[Al Ahram] La Belle France will deploy its first US-made unarmed surveillance drones to West Africa by the end of the year, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday, as it seeks to "eliminate all traces of al Qaeda".
La Belle France's military intervention in Mali in January exposed its shortage of surveillance drones suitable for modern warfare, forcing it to rely on the United States to provide French commanders with intelligence from drones based in neighbouring Niger.
Gay Paree said in June it would buy 12 Reaper reconnaissance drones built by privately owned US firm General Atomics to eventually replace its EADS-made Harfang drones.
"Two drones that we have bought will be operational by the end of the year in Africa, in the Sahel. That is their main mission," Le Drian told Europe 1 radio.
Niger gave permission in January for US surveillance drones to be stationed on its territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in the region.
Le Drian said pockets of gunnies remained in Mali, whom Gay Paree would go after. They included veteran Islamist commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who grabbed credit for attacks in Niger and on Algeria's In Amenas gas plant earlier this year.
"We have led successful counter-terrorism attacks in recent days and we will continue to act to eliminate all traces of al Qaeda," he said.
"These terrorist groups come and go, regroup and then disperse, so we need to follow them closely. This will be the role of our forces in 2014. There will be 1,000 soldiers in Mali whose main mission will be counter-terrorism."
French forces killed 19 Islamist fighters during security operations in Mali's northern region of Timbuktu earlier this month.
La Belle France intervened in Mali at the start of the year as Islamist forces, who seized control of the north in the confusion following a military coup in March 2012, pushed towards the capital Bamako.
Their advance lifted Mali to the forefront of US and European security concerns, with fears the Islamists would turn the country into a base for international attacks.
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12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Egyptian courts acquitted Ahmed Shafiq, a former premier and presidential candidate, of corruption charges on Thursday, paving the way for his return more than a year after he fled abroad.
The courts also acquitted the two sons of ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , whom he served under, Alaa and Gamal, but they still face other corruption trials.
Shafiq fled to the United Arab Emirates shortly after he narrowly lost a 2012 presidential election to now ousted Islamist 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...
His acquittal underscored the sharp reversal of fortune for Morsi and his Moslem Brüderbund movement since his overthrow by the army in July after a single turbulent year in power.
Shafiq has since founded a political party, and now that he is free to return, intends to build on it ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for mid-2014, a front man told AFP.
"He plans to focus on his political party, to take charge," said front man Ahmed Sarhan.
Shafiq had been charged with corruption in connection with land sales involving Mubarak's sons, while he was a senior aviation official in Mubarak's government.
His supporters said the charges, brought under Morsi following the deeply divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... contest for Egypt's first democratic presidential election, were blatantly political.
Mubarak's sons still face separate corruption trials, including one with their father, who is also accused of involvement in the killings of protesters during the uprising that forced him from power in February 2011.
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12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Egyptian police incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... a leading secular activist wanted for trial in a raid on the office of a rights group in Cairo, the NGO said yesterday.
Police had arrested five people at the office during a raid Wednesday night, but released all but activist Mohammed Adel hours later.
Adel, a prominent secular activist, is standing trial with two other activists for violating a new protest law that restricts demonstrations. He had been on the run.
The office belongs to the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights, which has supported striking factory workers and defended activists at trials.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[Egypt Independent] Amnesia Amnesty International said in a statement on Thursday that three of Mohammed Morsy's aides were moved on Tuesday evening from the military facility where they were being held to an unknown place, and that two other aides, Essam al-Haddad and Ayman Ali, are isolated from the outside world.
The statement said the five have been arbitrarily jugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... since 3 July 2013, calling it a "forced disappearance."
The wife of Khaled Qazzaz told Amnesia Amnesty International that her husband and Ayman al-Serafy and Abdel Meguid Mashaly were taken to an unknown place, which she believes is the Al-Aqrab prison.
The statement also said that the families of the five detainees were denied the right to assign lawyers for their defense.
