Well, if dancing wasn't the cause, that leaves just one possibility, jealousy over boyfriends..
Taliban insurgents killed 17 Afghan civilians Sunday and beheaded as many as 15 of them in the southern province of Helmand, officials said Monday. But the circumstance of their deaths was sharply disputed.
One version said theyd been killed because theyd attended a party where women danced with men. But others scoffed at the idea, saying women would not have been dancing in such a conservative area of Afghanistan.
It is not possible to sing a song in a Taliban-controlled area let alone have dancing, and especially women dancing, said Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for Helmands governor.
Even the location of the killings was uncertain. Afghanistans Interior Ministry said in a statement that armed Taliban had opened fire and beheaded the civilians including two women in Helmands Kajaki district, a version with which Ahmadi agreed.
But Haji Abdul Wahab, a tribal elder from the neighboring Musa Qala district, told McClatchy that the killings had occurred in his district, not Kajaki, though he, too, dismissed the idea that the victims were at a late-night celebration with music and dancing.
It is not possible to have a dancing party in conservative Helmand province, Wahab said. Helmand is a Pashtun province, and its taboo to have women dancing here. Pashtuns are the dominant ethnic group in the region.
#2
"It is not possible to sing a song in a Taliban-controlled area ..."
How about if I just hum a few bars?
Will I only get my fingers removed???
You know ... this policy is going to pour cold water on "Dancing With The Stars". Just sayin'.
[An Nahar] Nigeria's government has reached out to members of Islamist hard boy 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... through back-channel talks in a bid to end an insurgency that has killed hundreds, the president's front man said Sunday.
"The form of the dialogue is that backroom channels are being used to reach across with the sole objective of understanding what exactly the grievances of these persons are, what exactly can be done to resolve the crises," Reuben Abati told journalists.
He said the effort was being made "in the overall best interest of ensuring peace and stability in Nigeria and the security of life and property."
Abati's comments were the first official government confirmation of back-channel talks with the Islamists, though the information minister has previously signaled some form of dialogue was underway.
They also came on the one-year anniversary of a suicide kaboom on U.N. headquarters in the capital Abuja, which killed at least 25 people and marked a sharp escalation in Boko Haram's insurgency.
What is believed to be the main branch of Boko Haram has however repeatedly ruled out dialogue, though the group is believed to have a number of factions with differing aims -- something Abati also spoke about.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
It's ON again.
It's OFF again.
Man ... this is worse than a bad romance.
Will somebody please just buy the flowers and chocolates and RENT a hotel room - or else pull the plug!!!
[An Nahar] Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi named a liberal Christian, a hardline Islamist and a woman as assistants Monday as he sought to reach out beyond his power base in the Moslem Brüderbund to rival groups.
Morsi's appointments, announced just before he left for China on a key trip abroad, were seen as a balancing act between Egypt's Coptic minority, which has felt threatened by Morsi's Islamist roots, and the Brotherhood's ultra-conservative Salafist rivals.
Morsi wanted to give representation to "all strands of political opinion and all components of society," his front man Yasser Ali said, announcing the appointments.
Samir Morcos, a Coptic writer engaged in the dialogue between Islam and Christianity, was named "assistant for democratic transition", in a gesture to the minority community which has been hit by mounting violence since the overthrow of veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... early last year.
Morsi had pledged during his presidential election campaign to include Copts in his administration but the community was unhappy over the composition of the new cabinet sworn in earlier this month which included just one Copt -- one of two women ministers, both in low profile posts.
The Copts, who make up between six and 10 percent of Egypt's 82-million-strong population, were the target of sectarian attack under Mubarak too but dozens have been killed since his ouster.
Washington last month voiced concern over "both the Egyptian government's failure to curb rising violence against Coptic Christians and its involvement in violent attacks".
As a counterbalance, Morsi named as "assistant in charge of relations with civil society" the leader of the Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... ' al-Nour party, Emad Abdel Ghafour.
The party won nearly 20 percent of the seats in multi-phase parliamentary elections that concluded earlier this year and the appointment was seen as a move to counter accusations that under Morsi the Brotherhood was monopolizing power.
Morsi did reward one of his own, naming Essam al-Haddad of the Brotherhoood's Freedom and Justice Party assistant for "external relations and international cooperation."
