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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Yemen Army Takes Control of Qaida Bastion Azzan
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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5 14:55 Bobby [] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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10 23:18 JosephMendiola [1]
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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2 13:46 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) []
Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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12 15:24 swksvolFF []
4 11:31 Besoeker []
5 14:37 Shinter Javirong9154 []
Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pic doesn't show up for me.
Posted by: gorb || 06/24/2012 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  from wikipedia

The Mae West was a common nickname for the first inflatable life preserver, which was invented in 1928 by Peter Markus (1885–1974) (US Patent 1694714) with his subsequent improvements in 1930 and 1931. The nickname was originated because someone wearing the inflated life preserver often appeared to be as physically endowed as the actress Mae West as well as rhyming slang for breast.[2] It was popular during the World War II with U.S. Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force servicemen, who were issued inflatable Mae Wests as part of their flight gear. Air crew members whose lives were saved by use of the Mae West (and other personal flotation devices) were eligible for membership in the Goldfish Club.
Posted by: lord garth || 06/24/2012 1:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Martha Sleeper aka Mary Gallagher, Patsy's mother in "The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)" aka Nancy Fairbrother in "Four Days' Wonder (1936)" aka Constance Hyde in "Rhythm on the Range (1936)" aka Elsie Summerstone in "Two Sinners (1935)" aka Julia Vivian in "The Scoundrel (1935)" aka Marcia Harper in "Great God Gold (1935)" aka Ril Lambeth in "West of the Pecos (1934)" (Died in 1983 at age 72)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 06/24/2012 3:37 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Music Store Blast Kills 2 in Jalalabad
[Tolo News] Two Afghan non-combatants were killed in a kaboom in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province on Saturday, local officials said.

Two others were maimed in the incident which happened around 2:30 PM in the province's main city Jalalabad, according to provincial front man Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.

The bomb appears to have been planted in a CD and cassette store which mainly sells music.
No group, including the Taliban, has grabbed credit for the blast.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Because music is unIslamic.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/24/2012 14:30 Comments || Top||


100 Female School Students Poisoned in Sar-e-Pul
[Tolo News] As many as 100 female students are believed to have been poisoned in Afghanistan's northern Sar-e-Pul province on Saturday, a provincial health official said.

Head of Sar-e-Pul Public Health department Mohammad Amin Altin said the reason behind the poisoning at the Emam Yahya school is still unclear, but the scores of students admitted to hospital had a fever.

This comes as hundreds of students were poisoned in the last two months in Takhar, Khost and Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
provinces, raising concerns among the families and the Afghan politicians for the future of education in the country.

Parliamentarians have called the poisoning of students a failure of Afghan security and intelligence officials and asked for immediate responses to such incidents, resulting in the capture of a several people, including a female Pak doctor who was accused of helping poison students. Recently, several students including teachers were also set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
by Afghan cops as suspects in carrying out the poisonings.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


10 Armed Insurgents Renounce Violence in Herat
[Tolo News] Ten cut-throats who worked together renounced violence in western Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
province and surrendered their weapons to government authorities, local officials said.

The group of men were involved in insurgency across the Guzara district and Herat-Kandahar highway, occasionally attacking NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
convoys across the highway and shooting rockets on Herat airport.

With the group's change, stability in Herat province and Kandahar highway is expected to improve, according to the provincial security officials.

The commander of the group said that the transfer of responsibility for security to Afghan cops indicated it was time to help strengthen the abilities of the Afghan forces to defend the country from foreign invaders.

Nearly 600 cut-throats in Herat have renounced violence in last six months, with this gang being the 11th group in the past three months, officials said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
BREAKING: 1 Dead Several Injured in Mobassa, Kenya Explosion


One day after US Govt. warning of imminent terror activity in Mombassa, reports are that there has been an explosion. Report is via Twitter from Standard Media which does not have a story up yet other than a rotating "Breaking" banner on their main site.

Posted by: crosspatch || 06/24/2012 15:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  MODS: Updated story here:

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000060541&story_title=One-killed,-scores-hurt-in-Mombasa-blast

Posted by: crosspatch || 06/24/2012 16:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Additional unfinished business from the Carter era.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/24/2012 17:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Probably retaliation for Kenya's combined arms (naval, air, ground) actions around Kismayo, Somalia. Two other explosive devices were discovered washed ashore near Mombassa.
Posted by: crosspatch || 06/24/2012 17:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Death toll now at 3. Apparently a crowd had gathered to watch soccer games at the club when the explosion occurred.

Posted by: crosspatch || 06/24/2012 19:28 Comments || Top||


African Union Troops secure the strategic coastal town of Elma'an
(Sh.M.Network)-The 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...
Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has secured Elma'an Port and Esaley Airstrip in Middle Shabelle region from Al-Shabaab
... the successor to the Islamic Courts...
bully boyz adding to the list of strategic locations the Al-Qaeda linked group continues to lose as AMISOM supports the Somali National Army (SNA) to pacify the country.

Esaley Airstrip and Elma'an Port, both over 37kms northeast ofMogadishu, were used by Al-Shabaab bully boyz to import illegal arms and shuttle imported muscle from the Gulf of Edeninto Somalia.

In 2006, Al-Shabaab banned humanitarian groups from using Esaley Airstrip thereby restricting humanitarian access to populations in Middle Shabelle,Southern Somalia.

"The successful offensive, launched by our forces, has enabled us to secure an extremely strategic entrance to Mogadishu.

