE plans are well-established.
#2
Safe for government takeover. That is what has happened in the past. South Vietnamese people lost everything they had in the bank. When the Iron Curtain came down many lost everything in their banks. I'd bet this has been going on for a long time. Cuba, Libya, Egypt and perhaps Syria. I can see it now should Obama win the election. We are better able to manage your--our money. Then the buck does stop here.
#3
Unfortunately with 16 trillion in debt and major uncertainty with November election there could easily be a run on money at banks, major loan defaults (private and public) and a stock market flash crash that does not recovery quickly.
Not sure where the breaking point will be but sooner or later there will not be enough liquity to maintain the ever increasing borrowing and printing of money.
Naser Jason Abdo sat alone in court with his hands shackled and a white cloth secured over his mouth and neck. The soldier who went AWOL and plotted to kill other troops outside a Texas Army post remained defiant Friday as he was sentenced to life in prison, not asking for mercy and vowing to never end what he considers his holy war.
"I will continue until the day the dead are called to account for their deeds," Abdo said in a low, gravelly voice through the cloth mask.
A federal judge sentenced Abdo, 22, to two life terms plus additional time. The federal prison system offers no chance of parole. He was convicted of planning what he claimed would have been a massive attack on a Texas restaurant filled with troops from Fort Hood.
Abdo referred to Maj. Nidal Hasan _ the Army psychiatrist soon to be tried in a deadly shooting rampage at that Army post _ as "my brother." He said he lived in Hasan's shadow despite "efforts to outdo him."
Abdo became a Muslim at age 17.
Outside court, prosecutor Mark Frazier said Abdo had come close to carrying out the attack. U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman compared the plot to recent mass shootings at a movie theatre near Denver and a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee.
"In the wake of the tragic events in Colorado and Wisconsin, this is yet another reminder that there are those among us who would use or plan to use violence to advance their twisted agenda," Pitman said.
Arguing for a life sentence, Frazier had said Abdo still presented a threat. The young Muslim's mouth was covered in court, Frazier said, because he had earlier spat his own blood at agents believing he was infected with HIV. That belief turned out to be wrong.
"He felt it was his duty to take lives, even after incarceration," Frazier told the court.
#1
he had earlier spat his own blood at agents believing he was infected with HIV.
so, he's a pious pillowbiter too
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2012 9:36
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yeah. Good luck continuing your "holy war" doing hard time forever at Leavenworth or Florence.
I won't remember your name three days from now. I think I'm not alone. I think the next time I hear it will either be your suicide, murder, or death from old age in about 2065.
#2
a good pick: humble, mature, and smart. Basically the Anti-Biden
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2012 8:45
Comments ||
Top||
#3
It is about the economy. I wish Ryan could have a debate with Obummer. Obummer doesn't have a clue about the economy. Hasn't even had a budget for the first term. Ryan would eat him up.
#4
If the Obummer isn't available, perhaps Ryan could debate Mugabe, Showerhead Zuma, Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, Mandella, or Tutu. They all share the same philosophy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2012 9:46
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Champ will ask Biden to step aside, promising him some other ceremonial spot somewhere for his dotage (which began 20 years ago). Axelrod, Plouffe and Jarrett have to know that Ryan will eat Biden alive in a debate just as he'd wax Champ as John QC says.
Question is who the replacement will be. I don't think it's Hillary; she's done with elections and particularly done with Champ. I wonder if he'd go for Elizabeth Warren; she's ideologically sympatico but she has an unfortunate problem of lying about herself (which makes her a perfect match for Obama).
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2012 9:49
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Yep, the Champ will have to trump Willard's VP pick and we know who he's ready to slam into the breech. Question is now, will she take it?
#9
..if the usual opportunistic Clinton's learned anything, it was how measure the direction of the wind to avoid being dragged down with all the other mindless zealots [witness 'Welfare Reform'] to ruin future political options.
#10
I think it is an excellent choice, and because of his humble yet engaging speaking style, and his expertise, the entire national conversation will be pulled back to the compelling truth about the economy and the disaster of the O'Bumble stewardship.
#12
I tend to think Bambi's too vain to admit a mistake (Biden) and will ride that train over the cliff. (I have a vision of a 4-4-0 woodburner, Bambi and Biden in the cab and as it plunges over the side, the lettering on the tender says 'ACME.')
#14
Last election I preferred Palin over all the rest on either ticket; now I prefer Ryan.
Like Steve White, I think Biden will retire, however I suspect party forces will induce Hillary to step in - and I sure that ticket would be unbeatable. That would however put Zero's life in a lot of danger - Hillary is not the 'life insurance' policy Cheney (or even Biden) was, but more like a death assurance policy. Not (necessarily) because of her ruthless ambition, but because she has a lot of irrational fans.
#15
Wow. Just wow. Romney's just proven to us that he gets it; that he understands the overall Tea Party message and is willing to associate himself with it. After this pick, I'm moving my November Ricky-Ometer election prognosticator needle to "guardedly optimistic."
But stand the f*** by, as we used to say in the navy...we all know damn well that the Obamedia has reams of pre-written, focus-grouped attack material prepared for use against Ryan. When I was a kid, I lived in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, and our house sometimes got overflown at really low altitude by B-52s in the Wright-Pat AFB landing pattern. Those 8 engines would shake the house, rattle the crockery and make any conversation other than "shouted at the top of your lungs" impossible. That noise level is a mouse's whisper compared to the hub-to-hub artillery barrage that's about to be unleashed on Ryan and his family, all the way down to the wife, the little kids and the pet goldfish. The bastards are going to try to Palinize him, make no mistake about it; and I worry that Team Mittens isn't prepared for the shitstorm that's coming their way.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/11/2012 11:21
Comments ||
Top||
#16
Hillary is not the 'life insurance' policy Cheney (or even Biden) was...
I respectfully disagree that Hillary's fans are irrational enough to want to assassinate political opponents - Obamaniac true-believers are a whole 'nother story. If he picked Hillary as his running mate, I think the Clay-Footed Messiah would be looking more for (1) a means of keeping demoralized not-quite-so-far-left Dems from staying home in November and (2) impeachment insurance in case the Trunks take both houses of Congress.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/11/2012 11:41
Comments ||
Top||
#17
#15 A personal injury attorney here in town used to run a billboard ad that had nothing but his picture and the question "Got your check yet?" That is basically Champ's campaign slogan, and picking Ryan sort of plays into that. The attack is going to be that Ryan's budget proposal will stop your check and steal food out of the mouth of little Nell the flower girl (along with any personal trash they can dig up.)
So it's going to be a heck of a fight. But Romney just showed me that he is the possessor of super-solid brass balls, and is willing to fight the battle that needs fighting. At $5 trillion the debt was something to worry about. At $17 trillion it's an existential threat.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/11/2012 12:16
Comments ||
Top||
#18
Hot double-damn!
I've got dibs on the popcorn concession for the Vice Presidential debate. :-D
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/11/2012 12:25
Comments ||
Top||
#19
Palinize him, make no mistake about it; and I worry that Team Mittens isn't prepared for the shitstorm that's coming their way.
Posted by Ricky bin Ricardo
#20
Romney could have chosen someone boring and safe, like Santorum. He however, chose someone the left is already in knots over because he is showing that the feeding trough days are coming to an end. Ryan is the visual representation and leader of the movement to end dhimocratic power.
Now Romney has chosen Ryan and looks to have embraced that fight and is making it the central pillar of his campaign.
I was going to vote for Romney because he wasn't Obama. Now I'm going to vote for the full ticket.
Good choice Romney, but man are the full targets of the left's hate are on your back. This will get ugly.
#21
Hate to rain on anyone's parade, but I think Romney is politically tone-deaf. Ryan has a plan that targets Social Security (many of whose recipients tend to vote for the GOP) and has a laundry list of other things that the Democrats can use as ammo against the Romney campaign.
The crummy thing about Ryan's plan was that it wasn't really one. It provided ammo for the enemy without actually being enacted into law. A plan without practical, step-by-step, actions that are executable in the here and now is not a plan. The D-Day Landings were planned. Ryan's budget "plan" is a dream or at best a vision.
And that "plan" will be mined for ammunition to use against the Romney campaign. The thing with political plans is they always take something from someone to hand over to someone else. That is why it is never wise to get too specific (i.e. burn too many bridges) if you want to run for higher office. The moment Ryan came out with his "plan", it was clear that if he had just given his potential opponents a treasure trove of ammunition to use against him. In politics, when figuring out winners and losers (i.e. making plans), it is generally wise to hold your fire until you see the whites of your adversaries' eyes (i.e. wait until you're elected), especially when the majority of the people negatively affected will come from a demographic that has tended, historically, to vote for your party.
#22
But stand the f*** by, as we used to say in the navy...we all know damn well that the Obamedia has reams of pre-written, focus-grouped attack material prepared for use against Ryan.
Only question is how long it will take them to start circulating it. I'm guessing no more than one news cycle.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/11/2012 13:17
Comments ||
Top||
#23
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/11/2012 13:22
Comments ||
Top||
#24
Ryan is the only politician to actually even hint at the truth about entitlement programs, and for that, he and Romney will be vilified. And libertarians (like Denninger) condemn R&R because they don't go nearly far enough in addressing the problem.
The country is not ready for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but maybe it is ready for at least an introduction? The current path is unsustainable. That which cannot continue forever, won't.
#25
Both Romney and Ryan are squeeky clean and people sense that. Obama and his minions will have to continue to spin lies about the murder of poor women, funding of Bain by death squad money, and Ryan pushing grandma over the cliff. The transparency of the Obama administration has been coming through loud and clear for 3-1/2 years despite all efforts to cover up the cat scat. I have already heard the Obama surrogates talking about Romney being a return to the Bush policies of trickle down economics. However, I have seldom known of poor people to create jobs unless they are willing to work very hard and take risks and work themselves out of their hole.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/11/2012 16:30
Comments ||
Top||
#28
Sounds like a great bumper sticker:
R&R 2012
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/11/2012 16:30
Comments ||
Top||
#29
Yeah, since R&R often stands for "Remove & Replace"
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2012 16:49
Comments ||
Top||
#30
Zhang Fei, Ryan's favorables are highest among seniors, who know his proposals.
Or maybe they like the fresh-faced young man with the matinee idol looks they wish their daughter had married. Until they find out that his Social Security proposals will take a chainsaw to their retirement plans.
#31
Look - I like Ryan. Heck - I like any of the names batted around as VP candidates. The problem is that the media isn't going to view it from my standpoint, that entitlements are out of control.
#32
They are borderline communists who will point out that Ryan deviates from their communist ideals, while identifying the specific demographics who will be hurt by Ryan's proposals - mainly GOP voters who have paid into the system all their lives.
#33
And the GOP voters who eventually see the light, that Ryan is targeting them instead of the wastrels who have never worked a day in their lives, will stay home on Election Day (or vote for Obama) in droves.
#34
Ryan would be great as a hatchet man for a venture capital firm taking over a failing company. He's personable and would make the people being cut feel less bad about the whole process.
#36
Elections are fundamentally different. Voters whose benefits are being targeted by a politician have a say in whether that politician gets elected to office.
#38
Sorry about all the breaks. The spam screener is rejecting a lot of posts based on some unknown word list, so I had to submit them a sentence at a time to figure out what the offending words were. P0ker is apparently one of them.
#39
Something needs to be done about Social Security. I've paid into it all my life and now I want my money back. I cannot believe he is going to cheat people like me out of it. But I recently received a letter from the good folks at Social Security telling me all about how much money I can get from the system and when. I found it highly insulting. IT'S MY MONEY, DAMMIT! I CAN'T STAND THE IDEA OF BIG BROTHER TELLING ME WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT DO WITH MY MONEY. OK. Calm down. Whatever the Dims say about how Paul Ryan is gonna keep me from getting my checks I do not believe. I do believe they lie all the time. I do believe they will keep stealing from me as long as they can. I do believe that something needs to be done about Social Security, Medicare and ObamaCare. They are all frickin' communism. They need to be phased out in a manner that does not steal from the people who have paid into it but they need to be phased out.
#40
All you people who think you paid into Social Security and will get YOUR money back - wrong. Your money was already spent. On whatever government wanted to spend it on. And those who already got Social Security payments received a lot more than they put in. The ONLY way you will get your money back out of it is if your kids (statistically speaking) pay more than enough in to cover your payout. Demographically and eventually politically impossible. That which cannot continue forever, won't.
#44
Actually, ZF, Ryan's favorables are specifically among seniors who are deeply concerned about unfunded entitlements burdening the young. And Ryan's plan (which will not be Romney's, per se) does NOT reduce benefits for current seniors.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/11/2012 19:55
Comments ||
Top||
#47
I like Ryan (as much as I can like any politician). Heard him speak once at a Miami-Ohio grad (his alma mater) a couple yrs back - good speaker, solid message, & the guy got a legit standing O. His words today wrt God given/natural rights was the spot on message. The American people have a choice - big gov't interventionism into their life or a return to founding principles. Entitlements (misnomer word) vs. Reality. I know which one I will choose for my children and me.
If the avg voter cannot take the fiscal bad news that our current trajectory is unsustainable than they are b*tches & get the bankrupty they will deserve. SS and Medicare in current form are unsustainable. Obamacare is fiscally retarded. If the avg voter is so ignorant as to re-elect President Post Turtle after his 3 1/2 yr track record of failure than I say we are a pathetic excuse of a nation, and already f*cked. Atlas will eventually shrug and I will be happy for that day as it means a new beginning can start in motion. I would say more but am in fear of the tequila that I have already consumed this evening will force me to even more over-zealous ranting.
Actually, I like Ryan. Unfortunately, nobody cares, outside of Rantburg and various conservative ghettos websites (1% of total web traffic, combined, on a really good day, if you wish really, really hard) that we think he's a great guy, just as nobody cared we though Palin was Reagan redux. The problem is voters will see his "plan" in excruciating detail over the months ahead, and decide "no thanks".
#49
Zhang Fe raises legitimate points. I like Congressman Ryan. Mr. Wife's response was, "That's a really dumb choice," though he didn't explain because he is suffering from an early case of the flu.
#51
No one enjoys balancing the checkbook, cutting up the credit cards, admitting that they have been profligate and short-sighted, and facing reality. But they know they're completely screwed if they don't.
Seems to me, ZF doesn't have a problem with Ryan, but that ZF has no faith in voters. They did, after all, choose Ogabe. But that was 2008, and it ain't 2008 anymore.
So I'm a little more optimistic. After four years of circling the drain while the Dear Leader takes credit for anything good while refusing to take responsibility for anything bad, people just might be ready to give the other guy a try.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney intends to name Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his vice presidential running mate for the fall campaign, party officials said early Saturday, turning to the architect of a conservative and intensely controversial long-term budget plan to remake Medicare and cut trillions in federal spending.
These officials said a formal announcement was set for Norfolk, Va., as the newly minted Republican ticket begins a bus tour through four battleground states in as many days. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose the decision.
In a statement issued Friday night, Romney's campaign said only that the running mate would be present at 9 a.m. EDT at the Nauticus Museum. The USS Wisconsin is berthed there offering a hint about Ryan's selection.
Ryan's selection as well as Romney's own nomination will be ratified by delegates to the Republican National Convention that begins on Aug. 27 in Tampa, Fla.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden will be nominated for a second term at the Democratic convention the following week.
