[Breitbart UK] An independent body which scrutinises the UK's international aid payments has concluded that they are 'a waste of money'.
The report by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) criticised the Department for International Development's "weak management" and "poor supervision" of the projects which are funded by British tax payers, the Times reports.
The review of UK Development Assistance for Security and Justice marked the overall effectiveness of projects as 'amber-red', meaning the programme performs relatively poorly overall against ICAI's criteria for effectiveness and value for money. Significant improvements should be made.
It stated that the £95 million million budget for improving security and justice, often in fragile states, needed a significant overhaul.
"While there are pockets of success, there is little sign that its institutional development work is leading to wider improvements in S&J outcomes for the poor," its findings reported. "DFID does, however, have a good base of programming on community justice and for women and girls, on which it can build.
#2
Aid that goes to Muslim countries is wasted.
Aid that goes to dictatorships is wasted.
That covers most of the third world and most of the aid right there.
Give that back to the taxpayers and the rest should go to the Marine Corps who have to pick up the pieces when the good intentions prove insufficient.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) has decided that prosecutors Celal Kara and Mahir Aktas, who conducted the Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, investigations, and judge Suleyman Karacöl should be tried.
This "extraordinary" decision has, in general, three justifications: To make the decision to allow the police to wiretap the known phone conversations between Reza Zerrab and other people, to not destroy the phone records and to seize the assets of the companies mentioned in the investigations.
The HSYK has decided that the above-mentioned judge and prosecutors are to be tried on these grounds. I find this decision by the HSYK illegal and biased.
The Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, operations are "bribe" investigations that legally fall into the "textbook crime" category. The content of the phone conversations are now known to the public as well. Also, in the EU Progress Reports, serious concerns are expressed about the handling of the anti-corruption strategy.
In this case, which prosecutor would have refrained from opening an investigation on the grounds that there was no strong suspicion of crime? But now, this judge and those prosecutors are going to be tried on charges of "abusing power."
The second charge against the prosecutors is for not destroying the wiretapping records. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... while the file was processed by the prosecutors, these records could have been evidence in the case to be opened; for this reason, they should not have been destroyed anyway. It is indeed wrong not to delete the private parts of the phone records that do not constitute any evidence but this can be a discipline crime frequently seen in many judges and prosecutors.
For instance Deniz Feneri
Another charge against the prosecutors and Karacöl is they seized the assets of legal entities in the absence of a "strong suspicion of crime."
At this point, the verdict of the Supreme Court of Appeals on the Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) case should be remembered. In that investigation, prosecutors had seized the assets of the legal entities defendants had shares in.
The Lighthouse prosecutors were also tried for abusing power. The high court acquitted them of this charge but noted that the prosecutors acted against professional ethical principles.
If the HSYK had done such a disciplinary practice, nobody would be able to say anything. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... the HSYK made a decision "in harmony with the executive body" in terms of the government's claims about the matter, but not in harmony with law.
It should be noted that the "old HSYK" had decided about the Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, operations that not only prosecutors but security personnel who did not carry out their orders and the chief prosecutor who transferred the files to other prosecutors should undergo an inspector investigation.
In other words, inspectors would have been sent to "both sides." If this had been done, we would have been able to see both sides of the medallion.
However the justice minister stopped this and the inspectors were sent one-sidedly. This is only one of many examples of how politics, with its immense power, interferes with justice.
Well, they say that the Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, operations were not an "investigation" but a "coup."
Well, if it is so, then let parliament investigate both the corruption and the coup, right? But, the investigation has been blocked in parliament, was it not?
We are going through a tough period in our justice history. The honor of justice lies today on the shoulders of judges and prosecutors who deem the law above everything. Tomorrow, when historians write about these days, they will grade everybody accordingly.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2015 00:00 ||
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[T]he dress rehearsal for the Nazi extermination of the Jews took place exactly 100 years ago, in 1915. The genocide was carried out by Turkish authorities, and it murdered more than 1 million Armenians, a people who were overwhelmingly Christian. Religion wasn't the only reason for the killings - ethnic and economic resentments of Turkey's Armenian minority played an important role - but Muslim contempt for the "unbelievers" legitimized the violence and was a powerful current throughout the killings. Emphasis added
Men, women and children were turned out of their homes, marched to exhaustion and starved, beaten, hanged and burned to death by the tens of thousands. The systematic murder campaign went on in bloody waves into the 1920s. Witnesses recalled Turks taunting their victims with shouts of "Where is your Christ now? Where is your Jesus? Why does he not save you?"
To this day, Turkey has never adequately acknowledged the Armenian genocide. As President Jimmy Carter once remarked, "there weren't any Nuremburg trials" for the mass murder inflicted on the Armenians.
