[Telegraph UK] Taliban leader Mullah "Blinky" Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a nation already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... called on his fighters to avoid killing civilians in a statement posted on Friday on the Afghanistan hardline Islamists' website, SITE Intelligence reported.
The US monitoring group said Omar "stressed that his fighters must maintain good relations with civilians and to avoid any action that may possibly harm them, and in turn, the people must also take measures to keep themselves safe from attacks."
"The common folk must also facilitate Mujahedeen (holy warriors) in averting civilian losses and sufferings," SITE quoted an English-language statement attributed to Omar as saying.
In his message, released for the occasion of Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, the Taliban leader also urged civilians to keep their distance from American soldiers.
"They should avoid moving in close proximity to Americans that patrol in villages and countryside and should actively put to practice the precautionary measures announced by Mujahedeen so no harm will reach them during the impending attacks of the invaders," he said.
Omar is the spiritual leader of the insurgency in Afghanistan who presided over the 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Kabul, which was toppled in a US-led invasion for refusing to give up al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who went shovel-ready... after the 9/11 attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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"Mullah Omar Tells Taliban Not To Kill Civilians"
...Revealing state secrets, apparently. That or a severe case of honesty.
A top U.S. general in Afghanistan was fired Friday for making disparaging remarks about Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government. Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller, deputy commander of the NATO training mission in Afghanistan, made the remarks in an interview with Politico that was published Thursday.
Fuller told Politico that major players in the Afghan government are "isolated from reality." Fuller reacted angrily to claims from Karzai that Afghanistan would side with Pakistan if it were to go to war with the United States. Fuller called Karzai's statements "damned stupid" "erratic," adding, "Why don't you just poke me in the eye with a needle! You've got to be kidding me ... I'm sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion and now you're telling me, 'I don't really care'?"
Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), released a statement Friday saying Fuller was to be relieved of his duties, "effective immediately."
"These unfortunate comments are neither indicative of our current solid relationship with the government of Afghanistan, its leadership, or our joint commitment to prevail here in Afghanistan", Allen said. "The Afghan people are an honorable people, and comments such as these will not keep us from accomplishing our most critical and shared mission-bringing about a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan." He might agree with every word Fuller said but he's savvy enough not to say so.
Pentagon officials who spoke to Fox News on the condition of anonymity agree that Fuller seemed to go off the rails in the Politico interview, admitting he showed extremely poor judgment. The fish line didn't help his cause: "You can teach a man how to fish, or you can give them a fish," Fuller said. "We're giving them fish while they're learning, and they want more fish! [They say,] 'I like swordfish, how come you're giving me cod?' Guess what? Cod's on the menu today." Oh, I am so going to steal that line!
Fuller is not the only loose-lipped general to sink his own ship. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, once the commander of ISAF, was fired by President Obama himself after the Rolling Stone published disparaging remarks he made about the president and other members of his administration.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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About McChrystal... I think I forgot to post this at the time.
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I think Fuller meant every word he said. I think he understates the problems. In my opinion Afghanistan is not worth the loss of one American life. Not one. It is a beggar state with pretensions to actually being a part of the civilized world. It is not a nation that can be 'built' as it is not a nation.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/05/2011 3:30 Comments ||
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I agree Whiskey Mike. It pisses me off every single time our cute young kids are blown up by them. What a terribly sad waste.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Eritrean ambassador to Kenya Beyene Russom, was on Friday summoned to the Foreign Affairs ministry over reports that Asmara was arming Al-Shabaab ... 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... rebels battling the Kenyan military in Somalia.
Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang'ula summoned Mr Russom and delivered a strongly worded protest that Nairobi will view the arming of Al-Shabaab by Asmara in a very serious light.
Severing links
The minister later told journalists that Kenya was considering all options, "including reviewing diplomatic ties", a euphemism for severing links.
The move follows reports on Tuesday that three planes loaded with weapons for the militia landed in Baidoa, an Al-Shabaab stronghold. (READ:Shabaab gets third planeload of arms)
Reports said the arms came from Eritrea, but Asmara vehemently denied it. (READ: Eritrea denies sending arms to Al- Shabaab)
The meeting at the foreign ministry offices was attended by Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi and Political and Diplomatic Affairs Secretary Patrick Wamoto.
"We are open-minded. In a relationship you can never say never to any issue," Mr Wetang'ula told the press. Mr Russom did not attend the press briefing.
"The ambassador has delivered letters to me from the Eritrean foreign minister who says he wants to come and talk to us next week," he said.
"If we get unsatisfactory explanations and answers, then we move to level two," said Mr Wetang'ula, dropping the "reviewing diplomatic ties" hint.
Kenya, Igad and the Africa Union, the minister added, would also support enhanced sanctions against Eritrea, which has been accused of destabilising the region.
