Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Alexis Smith aka Nora Nesbitt in "Of Human Bondage" aka Christine Gilbert in "Rhapsody in Blue" aka Carol Wharton in "The Young Philadelphians" aka Mrs. Linda Fisher in "Dive Bomber" aka Florence Creighton in "The Constant Nymph" (Died in 1993 at age 72)
#2
I'm not sure how good a day it is, least for us. Woke up today to find we haven't drilled a foot in the past 10 hours. Which REALLY sucks when you have 700 feet to go and have been out here just shy of two months.
I'm pretty sure at this point we're all crazy here now. Or crazier, for those of us who started off already crazy.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division ||
06/08/2011 18:04 Comments ||
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[Tolo News] A Taliban capo was killed in Afghan police operation in Herat province on Tuesday , local officials said.
Well done!
The operation was launched in Gozara district of Herat province in which a Taliban capo named Habibullah Moghol was killed, another was maimed and a Taliban beturbanned goon was also placed in long-term storage in the operation, Nisar Ahmad Popal, district chief of Gozara told TOLOnews.
One Afghan police was killed and two others were maimed in the operation, he added.
The Taliban have not yet commented about the operation.
Insurgents are active in some villages and districts of the province often carrying out attacks against government.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Now THIS is news.
Maybe. Let's chalk it up to one for the goods guys.
I will ignore the possibility of there having been other motivations like any traditional Afghan score-settling or late payments or tribal blood-letting or ...
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/08/2011 12:59 Comments ||
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Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) said on Tuesday it has jugged a terrorist who planned to kill Atta Mohammad Noor, governor of Balkh province.
NDS officials said the Taliban are trying to attack government buildings in provinces where security responsibility would be handed over to Afghan cops in July. Under Operation Badr, the Taliban aim to kill Jihadi figures too, NDS said.
Recently, Mohammad Yonus Qanooni warned that forces of Evil wanted to kill himself, vice-President Marshal Qasim Fahim, Leader of Change and Hope Coalition Dr Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... and Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Noor.
A front man for NDS, Lotfullah Mashal said a man who was trained in Pakistain and came to Afghanistan to kill Atta Mohammad Noor was jugged.
"A professional terrorist, linked to the Taliban, known as Mohammad Aslam originally from Sar-e-Pul province and a current resident of Helmand province, was attempting to carry out a terrorist attack against Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock," Mr Mashal said.
They seem to know an awful lot about him. This should disturb someone back in the Land of the Pure.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... Mr Mashal strongly dismissed the comments made by a Pak official saying one of their military posts came under attack by cut-throats from Afghanistan.
He said Pak Taliban infiltrating into Afghanistan should not be branded as Afghan Taliban on their way back to their safe havens.
"Ninety nine percent of forces of Evil in Afghanistan have come from tribal areas," Mr Mashal told news hounds.
Last week the NDS announced that they have foiled complex attacks in western Herat after the Italian base in the province was attacked.
Mr Mashal said a suicide kaboom plotter who was attempting to target government institutions in Nimroz province has also been jugged by security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Police found the beheaded body of a politician in central Afghanistan on Tuesday, three days after he was kidnapped by suspected Taliban-linked thugs, a police commander said.
Jawad Zahaak was head of the provincial council in Bamiyan, seen as one of the country's most peaceful areas and among the first wave of places to transition from Western to Afghan security control from around July.
He was kidnapped while travelling in the neighbouring province of Parwan on Saturday and his beheaded body was founded dumped near a main road, Parwan police chief Sher Ahmad Maladani told AFP.
"Police found his body near the road. He had been beheaded," the police commander said, blaming the Taliban.
Maladani added that the police had tried to rescue Zahaak but had not succeeded.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Russia is not playing the role of mediator in the Libya conflict, Foreign Minister Segei Lavrov said on Tuesday after a Kremlin envoy was dispatched to the rebels' stronghold in Benghazi.
"No, no! We're doing something ...else. Really!"
President Dmitry Medvedev's envoy Mikhail Margelov met Libyan rebel leaders on Tuesday in the first trip by a top Russian official to their stronghold, as NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... warplanes pounded the capital.
An Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent in Tripoli heard repeated loud kabooms emanating from the Bab al-Aziziya district where veteran leader Moammar Qadaffy has his base, in one of the heaviest daytime bombardments since the NATO-led air war began in mid-March.
At a meeting of the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Libya Labor Minister Al-Amin Manfour announced that he was changing sides in the latest high-level defection to hit Qadaffy's regime.
In the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Libya's second city, Margelov said Russia opposed any escalation of the conflict but was prepared to provide financial support to the rebels.
"We have come to Benghazi to facilitate dialogue between the two camps," Margelov told news hounds.
"Russia is in a unique position because it already has an ambassador in Tripoli and now we are meeting with the rebel leadership today," he said.
Margelov, Medvedev's Africa envoy, met rebel leaders including Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of the National Transitional Council that controls eastern Libya.
After the talks, he said: "Air strikes don't solve problems. We are in favor of a political solution, not a military escalation.
"We are ready to help the Libyan people both politically and economically."
The rebels said they were ready to receive Russian aid "tomorrow" but stressed that they would not enter any negotiations on ending the Libyan conflict until Qadaffy stepped down.
