That the people of Somalia haven't yet been turned into pillars of salt means only that God hasn't asked us to find any honest Somali leaders...
God doesn't ask the impossible, knowing the limits of His creatures.
Though pillars of salt does have a certain élan...
Not to mention some measure of value...
NAIROBI: Corrupt Somali politicians could face travel bans and have their foreign assets frozen under tough new United Nations sanctions, a UN official said Tuesday, a move that analysts said could also help get desperately needed food aid to the country's growing number of famine victims.
A team of eight investigators is due to begin work this week. It's the first time senior Somali politicians could face consequences for corruption in the 20 years since the country dissolved into civil war. The country's justice system has virtually stopped functioning and there has been no system to hold politicians in the famine-struck Horn of Africa nation to account.
"Corruption has been identified as one of the main obstacles to the peace process," said Matt Bryden, who heads the UN arms monitoring group on Somalia, which provides an annual report to the UN Security Council. "This sends a clear signal that corruption and political obstruction will no longer be tolerated."
The monitoring group was set up 10 years after an arms embargo was imposed on Somalia in 1992, when hundreds of thousands were dying from famine and the country was in the grip of a clan-based civil war. The group's mandate was to report anyone selling weapons to fuel the conflict. In 2008, the UN decided it should be able to punish violators by imposing sanctions that include travel bans and freezes on assets such as bank accounts and property.
The list of possible sanctions was expanded the same year to include anyone obstructing access to humanitarian aid. That's a huge problem in Somalia, where militant groups have denied many aid agencies access to territory they control and militias in areas controlled by the UN-backed government steal and sell food.
In July, the sanctions mandate was expanded again to include corruption and those blocking the peace process. The new mandate came at the same month famine was declared in parts of the country.
Now, Bryden said, anyone could be sanctioned for threatening peace and security or for blocking or stealing humanitarian aid or government funds.
"Our investigations will help the sanctions committee ensure that violators are held accountable," he said. "These sanctions are most effective against those with an international profile -- those with foreign passports, with foreign bank accounts, and those who travel."
Boy howdy, UN sanctions. They'll have the place turned around in no time. Wonder if the mighty Uruguayans are going to help?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
How about if they investigate some of our politicians?
Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya waged violent campaign in 1990s culminating in Luxor massacre.
In the 1990s al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya waged an armed insurrection against the Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... government and symbols of foreign influence in Egypt. Its attacks killed hundreds of soldiers, civilians and tourists - its 1997 Luxor massacre killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians, and prompted Cairo to wage an uncompromising crackdown on homegrown terrorism.
Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya is designated a terrorist organization by Egypt, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and United States. Omar Abdel-Rahman, "The Blind Sheikh" believed to be its spiritual leader, is serving a life sentence in connection to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a series of planned attacks on American targets.
In 1998 the organization signed a "Nonviolence Initiative" with the Egyptian government. Abdel-Rahman gave his blessing from prison, but later reneged. The group's charter still calls for the overthrow of the Cairo government in favor of an Islamic state.
Oops. It's such little details that influence persnickety sticklers like the Egyptian generals.
Residents of Mali's Wagadou Forest near the Mauritanian border claim that gunnies from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) returned to the area in recent weeks, leading many civilians to flee in anticipation of festivities with security forces.
The Mauritanian army destroyed a major AQIM camp in the region last June. But according to Mohamed Ould Ibrahim, a migrant trader working in the Malian border village of Leyra, the terror group regrouped in the forest about 20 days ago.
"On the days that preceded Eid al-Fitr, we noticed gunnies of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb inside the Wagadou Forest along the border between Mauritania and Mali," he told Magharebia.
"They appeared with types of weapons that frightened the residents who saw them. Villagers near the forest decide to leave the area before armed confrontations between those al-Qaeda men and the Mauritanian and Malian armies," Ould Ibrahim said.
"There are hundreds of gunnies there," Ould Issa said. "Some of them were in the forest before, but some others came in new groups to the forest in the last ten days."
Mali had information that a number of gunnies entered the Wagadou Forest, a military source in Bamako told Jeune Afrique on Thursday (September 8th), adding that authorities feared the fighters came from Libya.
However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... Mauritanian website East News said last Thursday that "17 vehicles belonging to al-Qaeda arrived at Wagadou Forest on the same day coming from Niger, and they were all hidden at an underground tunnel that was recently dug near the area of Greynatt Jekki to protect them against being spotted by Mauritanian aircraft that fly sorties on a regular basis in the area".
In the first case of its kind since the January 25 Revolution ousted the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , the Political Parties Affairs Committee in Egypt denied a license to the formerly thug group al-Gamaa al-Islamiya to establish a political party.
According to the committee, which is responsible for granting permissions for the creation of political parties and which had so far approved all requests, the political wing of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, which was to be called al-Benaa wa al-Tanmeya (Construction and Development), violated the Political Parties Law.
The committee pointed out that according to a clause in the Political Parties Law, political parties cannot be created on religious basis.
The rejection is a political statement and not a legal issue, said Tarek al-Zomor, founder of the party and head of its Consultative "Shura" Council, who was recently released from prison where he was jugged on terrorist charges and for his role with his cousin Aboud al-Zomor in the liquidation of late President Anwar Sadat.
"The party has not been created on religious basis but is in line with Article Two of the Constitution which states that the Islamic law is the main source of legislation," he said.
Zomor argued that talk about "hudud," strict Islamic penalties, in the party's program is also in compliance with the Constitution.
"The implementation of 'hudud' is also implied on Article Two of the Constitution since according to the Supreme Constitutional Court, Islamic law or 'sharia' include fixed punishments for certain crimes."
The inclusion of the word "hudud," Arabic for "limits" and generally used in reference to the strict Islamic penal code applied especially in cases of serious crimes like theft, murder, and adultery, in its manifesto seems to be the major reason for the rejection of the party.