The UN Security Council is considering imposing additional sanctions. The draft resolution was circulated by Gabon on Friday October 14 and is co-sponsored by Nigeria.
"I have talked to the ambassador about the allegations and the intelligence we have. We sought an explanation which he provided on behalf of his government. In a nutshell, he denied everything, as was expected," said Mr Wetang'ula.
Speaking on the phone, Mr Russom said Friday's meeting was cordial. He also said he had delivered his foreign affairs minister's request to meet Kenya officials next week.
Mr Wetang'ula said Kenya had opted for dialogue before taking further steps.
"Our options are open on every front but we want to have a process that is well-informed and leads us to achieve the best for this country," said Mr Wetang'ula.
Political and international relations experts have supported Kenya's increasingly tough stance towards Asmara and have urged Nairobi to exert more pressure.
Prof Frank Matanga, a political scientist at Masinde Muliro University in Kakamega, said if it is established that Eritrea is shipping arms to Al-Shabaab, then by extension the country is at war with Kenya.
Career diplomat and former Kenyan Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Mr Ochieng Adala, said the perception is a sad commentary on the Eritrean leadership.
"Claims of Eritrean backing Al-Shabaab are preposterous because of Eritrea's political stance and because of Al-Shabaab's deep antipathy towards the 'secular Eritrean state,'" Asmara said in the statement.
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11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Kenya is not ruling out reviewing its relationship with Eritrea after allegations that Asmara was arming the Al-Shabaab ... 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... hard boyz in Somalia.
Eritrean envoy to Kenya Beyene Russom was Friday summoned to a closed door meeting with top foreign ministry officials including Foreign minister Moses Wetangula, permanent secretary Thuita Mwangi and Secretary for Political and Diplomatic Affairs Patrick Wamoto.
Briefing the media after the meeting, Mr Wetangula said Kenya was not ruling out "reviewing diplomatic ties" with Eritrea -- a term that could loosely translate to severing ties - if the Horn of Africa state fails to give satisfactory explanations.
Kenya along with IGAD and Africa Union, the minister added, would also support enhanced sanctions against Eritrea which has been identified as a destabilising force in the region.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... Eritrea has chosen to send their foreign minister to Nairobi for a meeting with Mr Wetangula next week in a bid to calm down the rising tensions between the two countries.
"We are open-minded. In a relationship you can never say never to any issue," Mr Wetangula said at the press briefing in his office. Mr Russom left in a rush and did not attend the press briefing.
"Those (reviewing ties) are always extreme options that any country can take in circumstances that may justify that. As it is now we have not reached that level yet because the ambassador has delivered letters to me from the Eritrean foreign minister wishing to come to Kenya and talk to us."
"As a country if we get unsatisfactory explanations and answers then we move to level two," said Mr Wetangula, dropping a hint of the measures is willing to take to deal with Eritrea.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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A few days old but worth noting given the new dustup between Kenya and al-Shaabab.
The Air Force has been secretly flying Reaper drones on counterterrorism missions from a remote civilian airport in southern Ethiopia as part of a rapidly expanding U.S.-led proxy war against an al-Qaeda affiliate in East Africa, U.S. military officials said.
The Air Force has invested millions of dollars to upgrade an airfield in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, where it has built a small annex to house a fleet of drones that can be equipped with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs. The Reapers began flying missions earlier this year over neighboring Somalia, where the United States and its allies in the region have been targeting al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group connected to al-Qaeda.
On Friday, the Pentagon said the drones are unarmed and have been used only for surveillance and collecting intelligence, though it would not rule out the possibility that they would be used to launch lethal strikes in the future.
Mindful of the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" debacle in which two U.S. military helicopters were shot down in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and 18 Americans killed, the Obama administration has sought to avoid deploying troops to the country. As a result, the United States has relied on lethal drone attacks, a burgeoning CIA presence in Mogadishu and small-scale missions carried out by U.S. Special Forces. In addition, the United States has increased its funding for and training of African peacekeeping forces in Somalia that fight al-Shabab.
This is a good strategy: let the Africans work to suppress terrorism on their own continent, and provide them with intel and tools to do it.
The Washington Post reported last month that the Obama administration is building a constellation of secret drone bases in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, including one site in Ethiopia. The location of the Ethiopian base and the fact that it became operational this year, however, have not been previously disclosed. Some bases in the region also have been used to carry out operations against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
Thanks, WaPo, for disclosing that.
The Air Force confirmed Thursday that drone operations are underway at the Arba Minch airport. The Arba Minch airport expansion is still in progress but the Air Force deployed the Reapers there earlier this year.
Last month, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry denied the presence of U.S. drones in the country. On Thursday, a spokesman for the Ethiopian embassy in Washington repeated that assertion. "That's the government's position," said Tesfaye Yilma, the head of public diplomacy for the embassy. "We don't entertain foreign military bases in Ethiopia."
