Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Mona Freeman aka first "Miss Subways" of the New York City transit system aka Diana Crandall in "Together Again" aka Mary Wilton in "Angel Face" aka Iris Burt in "Mother Wore Tights" aka Kathy, Danny's girl / Mrs. Danny Forrester in "Battle Cry" aka Rannie Carter in "Streets of Laredo" (age 85)
[Tolo News] Two Afghan National Army soldiers were killed and five others injured in two separate incidents on Tuesday in eastern Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province, officials said.
The media office of Paktika province said in a statement on Wednesday that an ANA soldier was maimed in festivities with the Taliban at 10:00 am on Tuesday between Yahya Khil and Ghaibi Khil districts of Paktika province.
The statement added that the second incident occurred at 12:00 pm in the same place when a roadside kaboom hit an ANA vehicle.
Two ANA soldiers were killed and 4 others injured.
According to the statement a large number of Talibs have been killed in different incidents in Paktika, but no exact number has been mentioned.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] A Taliban local commander has been killed in joint Afghan and foreign forces operation on Tuesday night in Maidan Wardak province, local officials said on Wednesday.
The operation was launched in Jaleez district of Maidan Wardak province last night in which a Taliban capo was killed, Haq Nawaz Haqyar, police chief of Maidan Wardak told TOLOnews.
Officials said Afghan and foreign forces or civilians have suffered no casualties, he added.
The Taliban have not yet commented about the operation.
Afghan and foreign forces have increased their operations as Afghan forces will take security responsibility of seven areas in July this year.
Militants have been active in some villages in Maidan Wardak often carrying out attacks on Afghan police check posts and 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... supply vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Somali forces are closing in on a top Kenyan militia fighting alongside the al Shabaab, the transitional government in Mogadishu said on Tuesday.
Transitional Federal Government and African Mission forces are pursuing the Kenyan believed to be heading one of the rebel group's battalions still holed up in parts of the Somali capital, Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed told the Nation in an exclusive interview.
"One of the top commanders of the al Shabaab is a Kenyan. We have made significant inroads into territories the militia previously held and we are sure we will overrun and capture them," Mr Mohamed said.
The Premier also confirmed the presence of scores of Kenyan youths fighting alongside the bad turban group, which controls parts of the war-torn country.
He said government forces had already flushed out the beturbanned goons from huge parts of Mogadishu, including foreign embassies and major installations.
"We are aware of Kenyans who have been recruited by al Shabaab, but we will vanquish them," he said.
The Kenya Police has in the recent past released pictures of dozens of youths believed to have joined the bad turban outfit, which is closely linked to international terror group al Qaeda.
Mr Mohamed said the transitional government had intensified its war against the militia.
"In the course of our battle against al Shabaab, we have undertaken alternative financial measures aimed at ending the violent insurgency," the PM said.
He denied reports from sections of the Western media that the government could not account for millions of US dollars given by donors to fight terrorism, piracy and hunger, saying that a substantial amount of government revenue had gone towards combating the insecurity posed by al Shabaab.
"In terms of transparency, some of these measures are confidential and involve expenditure, which cannot be publicised for security reasons. My Cabinet is fully informed of these measures and supports them," he said.
"As with all governments, certain intelligence and security matters are neither publicised nor the sources of their funding publicly disclosed."
Mr Mohamed said that his government's success against the terror group had come at a high price "both in human and financial terms".
He criticised the Western media for portraying his government as corrupt and weak, terming a recent report "malicious falsehoods" peddled by international non-governmental organisations.
"The report is a total fabrication. It seeks to destroy the credibility of the government, which has succeeded in reclaiming huge parts of our country that had been taken over by the myrmidons," he said.
According to the report, the hapless Somali government could not account for $70 million (Sh6 billion).
The report attributed the findings to the Public Finance Management Unit, a government body charged with overseeing the country's financial management, which released a 22-page document accusing top government officials of stealing public funds.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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A St. Paul Somali woman has identified a man thought to have been involved in a suicide kaboom in Somalia as her stepson, Farah Mohamed Beledi.
Mumina Roba looked at a picture of the alleged bomber and said through an interpreter: "It is him." "I'd know that nose anywhere."
Authorities are still working to identify the man involved in last week's bombing in Mogadishu that killed two 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... troops and one government soldier.
Beledi is among more than 20 men who left Minnesota in recent years to possibly fight with the terror group al-Shabaab in Somalia. ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
This article starring:
Farah Mohamed Beledi
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
..."That kidney bears a strong family resemblance."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/09/2011 0:06 Comments ||
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#2
nice - she's a Somali living in Minnesota and she needs an interpreter to say "It is him"? Ain't assimilation nice?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2011 10:15 Comments ||
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#3
Assimilation has always and probably always will take three generations, in spite of the libs effort to make it take longer.
#4
NS, that's bs. Assimilation doesn't need to take 3 generations if you don't want it to.
My Maternal GPs both came here from Europe at the age of ~10 around 1900. They were fully assimilated by the time they were 20 as were their kids, Mom being one of them.
This was true of many, many immigrants back then. It still is true today, but, only of those who WANT to be real Americans.
[Ennahar] A Russian military official announced the disappearance of anti-aircraft missiles, Russian-made Strela, from an army weapons depot in Libya.
According to Russian radio, quoting this military official yesterday, whose identity was not disclosed, stated that the authorities of his country had information about the theft of Strela missiles in Libya by unknown persons. These missiles, he said, were taken out of Libya, without giving information about their destination.
If this Russian official gave no further details about the destination of these sophisticated missiles, it seems clear from his statements that he thought of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda.
The same source did not say whether the missiles were Strela 2 or a more sophisticated generation such as the Strela 10 which can accurately hit targets at a distance of 5 km
According to statements by the Russian military official, these would be of a latest generations of missiles, especially when he talked about "missile systems", which would mean sophisticated missile directed by radars and linked to air defence systems.
In Moscow, the Libyan ambassador confirms what was said by the Russian military official. He expressed his concern that these weapons fall into the hands of myrmidons, including Al Qaeda
The warnings from Russian military official, came after those of the Algerian intelligence chief, who told Rooters last April, about reports on a caravan of eight Toyota vehicles, loaded with weapons which would have left eastern Libya to Mali, through Niger and Chad. These weapons, he said, would be missiles spears (RPG 7), Russian-made semi-automatic machine guns, Kalashnikovs and ammunition.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] 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... 's secretary-general has said he will use a two-day meeting of NATO alliance defence ministers to push for broader participation in Libya by other members of the organisation.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen asked for more countries from the 28-nation alliance to share the costs and risks involved in the campaign at a meeting at NATO's Brussels headquarters on Wednesday.