According to the statement, official media reports announced on 18 December that the Homeland Security Service tossed in the clink Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! three of Morsy's aides in an apartment in Heliopolis and sent them to the Supreme State Security Bureau for questioning, adding that each was placed in solitary detention.
The organization urged the authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of the five detainees and allow them to see their families and assign lawyers and doctors.
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12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Foreign Sherlocks will question former Libya intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Libya Herald quoted Justice Minister Salah Marghani as saying on Wednesday (December 18th). Libya was finalising arrangements with authorities from the UK and the US to submit all available evidence connected to the bombing that had killed 270 people, Justice Minister Salah Marghani said.
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[Al Ahram] Nigeria's main opposition party said Thursday the country should expect a more accountable government after the ruling party, which had controlled the government since 1999, lost its majority in parliament.
Thirty-seven politicians elected as members of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday, stripping the PDP of its majority in Nigeria's 360-seat lower house.
"I think there is a window of hope after 14 years," APC front man Lai Mohammed told AFP, a reference to the PDP's complete dominance of national politics since military rule ended in 1999.
"The PDP can no longer take the electorate for granted," Mohammed said. "We should have a more competitive, accountable democracy."
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12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. yesterday said a fresh election would be held after dissolving the 10th parliament if an understanding is reached, but for that to happen the BNP must shun violence and sever ties with 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... .
Without specifying how long it will take before the next parliament is dissolved, Hasina said the process for the 10th general election on January 5 has already started and the BNP would not be able to participate in it.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... the main opposition BNP says it is hard to believe that the AL, "which wants to go to power through a farcical election", will step down shortly.
Talking to The Daily Star, Nazrul Islam Khan, the party's standing committee member, last night said there was no indication of political goodwill in the prime minister's speech.
Addressing a joint meeting of the AL Central Working Committee and advisory council at Gono Bhaban, Sheikh Hasina said, "The election process has already started. She [Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... ] has missed the train. She won't be able to participate in the election."
But, the prime minister said, discussions between the AL and BNP will continue even after the January 5 polls.
"If we reach a consensus through talks and if she [Khaleda] stops hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... , blockade and repression, then after this election we will hold another after dissolving parliament."
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12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Even though it is just eight kilometres northwest of Satkhira town, 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... stronghold of Agardari union remains virtually cut off from the town.
Plagued by violence, even law enforcers find it difficult to go there.
It was not until last Sunday when law enforcers were able to conduct a raid worth mentioning and that too was a joint effort by Police, Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh personnel.
Journalists stay away from Agardari, considering it too dangerous. To get access, this Daily Star news hound on Wednesday afternoon had to pretend to be a friend of a local journalist who was on good terms with an Agardari Jamaat leader.
The 8km ride on a rented cycle of violence to the union revealed what kind of difficulties the law enforcers had been facing. It was a trail of destruction from Kadomtola on the outskirts of the district town to the union. Jamaat and pro-Jamaat Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... men had dug up the road in at least eight places and a large number of the roadside trees had been reduced to stumps. The air still had the smell of burnt tyres and logs.
The road was almost free of traffic. Just a few rickshaw vans, bicycles and cycle of violences were on it. Yet one could not ignore the eerie feeling that people on the road were staring and trying to figure out who the two people were on the motorbike.
Around 4:30pm, the motorbike pulled over at the gate of Agardari Kamil Madrasa, even though the journalists were not supposed to meet the Jamaat leader there.
A teenaged boy in a long panjabi and lungi appeared and asked the local journalists who they were.
"I am a journalist ... I came here with my friend to meet a teacher of the madrasa," said the local journalist. But the boy interrupted him as soon as he had said, "I am a journalist".
"Are you from Prothom Alo [the leading Bangla daily]?" he said.
The local journalist then gave a copy of his paper which the boy and a few other people there began to scrutinise.
Sensing things could get out of hand, the two journalists left on the motorbike.
