[AnNahar] Yemeni authorities on Tuesday released a journalist who incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! '>were tossed into the calaboose for three years on charges of promoting al-Qaeda, the state news agency Saba reported.
Investigative journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae was tossed in the calaboose Book 'im, Mahmoud! on August 16, 2010 on charges of links to al-Qaeda and sentenced the following years to five years in prison.
Saba said in a text message he had been freed "after he spent three years in prison for working with al-Qaeda."
But Shae will remain under house arrest for two years in line with an earlier court ruling, it said.
He was pardoned by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, it added.
Shae was arrested after reporting U.S. involvement in a deadly air raid against al-Qaeda in southern Yemen, according to rights groups that had been calling for his release.
Last year, Amnesia Amnesty International said that Shae had alleged U.S. involvement in a December 2009 missile attack on Al-Majalah in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province of southern Yemen, noting the strike killed 41 local residents, mostly women and kiddies, and 14 al-Qaeda suspects.
Former Yemeni strongman President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... had issued an order for his release in February 2011 but rights groups said it was never carried out due to U.S. pressure.
In January 2011, a special court convicted Shae, 34, of "working in the media for the benefit of al-Qaeda, taking pictures of security buildings, embassies and foreign interests in Sanaa, and inciting al-Qaeda to attack them."
Shae was close to slain U.S.-born radical holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi.
Washington says Awlaqi, killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011, was linked to a failed 2009 attack on a U.S.-bound airliner, who was killed on September 30 in an air strike in Yemen.
Shae, who was employed by Saba, said in July 2010 that security agents had kidnapped and beaten him.
An expert on terrorism, Shae is considered one of Yemen's most knowledgeable journalists on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- the network's local affiliate.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/24/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has been invited to visit North Korea again, Kyodo News reported on Tuesday. Carter is said to be consulting with White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Secretary of State John Kerry.
There's a real brain trust...
They've got the market cornered on ego and viciousness, though.
"If the trip goes ahead, Carter is likely to discuss with North Korean officials issues of human rights, humanitarian aid and Pyongyang's nuclear programs," Kyodo speculated. There is a likelihood that he will meet with leader Pudgy Kim Jong-un.
Carter is likely to seek the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean American who is being held in the North charged with unspecified "hostile acts" against the regime. He was arrested on a tour of the country in November last year and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
Carter visited Pyongyang for the first time in 1994 and
...they sent him back each time...
held talks with nation founder Kim Il-sung about the North's nuclear weapons program. He went again in 2010 and 2011 and was again invited to visit in May this year along with former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
if only NKor would take Bill also
and why not Hillary and John Edwards too
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/24/2013 0:17 Comments ||
Top||
#2
DONT GO , IT'S A TRAP.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/24/2013 9:51 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Bill Richardson and Dennis Rodman accompanying?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2013 10:18 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Anything that gets Jimmah out of the country is a good thing, IMHO. If I were King of the Forest, I'd appoint him as Ambassador at large to all of the world's various sh*tholes. And take Dennis Rodman. Please!
[Ynet] Months after promising peace talks with Islamist krazed killers, Pakistain's new prime minister appears to be backing down and accepting that the use of military force may be unavoidable in the face of escalating violence across the South Asian country.
Almost 200 people have been killed in rebel attacks in Pakistain since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... came to power last month, advocating peace talks with the Pak branch of the Taliban. Sharif's tougher line signals that Pakistain's powerful military still has the upper hand in policy-making.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/24/2013 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
India's imports of crude oil from Iran more than halved in June from a year ago, as refiner Essar Oil became the only remaining Indian client of the sanctions-hit country, tanker data obtained by Reuters showed.
India's imports for June fell about 60 percent on an annual basis, pointing to imports from Iran's top four customers - China, Japan, India and South Korea - of around 860,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the month, down more than a third on the year. That would be the lowest for Iran's top four buyers since April, when big drop-offs in barrels shipped into India and Japan cut the total to 635,750 bpd, the smallest in decades.