At 42, Ryan is a generation younger than the 65-year-old Romney.
His conservative credentials are highly regarded by fellow Republican House members, while numerous polls found that Romney's own were suspect among the party's core supporters during the primaries of winter and spring.
President Obamas campaign has imitated the dishonesty of his super PAC, to judge from a fact check of a badly misleading television ad that comes very close to accusing Mitt Romney of committing tax fraud.
Theres so much deceit here we hardly know where to start, explains Brooks Jackson at FactCheck.org, which is run by Annenberg Public Policy Center. Hes commenting on a new ad that strongly suggests Romney committed tax fraud. It wasnt Romney who was avoiding taxes, it was Marriott Corp. And theres no evidence to support the ads speculation that Romney himself paid no income tax, or that he did something illegal, Jackson had already noted.
Jackson also noted that the central claims of the ad are attributed to CNN, with only the fine print acknowledging that it was an opinion piece.
Israel willingly acceded to Cairo's request for permission to deploy fighter planes and armored troop carriers in Sinai, which was ruled a demilitarized buffer zone under their 1979 peace treaty. It shared an interest in President Mohamed Morsi's counter-terror offensive against lawless Islamist bands.
But when sensational reports started coming in from Cairo about non-existent Egyptian victories in which an improbable "60 gunmen killed," they realized the "offensive" was largely bogus.
According to debkafile's intelligence sources, Washington and Jerusalem strongly suspect that they should be worried about what the Muslim Brotherhood president is really up, especially after the sweep he conducted Wednesday, Aug. 8 of pro-Western military officers and other moves.
Morsi's highhanded actions, especially in the case of Gen. Mowafi, are seen in Washington and Jerusalem as the first steps in the Brotherhood's takeover of the Egyptian army.
Until then, President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood's leadership were deemed two separate and competing power bases in Cairo, with the president ready to defy the Brotherhood by leaning on the supreme military council for support. This perception broke down in the aftermath of the terrorist raid of Aug. 5 in which 17 Egyptian troops were murdered at their Mansoura base in northern Sinai. By his subsequent actions, Morsi put paid to the impression, which was supported by many high-ranking members of Israel's security community, that the Egyptian president of two months had chosen an independent path and was ready to break ranks with the Brotherhood.
Wednesday, Aug. 8, with considerable fanfare, Morsi sacked key military officials in an apparent purge of those responsible for the Sinai debacle. Chief of intelligence Gen. Mourad Mowafi was sent into retirement and Maj. Gen. Mohamed Shahata given an interim appointment in his stead. The same bulletin announced that the head of the Supreme Military Council and defense minister, Field Marshal Tantawi, had fired the head of the military police, Maj. Gen. Hamdy Badeen.
Our sources disclose that Tantawi had no part in this or any other military dismissals, although they were his prerogative. Morsi quite simply seized the moment to appropriate the top military command's authority for the first time by taking upon himself the firing and hiring of military officers.
The president furthermore sacked the head of the Republican Guard, the division responsible for safeguarding the president and members of his regime and replaced him with an officer loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood, Maj. Gen. Hamed Zaky.
Morsi's highhanded actions, especially in the case of Gen. Mowafi, are seen in Washington and Jerusalem as the first steps in the Brotherhood's takeover of the Egyptian army. Mowafi had to go because he stood in the way of Muslim Brotherhood objectives. It was he who raised the alarm for months about an impending terrorist attack on the Egyptian-Gaza-Israel border junction and urged the deployment of attack helicopters for preemptive missile attacks on their networks.
Three U.S. Marines have been shot dead by an Afghan worker on a military base in southern Afghanistan, in a deadly 24 hours for NATO-led forces during which six American soldiers were killed in rogue attacks.
The shooting took place on Friday night in the Garmsir district of Helmand province, where three U.S. special forces soldiers were killed by an Afghan policeman and comrades earlier in the day.
"Let me clearly say that those two incidents clearly do not reflect the overall situation here in Afghanistan," the chief NATO force spokesman, Brigadier-General Gunter Katz, told reporters on Saturday.
The three Marines were shot by a base employee who turned a gun on them, in the third rogue attack in four days. Foreign military sources said the man had not been wearing a uniform and it was unclear how he got hold of the weapon.
The gunman had been detained and a joint Afghan-NATO investigation team was reviewing security and looking into the reason for the attack.
#1
THE REAL RULES IF ANY OF JIHAD HAVE BEEN MIS_DONE BY US GOVERNMENT LACKY"S> TROOPS NEVER HAVE REALLY BEEN INFORMED AT ALL! STATE DEPARTMENT IS PAST COMPROMISED ALONG WITH REST OF IT!
#2
You know if you start treating actions like this just as they've treated collateral damage civilian deaths with relief and career ending admonishments to the chain of command, you'd see a change of behavior.
[Dawn] A house and a private clinic were damaged when a powerful improvised bomb went off at Scheme Chowk in the limits of Badhber cop shoppe here on Thursday.
Police said that the bomb was planted near the residence of Ghulab Sher that destroyed a wall of his house and a portion of a private clinic. The family members of Mr Sher remained unhurt in the blast.
They said that a charity organization was also functioning in the building where the bomb was planted. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... it was learnt that owner of the building had close association with the leaders of Bazidkhel Qaumi Lashkar and he might have been targeted by beturbanned goons.
Police said that the owner of the building had so far nominated no one in the case.
A police official said that about five kilograms of kaboom was packed in a pressure cooker that was planted near the building. It was a time device, he added.
Also, anther bomb planted at a cycle of violence that was parked in the middle of Matani Bazaar was defused by police.
"We timely informed the Bomb Disposal Unit officials, who defused the bomb," an official of Matani cop shoppe said.
He said that a search operation was launched in the area to arrest the people involved in the sabotage bid.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
The United States denounced the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for backing Bashar al-Assad on Friday, and added it to a list of organizations under sanctions for their ties to the Syrian regime. Hezbollah has been providing training, advice and extensive logistical support to the government of Syria, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement announcing the financial penalties.
The Treasury Department's latest actions against Syria will freeze any assets Hezbollah may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit Americans and U.S. companies from dealing with them. Washington already classes Hezbollah a "terrorist organization" and it is under U.S. sanctions, but Friday's move explicitly ties the group to the violence underway in Syria, where Assad is attempting to put down a revolt.
Hezbollah was added to a blacklist associated with an executive order signed by U.S. President Barack Obama in August last year which targeted the government of Syria and its supporters. Those sanctions were designed increase pressure on Damascus as Washington called for the first time for Assad to step down over his military assault on rebelling Syrians opposed to his rule. But 17 months after the start of the uprising the Syrian leader remains in power, and more than 20,000 people have been killed.
Earlier, the United States said it was preparing to announce new sanctions targeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its supporters, a U.S. government official said on Friday. The new measures are expected to target Assad's government as well as possibly Iranian entities that the United States accuse of assisting Assad.
The United States also slapped sanctions Friday on the Syrian state oil company Sytrol for trading with Iran, in bid to starve the regimes in both Tehran and Damascus of much-needed revenue.
[Dawn] A young factory worker was killed, three other persons were maimed in firing and two buses and a shop torched on Thursday in Orangi Town violence that erupted after a man was killed in a clash over collection of Zakat and Fitra in Bangla Bazaar, police said.
The violence was sparked on Wednesday evening when three people, including an activist of the Pakistain People's Party, were attacked in the market in a dispute over collection of money by a group distributing Zakat and Fitra slips in the market, said a police brass hat of the area.
"The dispute was over how another group was distributing slips of 'Fitra' to collect money from the market," the officer added.
Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... PPP leaders said that the party worker, Javed Behari, was rubbed out for refusing to take the slip for payment of Fitra.
Immediately following the incident, the area reverberated with intense firing forcing closure of all markets within the remit of the Pakistain Bazaar cop shoppe.
In the early hours of Thursday, Mr Behari died during treatment at a private hospital.
In the morning, almost all the markets and shops remained shut and as the news of the death spread, violence broke out in the area. Sector 13 and 15 of Orangi Town were the worst-hit areas, with reports of complete market closure and heavy firing.
Three passengers and a pedestrian were maimed in firing on a bus, the police said, adding that one of them, Adil aka Bablu, was shifted to Qatar Hospital where he died.
The other victims -- Farzana Naseem, 35, Rani Bibi, 20, and Mohammad Naeem -- were rushed to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where they were admitted for treatment.
Adil was a resident of Orangi Town Sector 13-G and heading to a garment factory, where he used to work, when he sustained fatal gunshot wounds, the police said, adding that his family took away the body from the hospital without completing medico-legal formalities.
Following the gun attack on the passenger bus, a tailor's shop, a bus of Z-4 route and a 7-star coach were set on fire near Islam Coach. Around a dozen of pushcarts were torched in Sector 15.
Bloody Karachi Division PPP General Secretary Syed Najmi Alam strongly condemned the killing of the party worker, Mr Behari.
He said 'terrorists' were distributing slips for Zakat and Fitra in Bangla Bazaar and they opened fire on him when he declined to accept the slip.
Mr Alam said that every citizen of Bloody Karachi knew who distributed and collected Zakat and Fitra here and those refusing to pay were murdered. He called upon the law-enforcement agencies to rid the people of the menace of extortion in the name of Zakat and Fitra. He also demanded immediate arrest of the 'identified' suspected killers.
Following the funeral at a local mosque, Mr Behari was laid to rest in the Orangi Town Sector 15-D graveyard.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Repeat after me. Islam is a religion of peace. Islam is a religion of peace.
Say it enough and it becomes true, right?
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/11/2012 8:57
Comments ||
Top||
#2
conflicts in extortion rackets. very Islamic
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2012 9:32
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Say it enough and it becomes true, right?
A lie is still a lie regardless.
The proof is in the Pudding.
And
Tell the truth and the world stands with you, Lie and you stand alone.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/11/2012 10:44
Comments ||
Top||
[Yemen Post] A Yemeni senior army officer died on Thursday after targeting his car with an bomb in the Mukalla city in the south, the defense ministry reported.
Brigadier Omer Salim Barashid, who held the post of director of leadership and staff colleague at the defense ministry, was maimed after the kaboom that was believed to be planted inside his car while parked in the Bajuman area, it said.
He was admitted to hospital and died from his wounds, it added.
No one has grabbed credit for the attack and the ministry said an investigation is underway.
Yemen, which is experiencing a democratic transition under a power-transfer deal sponsored and closely watched by the West, is facing increasing bombings including suicide ones as the country is continuing an extensive hunt for Al-Qaeda operatives.
In recent weeks, the authorities defused many bombs which were planned to target key installations in main cities including the capital Sanaa amid fragile security and persistent political and economic unrest.
In April and May, the Yemeni army launched a US-backed offensive against Al-Qaeda beturbanned goons and retook control of key towns in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... and Shabwa. Hundreds of beturbanned goons including big shots were killed and placed in long-term storage Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! in the offensive.
Al-Qaeda has carried out deadly attacks against military and security chiefs, personnel and offices in retaliation for the severe blows in Abyan and Shabwa provinces.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
[An Nahar] An Indian man beat feet from al-Qaeda-linked faceless myrmidons Friday after being held captive in the southern Philippines for nearly 14 months.
Bijo Kolara Veetil escaped before dawn Friday as his Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... captors were preparing breakfast, said Sulu provincial police chief Antonio Freyra.
A heavily bearded Veetil, 37, later told news hounds at a hospital that after he slipped out of the thugs' encampment in the hinterlands of Patikul township, a villager brought him to a provincial official, who handed him to police. He was then taken to the hospital.
Veetil, who worked as an operations manager for a garment company in Kuwait, said he was kidnapped in June 2011 while visiting his wife's family in Patikul.
The kidnappers demanded about 300,000 pesos ($7,100) in ransom, but his family refused to pay. He said he wasn't harmed because he is a Moslem.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Gabon said Friday it has banned gatherings by supporters of leading opposition figure Andre Mba Obame to mark his return to the country after 14 months abroad for health reasons.
Mba Obame, who was interior minister under the late president Omar Bongo, declared himself president in January last year after rejecting the election of the former leader's son Ali Bongo in 2009.
His action resulted in the regime officially dissolving his National Union Party, one of two main opposition groups in the west African nation. He claims the 2009 election was rigged.
Gabon presidential front man Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze said any gathering by his supporters to mark Mba Obame's return on Saturday "were not authorised," and that an apparent increase in security in Libreville was not connected.
Mba Obame risks a possible jail term of up to a year if he is convicted of disturbing public order over his 2011 proclamation, after his parliamentary immunity was lifted, his lawyer Lubin Ntoutoume said.
Mba Obame has spent about 14 months away having medical treatment in South Africa and La Belle France for a back problem.
"Thirteen months after I left Gabon in a wheelchair, I will be back very soon on both legs," he said last month from La Belle France. "Let those who reported me dead prepare to battle my ghost!"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Gunmen rubbed out Libyan army general and high-ranking defense ministry official Mohamed Hadia on Friday in the eastern city of Benghazi, one of his sons told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"My father was returning from the mosque after Friday prayers with a neighbor when a car stopped in front of them with four people on board," Ahmad Hadia said.
"They asked for his identity, then shot him dead," he added.
The motive for the murder was not immediately clear and the identity of the gunnies unknown.
Hadia was one of the first officers to defect and join the opposition during last year's revolution that ousted Muammar Qadaffy ...whose instability was an inspiration to dictators everywhere, but whose end couldn't possibly happen to them... After the revolution he was appointed head of armaments at the defense ministry.
Hadia is the latest of dozens of security officials murdered in Benghazi, especially of officers who had served under Qadaffy.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Dawn] Pakistain and Afghanistan are in talks on the release of Afghan prisoners, a Pak foreign ministry official confirmed Friday. A key member of the Taliban, whose 2010 arrest in Pakistain was blamed for sabotaging peace initiatives, is presumed to be one of the prisoners.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a powerful Taliban military chief who has been described as the militia's second in command, was tossed in the clink Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in the port city of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... .
The Afghan government and the former UN envoy to Afghanistan said his detention had adversely affected efforts to talk to the turbans.
"The issue of prisoners is under discussion between the two countries," foreign ministry front man Moazzam Ahmad Khan told news hounds when asked to comment on Afghan demands for access to Baradar and for his release.
The front man did not name any prisoner or give further details, but when asked, confirmed that Baradar was still in Pak custody.
Baradar is the most important Taliban leader to be captured since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Afghan militia from power in Kabul.
He was known as a trusted aide to the Taliban's elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Shortly after Baradar's arrest, the Pentagon said two other Taliban officials were tossed in the clink Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! , also understood to have been captured in Pakistain.
Afghanistan's top peace negotiator Salahuddin Rabbani was due in Islamabad earlier this week to discuss Pakistain's possible role in the reconciliation efforts. Rabbani was most likely to demand Pakistain's help in bringing the Taliban leadership to the negotiating table as well as the release of Taliban leaders like Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who Afghans believe could be very helpful for the reconciliation process.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... Rabbani -- who took over from his father Burhanuddin Rabbani ... the gentlemanly murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan... as chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, delayed his visit due to Pak-Afghan tensions over cross-border shelling.
In March 2010, Kai Eide, the then just retired UN envoy to Afghanistan, said the arrest of key Taliban in Pakistain had stopped a secret channel of communication between the forces of Evil and the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... .