According to the Political Parties Affairs Committee, the Construction and Development party's explicit mention in its program of the necessity of making "hudud" part of civil law shows that the party is founded on religious basis and is striving to impose religious laws on the state.
Before renouncing bloodshed in 2003, al-Gamaa al-Islamiya was held accountable for the deaths of hundreds of civilians, tourists, and coppers and was also known for labeling its opponents and regime officials "apostates" and for striving to establish an Islamic state.
A bunch of dear little taqfiris, waging the hard jihad of the sword on all about them as if they were in Dar al Harb instead of Dar al Islam. And now, although they have switched to the soft jihad of the law, their former behaviour is held against them, poor things.
The party, Zomor added, will file a lawsuit with the Supreme Constitutional Court asking to repeal the committee's decision and even if the case is lost its members will run in the upcoming parliamentary elections as independents.
If they are permitted to do so. It appears the generals have made a list, and are checking it twice.
#1
See also NEWSMAX > EGYPTIAN LEADER AHMED SAID: MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ECLIPSES NEW POLITICAL PARTIES.
ARTIC > SAID = would like upcoming elections to be postponed because, in aftermath of Mubarak ouster, iff held today the majority of Egyptian Muslim voters would likely support the MB.
Jamaat planned to go violent for bucking up party men, giving good account of itself to govt, allies
Jamaat-e-Islami's violent showdown in the capital and elsewhere in the country on Monday reflected the party's newly adopted policy of boosting the morale of its activists demoralised due to the arrest of top leaders of the party on war crimes charges.
"The showdown and anti-government agitation will certainly boost our activists' morale and also increase our organizational strength," Jamaat politician ATM Shamsul Islam told The Daily Star yesterday.
From now on, the intensity of Jammat's agitation against the government will increase day by day, Shamsul Islam said.
Jamaat insiders said the party believes it is high time to show the ruling Awami League its strength and to create pressure on the government to stop the move to try top Jamaat leaders on charges of war crimes. The show of strength will also remind Jamaat's ally BNP of its importance, they added.
Jamaat is a major component of the BNP-led four-party alliance.
Asked, Jamaat's Assistant Secretary General Mujibur Rahman said, "This demonstration of strength has benefited our leaders and activists. It is true that many of them have been locked away following this. But it will intensify the anti-government agitation".
He also said staging of a big showdown was also necessary ahead of the September 27grand rally of the four-party in the capital. It will help gear up preparations for the rally.
Jamaat suffered a debacle in the last parliamentary polls in which it got only two seats.
Talking to this correspondent earlier, several Jamaat leaders said arrest of their five top leaders including party chief Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed was a major blow to the party. It was the worst crisis the party faced since its inception, they said.
Following the arrest of these leaders, Jamaat's agitation programme was limited to issuing blurbs, and bringing out small processions and holding rallies mostly near the party's city unit office at Naya Paltan.
But on Monday, hundreds of activists of Jamaat and pro-Jamaat student body Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... fought pitched battles with police and set fire to their vehicles.
Asked about this, Jamaat leader Mujibur Rahman said they cannot wait silently for long for better days to come.
He mentioned that trial of party leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee on war crimes charges has started. And it is natural party leaders and activists will go tough on it, he added.
BNP high command was surprised to witness Monday's violent protest by its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami ahead of its September 27 rally from where the party chairperson is expected to announce agitation programmes.
The issue of Jamaat's protest did not come up prominently in the emergency meeting of party's big shots with Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... in the chair at her Gulshan office on Monday night.
Even, the issue was almost ignored in the reasons behind declaring the hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... "It is significant that Jamaat protested at a time in many places in the country. But it was not consulted with BNP. We will not bear responsibilities of any party's own decisions," a member of BNP standing committee said wishing anonymity.
The issue was raised in the meeting for a while but chairperson was not interested to continue, he said.
Party leader Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu said, "Jamaat is waging their movement to make their leaders free. It is their own programme. We should not have any say on it."
Some BNP leaders, however, think that Jamaat wanted to mount pressure on BNP so that the BNP-led four party alliances will be forced to take tougher anti-government programme ahead of the scheduled rally.
But, BNP decided not to react too much over Jamaat's violent protest and arrest of its leaders on Monday.
BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, however, said, "We have issued a statement on Monday night."
Party insiders said the top leadership of BNP is still reluctant to take a tough stance for the release of Jamaat leaders though Jamaat is repeatedly requesting the BNP high ups to do something more in this respect.
BNP and its allies called for a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... tomorrow to protest price hike of fuel, the share market scam and repression on opposition leaders and activists.
The main opposition party will also stage demonstrations and bring out processions today over the same issues at the party's central office in Naya Paltan.
Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party called for tomorrow's hartal through separate statements. A few other political parties and organizations also protested the price hike of fuel and urged the government to withdraw its decision, considering the impact it is having on the people.
On Sunday, the government raised prices of diesel, kerosene, petrol and octane by Tk 5 a litre, and of furnace oil by Tk 8, with effect from Sunday midnight. The price of compressed natural gas (CNG) was also raised a day later by Tk 5 per unit with effect from Monday midnight.
BNP late Monday night decided to call for the hartal in an emergency meeting with its chief Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... in chair at her Gulshan office.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of BNP, made the call for the hartal during a media briefing at its central office yesterday.
"The government increased fuel prices for the third time which is nothing but a joke to the people as the fuel price is already beyond their purchasing capacity," Mirza Alamgir said, adding that price of CNG has increased 20 percent after just 60 days.
Replying to a query, Alamgir said it was the police not Jamaat men who were responsible for Monday's festivities and demanded release of tossed in the slammer Jamaat leaders including its Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam.
BNP leaders Tariqul Islam, Aman Ullah Aman, Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu were present at the media briefing.
Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38... Jamaat acting Amir Maqbul Ahmed called for the hartal through a statement. He demanded release of its leaders and protested the price hike of fuel.