It's not really a base, you see, just an operations center...
But U.S. military personnel and contractors have become increasingly visible in recent months in Arba Minch, a city of about 70,000 people in southern Ethiopia. Travelers who have passed through the Arba Minch airport on the occasional civilian flights that land there said the U.S. military has erected a small compound on the tarmac, next to the terminal.
Arba Minch is located about 300 miles south of Addis Ababa and about 600 miles east of the Somali border. Standard models of the Reaper have a range of about 1,150 miles, according to the Air Force.
The U.S. military deploys drones on attack and surveillance missions over Somalia from a number of bases in the region.
The Air Force operates a small fleet of Reapers from the Seychelles, a tropical archipelago in the Indian Ocean, about 800 miles from the Somali coast. The U.S. military also operates drones -- both armed versions and models used strictly for surveillance -- from Djibouti, a tiny African nation that abuts northwest Somalia at the junction of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. About 3,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the only permanent U.S. base on the African continent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Kinda shocking to see Hussein O doing something for a Christian majority country. You would think that the son of a muslim spouse and child abandoner would think less of those savages.
Posted by: Bill Bourbon6367 ||
11/05/2011 19:44 Comments ||
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I shouldn't think it was for Ethiopia as such, Bill Bourbon6367. But they are convenient and they agreed to play host, probably without asking too much in return.
Abdul Mojan's moment of realisation came when the good guys threw him into the boot of their car, slammed it shut and drove off with him a prisoner inside.
When they finally stopped and hauled him out, he asked them: "What are you doing? I'm a revolutionary just like you! I've never supported Gaddafi.'"
But the former rebels didn't care. They had taken a liking to the new office block in western Tripoli that Mr Mojan managed and they wanted the keys and ownership documents. He tried to reason with them, pointing out that there were plenty of government buildings standing empty.
To no avail, however. "We have sacrificed for this revolution and you haven't, and now we will take what we want," he was told by a cocky 18-year-old. "You can have the building back when the revolution is over."
A week later Mr Mojan was still incredulous as he recounted his tale to The Sunday Telegraph, admitting that he felt lucky to escape without a beating although there was nothing he could do about the 5,000 dinar (£2,550) they stole from his car.
Many of Tripoli's residents have had a similar moment of grim awakening in recent weeks. Their liberators, still swaggering around the city in Che Guevara-style berets and armed to the teeth, have not gone back to their home towns as they promised. Nor have they started handing in the guns they used to fight against Gaddafi, as they said they would.
"When they said Libya Free, they meant the cars, the refrigerators and the flat-screen television sets," runs one joke doing the rounds in Tripoli's cafes. Stories of gunmen taking expensive cars at checkpoints, giving receipts saying they will be returned after the revolution, are nervously swapped over cups of tea.
More alarming than the looting have been the armed clashes between militias. There have been three big fights in the capital alone in the past week; shoot-outs at a hospital, Martyr's Square, and the military airport, which have left several dead and dozens wounded.
[An Nahar] Libya's National Transitional Council has pledged to continue with the previous regime's program of destroying its chemical weapons stockpiles, an international monitoring group said Friday.
"The new authorities inherited the obligations of the old regime as a state party to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," the organization's front man Michael Luhan said at its headquarters in The Hague.
"The new authorities accepted this heritage," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Slain leader Moammar Qadaffy ...whose instability was an inspiration to dictators everywhere, but whose end couldn't possibly happen to them... 's regime joined the OPCW in 2004, but had yet to destroy 11.5 tons of mustard gas, representing 45 percent of its initial stock when the rebellion that toppled him was launched in mid-February.
"The destruction facility malfunctioned in February, so when destruction resumes will depend on when the facility is repaired," Luhan said, but stressed that the NTC should destroy all chemical weapons by April 29, 2012.
Libya destroyed its total stockpile of 3,500 munitions including bombs, shells and missiles which could be used to deliver chemical weapons such as mustard gas, shortly after joining the convention in 2004, the OPCW said.
Mustard gas causes serious chemical burns in the eyes, on the skin, and in the lungs.
The new Libyan authorities also told the OPCW on Tuesday that further stocks of what were believed to be chemical weapons had been found, but the find needed to be verified.
The NTC declared "total liberation" in Libya on October 23, three days after Qadaffy's death following his capture.
Libyan academic Abdel Rahim al-Kib has been charged to form a interim government by November 23, tasked with disarming the country and getting its economy back on its feet.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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BENGHAZI: Armed troops who helped bring down the Qaddafi regime were on the streets of Benghazi on Thursday demanding they be paid. They said that they had not received any money since the revolution started in February.
The former tyrant cut down the money tree grove before he ran off, guys. The new guys have been planting as fast as they can. But it takes a while until they're big enough to bear fruit, even when watered with oil.