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... has repeatedly invited the Taliban to open direct talks with his government and on Pakistain to facilitate an end to the 10-year war.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Hezbollah could attack Europe at any time and with little to no warning, US State Department's counter-terrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin said Friday according to [the French Press Agencie], shortly after the US Treasury announced a fresh round of economic sanctions against the Lebanon-based terrorist group.
"Hezbollah maintains a presence in Europe and its recent activities demonstrate that it is not constrained by concerns about collateral damage or political fallout that could result from conducting operations there,"Benjamin said." We assess that Hezbollah could attack in Europe or elsewhere at any time with little or no warning."
Benjamin warned that Hezbollah could become increasingly violent as international sanctions threaten Syria and Iran, its patron-states. "Both remain determined to exact revenge against Israel and to respond forcefully to the Western-led pressure against Iran and Syria," he said.
Though dispelling fears that Hezbollah could be active in the United States, Benjamin said that the group has "stepped up terrorist campaign around the world... It's a very ambitious group with global reach."
#1
Anytime they REALLY want to commit suicide, hit Europe,, they damn near did on 9-11, hit Europe and we might just decide that they aren't worth living anymore.
It hangs in the balance now?
Help US decide, Please, are you really worth keeping alive, or not.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/11/2012 0:35
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Just generating arguments for intervention in Syria.
#9
Hizb'allah probably has cells in the US that have come through our well protected porous sieve borders. Of course State or DHS will say nothing of this.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/11/2012 19:06
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Is it me, or do I see a vast s*it storm in the future?
[Iran Press TV] At least 10 civilians have been killed in a mortar attack carried out by Islamic fascistiin the Syrian village of Damina al-Sharqiya in the Homs governorate, Press TVreports.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... Syrian security forces have regained control of the main square in the Mashhad district of the northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , but Syrian forces are currently still fighting Islamic fascistiin the district.
In addition, the Syrian Army killed dozens of Islamic fascistiin the Manin district of Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- A librarian at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said demand for "Harry Potter" books has dwindled as "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" surges in popularity.
The Defense Department civilian contractor, who gave his name only as Milton, said there has been an overall drop in demand for library items from the 168 remaining detainees at the base -- many of whom are marking their 11th year of detention -- with a particular drop in popularity for J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter series," the Miami Herald reported Thursday.
However, Milton said there has been an upsurge in requests for DVDs of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," a 1990s sitcom starring Will Smith.
"I just ordered all six seasons," the librarian said. He did not give any explanation for the popularity of the series other than to say many detainees use library materials to help build their English skills.
Posted by: AU Auric ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Screw that. Find some DVDs of naked women eating bacon.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/11/2012 11:52
Comments ||
Top||
Australia's High Court reinstated a terrorism conviction Friday against a former Australian airline worker who published on the Internet a do-it-yourself book on how to wage holy war against non-Moslems.
The five judges unanimously overturned a lower court's 2-1 majority decision that had quashed Sydney resident Belal Sadallah Khazaal's conviction for producing a book knowing it was connected with assisting in a terrorist act. There was no evidence that it had resulted in a terrorist attack.
[An Nahar] Moslem jihadists occupying northern Mali on Thursday said they had cut off the hand of a thief in accordance with strict Islamic law which they have imposed on the population.
The first reported amputation since the Orcs and similar vermin seized the north of the country four months ago came as diplomats warned of a ticking time-bomb which could put the world at risk if the region becomes a safe haven for terrorists.
As west African mediators attempt to engage in talks with the Islamist groups and the option of military intervention lies untried, the Orcs and similar vermin carried out a further grisly religious punishment.
They have already stoned an unwed couple to death and beaten other people.
"Yes, I confirm it. We applied sharia in Ansongo yesterday (Wednesday). The hand of a thief was cut off. Sharia demands it," a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), Mohamed Ould Abdine, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
A local government official in the town south of Gao, one of the chief centers of the vast desert region in northern Mali, said he witnessed the public amputation.
"I am in Gao now, but yesterday I was in Ansongo. There was a lot of blood when the hand was cut. It was the hand of a thief who stole a cycle of violence," he told AFP.
Abdine said the sentence was "the law of God".
On Sunday scores of protesters swarmed the main square in Gao to prevent Islamists from cutting off the hand of a another thief, but Abdine said the sentence had only been put off.
"We will do the same thing in Gao soon. Last time we postponed because of the intervention of important people and not the population. The population can't do anything," he said.
In the small town of Aguelhok, another armed Islamist group, Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith), publicly stoned an unmarried couple to death in late July. They have forced women to cover up and whipped smokers and drinkers.
In the ancient city of Timbuktu, Ansar Dine have destroyed World Heritage shrines dating back to the 15th century, denouncing them as idolatrous.
The Islamist groups, which security experts say are acting under the aegis of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), seized key northern cities in the chaos following a coup d'etat in Bamako on March 22.
The takeover was spearheaded by Tuareg rebels seeking an independent state for their nomadic desert tribe, but the Orcs and similar vermin have pushed them aside and seek an Islamic state in the zone -- an area larger than La Belle France or Texas.
U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... on Wednesday called on the Security Council to impose sanctions against the bad boys, slamming the "callous" destruction of nine of Timbuktu's 16 religious shrines.
Ban said the 15-nation council should "give serious consideration to the imposition of targeted travel and financial sanctions against individuals or groups in Mali engaged in terrorist, religious bad boy or criminal activities."
In Bamako, the interim authorities who took over from the junta have stood by helplessly as the Islamists have deepened their hold, and are now working to form a stronger unity government on the orders of west African mediators.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has 3,300 troops on standby to deploy in Mali, and the U.N. Security Council is ready to approve this, but is awaiting a formal request from Bamako.
Meanwhile diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis have been stepped up and chief ECOWAS mediator, Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now... Foreign Minister Djibril Bassole, met with leaders of Ansar Dine in Mali on Tuesday.
Ansar Dine leader Iyad Ag Ghaly said he accepts the mediation efforts, but Bassole urged them to distance themselves from "terrorists" such as AQIM as a pre-requisite for peace talks.
But French U.N. envoy Gerard Araud has predicted that military action to recover the lost territory is unavoidable.
"There will be a military intervention because you do not negotiate with al-Qaeda. You have to fight these people," he said in an interview Tuesday.
Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, warned that if Mali is allowed to become a safe haven for terrorist networks "no country in Africa or outside the continent will be safe."
"We are running out of time in Mali. Every day that we dither and postpone concrete action offers the bully boyz and criminal networks yet another opportunity to consolidate, another opportunity to commit atrocious war crimes," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Ansar Dine
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Egypt massed troops and carried out arrests on Friday to quell Islamist forces of Evil in Sinai as President Mohamed Morsi visited an outpost where forces of Evil killed 16 soldiers, prompting the unprecedented crackdown.
Egypt also temporarily reopened the Rafah border crossing into the Gazoo Strip, which was closed after Sunday's ambush on the border guard outpost, to allow stranded Paleostinians back into Gazoo.
The government and the military appeared determined to restore their grip on the lawless peninsula, but residents say their claims to have already killed 20 forces of Evil and captured six "terrorists" were mere propaganda.
State news agency MENA said six "terrorist elements" were incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! during patrols in the North Sinai province and a security source branded them as Islamist hardliners suspected of belong to a jihadist group.
But residents of the town of Sheikh Zuayyed said nine people, including two elderly men, were incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in the morning from their homes, with all insisting the men were devout Moslems without links to Islamist bully boys.
One woman told AFP that her husband, Eid Saeed Salama, 72, was feeding his goats when he was taken away.
And a neighbour said government forces stormed her impoverished house and seized her 68-year-old husband Selmi Salama Sweilam who was sleeping, dragging him away "naked".
"Armed men came in. One of them hit me and I fell to the ground," she said, adding that the government forces also made off with 45,000 pounds (around $7,450, 6,000 euros).
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Bangla Daily Star] The lone surviving gunman of 26/11, Ajmal Kasab, was on Thursday night confronted with terror suspect Abu Jundal at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai and he identified the latter as "one of the main conspirators" behind the attacks in Mumbai.
After the Maharashtra government gave permission to bring the two face to face, the Crime Branch of the Mumbai police took Jundal to the high-security jail, where Kasab has been lodged in a bomb-proof egg-shaped cell since 2008.
The two were interrogated together for at least one-and-a-half hours. During the interface, Kasab said Jundal was one of the main conspirators, police sources said.
Earlier during interrogation, Jundal, one of the handlers of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack, made some revelations about training imparted to forces of Evil in Pakistain. He allegedly told the police that he had taught Hindi to the 26/11 attackers.
Jundal was allegedly in contact with two forces of Evil during the siege of Chabad House, a Jewish outreach centre, on November 26, 2008.
Jundal also said he had met Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... operative David Headley, a co-accused in the 26/11 case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Wehell, I'm impressed - three from Penn State mentioned in one Artic.
Save for holding the weapon, ole' Ajmal looks like he's making an order to go from the HUB or PSU Creamery.
[Bangla Daily Star] A bombing and a shooting against a police patrol and a city council member in Iraq killed four people and maimed four others yesterday [Friday], security and medical officials said.
"Three coppers were killed and two others maimed by a bomb targeting their patrol in Al-Muqdadiyah this morning," said a police lieutenant colonel in the town, which lies in restive Diyala province.
And just outside the city of Haditha, in Anbar province northwest of the capital, city councilman Nabil Shaaker was killed and two of his brothers maimed when gunnies fired on their car, according to a police lieutenant colonel and doctor Dr Omar Adil at the city's hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian politician has stressed that the US and Israeli conspiracies against Syria are doomed to fail, calling on the Turkish government to exercise prudence concerning Middle East developments.
"Maybe some Syrian people have objections to their government's performance, but they certainly prefer their government and country to foreign-backed beturbanned goons," deputy head of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Mansour Haqiqatpour, noted on Friday.
"Turkey, as a Moslem state, was and still is expected to exercise more caution in the face of US conspiracies in the region," he added.
Haqiqatpour stated that the United States and Israel will target Turkey after Syria, given the fact that Washington and Tel Aviv cannot tolerate a Moslem state in the Middle East unless it is a puppet regime.
The MP further urged the regional states to be more vigilant in the face of US and Israeli plots.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
US, Israel plots against Syria doomed to fail: Iran lawmaker
Dream on Islamic turd.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/11/2012 23:19
Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] Residents in central Nigeria said Thursday that police have raided scores of homes and beaten unarmed civilians while searching for the perpetrators of a church massacre that killed 19 people this week.
The police front man in Kogi state, where the church slaughter occurred late Monday in the city of Okene, denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not!
"Police are going around in the area (Okene) trying to get at the criminals, so there is not anything to worry about," front man Simon Ile said.
One Okene resident told Agence La Belle France Presse that police "went door to door" early Thursday and that many people have fled the city.
"They beat up residents and made arrests," he said. "Policemen broke into my home and whipped me as I couldn't flee because of the fracture on my leg."
Another resident offered a similar account. "We had to run away from our homes because of the raids by armed coppers who went house to house," he said.
Asked if there had been any reports of violence between residents and officers, Ile said, "no," adding that police had cast a "dragnet everywhere until the case is solved."
A top U.S. rights group urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Charles Evans Hughes ... to press the issue of abuses by security forces when she meets with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... later Thursday.
Under the guise of investigating violent attacks, "security agents have rounded up hundreds of people and routinely tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! them incommunicado without charge or trial," Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said in a statement this week.
Gunmen stormed an evangelical church in Okene on Monday and cut the electricity before opening fire on the worshippers inside, killing at least 19 people.
On Tuesday, assailants shot at troops guarding a government building in central Okene, killing two soldiers.
No group has claimed the attacks, but Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Islamists have repeatedly targeted both Christians and the security services in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.
Police said they have tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... three suspects in connection with the Kogi church massacre and subsequent shooting.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram
#1
Muzzies complaining about police brutality = police is doing its job.
[Iran Press TV] Syrian security forces have regained control of the main square of the Mashhad district of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , Press TV reports.
The Syrian Army pushed out foreign-backed cut-throats in the area early on Saturday morning.
Syrian troops also foiled two attempted bombings in the city's Bab al-Nairab district as part of a major military operation to clear the flashpoint city of gangs on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Iran Press TV] Sen. Scott Downtown Scotty Brown (R-MA) on Friday accused the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of favoring his Democratic rival, Elizabeth Warren, because they complied with a 1993 bipartisan federal law that requires states to provide voter registrations to people seeking public assistance like welfare.
New York-based think tank Demos in May sued Massachusetts and eight other states for not complying with the National Voter Registration Act. The state responded by sending out more than 500,000 voter registrations to welfare recipients at taxpayers' expense.
On Friday, Brown sent out a statement demanding that Warren reimburse the state for $276,000 because her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, chaired the board at Demos.
"It's been disturbing for a lot of people to learn that the state's welfare department undertook an unprecedented voter registration drive at the behest of Elizabeth Warren's daughter and the organization she represents," Brown said. "It is clear that this was done to aid Elizabeth Warren's Senate campaign. Professor Warren has more than $13 million dollars in her campaign account, and if she wants to mail every welfare recipient a voter registration form, she should do so at her own expense, not taxpayers."
"She should immediately reimburse the state for the cost of this mailing and stop playing politics with the taxpayers' money."
But Warren told WFXT that Demos was working to enforce the law before her daughter joined the organization.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Brown acknowledged that registering welfare recipients would only hurt his bid to stay in office.
"It means that I'm going to have to work that much harder to get out my pro-jobs, pro-free enterprise message," Brown said. Raw Story
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Taxpayers ought to have the vote, not so tax consumers. And that goes for politicians, who pay taxes out of what they loot from the taxpayer." Ilana Mercer (April 24, 2007)
#2
Yeah, but don't the welfare recipients still have to fill out the form and mail it back? That takes a lot of effort, you know. And then on election day they still have to get up off their fat asses and find the polling place. Won't they need somebody from ACORN to give them a ride?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/11/2012 13:07
Comments ||
Top||
#4
There was an article in our local newspaper in the last few days. The gist of the article was that University students were obtaining fake IDs over the internet that were produced overseas and guaranteed to pass inspection. Students had two IDs, one a very good fake and one that was a honest driver's license with hologram, picture, etc. The bar owner had a collection of some of these fake IDs that had been confiscated. In the accompanying picture with the story most IDs looked to be the size of a driver's license. He said many of the IDs were so good that often the police could not detect them.
What I am wondering is the this:
1. If the police can't detect these fakes, how is the election board supposed to detect these fakes?
2. What would prevent students (or recruited voters) who are, for the most part Obama supporters, to use both IDs to vote for Obama?
#6
Jon Stewart says there are only 0.7 cases of fraud per state per year. And apparantly none of the ACORN fraudulent registrations resulted in either ACORN convictions or fraudulent votes. And no fraudulent voting by dead people has ever been proven in Chicago (so it does not happen and we don't need to work to prevent it). I learned all this from comments on a liberal friend's post.
#7
Minnesota Majority says that there have been 113 convictions due to felons voting in the 2008 elections. Their statistics come out of the 2.9 million Minnesota voters who voted in 2008, or about 0.004 percent of the 2008 voting population.
A recent posting at RB said there were an estimated 1000 felons who voted in Minnesota. The number of voters who voted and shouldn't have can swing an election in a swing state that is close.
[Iran Press TV] At least five people have been killed and several of others injured in an attack by a US liquidation drone in southern Somalia, Press TV reports.