"The only message that he can deliver to Qadaffy as far as the rebellion is concerned is 'Leave'," rebel front man Mahmoud Shammam said.
Margelov said he "may eventually travel to Tripoli" but gave no date for any trip.
Moscow has expressed alarm as NATO's air campaign to enforce a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone to protect civilians entered a new phase with the deployment of British and French attack helicopters over the weekend.
An AFP correspondent heard eight loud kabooms from the area around Qadaffy's compound in the Libyan capital late morning followed by more than a dozen in the early afternoon.
A plume of smoke rose over barracks in the complex which was "once again targeted by NATO" strikes, government front man Moussa Ibrahim told journalists.
He added there had been "casualties."
Beijing meanwhile said that Chinese diplomats had arrived in Benghazi to meet with members of the opposition.
The diplomats' mission was "to gain an understanding of the humanitarian situation and the situation for Chinese investing entities", a foreign ministry statement said.
Russia and China, both permanent Security Council members, abstained from the U.N. Security Council vote in March that gave the go-ahead for international military action against Qadaffy's regime.
And as foreign powers beat a path to the rebels' door, Spain said Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez will travel to Benghazi for a meeting with the rebels on Wednesday.
In Vienna, an informed source told AFP that Qadaffy will be represented at this week's meeting of the OPEC oil cartel by Omran Abukraa, ex-head of the national electricity authority.
Last month, Libya's previous acting oil minister Shukri Ghanem resigned and left Libya to join the uprising.
Abukraa, a Qadaffy loyalist, will lead the Libyan delegation at a regular output meeting of oil ministers from the 12-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the source said.
Fellow North African nation Mauritania added its voice to the chorus of countries demanding that Qadaffy quit.
"Qadaffy can no longer lead Libya. His departure has become necessary," President Mohammed Ould Abdul Aziz told AFP in an interview.
The European Union announced that it would extend a freeze on the assets of Qadaffy's regime to six government-controlled port authorities from Wednesday.
The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees warned that an aid crisis appeared to be looming in Libya and more international relief may soon be needed.
"Despite the fact that warehouses are currently well stocked with basic food items, it is apparent that the combined impact of protracted conflict and sanctions are eroding the government's ability to effectively deliver assistance," UNHCR front man Adrian Edwards said.
He said a U.N. mission which visited Libya last week had concluded that "if this situation continues, international aid is likely to be needed in a matter of weeks."
He said UNHCR staff in Tripoli had reported queues at petrol stations as long as 8.2 kilometers and that 49,000 people were estimated to have been displaced in the capital and in the Zlitan region further east.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Libyan leader Moammar Qadaffy has vowed to fight to death in a surprise speech during the heaviest day of NATO shelling in the capital Tripoli.
Qadaffy's voice suddenly emerged on Libyan television Tuesday afternoon -- barely an hour after the last some 30 NATO strikes pounded the capital.
He called on his supporters to rally at his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters in Tripoli "despite NATO's bombing," stressing that his regime "will never surrender" to NATO's forces.
"We will not kneel and we will not surrender," Qadaffy vowed.
"You will never be able to defeat an armed people," the defiant leader said, addressing Western countries involved in NATO's air campaign to enforce a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone aimed at protecting civilians.
"We're not afraid and we're stronger than your rockets and iron. We've decided to perform our duty towards history. The battle was imposed on us and we're not afraid of death," Qadaffy went on to say.
He vowed to "remain in Tripoli, alive or dead," saying Libya's "men and women should engage in the battle for life and victory."
Lashing out at rebels who control the country's east and some areas in the west, Qadaffy said: "Traitors have no value, they do not exist. The people shall prevail, I am speaking as bombs fall around me."
"We don't think about life or death, we think of the call of duty. Millions will march forward and we'll disarm the armed gangs without using weapons," he vowed.
Shortly after the recording was broadcast, fresh air strikes hit the Libyan capital.
It was the first intervention by the Libyan leader since May 19 when state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
showed footage of him holding talks with a bigwig apparently back from a mission to Moscow this week.
In another audio message broadcast on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
on May 13, Qadaffy said he was in a place where NATO bombs could not reach him.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Western governments and rebels say a combination of NATO air strikes, diplomatic isolation and grassroots opposition will eventually end Qadaffy's rule.
Qadaffy refuses to step down, saying he is supported by all Libyans apart from a minority of "rats" and al Qaeda gunnies, and that NATO strikes are a Western plot to steal Libya's oil.
In a report on Monday, the International Crisis Group (ICG) urged the rebels and their NATO allies to propose a ceasefire, arguing that demands that Qadaffy step down as a pre-condition and threats of war crimes charges had forced him into a corner.
"The (rebels) and their NATO supporters appear uninterested in resolving the conflict through negotiation," it said.
"To insist that he (Qadaffy) go now, as the precondition for any negotiation ... is to render a ceasefire all but impossible and so to maximize the prospect of continued armed conflict. To insist that he both leave ... and face trial in the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... is virtually to ensure that he will stay in Libya to the bitter end and go down fighting."
In a sign NATO strikes may be aiding the rebel advance, the rebels seized Yafran, 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Tripoli, on Monday, after British warplanes had destroyed two tanks and two armored personnel carriers there on June 2.
