[Al Ahram] Spokesman for the Salafist Call group, Yasser El-Borhami, said on Thursday that only a court ruling can determine whether the Moslem Brüderbund is a terrorist group or not.
In December, the cabinet formally declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, accusing the group of links with recent attacks on state institutions and on churches since Morsi's ouster.
El-Borhami added that both his group and its political arm, the Nour Party, reject the cabinet's decision to use the term.
El-Borhami comments came during a conference organised by the Nour Party in Upper Egypt's Aswan to campaign for the newly-amended constitution, which Nour participated in drafting.
"This constitution has preserved both the civil state and the provisions of Islamic law," said El-Borhami, who has been heaping praise on the draft constititon over the past weeks.
He stressed that the drafting of the national charter involved all factions of society.
The referendum, scheduled for 14 and 15 January, will be the first milestone in the transitional roadmap since Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... , the country's first freely elected president, was ousted on 3 July following mass protests against his rule.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Tunisia was waiting Friday for the president to task premier designate Medhi Jomaa with forming a cabinet of independents to lead the country to fresh elections after the Islamist-led government finally quit.
Outgoing Prime Minister Ali Larayedh's resignation on Thursday, under an agreement to end months of political deadlock and get Tunisia's democratic transition back on track, comes nearly three years after veteran strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's overthrow in the first Arab Spring uprising.
The new premier, who is a relative political novice, will have to confront mounting social unrest and the persistent threat of jihadist violence, in a political climate that remains tense.
President Moncef Marzouki is now expected to ask the head of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party, Rachid Ghannouchi, to submit a candidate, with Jomaa nominated as the consensus choice to head the interim administration during crisis negotiations last month.
The little-known industry minister will have 15 days to form his cabinet, which must be then approved by the national assembly.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
The U.S. military has stationed a small unit in Mogadishu since last fall, despite a public policy that has shied away from placing ground forces in Somalia since the much-publicized "Black Hawk Down" incident.
A cell of U.S. troops, numbering fewer than two dozen, has helped advise and coordinate operations with African troops while operating out of a base in the Somali capital. The Washington Post first reported the story Friday afternoon.
For a long period, American troops haven't spent more than a few hours or a night in Somalia, a defense official tells U.S. News. This newly unveiled unit known as a military coordination cell, or MCC began preparing for its mission in October and deployed to Somalia in December. Members chiefly support 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 and Somali security forces, and do not themselves carry out any direct-action missions.
"Their mission is just to facilitate communication, not go out and pull any triggers," the official says.
#3
Besoeker:
Ref yr article: I guess there's always money in pretending something old and reasonably well-known is new, secret and...cue the cello in the key of ominous--OMINOUS.
See Kaplan in "Imperial Grunts".
At the least, if something goes crossways somewhere, we want somebody to be responsible for, at least, noticing.
Those guys in Somalia.... They may be comforted to know Clinton, Aspin, and Powell are no longer in power, but the current bozos might not seem like a good bet when there are footsteps at your six.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/11/2014 10:43 Comments ||
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#4
At the least, if something goes crossways somewhere, we want somebody to be responsible for, at least, noticing.
Valid point Rich. I just wish a bit more attention could be paid to "things that go crossways" here at home.
Cossacks in their traditional lambswool hats and coats with epaulettes will be patrolling the Russian resort of Sochi for next month's Winter Olympics.
Russia has imposed a security clampdown in Sochi to try to ensure the safety of the Games which are a sworn target of Moscow's most wanted man, the Islamic insurgency leader Doku Count Doku Umarov ... Self-styled first emir of the Caucasus Emirate. Count Doku has announced that his forces will not target civilians, but qualified that statement by saying there aren't any civilians in Russia... .
The Games are a prestige project for President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... , meant to showcase Russia's modern face more than two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Cossacks bring with them their own stamp of national pride.
Cossacks traditionally served the Russian tsars on the borders of their empire and lived in relative freedom but were persecuted later in the Soviet era.
Neither part of the police nor the military, they have enjoyed a rapid revival since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, becoming a staunchly conservative social force invited by local officials to join security efforts.
Their brand of Russian Orthodox patriotism has won public praise from Putin.
But critics accuse them of fierce nationalism and their presence can add to the tension between ethnic Russians and minorities, especially in cities such as Moscow, where many migrants are Moslems from the North Caucasus and ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia.
They will join the massive security operation in the Black Sea resort, a few hundred kilometers from the North Caucasus where Islamist separatists are fighting to carve out their own state.