Since the increase of the authorized troop strength to 17731 , AMISOM forces have been re-energized for the greater task ahead of bringing peace and stability to the rest of Somalia." Said AMISOM Force Commander Lieutenant General Andrew Gutti.

Securing the two towns will curb Al-Shabaab's recent retreat from the Afgooye corridor to key towns on the Somali coastal line. During the operation, AMISOM and SNA forces seized heavy weaponry including 9 rifles and a machine gun.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Gunmen kill Two civilians in Galka'yo, central Somalia
(Sh. M. Network)-At least two people were killed and one other as injured after Armed groups in Somalia have attacked on local herders locating at Miro-cowleed neighborhood located nearby Galka'yo town, some 750 kilometers north of Mogadishu, reports said.

According to local witnesses who spoke to Shabelle Media via phone that the gangs managed to escape from the area after carrying out the attack which clamed the lives of two nomadic herders.

The motive of the deadly attack is yet to be established.

Local Elders and intellectuals from neighboring Galinsor district have arrived at Miro-cowleed, the scene of the crime to bring an end a fueling tense of fighting between two tribes hails from Galmudug
...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth...
and Himan and Heb administrations in centralSomalia.

Both Somali regional administrations have not released an official statement on the matter so far.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Café in Somalia hit by a bomb blast
(Sh. M. Network)-At least three Somali army commanders have sustained injures after a coffee shop in southwestern Somalia hit by a coordinated kaboom, according to witnesses and a hospital official.
Now eating is haram?
Eyewitnesses said many people were drinking tea at a popular cafe in the heart of Qansah Dheere district, when the bomb went kaboom!. Three Somali government officails, Hussein Isac, Garabey, and Hussein were killed in the attack.

The attack is the latest of a series of suicide kabooms staged by the Al-Qaeda-linked group in Bay region -- after being pushed out recently several strategic towns in Bay and Bakol regions by the hapless Somali government and Æthiopian troops.

Security forces have reached the bomb site and conducted a manhunt operation, killing four people in suspicion of the attack

Ali aden, Somali MP in Baidoa town, the capital of Bay region, who spoke with Shabelle Media by phone denied reports of TFG officials killed the blast occurred Saturday in Dheere district, saying only a soldiers got hurt in the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  The Hard Boyz now hate AM Coffee???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/24/2012 19:35 Comments || Top||


New Protests against 'Dictatorship' in Sudan
[An Nahar] Sudanese demonstrators staged on Saturday small-scale protests sparked by rising prices, witnesses said, the day after unrest engulfed the capital Khartoum and cities across the country.

"We will not be governed by a dictatorship!" demonstrators in the eastern town of Gedaref shouted, according to two witnesses.

They said about 200 people gathered in the main market where they denounced the high cost of food before police dispersed them with batons.

Poverty is endemic in Gedaref and the two other eastern states of Kassala and Red Sea.

In Khartoum, an Agence La Belle France Presse news hound observed the aftermath of a demonstration in a southern district of the city.

Burned tyres, stones lay in the street, and tear gas hung in the air as riot police stood by and residents clustered in alleys, the news hound said.

The unrest continued after neighborhoods throughout the capital and in key towns around the country demonstrated on Friday, in the most serious expression of discontent since student-led protests began eight days ago.

Riot police have violently dispersed a string of demonstrations since they began on June 16 outside the University of Khartoum.

The protests symbolize "mass rejection of the regime's oppressive policies and its failure in governing this country," Sudan Change Now, an activist youth movement, said.

Inflation has risen each month, hitting 30.4 percent in May, before Finance Minister Ali Mahmoud al-Rasul on Wednesday announced the scrapping of fuel subsidies, causing an immediate jump of about 50 percent in the price of petrol.

Bankrupt Sudan has lost billions of dollars in oil receipts since South Sudan gained independence last July leaving the north struggling for revenue, plagued by inflation, and with a severe shortage of dollars to pay for imports.

The country's poverty rate is 46.5 percent, the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
says.

"The government must immediately retract the austerity measures it has adopted which reflect the distortion in its expenditure which continues to prioritize defense and security at the expense of social services," Sudan Change Now said.

The current regime of President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
, an army officer who seized power in 1989, withstood earlier student-led protests by thousands objecting to high prices in 1994.

Sudan's latest demonstrations remain small compared with the mass uprising that swept neighboring Egypt last year and toppled another long-time strongman, Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Two Kenya Policemen Hurt in Somalia Border Attack
[An Nahar] Two coppers were maimed Saturday in a blast, possibly caused by an improvised bomb, in Kenya's Mandera region on the border with Somalia, police said.

"The officers were sheltering under a tree when the kaboom went off, wounding both of them," said a police brass hat in Mandera.

The two were taken to a hospital.

Violent incidents involving local tribes, who often have automatic weapons, are frequent in northeast Kenya, but the number of kabooms and hand-grenade attacks surged after the Kenyan army began hunting down al-Qaeda-linked Islamist Shebab rebels in southern Somalia in late 2011.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Tehran Says IDs of Iranians Arrested in Kenya Not Known
[An Nahar] The identities of two Iranians whose arrest in Kenya this week preceded a U.S. alert of a planned "terrorist attack" in the country are not yet known, authorities in Tehran said on Saturday.

"The identities of these persons are not yet known to us and the Iranian embassy in Nairobi is seeking to obtain information and a consular visit," foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.

"As long as the identities of these persons are not obtained, we cannot make any comment about this matter," he said.