They also claimed that at least 10 injured colleagues at the city's main Jalaa hospital were not receiving proper treatment.
At one point in the afternoon, a group of about 150 in angry mood blocked access to the city's Uzu hotel, home to a number of foreign journalists. It was the second time during the day that protesters targeted the hotel.
"The Qaddafi regime at least paid its soldiers," one of the protesters, a member of the city's Tahrir brigade, said. "Because we're volunteers, we don't get anything."
Exactly.
He said that he had not received anything since Feb. 17, the day the revolution started.
You revolted, so you stopped doing the job Khaddafy paid you for, and you volunteered -- again, by definition volunteers do not get paid.
"The majlis (the Transitional National Council -- TNC) simply changed the flag and the anthem. That's all," spat out an even angrier brigade member. "We want our rights," he shouted. Another added that colleagues had remonstrated with their commander about pay but that he had "run away."
Did it ever occur to you that he was a volunteer, too? Why was it you joined this particular glorious revolution?
Hotel security, themselves members of the forces that brought about the revolution, remonstrated with the protesters. "I'm with you," the head of security said, "but just end this." His pleadings seemed to work. The protesters removed the road block and headed off elsewhere.
The protests have been growing in frequency and in the number with the approach of Eid. The previous day, groups of soldiers armed with both weapons and placards held up traffic in a succession of strikes across the city. By mid-evening, around 100 stopped traffic outside the city's top hotel, the Tibesti, where a number of foreign diplomats stay and have their offices.
There too, the main complaint was about pay. "No-one is paying attention to us," complained 25-year-old Abdullah Binhariz, a member of the Benghazi brigade. "Eid is very near and we don't have any money to celebrate."
Despite the inconvenience of blocked streets and traffic jams, drivers backed the soldiers, hooting their horns in solidarity and giving thumbs-up signs.
Money was not the only complaint. Apart from the claims about lack of treatment for injured colleagues in hospital, a claim the NTC has vehemently denied, there was clear concern about exactly where the NTC was taking Libya and fears that Benghazi was again being side-lined as it had been under former dictator Muammar Qaddafi. The future, the protesters said, was now "a mystery to us."
"We must have a federal system like the US," Issa Mahmoud, university student turned fighter, said, "Like Canada and the UAE," said fellow protester Mohamed Assaiti, Benghazi had to have its own state government, he insisted. The others agreed. "No to Tripoli," they insisted.
There was also opposition to certain individuals in government, notably the TNC's deputy leader and official spokesman, Abdul Hafez Ghoga. "Jibril good, Ghoga no good," the demonstrators chanted. "No to bad leaders."
The demonstration may also have been prompted by Monday's decision by the TNC to appoint Abdel Rahman Al-Kib, from Tripoli, as prime minister in place of Mahmoud Jibril. "We know nothing about Al-Kib," several demonstrators complained.
The US educated Jibril is popular in Benghazi but had been the focus of attacks from Libya's Muslim Brotherhood led by Ali Al-Salabi. In fact, Jibril had promised to resign as soon as Libya was declared liberated. That declaration was made on Sunday, Oct. 23. His resignation is, however, not a victory for Al-Salabi whose own popularity took a tumble after he appeared on Al Jazeera TV in September calling for Shariah law in Libya. There were mass demonstrations against him with protesters stating that he had no mandate to say what sort of society Libya should become. NTC head Mustafa Abdul Jalil has since said that Shariah will be the basis of law in Libya although exactly what this means is unclear and any decision will be made by the elected assembly that draws up a new constitution.
On Wednesday, some protesters tried to strike a conciliatory note. "The TNC does not have a magic wand," said one of them, Sulaiman Tayira. "It cannot change the system in eight months. But we don't want the old people (Qaddafi supporters) back."
"We want to be a democracy. We want to be a normal Muslim country," said another protester.
But given the protesters' anger on Thursday, the TNC will have to react fast. "This will get bigger if the soldiers are not paid," noted one local journalist. "These men will have to be promised something before Eid."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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TRIPOLI, Libya: Libyas new prime minister says it will take months to disarm former Libyan rebels and says weapons will not be collected by force.
Well good luck with that, pilgrim...
The proliferation of armed ex-rebel militias in Libya has raised concerns about instability. Libyas new leaders initially said weapons would be collected soon after the fall of Muammar Qaddafis regime. Libya declared the fall of the regime last month.
However, incoming Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib told France24 radio Friday that disarming rebels is going to take some time and that we will not force people to take quick and hasty decisions.
He says his government, in charge during an eight-month transition, would only disarm fighters once they can be offered alternatives, including jobs. He says he hopes this could be done before the end of the transition.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Greetings ! Monies And Proceeds From Weapons Given up - LIBYA ARABIYA MILITIAS : Eids : Glad Tidings From Salvations : ALLAH O AKBAR ! Aga Khan And Imams : Focus On Having : Wellbeing And Benevolent Charitities And Monies : Residuals And Subsidies For ALL : LIBYA ! COMMERCE THROUGH SALVATION : EIDS : TOWARDS ALL : SUPPORT - PALESTINE : TOO ! ALLAH O AKBAR !!