Asked why the party announcement was made by a statement, a Jamaat office assistant told The Daily Star that after Monday night's crackdown on Jamaat men, they are not in a position to hold any presser.
Bangladesh Jatiya Party President Andaleeve Rahman Partho and Secretary General Shamim Al Mamun in a joint statement urged the country to observe the hartal tomorrow.
Islami Oikya Jote ... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support... also expressed solidarity towards tomorrow's hartal in a blurb yesterday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38... Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal held a rally and brought out procession yesterday demanding withdrawal of the new fuel prices while Sramik Kormochari Oikya Gay Pareehad leaders in a joint statement urged the government to reconsider its decision as fuel prices were increased only three months ago.
BNP and its political partners had called for hartals on July 6, 7 and 8 demanding the cancellation of the 15th constitutional amendment and reinstatement of the caretaker government system. Their first general strike programme was held on June 27, 2010 after the Awami League led government assumed power in January 2009.
HOME MINISTER ON HARTAL
Home Minister Shahara Khatun yesterday said the government will tolerate anarchy in the name of hartal no more and will go tough on picketers.
She said Jamaat-e-Islami cadres on Monday attacked and injured 40 coppers and torched vehicles as they were trying to push the country into anarchy.
"BNP is abusing the democratic tool like hartal only to foil the trials of war crimes, 10-truck arms haul case, August 21 grenade attack case and to save Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman," she said after attending a programme.
Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38... Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif yesterday alleged that the main opposition BNP called for the hartal to hinder the trial of crimes against humanity, not to protest the fuel price hike.
Addressing a rally on city's Bangabandhu Avenue, he also alleged that BNP was also involved in the attack on police Monday alongside Jamaat-e-Islami.
Four musicians in the United Kingdom have been suspended from their job for nine months over opposition to a concert by an Israeli orchestra.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) suspended cellist Sue Sutherley and violinists Tom Eisner, Nancy Elan and Sarah Streatfeild until June 2012 after they signed a letter as members of the LPO denouncing the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) as "an instrument of Israel's propaganda," the Guardian reported on Friday.
LPO officials said in a statement that the suspensions send "a strong and clear message that their actions will not be tolerated."
They said the LPO "has no wish to end the careers of four talented musicians, but for the LPO, music and politics do not mix."
"Denials of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. and violations of international law are hidden behind a cultural smokescreen. The IPO is perhaps Israel's prime asset in this campaign. Israel's policy towards the Paleostinians fits the UN definition of apartheid," the statement added.
The IPO's concert was interrupted by the protesters on September 1. The state-run BBC suspended its live coverage of the concert, although the Israeli orchestra completed its performance.
To their credit, the BBC played a cleaned up recording of the performance the next week, with all sound and sight of the protesters removed.
#1
denouncingthe Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) as "an instrument of Israel's propaganda,"
I would have dinged 'em for cheap puns, too.
As for To their credit, the BBC played a cleaned up recording..., yeah, credit where credit is due. But are we talking about *the* BBC, because that sounds totally out of character for them?
#2
SteveS, the broadcast of those audible portions of the concert we to have been broadcast by the BBC on September 7th at 2:30 pm. But a not-so-quick google search only turned up promises, no link or report of the actual rebroadcast. Perhaps your cynicism is justified.
Former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon was named in a lawsuit filed Friday in a Connecticut federal district court by victims of a massacre that took place in December, 1997 in Mexico according to various English and Spanish language sources.
The lawsuit names ten plaintiffs, four females and six males under the pseudonym John and Jane Doe, all of whom either lost relatives or were killed in the Acteal massacre in Acteal, Chiapas on December 17, 1997.
Zedillo is the sole defendant in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that Zedillo gave the orders to, and trained and armed the paramilitary forces who shot or hacked to death 45 men women and children who were attending a prayer service.
The suit also says Zedillo committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Chiapas during his term in office which ended in December 2000.
According to a report by the Mexican leftist weekly Proceso, 34 individuals were convicted of the massacre in 2007, and each given 26 years in prison.
In 2009, however, all but 14 were released because of prosecutorial misconduct including manufacturing evidence.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory, punitive and exemplary damages as well as attorney fees and costs.
Zedillo characterized the charges in the lawsuit as "false and slanderous", in a statement released to CNN Tuesday evening.
Zedillio is currently a professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and director of the Center for the Study of Globalization at the school.
One of the stranger aspects of the lawsuit mentions Mexican Army plans to counter the Marxist-inspired Ejercito Zapatista Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) in Chiapas, known as the Plana Campana Chiapas '94, the existence of which was denied by the Mexican government until a leaked copy was published in the Mexican leftist daily La Jornada in 1998.
The document sets a broad outline for countering EZLN in four distinct phases, and it is set as exhibit one in the lawsuit.
The reason why mentioning the document is strange is that the document can't have any materials about the Acteal massacre, so it cannot be directly related to the issue at hand. It was a broad strategic outline, much of which was taken straight from US experiences and doctrine in dealing with hostile armed insurrection.
The lawsuit alleges in its brief explication of the military document that it violated Mexican law, which is very unlikely as Chiapas was in the throes of a violent Marxist war against ordinary Mexican citizens.
The lawsuit alleges that Zedillo terminated the process, oddly enough, because of the 1995 debt crisis, without mentioning the EZLN had already violated the peace accords and was very much active in sowing terror throughout the state with its supporters, armed and otherwise. Those acts are well documented in a Mexican government report released later that decade.
The government white paper on the numerous incidents by EZLN and their supporters is not mentioned in the lawsuit.
The rise of the EZLN in late 1994 inspired the reigniting of a number of armed hostile revolutionary groups in southern Mexican states starting in 1995.
It may well be the only thing Zedillo is guilty of is defending his country against armed aggression.
Insurgents have vowed to disrupt the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea coastal town of Sochi, which lies on the same mountain chain, though the Sochi area has yet to see the same level of violence as the provinces surrounding Chechnya.