"But given the good and brotherly relations between Iran and Kenya, it appears that certain circles and foreign media are trying to undermine them (the relations) by evoking such information and accusations," Mehmanparast added.

Kenyan police said they cooled for a few years
Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up!
one of the Iranians last Wednesday and the other on Thursday. "They are being interrogated to establish their involvement in terrorism activities," said Aggrey Adoli, police chief for Coast province.

Kenyan officials did not identify the two but said they had led police to two stashes of chemicals believed to be used to make bombs.

The U.S. embassy in Kenya on Saturday warned it had received information "of an imminent threat of a terrorist attack in Mombasa," Kenya's second-biggest city and a popular coastal destination.

The embassy said all U.S. government employees were barred from travelling to Mombasa for the next week. The French embassy in Nairobi also warned its citizens to be "extremely vigilant" in Mombasa and the surrounding area.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...What's Farsi for, "Should you or any of your team be caught or killed, the Ayatollah will disavow any knowledge of your actions."...?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 06/24/2012 17:04 Comments || Top||

#2  "They are being interrogated ..."
Might not need that Consular visit.
Posted by: Pancho Claimble1877 || 06/24/2012 18:46 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Explosion outside Nightclub in Nigerian Capital
[An Nahar] An kaboom went off outside a nightclub in the Nigerian capital Abuja, breaking windows and damaging cars, but no casualties were reported, the country's emergency agency said on Saturday.

"No human casualty," Yushau Shuaib, front man for the National Emergency Management Agency, said of the blast late Friday. "The explosives were suspected to have been planted on a tree opposite Kryxtal Lounge."
They killed a tree?!? The bastards!!
An AFP news hound who visited the scene saw a damaged tree and broken windows at the nightclub, a barber shop and a nearby bank.

Nigeria has been hit by scores of bombings blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
, including some in and around Abuja.

A suicide kaboom on U.N. headquarters in Abuja in August killed at least 25 people, while another at the Abuja office of one of the country's most prominent newspapers left at least four dead.

On Friday, President Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
fired his national security adviser and defense minister as fears mounted over spiraling unrest in the country's north, where Boko Haram's insurgency has been based.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  I hope this doesn't delay my settlement letter.
Posted by: Ulealing Unereth5398 || 06/24/2012 14:34 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Zarqawi's nephew killed in Yemen

Nephew of one-time (now completely dead) leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi has joined his uncle in complete deadness. Looks like he was zapped in early May.

Posted by: crosspatch || 06/24/2012 03:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Indian Mujaheddin

#1  I need a clear pic(s) to verify that its him.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/24/2012 5:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I prefer a severed head, but that's just me...
Posted by: Steve White || 06/24/2012 8:54 Comments || Top||

#3  DNA taken from sufficiently large body parts to ensure it wasn't just planted.
Posted by: lotp || 06/24/2012 9:58 Comments || Top||

#4  "Just carrying on... an old family tradition"

- Hank Williams Jr.
Posted by: airandee || 06/24/2012 10:22 Comments || Top||

#5  One tear. That's all I can spare.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/24/2012 14:55 Comments || Top||


Marib Power Station Shut down after Attack Sends Yemen Grid out of Commission
[Yemen Post] The energy ministry on Friday decided to shut down the Marib gas-fired power station until all power supply lines are well protected, amid widespread outraged due to long blackouts across the republic, Almasdar Online reported, quoting a source.

"The ministry said it will not re-operate the station except after President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi orders suitable protection of all power supply lines," the website said.

"Hadi should send a military mission to arrest the saboteurs behind plunging the country into darkness and protect power lines and stations from more attacks," the ministry said in a letter to the president, according to the website.

The ministry has said that power lines and stations have suffered about 33 attacks this year so far, leading to electricity disruptions, serious damages to the stations and billions of Yemeni riyals in losses.

The latest attack was reported two days ago sending all gas and stream power stations out of commission and plunging the whole country in 24-hour darkness, the ministry said.

The attack affected the whole national power grid, the ministry, urging immediate measures to punish those involved.

The Marib gas-fired station generates 400 megawatts and it supplies several cities with electricity including the capital Sanaa.

Earlier this year, Hadi ordered to take legal procedures against all saboteurs who attack public facilities including power supply lines and oil and gas pipelines. The orders including filing immediate lawsuits against those involved and the authorities have blacklisted some suspects so far.

Coinciding with the unrest last year, Yemen experienced long blackouts throughout the year, in most cases more than 20 hours a day.

Meantime, youth-led people have called for a massive demonstration in the capital Sanaa Saturday to protest the absence and bad basic services, including the 24-hour blackouts in the capital.

Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Yemen Army Takes Control of Qaida Bastion Azzan
[An Nahar] Yemeni troops took control on Saturday of the southeastern town of Azzan, a known Al-Qaeda bastion, after the group's fighters left it a week ago, an official said.

Thirty-five people, meanwhile, were killed in the southern Abyan
...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
province over the past 10 days in kabooms from landmines laid by Al-Qaeda gunnies before they fled from the province, officials said.

"Some 60 vehicles of army and security forces have been deployed across central Azzan," a local government official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that army warplanes were seen flying over the area.

Witnesses confirmed that Azzan, in the southeastern Shabwa province, was finally handed over to the army by a committee of tribal mediators to whom the Al-Qaeda gunnies had initially handed over the town.

On June 17, Al-Qaeda snuffies fled from Azzan, the last town in Yemen where they had established complete control.

Al-Qaeda had declared an Islamic emirate in the desert town where hundreds of fighters were believed to have sought refuge after fleeing their strongholds in the nearby Abyan province.