An aircraft provided by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has been put at the disposal of ex-prisoners from Gaza in order to fly them to the kingdom to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. A senior official of the Ministry of Prisoners and Freed Detainees in the Palestinian Authority, Ziad Abu Ein, confirmed that he and his colleagues are working on the necessary travel documents and passports. The ex-prisoner pilgrims will be exempt from any fees involved.
Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio on Thursday, Mr. Abu Ein said that the private plane will land at El-Arish airport in northern Sinai before taking Gaza's ex-prisoners for Hajj. According to Abu Ein, those ex-prisoners in other parts of Palestine and other countries will be taken for Hajj separately. The exception, he added, are those in the occupied West Bank who remain under a form of house arrest imposed by the Israelis, which prevents them from leaving the country. They have been advised not to attempt to leave the country as that will give the Israeli occupation authorities an excuse not to let them back into the country. The women prisoners, said Mr Abu Ein, will travel together as a group to overcome difficulties arising from women having to have close male relatives (muhrim) with them when travelling to Saudi Arabia.
The Hajj grant was provided by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz at the request of the Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, following their release in the Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange deal agreed last month. The costs are being borne by the Saudi monarch.
For a map, click here
Updated with additional information including some details from a Mexican human rights report on the incident. Site commander sentenced has been identified through an article posted Saturday morning at proceso.com.mx
By Chris Covert
Two Mexican unidentified army officers and 12 enlisted personnel were sentenced for their role in the shooting of five members of a family at an army checkpoint in 2007, according to Mexican news reports.
The killings took place June 1st, 2007 in Sinaloa state in a village named La Joya when Adan Abel Esparza apparently ran an army checkpoint in his pickup truck, and despite shouts by soldiers to do so, refused to stop.
Army gunfire killed Adan Abel Esparza, his wife who was not identified in news accounts, an unidentified female sibling and his two daughters, ages four and two.
Three unidentified civilians were also wounded in the gunfire.
The case had gained some notoriety in that it had been submitted to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
All 14 soldiers were charged with murder and aggravated assault in the incident. The sentences meted out were called "severe" in some Mexican news accounts.
The commander, identified as 2nd Captain of Cavalry Candido Alday Arriaga and presumably the site commander was sentenced to 40 years in prison, dismissal from the army and a bar to employment in the military for ten years.
A second officer was sentenced to 38 years in prison with the same bars to employment in the army as the site commander.
The 12 enlisted soldiers involved were sentenced to 16 year in prison.
The document released by the Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), the agency for the Mexican Army noted that an undisclosed amount in compensation claimed were paid in the aftermath as well.
The document goes on to note that since 2006, about the time human rights departments were introduced into the Mexican military services, SEDENA has acted on 89 human rights complaints against Mexican Army soldiers.
About 5,800 cases filed in the same period have been dismissed as apocryphal, characterized by at least one SEDENA official as "jokes".
The Mexican Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos, or National Human Right Commission published a paper which disputed many of the preliminary findings in the incident.
According to the CNDH, the military prosecutor investigating the case, failed in several ways to properly conduct the investigation.
For example, it was later learned that at least two of the detachment at the site of the checkpoint were intoxicated by drug or alcohol
Amongst the problems the CNDH said in its problematic report were:
The army failed to move the wounded for medical attention for more than three hours. Two of the five victims died during that time.
The army obstructed transport of the wounded to hospitals, although news reports failed to detail what the army did to delay transport.
The local prosecutor investigating rhe case, presumably for the state of Sinaloa failed to order drug/alcohol tests for all personnel at the checkpoint, preferring instead to check the putative shooters. The part of the news report mentioned the local prosecutor was working in support of military investigators, but failed to detail if that nexus tainted the investigation, and if so, how. The report also complains that those who attempted to stop movement of the wounded for medical attention on were not checked for drugs or alcohol.
The military prosecutors service failed to conduct their investigation according to the rules, but the report faild to detail what, if any rules were not followed.
The site commander had allegedly ordered a bag of marijuana to be laced at the scene of the vehicle, which had overturned in the melee. Reports do not detail if the order was actually carried out.
The military failed to pay for the damage caused to the vehicle in which the family was riding.
Its editor, Stephane Charbonnier, told Reuters news agency it planned to print 175,000 extra copies, after its first print run of 75,000 sold out fast.
The paper has been housed by French daily Liberation since fire bombs gutted its own offices.
PARIS: Gray hair and a paunch have replaced the beret, leather jacket and dark glasses but Carlos the Jackal's defiance remains intact before he stands trial in France for a series of bombings in the 1980s.