In Brussels on Monday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he would repeat calls for NATO allies to boost involvement at an alliance defense ministers meeting this week.
NATO decided last week to extend operations in Libya until the end of September.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
LIBYA - R2P
Critics are calling it The feel-good movie of the Arab-Summer.
(Qeue) From ICG headquarters, Soros and our intrepid R2Per's release a report calling for an automatic time-out. (Meanwhile)...a UN mouthpiece blathers about an impending double-secret humanitarian crisis. (Action scenes from the front)...NATO jets pound the bujeebuz outta Trippoli in a daring day-time raid. And the Sec. Gen still calls for yet a bigger smack-down. (Somewhere in his secret lair)...Mighty Mo defiantly tells the world to fuck off. (Across the pond)...Angela gets her medal, a state dinner, assurances of IMF Greece dough and for the first time speaks publicly about Libyan reconstruction. (In exotic lands far, far away)...both the Rooskies and Chicoms tone down the static over Libyan kinnetics. (On a hot day in a dusty town)Mauratina says Mo's gotta go. (Back at the ranch)...President Obama stands firm and again calls for the Q-Man to step aside. (Fade to black...)
[Bangla Daily Star] Waves of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... aircraft hit Tripoli on Tuesday in the most sustained bombardment of the Libyan capital since Western forces began air strikes in March.
By Tuesday afternoon, war planes were striking different parts of the city several times an hour, hour after hour, rattling windows and sending clouds of grey smoke into the sky, a Rooters correspondent in the centre of the city said.
The Libyan government attributed earlier blasts to NATO air strikes on military compounds in the capital, a day after rebels drove Muammar Qadaffy's forces out of a western town.
Bombs have been striking the city every few hours since Monday, at a steadily increasing pace. On Tuesday they began before 11:00am (5:00am ET) and were continuing five hours later.
Air strikes were previously rarer and usually at night.
Some of the bombs appeared to hit in the vicinity of Qadaffy's vast Bab al-Aziziya residential compound.
A Libyan official, speaking over a loudspeaker in a hotel where foreign journalists stay under government supervision, said some strikes had hit the Popular Guard compound and the Revolutionary Guard compound, giving no comment on casualties.
A NATO military official in Naples, headquarters of the alliance's Libya operation, confirmed the current strikes were the heaviest on Tripoli so far.
"Definitely there are more strikes going into Tripoli than there have been in the past ... This is just to increase the pressure on the Qadaffy regime and it's been going on like this for a couple of days now ..."
"The targets we are striking are the same types as ... in the past -- command and control, ammunition storage, vehicle storage -- any function or system the Qadaffy regime can use to attack civilians."
Libyan TV said late on Monday NATO had bombed the al-Karama neighbourhood and a civilian telecommunications station.
NATO said it hit a military "command and control target."
Further east, Qadaffy's troops and the rebels have been in stalemate for weeks, neither able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah, which Qadaffy's forces shelled on Monday, and the Qadaffy-held oil town of Brega further west.
Rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misrata and the range of mountains near the border with Tunisia. They have been unable to advance on the capital against Qadaffy's better-equipped forces, despite NATO air strikes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Sure hope they don't kill any innocent civilians.
RIYADH: YemenÂ’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh is recovering satisfactorily from surgeries at RiyadhÂ’s Armed Forces Hospital, a hospital source said Tuesday.
“Saleh underwent a few other minimally invasive procedures and non-invasive treatment for his injuries during the last two days,” said the source.
Define 'minimally'...
The source said all necessary medical procedures had been employed to “assess body functions with an aim to ensure quick recovery and to treat the burn injuries.”
The source also said the president was “out of danger and responding to medical treatment satisfactorily.”
YemenÂ’s acting leader, Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has said Saleh intends to return within days.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that President Saleh was more seriously injured in the rocket attack than thought. Saleh suffered 40 percent burns and has bleeding inside his skull, the news agency said, citing an unidentified Yemeni official.
Given the pain involved with burns and the process of healing, Saleh would probably require strong sedation and a few more days to heal, said the Riyadh hospital source.
There have also been reports that one of the wooden shards that sliced into his body punctured a lung, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, the head of the Arabiya television network, was quoted as saying in a report Tuesday.
So the 'minimally invasive' surgery would have been a chest tube, at least. We generally don't leave wood shards in the lung. He may have required a thoracotomy -- that's more than 'minimally' invasive.
That too could require a more extended convalescent period, hampering any plan for president to go back to Sanaa, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Come on Saudis. Put a big load of propofol in his feeding tube. It worked so well for Michael Jackson, it has to be good for this guy too. Sort of like a work related accident. His widows will be able to collect the insurance money and live large on the Riyadh strip.
[Iran Press TV] Soddy Arabia's Interior Ministry says two border guards have been killed and one maimed by a man trying to cross into Yemen with a large amount of ammunition.
Interior Ministry front man Mansour al-Turki said the attacker was also killed in the exchange of fire.
The shooting took place in the southern province of Najran early on Tuesday. The man shot at the guards with an automatic weapon while driving a jeep, state news agency SPA reported.
The front man said a colonel and a sergeant were rubbed out and another sergeant was maimed.