"Obviously some of those allies and partners carrying the heavy burden start to ask whether it would be possible to broaden the participation a bit," he said earlier this week.
"That is also the essence of our alliance: that allies that actually have the necessary assets at their disposal, also contribute those assets, based on the principle of solidarity."
NATO is not publicly releasing figures on how many nations are involved in the strikes on Libya, but it is thought to be about 17.
One of the alliance's most powerful members, Germany, is refusing to take part in the mission and that looked unlikely to change on Wednesday.
"We will not change our position concerning the military action. We will not participate,'' Christian Schmidt, Germany's secretary of state, said.
Sweden's government announced on Wednesday that it reached a deal with opposition parties to extend the mission of Swedish jets taking part in Libya reconnaissance missions by three months when it expires on June 22.
Under the plan, five of the eight Swedish jets currently taking part in the operation will continue to carry out reconnaissance missions over Libya.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... Spain has officially recognised Libya's rebel National Transitional Council as the country's legitimate representative, Trinidad Jimenez, the Spanish foreign minister said during a visit to rebel-held eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
"I'm here today to confirm that the National Transitional Council is the only legitimate representative of the Libyan people," Jimenez told news hounds on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Dean Rusk ... left here Wednesday for Abu Dhabi to consult with countries backing military action in Libya and looking at more ways to help the Libyan opposition.
The talks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital on Thursday come after President Barack B.O. Obama said NATO's ...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... mission in Libya was forging "inexorable" advances that meant it was only a matter of time before defiant Muammar Qadaffy's ... Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years ... departure.
The so-called International Contact Group meeting will build on a May 5 gathering in Rome where Clinton and her partners agreed on a new fund to aid Libya's rebels and promised to tap frozen assets of Qadaffy's regime.
US officials said the participants will discuss a "range of issues," including implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973.
Resolution 1970 imposed bans on assets and travel on members of Qadaffy's regime as well as an arms embargo.
Resolution 1973 authorized "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians, including air strikes on Qadaffy's ground forces and a no-fly zone.
The International Contact Group on Libya, which includes all the countries participating in the NATO-led campaign targeting Qadaffy's regime, held its inaugural meeting in Qatar, which participates in the NATO mission.
NATO has intensified its campaign, launching daily raids on Tripoli, but only nine of NATO's 28 member states are taking part in the strikes. La Belle France and Britannia are bearing the brunt of the load with helicopters now in their arsenal.
The other countries are the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Italia and non-NATO state the United Arab Emirates, which sent 12 warplanes to enforce the no-fly zone.
Countries such as Spain and the Netherlands, and non-NATO partner Sweden, have contributed combat jets but their roles are limited to enforcing the no-fly zone aimed at preventing Qadaffy attack planes from taking off.
Turkey, which reluctantly backed the mission, is only participating in the naval embargo.
Around a dozen NATO members are not contributing any assets to the mission, including Germany, which has refused to back the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... resolution that authorized the mission.
Weeks of air strikes on regime targets have thus far failed to force Qadaffy out, but Obama nevertheless insisted that he was on borrowed time after a brutal four-decades-long rule.
The president, criticized by some domestic opponents for allowing Britannia and La Belle France to take the lead in the NATO mission after an initial US blitz, argued that the effort had already achieved substantial goals.
Meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... , Obama said that the port city of Benghazi was now free from the threat of the Libyan regime and that Qadaffy forces had been pushed back from the city of Misrata.
"What you're seeing across the country is a inexorable trend of the regime forces being pushed back, being incapacitated," he said on Tuesday.
"You're seeing defections, often times of some very high-profile members of the Qadaffy government, as well as the military.
"I think it is just a matter of time before Qadaffy goes."
In addition to NATO countries, representatives from the United Nations, 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... , European Union, Organization of Islamic Conference, and the Gulf Cooperation Council will be at the talks.
After Abu Dhabi, Clinton will travel to Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia to discuss trade, development, health and other issues. She is due to return to Washington on June 15.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star] Thousands of troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy ... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ... advanced on the rebel-held western city of Misrata on Wednesday, shelling it from three sides in attacks that killed at least 12 rebels, a rebel front man said.
There was no immediate comment from Qadaffy's government.
"Misrata is under heavy shelling ... Qadaffy forces are shelling Misrata from three sides: east, west and south," rebel front man Hassan al-Misrati told Rooters from inside the town.
"He has sent thousands of troops from all sides and they are trying to enter the city. They are still outside, though."
He added that 12 rebels had been killed and 26 maimed.
The offensive followed a lull in 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... bombing of Tripoli on Wednesday, after 24 hours of some of the heaviest bombardments of the Libyan capital since air strikes began in March.
NATO defence ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday, but there were few signs of willingness to intensify their Libya mission, which has so far failed to oust Qadaffy.
The alliance says the bombing aims to protect civilians from the Libyan leader's military, which crushed popular protests against his rule in February, leaving many dead.
But with officials like British Foreign Secretary William Hague talking explicitly of Qadaffy being forced out, critics say NATO has gone beyond its U.N. mandate to protect civilians.
Western powers are lining up behind the rebels. Spain on Wednesday said it had recognised their National Transitional Council as the country's only representative.
"I'm here today to confirm that the National Transitional Council is the only legitimate representative of the Libyan people," Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez told news hounds in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Wednesday.
Rebel front man Abdulrahman said from Zintan that Qadaffy's forces had also shelled the western town on Wednesday morning, after massing large numbers of troops towards it.
"They are now using anti-aircraft weapons," he said.
Qadaffy's troops and the rebels have been deadlocked for weeks, with neither side able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah in the east, 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 western mountains near the border with Tunisia. They have been unable to advance on the capital against Qadaffy's better-equipped forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Libya's beleaguered ruler Muammar Qadaffy says he will not surrender despite cracks in the Libyan regime and Qadaffy's dwindling power in the North African country.
In an audio message aired by state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, the longtime ruler said he will continue to resist in the face of Western alliance attacks.
Qadaffy said the attacks will not frighten his people, adding that throughout history Tripoli has resisted such wars.
This is Qadaffy's first message since May 19 when state television showed footage of him holding talks with a bigwig.
In another audio message broadcasted on state television on May 13, Qadaffy said that he was in a place where NATO bombs could not reach.
The latest developments come as NATO continues to conduct sorties over Libya since the military alliance assumed control of a campaign to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, and save civilian lives in late March.