It was an internal affair. Nor have there been trials for the millions of Kulaks murdered by Stalin's men.
During the Cold War, Turkey was a NATO ally. The United States and Europe found it easier to turn a blind eye to history than to resurrect a crime from the past.
Today, with the resurgence of militant Islam inside Turkey itself, a full national truth-telling by Turkish authorities may be even more remote. Armenians were the first nation in the world to formally adopt Christianity in A.D. 301. Today, in their historic home regions of modern Turkey, their culture and memory have been wiped out.
Lent is a time of repentance. It's also a time for forgiving even the wicked. But it's also a time to remember and learn from history ‐ even when the whole world wants to forget it. On its centenary, Christians from every tradition need to remember and pray for the victims of that genocide, which remains one of the worst unrepented crimes in history. Archbishop Chaput certainly has more courage, insight and clarity of vision than any other Bishop in America. I've met him and had drinks with him when he was Archbishop of Denver. One of the most intelligent people I have ever met and had a drink with - and very much a Man of God.
Go read all of it - a very powerful piece and just the sort of thing the Church should be speaking up about.
#5
I am rather surpised the Armenians haven't emigrated yet. I suspect they could find a home in Israel or Lebenon and an influx of Christians would only help stabalize those areas.
#7
I am rather surpised the Armenians haven't emigrated yet. I suspect they could find a home in Israel or Lebenon
Plenty of Armenians in the US already -- any wave of refugees will want to walk over the border from Mexico rather than fly into an airport. Israel is looking toward an influx of French Jews over the coming years; Lebanon, on the other hand, is dealing with Syrian refugees and the coming ISIS/Al Nusra invasion.
#1
Interesting. Thought of that too, leaks are Hillary!'s to cover for not running. Nobody is talking about pederass island anymore, so there is that as well.
If the plan is to get as much donation as possible before bowing out, then why sic the dogs on her own formula? Why now, and not milk it for the next year? Why trash her reputation for future talk circuit monies? If the idea is cover then why also leak out the foreign donations and her husband's statatory raping of prostitutes? There is also the off chance something sticks to Barry for being a part of this.
I had some conclusions: If Hillary! is knocked out now, it frees future money and headlines. If you destroy her reputation is prevents any voter rebellions. If you destroy the Clinton Machine, you knock out a nationwide political rival, maybe pick up some of its people.
I wouldn't be suprised to have one more big thing leak out in about a week, when people start thinking, "Hey, how come Barry didn't know about this."
I think Gore is still associated with the Clinton Machine, so maybe he runs to save the foundation.
Bush vs Gore 2016, are you not entertained?
(goes off to swallow a pine cone)
[DAWN] THERE are many examples of abject mismanagement and unexpected crises in the political history of this country. But few such episodes have been as thoroughly unnecessary and self-inflicted as the fiasco that was polling day for the Senate elections yesterday. It is less the number of seats that became the subject of controversy -- certainly, only a minority of the 48 seats contested on Thursday. It was the entire voting process that was tainted by the actions of a few. As with every fiasco, there are culprits and this time it is the PML-N and, to a lesser extent, the PTI. Start with the PML-N. As the governing party, the PML-N is the chief custodian of the democratic project. In addition to being in the electoral fray, it was the responsibility of the PML-N to keep the process itself as transparent, efficient and free from controversy as possible. In that regard, the PML-N has been a stunning failure -- adding to its growing list of ineptitudes and difficult-to-understand mistakes.
In strictly procedural terms, ahead of the unruliness in Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... and ugliness in KP, the failure to elect Fata senators is a wretched tale of an eleventh-hour intervention failing to address a problem that had been apparent from the very outset of this election process. Presidential ordinances are an undesirable form of legislation to begin with, but can there even be a justification for a democratic government promulgating an ordinance in the middle of the night that changed the rules of an election to be held the following morning? Whatever the problem that the ordinance sought to address -- legitimate or not -- surely the late-night change to the rules was always going to stoke controversy. If that were not enough of a scandal, there was a broader PML-N failure in three provinces: the inability to anticipate some thoroughly obvious problems and the unwillingness to offer pre-emptory solutions. Nothing that happened in 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... , KP or Punjab was new or particularly challenging -- but none of those problems could be dealt with without calm, organised and thoughtful politicianship. Surely, in politically divided provinces such as Balochistan and KP and neglected houses such as the Punjab Assembly, MPAs were going to create trouble if left to their own, parochial devices.