The attack took place in Kismayo, a strategically important port city on Somalia's Indian Ocean coast located some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of capital, Mogadishu.
More than two dozen people have also sustained injuries in the attack.
The incident comes while on August 5 another US drone attack claimed the lives of nine people in outskirts of Afmadow, which is on the border with Kenya.
According to Somali Transitional Federal Government military officer Cali Jimcale, the drone attack was launched from a base in Kenya.
The US has recently stepped up its drone operations in the famine-stricken Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Iran Press TV] A US assassination drone attack has killed at least three people in eastern Yemen, Press TV reports.
The strike occurred in Abyan province on Friday.
The US has launched numerous drone attacks in Yemen that have killed many innocent civilians over the past few years.
Washington claims it is targeting militants but witness reports and details provided by local officials indicate that civilians are the main victims of the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
[Dawn] IMRAN Khan wants to lead a 'peace caravan' to South Wazoo to protest drone strikes, but the TTP is having none of it. Speaking to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, a TTP front man Ihsanullah Ihsan has condemned Khan and his 'liberal' politics and declared that if the PTI does try to hold his political rally in South Waziristan, the TTP shura will convene to decide how to respond. While the spokesperson did yesterday reject that he had threatened to kill Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... , the crux of his accusation against the latter and the democratic system stand: the PTI chief is a liberal infidel and the democratic system is un-Islamic. To some, the TTP's outrageous claims will be a definitive rebuttal of the oft-repeated allegation that Mr Khan is soft on terrorism and that he misrepresents the real reasons for the existence of Islamist violence in Pakistain and the region. After all, how can 'Taliban Khan' be a friend of the Taliban if they denounce him in emphatic terms?
But that would be to miss the point. The TTP's loathing for the way Pak state and society is organised is so extreme that even flawed political narratives that are part of mainstream Pakistain are viewed as repugnant and worthy of elimination by the TTP and like-minded jihad boys. The denunciation of the PTI's political platform by the TTP is first and foremost about the danger that violent radicalism continues to pose in Pakistain -- nobody is safe, not even those who take up causes, such as opposing
drone strikes, that would seemingly work to the benefit of faceless myrmidons themselves.
There is, however, another, perhaps more subtle, point at work here: the politics of Imran Khan, the religious right and even other mainstream centre-right parties in Pakistain help perpetuate the confusion and uncertainty that prevents the public from truly understanding the threat militancy poses to the state of Pakistain and the fabric of society. When Mr Khan argues that if it weren't for the 'foreign occupation' of Afghanistan, militancy in Pakistain would be a virtually non-existent phenomenon -- a historically and factually incorrect theory -- it only serves to deepen the societal confusion about Islamist militancy that has been nurtured by the security establishment since the days of the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. The Taliban want to remake Pakistain in their own frightening and grotesque image, as TTP spokesperson Ihsan proudly stated. Until they are defeated and the mindset they represent decisively rolled back in society, Pakistain will be in danger. That, more than anything else, is the message the political class should be sending Paks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#2
Yeah, so if the UN intervenes the terrorists get what they want. And after they get one province they'll start pushing into another. Sounds like the kind of plan Obama would endorse.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/11/2012 12:42
Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] LONDON'S spectacular Olympic opening ceremony showed a nation at ease with itself. It mixed England's green and pleasant land with the grime of the Industrial Revolution before transforming into a modern portrait of a country where everyone has a contribution to make.
A hint of bhangra, a heavy dose of rap and a scene showing West Indian immigrants arriving on the Windrush emphasised the UK's multicultural present.
One week later, and a different truth about Britannia emerged -- one that has led to a round of deep soul-searching about the country's real identity and how to protect vulnerable youngsters.
Last Friday the parents of 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed were sentenced to 25 years in prison for her murder.
It was a sickening crime. Shafilea's brother and three sisters watched as their mother and father first strangled her, then stuffed
a plastic bag in her mouth. Her body was dumped in a river, to be discovered months later in 2004.
The judge at Chester Crown Court in the northwest of England, Justice Roderick Evans, was in no doubt about the motive, having heard how Shafilea refused a forced marriage in Pakistain and that her mother attacked her after finding boys' numbers on her cellphone.
"Although you lived in Warrington, your social and cultural attitudes were those of rural Pakistain and it was those you imposed upon your children," he said. "She [Shafilea] was being squeezed between two cultures, the culture and way of life that she saw around her and wanted to embrace, and the culture and way of life you wanted to impose upon her ... an expectation that she live in a sealed cultural environment separate from the culture of the country in which she lived was unrealistic, destructive and cruel."
Coming so soon after the Rochdale sex grooming case, in which nine men -- eight of Pak origin -- were convicted of exploiting girls as young as 13, Shafilea's murder has put the British-Pak community in the spotlight.
Newspaper columns and blogs have been filled with difficult questions. Why was more not done to protect a young woman when teachers and friends knew she was suffering at home? Was Shafilea the victim of two unloving and desperately cruel parents or was she also killed by that clash of cultures described by the judge?
And ultimately, have we become too accommodating of foreign cultures that land in the UK with outdated ideas of a woman's place, too scared to sound the alarm for fear of accusations of racism and Islamaphobia?
These are difficult questions that many have shied away from asking in the past. For too long such questions of identity have remained the preserve of the hate-filled anti-immigration campaigners, looking for reasons to exclude foreigners, rather than those seeking an inclusive notion of what it means to be British.
Who knows what the answers are? The point is that the Shafilea's murder means these are questions that can no longer be ignored.
But what about here in Pakistain? This, after all, is where Shafilea was destined to be a reluctant bride before drinking a bottle of bleach during a visit months before she was murdered. Has such a high-profile death provoked a similar round of soul-searching?
Last year almost 1,000 women and girls were killed in so-called 'honour killings', murdered by brothers, husbands or fathers for supposedly bringing shame on their families, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain.
There are plenty of recent examples.
In Hyderabad last week Raheela Sehto, 22, was rubbed out by her brother, apparently because she had refused an arranged marriage in favour of a love match. As if that wasn't bad enough, the shooter was a lawyer and the crime happened in front of dozens of witnesses inside a courtroom.
And it is still unclear whether four women in Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... were killed after being filmed clapping and singing with men at a wedding.
A team of Sherlocks visited and returned before admitting they couldn't be sure if all the women were still alive.Those are just the tip of the iceberg. Every week the newspapers are filled with stories of young women setting themselves alight, swallowing poison, throwing themselves down stairs or killed in kitchen accidents shortly after rows with family members. How many of those are investigated by the police? How often is the family's word simply taken at face value?
In Shafilea's case, her trip to Pakistain might have offered a chance to intervene, to stop her downward death spiral.
When a teenage girl was brought to a local clinic after drinking a bottle of bleach, why was no warning bell sounded? At the end of her treatment, doctors simply handed the medical records to the parents. There were no awkward questions about why a 16-year-old had tried to poison herself.
The truth is that girls like Shafilea don't matter much in the patriarchal society found across rural Pakistain, whether the towns along the GT road or the villages of upper Sindh. It is a land far from the smart salons of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... or the diplomatic circuit of Islamabad where women are only valued as potential brides and jirgas can sentence rape victims to death.
So just as Shafilea tells us something about modern Britannia, she also shines a light on a facet of Pakistain in 2012 that many would rather ignore: there is a brutal underbelly that desperately needs reform.
This is not about Islam or its values. It is about murders that aren't investigated, murderers who walk free and a terrifying culture of impunity.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The head of Libya's newly-empowered national assembly Mohamed al-Megaryef pledged on Friday to remain neutral and seek to unite ranks in the country, where post-revolution divisions are still deep.
"My main duty is to stand aside, away from political, regional and tribal considerations," Megaryef said as he presided over the first official meeting of the General National Congress.
Speaking just a day after he was elected head of the 200-seat assembly, Megaryef, who is seen as pro-Islamist, announced that he will quit as president of the Libyan National Salvation Front.
Megaryef, a veteran opponent of slain Libyan strongman Moamer Qadaffy's ousted regime, defeated liberal independent Ali Zidane in a run-off by 113 votes to 85.
He said he will keep an "equal distance" with all members of the assembly and called for a broad national dialogue involving politicians and members of civil society, including those outside the legislative body.
He also underlined the need to "remain close to the people" and suggested that all meetings of the assembly be broadcast live on Libyan television.
"Of course there will be differences of opinion. But we must exchange views in order to reach common agreement for the supreme interest of the nation," he said.
"The Congress has a huge and important responsibility," said Megaryef, adding that Libya was at an "important and dangerous" crossroad in its history.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran diplomat and former Algerian foreign minister, is expected to be named as the new U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy to Syria in place of Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... , diplomats said Thursday. Next in line will be Boutros Boutros Ghali. After that it'll be U Thant...
Negotiations are still going on over the envoy's role and how the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... will operate in Syria amid the intensifying civil war. The mandate of the U.N. mission in the country ends on August 20.
An official announcement of the appointment of the 78-year-old Brahimi is expected to be made early next week, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... as talks continue.
"We are certain it will be Brahimi," said one U.N. diplomat.
"He is the choice of the U.N. secretary general and his name will be announced next week as long as he does not pull out," added another.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] An unspecified number of security officials accused of corruption on Morocco's northern coast have been placed in durance vile Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! as part of a judicial inquiry ordered by the king, government sources said on Friday.
Those placed in durance vile Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! include police agents and customs officers stationed in the ports of Tangier, Nador and Al-Hoceima, with the probe currently targeting between 15 and 20 people, the sources told AFP.
"This inquiry was decided by the king of Morocco following complaints by Moroccan nationals living abroad who have been inconvenienced during their visits at several border posts," the palace said in a statement.
The written and oral complaints recently came to the attention of the king.
"The king has ordered the opening of an inquiry, in conformity with the law, relating to the fraudulent behaviour, corruption and harassment exercised by members of the security services assigned" to the border posts, the palace added.
The probe is also expected to target middlemen illegally offering transit services to Moroccans travellers in exchange for cash, according to other sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
Greed (not sharing with the upstairs) will get you every time.
[Yemen Post] Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi has affirmed that al-Qaeda will not be engaged in any dialogue but after it renounces violence.
In an interview with the Kuwaiti Alsyasya Newspaper, he asserted that the Yemeni government has no negotiations with al-Qaeda, pointing out that the government follows up the case of the Saudi diplomat, Abdullah Al-Khalidi.
He cited that Yemen needs urgent aids and international support in this critical transitional stage, pointing out that the Yemeni army could dislodge al-Qaeda Death Eaters from Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... and only some elements are still hidden.
Yemen is preparing to hold an inclusive dialogue conference in next October for which all factions were called to participate.
He indicated that all Yemeni factions expressed its acceptance to participate in the national dialogue conference except the former president Ali Salem Al-Beedh.
He admitted that US drones are used in attacking al-Qaeda strongholds when the Yemeni army fails to reach them, stressing that al-Qaeda Death Eaters will not achieve any success in Yemen.
"They only shed blood in Iraq, Pakistain and Somali, and achieve no victories in these states" he added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... Al-Qirbi stressed that the recent visit of President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... to Qatar aimed at strengthening mutual relations and increasing cooperation between Yemen and Qatar.
He revealed that Hadi will visit the United States in the last quarter of the current year.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... he cited that he conveyed several letters to Iran in which Iran was demanded to end its interventions in Yemen's affairs.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
The Kerem Shalom gunnies not only failed in their attempt to kill as many Israelis as possible, they have also thrown Egypt into disarray.
Egypt cannot come to terms with the cold-blooded massacre of 16 Egyptian soldiers who were sitting down for the traditional Ramadan end-of-fast dinner near the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday night. Yet this is far from the first time that beturbanned goon Islam has struck the country.
Islamists murdered president Anwar Sadat and tried to assassinate Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... ; Jihadist and other terror organizations that draw their inspiration from the creed of the Moslem Brüderbund have murdered hundreds of Egyptians and tourists between the '70s and the fall of Mubarak.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... during those years, ordinary Egyptians did not really feel concerned; for them, it was more a matter of Islamists fighting a corrupt and dictatorial regime. This is no longer the case. A people's revolution has brought to power a democratically elected president and he has to answer to the people, who angrily demand explanations for what is perceived as a colossal failure.
This is a first for Egypt, and it shows a deep-seated change in the attitude of the people.
[T]he army has at long last launched retaliatory raids in the Sinai Peninsula, finding with apparent ease the terrorists' hiding places and killing 20 of them. Which means that the army knew well enough where Islamist bully boyz could be found.
It might even be the most significant result of the attack. Spurred to action and hoping to appease public opinion, the army has at long last launched retaliatory raids in the Sinai Peninsula, finding with apparent ease the terrorists' hiding places and killing 20 of them. Which means that the army knew well enough where Islamist bully boyz could be found. There has been so far no independent confirmation of the scope of the offensive and the numbers of killed and maimed, which may have been slightly exaggerated to pacify angry Egyptians. Still, it begs the question: why did not the army act during the past 18 months, while Islamic bully boyz were busy attacking cop shoppes and road blocks, not to mention the pipeline bringing natural gas to Israel and Jordan and killing at least 20 soldiers and officers and setting up smuggling routes to bring weapons and ammunition from Sudan and Libya to the Gazoo strip? A Salafist splinter group even proclaimed the Sheik Zoued area an "Islamic Emirate."
Several months ago, Israel agreed to let the Egyptians bring reinforcements over and beyond the number specified in the Camp David Accords. So why didn't the army do so? Why wasn't there a concerted push to fight the terrorist organizations mushrooming throughout the peninsula and enlisting more and more Beduin in their fight against law and order? It is true that the generals were busy trying to manage the deepening economic crisis and the tricky political transition, and did not or could not divert their attention to what was going on in the peninsula.
The extent of the army's failure to act has now been laid bare for all to see -- and suddenly President Mohamed Morsy has found himself held responsible, to the extent that he did not dare attend the funeral of the slain soldiers.
The hapless prime minister, Hesham Kandil -- barely a week in office -- sent in his stead was roundly abused and had to duck a volley of shoes.
Morsy, who understood he had to move fast, fired a number of highranking defense personalities from the old regime, including governor of Northern Sinai and chief of intelligence Murad Mowafi, one of the main people responsible for the failure. In his defense, the man declared ingenuously that he had been warned of the attack but "could not believe that Islamists would kill Egyptian soldiers."
There is no doubt that the prestige of the Egyptian army has been damaged, thus weakening the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces at a very inopportune moment. Morsy lost no time in capitalizing on this fact to get rid of a number of generals closely linked to the former regime. The army had no choice but to do his bidding. Newcomers will be chosen for their sympathy to the Brotherhood; this is the longawaited first step toward doing away with the old army guard by pensioning them off and appointing officers closer to the new regime in their stead.
Didn't Turkey recently do something like that? Only now they haven't enough competent senior officers, which seriously hampers their earmarking ability. Not that it matters so much for Turkey -- who would they fight? -- unlike the Egyptians, looking eagerly toward their next defeat by Israel.
The Moslem Brothers have no wish to go on sharing power with the army.
But the events also brought to light the deep divide among Egyptians who support the Brotherhood and those who want a more secular regime. The latter had been losing ground since the elections, which gave 47 percent of the seats in the parliament to the Brothers and 25% to the Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... . Suddenly they are raising their heads and holding the government accountable.