Taking advantage of a weakening central government control by an Arab Spring-inspired uprising last year, the snuffies had overrun most of Abyan, capturing Zinjibar, Jaar, Shuqra and several other villages.

But on May 12, Yemen's military launched an all-out offensive to recapture the lost province. The army and local forces of Evil have succeeded in taking over all of Abyan's towns except for Mahfad where jihadists still have a strong presence.

Meanwhile,
...back at the alley, Slats Chumbaloni was staring into a hole that was just .45 inch in diameter and was less than three feet from his face ...
landmines the jihadists had laid in Abyan before fleeing have killed at least 35 people in the past 10 days, officials said.

Twenty-seven people were killed only in the lovely provincial capital of Zinjibar, while eight died on the outskirts of the town of Jaar.

"Landmine kabooms in Zinjibar have left 27 people dead" since the army, backed by local militiamen, drove out Al-Qaeda snuffies from the capital of the province on June 13, said Zinjibar deputy mayor Ghassan Sheikh.

He said of the 27 people killed, nine died on June 14 while returning to Zinjibar from where they had fled after the snuffies seized it in May 2011, local official Mohsen Saleh said.

Sheikh said the Yemeni army has so far been unable to clear all the landmines, adding the explosives were sown in most streets of Zinjibar.

"Most of Zinjibar's residents have been unable to return yet" from the main southern city of Aden to their town which has been totally destroyed by the fighting, he said.

Eight other non-combatants were killed in similar landmine blasts on the outskirts of the nearby town of Jaar which was a major stronghold of Al-Qaeda since last year, rights activist Wahid Abdullah said.

On Friday, the new army commander for the south, Major-General Naser al-Taheri, vowed to continue the fight against Al-Qaeda.

He replaced General Salem Ali Qoton who was assassinated by an Al-Qaeda jacket wallah on Monday.

Taheri vowed that his predecessor's killing will only "make us more determined... to hunt these terrorist groups in their hideouts until the nation is cleansed from their evil," state news agency Saba quoted him as saying.

Qoton, who had led the five-week-long offensive against the jihadists in Abyan and Shabwa provinces was killed along with two of his aides, when a Somali suicide bomber threw himself on his vehicle in the regional capital Aden.

U.S. officials have repeatedly described Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the most dangerous of the jihadist network's worldwide affiliates.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Britain
Manchester Couple Accused Of Planning To Bomb Jewish Targets
'It was jihad at home,' says prosecutor of al-Qaeda inspired plot

(JTA) -- A Mohammedan couple in Manchester, England, allegedly purchased items for homemade bombs to be used against Jewish targets, a court in that city was told.

"It was jihad at home," prosecutor Bobbie Cheema told the Manchester crown court on Thursday, according to the Guardian. "Between them they acquired substances, common or garden, that can be purchased in supermarkets, equipment and information that would help them to make explosives, and began the process of assembling an improvised bomb.

In addition, the couple took "multiple reconnaissance" trips to Jewish neighborhoods, according to the Guardian.

British citizens
Born where -- Devonshire? Coventry? Highlands?
Mohammed Sajid Khan, 33, and his wife, Shasta, 38, allegedly were inspired by al-Qaeda propaganda on the Internet, the court was told, the newspaper reported.

The couple's alleged intentions were discovered when a police officer was called to their home during a domestic dispute. "She took it as an opportunity to spill the beans about the activities Sajid Khan had been undertaking," Cheema reportedly said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Momma ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy! Momma called the cops, then spilled the beans.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 06/24/2012 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  A Mohammedan couple

I am shocked! Amish or Mormon "yes", but mohammedan--it's hard to believe.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/24/2012 10:07 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Serviceman killed in attack in Chechnya
An Interior Ministry serviceman was killed when unknown assailants attacked a military unit in the Vedeno District of Chechnya, a law enforcement source reported. The source said, “A contract serviceman was killed in an armed attack near the Dargo locality.”

The attackers escaped and a search for them is underway.
Posted by: ryuge || 06/24/2012 00:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  cookie reset
Posted by: ryuge || 06/24/2012 21:16 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
House bill extends TSA intel sharing to mass transit
The Transportation Security Administration already shares intelligence it collects with airports. Now a House bill would expand TSA's intel sharing to local mass transit systems as well. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), the bill's sponsor, said the legislation is a "common sense approach" to fighting terrorism. The House passed the bill May 30 and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is now considering the bill.
I'm comfortably certain they wouldn't make the Chicago Transit Authority any worse; but every time I think the CTA can't get worse the CTA proves me wrong...
In an interview with The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp, Speier said the bill creates "fusion centers," where TSA can provide intel to local law enforcement and emergency management officials.
I'm waiting for the screeners and the X-ray machines on every L platform...
"We have put in place through TSA a very elaborate system [in airports]. We all go through those metal detectors and those secondary searches. And we've put a lot of focus on the airlines for good reason. But we have neglected the mass transit components, generally speaking," she said.
For which America thanks you. Now go back to sleep...
Speier said 2 million people fly each day, compared with more than 5 million who ride the subway each day in New York City alone.
And about 100 million car rides in NYC each day. Are they going to screen each car? Wait, let me pull that back...
She pointed out that the most recent terrorist attacks have been on mass transit. Also, when U.S. Special Forces raided Osama Bin Laden's compound last year, intelligence gathered revealed the next attack was intended for mass transit.