The madrasa had been used as the hideout of Jamaat leaders on the run as the law enforcers had difficulties reaching it since the war criminal Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi ...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami... was sentenced to death way back in February.
Lt Col Enamul Arif Sumon, commanding officer of Rab-6 in Khulna, shed some light on the difficulties the law enforcers faced in Agardari.
He said whenever law enforcers tried to launch a drive, Jamaat-Shibir men signalled their people, who announced through mikes at mosques that Agardari was under attack.
They come rushing, exploding homemade bombs and crackers and put up resistance. "Militant organizations use such tactics," he said. He claimed that many of the Jamaat and Shibir men were involved in smuggling, like members of Death Eater organizations often do.
The Rab official said Jamaat-Shibir men dig up roads and place large logs to prevent the law enforcers from reaching there. By the time the law enforcers clear the road, they get surrounded by Jamaat-Shibir men, even from behind.
Jamaat-Shibir men place women and kiddies on the front rows to use them as human shields as they hurl bombs and brick chunks from behind, Enamul said.
Lt Col Enamul said when he was conducting a drive in Agardari recently, people surrounded him and began chanting, "Amra shobai Talibani" (we are all Taliban).
The Daily Star news hound was able to meet the Jamaat leader of Agradari but could not ask any questions in order to keep his cover.
When the local journalist asked who had attacked the Hindus of the locality, the Jamaat leader, just like any Jamaat leader, claimed that he did not know and that Jamaat men were not involved. He claimed to have heard about the incident much later.
Yesterday, the opposition-called blockade went off rather peacefully in Satkhira, with Raispur being the exception.
There, police tried to stop the Jamaat-Shibir men from digging up a road but the opposition activists began hurling homemade bombs at the law enforcers. Police retaliated with gunfire that left one person injured.
Between Sunday and yesterday, police had incarcerated Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! 54 people in connection with the violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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MOSCOW (AyPee) -- President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that National Security Agency surveillance is necessary to fight terrorism, but added that the U.S. government must "limit the appetite" of the agency with a clear set of ground rules. We already have "ground rules".... get it all, 100% coverage.
Putin's comment was surprising support for President Barack Obama's administration, which has faced massive criticism over the sweeping U.S. electronic espionage program. Surprising to some possibly.
The Russian leader was speaking at his tightly choreographed annual press conference, a televised affair that stretched on for just over four hours and attracted hundreds of journalists from Russia's far-flung regions to a giant hall in a central Moscow business center. "Tightly choreographed" ....but the press was permitted to take photographs.
The Kremlin sees the event as key in burnishing Putin's father-of-the nation image. Some journalists held signs -- or in one case a stuffed polar bear mascot for the Winter Games in Sochi -- in an effort to get called on for a question that could get special attention for their region. Father figure may work, messiah.... not so much.
Putin, a 16-year KGB veteran and the former chief of Russia's main espionage agency, said that while the NSA program "isn't a cause for joy, it's not a cause for repentance either" because it is needed to fight terrorism .....and he is no doubt on some level of distribution. Probably he is, for strictly terrorism information, maybe for the entire Axis of Evil. Intel is shared among friendly governments--not everything, but things that are germane. I'm guessing FSB or GRU have received tips on Chechnya, Dagestan, and the other doings of the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus. If it wasn't in place before, I'd guess it began with the Nord-Ost Theater outrage.
#1
And I'm guessing we got FSB or GRU tips on the Tsarnaev bros, but like Nadal Hasan, they waited a bit too long to terminate the operation and arrest the bastids. Again, only guessing.
[DAWN] US officials, frustrated that hundreds of military shipments heading out of Afghanistan have been stopped on the land route through Pakistain because of anti-American protests, face the possibility of flying out equipment at an additional cost of $1 billion.
More than a week after Pak officials promised Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that they would take ''immediate action'' to resolve the problem, dozens of protesters are still gathering on the busy overland route, posing a security threat to convoys carrying US military equipment out of the war zone before combat ends a year from now.