The US and NATO have unleashed a punishing, UN-mandated offensive against embattled Qadaffy to pressure him into relinquishing power.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... the NATO Arclight airstrikes have killed scores of civilians as well as revolutionaries.
NATO has recently stepped up its air raids over Libya with the introduction of French and British attack helicopters.
NATO fighter jets have been pummeling the Libyan regime's military installations, communication centers and armories.
Fighting also continues on the ground between pro-Qadaffy forces and Libyan revolutionary forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#3
Who, besides the NYT, said this is secret? It hasn't been trumpeted. Anybody got a classified label from the thing?
Calling something "secret" gives the impression of importance and gravity and hellacious journalistic efforts.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
06/09/2011 19:22 Comments ||
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JEDDAH: The man who killed two Saudi Border Guard officers and injured a third early Tuesday was a Saudi terrorist who was trying to make his way to Yemen through the Al-Wadeeah border post, security sources told Arab News Wednesday.
Spokesman of the Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki identified the attacker as Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman Al-Sayel. The man was also involved in a fatal attack on a police office in Qassim a month ago.
The sources said Al-Sayel was shouting slogans usually used by terrorists while he was firing at the guards.
"Allan Snackbar!!"
Col. Abdul Jaleel Shari Al-Otaibi, who was killed in the attack, was laid to rest in Riyadh after Asr prayer Wednesday, while fellow victim Sgt. Barrak bin Ali Al-Harithy was buried at the same time in his home town of Sharourah in the south of the Kingdom.
The sources said the assailant was wearing a bulletproof vest and was using night vision goggles. They said the shootings followed the detection by Mujahideen patrols of the footprints of a person heading toward the border with Yemen. They informed the border guards about it. When the border guards arrived where the man was, he opened fire at them.
Al-Otaibi was shot in the hip but he continued chasing the criminal. He turned down a suggestion from his colleagues to go to Sharourah general hospital for treatment, telling them that the bullet he received had only caused a flesh wound.
The chase continued and Al-Sayel took refuge in the electricity room of the border post and continued shooting. He fatally shot Al-Otaibi in the chest and also shot Al-Barrak, who died on his way to hospital.
The sources said the border guards were able to kill the intruder in an operation that lasted for more than five hours. They said he was carrying arms and ammunition and pliers to cut barbed wires.
Border guards spokesman Lt. Col. Salim bin Saleh Al-Sulami said the attacker was very hostile and full of hate. He said the man parked his Nissan jeep about 10 km from the Al-Wadeeah border post and started walking on foot to avoid being detected by thermal cameras spread along the borders. He said the cameras spotted him and immediately the nearest patrol team was directed to deal with the situation.
The spokesman said the two victims were promoted posthumously, their debts settled and were given a reward of SR1 million in addition to a medal of honor each.
The spokesman said Al-Sayel was arrested eight years ago for his association with Al-Qaeda terrorist group, for trying to set up a military training camp, for traveling to violence-hit countries and supplying arms to militants. He said Al-Sayel was released after completing the jail term and taking part in the counseling program. His relatives guaranteed that they would monitor his activities after his release on bail.
Worked well enough, except for the two dead cops.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] A local source denied on Tuesday that Taiz had been taken over by gangs and outlaws saying all reports on that were untrue.
Saba quoted the source as saying that Taiz and other cities will not fall in the hands of outlaws and gangsters because its people are still with the constitutional legitimacy.
The source assured the situation in the city was under control, though locals pointed to sporadic confrontations between the army and gunnies after large crowds flooded into the city.
Separately, the coastguard denied that British troops or warships were deployed to the Aden port, saying the reports on the issue were groundless. The people can see any foreigners in Yemen's territorial waters where the coastguards are active enough to detect and prevent any breaches, sources at the coastguard said.
The announcement came after British newspapers said that UK troops and warships headed to Aden to evacuate the British nationals in Yemen in case the situation further deteriorates in Yemen.
Amid the most recent developments in the country, Western and other countries urged their citizens in Yemen to leave and be careful while in the country, citing insecurity.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Forces from the first armored division thwarted earlier today two attempts to target the house of acting President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi, almost 20 hours after he started his new powers in the absence of President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... being treated in Soddy Arabia.
The forces intercepted cars of armed people who wanted to attack Hadi's compound in Street 60th injuring several of them.
Clashes erupted with three people including a soldier and some gunnies were also placed in durance vile. On Monday, regime supporters closed Zubairy St near Asser area forcing passers-by and cars to redirect. They also fired at people but no casualties were reported.
The first armored division led by Ali Muhsen Al-Ahmer, once a close ally of President Saleh, announced support to the youth-led uprising in the squares of change and freedom months ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
For a brief moment, I thought you meant OUR 1st Armored Division. Silly me!
[Yemen Post] Massive demonstrations were held in several Yemeni cities including the capital Sana'a, Taiz and Dhamar with hundreds of thousands of antigovernment protesters urging to form a transitional council.
In Sana'a, a front man for the youth-led protesters in the change square outside Sana'a University said, after thousands of people marched Street 60th, they had given a 24-hour deadline for the concerned political parties to form a transitional council otherwise the revolutionaries will do that.
Meantime, the Defense Ministry has accused defected forces, which announced support to the popular uprising mainly those led by commander Ali Muhsen Al-Ahmer, and the tribal fighters loyal to the Hashid sheikh Sadeq Al-Ahmer of planning to attack public offices.
On Monday, Al-Ahmer's office accused the army of continuous attacks on rustics and houses, though acting president Hadi ordered the forces to retreat from the streets and affirmed that security and providing necessary requirements amid acute shortages were top priorities while managing the country's affairs.
Powers was transferred to Hadi after President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... left to Soddy Arabia for medical treatment after the deadly attack on his palace.
In Taiz, the situation remained tense on Tuesday after fierce festivities erupted late Monday between armed people and the armed and security forces.
Armed crowds flooded into Taiz in the past days to face the deadly crackdown on the antigovernment protests. They are now roaming the streets and conducting sporadic battles with the army after they had vowed to defend the city until the regime was ousted, locals said.
In Abyan, at least 15 people were killed and others injured late Monday in confrontations between the security forces and armed people in the capital Zunjbar.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Yemeni army troops have killed 30 "Al-Qaeda gunnies" in a clash in southern Abyan province, including a leading member of the jihadist network, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The bully boyz were killed in "fierce fighting that lasted more than three hours" on the outskirts of the city of Zinjibar, which is held by suspected Al-Qaeda gunnies, the ministry website said.