With the Games approaching and only months to go before a parliamentary election in December and a presidential poll in March, Moscow aims to prevent more major militant attacks.
The $20-billion plan, promoted as the country's biggest tourist infrastructure project, will offer guests hundreds of miles of ski trails. Moscow says that only a grand project like this can end the cycle of poverty and violence behind the insurgency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/21/2011 16:23 Comments ||
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#6
Good luck. It's kinda like what I keep saying about the Muslim countries on the Med. It's prime beachfront property so they should be building resorts, marinas, nightclubs and fine restaurants to provide jobs for the locals. Too bad they'd rather make jihad than money.
South Korean patrol boats and corvettes are able to detect a mere 30 percent of submarines at a time when North Korea is increasing the frequency of submarine infiltration drills.
Let a couple more corvettes get blowed up and proficiency will improve dramatically...
According to data the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency submitted to Democratic Party lawmaker Shin Hak-yong of the National Assembly's Defense Committee, North Korean submarine infiltration drills in the West Sea increased to 28 between January and August 2010, from a mere two in the same period in 2008 and only five in 2009.
In the same period this year, North Korea raised the number of infiltration drills to 50.
Infiltration exercises using semi-submersible craft also rose from 14 in the first eight months last year to 22 this year. The number of submarine exercises in the East Sea soared from 25 in the January-August period last year to 39 this year.
This year's submarine exercises in the West Sea were reportedly concentrated between June and August. "There's a likelihood that the North will seek a chance for provocation as a lot of North Korean and Chinese fishing boats are busy in the West Sea during the blue crab harvest season" that began in early September, Shin said.
But South Korean patrol boats and corvettes tasked with defending the coasts lack the capacity to detect subs. Some navy patrol boats including the one plying waters near Baeknyeong Island when the Navy corvette Cheonan was attacked in March last year failed to spot any enemy subs at all during an anti-sub exercise in August the same year.
Corvettes of the Second Navy Fleet detected a mere 28 percent of the submarines taking part in exercises in the first quarter last year.
"The military needs to step up vigilance around the northwesternmost islands until the blue crab season comes to an end," Shin said. "It needs extra surveillance equipment, including up-to-date destroyers that have excellent submarine detection capabilities."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"submarine infiltration drills"
Is that an unnecessarily diplomatic phrase for "invasion"?
#4
Anyone remember the Russian/Nork remote sensing 'joint exercise' news we had a little while back? I wonder if it wasn't part of a ASW training effort.
#5
Given the limited area involved in the coastal waters in which most Nork submarines can operate, the SKor should invest in the equivalent of SOSUS, in this case, a combination of acoustic and magnetic detection.
The latter is relatively cheap, just laying a grid of cables on the ocean floor, so that when a boat or ship passes over them, a tiny current is created. And then your navy holds a depth charge training exercise.
The acoustics would be for deeper water subs, but still gives your swabs all that great training.
#6
a lot of North Korean and Chinese fishing boats are busy in the West Sea during the blue crab harvest season
He ain't kidding. There are so many together, it looks like a land mass on radar. And at night with all the boats' lights, it looks like one of the coastal towns had drifted out to sea.
If you wanted to move subs around, it's near-perfect.
The Turkish government has warned that it will freeze its ties with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... if Cyprus assumes the bloc's rotating presidency next year.
"If the peace negotiations there (Cyprus) are not conclusive, and the EU gives its rotating presidency to southern Cyprus, the real crisis will be between Turkey and the EU," said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay at the end of a trip to northern Cyprus late on Saturday, Rooters reported.
"Because we will then freeze our relations with the EU. We have made this announcement, as a government we have made this decision. Our relations with the EU will come to a sudden halt," Atalay further explained.
The Greek Cyprus, which Turkey does not recognize as a sovereign state, is due to assume the six-month rotating EU presidency in July 2012.
Tensions between Turkey and Cyprus have deteriorated since the Cypriot President Demetris Christofias announced plans to start exploring natural gas reserves around the island "within the next few days."
Israel is helping with that, and also an American oil/gas company, if I recall correctly.
Ankarahas opposed the venture, with the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu calling it a "provocation," while Nicosia has threatened to block Turkey's EU accession talks -- which started in 2005 -- if it continues to challenge the Cypriot plans.
UN-sponsored peace negotiations between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots have faced hurdles since their resumption in 2008.
Cyprus is represented internationally and in the EU by Greek Cypriots, while the Turkish Cyprus is recognized as a state only by Turkey.
> refusing to accept US mediation = intervention vee ISRAEL oer Gaza Aid flotilla.
> warns that it may extend formal sovereignty unto CYPRUS vee UW continental shelf.
> preparing to begin its own drilling initiatives wid TURKISH CYPRUS now that GREEK CYPRUS = GREEK CYPRIOT GOVT has begun independent drilling wid its international partners.
#2
The difference today with Turkey is they will do exactly what they say. It will be easy to ignore. This bluster we have heard so much of in the past from others in this part of the world. The Turkish economy stinks so the leadership needs a diversion. What good is the EU after what has happened to Greece.Turkey problems are similar to Greece. He needs to unify his people by creating an external threat and consolidate his resources. He has grand plans for Turkey. He will not let the Kurd problem stop him. We should see more aggression towards this population as their numbers have been growing. Cyprus also is a prize most valued. The Turks are fixated on it. Then watch the Russians. They play this game well.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/21/2011 13:52 Comments ||
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Cyprus is key to the Turks ambitions. They want a pipeline to Europe. They want to be an energy powerhouse. They import now. This will give them the power they crave. This will ratchet up very fast. This is only the beginning of this story.
Richard A. Serrano is staying on this story
Reporting from Mexico City and Washington-- Last fall's slaying of Mario Gonzalez, the brother of a Mexican state prosecutor, shocked people on both sides of the border. Sensational news reports revealed that cartel hit men had tortured Gonzalez, and forced him to make a videotaped "confession" that his high-powered sister was on the take.