He added that the ministry launched an investigation to find out the assailant's identity.
Yemen is the scene of festivities between opposition rustics and troops loyal to President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh. ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower... On Tuesday, the festivities between the two sides killed at least 19 people, including three children, across the Arab state.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Massive demonstrations were held in several Yemeni cities including Saada where the people erupted into the streets to confirm their support to the popular uprising and confirm they will not abandon their strife until the regime was ousted.
In Taiz, festivities erupted between gunnies and the army in some parts of the city which has been the scene for deadly battles between the forces and armed people and the protesters.
The festivities were reported on the outskirts of Taiz but in downtown the city the situation remained clam, locals said.
Some people were killed and injured today, and eyewitnesses said that rustics from Sharab district contend to flood into the city with guns.
Also, eyewitnesses said that unidentified gunnies threw a bomb at the ruling party compound in downtown Taiz but there were no casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] A coalition of Yemeni opposition parties has offered to talk with the country's vice-president about a political transition, but a high-ranking government source says no dialogue can take place until president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower... returns to Yemen.
Sources from the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) told Al Jizz on Monday they were willing to talk with Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, Yemen's acting leader, about a transition.
Hadi was tasked with running the government after Saleh left for medical treatment in Soddy Arabia earlier this week.
But a source close to Saleh dismissed the JMP's offer as "ridiculous," and said no political dialogue could take place until Saleh returned. "Saleh is still the president of Yemen," the source said.
"The answer of the government was the following, that Saleh remains the ultimate constitutional authority of the government ... So basically, they are telling them 'sorry, we are not going to talk about it'," Al Jizz's Hashem Ahelbarra said about the government's response.
"[The opposition is] under tremendous pressure from the thousands of freedom fighters across the country to take a very agressive role and jump in, reinforcing a new agenda in Yemen. If they fail to do that, definitely, they will lose more support in Yemen," Ahelbarra added.
Saleh was injured in an attack on his palace on Friday. He is believed to have undergone a surgery to remove shrapnel from his chest. He also reportedly suffers from burns over 40 per cent of his body.
Hadi said on Monday that Saleh's health was improving and that he "would return to the homeland in the coming days", but medical sources said he would need at least two weeks to recover in Soddy Arabia.
'An immediate transition'
Saleh's son and several of his nephews remain in Yemen, and they control powerful branches of the military and intelligence services, giving Saleh a continued grip on power even in his absence.
Hadi - typically a behind-the-scenes player in Yemeni politics - has kept a relatively low profile since Saleh's departure. It is unclear how much power he actually wields. He is still working from his office in the ministry of defence, while Saleh's son Ahmed has reportedly moved into the presidential palace.
American and European leaders have called for Saleh to hand over power to a new leader.
"We think an immediate transition is in the best interests of the Yemeni people," Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John C. Calhoun ... , secretary of state, said on Monday.
For her part, Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said she hoped Saleh would let his country "move on" while he sought medical treatment in Soddy Arabia.
More than 450 people have been killed in the unrest shaking the nation of 23 million since late January.
Fighting continues Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!... a Saudi-negotiated truce was holding shakily in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, after two weeks of fighting between Saleh's forces and a powerful tribal group in which more than 200 people were killed.
Fighting raged between Yemeni troops and suspected al-Qaeda gunnies at the gates of Zinjibar, the southern city which had earlier fallen under the group's control.
Yemen's military said it had killed 30 of the group's fighters on Tuesday, including a local al-Qaeda leader.
Taiz, Yemen's second largest city, was reportedly seized by armed dissidents, following festivities with troops loyal to Saleh, Sheikh Hammoud Saeed al-Mikhlafi, the head of the tribal council in Taiz told the AFP news agency.
"I consider Taiz to have fallen under the control" of the dissidents, he said.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... according to Al Jizz's sources, a senior opposition member in Taiz denied these reports, saying the presidential palace and governor building were still in the hands of forces loyal to President-for-Life Saleh. ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... He explained that security and army forces withdrew from major parts of Taiz on Monday, but that did not mean that pro-opposition tribal gunnies, and those who had defected, were controlling the city.
Sporadic festivities continued across Yemen and at least six people were killed on Monday after government supporters opened fire on opposition fighters.
Elsewhere, Saudi television reported that three border guards were killed by someone trying to sneak across the border from Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] International pressure is mounting on President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... to step down from power in Yemen and accept the Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC, proposal for power transfer in the country, a ruling party said.
The source said that the United States and European Union are pressuring Saleh to agree to the proposal to save Yemen and the region from more bloodshed and instability.
Saleh accepted the GCC proposal a month ago but has not signed it yet.
According to the official, the Saudis do not want to force Saleh in signing the proposal because the Elite Republican Guards and Central Security Forces are still in the hands of his son and nephew.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Government spokesperson Abdu Ganadi said that President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... will be arriving to Yemen within days and is now in good condition.
Ganadi was surprised at the opposition intentions to force Saleh in staying in Soddy Arabia and step down from power by force. "President Saleh is still the legitimate ruler in Yemen and he will continue ruling until his term ends in 2013," said Ganadi.
Ganadi added that Saleh is expected to be in Sana'a before Friday.