The international revolutionary from Venezuela, born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, built a career as one of the world's best known guerrillas after a hostage-taking of OPEC oil ministers in the name of the Palestinian struggle in 1975.
Since his capture and sentencing nearly two decades ago, the Jackal has been resident of a French prison.
On Monday, Ramirez, already condemned to life in jail, will face a three-judge terrorism panel to answer charges he was behind four urban bombings in France that killed 11 people and wounded nearly 200 in the early 1980s.
"I am really in a combative mood," Ramirez, 62, told Europe 1 radio last month. "I'm not fearful by nature...My character is suited to this kind of combat."
The Marxist with a Che Guevara beret became the face of 1970s and 80s anti-imperialism, his taste for women and alcohol adding to his revolutionary mystique.
"He was the symbol of international leftist terrorism," said Francois-Bernard Huyghe, a terrorism expert at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, IRIS, in Paris. "One day it could be in the service of the Palestinian cause, the next day he could put bombs in French trains. He was a kind of star."
Sounds more like a mercenary, or perhaps a button man, than a man of lofty principle...
Ramirez got his nickname after a reporter saw a copy of Frederick Forsyth's "The Day of the Jackal" at his flat and mistakenly assumed it to be his. His larger-than-life ego manifests itself today in waging hunger strikes and writing letters to US President Barack Obama. He also married his attorney inside the prison walls.
But he and his modus operandi are anachronisms, experts say.
"Carlos the Jackal was the Osama Bin Laden of his day," his biographer, John Follain, told Reuters TV. "Terrorism has evolved so much that today he represents a solitary voice in the desert, a pretty old-fashioned voice."
Huyghe was more blunt: "A man like Carlos is really a dinosaur today. I think of him as 'historical remains.'"
I'd prefer to think of him as worm food, but that'll happen someday...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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"Nearly two decades ago ..." > **** cough *** cough *** ........
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The Israelis have long admitted that Carlos was one of their worst unintentional mistakes.
Carlos' boss in South America was also a murderous thug, but he was nowhere on the scale of Carlos in his aptitude to make trouble. But after an attack, Israel sent some assassins to take him out, which resulted in Carlos taking his place.
This has led to a change in the assassination decision making process, that it is a very good idea to assess the lieutenants of a target, as well as the target himself.
[Dawn] The lieutenant-governor of Canada's Newfoundland province, former cabinet minister John Crosbie, came under fire on Thursday for wisecracking about Pak jacket wallahs and other matters.
Crosbie at the swearing-in of a new provincial cabinet last Friday had recounted an American friend's tale about the current US economic woes that earned him rebukes from a student association and the premier of Newfoundland.
"This fellow said, 'I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, social security, retirement funds, etcetera, I called a suicide hotline and got a call centre in Pakistain. When I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck'," Crosbie quipped.
The representative of Queen Elizabeth II for the eastern province also joked that the US economy was so bad that "ExxonMobil apparently laid off 25 congressmen," and that "a truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico".
Wasiq Waqar, president of the Pak Students' Association at Memorial University in Saint John's, Newfoundland, told a local newspaper the joke was "shocking" and "insensitive", and "it embeds prejudice". "The premier of the province also issued a statement saying the comments were "inappropriate".
Crosbie, 80, vowed to the daily Globe and Mail to be "more circumspect and more boring" in future speeches.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Hard to take this seriously, the same jokes have been emailed to me by friends & relatives.
A Pakistani court on Saturday indicted five Islamist militants and two police officers in the high-profile assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, prosecutors said. Bhutto, the first female prime minister in the Muslim world, was killed in a gun and suicide attack in 2007 in one of the most shocking events in Pakistan's turbulent history.
An anti-terrorism court indicted the seven men in a hearing held behind closed doors in the city of Rawalpindi for security reasons.
"They have been charged with conspiracy as well as abetment in the murder," Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, a government prosecutor, told Reuters.
The charismatic Bhutto was killed on Dec. 27, 2007 as she waved to a crowd through the sunroof of a sports utility vehicle following an election rally in Rawalpindi weeks after she returned to Pakistan from a self-imposed exile after striking a deal with then military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf's government had blamed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud for the killing. Mehsud was conveniently killed in a U.S. drone strike near the Afghan border in 2009.
The five Taliban militants were charged with "criminal conspiracy" for bringing the suicide bomber from the tribal belt in the northwest to Rawalpindi where he carried out the attack, another prosecutor Mohammad Azhar said.
The police officers, including Saud Aziz, who was then Rawalpindi police chief, were charged with breach of security by "changing the security plan for BB (Benazir Bhutto)", he added.