It said that Hassan al-Aqili, described as a leading member of the Al-Qaeda in the northern region of Marib, was killed in the confrontation.
Military and medics said earlier on Tuesday that 15 people, including nine soldiers, were killed in festivities overnight as army advanced to Zinjibar.
Gunmen seized control of much of Zinjibar in late May. Security officials said the bully boyz were Al-Qaeda gunnies but the political opposition accused the government of embattled President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower... of inventing a jihadist threat in a bid to head off Western pressure on his 33-year rule.
Inside the city, only the base of the 25th mechanised brigade remains in government hands.
Scores of soldiers have been killed in festivities in and around Zinjibar.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon, click here. For a map of Monterrey, click here
A total of 29 individuals were murdered in and around Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Tuesday and Wednesday.
One unidentified individual was found shot to death in an apparent shootout near Santiago, Nuevo Leon Wednesday. A Mexican Army unit found the body of the victim and an abandoned Volkswagen Jetta on the National Highway.
One unidentified man was found hanged and one was found shot to death in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Tuesday. A third victim was also found hanged, by apparently survived the ordeal. The hanged victims was found at a bridge in southern Monterrey near the intersection of calles Revolucion and Chapultepec. The shooting victim was found near the bridge.
Police arriving on the scene were fired on by an unidentified armed suspect, who subsequently escaped the area.
An unidentified man was found shot to death in Monterrey, Neuvo Leon. The vicitm was aboard his sedan near the corner of Calle ArtÃculo 123 and Avenida Colón. Several .223 caliber spent shell casings were found at the scene.
A radio was found in the hand of the victim suggesting he may have been working for organized crime as a lookout, colloquially known as a falcon.
The remains of 20 unidentified individuals were found in Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon Wednesday. The area where the victims were found was used to incinerate bodies, and was located on El Rancho Las Abejas at Kilometer 110 of the highway to Columbia in Anahuac municipality. Evidence found by investigators at the scene suggested the victims were tortured before they were killed.
A severed human head was found near a state attorney general's office in Monterrey, Neuvo Leon. The head was found near the intersection of Avenida Gonzalitos and Calle Francisco Rocha in the Residencial Galerias colony
A man was found shot to death in southern Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Wednesday afternoon. Jaime Gatica Espinoza was shot in front of his residence between calles Santa Anita and La Hacienda where armed suspects travelling aboard two vehicles fired on Gatica Espinoza and his brother, who was unharmed.
For a map, click here. For a map of Durango, click here See see the last Rantburg report on the Durango mass murders click here
The death toll in Durango, Durango rose to 236 as 12 more bodies were recovered, according to Mexican news accounts.
News reports to date have failed to note from which of the seven sites found so far the additional 12 bodies were recovered. Amoung the sites where bodies were exhumed are Valle del Guadiana, Jardines de Durango, La Providencia, Fuentes and Vicente Suarez colonies.
Exhumations have been ongoing since April.
In other news, two Mexican Federal agents were shot to death and a PF commander was wounded in Gomez Palacio in far eastern Durango.
The shooting took place on calle Lerdo de Tejada where three armed suspects aboard a pickup truck fired on the agents.
The agents were identified as Juan Antonio Garcia Cruz and Juan Antonio MartÃinez Padilla. The wounded commander was identified as Carlos Borgute.
Meanwhile near Santiago Papasquiaro, two men were found shot to death near the village of Guatimape village in Nuevo Ideal municipality.
The dead were identified as Jesus Alonso Gonzalez Bueno, 23, and Jose Alfredo Chavez, 30, both of Santiago Papasquiaro.
[Arab News] A recorded phone call in which a businessman praises the gunnies who carried out the 2008 attacks in Mumbai is proof he was "playing on the same team" as an admitted terrorist and longtime friend who helped lay the groundwork for the deadly three-day siege, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.
Assistant US Attorney Victoria Peters told jurors during closing arguments that it was clear Tahawwur Rana knew and helped his friend, David Coleman Headley, as he took video surveillance in Mumbai before the attacks that killed more than 160 people, including six Americans.
Headley was the government's star witnesses in the federal terrorism trial and testified for five days about working for both Pakistain's main intelligence agency, known as the ISI, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pak terrorist group that took credit for the siege on India's largest city.
The trial has been followed closely around the world, especially because it happened on the heels of the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer exists... 's May 2 killing in Pakistain by US forces. The fact that the Al-Qaeda leader had been living in an army garrison town outside the Pak capital for years raised suspicions that the Pak government knew, or even helped hide, Bin Laden. Pak officials have denied the accusations.
Peters zeroed in on a Sept. 7, 2009, phone call between the men where they discussed the Mumbai attacks and Headley talked about future targets, including a Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad ((PTUI!)), angering many Mohammedans. That plot was never carried out.
She showed an English transcript of the conversation, which took place in Urdu during a car ride and was recorded by the FBI, showing that Rana had praised the Mumbai gunnies, saying they should be honored.
"Rana and Headley were playing on the same team," Peters said. "These two old friends don't just talk about past accomplishments, they talk about future goals." Rana, a Pak-born Canadian who has lived in Chicago for years, did not testify at his trial. He is accused of providing cover for Headley by letting him open a branch office of his immigration law services business and pose as a representative as he carried out surveillance for the Mumbai attacks and the Danish plot.
Peters led the courtroom through a timeline of more than a dozen e-mails and recorded conversations in the case, including brief ones exchanged between Rana and ISI member known only as "Major Iqbal," whom Headley testified gave him orders on the Mumbai plots.
Peters said Rana, who printed business cards for Headley and arranged some of his travel, had knowledge of all the plots and all those involved. She asked jurors to appeal to their common sense.
"Rana knew Headley's main purpose," Peters said. "He was not a dupe, he was not a fool." Rana has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to three counts: conspiring to provide material support to terrorism in India, Denmark and to Lashkar-e-Taiba, which the US has designated as a terrorist organization. Rana could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
Headley and Rana met as teens at a Pak boarding school and have stayed in touch.
Defense attorneys have tried to paint Headley as lacking in credibility and have focused questioning on how Headley initially lied to the FBI as he cooperated, lied to a judge and even lied to his own family. They claim he named Rana in the plot because he wanted to make a deal with prosecutors and had to provide another arrest. Headley's cooperation means he avoids the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistain and Denmark.
"Mr. Headley is about the most unreliable witness that has ever trod into a courtroom and that will become clear in closing argument," Rana attorney Charles Swift told news hounds. Defense attorneys were expected to make their closing arguments later Tuesday.