Witness the unprecedented attack on the prime minister during the funerals -- and the absence of the president, who feared popular anger. Shots were fired at the Brotherhood's headquarters and guards had to be posted at their institutions throughout the country. For it is clear that the gunnies who murdered the soldiers believed in the Brothers' ideology; they came to kill in the name of Islam and to hasten the advent of "the true Islam."
Morsy must tackle this difficult issue even though he shares their ideology and aspires to see Islam ruling the entire Middle East and then the world. The tenets of the Brotherhood were set down by the founding fathers more than 80 years ago and they are the basis of all Islamic terror -- from Al-Qaeda to the numerous Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... istic groups. Now that the Brotherhood has achieved is first goal, to gain control of Egypt, can it turn its back on the values for which it has been fighting for so long? Can it forget ideology and take the practical approach necessary to govern a modern country in need of urgent economic reforms? Morsy's reaction to what happened in Sinai shows the depth of his embarrassment. Witness the extreme reluctance of the regime to name the perpetrators of the massacre and the recurrent use of the phrase "unknown assailants" or thinly veiled allusions to the Mossad. Because, of course, in Egypt, when all else fails, one can always blame Israel. And so a "spontaneous" demonstration vociferously called for the Israeli ambassador to be expelled. This does not bode well for the future of relations between the two countries, which should be joining forces to fight a common enemy in Sinai.
Will the Egyptians be content with a token reprisal raid or will they invest time, money and effort to eradicate Islamist terror cells in Sinai? It is obvious that there will be no long-term solution without an all-out effort to help the some 300,000 Beduin living in the peninsula in conditions of extreme poverty and neglect. Unfortunately, it is not likely to happen anytime soon.
Morsy has neither the resources nor the political will to do anything about it. He is doing his best to ignore the elephant in the room: Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, the Gazoo offshoot of the Moslem Brothers, which must have known of the attack in advance but did nothing. What we will probably see is some kind of working agreement according to which Hamas will do its utmost to prevent similar events in order not to further embarrass Morsy. Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... the flow of contraband armaments will go on unabated, and at the same time, the Egyptians will clamor for a revision of the peace agreement and the remilitarization of Sinai.
This is not what the gunnies at Kerem Shalom intended. Not only did they fail in their attempt to kill as many Israelis as possible, they have thrown Egypt into disarray.
A clear sign that Allah did not approve of their goals, their methods, and/or their dear little selves...Welcome to Hell, suckas!
What they did may well turn out to be a watershed in the history of post-revolution Egypt.
Syrian troops and rebels fought fierce battles on Friday in the city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , where several people died when a shell crashed into a bakery as hundreds queued for bread, Agence La Belle France Presse reported.
The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces rubbed out 115 civilians and rebels across the country.
Sixty-five people were killed in Aleppo, 22 in Idlib, 12 in Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... and its countryside, five in Deir Ezzor, four in Daraa, three in Hama, three in Homs and one in Latakia, the LCC said.
Around a dozen people were killed and 20 maimed at the bakery in the increasingly desperate city, AFP reported. At least three children were among the dead in the eastern Tariq al-Bab district of Syria's commercial capital.
And troops repelled a rebel attack on Aleppo's international airport, state news agency SANA reported. "Mercenary terrorists" had tried to attack it but the "army hit back and killed most of them."
Rebels vowed to fight on in Aleppo, a day after being driven out of a key district under heavy shellfire.
In the latest festivities, Aleppo's historic Citadel, part of a UNESCO-listed world heritage site, was heavily damaged by bombing, according to the opposition.
A rebel commander, Hossam Abu Mohammed, said his men were still fighting in parts of Aleppo's southwestern district of Salaheddin after most fled on Thursday in the face of heavy bombing and advancing troops.
"We will not let Salaheddin go," the Free Syrian Army's Abu Mohammed told AFP by telephone on the third day of a government offensive to take the city.
The army again bombed parts of Salaheddin, as well as the Sakhur and Hanano districts in the northeast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that five civilians were among 56 people killed nationwide.
Before dawn, a MiG 21 fighter jet dropped four bombs on rebel positions in Hanano, an AFP correspondent said. One struck the courtyard of the FSA headquarters in the area and another a nearby house, wounding a number of people.
Angry residents shouted hostile slogans against La Belle France and the United States, saying: "No one is helping us."
"We are behind the Free Syrian Army, but it is because of them that all of this is happening," one of them lamented.
The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) said Aleppo's 13th-century Citadel, part of a complex of sites in the city's historic heart that the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says is of "outstanding universal value" had been damaged in army shelling.
Regime forces rubbed out a 19-year-old protester in New Aleppo, an upscale district of the embattled city, as they met the demonstrators with hot lead, according to monitors.
The Observatory said the youth died from a gunshot to the head, adding that three other demonstrators were maimed in the army-controlled district.
Britannia said on Friday it would give the rebels five million pounds ($7.82 million, 6.3 million euros) in non-lethal assistance, including body armor and communications equipment.
"The people of Syria cannot wait indefinitely, people are dying. In the absence of diplomatic progress the UK will do much more," Foreign Secretary William Hague said.
On the humanitarian front, the International Committee for the Red Thingy said the Syrian Red Islamic Thingy had suspended most of its work in Aleppo because of the extreme danger, but that dozens of volunteers were still working.
A statement in Geneva said the ICRC had managed on Thursday to deliver food and other essential to cover the needs of at least 12,500 people in the city of some 2.7 million people.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Angry residents shouted hostile slogans against La Belle France and the United States, saying: "No one is helping us."
Not even the Soddies?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/11/2012 12:48
Comments ||
Top||
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] For the first time since 2007 there have been no successful piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia.
The last hijack was on June 19, when a fishing dhow was seized, and no ship has been fired upon or a boarding attempted since June 26, when a Maltese-flagged fat merchantman was attacked, according to data from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
"This is traditionally a quiet time for pirate attacks, but there has always been at least a handful of incidences even during the monsoon months of July and August," Mr Cyrus Mody an official at the IMB's London office told the Telegraph newspaper.
"Since June 26 this year, we have seen no activity whatsoever in the southern Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Arabia or the Somali Basin.
"It's the first time we've had a full month where nothing's happened since before Somali piracy really grew into a major problem in 2007."
Statistics from the IMB for the first six months of this year show that piracy attacks off the Somali coast have dropped from 163 to 69, a fall of more than 40 per cent.
The IMB puts the drop down to three factors: the deployment of an international naval force; better management practices by shipping companies and 'ship hardening,' including the use of privately armed security personnel.
The use of which, if I recall correctly, was met with much alarum and finger-wagging by so-called experts.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
See Killing Pirates DOES work.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/11/2012 23:24
Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] "If a girl can move around a charpoy, she is old and strong enough for marriage" is an oft-heard sentence in the rural areas of Sindh, justifying early marriages, said a participant in a consultative meeting on early marriages organised by the Adolescent Girls Empowerment.
Following the sessions with the social sector and religious scholars, the third meeting was held with media persons to carry forward the message of doing away with early marriages.
Speaking at the event, Sindh women development minister Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto said Pakistain was a conservative country, where women were often kept on the margins. Despite societal attitudes, there was a need to review the existing laws and create new ones to provide justice to women.
Given the sensitive nature of the issue, the minister cautioned the audience that her words must not be taken out of context.
"We all use religion for our personal gains. Whereas it is said that four marriages are allowed, men claim it to be their right, but they don't heed the insistence on 'equality'. The same is the case with marriage where 'aaqil-o-baligh' is a criterion for an individual to get married," she said, adding that maidens of tender years were hardly in a position to make decisions when it came to a lifelong contract, nikah.
"It's not just an issue of age. We have to give our girls their rights to health and wellbeing and in this regard, raising the age limit is a must."
RutgersWPF programme manager Kanwal Qayyum said maidens of tender years led the maternal mortality rate in Pakistain, adding: "The Child Restraint Marriage Act 1929 needs to be amended where a girl of 16 years is eligible for marriage. The age must be increased to 18 years so that the girls are physically and mentally mature enough to deal with pregnancies."
Talking to Dawn, Abdul Rahim Moosavi, project coordinator of HANDS, said: "We hope to create awareness at the community level regarding the harmful practice of early marriages. The project aims to minimise opposition and mobilise support through advocacy."
Most importantly, he said, it aimed at becoming a catalyst for the passage of a child marriage bill on increasing the minimum age of marriage for girls from 16 to 18.
"In our earlier consultation, the Learned Elders of Islam were quite forthcoming. They said if they were involved in the process, doubts could be removed and we all must work as partners. They even suggested that nikah could be performed early, but rukhsati could be delayed till the girl is 18," said Mr Moosavi.
Though the discussion remained focused on how the age limit could be changed given the religious edicts on the issue, the participants observed that change in rural society was much needed in order to end the practice of child marriage.
Though the minister and the implementing partners insisted that the media could help do away with child marriages if it did its job well, many participants said such a bill would face a lot of resistance.
"Changing the mindset in a feudal society is very difficult. However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... this issue needs to be taken out of the boardrooms and into the community. Most importantly, for this Islamic scholars must be taken on board as they are the ones who have greater reach and if possible a fatwa against early marriages be issued by a competent authority," a journalist from an Urdu daily said. In their recommendations, the government and civil society partners suggested the government must develop and implement systems to prevent child marriages as well as set 18 years as the legal age of consent. It further recommended that attitudes towards child marriages must be changed and stressed the need for community awareness programmes and discussion of human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... perspective in the media. It said life skill-based education must be imparted to youngsters in school to enable them to think rationally.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
It's been 16 for as long as I can remember, that's a good age, stop MEDDLING.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/11/2012 0:20
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Redneck Jim, here in the USthat means the youngest of those getting married is 16. In Pakistan, girls are being given/sold into marriage at age six or nine. I'm not sure how raising the legal age from 16 to 18 will benefit them in any way.
[Dawn] President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... on Friday, by taking serious notice of reports of sense of insecurity among Hindu families in Sindh, directed the concerned authorities to allay the community's grievances and to submit a report in that regard.
Spokesperson to the president Senator Farhatullah Babar said the president also constituted a three member parliamentary committee to visit different parts of the province to express solidarity with Hindus on his and government's behalf and to reassure them about their security and well being.
The committee comprises of Senator Hari Ram, MNA Lal Chand and Federal Minister Moula Bakhsh Chandio.
Earlier, some of Hindu pilgrims were stopped after the interior ministry took notice of reports by some media outlets that there was a case of possible migration of various Hindu families from the country fearing persecution and danger to their life and property. the pilgrims were later allowed to cross the border.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Iran Press TV] Time magazine and CNN have suspended columnist and TV host Fareed Zakaria for plagiarizing several paragraphs from another writer and using them in one of his columns in Time.
In a statement issued on Friday, Zakaria, 48, said he made "a terrible mistake," adding, "It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault,"
Yes. This is why it is important to feed and exercise one's conscience in one's youth, that it will be strong and alive until one hits one's dotage, as Mr. Zakaria has clearly done.
The News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.
Time front man Ali Zelenko said in a separate statement that the magazine accepted Zakaria's apology but would suspend his column for one month, "pending further review," and CNN said it had also suspended him for his journalistic lapse.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Dawn] Brushing aside a reported threat by the Taliban to kill its chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... , the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf announced on Thursday that it was determined to go ahead with its planned peace march to 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... in North Wazoo to protest against US drone attacks.
Regardless of the authenticity of the threat, the PTI would go ahead with its planned peace rally, said the cricketer-turned-politician in a statement while commenting on the reports which quoted a TTP front man that Mr Khan would be attacked by jacket wallahs if he tried to enter the area.
"This rally will demonstrate solidarity with the people of Waziristan whose life has been turned into a living hell by repeated drone attacks," he said.
Referring to the alleged TTP threat, he said: "A man of faith does not fear death."
About the charge of his being a liberal, Mr Khan said: "Only God understands what is in a person's heart and such labels are meaningless.
"It would be an honour to give the ultimate sacrifice of one's life to protest American lack of care for the innocent men, women and kiddies of Waziristan who have died in thousands by American drone attacks."
He said this was a march that would project to the world the hardship of the ordinary people of the region who had been caught in a brutal and senseless conflict. "No real or imagined threats would, therefore, diminish the resolve of the party to lead a peace rally to Waziristan," Mr Khan added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... talking to news hounds at an Iftar-dinner, Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. said on Thursday that the government would provide security to Imran Khan during his visit to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... He urged the Taliban to join the mainstream and work for the welfare of the country.
In a related development, TTP front man Ahsanullah Ahsan has denied The News Agency that Dare Not be Named report that his organization would kill Imran Khan if holds the demonstration he has planned for September. But he said the Pak Taliban considered Imran Khan to be an 'infidel' because he described himself as a 'liberal'.
"Taliban leaders will hold a meeting to decide if they will allow Imran Khan to protest against drone attacks in their tribal stronghold," he said. The TTP front man also condemned the AP news hound for 'misquoting' him.
The AP's Wednesday report had quoted Ahsan as saying "If he (Imran Khan) comes our suicide bombers will target him" and "we will kill him".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Germany's intelligence service fears that members of a radical Salafist group, banned in the country since June, could establish a new, dangerous German Salafist colony in Egypt, the German daily Die Welt cited security experts as saying.
In Germany, radical Islamist groups are kept under surveillance relatively easily, but the situation abroad is far more complex, a member of the intelligence service told the daily in an article to be published in its Saturday edition.
Germany banned the Millatu Ibrahim Salafist group in June in a crackdown on radical Islamists suspected of plotting against the state. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said they worked against the constitutional order.
The intelligence service agent told Die Welt the Islamists might use Egypt only as a transit point, and from there join training camps and take part in armed conflicts elsewhere - or even return to Germany.
A front man for the intelligence agency declined to comment on the report.
FALLS CHURCH, Virginia, Aug 10, 2012 Agence France Presse: Mosques and Islamic centers across the United States came together Friday to condemn Syrias brutal crackdown on dissent and raise funds for the Widows Ammunition Fund civilians trapped in the conflict.
With the holy month of Ramadan heading toward its final week, imams used Friday prayers to denounce Syrian President Bashar Assad as a tyrant and to encourage American Muslims to speak out against ongoing atrocities.
What is going on in Syria is unbelievable, Imam Shaker Elsayed told more than 300 noon-hour worshippers at the Dar Al-Hijra mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, a multi-ethnic suburb of Washington. It reminds me of Pol Pot. It reminds me of Adolf Hitler. It reminds me of the most despicable characters in the history of mankind... We have to take a stand. This movie in Syria, weve seen it before.
"We" have to take a stand, do we? How many of your sons are volunteering for the U.S. Army?
Spearheading the Day of Solidarity with the Syrian People was the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and 12 other Muslim and Syrian-American organizations. The United States is home to an estimated 2.6 million Muslims, according to an estimate in 2010 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Mohammed Ghanem, director of government relations for the Syrian American Council, one of the groups behind Fridays day of solidarity, was unable to specify the number of mosques and Islamic centers participating.
But its on quite a large scale, he told AFP, after the sponsoring organizations which include the biggest Muslim organizations in the United States got in touch with their base and urged them to take part.
Exiting Friday prayers, many worshippers at Dar Al-Hijra slipped folded $1 and $5 bills into three padlocked wooden boxes marked Syria to be passed on to relief organizations to help buy ammo helping civilians in the midst of the fighting.
I feel very bad for them, one worshipper, Ned Hadid, told AFP after making his contribution. Theyre really suffering.