He named a woman "assistant for political affairs" -- Pakinam al-Sharkawi, a political sciences professor at Cairo university.
Sharkawi, who wears the veil despite not being affiliated with any Islamist party, told the independent al-Masri al-Youm newspaper on Monday that the Brotherhood is an "expression of a moderate Islam."
The four assistants are complemented by a broader group of 17 "presidential advisers" also drawn from across the spectrum
"It is a diverse team, reflecting different currents of opinion, which is good," Sharkawi told Agence La Belle France Presse after her appointment. "I don't think that there will be conflicts within the team," she added.
There had been mounting calls in the press for the president to establish a broader-based administration.
"Morsi must prove that he is the president of the whole country and not just the head of one tribe," columnist Abdallah Senawi wrote in Monday's edition of independent daily al-Shorouk.
On August 12, Morsi had significantly boosted his authority by retiring veteran Defense Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and scrapping a constitutional document that gave the military legislative and other powers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Head of the Joint Meeting Parties Sultan al-Atawani has said that the JMP refuses any proposals to extend the presidential term of President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... , denying any consultations about that.
He stressed that the remaining period of the interim phase is enough to carry out the articles of the GCC-mediated power transfer deal, demanding the witnesses of the deal to put pressures on political sides that seek to impede the deal.
He spelt out that Hadi's recent decisions about dismissal of military leaders and transferring of brigades were not totally carried out so far.
Al-Atawani added that aides of Saleh still control on some government institutions, affirming that relatives of Saleh still run military units that were transferred to other military regions. He indicated that the military shake-up must be implemented before the organization of the national dialogue conference, affirming that the division of the military endanger the political settlement. Head of the Joint Meeting Parties has denied any government reshuffles, accusing some sides of talking about reshuffles with the aim of distributing the political settlement.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi denied on Sunday reports about possible extension of his term, pointing out that reports about reshuffling the government were untrue.
He said that Yemen could overcome challenges, stressing that the interim government could successfully resume basic services.
"We will continue all reforms including the new electoral law and the electoral record to go ahead for a prosperous, developed Yemen" he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2012 00:00 ||
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A policy that American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh claims violates his Muslim beliefs by barring inmates in the tightly controlled prison unit where he is held from praying together more than once a week was based on advice from Islamic clerics, the head chaplain of the U.S. prison system says.
Anyone think Mr. Lindh has 'reformed'? His family likes to claim that he is a different person than the one captured in 2001. This whole lawsuit is evidence that Mr. Lindh is still waging war.
The government is defending its policy this week in Indianapolis against a lawsuit filed by Lindh, who claims it flouts a 1993 law restraining the government from curtailing religious expression without showing it has a compelling interest.
The key to the case is the tension between the need for security in a post-9/11 world and guarantees of freedom of religion, even behind bars.
According to court documents, Muslims in the tightly controlled Communications Management Unit in Terre Haute -- one of only two in the country -- are allowed to pray together only once a week, except during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Other faiths' gatherings are also limited. At other times, they must pray alone in their individual cells, which Lindh said doesn't meet the requirements of his school of Islam.
"I believe it's obligatory," Lindh said of daily group prayer during his testimony Monday. "If you're required to do it in congregation and you don't, then that's a sin."
Michael R. Smith Sr., chief chaplain for the Bureau of Prisons, testified Monday in federal court in Indianapolis that the agency consults with leaders of various religions before setting policy. However, he said prison policy doesn't recognize religious services if they aren't led by chaplains. He said officials decided group religious services must be supervised following a 2004 report about efforts to radicalize Muslim inmates following 9/11.
The government claims in court documents that Lindh delivered a radical sermon to other Muslim prisoners in February. It also says he delivered the sermon entirely in Arabic, which is not allowed under Bureau of Prison regulations that require all speech but ritual prayers to be in English.
Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is handling Lindh's case, said the speech wasn't radical and Lindh wasn't disciplined for it.
[Dawn] After mushroom growth of seminaries, organised religious groups and some alleged bad turban outfits are now making significant inroads into the education sector by opening and operating English medium schools in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and Fata to compete with the conventional private educational institutions.
According to some educationists, religious groups changed their strategy and focused attention on English medium schools, vocational institutions and universities when seminaries came into limelight and were blamed for producing bad turbans.
The Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... (JI) and Tanzeemul Madaris (Barelvi) have set up separate bodies for overseeing their affiliated English
medium educational institutions.
Maulana Abdul Malik, head of JI-affiliated Rabitatul Madaris in Mansoora, Lahore, said that a body with the name of Dar-e-Arqam had been established to look after English medium schools.
He said that around 150 private schools were functioning in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa under the supervision of Dar-e-Arqam.
Besides it, two more JI-affiliated chains -- Hira and Iqra -- have also their networks of schools and colleges.
The Barelvi school of thought is also running English medium schools and colleges across the country. According to Maulana Fazl Jamil, the sect is running network of private schools under the supervision of four different bodies -- AIMS, Mustafvi Model Schools, Mohammedan Hands and Minhajul Koran.
Jamaat ud Dawa is also running about 30 English medium schools in the province, but it has a bigger network in Punjab.
JI has taken lead over other religious organizations and sects in education sector. The party has one medical college and one dental college in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar with full-fledged teaching facilities.
In addition, well-off persons and families affiliated with JI and other religious groups have set up universities, vocational and technical colleges.
The number of English medium schools in the province is around 5,500 compared with the number of registered seminaries
that is 7,400.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... information reveals that the number of English medium schools is increasing as religious groups have started intervention in the modern education system.
Some educationists say that religious sects' intervention in private sector education of the country will be very dangerous for a polarised society, which has already been divided on sectarian grounds.
The acting vice-chancellor of University of Peshawar, Dr Qibla Ayaz, expressing reservations over mushroom growth of seminaries and educational institutions, run by different sects, said that it was responsibility of the state to provide education to people.
"When state fails then other groups start filling the vacuum which is very dangerous," he observed.
He strongly opposed intervention of religious groups in education system, saying those groups were basically indoctrinating children instead of educating them.
"Opening of education institutions by religious groups or by their affiliates would further divide the society instead of cohesion," said Dr Qibla Ayaz, who also teaches Seerat Studies at the university.
A bigwig, while commenting on the issue, said that English medium schools run by religious organizations were producing graduates, who were basically mullahs, but they wore three-piece suits.
Inclination towards religious education has not decreased in the region. Few years ago there were only few hundreds registered seminaries in the province. The provincial industries department had registered 300 seminaries by April 2005 and the figure
rose to 2,450 in May 2006. But now the number has reached 7,400.
Maulana Fazl Jamil, provincial chief of Tanzeemul Madaris Board, said that abject poverty, a chance of free education and growing anti-Americanism were major factors owing to which number of seminaries in the region had considerably increased.
Wafaqul Madaris al Arabia Pakistain, which regulates seminaries of Deobandi school of thought in the country, has the largest network of seminaries in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.
Wafaqul Madarris (Deobandi) Board, according to a list, has enlisted 3,395 seminaries both for males and females in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata having 556,199 students.
Tanzeemul Madaris (Barelvi) Board is managing some 600 seminaries in the province with roughly 50,000 students while JI-affiliated Rabitatul Madaris Board has 500 seminaries with 50,000 students.
Shia and Ahle Hadit have also separate boards for managing affairs of their affiliated religious institutions. Both sects have small number of seminaries. Jamaat ud Dawa, a charity body-cum-jihadi outfit, has around 50 seminaries in the province.
Seminaries attached with all sects are being run on donations, Zakat and Ushr, but fee is collected from students in their English medium schools. The provincial government provides Rs20 million grant annually through Auqaf and religious affairs department to registered seminaries.
But the department has no data of the registered and unregistered seminaries and number of students and teachers there. Minister for Religious Affairs Namroz Khan said that his department had no record of the seminaries.
Home Secretary Mohammad Azam Khan said that the issue came under discussion in cabinet meeting and it was proposed to maintain proper record of seminaries.
Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal government through department of schools and literacy had conducted survey of seminaries in 2005 that put the number of seminaries in the province at 4,680 having 183,140 students including females.
Seminaries functioning in Fata are unregistered because government is yet to extend Societies Act to the area. A cell has been set up in the directorate of education, Fata to enlist seminaries in the area. Officials said that 318 seminaries were enlisted in Fata and government had allocated Rs9.6 million in 2011-12 to provide assistance to those seminaries.