Opposition forces in Yemen vowed to do all in thier power to ensure that Saleh does not comeback to Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Yemen's President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower... was more seriously injured in a rocket attack on his compound last week than previously thought, US officials say.
Saleh suffered 40 percent burns and has bleeding inside his skull after Friday's attack, the officials told AP.
The president is receiving treatment in Soddy Arabia after the attack on his compound in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.
A senior administration official told the BBC that they were not going to comment on Saleh's health.
"We're not doctors. As [the] Secretary [of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Marshall ... ] said yesterday, we're focused here and in Sanaa on working toward a peaceful, orderly, non-violent transition, consistent with Yemen's constitution," the official said.
It was not immediately clear how severe Mr Saleh's burns are but, on Saturday, sources close to the president told the BBC that he had second-degree burns on his chest and face, as well as a piece of shrapnel almost 7.6cm (3in) long under his heart.
He has not been seen since Friday's attack during which seven people were killed and several senior government officials were also maimed.
President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled since 1978, has refused to leave office despite protests and a tribal uprising which has brought the country to the brink of civil war and resulted in more than 350 deaths.
The news of his injuries comes as fresh festivities were reported in the southern Yemeni cities of Taiz and Zinjibar.
Despite repeated promises to do so, he has refused to accept a transition plan brokered by the Saudi-led Gulf Co-Operation Council.
On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Foster Dulles ... called for an "immediate transition" in Yemen.
She said the country needed a process that "everyone knows is going to lead to the sort of economic and political reforms that they are seeking".
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06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas click here
The toll in the mass graves in San Fernando, Tamaulipas rose to 193 from 183 as seven more pits and ten bodies were discovered, according to Mexican news reports.
Reports say newly appointed national attorney general (PGR), Marisala Morales, announced that ten more individuals were exhumed from seven pits.
The San Fernando mass graves are the sites of one of the worst mass murders in Mexican history.
News reports say a Los Zetas group hijacked a number of buses in San Fernando over a period of almost eight months, and abused and killed passengers in a terror campaign that began July 2010 to April 2011 when the first of the graves were discovered. Some reports say the motive was a recruiting drive. To read Rantburg reports on the San Fernando mass murders, click here
#1
Iff the non-Muslim Mexican Cartels are building or procuring "Narco-tanks", the day is coming when the same will procure asymmetric Nukes-WMDS like Radical Islamist groups.
DITTO FOR ANY + ALL OTHER KINDS OF MILITANT-TERR GROUPS + CRIME SYNDICATES, ETC.
For a map, click here. For a map of Coahuila, click here The two woudned died. Raising the death toll to 13
A total of 13 individuals were shot to death at a drug rehabilitation center in Torreon Coahuila Tuesday afternoon, according to Mexican news accounts.
Reports are armed suspects burst into the La Victoria center near the Zona Centro of Torreon at about 1720 hrs and started firing. Eleven died as the scene. Two others were wounded in the shooting, but later died at a local hospital.
Torreon, Coahuila is in an area of northern Mexico known as La Laguna, which includes the eastern Durango city of Gomez Palacio. It was recently the recipient of a large number of security forces including 1,000 soldiers early in May, 2010. To read the last Rantburg report of the Torreon, Coahuila reinforcement, click here.
[Dawn] Czech authorities have released a Pak national held on an international warrant for suspected murder and terrorism after Pakistain failed to apply for his extradition, a regional court prosecutor said on Tuesday.
The police had jugged Muhammad Zafar at the end of April when he applied for asylum in the European Union member. Pakistain, which initiated the warrant, had not requested his extradition within the 40-day period dictated by law.
"The prosecutor has a duty to decide to release the detainee and another decision was not possible in the given situation," prosecutor Zbynek Vondra said.
Vondra said there was no information Zafar had been involved in criminal activities in the Czech Republic or another European state. He gave no details of the accusations he faces in Pakistain.
Czech officials, at the time of his detention, had said there were no reports of any terrorist threat to the Czech Republic.
Police could detain the suspect again if Pakistain delivers the necessary extradition documents, a Justice Ministry spokeswoman said. They'll maybe sorta get around to it someday, but then Lahore High Court will let him off for lack of evidence.
A lawyer for Zafar was unavailable for comment, nor was any official at Pakistain's embassy in Prague.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Sounds like he's perfectly willing to stay there and sponge off their welfare system. Maybe become the Anjem Choudary of the Czech Republic...
[Dawn] Testimony in the trial of a Chicago businessman accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks wrapped up swiftly Monday as defence attorneys called only two witnesses before resting their case.
Tahawwur Rana is accused of providing cover for longtime friend David Coleman Headley, who has admitted to laying groundwork for the rampage on India's largest city. Headley pleaded guilty and was the government's star witness, spending five days on the stand detailing how he worked with both Pak intelligence and a Islamic exemplar group as he scoped sites ahead of the attacks.
Attorneys put on only a brief defence Monday, calling a computer forensics expert and an immigration attorney -- but not Rana -- after federal prosecutors rested their case earlier in the day.
"I waive the right," Rana said when asked by US District Judge Harry Leinenweber whether he wanted to testify.
"Got nuttin' t'say."
Closing arguments are expected Tuesday in the trial.