"A total of 410 Cossacks will be on duty on train stations, the airport as well as Olympic venues to carry out patrols together with the police," said Konstantin Perenizhko, a deputy to the regional Cossack military leader.
They are due to start work on Friday, four weeks before the Games start on February 7.
Cossacks have also been patrolling streets, transport networks and shopping malls in Russia's southern city of Volgograd after two deadly suicide kabooms there in December.
Regional governor in the Krasnodar region, which includes Sochi, Alexander Tkachev, first launched Cossack patrols with some 1,000 men in 2012.
"We ran surveys among the inhabitants of our region and some 80 percent of them approve of such activity by the Cossacks because it led to a visible decrease of street crime," Perenizhko said, adding the men on patrols will not be armed.
#1
Various reports of the Beslan atrocity tell that the assholes were waved through to town either by sympathizers or bribe-taking cops who couldn't be bothered. Might be true, might not.
But the Cossacks can be presumed not to be sympathizers, and sufficiently proud--arrogant--to refuse bribes.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/11/2014 10:46 Comments ||
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#2
Just a thought, but these guys would be very impressive at the Winter Olympics, if they were put on horseback while patrolling Sochi. Many metropolitan police departments use a mounted units for crowd control, wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
(click pic for larger view)
Posted by: Black Charlie ||
01/11/2014 11:05 Comments ||
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#3
I never miss a chance to use this.
Cossaks Never Say Die....
These are Deacons Soulmates, they'd be naturals on the loveliest plain.
[An Nahar] A military panel has recommended transferring a Yemeni detainee from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, reversing earlier orders for him to be held indefinitely without trial, officials said Friday.
The move came as part of a renewed effort by President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... 's administration to close the controversial jail at the U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba.
Mahmud al Mujahid had been deemed too dangerous to release and Pentagon officials on Friday did not say why they had decided he no longer posed a major threat.
A leaked 2008 Defense Department assessment had alleged he was captured by Pak authorities in December 2001 and was considered a hardcore jihadist. The document alleged he had worked as a bodyguard to the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... for one year.
The decision to allow the transfer of Mujahid was handed down by a "Periodic Review Board," designed as a rough equivalent to a parole board that is supposed to review the status of Guantanamo inmates.
The board was set up in March 2011 by the B.O. regime but had not delivered any decisions until now.
"By consensus, the PRB members found that continued law of war detention is no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the United States and that Mujahid is therefore eligible for transfer subject to appropriate security and humane treatment conditions," the Pentagon said in a statement.
Mujahid could be transferred back to his native Yemen or to a third country, according to the Pentagon.
But the decision does not ensure the detainee is likely to be let go anytime soon, as U.S. authorities have been reluctant to return Yemenis back to their home country due to worries about security.
Dozens of other Yemeni inmates have been cleared for transfer but remain behind bars in Guantanamo.
Yemenis make up 87 of the remaining 155 detainees at Guantanamo.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] At least two Afghan Taliban capos have been killed in recent weeks in the Pak city of Quetta, forces of Evil and police told Rooters, the latest in what officials across the border in Afghanistan have described as a series of liquidations within the Islamic myrmidon group.
The motive for the killings and the number of those killed is unclear, but the deaths could make peace between Afghanistan's government and the rebels more elusive as Western troops prepare to leave the war-torn nation.
Afghan officials say several of the victims had been discussing unauthorised peace talks with the government in Kabul.
Officially, the Taliban have denied any such spate of deaths.
"Now the enemy is facing defeat they have turned to baseless propaganda and they call anyone who gets killed a member of the Taliban council or Mullah Mohammad Omar's close confidante," a Taliban statement said on Friday, referring to the movement's reclusive one-eyed leader.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... four members of the Afghan Taliban told Rooters last week that the insurgency had killed some of its own commanders because the men were involved in unauthorised talks.
One Quetta-based commander put the figure at 18 such deaths since the beginning of last year.
Quetta is about 80 km (50 miles) from the Afghanistan border and is known as a place of refuge for the Afghan Taliban in the winter months. Afghan officials have long accused Pakistain of supporting the gunnies and giving them sanctuary, a charge which Islamabad has denied.
Both the Taliban and Quetta police say that gunnies shot Noorullah Hottak two weeks ago. Hottak was a member of the Afghan Taliban's 12-man governing body, named the Quetta shura, said Afghan intelligence officials and a Taliban capo.
But the official Taliban statement acknowledging his death denied that, calling him a "former" warrior.
Last month, gunnies killed Mullah Abdul Malek, another Taliban figure, said a Quetta-based Taliban capo and an Afghan intelligence official.