Disastrous as the PML-N leadership was -- a last-ditch effort to pass a constitutional amendment actually underlined the political and managerial failures of the government -- the PTI in KP played its role in compounding the problems. With a provincial leadership that appears to defy the central leadership more often than not and with PTI chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... being his usual mercurial self, the PTI in KP appears to have become everything Mr Khan excoriates in status quo politics. Where are the principles, where is the discipline and where is the public interest in the PTI set-up in the province?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] WHAT does one make of a situation where a different answer is given to the same question, depending on who is asked and when? In a rolling series of responses given to the Senate since at least January, the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... police have been giving conflicting answers to a simple question: how many madressahs in the province are known to be receiving foreign funding? In late January, where other provinces presented a combined figure of 23 madressahs that received foreign funding, Punjab had said there were no such seminaries on its territory. This claim was met with scepticism, and the Senate committee summoned the Punjab IGP and asked him the same question. The IGP sent a representative in his place who reportedly told the committee that foreign funding was indeed being received, but came via informal channels, and details were therefore not known. He sought the assistance of the FIA and the State Bank in tracing it. The committee tasked the Punjab police with preparing a detailed report and scheduled another hearing.
That hearing was held on Wednesday, and this time the Punjab IGP appeared in person, along with an official from Nacta, the counterterrorism authority. This time they told the committee that 147 seminaries in Punjab were receiving funds from abroad, but that "no actionable intelligence" existed on the matter, and therefore the police could do little more than keep the entities under watch. Nacta made the startling observation that it was unaware of the exact number of madressahs operating in the country since the figures provided by different agencies and provincial governments did not tally. He had no concrete information on foreign funding. Given some follow-up, the provincial government has gone from "nil", to "some" to 147 in just over a month. The fact that politicians have to follow up aggressively in order to get straight answers to such an important question shows the provincial government's lack of interest in pursuing the matter. Funding of madressahs, especially those suspected of involvement in terrorist activities and those whose curriculum includes preaching hate against members of other sects and denominations, is a crucial part of fighting the menace of extremism and terrorism in Pakistain. If the law-enforcement agencies are evasive in generating straightforward answers to simple questions, and continuously plead their helplessness and ask for assistance from other government departments, it reveals a manifest lack of vigour in going to the roots of terrorism.
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...
Iran has worked feverishly to obtain that nuclear jewel, along the way reportedly establishing material and technology supply networks with Pakistan and North Korea and building geographically dispersed nuclear installations. In his book A Time for Betrayal, Reza Kahlili (a pseudonym for an Iranian Revolutionary Guard turned CIA agent) tells of Iran's efforts to obtain nuclear material. In one case, Iranian officials armed with billions of dollars attempted to buy a bomb from Pakistan. Luckily, Iran only succeeded in procuring blueprints and centrifuges. Ever since, however, Iran has continued at breakneck speed its attempt to achieve nuclear-weapon capacity, amassing a sizable enriched uranium stockpile and more than 19,000 uranium-processing centrifuges.
...
#1
Obumble anti-semitic by association? He has done a great deal of harm by publicly dis-associating himself from Israel and associating himself with Iran and the Islamic world. The M.E. is dangerous place to be exposing your jugular and showing weakness.
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.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) has decided that prosecutors Celal Kara and Mahir Aktas, who conducted the Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, investigations, and judge Suleyman Karacöl should be tried. 
[T]he dress rehearsal for the Nazi extermination of the Jews took place exactly 100 years ago, in 1915. The genocide was carried out by Turkish authorities, and it murdered more than 1 million Armenians, a people who were overwhelmingly Christian. Religion wasn't the only reason for the killings - ethnic and economic resentments of Turkey's Armenian minority played an important role - but Muslim contempt for the "unbelievers" legitimized the violence and was a powerful current throughout the killings. 
[DAWN] THERE are many examples of abject mismanagement and unexpected crises in the political history of this country. But few such episodes have been as thoroughly unnecessary and self-inflicted as the fiasco that was polling day for the Senate elections yesterday. It is less the number of seats that became the subject of controversy -- certainly, only a minority of the 48 seats contested on Thursday. It was the entire voting process that was tainted by the actions of a few. As with every fiasco, there are culprits and this time it is the PML-N and, to a lesser extent, the PTI. Start with the PML-N. As the governing party, the PML-N is the chief custodian of the democratic project. In addition to being in the electoral fray, it was the responsibility of the PML-N to keep the process itself as transparent, efficient and free from controversy as possible. In that regard, the PML-N has been a stunning failure -- adding to its growing list of ineptitudes and difficult-to-understand mistakes.
[DAWN] WHAT does one make of a situation where a different answer is given to the same question, depending on who is asked and when? In a rolling series of responses given to the Senate since at least January, the