"The writing is on the wall. We need to be better prepared than we are right now," Speier said.

Transit riders probably won't see more TSA agents in subways or bus stops, though, Speier said. The expanded TSA role falls more on analysts, she said.
Unless they can get away with putting the TSA into the subways and busses...
Posted by: Steve White || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You gonna hafta get strip searched before you can get on da bus.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/24/2012 14:40 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Two seminary teachers, MQM man shot dead
[Dawn] Three people, including two seminary teachers, on Friday fell victim to the ongoing wave of assassinations on sectarian and political grounds in the city, police said.

The officials added that both seminary teachers were rubbed out on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road as they were returning to the seminary, Idara Maroof-ul-Koran, on a cycle of violence after attending a Nikah in the early hours.

"Maulana Jamil Qasim, 38, and Anwar Anjum, 30, were intercepted and targeted near Paradise Bakery by gunnies riding a motorbike," said Sachal SHO Inspector Azhar Iqbal.

"The victims sustained gunshot wounds and died on their way to hospital," he said.

Police Sherlocks later collected nearly a dozen spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol from the scene of the crime.

The intense firing sowed fear in the locality, where several roadside outlets and teashops usually remain open round the clock, compelling traders to pull down shutters.

A heavy contingent of Rangers and police later cordoned off the area.

The police Sherlocks found no reason other than sectarian for the assassination. "So far that's [sectarian] the only reason we have determined. Colleagues and friends of the victims also suspect the same motive and the investigations are expected to move forward along the same lines," said Inspector Iqbal.

He added that the bodies had been sent to their hometown in Azad Kashmire.

Later during the day, the killing of a Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
worker near Jodia Bazaar led to the closure of the city's one of the busiest commercial areas.

Police said Gulraiz Jamal, in his late 20s, was sprayed with bullets in Chaba Gali of Jodia Bazaar.

"The victim was a resident of the same area," said an official at the Kharadar cop shoppe. "He was returning home when two men riding a motorbike targeted him. He was hit by six bullets and was struck down in his prime."

The police said the victim before joining the MQM was associated with the Sunni Tehrik
...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities...
SSP South Asif Ajaz Sheikh confirmed to Dawn that it was an act of assassination.

Tension gripped the old city area soon after the killing, causing closure of shops and turning traffic on roads thin. The situation started returning to normality after the sunset.

Body found

The tortured body of a young man was found by a side of Qayyumabad road close to the Korangi Industrial Area in the early hours of Friday, said police.

The victim, in his mid-20s, had been trussed up before being strangled to death, they added.

"The victim was wearing shalwar kameez," said Korangi Industrial Area SHO Inspector Malik Ayub. "The body has been shifted to the Edhi morgue after medico-legal formalities at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for want of identification."
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Two levies men killed in Mohmand
[Dawn] Two levies personnel were killed and two injured after a mortar shell hit their checkpost in Khawezai tehsil of Mohmand
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
Agency on Friday.

Officials said the shell fired from an unidentified direction hit the Kharasha checkpost in the bordering area, killing Ismail and Hameedullah and injuring Jawad and Daud.

The checkpost came under attack many times in the past.

In Landi Kotal, a pro-government peace group in Zakhakhel area of Khyber Agency on Friday killed one of its activists for disloyalty.

Officials said Ghazi Khan was bumped off in Mastak area of Tirah valley after he was caught red-handed planting an bomb in the group's base.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
Islamic fascisti blew up a bridge on a canal in Malikdinkhel area of Bara tehsil. The destruction of the bridge suspended water supply to Nala and Miangano Kali.

Security forces cordoned off the area soon after the incident but no arrest was made until the last reports came in.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Raja Pervaiz takes charge of PM office
[Dawn] Newly-elected Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf formally took charge of the Prime Ministers office on Saturday, DawnNews reported.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was accorded a warm welcome upon his formal arrival at the Prime Ministers House.

A contingent of the Pakistain army presented Ashraf with a guard of honor salute, afterwhich he was introduced to his staff.

The newly-elected prime minister held consultations with the Pakistain People Party's senior members regarding the ministries of the cabinet members.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Eight 'settlers' shot dead in Quetta firing incident
[Dawn] Gunmen on cycle of violences on Saturday rubbed out eight men at a laundry in the restive southwestern city of Quetta, police said.

The gunnies were riding two cycle of violences when they struck at the laundry in a busy area of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, before fleeing, they said.

"At least eight men were killed and another man was maimed," senior police official Iskandar Tareen told AFP.

Initial investigations indicated that the victims were "settlers," he said, referring to people who have settled in Balochistan but come from other provinces of Pakistain.

Police officer Salim Shahwani told Rooters that the victims were from Punjab province and were inside the laundry at the time of the attack.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Balochistan suffers from ethnic tensions, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Mohammedans and a separatist insurgency which also targets non-natives.

Small separatist groups in impoverished Balochistan often target Paks from other parts of the country. The separatists want autonomy and a greater share of the money derived from the province's natural resources like gas and oil.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Baloch Liberation Army


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hudna? Hamas Says Yes, Then More Rockets Rise
No truce yet: Shortly after Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, announces Gazoo truce, anti-missile system intercepts five Grads fired at city of Ashkelon; more than 150 rockets explode in Israel in recent days

The Iron Dome anti-missile system shot down five Gazoo rockets Saturday evening, shortly after Hamas declared that a southern truce will go into effect gradually.
 