US officials said Wednesday they have seen no effort by the Paks to stop the protests, which prompted the US three weeks ago to halt NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... cargo shipments going through the Torkham border crossing and toward the port city of 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... .
A Pak official says the government is looking for a peaceful settlement but notes that citizens have the right to protest as long as they are not violent.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the planning, said flying the military equipment out of Afghanistan to a port will cost five to seven times as much as it does to truck it through Pakistain.
About a hundred trucks are stacked up at the border, and hundreds more are loaded and stalled in compounds, waiting to leave Afghanistan.
The shipments consist largely of military equipment that is no longer needed now that the Afghan war is ending.
Sending the cargo out through the normal Pakistain routes will cost about $5 billion through the end of next year, said a defense official.
Flying the heavy equipment, including armored vehicles, out of Afghanistan to ports in the Middle East, where it would be loaded onto ships, would cost about $6 billion if it continued through next year, said the official.
A northern supply route, which runs through Uzbekistan and up to Russia, was used for about seven months last year when Pakistain shut down the southern passages after US Arclight airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pak soldiers at two border posts.
That northern route, however, was used primarily to bring shipments into Afghanistan, and is much longer, more costly and often requires cargo to be transferred from trucks to rail.
The deadlock, if not resolved, could also be costly for Pakistain.
In private meetings in Islamabad early last week, Hagel warned Pak leaders that unless the military shipments resumed, political support could erode in Washington for an aid program that sends them billions of dollars.
Hagel received assurances from Pakistain leaders during the meetings that they would resolve the problem, but no progress has been made.
Pentagon front man Adm. John Kirby said Hagel is concerned about the issue and has talked with his top commanders in the region about it. ''He knows they (the commanders) are working the issue very hard,'' Kirby said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Hope when we finally pull out we recognise that Pakistan is the enemy not Afghanistan!
#2
Fill the rear of a C-130 up with fuel bladders full of LSD-25. Attach mister hose heads to bladders and large chutes. Push out a mile above protests and send in drones to take video.... Publish video of resulting orgy and mayhem....
[DAWN] Clerics of Madressah Taleemul Koran Tuesday got the city police worrying about security when they decided to hold a conference on December 23-24 in front of the madressah to express solidarity with victims of the sectarian violence on Ashura day last month.
Security sources worry that the theme and venue of the continuous 40-hour conference might lead to new violence.
Not only the conference coincides with the Chehlum of Imam Hussain but it will also block the traditional route of the procession.
Each year, the police ensure tight security for the Chehlum processions, which are taken out from Imambargah ...since they're religiously correct™, Shia Moslems in Pakistain can't call their houses of worship 'mosques,' which are reserved for Sunnis. It's not clear if imambargahs are used for explosives storage like mosques are... Col Maqbool Hussain and Imambargah Hifazat Ali Shah in the city centre.
In the charged sectarian atmosphere of this year, the police have received intelligence reports that some terrorist groups were planning to target the Chehlum procession "as well as the Christmas festival" on December 25, the sources said.
They said the decision to hold the conference on the main route of procession was taken at a meeting held at Jamia Masjid Hanfia Purana Qila.
It was attended by the holy mans of Madressah Taleemul Koran Maulana Ashraf Ali, Qazi Abdul Rasheed, Qazi Zahoor Ahmed, Dr Attiqur Rehman, Qari Amanullah, Qari Shakir Mehmood and Mufti Awais.
City police sent a report about the holy mans' meeting and their decision to the inspector general of police and the home department of Punjab.
"Police are still working on the security issue to ensure religious harmony in the city on the occasion," City Police Officer Akhtar Umar Hayat Lalika told Dawn.
Asked about the police investigations into the November 15 Ashura day violence, in which at least 11 persons were killed and the madressah-mosque-market complex was burnt down, the CPO said that so far 54 suspects had been tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! .
"Several other people also have been locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in the six cases registered with the police regarding attacks on Imambargahs," he added.