About 48,318 students have been enrolled in these enlisted seminaries. Under the project some of the enlisted seminaries have been provided teaching staff, computers and other basic facilities. A hostel for girl students studying in a seminary in South Wazoo Agency has also been constructed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] "It must have been early morning when about two dozen masked men, in army uniforms, stopped their convoy of buses. All passengers were asked to get down. In an organised manner they separated the Shias from among the rest and having ascertained their identity (through their names and the area they belonged to), shot them dead," said Hussain (real named withheld on request), who belongs to a village in the Astore district of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).
Twenty-four people (21 Shias and three Sunnis) in aboard three buses, who had embarked on fateful that August 15 morning, from Rawalpindi, never reached their destination in G-B (a Shia-majority region), after their buses were intercepted near Lulusar area in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... (KP) province on Aug 16, where they were mercilessly massacred.
Among them, 12 were from Astore and six were Hussain's close relatives from the same village.
Two family members, somehow, survived to tell the sordid episode. "They saw their cousins die in front of them," he said.
During the massacre, said Hussain, the masked men asked the passengers to loudly chant "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is Great) and "kafir, kafir, Shia kafir (infidels, infidels, Shia infidels)". He belongs to the Shia sect although 90 per cent of the villagers were Sunnis.
A shaky and grainy video doing the rounds on the internet shows the incident exactly as Hussain described to Dawn.com.
Muhammad Afridi, of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain, associated earlier with the anti-Shia Death Eater outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts... (SSP), stated the killings were in retaliation for 'excesses' committed by Shias against Sunnis in G-B. He warned that more such attacks would be carried out in other parts of the country.
After the incident hundreds remained stranded in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, after public and private transport for the region was suspended.
This is the third such incident since the beginning of the year. On February 28, and then again on April 3, 18 and nine Shia passengers were dragged out of the buses in a similar manner in northern district of Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... , and Chilas, 60 miles from Gilgit, respectively.
Political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi finding a "growing trend of Islamic sectarianism" predicts that with Pakistain's rapid shift towards religious orthodoxy in Islam, "sectarian thinking" is likely to dominate.
Pakistain has recorded at least 2,642 sectarian attacks, killing 3,963 people since 1989, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database.
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... , said the SATP has witnessed at least 71 incidents of sectarian attacks in which 304 persons have been killed since 2009. Over 90 people have already been killed in 34 such incidents since the beginning of 2012 until August 19.
Earlier Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. , hinted at "foreign" hands fanning sectarianism in Pakistain to destabilise the country and promote religious hatred.
Dismissing Malik's statement, Dr Mohammad Taqi, said it is Pakistain's own domestic policy of using jihad as a tool which has "led to the tail wagging the dog."
Talking to Dawn.com, Taqi, who left Pakistain for the United States in 1996 "anticipating the disaster we are facing" added that the intolerance and extremism Pakistain is in grips with is a "direct consequence of Pakistain's neighbour-phobic national identity anchored in religious ideology".
Hussain from Astore called the massacre nothing short of genocide against the Shias.
"If this isn't genocide, what is?" exclaimed Hussain. "What's worse we were advised by elders in our village, that we shouldn't agitate as it may fuel riots," he said.
Finding the "studious silence of the Shia massacre by the Sunni majority" disquieting, Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, a peace activist and an academician told Dawn.com: "Describing the killings as sectarian is outrageous because a conflict assumes two warring sides. But in fact here there is just one side -- the Shias -- which is being massacred."
"Pakistain was conceived in haste with just one goal in mind -- Moslems must be separated from Hindus, and then somehow all Moslems will live together in bliss. Zero thought was given to what happens when religious fervour is aroused," said Hoodbhoy retracing the partition of the sub-continent in 1947 when India and Pakistain became two separate nations.
The pre-independence writings by Wahabbi, Deobandi and Ahle-Hadees hardliners, added Rizvi, show discord between Shias and Sunnis existed even then.
Today, the country is more fragmented than ever before and Hoodbhoy blamed the rise in extremism to the "overdose of religion given to young Paks".
Citing the recent Washington DC-based Pew Research Centre's survey which found 50 per cent of Sunnis in Pakistain believe Shias to be non-Moslems, Hoodbhoy warned this may result in "bitter religious wars".