But American authorities concealed one disturbing fact about the case from their Mexican counterparts: U.S. federal agents had allowed AK-47 assault rifles later found in the killers' arsenal to be smuggled across the border under the notorious Fast and Furious gun-trafficking program.
U.S. officials also kept mum as other weapons linked to Fast and Furious turned up at dozens of additional Mexican crime scenes, with an unconfirmed toll of at least 150 people killed or wounded.
Months after the deadly lapses in the program were revealed in the U.S. media -- prompting congressional hearings and the reassignment of the acting chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- top Mexican officials say American authorities have still not offered them a proper accounting of what went wrong.
Marisela Morales, Mexico's attorney general and a longtime favorite of American law enforcement agents in Mexico, told The Times that she first learned about Fast and Furious from news reports. And to this day, she said, U.S. officials have not briefed her on the operation gone awry, nor have they apologized.
"At no time did we know or were we made aware that there might have been arms trafficking permitted," Morales, Mexico's highest-ranking law enforcement official, said in a recent interview. "In no way would we have allowed it, because it is an attack on the safety of Mexicans."
Morales said she did not want to draw conclusions before the outcome of U.S. investigations, but that deliberately letting weapons "walk" into Mexico -- with the intention of tracing the guns to drug cartels -- would represent a "betrayal" of a country enduring a drug war that has killed more than 40,000 people. U.S. agents lost track of hundreds of weapons under the program. Much more at site
Mexican leaders are under pressure to answer questions from their citizens, with very little to go on.
"The evidence is over there [north of the border]," Morales said. "I can't put a pistol to their heads and say, 'Now give it to me or else.' I can't."
#1
With Bambi's crew in charge, hope they're not holding their collective breaths. :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/21/2011 14:06 Comments ||
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#2
So in the War on Drugs, they armed Team Drugs.
In the War on Poverty, they armed Team Poverty.
If I were a Mexican Agent charged with finding the source of all these new weapons and saw the purchasing end of Fast and Furious, it can be easy to see why Calderon would be pissed. Interesting what a person would think who risked arrest and general uncertainty fleeing to the very country whose government armed the bandits who made it too dangerous to live at home.
This is more info about the owner of the Lone Wolf Trading Company
In a series of secretly recorded audio tapes, the owner of the gun store that sold a record number of weapons in Operation Fast and Furious admittedly sounds arrogant, crude and complicit in the U.S. government's plan to sell high powered assault rifles to the Sinaloa Cartel.
However, the lawyer representing the Lone Wolf Trading Co. says owner Andre Howard made the tapes only after he suspected he was being lied to, and his language is meant to get Hope MacAllister, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to implicate herself and her agency in their illegal gun running scheme.
He became very suspicious and in his own defense would tape key conversations with Ms. MacAllister and try to get her to make admissions about the truth of the matter," said Dallas attorney Larry Gaydos. "Andre was trying to get her to admit that indeed they let guns go to Mexico."
Howard has become a key witness in the congressional investigation of the Department of Justice and its alleged cover up of Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department has repeatedly said it did not allow guns -- purchased under its direction and authority -- to reach Mexico.
The facts in the case suggest otherwise, but the agency continues to deny it and refuses to turn over pertinent documents to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"Andre was acting under the direct supervision of the Department of Justice and ATF. And he thought he was making a difference and that these people were being arrested and there were going to be indictments and that there were going to be prosecutions," Gaydos told Fox News exclusively on Tuesday.
"He is appalled at the position being taken by the Department of Justice and the lack of candor and the lack of cooperation with Congress. He wants the truth to come out for the American people and the Terry Family."
Howard is not alone in his regret. Speaking in reaction to the tapes Tuesday was ATF agent and whistleblower Larry Alt, who has never spoken publicly about his opposition to the case and the retaliation he has suffered as a result of it.
"Agent Terry's death brought just a tremendous amount of, I guess, regret and sorrow, disappointment, disgust to myself, to other members of the group. I can't express enough--I've never had an opportunity to publicly express condolences to the Terry family," Alt told Fox News. "I'm almost speechless when it comes to that."
Alt stepped forward after hearing MacAllister disparage his wife and family on the tapes. He felt it was necessary to defend them, and his own reputation. A decorated soldier and police officer, an instructor at the ATF academy, Alt says he and fellow whistleblower John Dodson were transferred to dead-end jobs after standing up to Agent-in-Charge Bill Newell. The ATF in Phoenix and U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona then attempted to conceal the role they played in directing area gun dealers to sell weapons to buyers the agency knew were breaking the law.
"We were transferred from the group. We were placed in positions away from the investigation itself, denied access to the investigation," said Alt. "I would view that as a measure of control and if you want to call it a cover up, that would be an accurate statement."
Howard made the tapes in March 2011 after a meeting he and his attorneys held with federal officials. In that meeting, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley continued to insist the guns Lone Wolf sold were stopped and seized before reaching Mexico.
But ATF officials are quoted in a Washington Post article and the Spanish language daily La Opinion saying just the opposite -- blaming Lone Wolf for "selling guns to the cartels" with no mention that Howard was operating under the federal government's direction, encouragement and approval. Be sure to watch the two interviews at the site: The lawyer for the Lone Wolf Trading Co. and especially, the interview with Alt, one of the original whistle blowers.
#1
You mean this Mohamed Elibiary? Homeland Securitys Muslim Advisor Mohamed Elibiary Spoke at Conference Honoring Ayatollah Khomeini When Mohamed Elibiary was appointed earlier this year to the Department of Homeland Securitys newly-formed Countering Violent Extremism Working Group, it was done quietly and without fanfare. Its hard to believe that this silence was accidental, considering Elibiarys appearance at a conference honoring Ayatollah Khomeini, his attacks on prosecution of terrorist fundraisers, his active promotion of jihadist ideology godfather Sayyid Qutb, and the threat he made against a Dallas Morning News journalist who repeatedly exposed his extremist views.