U.S. and European Union sanctions aimed at Iran's disputed nuclear programme are costing Tehran billions of dollars per month. And U.S. lawmakers want to toughen them further, with the goal of reducing Iran's oil shipments to 500,000 bpd or less.
"The downturn year-on-year of Iranian crude imports will continue," said Praveen Kumar, who heads the South Asia oil and gas team at consultancy FGE.
"Everyone was waiting for the elections (in Iran) to happen and hoping that the new president will be more open to coming back to the negotiating table ... but we don't think there is going to be a breakthrough," Kumar said.
Indian imports from Iran dropped to 140,800 bpd in June, down 45 percent from May, data from trade sources on tanker arrivals shows. India's imports from Iran dropped in the first half of the year to 211,400 bpd, down more than 42 percent from the same period in 2012, according to the data.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Gettin' better mileage outta them Tatas, I imagine.
(snickergiggle)(not to be confused with the cookie)
[AnNahar] The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... Interim Force in Leb has taken precautionary measures around its posts in the South, reported the National News Agency on Tuesday.
It said that the measures were taken in light of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's decision to blacklist Hizbullah's military wing as a terrorist organization.
UNIFIL intensified its security measures near its posts and added more cement barriers as a protection around some of them.
It set up barbed wire fences around others and placed surveillance towers to counter any retaliatory attack linked to the EU's measure.
The NNA added that UNIFIL reduced its patrols in the South, except those it carries out with the Lebanese army.
The news agency noted a lack of any UNIFIL patrols in southern border villages, especially Bint Jbeil, Ainata, and al-Tairy.
On Monday, 28 EU foreign ministers unanimously voted to blacklist Hizbullah's military wing.
To get the required agreement of all 28 EU member states, ministers had to overcome reservations in some members that the move would further destabilize Leb, where Hizbullah plays a key role in politics.
Accordingly, EU political and economic ties with Leb will be fully maintained in a delicate balancing act.
UNIFIL patrols had been the target of various unclaimed roadside kabooms in the past, the last of which took place in 2011.
There have been constant fears that the UNIFIL force stationed in the south of the country would be an easy target should the unrest in Syria reach Leb.
On Sunday, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported that Hizbullah members intercepted a Spanish UNIFIL patrol in the South and accused it of taking pictures of a house belonging to a member of the party who was killed in Syria, before army units intervened and resolved the dispute.
Spain currently commands the 12,100-strong UNIFIL force, which was founded in 1978 and expanded after a 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah.
La Belle France has one of the largest contingents with 1,300 soldiers.
In July 2011, six French UNIFIL troops were maimed, one of them seriously, in the southern coastal town of Sidon, in an attack similar to Friday's. Earlier that year, six Italian peacekeepers were maimed in Sidon, also in a roadside kabooming.
Three Spanish and three Colombian peacekeepers were killed in June 2007 when a booby-trapped car went kaboom! as their patrol vehicle drove by.
[BBC.CO.UK] Al-Qaeda has said it carried out two mass jailbreaks in Iraq, which freed hundreds of prisoners including big shots of the Islamist krazed killer group.
In an online statement, al-Qaeda said Sunday's attack was the final one in a campaign aimed at freeing inmates.
At least 20 security guards died when gunnies stormed the Abu Ghraib and Taji jails near Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
Abu Ghraib gained global notoriety in 2004 when images were released showing US guards abusing Iraqi detainees.
Iraqi officials had previously tortured regime opponents in Abu Ghraib during Saddam Hussein's rule.
On Tuesday, an al-Qaeda affiliate calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it carried out the attacks on the prisons.
The group, which was formed of al-Qaeda groups in Iraq and Syria, said it had spent "months planning" the attacks on Abu Ghraib to the west of the capital and Taji to the north.
The group also claimed some 500 faceless myrmidons were among the hundreds of prisoners who had escaped.
'Under control'
Iraqi authorities initially denied any prisoners had escaped in the assaults, but later acknowledged "some" prisoners escaped.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
So-o-o not unlike East Asia + WESTPAC = WEST-OF-CENTPAC, US "sole" Superpower power-n-credibility in the post-911 GWOT may be "rolled back" into the Mediterranean Sea proper, where even ISRAEl is no longer certain of US support???