Eighty-three per cent of Sunnis in Afghanistan, contrary to only 50 per cent in Pakistain, accept Shias as Moslems. Even in Bangladesh, which split before General Zia ul Haq's regime took control of Pakistain, 77 per cent of Sunnis believe Shias are Moslems.
"For now the Shia's are feeling the brunt, along with the Ahmadis, but tomorrow it will be one Sunni faction butchering another," warned Hoodbhoy.
Finding the politicians, the government and even the army incapacitated, many like Hussain say: "When the state can't protect itself, how can we expect or have the confidence in these institutions to protect us?"
"The federal government is too bogged down in its survival," agreed Rizvi. And when the attackers get away with their crime so easily, it encourages them to repeat it while it gives others the impetus to do the same, he said.
With the breakdown of the state authority, hardline Islamic groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain and allies like the former SSP and Jaish-e-Muhammad can pursue their narrow religious-political agenda more boldly, said Rizvi.
With foreboding he said: "These trends are expected to continue. The frequency of killings will vary from time to time but it is not expected to end in the near future."
Meanwhile there are reports that all government and private schools in G-B have been closed down for an indefinite period after Taliban announced attacks on Shia schools in Gilgit.
"Instead of making a strong policy against terrorists, government and security authorities seem to have bowed down to the threats of the terrorists," it was reported in the Shiite News.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
At one time in its history Iran proclaimed sovereignty oer Afghanistan + parts of Pakland.
* See also DAILY TIMES.PK > [JWP Prsident Nawabzada Talal -] BUGTI WARNS OF [Mao, Lenin-style] REVOLUTION [in Pak] IFF [corrupt] RULERS DON'T "MEND THEIR WAYS".
#2
This is in the far north of Pakland - a very picturesque place with soaring mountains, waterfalls, etc. The Iran response to this will be to persecute Sunnis in Iran.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/28/2012 9:49 Comments ||
Top||
#3
There seems to be this streak in Islam whether it be Sunni or Shia...
Iraq has executed 21 people convicted of terror-related charges, including three women, on the same day, a justice ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
"The justice ministry carried out 21 executions against those condemned of terrorist charges, including three women terrorists," Haidar al-Saadi said in a text message. He did not give any further details.
A justice ministry official said the executions were carried out on Monday morning.
Amnesty International in June condemned the "alarming" increase in executions in Iraq, which had at that point put at least 70 people to death this year, more than all of 2011.
Iraq has carried out several mass executions in 2012, including one in which 14 people were put to death on February 7, and another in which 17 were executed on January 31.
An Israeli court on Monday rejected a lawsuit brought against the military by the parents of a U.S. activist crushed to death by an army bulldozer during a 2003 demonstration, ruling the army was not at fault for her death.
The bulldozer driver has said he didn't see 23-year-old Rachel Corrie, a pro-Palestinian activist, who was trying to block the vehicle's path during a demonstration in the Gaza Strip against the military's demolition of Palestinian homes. The military deemed her March 2003 death to be accidental, but Corrie's parents were not satisfied by the army investigation and filed a civil lawsuit two years later.
Explaining the district court's ruling, Judge Oded Gershon said Corrie "put herself in a dangerous situation" and called her death "the result of an accident she brought upon herself." He said the military conducted a proper investigation, and rejected the Corrie family's request for a symbolic $1 in damages and legal expenses.
Corrie's parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie of Olympia, Washington, did not speak immediately after the verdict, but clasped each other's hands.
Their lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, lamented the court's ruling, saying "the verdict blames the victim."
"While not surprising, this verdict is yet another example of where impunity has prevailed over accountability and fairness," he said. "Rachel Corrie was killed while non-violently protesting home demolitions and injustice in Gaza, and today, this court has given its stamp of approval to flawed and illegal practices that failed to protect civilian life."
A tragedy and a waste of resources and a life, tragic on so many levels.
A young woman who should have been home being chased by men, or having her children, instead chose a life where her personality was subduced by a hostile political movement, which demanded she put her personal safety in danger so she can put on a show for the movement.
Rachel Corrie ought to be remembered as a stupid woman who made a stupid mistake which cost her her life.
#5
she was a radical hate-filled b*tch IMHO. Look at the hate on her face as she burns an "American Flag". The mystified looks on the Paleo kids' faces is a lesson...