The Taliban denied his death, and the deaths of two other commanders, in their statement.
"These commanders are alive and busy with their jihad (holy war) tasks," said the statement.
Around a dozen Taliban members of varying ranks were killed in Quetta in last year's winter, said Rahmatullah Nabil, the head of Afghanistan's intelligence service.
Nabil said he had investigated the killings and the victims had all sought unauthorised peace talks.
"All 12 had been speaking to the president's negotiators, either directly or through provincial governors or tribal elders," he said.
Since the killings started up again last month, a senior Afghan official blamed the killings on Pak officials, saying they feared losing influence over commanders who started peace talks.
"Pakistain thinks if we're making progress with these (Taliban leaders), that might break their hold on them," said the official, who asked not to be named.
Pak officials say they have no idea who is behind the killings.
"Pakistain has been making all possible efforts to facilitate a reconciliation process in Afghanistan," said a Pak security official who asked not to be named.
A Taliban capo in Quetta blamed the killings on Afghan intelligence, saying they were targeting senior members of the rebel group.
But all sides have a reason to lie about who is behind the killings, said Saifullah Mehsud of the Islamabad-based think tank, the FATA Research Center.
"Many are in the drug trade, others are arms smugglers. It could be a matter of Dire Revenge™. It's not clear who killed them or why," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Since the killings started up again last month, a senior Afghan official blamed the killings on Pak officials, saying they feared losing influence over commanders who started peace talks.
#2
I have said since the beginning of this stupid war that an arclight strike on Quetta and Peshawar would do more good than all the "allied offenses" in Afghanistan. I think now the proper response would be to nuke all of Pakistain, napalm any survivors, and give the whole thing PLUS Afghanistan back to India to control with an army of Ghurkas.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/11/2014 12:08 Comments ||
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[DAWN] A police team, investigating the suicide kaboom that killed the top anti-terror cop in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , SP CID Chaudhry Aslam, reportedly identified a suspect through finger prints found at the crime site, a report on BBC Urdu website said on Friday.
SP Niaz Khoso, an officer of the police probe team said the suspect has been identified as Naimullah, a resident of Peerabad Qasba Colony. He said Naimullah's father Rafiullah is curator of a local madressa (Islamic seminary).
Aslam with two more coppers was assassinated in a car kaboom in Karachi's Essa Nagri area on Thursday when his convoy was approaching Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... Expressway.
The Mohmand agency chapter of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) grabbed credit for the attack.
Earlier on Friday, the funeral prayers of the slain police officials were offered under strict security arrangements at the Aziz Bhatti police headquarters, and Aslam's burial was later conducted at the Gizri graveyard.
Rafiullah and one of Naimullha's brothers have been taken into police custody and were taken to some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location for interrogation.
The police officer said Naimullah was part of the terrorist group that carried out deadly Abbas Town bombing last year. He said the investigative team has collected samples for DNA tests by taking close relatives of Naimullah into their custody.
Final confirmation before officially charging the suspects will only be made after DNA test results.
It is pertinent to mention that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had also said that the suspect in Chaudhry Aslam bombing was identified whose name and address was handed over to Sindh government.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[STREAM.WSJ] Iran and Western powers closed in on an interim accord Friday that would provide for a six-month relaxation of tensions and, they hope, pave the way for a longer-term deal to restrict Iran's nuclear program.
A deal would provide concrete steps for how to implement the Nov. 24 agreement, which requires Iran to curtail its nuclear activities in exchange for the easing of some of the West's longtime sanctions against the country.
If the interim deal is implemented, the two sides have given themselves 12 months to reach a broader, more comprehensive agreement that would represent a historic rapprochement between Iran and the West.
But leaders of both sides say they hope to reach that deal sooner, within six months of the interim accord. If the agreement is completed, it could take effect later this month, marking the first formal warming of relations in decades.
"We're very close," an official familiar with the negotiations said. "All the governments involved need to agree on the final terms. We're not quite there yet, but we're very close."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[Jihad Watch] WASHINGTON -- Islamic extremist groups in Syria with ties to Al Qaeda are trying to identify, recruit and train Americans and other Westerners who have traveled there to get them to carry out attacks when they return home, according to senior American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.
These efforts, which the officials say are in the early stages, are the latest challenge that the conflict in Syria has created, not just for Europe but for the United States, as the civil war has become a magnet for Westerners seeking to fight with the rebels against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. At least 70 Americans have either traveled to Syria, or tried to, since the civil war started three years ago, according to the intelligence and counterterrorism officials -- a figure that has not previously been disclosed.