PM Netanyahu halts annual fees to UN's cultural body following PA vote, as UN chief warns PA's efforts to join United Nations' bodies jeopardizes organization's funding. PA claims Jerusalem withholding transfer of tax revenue
(Ma'an) -- A member of the Fatah central committee says President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... has formed a committee to reconsider the strategy and future of relations between Israel and the Paleostinian Authority.
Muhammad Shtayyeh told Ma'an that "the new strategy will be the path after Nov. 11," when the UN Security Council is scheduled to meet to discuss Paleostine's application for membership as a state.
Shtayyeh said the Paleostinian leadership is set to break the status quo with Israel and reformulate relations.
The new committee, among its members the leaders of the PLO and Fatah, is discussing "where we are going now," Shtayyeh said without revealing the substance of the strategy. But he said reconciliation with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, would formulate a basic part of it and noted Abbas planned to meet Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal after the holiday.
He says the PA and Israel cooperate in some areas, but all of them are strained. On the political front, negotiations are blocked. Economically, Israel "exports whatever it wants to us, imports whatever it wants from us." Also, "Israel gives us electricity, while it steals our water and sells it to us." In terms of security, "We are there to maintain the general security in order not to clash with Israel."
According to Shtayyeh, Israel in general is living in a stable security state.
He added that "we want to break the status quo in Israel, but we will take some measures that won't hurt us but will reform the relationship [with Israel]."
He added that the PA has reached a point where Israel's stubbornness and the inability of the international community to reign it in has stalled negotiations, so it went to the UN.
Shtayyeh says even if Paleostine gets nine votes in the Security Council, the result would be the same because "we know the US will not allow our application to pass in the UN.
"But this is not the end of the world; we will apply again."
He also said that if the application did not pass, this would open the door to the new strategy which the leadership is planning and which will take effect after Nov. 11.
#2
These a$$holes are unbelievable. Israel "gives" electricity but "steals" water. Mindset demonstration in spades.
Note that there seems to be no understanding the export / import takes two parties. Israel couldn't export if you didn't want to buy it and vice versa. Talk about a permanent victim psychology.
#2
Why would they have the prison doors hooked up to any other network. Thats so dumb it beggars belief and I wonder how informed the Feds really are on this situation. Somehow I suspect this is hot air and scare tactics to increase their budget.
#4
rjschwarz,
As the article says, few door control apps are directly tied to the internet. However they are connected to other apps within the prison and they access the internet.
It is useful to remember that before 9/11, we were not expecting terrorists to fly planes into buildings. We were expecting terrorists to hack industrial control systems and take over drawbridges, elevators, hospital equipment etc.
We are very lucky the terrorists don't have the skills do this.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/05/2011 11:56 Comments ||
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#5
Frozen Al yes and look at Iran's nuclear program.
They have gone high tech in the state and federal prison systems. High security max is very high tech. One person controls just about everything at main control center. Plug and play.
#8
When you have a new Federal prison they are equipped with some of the best things. New musical instruments, Library, Gym, and many other niceties.
When I had connections with those employed at a federal prison of course. I don't know about computer systems. Things are going on all the time. They must expect an attempt.
#9
Rob Crawford? You eat Charles Johnson's Tea Party hating shit, and you come here. This page isn't for political chamelons and ass kissers.
Posted by: Bill Bourbon6367 ||
11/05/2011 19:48 Comments ||
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#10
Goodness, Bill Bourbon6367, I think you are the first one who ever objected to Mr. Crawford, who has been posting here an awfully long time.
A number of us used to post at LGF, until he had his mental break. Some even continued after, trying to bring Mr. Johnson back to his senses. I've always liked and respected our RC-- could it be that the one you are referring to merely shares the same name?
Iran has complained to the United Nations about a U.S. accusation it tried to assassinate a Saudi diplomat, saying one of the alleged plotters Washington calls an Iranian military official is really a member of an anti-Tehran rebel group.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday the plot was part of a multi-pronged U.S. strategy to smear Tehran, a process he said would continue next week when the U.N. nuclear agency publishes a report western diplomats say will contain new evidence about Iran's nuclear programme.
The complaint to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon turned the U.S. accusation that Tehran supports terrorism back onto Washington, Salehi said.
"This letter contains our complaint about the plots of the United States, reliable information that we have of the U.S. involvement in those plots," he said in a news conference broadcast live on the English language channel Press TV.
On its website, Press TV reported the letter said a suspect who U.S. prosecutors have identified as an Iranian military official is actually a member of the exiled Iranian rebel group Mujahideen Khalq Organisation (MKO).
One of two men charged with plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, 56-year-old Iranian-American Manssor Arbabsiar, pleaded not guilty at a court hearing in New York last month.
The second, Gholam Shakuri, is still at large and U.S. officials say he is a member of the Quds Force, an arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who approved the plan to hire Mexican gangsters to murder Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir.
The semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Oct. 17 that Shakuri was a member of the MKO, also known as the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), based in Iraq and listed as a terrorist group by the United States.