Asked whether the United States was doing as much as it could to end the bloodshed, he replied: We could do more, thats for sure. We have a lot of issues at hand, but we can do more to stop an aggressive regime.
I think the regime there (in Syria) is a criminal regime, said another worshipper, Anthony, who attended prayers with his son and grandson but preferred not to give his last name.
The White House is being silent and nobody is speaking on behalf of the people of Syria, added Anthony, whose family hails from Tunisia, starting point in 2011 of the Arab Spring uprisings. Thats not right... To me, this is a humanitarian crisis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeah. And if the Israeli's came pouring over the Golan, they'd be backing Pencilneck to the hilt.
Spare me...
Imagine Tea Party cut-throats seizing control of a South Carolina town and the Army being sent in to crush the rebellion. This farcical vision is now part of the discussion in professional military circles.
At issue is an article in the respected Small Wars Journal titled "Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A 'Vision' of the Future." It was written by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army's University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Jennifer Weber, a Civil War expert at the University of Kansas. It posits an "extremist militia motivated by the goals of the 'tea party' movement" seizing control of Darlington, S.C., in 2016, "occupying City Hall, disbanding the city council and placing the mayor under house arrest." The rebels set up checkpoints on Interstate 95 and Interstate 20 looking for illegal aliens. It's a cartoonish and needlessly provocative scenario.
The article is a choppy patchwork of doctrinal jargon and liberal nightmare. The authors make a quasi-legal case for military action and then apply the Army's Operating Concept 2016-2028 to the situation. They write bloodlessly that "once it is put into play, Americans will expect the military to execute without pause and as professionally as if it were acting overseas." They claim that "the Army cannot disappoint the American people, especially in such a moment," not pausing to consider that using such efficient, deadly force against U.S. citizens would create a monumental political backlash and severely erode government legitimacy.
The vision is hard to take seriously. As retired ArmyBrig. Gen. Russell D. Howard, a former professor at West Point, observed earlier in his career, "I am a colonel, colonels write a lot of crazy stuff, but no one listens to colonels, so I don't see the problem." Twenty years ago, then-Air Force Lt. Col. Charles J. Dunlap Jr. created a stir with an article in Parameters titled "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012." It carried a disclaimer that the coup scenario was "purely a literary device intended to dramatize my concern over certain contemporary developments affecting the armed forces, and is emphatically not a prediction."
The scenario presented in Small Wars Journal isn't a literary device but an operational lay-down intended to present the rationale and mechanisms for Americans to fight Americans. Col. Benson and Ms. Weber contend, "Army officers are professionally obligated to consider the conduct of operations on U.S. soil." This is a dark, pessimistic and wrongheaded view of what military leaders should spend their time studying.
A professor at the Joint Forces Staff College was relieved of duty in June for uttering the heresy that the United States is at war with Islam. The B.O. regime contended the professor had to be relieved because what he was teaching was not U.S. policy. Because there is no disclaimer attached to the Small Wars piece, it is fair to ask, at least in Col. Benson's case, whether his views reflect official policy regarding the use of U.S. military force against American citizens.
#1
A professor at the Joint Forces Staff College was relieved of duty in June for uttering the heresy that the United States is at war with Islam. The B.O. regime contended the professor had to be relieved because what he was teaching was not U.S. policy.
The Tea Party, A.K.A. traditional America IS the arch enemy of our Muslim POTUS and his marxist/socialist domestic allies.
#2
Well, you didn't think comrades will give up power just because stupid & uninformed people cast their votes based on their racist/chauvinist/bitter clinger prejudices?
#3
Imagine Tea Party Left-Wing Radical cut-throats seizing control of a South Carolina town the U.S.A. and the Army being sent in to crush the rebellion. This farcical vision is now part of the discussion in professional military circles.
#4
Since the Whiskey Rebellion, federal troops have been used dealing with numerous domestic situations. Of course the biggest being between 1861-65, however the longest running employment probably was in dealing with the indigenous tribes. In the modern era some of those have been -
Little Rock, AK: On September 24, 1957 the President ordered the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army to Little Rock and federalized the entire 10,000 member Arkansas National Guard.
Oxford, MS, 1962: Robert Kennedy called in 500 U.S. Marshals to take control, who were supported by the 70th Army Engineer Combat Battalion from Ft Campbell, Kentucky. They created a tent camp and kitchen for the US Marshals. To bolster law enforcement, President John F. Kennedy sent in U.S. Army military police from the 503rd Military Police Battalion, and called in troops from the Mississippi Army National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol as well.[6] In the violent clash, two people died, including the French journalist Paul Guihard,[4] on assignment for the London Daily Sketch. He was found dead behind the Lyceum building with a gunshot wound to the back. One hundred-sixty US Marshals, one-third of the group, were injured in the melee, and 40 soldiers and National Guardsmen were wounded.
Detroit, MI: The 1967 Detroit riot, also known as the 12th Street riot, was a civil disturbance in Detroit, Michigan. To help end the disturbance, Governor George W. Romney ordered the Michigan National Guard into Detroit, and President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in Army troops. Shortly before midnight on Monday, July 24, President Johnson authorized use of Federal troops in compliance with the Insurrection Act of 1807, which authorizes the President to call in armed forces to fight an insurrection in any state against the government.
LA Riots, 1992: The rioting ended after soldiers from the California Army National Guard, along with U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton were called in to stop the rioting.
on the lesser violent end of the spectrum, federal troops were employed in recovery actions during both Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina.
In the last three incidents (LA, Andrew and Katrina), federal troops engaged in security operations were largely employed in point security (guard duty) to relieve local law enforcement to permit them to conduct civil law enforcement. It was the cleanest means of avoiding complications arising from the Posse Comitatus Act.
On a side note, do not confuse PCA with the imposition of martial law.
#5
First mistake: Assuming ANY town in SC - especially Darlington, which is still about as Old School America as it gets - would let anybody take it over without a fight.
/American by the Grace Of God
//South Carolinian by adoption
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/11/2012 8:58
Comments ||
Top||
#6
I always sort of pictured it starting with the military, not untrained locals.
#7
I pray to God it does not happen. New research indicates nearly 700,000 lives were lost in the 'War Between The States.' There is no question that we are rapidly drifting in the wrong direction. Whatever happens, we must do everything possible avoid outcomes such as the one described in the article below.
Erma's Bordello
Discount for hotel residents
Bookings available at reception
Closed for religious services on Sunday
-- Notice above Reception desk,
Hilltop Pension, Arenas de Mar
#8
So there I am, walking to work in downtown New Orleans not long after Katrina, when things were still a bit dicey. Here comes a squad with two A's in a circle on their patches. Most comforting sight I ever saw. And I didn't have any doubt about whose side they were on.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/11/2012 10:47
Comments ||
Top||
#9
I so enjoy stories that begin with...."and there I was...." Whahahaha, ABN ATW
#10
Yeah, the left bitches about W's response to Katrina, but I'm here to tell you he cared enough to send the 82nd to protect my family. I'll never forget that.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/11/2012 11:56
Comments ||
Top||
#11
I have just two words to say in case anyone on here thinks they would never deploy military troops against demonstrators.
Bonus Army
The way things are going, there will eventually be a rebellion or localized insurrection. We will all get a fresh reminder of how little our "rights as citizens" mean to them. Then jug the survivors under the NDAA for the rest of their lives.
#12
If things fall completely to pieces, US military will be force to defend the key assets of the country - high-level politicians and their real employers. The rest of us will have to sort things out the hard way. Imagine 20 or so cities hit with disorders like the LA riots or Hurricane Katrina -- all at the same time and superimposed on a nationwide electric grid collapse.
#13
When tropical storms blow in from the Gulf, folks around here empty the shelves of the Kroger and Public's grocery stores in about 3-5 hours. Of course the stores fully recover in a day or two and it's business as usual. The frightening 'single or dual points of failure' for recovery are the Interstate Highway System and electronic banking. Not sure how long I could survive on zion zoyia salad and squirrel stew. Might get interesting pretty fast.
#14
I doubt that people in the North think much about the Civil War. In South, there are reminders everywhere of this costly war. Here in our part of Tennessee, battles and skirmishes took place from Chattanooga to the border of Southern Virginia. East from here across Tennessee to Memphis is also dotted by battle sites that had a dear cost to both sides. With the exception of Virginia, Tennessee had more Civil War battles than any other state.
#15
When I was working in Cambridge, Massachusetts I got into several discussions about the Civil War. What struck me most was when a Massachusetts resident said, "There are still scars around here from the War". He was talking about the small towns where small manufacturing plants had to close after the war because all of the able-bodied workers didn't return from the war. Most of the North didn't suffer near what the South did but they did suffer.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/11/2012 16:39
Comments ||
Top||
#16
1967 Mj. Bolling commanded the 3rd. bgd. 82nd. Abn. on the streets of Detroit by having the troopers run the streets in formation with their new M-16 assault rifles. Three months latter he commanded the brigade to "rule the night" to stop the infiltration of the NVA into Hue. An outstanding leader of men through three wars and on Labor day the Mess Hall at Fort Bragg will be named in his honor as the Division welcomes home its troopers from Afganistan, and finally welcomes home its troopers from the 3rd. Bgd. that proudly served in Vietnam. Thank you General Bolling for your service, and for bringing so many of us home alive.
#17
I have just two words to say in case anyone on here thinks they would never deploy military troops against demonstrators.
Today, there are more former service people that are just as well trained and blooded as there are active duty personnel. Most of these former service people consider themselves Patriots.
A lot of them intend to keep their oath, as do a lot of active duty personnel.
The U.S. Military has never had to face as determined, well trained and dedicated foe as their own countrymen. There would be widespread refusals, and outright sabotage by patriots in the ranks.
If it comes down to an outright r3b3llion, the people will prevail. Count on it.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
08/11/2012 19:20
Comments ||
Top||
#18
Is that our daily attempt to poison a bayesian filter?
Militants from Swat, South Wazoo and Mohmand have organized in Bloody Karachi, threatening and killing ANP leaders and raising funds through extortion and abductions for ransom
Talibs have brought their war to the streets of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... threatening key leaders of the Pashtun-dominated secular-leaning Awami National Party (ANP) and raising funds through extortions, killing those who refuse to pay.
Leaders of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) have recently threatened to kill Pashtuns from the Mehsud tribe living in Bloody Karachi if they do not leave the ANP. The threats came from people linked with Waliur Rehman Mehsud, chief of TTP's South Waziristan chapter, party sources said.
Bloody Karachi is Pakistain's largest city, and about 5 million of its estimated 18 million residents are Pashtuns from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , FATA and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... . A large number of Pashtuns migrated to the city after unrest and violence in northern Pakistain since the war on terror began in 2001. After the killing of key Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders in drone attacks and military operations, a number of snuffies have also fled to Bloody Karachi in recent years, security experts and police officials say.
Although there are several Bloody Karachi-based bad boy outfits associated with Al Qaeda and Taliban consisting mainly of non-Pashtun members, snuffies from FATA and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have recently been found involved in extortion and seeking protection money from Pashtun traders and transporters, and are believed to have killed a number of rival political figures.
"In the beginning, the snuffies from the tribal areas did not get involved in subversive activities. This was in line with a TTP policy to use Bloody Karachi only for fundraising and rest and recuperation," said a tribal elder based in Sohrab Goth. "But now they seem to have changed their strategy."
Taking advantage of the ongoing ethnic violence in the city, snuffies belonging to TTP's Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... chapter killed dozens of elders and political figures of Swat who were travelling to or living in Bloody Karachi.
On June 18, Sher Ali Khan, head of the Swat Qaumi Ittehad and chairman of the Pakistain Seamen's Union, was killed in the Frontier Colony area. His relatives blamed his death on Swati snuffies hiding in the city. Some of his family members, especially his nephew, former councilor Malik Riaz, were killed by the Taliban when they controlled Swat.
Taking advantage of the ongoing ethnic violence in the city, snuffies loyal to Maulana Fazlullah killed dozens of elders and political figures of Swat in Bloody Karachi
On January 5, Saeed Ahmed Khan, district president of ANP, was killed in an attack on his house in the Metroville area of SITE Town. Belonging to Manja village of Swat's Kabal tehsil, he was an influential political figure in both Swat and Bloody Karachi. One of the attackers rubbed out by a police constable assigned to Saeed Khan's security was identified as Aminullah, a runaway TTP Swat bad boy.
"A number of other Swati political and social figures have also been killed in the streets of Bloody Karachi by snuffies loyal to TTP Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah," said Sher Shah Khan, a parliamentarian elected from Swat.
The bad boy group involved in the killings of pro-government elders of Swat in Bloody Karachi is mainly led by Ibn-e-Aqeel alias Khog, and Sher Muhammad alias Yaseen. Both are among the most wanted people in Swat. The task of these liquidations was assigned to them two and half years ago by TTP commander Ibn-e-Amin, of the lower Shawar area of Swat. Ibn-e-Amin - among the most dangerous bad boy commanders in Swat and linked with Al Qaeda - was killed in a drone attack in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency in December 2010.
Another bad boy group active in Bloody Karachi is loyal to TTP South Waziristan chief Waliur Rehman Mehsud, led in the city by Khan Zaman. In the beginning, they were believed to be involved in extortion from Mehsud rustics from South Waziristan who run transport and heavy machinery businesses in Bloody Karachi. The sum they asked for ranged from Rs1 million to Rs5 million.
But recently, they have started threatening the people from the Mehsud tribe to leave the ANP. "Most of the party's offices in Sohrab Goth, Mingopir, Kunwari Colony, Pashtunabad and New Sultanabad have been closed down after the threats, and party members belonging to the Mehsud clan have gone underground," a provincial leader of the ANP said. He requested anonymity for security reasons.
Mehsud rustics living in Bloody Karachi are seen as supporters of the ANP. Two of the party's elected members of Sindh Assembly also belong to the Mehsud tribe. Although the ANP was the main target of terrorism in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and had lost scores of party workers and politicians in attacks carried out by TTP because of their opposition to militancy and extremism, their Bloody Karachi leaders have never been threatened by Taliban groups before.
The Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... chapter of TTP has also formed a cell in Bloody Karachi for collecting protection money from the people belonging to Mohmand Agency. The network was developed by TTP Mohmand chief Omar Khalid and front man Ikramullah Mohmand to raise funds, said an elder from the Mohmand agency. Qari Shakeel, deputy to Omar Khalid, calls the traders himself, demanding money, he added. The network, led by TTP commander Yousaf Khan Mian in Bloody Karachi, has killed several traders who refused to pay, the elder said. Mohmand rustics based in Bloody Karachi usually sell timber and construction material.
Talibs are also involved in the July 17 attack on a WHO doctor and a July 20 slaying of a local community activist working with Polio eradication campaign in Sohrab Goth area, police say.
Mehsud rustics living in Bloody Karachi are seen as supporters of the ANP. Two of the party's elected members of Sindh Assembly belong to the tribe
Mazshar Mashwani, a bigwig at the Crime Investigation Department (CID), said Talibs hiding in Bloody Karachi had been killing ANP leaders and CID personnel for the last few months. "A group of TTP consisting of 9 or 10 snuffies has become active in the remits of SITE, Pirabad and Mingophir cop shoppes, and killed several ANP and CID men," he said. The bad boys, he said, were also carrying out fundraising through kidnapping for ransom, extortion and other means. Several CID and Rangers personnel involved in a crackdown against Talibs were killed in Pashtun dominated areas of Bloody Karachi in the last few weeks.