Six others are charged in absentia in the case, including Ilyas Kashmirei, who was believed to be Al-Qaeda's military operations chief in Pakistain. He was reportedly killed Friday in a US missile strike.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
*** cough *** cough *** MUMBAI PLANNED LONG BEFORE 26/11 *** cough *** ....
D *** NGED DELICIOUS STRAWBERRY COCONUT DOUGHNUTS!
[Dawn] Pakistain's army has sent home two-thirds of the US military personnel who were training its forces in counterinsurgency skills along the mostly non-existent border with Afghanistan.
As excellent as our people are it sure doesn't seem like they were doing much good teaching 'counterinsurgency' to the Paks...
A senior Pakistain military official said late Tuesday that 90 of an estimated 135 US trainers have left the country, the latest setback in the deeply troubled relationship between the United States and Pakistain's military following the May 2 US raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin laden.
The 90 Americans had been training the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force made up mostly of rustics from the frontier areas, according to the military official, who asked not to be named in accordance with military practice.
The Frontier Corps is Pakistain's front line force against Orcs and similar vermin in the tribal regions. The US military personnel were teaching members of the force to become trainers.
The US has confirmed it is reducing the number of its military personnel in Pakistain but has not given an exact figure.
"We have reassessed our requirements and sent 90 people home," said the Pak military official. Other Americans have also been ordered to leave Pakistain, but the official would not elaborate or provide details.
"Where essential elements are required we are keeping them. In very critical areas of maintenance and technical capability, where we do not have the qualified people then we are keeping them," he said. "But otherwise they are being asked to leave."
Washington's relationship with Pakistain has been shaky for months. Pakistain first requested a withdrawal of US forces after the arrest and detention in January of CIA security contractor Raymond Davis, the official and Western diplomats have said.
Davis was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock for the shooting deaths of two Pak men, who he said were trying to rob him. He was eventually released in March after the dead men's relatives agreed to accept blood money under Islamic tradition.
The bin Laden raid worsened relations and escalated the drawdown of US personnel in Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Second in command of al-Qaeda, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... , al-Qaeda's second in command, has issued a eulogy for the late Osama bin Laden ... who knows that it's like to live in the belly of a whale only he's not living... , saying the slain group's chief terrified the US when he was alive and would continue to do so in death.
Al-Zawahiri appeared in a white Arab robe and turban, a Kalashnikov at his side, in a 28-minute video posted on jihadist online forums on Wednesday.
"We will pursue the jihad until we expel the invaders from Mohammedan lands," he was quoted as saying in the video titled "The Noble Knight Dismounted".
The Egyptian, who has long been considered al-Qaeda's operational head, heaped praise on bin Laden, killed in a May 2 US raid in Pakistain.
Al-Zawahiri, who is believed to be operating from somewhere near the Pakistain-Afghanistan frontier, also blasted the US for burying bin Laden at sea and urged the Pak people to rise against the country's military rulers and politicians, describing them as "traitors".
Marwan Bishara, Al Jizz's senior political analyst, said al-Zawahiri is an irrelevant figure in today's Arab world.
"The whole idea of being the 'second in command' is of course more of a media construct than it is in any way a chart within that group. Bin laden was the guru and the guru is dead.
"What is left is an organisation that claimed a false prophecy during a time that Arabs were lost. That was in the 80s, 90s and the last decade. Now the Arabs have found their voice, and are out in their millions in the streets in the Arab world. So, in a sense, the whole idea of al-Qaeda, even if it had any merits in the eyes of very few, it simply has absolutely now role in today's Arab world," Bishara said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
IMO despite any terror-related domestic trubles CONUS-NORAM for now remains a secondary or minor front to RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, aka "where the US-NATO aren't", sub-aka "where the Nuclear Weapons are" + new resources for support of future Jihad.
As per MSM-Net + various Perts, NUCLEAR RUSSIA IS WEAK, NUCLEAR RISING CHINA IS A "BUBBLE", NUCLEAR INDIA HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO EFFEC DEFEAT ITS OWN DOMESTIC MILTERR'ISM.
There is still AFPAK where the US will soon begin its pre-pallned pullout, + as per "Jasmine" Revolutions-Protests an enticing opportunity to legally take Govt power in several Muslim countries includ their Nucprogs.
THE SO-CALLED ISLAMIST-JIHADIST "CALIPHATE" IS HERE OR IS RISING, + RADICAL ISLAM ISN'T ABOUT TO GIVE IT UP WIDOUT A WAR OR MUTUAL DESTRUCTION.
Kashmiri may not be dead, Saif Adel, + "Crown Prince" Hamza, .......@etal. new + future generations of leaders. OSAMA "THE GURU" MAY BE GONE, BUT HIS PASSING DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING TO MUSLIM SOCIETIES-CULTURES THAT WAGE "LONG WARS" OF DECADES + GENERATIONS - DITTO FOR KASHMIRI, ETAL.
{LEGEND OF JOSEY WALES = "A MAN LIKE JOSEY WALES, SENATOR, LIVES + DIES BY THE FEUD" here].
[Dawn] Militants from Afghanistan attacked a checkpost in Patala area of lower Kurram near the Pak-Afghan border on Tuesday, killing a security personnel and kidnapping the other.
According to official sources, Nahid Gul was killed and Azeem Khan was kidnapped by thugs. They said that five forces of Evil were also killed when security forces returned fire.
An operation against local hard boyz has also been under way in Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended... and security forces have cleared most areas of the Kurram agency of local thugs, but they are still present in some areas of lower Kurram and central Kurram, blocking Thall-Parachinar road and creating shortage of life-saving drugs and food items for people of living in upper areas of Kurram Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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Three people were killed and six others were wounded in three separate attacks in Narathiwat province on Wednesday. Police said two villagers were killed and five members of a security unit were seriously injured in two attacks by terrorists militants in Cho Ai Rong district.
The first attack was carried out by two men who arrived on a motorcycle at a grocery shop at about 11 a.m.
The pillion rider walked into the shop pretending to look for some things before firing three shots from an 11 mm handgun at Sompong sae Oui, 54, the shop owner, injuring him seriously. The two attackers then apparently placed a home-made bomb under a shelf in the store before leaving on the motorcycle.
When a security unit arrived at the scene, the bomb was activated remotely with a mobile phone. The blast seriously injured all five members of the security unit -- Pol Capt Sirirat Arunklao, Pol Sgt Vachira Ruangkaew and Pol Cpl Sopian Sama-ung, all from Cho Ai Rong district police station, Prasit Ratbasri, an assistant district chief, and Sayuti Sa-a, a defense volunteer.