Citing "informed sources", Mehr said Shakuri had travelled to Washington and to the MKO base at Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
Iranian officials did not initially comment on the report which said Interpol had discovered Shakuri's true identity, but Press TV reported on Saturday it was now in the letter delivered to Ban.
[Dawn] Iran is the biggest threat to the United States in the Middle East, surpassing al Qaeda, which is down but not out, a senior US military official said on Friday.
"The biggest threat to the United States and to our interests and to our friends, I might add, has come into focus and it's Iran," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Speaking at a forum in Washington, the official said he did not believe Iran wanted to provoke a conflict, however, and added he did not know if the Islamic state had decided to build a nuclear weapon.
Next week, the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... nuclear watchdog, is expected to release a report that includes evidence of Iranian nuclear research which makes little sense if not weapons related, Western diplomats said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah, mesh that report from the CIA's in 2007. Such a head scratcher.
#6
Sorry about that, g(r)omgoru. I've a request in to Fred to undo it. For the rest of you, here's what g(r)omgoru wrote --perfectly innocent, as you can see:
#4 mesh that report from the CIA's in 2007
CIA vs. Military
Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-11-05 12:33
Unfortunately, Fred hasn't idiot-proofed this particular corner of Rantburg yet.
[An Nahar] Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council said Friday they seek to "shine a spotlight" on violations in Syria and will press ahead with investigations of the regime whether or not its monitors are allowed into the country.
A U.N. human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... fact-finding mission was barred entry to the violence-plagued state in August, and a subsequent U.N.-backed commission of inquiry has also been refused access, with its members instead traveling to border areas in neighboring countries to monitor abuses from there.
"On the Syria point, the moment has not passed, not even close," Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council, told a gathering at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank.
"We do not feel like we've lost our momentum ... and we will do everything we can to shine a spotlight on the continuing violations and put pressure on to the maximum effect we can."
Chamberlain Donahoe said the prohibition of entry "actually further motivates the international community" to pressure the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs...
The commission of inquiry will release a report on Syria November 30, and the Geneva-based rights council is likely to convene a session to address the contents of the report, Chamberlain Donahoe said.
Deputy U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang told the Washington forum that despite lack of access on the streets of Syrian cities like 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... , Homs and elsewhere, "with modern-day technology we're not faced with any shortage of information."
U.N. Sherlocks, she said, "were even Skyping with demonstrators who were doggedly there, fighting the battle on the streets everyday."
While Kang insisted that hearing the testimony from some 150 victims and witnesses who beat feet to neighboring countries allowed the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... to "get a clear sense of the patterns of violations," she acknowledged that U.N. officers "would of course have liked to go in and see the situation" for themselves.
"We continue to push for access and investigations" in Syria, she told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Assad's regime has been engaged in a seven-month brutal crackdown on protesters that U.N. officials say has claimed more than 3,000 lives since mid-March.
Syrian troops killed 17 people on Friday as demonstrators erupted into the streets to test the regime's commitment to an Arab peace deal calling for an end to violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] La Belle France said Friday that Syria was breaking its commitments to an 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... peace plan by continuing a deadly crackdown on protesters and cast doubt on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... dedication to the deal. Picked right up on that, didn't they? Not much gets by them, does it?
"The continuing repression can only strengthen the international community's doubts about the Syrian regime's sincerity to implement the vaporous Arab League peace plan," the French foreign ministry's deputy front man, Romain Nadal, told journalists.
"We understand that at least 20 peaceful protesters were killed by security forces yesterday in Syria," he said.
"The continuing repression is completely contrary to the commitments given by the Syrian regime to the Arab League."
Syrian troops killed 14 civilians in protest centers on Friday as demonstrators erupted into the streets nationwide to test the regime's commitment to the Arab peace deal.
Twenty civilians had been killed on Thursday -- the first day the hard-won agreement aimed at ending nearly eight months of bloodshed came into effect.
The peace plan calls on Assad to withdraw security forces from protest hubs and engage in a national dialogue with his opponents.
But Assad's opponents are skeptical about his readiness to rein in a brutal crackdown that the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... says has cost more than 3,000 lives since mid-March.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Whoa, 'Cuzin Paris Hilton wants to enter politics - who knew???
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.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Eritrean ambassador to Kenya Beyene Russom, was on Friday summoned to the Foreign Affairs ministry over reports that Asmara was arming A
l-Shabaab
[An Nahar] Libya's National Transitional Council has pledged to continue with the previous regime's program of destroying its chemical weapons stockpiles, an international monitoring group said Friday.
(Ma'an) -- A member of the Fatah central committee says President 
[Dawn] Iran is the biggest threat to the United States in the Middle East, surpassing al Qaeda, which is down but not out, a senior US military official said on Friday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