Jurors did hear Rana's words earlier Monday during testimony from the prosecution's final witness, an FBI agent who questioned him in October 2009. Prosecutors played short video clips of statements from Rana, who had agreed to speak with FBI Sherlocks for nearly six hours after his arrest.
Rana could be heard in the clips recounting names and affiliations of others charged in the case, including members of the Pak intelligence agency known as ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic exemplar group blamed in the attack.
But it was unclear from the statements whether Rana knew of the Mumbai plot ahead of time. Defence attorneys and prosecutors did not comment Monday.
Rana, a Pak-born Canadian, has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me."
That's "Wudn't me, eh?", of course.
to providing a cover story as Headley carried out surveillance for the Mumbai attacks and the planned an attack on a Danish newspaper that in 2005 published cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. That attack never happened.
Rana owns several Chicago area businesses, including an immigration law services center with offices worldwide. Prosecutors allege Rana allowed Headley pose as a business representative and open a Mumbai office while doing his video surveillance.
Attempting to show that Rana sought to establish business in Mumbai long before Headley traveled there, defence attorneys called a Canadian immigration attorney who testified that he conducted seminars about Rana's business in Mumbai in 1997 and that Rana had placed ads in five Indian newspapers at the time.
Though Rana is on trial, much of the focus has been on Headley, an admitted terrorist who was born in the US and lived most of his life in Pakistain. Headley and Rana met as teens at a Pak boarding school.
Headley detailed through emails, phone conversations and testimony that he took orders from both the ISI and Lashkar ahead of the Mumbai attacks, and that everything was communicated with Rana.
He also testified about communications with Ilyas Kashmirei, believed to be al Qaeda's military operations chief in Pakistain and one of six others charged in the Mumbai case in absentia. Kashmirei was reportedly killed Friday in a US missile strike, but US officials haven't confirmed the death.
Headley's testimony revealed that Kashmirei, leader of a Pak terrorist group called Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, had wanted to attack US defence contractor Lockheed Martin because he was angry about US drone attacks inside Pakistain.
Kashmirei's name came up just briefly Monday as attorneys and the judge discussed jury instructions without jurors present. Leinenweber raised the possibility removing Kashmirei's name from some court documents, but no action was taken.
"What the jury is looking at now is Dr. Rana," said defence attorney Charles Swift. "Much of the world is following this trial not because of Dr. Rana, but it's now time to focus on Dr. Rana, not on Ilyas Kashmirei, not on all the other people."
Others charged in the case include an ISI member known only as 'Major Iqbal' and Headley's Lashkar handler Sajid Mir.
Defence attorneys have hammered on Headley's reliability, talking about how he initially lied to the FBI even as he said he was cooperating, lied to a judge and even to his own family. They claim he implicated Rana in the plot because he wanted to make a deal with prosecutors. Headley's cooperation means he avoids the death penalty and extradition.
Still, experts have said the US government clearly has confidence in his test.
This article starring:
David Coleman Headley
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Major Iqbal
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Sajid Mir
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Tahawwur Rana
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"Angry about US done strikes inside Pakistan" > NO, TWAS LONG BEFORE MUMBAI OR EVEN 9-11.
US missiles have struck a terrorist militant training camp in Pakistan's tribal district of North Waziristan, killing 20 terrorists fighters close to the Afghan border.
Good. More, faster, please.
The camp in the Shawal area was run by terrorists fighters loyal to Pakistani terrorist warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose loyalists attack in Afghanistan, and was targeted by five US missiles at around 5pm (AEST) today, the Pakistani security officials said.
"The death toll is 20. It is likely to go up," a senior security official told AFP. Foreign terrorists and terrorists militants from Pakistan's central Punjab province were thought to be among the dead, he added.
Local officials in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, also confirmed the attack and the death toll.
Local residents described the camp as a major terrorist training centre on the top of a hill surrounded by trees and ice cold natural springs.
The strikes occurred within minutes of each other, the four Pakistani intelligence officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
One missile hit a vehicle carrying five men, while the other struck a nearby compound, killing 18 people in the Shawal area, which lies along the border that separates the South and North Waziristan tribal regions.
#7
Hummm .. me thinks the CIA is cashing in on that "intelligence" find from the One Who Now Swims with the Fishes. Lots of missiles flying lately and not missing!
#12
Never probably. He's likely one of the Saudi prince's shower boys. His biggest fear is probably being caught by the religious police while dressed in his usual clothes. Women's.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division ||
06/08/2011 17:57 Comments ||
Top||
#13
"US missiles kill twenty in Pakistan"
It's a start....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/08/2011 18:37 Comments ||
Top||
#14
ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTANI MILITANTS VOW TO ESCALATE FIGHT IN AFGHANISTAN, in retaliation to unilater US Drone strikes widin Afghanistan despite the promise of the Afghan Taliban to not coperate wid the Pak Taliban nor interfere in PAK insurgency = PAK Govt., National affairs.
Lest we fergit. a number of MSM-Net Analysts had argued pre-Abbottabad that the US = US-NATO cannot defeat the Afghan insurgency widout expanding the war into Pakistan.