#3
If this is a 'War On Terror', if the enemy is the method called 'terrorism' then whoever does not advocate or support this method is a potential ally who should be courted. This holds true even if those potential allies are totalitarian fanatics, islamofascists for instance.
If we make political concessions to those non-terroristic islamofascists they will see that they don't need terrorism in order to reach their political objectives.
Our governments accept Rushdie Rules, they won't support terror attacks (for a couple of years.)
Logically, surrender to islamofascistc demands is a way to win the 'War On Terror.'
This is why 'War On Terror' is a pernicious and dangerous euphemistic weasel word.
#1
...Let me put this in perspective: while I was assigned to the old 379th Bomb Wing at Wurtsmith AFB, MI, when the word came down to generate the force (if it was during duty hours) it was not uncommon for the first packages (4xB28, 8xSRAM) to be hooking up to the tow vehicles in less than thirty minutes. Even in an off-hours exercise, the first convoys would have been standing by in no more than ninety minutes. Either way, at that point, the convoy would have been on the ramp in another thirty to fifty minutes, and the first birds would have been cocked less than four hours later. We had seventeen birds assigned, all would have been locked and loaded in well under twelve hours. (In a real contingency, we would have been able to get everything loaded in under eight hours, though that would have entailed throwing away the book on SOME administrative and transport procedures, none of which would have compromised safety and effectiveness.)
"All told, Barksdale personnel spent more than 30 hours generating a single nuclear-capable aircraft."
This line is a little unclear, I'm not sure they're referring to a single A/C taking 30 hours to load and cock, or they had repeated failures on multiple aircraft before they got one that would work. (Shades of Langley AFB 1980, when the USAF's first F-15 unit had a memorable and catastrophic exercise that after three days never generated a single aircraft due to repeated mechanical failures and spares problems.) But either way, the line misses the point: after four to six hours without a certified upload, for all intents and purposes THERE WERE NO NUCLEAR-CAPABLE AIRCRAFT AT BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE. And furthermore, I'm going to say that in any event, 8th Air Force and Air Combat Command didn't really believe there were any there either: as far as they were concerned, 2nd Bomb Wing was a CONVENTIONAL UNIT WITH AN EMERGENCY NUCLEAR TASKING THAT WAS UNLIKELY TO EVER HAPPEN...and they acted/behaved accordingly. All 2BW had been tasked with for the last six years had been dropping iron bombs on turbans in Gawdforsakenstan - no alert tasking, no (for all practical purposes)nuclear strike mission training (all of that had passed on to the B-1 and B-2 units years before), just one long TDY to Diego Garcia after another...and this was the result. The officers responsible shouldn't be at cushy desks at Langley, they should have been broken in rank and dismissed from service.
The United States Air Force - MY United States Air Force - should be ashamed of itself.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/21/2011 5:44 Comments ||
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#5
I don't know what the problem is. We just have to tell our enemies that they need to give us 30 hours notice before launching a surprise first-strike...
ISLAMABAD: Norway will provide USD 70 million for the flood victims in Pakistan. Norwegian Environment and International Development Minister Erik Solheim in a statement said, The situation on the ground is very serious. Several million people are affected in what was already a very poor area. It is always the poorest who are hardest hit.
About 6 million people are affected in the Sindh and Balochistan provinces. More than one million houses have been completely or partially destroyed.
It is particularly important to reach the most vulnerable groups. Women, children and the disabled are especially at risk in this chaotic situation. They need help and protection. People have been forced to flee their homes, and there is a great need for tents, food and clean water, said Solheim.
The fund by Norway will be channelled through the UN, the Red Cross and other NGOs with experience from Pakistan. Norway has already supported the Widows Ammunition Fund Norwegian Church Aids efforts to help 2,000 families in Sindh province.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Throwing away good oil money?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
09/21/2011 1:00 Comments ||
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#2
"The situation on the ground is very serious."
Been "serious" for decades. Meanwhile your money (as well as our foreign aid dollars) are being spent on nuclear weapons and terrorists.
Shurat HaDin sends letter to NYC University warning that inviting Iranian president to banquet would be illegal; Columbia denies invitation exists.
"He's just gonna show up -- nuthin' we'll be able to do about it. Honest!"
Shurat HaDin -- Israel Law Center plans to initiate legal action against Columbia University in New York for its dinner event with Iran's President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad on Wednesday.
"Hosting Ahmadinejad at a banquet is not merely morally repulsive: It is illegal and will expose Columbia University and its officers to both criminal prosecution and civil liability to American citizens and others victimized by Iranian- sponsored terrorism," the Tel Aviv-based NGO wrote to the university's President Lee Bollinger last week.
A neat warning shot across the bow...
The three-page letter was written by attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Shurat HaDin's director, and the organization's American counsel, Robert J. Tolchin.
Copies of the letter were sent to US Attorney-General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, FBI Deputy Director Sean M. Joyce and FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry.
"Iran is officially designated under US law as a state-sponsor of terrorism, as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and as a perpetrator of human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... abuses.
Ahmadinejad is Iran's chief executive and personally directs Iran's terrorist and nuclear proliferation activities and human rights abuse," Darshan-Leitner and Tolchin wrote.
Columbia's student newspaper The Spectator reported earlier this month that Ahmadinejad plans to dine with members of the Columbia International Relations Council and Association. The council's vice president, student Tim Chan, said in the Spectator, "Everyone was really enthusiastic," and "they're thrilled to have this opportunity."
Chan told the paper there were no concerns from CIRCA's members about meeting with Iran's president.
Writing on the popular US news and blog website Pajamas Media, the site's CEO, novelist and screenwriter Roger L. Simon, said, "After having once hosted Iran's President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, they are doing so again -- and this time they are giving the misogynistic, homophobic, Holocaust denying religious fanatic a banquet! The progressive intellectuals of Morningside Heights [the neighborhood where Columbia is located] evidently have a special place in their hearts for state sponsors of terrorism who murder and torture their own citizens with impunity."