A ceasefire between Gazoo Strip factions and Israel will go into effect Saturday night following Egyptian mediation efforts, senior Hamas man Ayman Taha initially said in an interview with a Paleostinian television station Saturday evening.  Later he said that the lull has no set date and will be implemented gradually.

Notably, Hamas has already violated a truce agreement reached Thursday. Before Saturday's ceasefire announcement, Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades published a Hebrew-language video, threatening to escalate the fighting and warning that the group will "crush" Israel. 
 
"If the last rounds were not enough to deliver the message ... we are ready to crush the enemy and to curb its arrogance and to respond to aggression in a strong way," the group said in a statement earlier.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I just knew it'd be there even before I opened the link:

A Child Killed and 5 Others Wounded due to the Accidental Landing of Home-Made Rockets on their Houses when Palestinian Resistance Groups Launched Rockets on Israeli Targets

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is deeply concerned about the killing of Hadeel Haddad, and the wounding of five others, as 5 home-made rockets have landed on 4 houses and an empty area of land in several parts of the Gaza Strip in the past few days. PCHR calls upon the government in Gaza to seriously investigate these incidents, and to take necessary measures to ensure the protection of civilian life and the safety of their property.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR and testimony from eyewitnesses, at approximately 07:30 on Tuesday, 19 June 2012,Hadeel Ahmed Sa'eed al-Haddad (1.5) was struck in the head by shrapnel while she was standing in the entrance of the house of her grandfather, Sa'eed Mohammed al-Haddad, in al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, when a home-made rocket landed on their house. Hadeel was transported to al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City to receive necessary medical treatment, but later transferred to Shifa Hospital due to the seriousness of her injuries. The efforts made by her doctors failed to save her life. In addition, in the same incident, Hadeel's cousin,Zaqariya Mohammed Sa'eed al-Haddad (9), was also struck in the head by shrapnel. As a result, he was transported to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where medical sources have described his injuries as moderate.

The spokesman of the Palestinian Police, Chief Ra'ed al-Batniji,confirmed with PCHR's fieldworker that Hadeeldied as a result of being hit in the head with shrapnel from a home-made rocket that landed on her grandfather's house. Al-Batniji added that the police had headed to the scene and initiated investigations.

In BeitHanoun, at approximately 22:35 on Wednesday, 20 June 2012, a home-made rocket landed on an under-construction house belonging to Mohammed AkramShabat(24). As a result, part of a wall inside the house was destroyed, though no injuries were reported.

In Deir al-Balah, at approximately 08:00 on Wednesday, 20 June 2012, a home-made rocket exploded in the vicinity of land belonging to Abu Khattab family on Salah al-Deen Street, south of Deir al-Balah. As a result of the explosion, Yahia Mohammed Abu Khattab’s(16)left shoulder was wounded by shrapnel, and he was transported by a PRCS's ambulance to al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir al-Balah where he received necessary medical treatment. He only suffered from minor wounds.

In Rafah, at approximately 20:30 on Tuesday, 19 June 2012, a home-made rocket landed on the house of Suleiman Abed Rabbu Abu Shabab, in al-Nasser village, southwest of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. As a result, the house sustained damage and its 15 residents were terrified. The Palestinian police said to PCHR's fieldworker that they immediately moved into the area, where the Explosives Engineering Unit collected the remnants of the rocket.

Previously, at approximately 21:50 on Monday, 18 June 2012, a home-made rocket landed on the house of 'AzzamYusefHamad on al-Qurman Street, east of BeitHanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, 3 of Hamad's children were wounded: Bara'a(12) sustained wounds and bruises in the left arm and leg; and Jannat and May, (both 3) sustained bruises throughout their bodies. Additionally, the western side of the house, windows and water network were damaged.


In view of the above, PCHR,

1. Calls upon the government in Gaza to open serious investigations in the above mentioned incidents, and to take necessary measures to ensure the protection of civilian life and the safety of their property; and

2. Stresses the needto take the necessary steps to protect civilian life and security, and to avoid harming them in disputes, according to international humanitarian law standards.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/24/2012 2:28 Comments || Top||

#2  So whats a mere 150 Rockets between Frenemies???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/24/2012 19:30 Comments || Top||


Iron Dome Intercepts Five Grad Rockets Fired From Gaza
[Jerusalem Post] Latest launches follow Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, announcement of ceasefire; IDF says quiet will be answered with quiet, fire with fire; 150 rockets fired into Israel in six days: 1 Israeli injured, 14 Paleostinians killed.

The Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted five Grad rockets
...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km....
fired from the Gazoo Strip toward Ashkelon Saturday night. The renewed rocket fire came on the heels of a declared cease fire by Hamas and an IDF response asserting that fire will be met by fire and quiet by quiet.

No damage or injuries were reported from the intercepted Grad rockets.

On Saturday, over 20 rockets were fired into Israel, amounting to nearly 150 since the beginning of hostilities on Monday. A number of rockets targeted Sderot, injuring a factory worker. One projectile also smashed into an empty school, causing extensive damage.

The Israel Air Force retaliated with a number of Arclight airstrikes late Friday night after terrorist groups in Gazoo -- although not Hamas -- fired rockets into Israel despite reports that an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire had gone into effect in the morning. IDF sources said that most of the rocket fire over the weekend was carried out by the Popular Resistance Committees and other small terror factions.