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2012 10:29 Comments ||
Top||
#6
So the prosecutions case fell flat.
Oh, and its not symbolic, it was an attempt at precedence. Parent can go suck sap out of a tree for that, and not taking their own responsibility for loosing their daughter deemed fit and adult for this world, which this lawsuit, IMO, negates the cause of their own daughter by way of stating she was not responsible for her demise and so therefore her cause does not require or demand responsibility.
French President Francois Hollande warned yesterday that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime would be a legitimate reason for a foreign intervention.
We with our allies remain very watchful to prevent the use of chemical weapons by the regime, which would be for the international community a legitimate cause for direct intervention, Hollande said in a speech to French diplomats.
According to AFP, Hollande also said France was ready to recognize a provisional Syrian government once it was formed and urged rebels to establish one as soon as possible. Calling for an intensification of efforts for the political transition to take place quickly, Hollande urged the Syrian opposition to form a provisional, inclusive and representative government.
Hollande said the opposition of Russia and China to action against the Syrian regime was weakening the UN.
Quickest way to end the civil war is for the rebels to cut business deals with the Russians. Promise to renew the lease on the naval base at Tartus, and bargain for some new air defense systems. You'll need them someday...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd never attempt to convince a Frenchman, but political allignments of convenience oftentimes have dire consequences:
Dissatisfied with the lack of vigor with which the Vichy administration had responded to German directives, German forces finally occupied Vichy France in November 1942 (Corsica and the area to the east of the Rhone was occupied by Italian forces).
[An Nahar] Suggestions that Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... step down are "completely unacceptable," Syria's minister tasked with talking to the opposition said in Tehran on Monday.
"Foreign interference" was behind that idea, which would be "a violation of Syria's illusory sovereignty," National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar charged in a news conference, the ISNA news agency reported.
Instead, Syria's rebels should be encouraged to lay down their arms, said Haidar, who is in Tehran attending Non-Aligned Movement meetings.
He claimed that "the United States and Israel are the real architects of the proposals (that Assad step down) put forward by Qatar, 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 Turkey."
The Syrian minister added that Iran -- which is steadfast in its support of Assad -- "is not directly interfering in Syrian issues but it is standing by the Syrian people and is against foreign interference in Syria."
The comments underlined the defiance of Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... as it battles a 17-month insurgency that has cost more than 17,000 lives according to the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , or 25,000 according to the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
Syria's opposition groups have made Assad's departure a condition before any peace negotiations take place, a position echoed by the United States, La Belle France and Britannia.
But Assad, who enjoys diplomatic cover from Russia and China, has refused to go. On Sunday, he vowed he would not change course in the conflict against what he termed a "conspiracy" by Western and regional powers.
Haidar said that, "on principle, the proposal (for Assad to step down) is completely unacceptable since it has been put forward by foreign countries and any foreign interference in Syrian issues is a violation of Syria's illusory sovereignty as well as of the UN charter."
He added: "The only solution is to end foreign interference and for the opposition to put down its arms."
"Misunderstandings" between the Syrian people and government "have transformed into a violent crisis," he admitted, but he asserted that Damascus was ready to meet opposition demands through talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2012 00:00 ||
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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.
Nigeria's government has reached out to members of Islamist
[An Nahar] Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi named a liberal Christian, a hardline Islamist and a woman as assistants Monday as he sought to reach out beyond his power base in the 
After mushroom growth of seminaries, organised religious groups and some alleged
But the department has no data of the registered and unregistered seminaries and number of students and teachers there. Minister for Religious Affairs Namroz Khan said that his department had no record of the seminaries.
"It must have been early morning when about two dozen masked men, in army uniforms, stopped their convoy of buses. All passengers were asked to get down. In an organised manner they separated the Shias from among the rest and having ascertained their identity (through their names and the area they belonged to), shot them dead," said Hussain (real named withheld on request), who belongs to a village in the Astore district of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
An Israeli court on Monday rejected a lawsuit brought against the military by the parents of a U.S. activist crushed to death by an army bulldozer during a 2003 demonstration, ruling the army was not at fault for her death.
Corrie's parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie of Olympia, Washington, did not speak immediately after the verdict, but clasped each other's hands.
Suggestions that Syrian 