Alana Goodman, a blogger for Commentary Magazine, first reported on Shurat HaDin's possible lawsuit. She noted that "Shurat HaDin is the same organization that used targeted lawsuits to block the Gazoo flotilla in July, so it has a history of success with high-profile cases."
Columbia's Spectator reported on Friday that "The university has issued a statement denying any involvement in the dinner," and adding that the news stories "fundamentally misstate the university's role in this unconfirmed possible encounter. Simply put, there never was one. In fact, at no time has there ever been any university event planned or considered involving the president of Iran, nor has there ever been any plan for a dinner involving the Iranian president and President Bollinger."
Though Bollinger criticized the Iranian president as a "petty and cruel dictator" at a debate with him at Columbia in 2007, he was roundly criticized in the media for providing an Ivy League university stage to a major human rights violator.
ANBAR / Aswat al-Iraq: Four of Rutba detainees were released today to the lack of evidences against them, Anbar police sources said.The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the four detainees were suspected of terrorist attack in Nikhaib area.
Acting defence minister Sa'doun al-Dulaimi announced handing over the four detainees to justice.
An armed group kidnapped last Monday a bus coming from Syria and killed 22 persons in a nearby valley.Twenty two were arrested for suspicion, including the four released today.
Modestly encouraging in that the Iraqi judicial system is at least trying to sort out the guilty and innocent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/21/2011 00:00 ||
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Politicians support the plan, but members of Israel's Arab community wonder how it will affect their future.
No, they're pretty confident their politicians, on both sides of the border, will screw them thoroughly. That's what Palestinian politicians do, after all.
Yet few would trade the Israeli government, however prejudiced, for the Palestinian Authority.
"Here, there is discrimination, but at least we can complain," said Mansour Abbas, a taxi driver from Jerusalem's Shuafat neighborhood. "Here, there is corruption, but at least you can take the prime minister to court! In Ramallah you could not even speak about it."
So most Israeli Arabs seem to reject a "two-state solution," which they fear would either leave them facing discrimination in Israel or unwillingly "transferred" to Palestine. Polls consistently show a strong majority supports a one-state outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Even some Arab members of the Knesset, like Hanan Zoabi, have described a two-state solution as "impossible".
And many in Israel's Arab community worry that the PLO's bid for recognition makes that outcome less likely.
Indeed. Here, students, we see neatly displayed the special Arab cognitive dissonance at work. Living is better, fairer, safer, freer under Jewish rule, but still they demand a single Palestinian nation which their lives would be nasty, brutish and short...and Judenfrei.
TEHRAN (Rooters) - Two U.S. citizens sentenced in Iran to eight years' jail for spying flew out of the country on Wednesday after Oman paid ransom bail of $1 million, diplomats said. Bail, my a$$! Are we gonna get it back when they come back to serve the rest of their term? But the media LAP IT UP!
Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, who were arrested while hiking along the Iraq-Iran border in 2009 and denied being spies, flew initially to Oman, whose officials helped secure their release.
"Two years is too long in a prison," Bauer said in a brief statement on behalf of the two. "We sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and in Iran." I almost fell out of the car when I heard this on the radio. Send the creeps back.
The release was announced last week by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said it would be a humanitarian gesture before his annual trip to the U.N. General Assembly in New York. But Iran's judiciary, controlled by rival conservative hardliners, immediately and publicly contradicted him by ruling out an imminent release.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he was "thrilled" that Iran had released the two men. "It was the right thing to do. They shouldn't have been held in the first place," Obama told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. He hoped their venue would change.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/21/2011 19:12 ||
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#1
These two and the girlfriend also thought it would be a great idea to go hiking on the Iran-Afghan border. I mean, what could go wrong?
The good news. In a week no one will remember their names.
#2
Now that theyre finally back in the mean, old militaristic USA; and out of that hell-hole, those 3 starry-eyed N. CA Kidzzz will find their way back to Iran (Progressive Paradise). It's just so tranquil there, doncha know...
Blaming Israel for assassinating its nuclear scientists, Iran said Tuesday it would not retaliate for the "ugly phenomenon" but would seek more international support against such killings.
It was the Ruritanians, honest...
Israel in turn accused Tehran of secretly working on nuclear arms, warning that it may be the first nation to develop such weapons while being a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The recriminations at and outside of a meeting of the 151-nation International Atomic Energy Agency reflected the bitterness dividing not only the Mideast's most intractable foes but of the camps supporting them.
Iran is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions for not mothballing a program that can make both nuclear fuel or fissile warhead material. It has rapidly expanded since being discovered in 2002, and concerns have grown with the country's refusal to allow the IAEA to probe growing intelligence-based allegations that it is working on a nuclear warhead and other aspects of a weapons program.
Criticizing US ally Israel for not acknowledging it has nuclear weapons, Tehran exploits Muslim hostility and fear against the Jewish state as it seeks to blunt concerns about its own growing nuclear prowess.
Israel has not commented on Iran's accusation that it was behind the killings of at least two nuclear scientists and the wounding of a third since January 2010. Its campaign against the Islamic Republic focuses on warnings that Tehran is rapidly nearing nuclear weapons state status and demands that the international community act before it is too late to prevent such a development.
Arguing his case Tuesday to reporters at an event featuring family members of the killed victims, Iranian IAEA envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said his country would not retaliate against the "ugly phenomenon of assassinating ... nuclear scientists to stop Iran's nuclear progress."
Well, that and computer viruses in your centrifuges...
Instead, he said, Tehran will push for greater international condemnation of such practices, adding he is "very sure about the support of almost all member states" of the 151-nation IAEA.
Mansoureh Karami, the widow of assassinated scientist Masoud Ali Mohammadi, blamed the "Zionist regime" for the killings. In an indirect poke at the United States and its allies, she said nations who "falsely claim human rights share these crimes."