In response to the rocket attacks on Friday, early Saturday morning the IAF bombed three Hamas bases in the Gazoo Strip, wounding around 20 people. In response, Hamas fired rockets and mortar shells mostly into Sderot. The factory worker was injured in one of the attacks while seeking cover. He sustained moderate shrapnel wounds to his neck and stomach and was rushed to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

A factory manager said that the site had been hit twice before, but that on this occasion, expensive equipment worth millions sustained a direct hit. Two other civilians were treated for shock in the attack.

Also Saturday, the IAF carried out to Arclight airstrike against Paleostinians spotted preparing to launch rockets into Israel. Two Paleostinians were killed, raising the death tally to 14.

"We will continue operating to prevent the rocket fire but in general, quiet will be met by quiet and fire by fire," a senior IDF officer said Saturday night.

The officer said that Israel had received signals from the Egyptians that Hamas was interested in ending the current round of violence. He attributed Hamas's interest in stopping the fighting to the IDF's aggressive response Friday night and Saturday to the rocket fire which included bombings of several of the group's military bases.

"Hamas was surprised by the bombing of one of its bases since until now the IDF has limited its attacks to smaller outposts," the officer said. "This made Hamas understand that it is in its interest to obtain quiet."

The officer said that while Hamas was not behind most of the rocket fire over the weekend, Israel expected it to rein in the other terror factions in Gazoo and to stop their rocket attacks.

"If the attacks continue though the IDF will not hesitate to act against the terrorist launching the rockets," the officer said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
A Note From Ambassador Ford
by U.S. Embassy Damascus on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at 3:58pm
Standing, cheering...
For this posting, I want to address the members of the Syrian military and their role in this crisis. The role of any nation’s military is to defend the country and to protect the people, not to harm them. The United States believes the Syrian military should have an invaluable, integral role to play in the new democratic Syria, if it decides to fulfill its true purpose and stand with the Syrian people now.

Unfortunately, most of the Syrian military is acting as a leading destabilizing force. The pictures we see of buildings destroyed by heavy artillery in Homs are just one example. Now similar artillery is being used against residential districts in places like Douma outside Damascus. In addition, certain key members of the Syrian military have often played a leading role in President Assad’s campaign of torture and terror, including the attacks against Homs, Hama, Latakia, Aleppo, Deir Al-Zour, and many other areas throughout Syria. They have supported the Shabiha’s massacres in the cities of Al-Haffa and Haoula, by providing these armed thugs with instructions and artillery and mortar cover. Their role in these attacks and massacres is abhorrent, runs counter to international law and to the ethics of military professionalism, and enables the Assad regime to try to destroy any region of Syria that rejects Assad’s dictatorial rule.

I want to make it clear that the United States and the international community will work with the Syrian people to locate the military members responsible for this violence and hold them accountable. And we will support the future Syrian government’s efforts to bring those people to justice. Soldiers should know that, under international law, they have a responsibility to uphold basic human rights and that they do not escape responsibility for violations simply because they are subject to orders.

There are parallels to the Syria case in the Balkans. In 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICYT) was created to bring to justice those accused of atrocities in the Balkans conflicts. The ICTY indicted 161 people – military and civilian – from foot soldiers to municipal employees to military officers at all levels to heads of state for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against non-combatants and combatants. The charges against them ranged from directly targeting civilians, mistreating individuals (detained combatants and civilians) in custody, terrorizing the civilian population, using disproportionate force against military objectives, and forcing the deportation or displacement of the civilian population. Trials against several defendants are still ongoing: the Bosnian Serb Army leader Ratko Mladić was on the run for 16 years, but he was captured last May and is now on trial. The United States will support accountability; it has assisted the Tribunals where possible, by providing information at the request of both prosecutors and defendants. We stand ready to do the same in the case of Syria.

Members of the Syrian military should reconsider their support for a regime that is losing the battle. The Assad regime cannot outlast the desire of Syrian people for a democratic state. The officers and soldiers of the Syrian military have a choice to make. Do they want to expose themselves to criminal prosecution by supporting the barbaric actions of the Assad regime against the Syrian people? Or do they want to help secure the role of the professional military in a democratic Syria by supporting the Syrian people and their transition to an inclusive, tolerant and representative democracy that respects human rights and equal, fair treatment for all components of the Syrian nation?
Posted by: Steve White || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "do they want to help secure the role of the professional military in a democratic Syria by supporting the Syrian people and their transition to an inclusive, tolerant and representative democracy that respects human rights and equal, fair treatment for all components of the Syrian nation?"

The really scary thing is that USDS seem to really believe this king of bull
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/24/2012 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Chiêu Hồi leaflet graphic please.

The Chiêu Hồi Program ([tɕiə̯w˧ hoj˧˩], loosely translated as "Open Arms"[1]) was an initiative by the South Vietnamese to encourage defection by the Viet Cong and their supporters to the side of the Government during the Vietnam War.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/24/2012 7:07 Comments || Top||

#3  USDS seem to really believe this king of bull

Whether or not State believes it is immaterial.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/24/2012 13:10 Comments || Top||

#4  You wouldn't be saying it if you were on the receiving end of their beliefs, pater.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/24/2012 14:43 Comments || Top||


Syrian Troops Kill at Least 40 in Shelling, Clashes
[An Nahar] At least 40 people were killed on Saturday in violence across Syria, the majority by regime forces who shelled rebel bastions and clashed with opposition fighters in several areas, a watchdog said.

The casualties included at least 10 regime troops who had tried to desert 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...
province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The Syrian authorities transferred the bodies of 10 soldiers who tried to desert from near Jisr al-Shaaba before dawn," the Britannia-based watchdog said, quoting a local source.