* SAME > KHALISTAN! = various Poster Maps indic that regional Sikhs desire their own Not-Balochis-for-Free-Balochistan sovereign state composed of UP TO 1/2 OF PAKISTAN + PARTS OF NORTHERN,NW INDIA [includ New Delhi].
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > ASIA'S CONFRONTATION STRUCTURE: CHINA-PAK VERSUS US-INDIA | HOW THE EMPIRE WILL PREVAIL: WILL WASHINGTON FOMENT WAR BETWEEN CHINA + INDIA?
US is denoted as desiring to set up a base at GWADAR to deter Iran + China.
[Dawn] Rigid positions taken by the two factions of the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad turban outfit on gaining control of the mosques and seminaries in Kohat, reportedly threaten to burst into open violence.
They want to kill each other and break each other's things in quantity? Ok.
Sources close to the group led by Maulana Masood Azhar say the Maulana has told the members of the group of Muhammad Asif, who was killed few months ago by his rivals, that they ceased the right to control the mosques and seminaries in Tappi area on Rawalpindi Road when they broke away from the parent organisation.
Members of Masood Azhar group were trying to gain control of Masjid-i-Ibne Masood also, which has also a seminary near Kohat springs and Masjid Khalid bin Walid in College Town, according to the sources.
They said that the dispute over ownership of Masjid-i-Shuhada in Tappi area that could lead the two groups to festivities.
It is important to recall that Mohammad Asif along with his 40 colleagues had distanced himself from the organisation five months ago but retained control over the said mosques and seminaries.
The other group, led by Bakht Mohammad, alleged that Asif didn`t resign but he was removed him from his post after he was found involved in embezzlement of funds.
Asif had set up a library Darul Iman, which sold all sorts of books at 50 per cent discount, after distancing himself from all activities of the organisation. He and his lover companions had alleged that the organisation changed its policy and used its members in controversial issues.
A jirga was also held on Saturday to resolve the issue. About 200 gunnies of Maulana Masood Azhar group and two members of Asif group attended the jirga. About 300 local people were also present on the occasion. But the matter could not be resolved owing to rigid stance of the group leaders.
On Sunday, the members of Masood Azhar group organised a meeting at Masjid-i-Shuhada but Asif group asked them to leave the place.
Sources feared fierce fighting between the groups.
This article starring:
Bakht Mohammad
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Maulana Masood Azhar
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Muhammad Asif
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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Cost of doing business: the locals need their periodic excitement.
[Dawn] A Pak government official says five NATO oil tankers burned after an kaboom at the Afghan border.
Tahir Khan says the Tuesday kaboomdestroyed a parking area at the Torkham border crossing, where the tankers go through customs before crossing into neighboring Afghanistan.
He said he did not know who was responsible or what caused the kaboom. Militants usually attack the tankers elsewhere in Pakistain. On the other hand, the tankers seldom combust spontaneously.
Most supplies for NATO and its allied US forces pass through two routes in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Straits Times] A COURT in the Philippines has frozen US$23 million(S$28.4 million) in bank accounts and assets linked to suspects in the 2009 politically motivated massacre of at least 57 people.
The order by the Court of Appeals on Tuesday targets the assets of the Ampatuans, one of the Philippines' wealthiest and most influential families. Its most senior members are on trial for multiple murder.
The court said the 1 billion pesos (S$28.4 million) includes the assets of the Ampatuans in several government agencies, banking institutions and other entities that are believed to have been used in amassing ill-gotten wealth.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I suspect the Ampatuans have not been foolish enough to maintain accounts only in the Philippines.
Switzerland, anyone?
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/08/2011 8:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Nah, they just have to hire some Hollyweird bookkeepers to show that it all went 'phuff' in the 2008-9 stock market collapse. Paper? We gots lots of stinking paper.
[Al Jazeera] Syrian authorities have threatened to crack down on "gangs" it says killed 120 members of its security forces in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughur.
"The state will act firmly, with force and in line with the law. It will not stay arms folded in the face of armed attacks on the security of the homeland," Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar, the Syrian interior minister, said in a televised statement on Monday.
The minister's threat of retribution came after Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said that the security forces who came under attack were on their way to the town in response to calls for help from residents, and that they died in an ambush.
"The gangs are using weapons and grenades ... the people in Jisr al-Shughur are urging the army to intervene speedily," state TV said.
On Tuesday, an activist in Jisr al-Shugur told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named that residents of the town were preparing to face the Syrian security forces' operation.
Speaking to Al Jizz, Reem Haddad, Syria's information ministry spokesperson, said "this afternoon 40 security officers were killed, and 80 have died since Friday".
The international media is banned from covering the uprising in Syria, making it nearly impossible to verify the state-controlled media's claims.
Military operations However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... an activist in Jisr al-Shughur, who spoke to Al Jizz on condition of anonymity, said that the situation in the city was "quiet" on Monday after the previous day's violence.
"[On Monday] we didn't have any particular events, the situation was calm. But we had some news that there was a group of armed forces headed towards us," he said.
"The Syrian television is always against the street. If we have hundreds of demonstrators, the Syrian TV will say dozens. There is a big gap between the media in Syria and what is happening in the street."
Syrian security forces have been conducting military operations in Jisr al-Shughur for several days as part of a crackdown on anti-government protests.