The Iranian delegation also showed a film featuring Majid Jamali Fashi who Iran says is the killer of one of the scientists asserting that he was recruited by the Jewish state. Israeli nuclear chief Shaul Chorev meanwhile insisted inside the IAEA meeting that the real danger was Tehran.
"Not only is Iran continuing its enrichment related activities in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, but it is also engaged in activity directly related to the design and testing of nuclear weapons," he said. "Absent an effective response by the international community, Iran may become the first country to acquire nuclear weapons while being member of the NPT."
By 'effective response', he means blowing up all the nuclear facilities...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I can think of at least one other nation besides Israel that might be willing and able to do this, and might rationally prefer not to have a neighbor run by nutcases become nuclear. Hmm, I wonder if there are any subtle impurities in the nuclear fuel stock Iran obtained...
#2
Of course it is the Joooooos. They put on their invisibility yarmulkes, sneaked into Iran and killed the Iranian nuclear scientists.
Posted by: Steven ||
09/21/2011 1:19 Comments ||
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#3
Somebody was complicit in planting that nasty virus that screwed over their enrichment program. Suddenly, lots of nuke science types start having fatal accidents. Who had easiest access to them?
Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmoush decamped Syria and took refuge in Turkey then showed up in Syria once again and retracted in a TV interview all earlier anti-regime statements. The mystery is more or less solved as information surfaced about the involvement of Syrian, Turkish, and Iranian intelligence in bringing the dissident back.
According to information posted on the social networking website Facebook, Turkish intelligence officers who, like Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... , belong to the Alawite sect, took part in the mission of bringing Harmoush, the most senior defector in the army, back to Syria. Their role, however, was reportedly unofficial and the Turkish authorities were not aware of the abduction. The disappearance of Harmoush from its territories and his subsequent appearance in Syria embarrassed the Turkish government, which has launched an investigation into the matter.
The story has it that Harmoush was invited to dinner outside the refugee camp where he was staying in the southern province of Hatay. He was supposed to meet a Turkish officer to discuss possible ways of offering assistance to the revolutionaries in Syria and arming defecting military officers.
Harmoush, unlike what is believed, did not go to that meeting alone. According to the recently released account, he was accompanied by two other dissident officers and they were also kidnapped; their whereabouts remain unknown. The three officers were drugged with sleeping pills which were added to their food abd then smuggled across the Turkish-Syrian borders with the help of Turkish intelligence officers.
Following the indignation of Syrian opposition at the role Turkey played in repatriating Harmoush, Turkish authorities started an investigation and three Syrian intelligence operatives, one of them an Iranian citizen, were placed in durance vile and are currently being interrogated by Turkish intelligence.
Hussein Harmoush's brother Ibrahim confirmed the manner of his brother's abduction which coincides with the latest information.
"Hussein disappeared after meeting a Turkish officer in the refugee camp," he told Al Arabiya in a phone interview. "He would have never been taken back to Syria without Turkey's assistance."
Ibrahim added that the following day he asked that same Turkish officer (who he had seen his brother with) about Harmoush's whereabouts.
"He told me he knew nothing about him and that he left him 10 minutes after they had met."
The Guardian ran an earlier story about Turkey's possible involvement in Harmoush's abduction and quoted Lebanese human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... activist Wessam Tarif as saying that Turkey handed Harmoush to Syria in return for nine members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
"Back then everybody was rampant with drugs, huh? No, no thanks Howard, later....after the interview (is this mike still live?) everyone was doing it (and still are, hehehe, snort) ... I was the Amy Winehouse of my day, that's why I still make these stupid statements at my age." Bennett said.
#9
he nonapologizes: "I am sorry if my statements suggested anything other than an expression of my love for my country, my hope for humanity and my desire for peace throughout the world."
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/21/2011 12:28 Comments ||
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#10
He's right, you know. USA showed (what Muzzies perceive) as weakness.
#13
Tony Bennett is a liar--He didn't participate in the Battle of the Bulge. He arrived in Europe in January 1945 as a replacement infantryman to an infantry division that suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Bulge, which was already over.
I wonder if he thinks the Germans attacked us because we were bombing them.
#16
Yeah, pretty stupid thing to say. Especially when you say it when your supposedly plugging your big, new album that's just been released. I'm sure the label's thrilled. Should do wonders for sales...
#17
Truth be told, AFAIK the destruction of the WTC was being planned even as it was being proposed, designed and built, etc. back in the late 1960's thru early 1970's, LONG LONG L-O-N-G BEFORE 9-11 OR EVEN THE GULF WAR.
Certain powers that be were unhappy at the US support for Israel - in their culture, destroying the WTC was the equivalent of UNILATERALLY OR FORCIBLY TAKING BACK A PRECIOUS GIFT ONCE GIVEN. IT WAS BOTH INSULT AND WARNING TO THE US THAT IT WILL ONE DAY FACE DEADLY OR MORTAL CONSEQUENCES [existential] FOR ITS DECISIONS AND ACTIONS.
As per the above, Bennett is techically "correct" to an extent, but his timeline is w-a-y off.
So here we are in Sept. 2011 - the GWOT is far from being over, + not just because the SEALS got Osama. THE US IS IN + REMAINS IN A DE FACTO "WAR TO THE DEATH" = WAR OF ANNIHILATION DESPITE ANY DIPLOMATIC + MEDIA = PCORRECT-DENIABLE RHETORIC TO THE CONTRARY.
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.
Khaleda Zia
Four musicians in the United Kingdom have been suspended from their job for nine months over opposition to a concert by an Israeli orchestra.
Insurgents have vowed to disrupt the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea coastal town of Sochi, which lies on the same mountain chain, though the Sochi area has yet to see the same level of violence as the provinces surrounding Chechnya.
Mahmoud 
Blaming Israel for assassinating its nuclear scientists, Iran said Tuesday it would not retaliate for the "ugly phenomenon" but would seek more international support against such killings.
President-for-Life Bashir 