In the central province of Homs, nine non-combatants were killed by gunfire and shelling by troops, including two in the rebel stronghold of Qusayr and six in Homs city, where troops have bombarded several neighborhoods, the Observatory said.

Also in central Syria, two non-combatants were killed in the city of Hama in a dawn ambush by regime forces, and a third was killed in festivities between troops and rebels elsewhere in the province.

In the town of Mahaja in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the revolt against the Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
's rule, troops used tanks to storm the area.

Elsewhere in Daraa, one civilian was rubbed out in a raid by security forces.

In northern Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
province, four people, including two rebels, were killed, while Islamic fascisti released four Kurdish troops they had captured.

In northwest province of Idlib, two people were killed in regime shelling targeting the town of Maaret al-Numan, the Observatory said.

Four non-combatants were killed in Douma by regime forces, including a man rubbed out by a sniper.

The Damascus suburb was labeled a "disaster area" by local activists, who posted videos showing deserted streets littered with debris.

Three civilians, including a child, were killed by snipers in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, the Observatory said, reporting fierce festivities between troops and rebels.

Four civilians died elsewhere in the province, including a child killed by a shell in the town of Al-Quria, the site of anti-regime demonstrations on Friday.

The latest violence comes a day after a least 116 people, including 69 civilians, 31 members of pro-regime forces, and six rebels, died across Syria.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Assad issues decree forming new Syrian government
[Dawn] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
issued a decree to form a new government on Saturday, shaking up many cabinet posts but keeping the heads of the interior, defence and foreign ministries, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.

The reappointment of Defence Minister Daoud Rajha will quash widespread rumours, previously denied by the government, that he had been assassinated by rebels who are struggling to bring down President Bashir al-Assad's rule.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
an Arab diplomat has said that Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
and Qatar are paying salaries to rebel forces fighting in the Syrian revolt against President Bashir al-Assad.

"The payment has been going on for months and the agreement was made on April 2 by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with logistical organization from Turkey where some Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions are based," said the source, who requested anonymity.

"The point of this is to encourage as many factions of the Syrian army to defect and to organise the FSA, control it and prevent any bad turban organizations from joining it."

A front man for Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said on Saturday he was not aware of reports that the kingdom was funding Syrian rebels.

The United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
says more than 10,000 people have been killed since violence broke out after Syrian government forces began a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters over a year ago.

Syria says at least 2,600 members of its military and security forces have been killed by what it calls foreign-backed "Islamist terrorists".

Western and Arab states, meeting on April 1, called on Syrian President Bashir al-Assad to adopt a peace plan brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
, withdraw his troops from Syrian cities and allow access for humanitarian aid.

They made no mention of arming the FSA but said they would "continue to work on additional appropriate measures with a view to the protection of the Syrian people".

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another James Baker ...
said her government was supplying "communications equipment that will help activists organise, evade attacks by the regime and connect to the outside world" and was "discussing with other nations how best to expand this support".

The 16-month uprising, which has faced a brutal government crackdown, is increasingly being termed a civil war by foreign observers. Assad argues he is pursuing reforms even as he fights a revolt he says is led by foreign-backed bad turbans.

But critics say Assad's appointment of Riyad Hijab as prime minister earlier in June was a sign the president was turning to hardline loyalists. Hijab formed the new government given Assad's approval, Syria TV said on Saturday.

Hijab, a former agriculture minister, is a committed member of Assad's Baath Party, which has ruled Syria for nearly four decades since his father Hafez al-Assad took power in 1970.

Most of the top government posts were given to Baathist loyalists. Critics consider the cabinet to be largely symbolic and say power in Syria remains in the hands of Assad and his close inner circle of family and security force elites.

The new cabinet follows a May 7 parliamentary election which Assad said was part of the path to reform but the opposition boycotted as a sham, insisting the president must step down.

Other than Rajha, the ministers to retain their post were Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar and Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.

Several new ministries were created in the new cabinet.

The moderate Qadri Jamil, a centrist who has said he is speaking both to the government and to rebels, was appointed minister of internal commerce and consumer protection. The post is newly formed and likely to be mostly ceremonial.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Time to give Syria back to the French, I think. Let them handle it.
Posted by: American Delight || 06/24/2012 5:34 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2012-06-24
  Yemen Army Takes Control of Qaida Bastion Azzan
Sat 2012-06-23
  Turkish Warplane Vanishes over Syria Border
Fri 2012-06-22
  It's Over: A Dozen Dead After Taliban Take Hostages In Kabul Hotel
Thu 2012-06-21
  29 Soldiers among 58 Dead in Violence across Syria
Wed 2012-06-20
  'Al-Qaeda militant' takes hostages at bank in Toulouse
Tue 2012-06-19
  IDF hits terror cell near Gaza fence
Mon 2012-06-18
  Nigeria: 21 killed, 100 wounded in church blasts
Sun 2012-06-17
  Baghdad bombs target Shiite pilgrims, 32 killed
Sat 2012-06-16
  Yemen army seizes Shuqra after Qaeda pullout
Fri 2012-06-15
  Syria Violence Kills More Than 60
Thu 2012-06-14
  Army takes over in Egypt
Wed 2012-06-13
  At Least 73 Dead in Shelling and Clashes across Syria
Tue 2012-06-12
  Helicopter Gunships Deployed as More Than 100 Dead in Syria
Mon 2012-06-11
  Church Bombing Kills 15 in Nigeria
Sun 2012-06-10
  Syria Army Kills 70 Civilians in Protest Cities

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