Experts and tribal elders say law-enforcement agencies should launch a "selective and surgical" operation in Bloody Karachi against snuffies who are hiding in the city.
A number of Taliban suspects have been tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! for murder, extortion and abduction in the last three months, according to news reports. They include Nazeerullah Mehsud (July 25), Faisal Mehsud and Khan Mohammad alias Sajid (July 2), Jahangir Khan Akakhel (June 9) and Muhammad Yaseen Mehsud alias Naib-Commander (May 28).
Police have also killed Omar Khitab, a key TTP leader, in a July 27 encounter. Khitab, belonging to South Waziristan, used to collect forced donations from Pashtun traders in Bloody Karachi, said Chaudhry Bashir, in charge of Mingophir cop shoppe.
[Dawn] A security man was killed when an improvised bomb went off in Sandokhel area of Safi tehsil in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... tribal region on Thursday.
Sources said that the bomb, planted by unidentified persons along Peshawar-Bajaur Highway, went off with a big bang and killed an official of Khasadar Force.
The dear departedkhasadar ...a rural policeman in Pakistain or India... was identified as Gul Amin, a resident of Qandahari area. Security forces launched a search operation in the area after the blast. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... no arrest was made during the operation.
Taliban front man Ihsanullah Ihsan called local journalists from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location and grabbed credit for the blast.
In Khyber Agency, security forces closed Sam Ghakhi-Shahkas Road in Bara for an indefinite period, causing hardships for local tribal people. Sources said that announcements were made through loudspeakers regarding closure of the road and all markets
in Bar Qambarkhel area for an unspecified period.
The closure of the road will affect movement of Kamarkhel, Qambarkhel, Malikdinkhel and Shalobar rustics. The road links most parts of Bara with the main bazaar and Peshawar district.
The residents of the area told Dawn that closure of road had caused great inconvenience to them in the month of Ramazan. The closure of road not only restricted their movement but could also create shortage of food and other necessary items, they added.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... Assistant Political Agent Mohammad Nasir said that some suspected hard boyz wanted by security forces were hiding in the area and there were also reports about smuggling of illegal goods through the same route.
"The security forces had warned elders of the area about smuggling of illegal goods and voluntary handing over of suspected turbans," he said and added that alongside closure of the road and markets, some suspects were also taken into custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Yedioth Ahronoth says PM, defense minister said to be in favor of striking Tehran's nuclear facilities before US elections in November despite IDF's objections
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak advocate an attack of Iran's nuclear facilities in the upcoming fall, Yedioth Ahronoth's senior commentators Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer reported Friday.
According to Barnea and Shiffer, "Not a single state official or military official or even the president -- supports an Israeli attack in Iran."
The report stated that Netanyahu and Barak believe that setting back Iran's nuclear project is worth the risk -- while defense officials believe the opposite to be true. The report also referred to Netanyahu's certainty that US President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... will not stop Iran's nuclear development on time.
Barnea and Shiffer referred to the fact that advisors from both the PM's office and the White House are aware of the possibility that an Israeli action just before the elections might cause an embarrassment to Obama's administration and advance his Republican opponent Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the presumptive Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field. On the plus side, he isn't President B.O... "In America, many, including government officials, are convinced that the military action that Netanyahu and Barack are promoting is set to cause one thing -- force America into a war with Iran against its will. Israel will need the Americans' help", Barnea and Shiffer wrote.
According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Barak admits it is clear that Iran will respond to an attack on its nuclear facilities, also by utilizing Hezbollah.
This will result in casualties and fatalities and every day of fighting will cost NIS 1.5 billion (approx. $375 million).
Still, the defense minister further argues that Israel "will not be destroyed" and that such an operation will not make Israel hated across the globe. In Barak's opinion, those in the IDF who oppose an attack in Iran are afraid of a commission of inquiry. Barak therefore made it clear that everyone against an attack is free to resign.
[Dawn] Ending months of ambiguity over the crisis in Syria, Pakistain joined the group of countries supporting the Syrian government on Thursday and warned against foreign interference and military intervention in the 17-month-old conflict.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was one of the three foreign ministers who attended an international consultative meeting on the Syrian crisis hosted by Iran.
"It is our considered view that any outside intervention would further complicate an already very complex situation. It must be avoided," Ms Khar said at the conference attended by about 25 countries, most of whom were represented at ambassadorial
level.
She urged the international community to respect Syria's illusory sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.
Besides Pakistain, representatives from Russia, China, Belarus, Mauritania, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Benin, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Zim-bob-we, Oman, Venezuela, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Sudan, Jordan, Tunisia and Paleostine attended the conference.
Western countries backing rebels had dismissed the Tehran meeting as an attempt to divert world attention from the bloody events in Syria where pro-government troops are fighting pitched battles against rebel forces in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... and other parts of the war-torn country. The West has accused Iran of broadening support for embattled Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... by holding the conference.
"Syria needs political space to find a peaceful solution and reestablish its societal equilibrium by engaging all sides. Syria must forge its own destiny in accordance with the aspirations of its people," Ms Khar said.
The strong position taken by Islamabad on Syria is likely to annoy its allies US, Turkey and 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 their national face... , who along with Qatar and Israel have been supporting rebels to bring down President Assad.
President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... will be attending an extra-ordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Conference being hosted by Saudi Arabia next week that is expected to focus on Syria.
Ms Khar warned against divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... ness within Ummah on the issue of Syria and said: "Prolonged instability in Syria would have
serious consequences for the region, Mohammedan Ummah and, in fact, for the entire world. As Syria bleeds, we must eschew the temptation of taking sides. It is time to find commonly agreed solutions to stop the bloodbath in Syria."
Pakistain had earlier abstained from vote on an anti-Syria resolution in the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... Security Council.
The foreign minister used the Tehran meeting to remind the world that the conflict in Syria was entering a dangerous phase with Al Qaeda trying to benefit from the instability there.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
So Paks value Chinese alliance more than the Saudi one?
[Yemen Post] The military cooled for a few years Please don't kill me! four Al-Qaeda gunnies while on their way to carry out terrorist attacks in the port city of Aden in south Yemen, the September 26 website reported on Thursday.
A Law Rocket ready for launch and an bomb were seized with the bad boys, it quoted a security source as saying.
Yemen is facing increasing bombings in main cities amid an extensive hunt for Al-Qaeda operatives who were reported to have planned to regroup and recruit new fighters after their defeat in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... and Shabwa provinces in the past few months.
Many terrorist suspects and cells including those responsible for suicide kabooms have been cooled for a few years Please don't kill me! since the army drove Al-Qaeda gunnies out of their strongholds in the south.
In recent weeks, gunnies carried out the deadliest ever attacks in the country including those in the capital Sanaa and Abyan targeting military and security chiefs, personnel and pro-government tribal fighters.
Separately, the website reported that a woman and a child were killed and two children injured in a rockslide in the province of Mahweet.
Heavy rain has hit most of the Yemeni cities in the past few weeks triggering warnings for the people in mountainous areas where rain usually causes devastating rockslides.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
LONDON: Oil demand will rise more slowly than expected next year as economic growth falters, pushing up stockpiles of fuel worldwide and offering some relief to consumers facing high prices. The West's energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA), said it had cut its estimates of oil use worldwide for several years, trimming its 2013 demand forecast by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the light of a "worrying slowdown" in global economic activity.
"Lower economic growth is feeding through to slower oil demand all round," said David Fyfe, head of the IEA's markets division. "Global inventories have risen, and the oil market looks comfortably supplied." But gas is still $4 a gallon in the U.S...
The IEA's monthly market report on Friday echoed pessimistic forecasts this week by the US government and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The three top energy market forecasters all say output of crude oil has exceeded demand by a wide margin in the first half of this year, filling up stocks of oil and offering a sizeable cushion to cope with any unexpected shock to supplies.
This should help balance the impact on oil prices of political tensions such as the stand-off between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program.
"The significant stock builds that occurred in the first half of 2012 will help relieve global oil markets in the second half," the government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.
The EIA expects oil inventories in the developed industrialised economies to rise to 2.62 billion barrels, or 57 days of forward cover by the end of this year, "which is among the highest end-of-year levels in the last decade because of the decline in OECD consumption".
OPEC, which supplies more than a third of the world's oil, says it has been pumping more than 2 million bpd more oil than needed for the last few months, filling up tanks worldwide. The producers' group said in its report that economic slowdown could depress oil demand growth further.
Every time they pledge to cut production, the various members cheat. Iran has to cheat to move oil in spite of the sanctions. The rest of the oil ticks need the money, particularly Hugo. So production will remain high. But prices won't come down because of the threat of a Persian Gulf war which will keep the speculators bidding the prices up.
"The gloomy picture could reduce the world oil demand growth forecast by 20 percent next year," OPEC said.
However, security of supply is still a nagging worry.
"The geopolitical dimension is likely to continue to provide something of a floor for prices. The issue of Iran will likely continue to weigh heavy on the market through the second half of 2012," the IEA said in its monthly report. "Moreover, there is a risk that recent progress in restoring output from Libya, Iraq and Nigeria could be jeopardised if recent political and civil tensions worsen."
Oil prices plunged below $90 a barrel in June after Saudi Arabia stepped in to raise production when Iranian exports fell due to Western sanctions. North Sea Brent crude oil has since recovered to above $110, supported by Iranian tensions and investors' hopes for new money printing programmes from global central banks.
But supply and demand fundamentals of the market are weak. The IEA said it had revised its forecast for oil demand growth in 2013 down by 150,000 bpd to 830,000 bpd, below the growth of 870,000 bpd expected in 2012.
"The latest (Chinese) data reveals a sharp deceleration in momentum compared to the double-digit expansions seen at the beginning of 2011," the IEA said.
On the supply side, global oil production in July stood 2.6 million bpd higher than a year ago, with 80 percent of the increase deriving from OPEC, it said. The agency said exports of Iranian oil in July fell to multi-year lows of 1 million bpd from 1.74 million in June, but it added that sales of Iranian oil to major consumers could start picking up this month.
"There is scope for imports from Iran to recover modestly from September onwards, albeit we retain our existing assumption that around 1 million bpd of Iranian oil may struggle to find buyers in the second half of 2012."
"An observed decline of 14 million barrels in Iranian floating storage in July also suggests that some extra oil is en route to customers for August/September delivery," the IEA added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But gas is still $4 a gallon in the U.S...
$3.25 here in the Deep south.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/11/2012 0:08
Comments ||
Top||
#2
And my Toyota (Made in Tennessee) Gets 37 MPG.
At 3.25 that makes my cost-per-mile around 8.7cents a mile NO repairs needed. (Yet)
(Did just put a $350.00 Wheel bearing on it a month ago, should be good for another 100,000 or so)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/11/2012 0:15
Comments ||
Top||
#3
But gas is still $4 a gallon in the U.S...
And will stay so. A trillion dollar stim, multiple quantitative easings all without any substance to back the creation of money invites inflation. Commodities maintain a general relationship between each other barring some significant change in productivity or technology. I use the 'penny indicator'. In 2005 it cost about .97th of a cent to make a [already debased non-pure copper] 'penny'. Today it costs 2.42 cents to make a 'penny'. In other words, while in 2005 your paper dollar was worth about 100 pennies in actual cost/value, today 2012, that paper dollar is buying 42 pennies. So, in relationship of commodities, that 4 dollar gallon of gasoline is about 168 'pennies'.
On the other side, those 2008 million dollar homes which after the bust by 2009 could only sale for 400 thousand and were sitting on the books of all those banks are now appreciated by that 'non-inflation' back to something close of their pre-bust valuation. The banks are solvent thanks to the boys running the Fed and Treasury, who will, of course, get employment in the industry after their time in the Beltway.
#4
We've got a KIA plant down the road in Lagrange. I don't care for them myself, they remind me of a Nash. The Good Lord drove a Ford. Glad to have the factory here though. They employ a lot of local people, even one or two Alabamians. :-)
#5
As usual, what was omitted from this article was a graph showing daily/annual oil consumption on a worldwide basis. It has plateau'd, and the reported 'slowing' is a mere ripple in that plateau.
Oil demand, demand forecasts, supply and demand fundamentals, etc. are all hypotheticals. Consumption isn't.
#9
The gross expense of commodities merely reflects worldwide currency debasement, in my opinion. All the bad debt run up in recent decades has to be absorbed somehow.
[Iran Press TV] Kenyan fighter jets have pounded a base, run by Somalia's al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... fighters in the southern region of lower Juba, reportedly causing casualties and damage, Press TV reports.
Local residents said on Thursday the missiles fired by the warplanes on Wednesday struck the fighters' outpost in the Birta-Dheer village near the strategic Kismayu port.
"We heard several blasts on the outskirts of Birta-Dheer on Wednesday. We can't confirm how many people died in the attacks," said local resident Ibrahim Hassan.
The Somali military confirmed that the Arclight airstrike had left casualties and caused damage to the base.
Kenya has already carried out similar Arclight airstrikes in Somali border regions.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabaab for the past five years and is propped up by a 10,000-strong African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... force from Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
A soldier convicted of amassing bomb-making materials and plotting an attack on a restaurant popular with soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.
This is the rat bastard who claimed HIV and was deliberately spitting blood on his guards. They ended up muzzling him and chaining him to the floor during the trial. Click on his name for Rantburg's archive on the man.
Army Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo was AWOL from Fort Campbell, Ky., when he was tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! with bomb-making materials on July 27, 2011, at America's Best Value Inn and Suites in Killeen, Texas, near Fort Hood.
In May, a jury found him guilty on six federal charges: attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder of U.S. officers or employees and four counts of possessing a weapon in furtherance of a federal crime of violence.
#1
He should be given life without parole in the barracks.
It's astonishing how often some guys--the kind who'd burgle your wall locker--fall down those stairs. Even happens in one-story barracks
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/11/2012 13:49
Comments ||
Top||
Egyptian troops capture nine faceless myrmidons suspected of killing 16 Egyptian soldiers
An Egyptian security official says troops have enjugged Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! nine Islamic faceless myrmidons in northern Sinai, believed to be behind a deadly attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers last weekend.
The official told News Agency that Dare Not be Named that early Friday the troops stormed a house in Sheik Zweid, close to Rafah border crossing with Gazoo Strip, and caught the nine while they were asleep.
Among them was Selmi Zeyoud, whom the official described as a "dangerous element" and a brother to a slain jihadist. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The arrests are the first since Sunday's surprise attack in which armed Islamic fascistifrom Sinai breached Israel's border in an armored personnel carrier they seized during a raid on an Egyptian border checkpoint as the border guards broke their daily fast for the holy month of Ramadan with a sunset meal.
After the gunnies stormed the checkpoint, they killed 16 Egyptian soldiers, then drove into Israel.
[An Nahar] A fourth-ranked separatist party vying for an upset riveted Quebec's election campaign Wednesday with an ad showing a beaver in a Mountie hat getting the boot.
The beaver is Canada's national symbol, which can be traced back to the nation's early history, when explorers crossed the continent in search of beaver pelts for use in fashionable hats in Europe.
Quebec solidaire posted an online video depicting a stick figure cheerfully booting the buck-toothed rodent off the screen after it purrs and tries to rub up against its leg.
The crudely-drawn cartoon was designed to put to rest doubts about the party's support for Quebec independence from Canada after other separatists questioned its commitment, as well as to help it stand out in a crowd.