The director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, said Thursday that tracking Americans who have returned from Syria had become one of the bureau's highest counterterrorism priorities.
"We are focused on trying to figure out what our people are up to, who should be spoken to, who should be followed, who should be charged," Mr. Comey said in a meeting with reporters, without referring to specific numbers. "I mean, it's hard for me to characterize beyond that. It's something we are intensely focused on." "What our people are up to".....?
Fearing that the handful of Americans who have returned to the United States pose a threat because they may have received extensive training and jihadist indoctrination, the F.B.I. is conducting costly round-the-clock surveillance on a small number of these individuals, according to the officials. Please don't forget Boston and NYC.
"We know Al Qaeda is using Syria to identify individuals they can recruit, provide them additional indoctrination so they're further radicalized, and leverage them into future soldiers, possibly in the U.S.," said a senior counterterrorism official, who, like half a dozen other top intelligence, law enforcement and diplomatic officials interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified discussing delicate national security issues. So backing the rebels is now a non-start? Great !
In Europe, where larger numbers are leaving for Syria, officials share the same concern and are working closely with American authorities to coordinate measures to stem the flow and track those who return. "Stem the flow"....? Please let the Russians do their work.
Analysts say at least 1,200 European Muslims have gone to fight since the start of the civil war. In a confidential memo on Nov. 26, Gilles de Kerchove, the European Union's counterterrorism coordinator, warned that "the first returnees have come back, and there are cases where individuals continue traveling back and forth."
Most of the Americans who have traveled to Syria are still there, the officials said, though a few have died on the battlefield. Nicole Lynn Mansfield, 33, of Flint, Mich., a convert to Islam, was killed last May while with Syrian rebels in Idlib Province.
Another American, Eric G. Harroun, a former Army soldier from Phoenix, was indicted in Virginia by a federal grand jury last year on charges related to allegations that he fought alongside the Nusra Front, one of the Syrian opposition groups linked to Al Qaeda. In September, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge involving conspiracy to transfer defense articles and services, and was released from custody.
Mr. Harroun's involvement was hardly a secret. Last February, he bragged about his role, posting a photo on his Facebook page saying, "Downed a Syrian Helicopter then Looted all Intel and Weapons!"
American officials say their concerns about the recruitment and training of Americans are based on intelligence gleaned from passenger travel records, human sources on the ground in Syria, intercepted electronic communications, social media postings and surveillance of Americans overseas who have expressed interest in traveling to Syria. The authorities are also trying to identify Americans traveling there by scouring travel data that the European Union has been providing to the Department of Homeland Security as part of a 2011 agreement.... I'm sure you won't forget the former GITMO residents who have been released.
#3
....the F.B.I. is conducting costly round-the-clock surveillance on a small number of these individuals.
Forget recruitment, just keep an eye on the bastids. Fort Hood and Boston were PR disasters, not to mention all the dead USCITS you're supposed to be sworn to protect.
#6
Broken record..... but there is such a HUMINT (human intelligence) deficit in what we used to refer to as the Global War on Terror, I suspect the exploitation of these people is carefully catalogued and monitored. Unfortunately, not monitored closely enough for my liking.
Success in the intelligence community is not about decision making, that task is accomplished [or abdicated] at the political levels. Success is based upon IR's and CR's (reporting).
[Atlas Shrugs] In a stunning and unrecoverable blow to the lower than whale shit already damaged reputation of the NY Times, the State department today blamed al Qaeda-linked groups for the 2012 Benghazi attack on America. Perhaps it does.... make a difference.
For the NY Times, it may have been the first salvo in the Hildebeast 2016 defensive offensive, but like the jihad bomber who detonates too early, the NY Times blew itself up and Hillary, too. If America is deaf, dumb and blind enough to elect her, they deserve the punishment they will most assuredly get. Sorry lads, the "dumb enough" theory has already been proven with the current WH occupant.
Champ blamed the first amendment and jailed a Coptic Christian who made a you tube video for a murderous jihad attack on September 11th. Thats the real story. As you may have noticed, Mooslims have a habit of blaming Christians and Jews.
#1
The Donks have been pushing this episode [the Hildebeast episode] of the Vagina Monologues hard hoping to get her elected. However, to quote the article: If America is deaf, dumb and blind enough to elect her, they deserve the punishment they will most assuredly get. Let's hope the voters are informed and don't have a short memory of events such as Benghazi. Let's hope they don't run with scissors and go with Hillary's "What difference does it make?"
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.
Doku 
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