BACK TO THE FUTURE OF THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS + SIEGE OF SICILY???
Israel sold some $7.5 billion in defense products in 2012 -- a record high -- the Defense Ministry revealed on Tuesday, but officials voiced concerns that the coming year could see a slump in sales.
Speaking to reporters at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Shmaya Avieli, director of Defense Export and Defense Cooperation (known by its Hebrew acronym, "Sibat"), pointed to an ongoing economic downturn as one factor for decreased projected sales.
...Israel recorded $1.64b. of defense sales to Europe, while US purchases totaled some $1.2b.
...Brig.-Gen. Eitan Eshel, head of research and development for the Defense Ministry's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (known as "Mapat"), said the IDF had access to technological solutions -- both operational and under development -- to the threat posed by the Russian S-300 air defense system. Moscow has vowed to complete the sale of the system to Damascus, which would threaten IAF activities in the region.
[Ynet] The Paleostinian representative to the UN Riyad Mansour attacked Israel in the Security Council and accused it of perpetrating "war crimes." He added, "The Paleostinian leadership does not set preconditions for negotiations.
Other than starting with pre-1967 borders and the right of return...
The settlements are the main obstacle to peace and sabotage every effort for a two country solution."
Israel's UN Ambassador Ron Prosor slammed the EU decision to boycott goods from the settlements, saying that the UN made a point to denounce every terrace built, but never saying a word regarding the thousands of terrorist attacks committed against Israelis.
[AnNahar] The majority-Catholic Philippines told Mohammedan teachers Tuesday to remove their veils inside classrooms, in part to promote better relationships between teachers and pupils.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the move was part of reforms to make schools more sensitive to religion.
Mohammedan schoolgirls will still be allowed to wear the veil or "hijab" on campuses as well as "appropriate clothing" in gym class, according to the order, a copy of which was obtained by Agence La Belle France Presse.
But while female Mohammedan schoolteachers can wear the veil outside class, they are told to remove the veil during lessons so they can interact better with students.
"Once the (teacher) is in the classroom, she is requested to remove the veil," the order said.
Having Mohammedan female teachers remove their veils allows for "proper identification of the teachers by their pupils, thus promoting better teacher-pupil relationship", it said.
Being able to see the teachers' faces also helps in teaching language, where "lip formation" plays a role in pronouncing certain letters, it said.
The government's Office of Mohammedan Affairs said it agreed with the education department's measures, although it had not yet received a copy of the order.
Roque Morales, an adviser to the office, said that while he did not know how many Mohammedan Filipinas were working as teachers, the practice of wearing veils is widespread in the southern Philippines.
"You would almost see it everywhere," he told AFP.
He said the office had so far not received any complaints from Mohammedan teachers.
The office said that Mohammedans make up about 15 percent of the Philippine population, mostly based in the southern regions which they consider their ancestral home.
Armed separatist Mohammedan insurgencies have been a persistent problem for the Philippines since the 1970s, and the government has tried to accommodate the Mohammedan minority by respecting many of their practices.
[AnNahar] The opposition Syrian National Council on Tuesday claimed that it has documented the presence of a number of mass graves containing the bodies of hundreds of Hizbullah fighters who were killed in Syria.
"We have discovered a number of mass graves in which Hizbullah used to bury its members after every battle on Syrian territory, instead of repatriating the bodies to Leb," SNC front man Mouayyed Ghizlan told CNN.
"For Hizbullah, these cemeteries have two objectives: the first is avoiding the traumatization of the dead's families and thus avoiding a strong outcry from the Lebanese public opinion, and the second is hiding the real number of casualties and preventing the Syrian fighters and rebels from knowing the real figures," Ghizlan added.
Hizbullah has dispatched fighters to battle alongside the Syrian regime against rebels seeking the overthrow of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... The party had justified its intervention in Syria by saying it was backing popular committees defending Lebanese-inhabited border towns in Syria from attacks by rebels and bad turbans. It had also admitted that its fighters were guarding Shiite holy shrines in Damascus province.