"The area there has been witnessing many festivities for the past few days," Al Jizz's Rula Amin reported from Beirut in Leb.
"It is very difficult to verify the two different versions of these events.
"The official version of what is happening is that there are gangs roaming the area ... that army and the security forces are facing hundreds of armed gangs, and this is a large number. Obviously the protests and confrontation between the protesters and the security police has taken a new turn."
"From the activists and the protesters, we know they have been keen on emphasising the protests are peaceful."
Our correspondent said over the past two days "we have seen on Facebook and Twitter debates even within those activists and opposition figures on the new phenomenon of some of the protesters resorting to arms, attacking the security forces, sometimes with weapons".
'Armed rebellion'
An activist told Rooters that police and members of the security forces in Jisr al-Shughur were killed by gunnies.
"Some people in some areas have taken up arms," he said. "The situation is grave, what is happening is an armed rebellion. I oppose violence from whatever side it comes from."
Fares Braizat, a Middle East analyst, told Al Jizz there was a "war of pictures and a war of the media" going on in Syria.
"Now the only available version for viewers in Syria and outside Syria is the official version coming from Syrian TV or the Syrian official state agency," he said.
He said that following a massacre that took place in the Jisr al-Shughur area in the 1980s, "the people of this area have a longstanding Dire Revenge™ that they want to take out against the Syrian regime.
"So if violence escalates to unprecedented levels ... I think this is where the regime wants the process to be. I think the regime has for the past weeks been trying to turn this into a sectarian war."
La Belle France to seek UN vote
Rights groups say more than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 locked away in Syria since protests against president Bashir al-Assad's rule erupted in mid-March.
The Syrian government insists the unrest is the work of "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.
Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, on Monday said that his country was ready to approach the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... Security Council to vote on a draft resolution condemning the Syrian government for its violent crackdown on protests.
"The situation is very clear. In Syria, the process of reform is dead and we think that Bashar has lost his legitimacy to rule the country," Juppe told a Washington think-tank after a day of talks with US officials including Hillary Clinton, ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edward Stettinius, Jr. ... the US secretary of state.
He said that there was a "risk" that Russia would use its veto to block the motion.
An earlier initiative to persuade the council to issue a statement criticising Syria collapsed in May when Russia, China and India opposed it.
Six human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... groups within Syria issued a joint statement on Monday condemning "the excessive use of force to disperse peaceful gatherings of unarmed Syrian citizens".
They also demanded an independent and transparent commission of inquiry "to unmask those responsible for the violence".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"The situation is very clear. In Syria, the process of reform is dead...
Really!?! Let's see here. For months now (Years really if you consider Speaker Nancypant's junket) the Progressives' were calling alAssad a "reformer". In fact, as recently as just a few days ago (in the backdrop of some yout gettin kilt - no less), Sec. Clinton was demanding that Pencilneck "take serious steps twoards reform". And now, all of a sudden, Hillary has an epiphany - a momemt of clarity if you will. One wonders what exactly was the tipping point for this turnabout? Seriously, did the Administration have a specific number of slaughterd people in mind before comming to this conclusion? Or perhaps, just maybe, it's another stunning example of a diplo-elite stating the obvious and passing it off as insight?
#2
"One wonders what exactly was the tipping point for this turnabout?"
Probably the growing realization that Pencilneck won't be sending any "anonymous" illegal money over the internet to the Dems' 2012 Presidential campaign.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/08/2011 14:58 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Wow the idiot learned how to C & P his own lune ravings
#4
One wonders what exactly was the tipping point for this turnabout?
Calling Assad a "reformer" is the same tactic used when calling a third-grade-thug a "prodigy". The idea, according to its proponents, is to create positive reinforcement, with the goal of getting the thug to reform their behavior.
Apparently since a) it didn't work and b) the administration is catching flak for its Mid-East foreign policy, the tactic has been dropped in favor of vigorous finger-wagging.
#5
My guess is that the Ikhwan, which had been in hibernation since the Hama massacre, is rearing its ugly head again. During Hafez Assad's rule, they assassinated government officials and generally did everything they could to remove the Alawite heretics from power. Hafez Assad's response was to destroy Hama. It should be interesting to see if the Alawites can unite to keep the Sunnis at bay - an Ikhwan-run government means exile for non-Sunni minorities.
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.
Qadaffy has vowed to fight to death in a surprise speech during the heaviest day of 
Qadaffy's rule.
International Criminal Court
Qadaffy's forces out of a western town.
RIYADH: YemenÂ’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh is recovering satisfactorily from surgeries at RiyadhÂ’s Armed Forces Hospital, a hospital source said Tuesday.
Hillary Clinton
[Yemen Post] Government spokesperson Abdu Ganadi said that 
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
[Dawn] Czech authorities have released a Pak national held on an international warrant for suspected murder and terrorism after Pakistain failed to apply for his extradition, a regional court prosecutor said on Tuesday.
[Dawn] Testimony in the trial of a Chicago businessman accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks wrapped up swiftly Monday as defence attorneys called only two witnesses before resting their case.
[Dawn] Rigid positions taken by the two factions of the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad
al-Assad's rule erupted in mid-March.
Hillary Clinton,