All six of the injured men were admitted to the local hospital where Sompong, the shop owner, succumbed to his injuries.
A second attack, also on a grocery shop occurred around the same time. Two men arrived on a motorcycle and the pillion rider fired three shots from a 9 mm pistol at Narong Banchongkachatharn, 72, the shop owner, instantly killing him.
Also in Cho Ai Rong district, when a five-member security force was on the way by pick-up truck to examine the two previous incident scenes, a bomb which was planted in a motorcycle left on the side of the road went off. The bomb caused no damage or casualties because it exploded after the pick-up truck had passed the spot.
In Sungai Padi district, a man was killed and his wife seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwats Sungai Padi district on Wednesday morning.
The couple was attacked about 8 a.m. while on their way to work on a motorcycle. Two men on another motorcycle followed and the one riding pillion drew an 11 mm pistol and shot at them.
Monthon Samathithabdee, 50, was hit in the back and chest and died at the scene. His wife, Boonsri Thongkam, took bullets in her chest and right shoulder. She was taken to a local hospital where doctors diagnosed her condition as critical and transferred her to another hospital. The Sungai Padi police chief blamed separatist terrorists militants.
[Straits Times] A STRING of attacks by communist rebels in the southern Philippines killed six people, including five security personnel, as the guerrillas pressured the government to release set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock comrades, officials said on Wednesday.
Two special forces soldiers ambushed while en route to secure a government convoy were among those killed in seven attacks Tuesday initiated by the New People's Army rebels in eastern Mindanao Island, said military front man Lieutenant-Colonel Leopoldo Galon.
Another soldier, a policeman, a government militiaman and a village leader also died in the separate attacks. Two guerrillas were maimed and captured after raiding a police outpost in the Davao Oriental quiet provincial capital, Mati city, Lt-Col Galon said.
The government and the rebels in February resumed talks to end one of Asia's longest-running Marxist rebellions. But they have failed to agree on a truce, with the rebels keeping up assaults on remote police and army posts.
Chief rebel negotiator Luis Jalandoni last week called for the postponement of talks scheduled for this month until set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock guerrillas who he said were consultants in the negotiations are freed from government detention.
He also accused the military of maltreating some of the detainees, a charge officials denied.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Malaysia's police chief said Wednesday an Indonesian businessman had been held under the country's tough security laws for recruiting for regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
Police officials on Tuesday said Abdul Haris Syuhadi, 63, had been jugged over the weekend at his home in central Selangor state under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for alleged terrorism activities.
Ismail Omar said police had monitored Abdul Haris and he was found to have been spreading JI ideology and actively recruiting members for the terror group, which has links to al-Qaeda, since 2002, state media reported.
"I confirm his detention. I believe his activities can endanger national security and we will take appropriate action," Ismail said without elaborating.
JI, a Southeast Asian terror outfit, is blamed for a string of attacks in the region, including the 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people were killed, many of them foreign tourists.
Activist group Abolish ISA Movement, known by its Malay-language acronym GMI, has condemned the arrest, saying Abdul Haris was a petty trader who sold scarves and textiles.
GMI said it was the ninth arrest under the ISA this year. Rights groups say there are currently 29 individuals being held under the ISA.
Last month, authorities deported a Singaporean businessman who had been jugged under the security law on suspicion of channeling funds to aid a Philippine Islamist bad boy group.
The ISA, which dates back to the British colonial era, when it was used against communist jihad boys, has been used against government opponents as well as suspected terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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TEHRAN: Iran will shift its production of higher grade uranium to an underground bunker and triple its production capacity, it said on Wednesday in a defiant response to accusations it is trying to produce atomic bombs.
This year, under the supervision of the (International Atomic Energy) Agency, we will transfer 20 percent enrichment from the Natanz site to the Fordow site and we will increase the production capacity by three times, the head of Irans atomic energy agency, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, told reporters after a cabinet meeting, the state broadcaster IRIB reported.
Iran only disclosed the existence of the Fordow site, in a mountain bunker, in September 2009, after Western intelligence had detected it and said it was evidence of covert nuclear work.
The decision to move production there and increase output drew immediate condemnation from the West, which has imposed a series of sanctions on Iran to try to force it to halt enrichment a process that can make weapons material if done to a much higher level.
This announcement is a provocation, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It reinforces the international communitys existing concerns over the intransigence of the Iranian authorities and their persistent violation of international law.
So what are you going to do about it...
Iran's decision last year to raise the level of enrichment from the 3.5 percent purity needed for normal power plant fuel to 20 percent worried countries that saw it as a significant step toward the 90 percent needed for bombs.
The Vienna-based IAEA, whose board was due to discuss Irans nuclear program, probably later on Wednesday, said it had only learned of the plan from media reports.
Iran has not yet informed the agency of any such decision, IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said.
Iranian media portrayed the announcement as a defiant response to tightened sanctions and IAEA chief Yukiya Amanos assertion on Monday that he had received new evidence of possible military dimensions to Irans nuclear work.
Iran certainly is raising the stakes, said Mark Fitzpatrick, a leading proliferation expert at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. There is absolutely no justification for producing any more 20 percent enriched uranium at all, since any reactors that would use it are far off into the future, he said. Tripling the production rate would be highly provocative.
Great. Now that a think tank has made it official...
Iran says it needs 20 percent uranium to make fuel for a medical research reactor after talks on a nuclear fuel swap under which other countries would have supplied the higher grade fuel broke down.
After we increase the production capacity in Fordow by three times, then we will stop the 20 percent section of the Natanz site and will transfer it completely to Fordow, Abbasi-Davani said, adding the transfer would start this year.
The shift from Natanz, near Isfahan in central Iran, to the Fordow site near Qom, south of the capital, will shield the enrichment work from air strikes that Israel and the United States have not ruled out as a last-ditch way to stop Iran getting the bomb, Fitzpatrick said.
I think a Tomahawk can reach almost anywhere...
In its latest report on Iran, in late May, the agency said Iran had told it in February of plans to begin feeding nuclear material into enrichment cascades at Fordow by this summer.
But the IAEA added that as of May 21 no centrifuges had been introduced into the facility. Abbasi-Davani said Iran had completed technical development of a new generation of centrifuges and they would be installed at both sites.
Time for a new computer virus...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Turkey will not close its doors to refugees fleeing the repression in Syria, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday as he expressed his sadness about unrest across the border.
Erdogan, who has become increasingly critical of the President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... regime, also urged authorities in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... to demonstrate more tolerance towards its civilians.