Three of the five political parties in the September 4 election race support Quebec illusory sovereignty while a fourth has vowed to put independence on the back burner, for now.
"There are rumors that members of Quebec solidaire drape themselves in the Maple Leaf and hold questionable ties to beavers," says the ad's narrator in French. "In fact, that's not quite the case."
"Federalist, Quebec solidaire? Not at all. Sovereigntist, but not like the others," the narrator adds.
The party noted that no beavers were harmed in the making of the spot.
But not everyone is laughing.
The spot has unwittingly grabbed the attention of English Canada for the first time in the campaign, with commentaries blasting the revival of the separatist movement (and the abuse of animals).
"Can you imagine the screams if we had a cartoon of a beaver eating a fleur de lys?" said a posting on public broadcaster CBC's website.
Quebec twice rejected independence from the rest of Canada in referendums in 1980 and 1995, but only by a narrow margin last time.
Within Quebec, rivals fear Quebec solidaire may siphon votes from the main separatist party, the Parti Quebecois, which could return the federalist Liberals to power and quell talk of independence for at least four more years.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Iff Marseille, France is Europe's first
"Islamic" City, i.e. a place where the Muslim community is so huge andor influential that it can poten legally formally vote to change the name of the city from French to Muslim context, VANCOUVER may be Canada's first "Chinese" City???
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINESE [largest] MIGRANT THREAT TO AUSTRALIA.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > RUSSIA'S MEDVEDEV HINTS AT CHINESE THREAT TO FAR EAST | MEDVEDEV SAYS RUSSIA MUST PROTECT FAR EAST TERRITORY, from "excessive expansion from bordering states" whcih is interpreted as PCorrect-speak or reference to China.
RELATED TOPIX > RUSSIA FEARS CHINESE [immigrant]INFLUX TO RUSSIAN FAR EAST.
OH THE BEAVER/FUR-MANITY - iff Quebec separatists succeed in creating a "New France II" autonomous or sovereign enclave/state in Canada while losing the old country to Islam???
#2
Canadians have as much chance of getting rid of their Quebecois moochers as the English have of ridding themselves of the Scots. They'll both bitch but never leave the teat.
#3
Having not traveled extensively in Canada, I was surprised at the enmity I found in non-French speaking Canadians toward their French speaking brothers. It runs rather deep.
#4
It's been 40-some years, but I remember being in Montreal and asking a store clerk something in English and getting a blank stare - until I said I was American, at which point my question was cheerfully answered, in English. French-speakers had to be binlingual to 'function' but English-speakers did not, which generated animosity.
[Iran Press TV] Corn and soybean production in the United States has slashed to a six-year low as the worst drought in more than 50 years is hitting the country hard.
The US Department of Agriculture announced on Friday that the corn harvest is estimated to drop 13 percent to its lowest level in six years.
The harvest will total 10.779 billion bushels compared with 12.358 billion in 2011 and about 2.2 billion bushels less than it was predicted last month.
The department added that the all-time July's record temperatures across the country have left much of the crops damaged.
About 55 percent of contiguous areas in the US, which is the world's biggest grain producer, are currently experiencing extreme drought.
Corn prices have surged more than 60 percent over the past two months, reaching an all-time high of $8.49 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.
The effect of such high prices is already being felt around the world, raising fears that the 2008 global food crisis could be repeated.
The drought began in the eastern and southern Midwest but has now spread to the central and western areas of the region, including the two main states of the US Corn Belt, Iowa and Illinois.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
MIGHT stop Burning the corn as Gas extender,that would stop wastage such as the train wreck that destroyed about 330,00 gallons recently.(Florida about 300.000 bushels burned up) drink or eat it instead.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/11/2012 0:26
Comments ||
Top||
#2
See also TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > WORLD OVERUSING UNDERGROUND WATER RESERVES FOR AGRICULTURE.
Can't the blame the Sun on this one - OR CAN WE???
#5
Someone commented recently that the variety of corn used for ethanol is inedible.. So nothing can change until next year at least. Any bets on where we'll see food riots, other than Egypt?
#6
it is edible. it is just not approved for human consumption by the FDA. a significant difference and since we are talking MME, that approval may not apply.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
08/11/2012 7:25
Comments ||
Top||
#7
It still can be used to fatten livestock: Egyptians don't compete for corn with Americans---they compete with Chinese pigs.
#8
The five-year-old EPA Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), U.S. fuel companies are required to ensure that 9 percent of their gasoline pools are made up of ethanol, which means converting some 40 percent of the corn crop into the biofuel. The RFS is little more than a giant farm sudsidy which makes your car run less efficiently and buggers smaller engines.
Check out the "poor farmers" by posting your Zipp to the link above. Be sure your blood pressure meds are close by.
#11
The five-year-old EPA Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), U.S. fuel companies are required to ensure that 9 percent of their gasoline pools are made up of ethanol, which means converting some 40 percent of the corn crop into the biofuel.
US refineries have been adapted to mix ethanol into the gasoline and can no longer mix with natural gas as previously done. The California Chevron refinery fire was one of our largest, producing for stringent CA standards, and it is not known when it can be back online.
#12
Chevron's Richmond refinery is indeed one of the biggest, but I believe damage was limited and most of the plant could be reopened quickly - if political objections can be overcome.
#13
1.5 gallons of ethanol has the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline. It would seem that you would need more 10% ethanol fuel to get the same mileage as you do from a gallon of gasoline. Wouldn't 10% ethanol cost more per mile? Wouldn't that make us more dependent on foreign oil? Wouldn't the use of ethanol divert food (corn) to fuel increasing demand and thus making ethanol + gas fuel more expensive? I'm wondering at this point if my thinking is a bit muddled regarding ethanol making us more dependent or less dependant on foreign fuel?
#14
Well, just look at all the farm subsidies here. Welfare for the rich. Don't have bread, let'm eat cake.
Yes!
We're #3 of 1555 for local wheat subsidies (haven't grown the damn stuff in the better part of a decade but the past two farm bills didn't fund a new recount of acres so we're running on the 1990s numbers). Switched to corn to take advantage of the ethanol mandate.
Aaaand #4 of 1323 for soybean subsidies.
I'd like to thank the Academy ... and all of you kind folks for your most generous contributions!
[Bangla Daily Star] A historic American town with a population of two people will be auctioned off on August 15, the auctioneers Williams & Williams said Thursday.
The northwestern town of Garryowen, Montana, little over 7.7 acres, includes houses, a grocery store, a fast food restaurant, a shop and a post office.
"The town has a population of two, making it one of the smallest towns in the United States," reads the auction house's website.
The parcel of land is also situated on the site of the legendary 1876 battle of Little Big Horn, in which US troops led by General George Armstrong Custer were routed by Native American tribes, including the Cheyenne and the Sioux.
The historic defeat, in which Custer was killed, has inspired books and a number of films, including "Little Big Man" (1970), with actor Dustin Hoffman.
The bid for the little piece of Americana will open at $250,000. Up for auction alongside the parcel are a collection of manuscripts and personal belongings of Custer's widow, also up at a starting price of $250,000.
Williams & Williams sold Buford, Wyoming -- billed as the smallest town in America -- to a Vietnamese national for $900,000 at auction in April.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We might do well to sell off Washington, D.C. Maybe NYC, Chicago, and Detroit too. Bidding starts at a dollar.
[Iran Press TV] Unidentified gunnies have opened fire on a Shia procession in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , injuring two people.
The incident happened on Friday evening, near Bloody Karachi's Bolton Market, as the Youm-e-Ali procession passed through the area, Dawn News reported.
The martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ali (peace be upon him), also known as Youm-e-Ali, was observed on Friday, with religious processions being held across Pakistain amid strict security arrangements.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
[Iran Press TV] Libya's outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC) has handed over power to the newly-elected General National Congress almost a year after the revolution that toppled long-time dictator Muammar Qadaffy. ... who had more funny outfits than Louis XIV...
The North African country's first peaceful transition of power in more than four decades took place in an official ceremony in the capital Tripoli on Wednesday night, AFP reported.
NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil handed power to Mohammed Ali Salim, the chairman and the oldest member of the 200-seat legislative body elected on July 7. NTC and government officials, representatives of civil society groups as well as diplomatic missions in Libya, participated in the ceremony.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Dawn] A local court on Thursday dismissed pre-arrest bail application of a man charged with cutting hair of his wife and trying to burn her with acid over a domestic dispute.
Following the court orders the accused, Ishaq Khan, was arrested from the courtroom by local police. The court presided over by additional district and sessions judge Ajmal Wazir observed that the accused did not deserve to be granted pre-arrest bail.
It, however, confirmed pre-arrest bail of Ishaq's sister and a niece in the same case. An FIR was registered against the accused at Pishtakhara police station on June 11, 2012. The complainant, Ms Tahira, stated that she was married to Mr Ishaq around six months ago. She alleged that the accused got annoyed with her over a domestic dispute following which he tried to throw acid at her, but she resisted the move and the bottle of acid fell down. --
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
GOOD and I hope his cellmate has AIDS.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/11/2012 0:29
Comments ||
Top||
The Egyptian media reported that the prosecution in El-Arish has released a Canadian and two Japanese nationals who were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! earlier this week for suspected involvement in the terror attack that killed 16 Egyptian border guards in Sinai on Sunday.
According to the reports, the three were freed when it became evident they weren't linked to the attack.
[Iran Press TV] Egypt has reopened the Rafah border crossing, shut after 16 Egyptian border guards were killed during an attack in the Sinai Peninsula.
The move came on Friday, a day after Paleostinian resistance movement, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, urged Cairo to reopen the vital border crossing.
"I call upon my brother, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to open the Rafah crossing, to regain a lifeline for Gazoo," Rooters quoted democratically-elected Paleostinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... as saying on Thursday.
"Gazoo could never be anything but a source of stability for Egypt," Haniyeh added.
Or an example of what not to emulate...
Egypt closed the Rafah crossing after an attack on a security checkpoint in Sinai, which left at least 16 Egyptian border guards dead and seven others injured on Sunday night.
On Monday, an official statement by the Islamic resistance movement condemned the attack and dismissed the idea that forces of Evil from inside Gazoo may have been involved.
Some 800 people normally leave for Egypt and beyond through the Rafah crossing, the only passageway leading to the rest of the world for most Gazooks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
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.
The energy-saving push was seen on a smaller scale last year after an earthquake and tsunami triggered a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Japans east coast and caused shutdowns at several others, and Japanese companies obliged without complaint. 
Local police chief Bayes Ahmed says 20 other people were injured by the lightning late Friday in Sylhet district. The victims were struck by the lightning as they were exiting the mosque following special prayers tied to the holy month of Ramadan.
As I did two years ago, I'm asking the Rantburg community to suggest politicians for the House or the Senate to support financially.
Israel willingly acceded to Cairo's request for permission to deploy fighter planes and armored troop carriers in Sinai, which was ruled a demilitarized buffer zone under their 1979 peace treaty. It shared an interest in President Mohamed Morsi's counter-terror offensive against lawless Islamist bands.
A house and a private clinic were damaged when a powerful improvised 
cycle of violence
A young factory worker was killed, three other persons were 
[An Nahar] An Indian man 
Gunmen 
Pakistain and Afghanistan are in talks on the release of Afghan prisoners, a Pak foreign ministry official confirmed Friday. A key member of the Taliban, whose 2010 arrest in Pakistain was blamed for sabotaging peace initiatives, is presumed to be one of the prisoners.
At least 10 civilians have been killed in a mortar attack carried out by 
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- A librarian at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said demand for "Harry Potter" books has dwindled as "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" surges in popularity.
Australia's High Court reinstated a terrorism conviction Friday against a former Australian airline worker who published on the Internet a do-it-yourself book on how to wage holy war against non-
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[Bangla Daily Star] The lone surviving gunman of 26/11, Ajmal Kasab, was on Thursday night confronted with terror suspect Abu Jundal at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai and he identified the latter as "one of the main conspirators" behind the attacks in Mumbai.
A bombing and a shooting against a police patrol and a city council member in Iraq killed four people and 
A senior Iranian 
Residents in central Nigeria said Thursday that police have raided scores of homes and beaten unarmed civilians while searching for the perpetrators of a church massacre that killed 19 people this week.
Hillary Clinton
Goodluck Jonathan
[Iran Press TV] Syrian security forces have regained control of the main square of the Mashhad district of 
Sen. 
At least five people have been killed and several of others injured in an attack by a US 
A US assassination drone attack has killed at least three people in eastern Yemen, Press TV reports.
LONDON'S spectacular Olympic opening ceremony showed a nation at ease with itself. It mixed England's green and pleasant land with the grime of the Industrial Revolution before transforming into a modern portrait of a country where everyone has a contribution to make.
The head of Libya's newly-empowered national assembly Mohamed al-Megaryef pledged on Friday to remain neutral and seek to unite ranks in the country, where post-revolution divisions are still deep.
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
An unspecified number of security officials accused of corruption on Morocco's northern coast have been 
[Yemen Post] Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi has affirmed that al-Qaeda will not be engaged in any dialogue but after it renounces violence. 
The Kerem Shalom 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] For the first time since 2007 there have been no successful piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia.
"If a girl can move around a charpoy, she is old and strong enough for marriage" is an oft-heard sentence in the rural areas of Sindh, justifying early marriages, said a participant in a consultative meeting on early marriages organised by the Adolescent Girls Empowerment.
President Asif Ali 
Wazoo
Germany's intelligence service fears that members of a radical Salafist group, banned in the country since June, could establish a new, dangerous German Salafist colony in Egypt, the German daily Die Welt cited security experts as saying.
Imagine Tea Party 
The vision is hard to take seriously. As retired ArmyBrig. Gen. Russell D. Howard, a former professor at West Point, observed earlier in his career, "I am a colonel, colonels write a lot of crazy stuff, but no one listens to colonels, so I don't see the problem." Twenty years ago, then-Air Force Lt. Col. Charles J. Dunlap Jr. created a stir with an article in Parameters titled "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012." It carried a disclaimer that the coup scenario was "purely a literary device intended to dramatize my concern over certain contemporary developments affecting the armed forces, and is emphatically not a prediction."
Militants from Swat, South 
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
Mohmand
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The military 
LONDON: Oil demand will rise more slowly than expected next year as economic growth falters, pushing up stockpiles of fuel worldwide and offering some relief to consumers facing high prices. The West's energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA), said it had cut its estimates of oil use worldwide for several years, trimming its 2013 demand forecast by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the light of a "worrying slowdown" in global economic activity.
Kenyan fighter jets have pounded a base, run by Somalia's a
A soldier convicted of amassing bomb-making materials and plotting an attack on a restaurant popular with soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.
Egyptian troops capture nine 
A fourth-ranked separatist party vying for an upset riveted Quebec's election campaign Wednesday with an ad showing a beaver in a Mountie hat getting the boot.
Corn and soybean production in the United States has slashed to a six-year low as the worst drought in more than 50 years is hitting the country hard.
Unidentified 
Libya's outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC) has handed over power to the newly-elected General National Congress almost a year after the revolution that toppled long-time dictator 
A local court on Thursday dismissed pre-arrest bail application of a man charged with cutting hair of his wife and trying to burn her with acid over a domestic dispute.
The Egyptian media reported that the prosecution in El-Arish has released a Canadian and two Japanese nationals who were 