"At the moment the police are concentrating on the main accused who were identified with the help of video and CCTV footage," the CPO said when asked about the prominent holy mans nominated in the case registered with the Ganjmandi police under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
"Some of those nominated in the FIR were abroad when the violence occurred," he said, adding police will investigate them later.
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12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Riled at the execution of Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah, banned hard boy outfit Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain has threatened to attack Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad.
Agitations rose across the country yesterday demanding Pakistain make an apology for its reaction to the execution.
Demonstrators demanded the government cut off diplomatic ties with Pakistain if it does not apologise for adopting a parliamentary resolution against Mollah's execution and thus meddling in Bangladesh's internal affairs.
Pak newspaper The Nation yesterday reported that although security arrangements around the Bangladesh mission in Pakistain have been enhanced manifold and fresh security directives have been issued to the ambassador of Bangladesh, law enforcement agencies still fear terrorist attacks on the mission.
According to well-placed sources, law enforcement agencies have submitted a report to the interior ministry saying that the Taliban have expressed annoyance with the Bangladesh government over the execution of Mollah and could attack the Bangladesh embassy.
Security agency officials had called for preventive measures in the wake of the threats, added the report.
Talking to The Nation, a security bigshot said they have drafted an elaborate security plan for the Bangladesh embassy, located at a posh residential neighbourhood in Islamabad.
"We've also deployed police commandos at these sensitive places to avoid any untoward incident during Christmas holidays, while patrolling has been enhanced around them," the official added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
If the Treasury Departments allegations are correct, the story of al-Naimi, who until Thursday was the president of al-Karamas board, illustrates how sometimes human-rights advocacy can also be used as political cover for jihadist networks.
Used to be political cover for Soviet-sponsored networks as well. But nobody wanted to investigate that...
Philippine government peace negotiator Senen Bacani expects the normalization annex to be signed when exploratory talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) resume in Malaysia in January. He said the government and MILF have agreed to complete the fourth and last annex providing for the normalization and decommissioning of MILF forces before the final agreement is signed.
Government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said a bigger campaign is in store for the legalization of weapons not just for MILF combatants, but also for those who want to legalize the possession of firearms. She said the campaign for firearms legalization will be for everyone, not just the MILF members, with the passing of a new firearms control law.
Posted by: ryuge ||
12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The White House warned Congress Thursday that President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... would veto a bill threatening new sanctions on Iran, saying it could derail diplomacy aimed at sealing a comprehensive nuclear deal.
The bill, backed by both Democratic and Republican senators, would impose new sanctions on Tehran if it violated an interim nuclear agreement reached last month or if no final deal is reached.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
You know, in some ways, it would've been easier to take if he was some super villain---plotting destruction of Israel---instead of incompetent, affirmative action ego-putz.
I like the sound of that. Barbara Wah-wah was convinced for the longest time he was the MESSIAH.
But then 52% of the American population ate it with a spoon. And they cancelled the Duck Dynasty for using the word God. It's YOUR country. No? Well, don't say In God we trust because they will suspend your kids from school if you do.
And always remember only stupid people who can't get a REAL job will get disabled for the Country and then get their benefits cut by a Republican like McCain.
And Obama never gives speeches to rooms full of Colonels ( for some reason). You own a gun? The Tea Party is a dirty word? Its nice compared to owning a gun and seeing what they teach in the schools.
Your own children don't belong to your family. They all belong to the govt. No? The family celebrates Christmas...the govt. doesn't.
Think about it.
The American people elected Obama. What does that say about the American people?
#4
Let's see: ValJar got his wife her big job
Mrs O was intern O's first big boss.
so power protcol is:
ValJar->Mrs O-> O
and
ValJar born in Iran....
Makes perfect sense!
Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran, to African-American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman. Her father, a pathologist and geneticist, ran a hospital for children in Shiraz in 1956, as part of a program where American physicians and agricultural experts sought to help Promote communism in communtize developing countries' health and farming efforts. When she was five, the family moved to London for one year, later moving to Chicago in 1963. In 1966, her mother was one of four child advocates that created the Erikson Institute. The Institute was established to provide collective knowledge in child re-development for teachers and other professionals working with young children.
As a child she spoke American English Persian and French.
#7
Just wait a month. Like Obamacare and the new rule allowing people to buy what was illegal to buy a month ago, Champ will threaten to veto new sanctions today and impose the same sanctions by executive order next month. Just wait.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/20/2013 13:05 Comments ||
Top||
#8
What's Congress got to do with it? They've only got a 10% approval rate or something, let the Executive handle it.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah on Thursday noted that the March 14 coalition has become in the same political camp with the "terrorists" who are waging an "aggression against Leb."
"The twin attacks on the army (in Sidon) is a dangerous terrorist development whose execution was based on the March 14 camp's endorsement of terrorists," the party's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc said after its weekly meeting, in a statement recited by MP Hasan Fadlallah.
"The March 14 camp's cheap political exploitation of the terrorist aggression against Leb -- one time through finding extenuating reasons and another by justifying their acts -- puts this camp in the position of partnership with the terrorists," the bloc added.
It noted that "the stances of nominal condemnation of the attack on the army do not demonstrate clear intentions" towards the military institution, adding that "it has become necessary to endorse a plan to 'dissociate the country' from terrorism."
"Hizbullah, which is confronting the takfir ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... i terror, realized at an early stage the threat it poses to Leb, and had it not done that, the waves of car kabooms would have been much more than they are today," the bloc went on to say.
The army had announced that a soldier was killed and three others were maimed in twin attacks involving a jacket wallah on two of its checkpoints in Sidon, which coincided with an incident in which a Lebanese soldier rubbed out an Israeli soldier on the border near Naqoura.
In the wake of the attacks, the March 14 general-secretariat said "there is a substantive relation between the attacks on the Lebanese army in al-Awwali, Majdelyoun and Hermel and the very ambiguous Naqoura incident." Meanwhile, ...back at the saw mill, Scarface Al had tied Little Nell to the log and was about to turn on the buzz saw... Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... chief Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... and MP Sami Gemayel blamed Hizbullah for "bringing the takfiris" to Leb.
"Those who are insisting that confronting the attacks is the reason behind their occurrence are settling political scores with Hizbullah at the expense of Leb," Loyalty to Resistance said in its statement.
"These are the same parties that used to say that Hizbullah was the reason behind Israel's attacks but it turned out that resistance is the best choice to kick out the Zionist occupiers," it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A senior Syrian official said nobody can stop embattled Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... from seeking re-election and that a government team has been formed for peace talks, in an exclusive interview Thursday with Agence La Belle France Presse.
"Nobody has the right to interfere and say he must run or he should not run," Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad said, shortly after Russia criticized statements that he wanted to seek another term in 2014.
"President Assad in my opinion should be a candidate but he will decide when the time comes for him to decide," he said.
"I shall ask the opposition: why a Syrian national does not have the right to be a candidate? Who can prevent him? Any Syrian national can be candidate," said Muqdad.
"The ballot boxes will decide who will lead Syria."
Russia earlier on Thursday issued rare criticism of its ally Assad over the presidential election scheduled for next year.
"Exchanging such rhetorical statements just makes the atmosphere heavier and does not make the situation calmer," Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said.
Bogdanov said Assad and all parties should steer clear of stoking tensions ahead of the peace talks planned for Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... in January aimed at ending the conflict raging in Syria since 2011.
While the opposition insists on Assad's ouster, three years into a brutal war that has killed an estimated 126,000 people, the Syrian regime has repeatedly said he would run in 2014 polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
It's weird how dictators insist on holding elections.
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.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
Khaleda Zia
[Bangla Daily Star] Even though it is just eight kilometres northwest of Satkhira town, the 
Samir Geagea
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