A group of around 120 Syrian refugees crossed over into Turkey late Tuesday, most of them from the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughur where there are fears of a backlash after officials said 120 coppers had been killed there.
Erdogan, speaking to news hounds, said that there were no plans to stem any flow of refugees crossing into southern Turkey.
"At this point, it is out of question for us to close the doors," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
"The developments in Syria are really sad, we are following them with concern," he added, reiterating a call for Assad to implement more democratic reforms.
"We wish Syria to be more tolerant to civilians and (further) the reform steps he has already taken, as soon as possible in a more convincing way."
The arrivals on Tuesday followed in the footsteps of another group of around 40 refugees crossed the Turkey-Syria border at the weekend, one of whom died from gunshot wounds on his way to a Turkish hospital.
Around 20 others needed treatment after suffering injuries at the hands of the security forces during anti-government demonstrations in northwest Syria.
Back in April, Turkey also offered shelter to more than 200 villagers who crossed over by breaking through a barbed wire fence which lines the 800-kilometer long border.
The influx of refugees has prompted fears among Turkish officials that the country may not be able to cope and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the NTV news channel Wednesday that a wave of refugees was "absolutely not desirable."
"We have taken all the necessary precautions at the border," he said, adding that the situation was currently "under control."
Erdogan, who has traditionally enjoyed good relations with Assad, has piled up pressure on the Syrian leader in recent weeks to initiate a democratic transition while stopping short of calling for his departure.
Syrian opposition groups gathered in Turkey's resort region of Antalya last week for talks which culminated in a fresh demand for Assad's resignation.
Turkey earlier this month welcomed Syria's announcement of an amnesty for political prisoners but stressed it should be followed by "comprehensive reform."
In April, Ankara sent envoys to Damascus to press Assad to take steps for democratization, offering expertise for political and economic overhaul.
More than 1,100 civilians have been killed in Syria and at least 10,000 tossed in the calaboose in a brutal crackdown on almost daily street demonstrations that have simmered since March 15, rights organizations say.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
I don't really know Erdogan or Turkey very well. What are the chances of him talking himself into intervening in support of the Syrian population against their Baathist-Alawite tormenters? I mean, he's some sort of milquetoast Islamist, I'm just not sure how seriously the AKP takes its orthodoxy.
Obviously, the current Turks-in-charge are generally loathe to get their hands dirty, or to get involved in their neighbors' bloodbaths - if they did, that might raise the popularity of the military, and might even give the generals Ideas. But Erdogan *is* popularly elected, and in a real sense, not in the play-act Iranian sense of the term. Week after week of steady slaughter and militarized tyranny has got to be leaving a mark.
Or is all this being censored out of the Turkish media?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/09/2011 16:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Berlinski does indeed seem to be the go-to on Turkish politics, domestic and foreign. I'd still like to see Yippy strung up in a secular military backlash
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2011 20:26 Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council will on Wednesday discuss a resolution proposed by European nations condemning the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on opposition protests.
Russia and China have strongly opposed Security Council action on Syria, but Britannia's Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... said: "If anyone votes against that resolution, or tries to veto it, that should be on their conscience."
Britannia and La Belle France have drawn up a new version of a resolution already sent to other members of the 15-nation council hoping to sway countries that had opposed an older one.
"It has been adapted but it still condemns the violence," Britannia's U.N. ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told Agence La Belle France Presse ahead of the Security Council consultations, which were to start at 1900 GMT.
The resolution has been updated to cover the worsening violence in Syria, said one diplomat on condition of anonymity.
It urges vigilance on arms supplies to President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... 's regime, demands Syria's co-operation with a U.N. Human Rights Council investigation and calls for the release of prisoners of conscience, the diplomat added.
European nations would like to hold a vote within days, according to Portugal's envoy Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral.
European diplomats believe they have at least nine votes and that among doubters South Africa and Brazil could be persuaded to back a new version.
The biggest risk to the motion however is a veto from Russia or China, two of the five permanent members along with Britannia, La Belle France and the United States who can block any resolution.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow opposed a Security Council vote condemning Syria, its main ally in the Middle East.
"We are concerned about the situation in Syria but we do not think that involvement of the council will help the situation there," China's U.N. ambassador Li Baodong said Tuesday.
Neither country has explicitly threatened a veto however, diplomats said.
"Exactly how this proceeds will depend to a large degree on our experience on Libya. That is what is complicating the situation," said India's U.N. ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri.
South Africa, Brazil and India have all joined Russia and India in criticizing the international air strikes in Libya, which 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... has said is justified by U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The new resolution aims to ease their concerns by not specifically acting under Chapter VII of the U.N. charter which would allow for mandatory sanctions, diplomats said.
In London, Britannia's prime minister pressed the case for the U.N. Security Council to take action on Syria.
"There are credible reports of a 1,000 dead and as many as 10,000 jugged and the violence being meted out to peaceful protesters and demonstrators is completely unacceptable," Cameron told parliament.
"Of course, we must not stand silent in the face of these outrages and we won't.
"In the EU we've already frozen assets and banned travel by members of the regime and we've now added President Assad to that list.
"But I believe we need to go further and today in New York, Britannia and La Belle France will be tabling a resolution at the Security Council condemning the repression and demanding accountability and humanitarian access," Cameron said.
"The repression is getting worse, the massacres are on the rise. It is inconceivable that the United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... remains silent about such a situation," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday at the U.N. headquarters.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star: Region] A deadly mutiny of Syrian soldiers and loss of control over a tense northern town appeared to show extraordinary cracks in an autocratic regime that has long prided itself on its iron control.
Details about the events in Jisr al-Shughour remained murky on Tuesday. The government said 120 forces were dead, without explaining the enormous loss of life, and acknowledged losing "intermittent" control of the area.
But the reports Tuesday from residents and activists -- and the television appearance of a soldier who says he switched sides after his hometown was bombarded -- were the clearest sign yet that the weekly protests of thousands of Syrians are eroding President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... 's grip.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of La Belle France, Syria's former colonial ruler with whom Assad maintained good relations, said the president had lost his legitimacy to rule. British foreign secretary William Hague said Assad must "reform or step aside." La Belle France, Britannia, Germany and Portugal have circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would condemn Syria for its killing and torture of peaceful protesters and demand an immediate end to the violence. But veto-wielding Russia has voiced opposition.
Juppe told news hounds after a council meeting Tuesday on HIV/AIDS that it's "inconceivable" that the Security Council is remaining silent when repression in Syria is getting worse and massacres are increasing.
Juppe said the resolution's supporters are waiting for as large a majority as possible in the 15-member council before bringing the resolution to a vote, "and I think it's a question of days, maybe hours." Unlike the early days of the rebellion in Libya, Assad has managed to keep his government together. On Tuesday, the network La Belle France 24 aired audio it said was of the Syrian ambassador to La Belle France issuing a stinging resignation; less than an hour later Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
broadcast different audio of a woman's voice denying she had quit and threatening to sue the French network.
It was not possible to reconcile the two accounts or contact Ambassador Lamia Shakkour.
Activists and residents of Jisr al-Shughour told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that a number of soldiers joined forces with protesters after days of crackdowns in the region, leading to fighting with officers and security guards in which dozens were killed.
The Jisr al-Shughour resident said people were fleeing the area for the Turkish border about 12 miles (20 kilometers) away, fearing retaliation from a regime known for ruthlessly crushing dissent. The government vowed Monday to respond "decisively" to the violence there.
"People were struck by fear and panic after the government statements last night, it's clear they are preparing for a major massacre," he said.
Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian dissident and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University, said the scale of the mutiny was unknown.
Ziadeh said the Syrian army was a strong institution "but in the end, the army is from the people. The outrage over the killings is growing and the longer it goes on the more deserters we're going to see," he said.
An alleged army deserter identifying himself as Lt. Abdul-Razzaq Tlass appeared on the Al-Jazeera television network Tuesday, saying he was deserting because of the regime's "crimes" all over the country. He called on other officers to protect protesters against the regime.
"Remember your duties," added Tlass, who shares a last name with a former defense minister and said he was from the town of Rastan in central Syria. The name Tlass is common among Syrian officers from Rastan -- which has also come under deadly government bombardment in recent days.
Jisr al-Shughour drew the most recent assault by Syria's military, whose nationwide crackdown on the revolt against Assad has left more than 1,300 Syrians dead, activists say.
A resident said tensions began last week with snipers and security forces firing repeatedly on peaceful protests and then funerals, killing around 30 people.
A resident said tensions began last week with snipers and security forces firing repeatedly on peaceful protests and then funerals, killing around 30 people.
The resident said a number of soldiers ultimately defected, angered by the thuggish behavior of pro-government gunnies known as "Shabiha," a fearsome name that some believe has roots in the Arabic word for "ghost." The resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals, said the gunnies were terrorizing residents and trying to stir up sectarian tensions.
Jisr al-Shughour is predominantly Sunni but there are Alawite and Christian villages in the area. The Alawite minority rules over Sunni majority in Syria.
"There was heavy gunfire and very loud kabooms from across the river on Saturday and Sunday," he said, adding he could not see what was happening from where he lives.
"We heard there were massacres, bodies thrown in the river." There have been sporadic reports since the uprising began of troops defecting and even reports of military units fighting each other, but if the government's toll is confirmed, this would by far be the deadliest mutiny.
Assad's army has always been the regime's fiercest defender.
In many ways, Syrians say, the Shabiha are more terrifying than the army and security forces, whose tactics include firing on protesters. Most Shabiha fighters belong to the minority Alawite sect, as do the Assad family and the ruling elite. This ensures the gunnies's loyalty, built on fears they will be persecuted if the Sunni majority gains the upper hand.
A prominent activist outside Syria with connections to the area said many Syrians had taken to carrying weapons in response to the killings of protesters. But he said festivities over the past few days were mainly between supporters of the Moslem Brüderbund and Syrian security forces.
He said the weapons were smuggled from Turkey.
"The area is effectively outside the control of Syrian security forces now," he said.
Jisr al-Shughour was a stronghold of the country's banned Moslem Brüderbund in the 1980s. Human rights groups said at least 42 civilians have been killed there since Saturday.
Some activists also told of a mutiny, with a few soldiers switching sides and defending themselves against attacking security forces. Other reports said many Syrians also took up arms to defend themselves.
A resident of Jisr al-Shughour who spoke from a nearby village where he decamped days ago scoffed at reports of armed resistance.
"Since the 80s, residents of Jisr al-Shughour are banned from possessing any kind of weapons, even a hunting rifle," he said. "So how can there be armed resistance?" Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said it was unclear how such a large number of officers were killed.
He said the likely cause was army infighting but added there may be cases of individual residents rising up against troops to defend themselves.
He blamed the government for not explaining: "The statements by officials are full of threats, rather than explanations." Turkish authorities said 35 Syrians maimed in the festivities were being treated Tuesday at Turkish hospitals after crossing the border from Jisr al-Shughour.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said 224 Syrians were sheltering at a camp near the border and authorities were taking measures in case of an influx of refugees.
Syria's government has a history of violent retaliation against dissent, including a three-week bombing campaign against the city of Hama that crushed an uprising there in 1982. Jisr al-Shughour itself came under government shelling in 1980, with a reported 70 people killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
An alleged army deserter identifying himself as Lt. Abdul-Razzaq Tlass appeared on the Al-Jazeera television network Tuesday, saying he was deserting because of the regime's "crimes" all over the country. He called on other officers to protect protesters against the regime.
"Remember your duties," added Tlass, who shares a last name with a former defense minister and said he was from the town of Rastan in central Syria. The name Tlass is common among Syrian officers from Rastan -- which has also come under deadly government bombardment in recent days.
That defense minister was the one Sunni represented in Hafez Assad's cabinet. This is a Sunni revolt against Alawite rule, possibly aided by Ikhwan infiltrators in the Syrian military, some of whom are showing their true colors.
#2
Juppe told news hounds after a council meeting Tuesday on HIV/AIDS that it's "inconceivable" that the Security Council is remaining silent when repression in Syria is getting worse and massacres are increasing.
No, not inconceivable. Quite the contrary. It's UN SOP.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/09/2011 22:11 Comments ||
Top||
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.
al-Shabaab in Somalia.
Hillary Clinton
Qadaffy
Qadaffy says he will not surrender despite cracks in the Libyan regime and Qadaffy's dwindling power in the North African country.
[Emirates 24/7] Yemeni army troops have killed 30 "Al-
Zawahiri
Militants from Afghanistan attacked a checkpost in Patala area of lower Kurram near the Pak-Afghan border on Tuesday, killing a security personnel and kidnapping the other.
[Straits Times] A STRING of attacks by communist rebels in the southern Philippines killed six people, including five security personnel, as the guerrillas pressured the government to release 
[An Nahar] Malaysia's police chief said Wednesday an Indonesian businessman had been held under the country's tough security laws for recruiting for regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
President-for-Life Bashir 
David Cameron
President-for-Life Bashir 