But in a speech in May, Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... said his party will stay involved in the Syrian conflict, after having helped government forces recapture the key town of Qusayr from rebels.
"Where we need to be, we will be ... To defeat this very, very dangerous conspiracy (against Syria) we will bear any sacrifices and all the consequences," said Nasrallah.
"The alternative (to the Assad regime) is chaos and the rule of these groups," he said, referring to bad turban Islamist rebel groups he said were part of an "American-Israeli-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 plot."
The conflict, pitting a Sunni-dominated rebel movement against Assad, has raised sectarian tensions in Leb and Lebanese Sunni fighters have also been killed while fighting alongside Syrian rebels.
[AnNahar] The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... has been told of 13 alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria, a top U.N. official said Tuesday ahead of talks between U.N. experts and the Syrian government.
Robert Serry, U.N. envoy on the Middle East grinding of the peace processor, told the U.N. Security Council that U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... remains "gravely concerned" about reports of the use of chemical arms in the 28-month old conflict.
"The United Nations has received 13 such reports so far," Serry told a Security Council meeting on the Middle East. He said all cases were being "studied".
Serry spoke as the head of a U.N. investigation into the use of chemical arms in Syria, Ake Sellstrom, and the U.N. disarmament chief, Angela Kane, arrived in Beirut.
The two officials are expected to go to Damascus on Wednesday to start talks with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's government on securing access to sites in Syria where the arms are said to have been used.
The Syrian government has insisted the U.N. team only go to the town of Khan al-Assal. The government says opposition rebels used chemical weapons in an attack on the town on March 19 in which at least 26 people, including 16 soldiers, were killed.
The Syrian opposition blames attacks on government forces.
Britannia, La Belle France and the United States have provided information to the United Nations about attacks which they say Assad forces carried out. Russia has handed over a report on the Khan al-Assal attack which it says showed opposition rebels had fired a shell containing sarin.
#1
I guess they will send the current version of Hans Blix to announce to Assad that they are very concerned and if he doesn't ease up they will write a letter expressing just how very concerned they are. Maybe they should send Alec Baldwin as support.
[Ynet] "Syria is drawing thousands of global jihad activists and radical Mohammedans from the region and the world who are basing themselves in the country, not only to overthrow (President Bashar) Assad, but also to promote the vision of an Islamic state," IDF Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said upon his return from Washington DC.
"Right before our eyes a center of global jihad is developing on a scale that may affect not only Syria and the borders of the State of Israel, but also Jordan and Sinai," he said.
I see it now. Genius strategy by those really in charge.
Get those 2 nincompoops 0 and JFKerry to support attacking Assad knowing nothing will happen and he can then wipe the inevitable jihadi trash out for us!
Whoever's really in charge is smart. Either that or the world's lucky.
Two United Nations officials who arrived in Beirut on Tuesday were scheduled to travel to Damascus the following day for discussions on the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war, dpa reported.
Swedish chemical weapons expert and head of a UN investigative team Ake Sellstrom and disarmament official Angela Kane were to discuss the framework that would allow a UN team to begin its work in Syria.
On June 11, the UN accepted an invitation by the regime of Syrian President Pencilneck Bashar al-Assad to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal in the northern province of Aleppo in March.
Meanwhile, the head of the main Syrian opposition alliance, Ahmed al-Jarba, is to hold informal talks on Friday in New York with UN Security Council members on the situation in Syria. The British ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, said the meeting will allow "frank and informal exchanges ... on key issues relating to the Syrian conflict."
Grant said the issues include preparations for the Geneva II conference, humanitarian access, human rights, refugees and protection of civilians in Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2013 00:00 ||
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[REUTERS]Europe's decision to blacklist Hezbollah's "military wing" was triggered by the Lebanese movement's growing role in Syria, but the partial ban may have little practical impact due to fears of destabilizing Leb and the wider Middle East.
With a military force that rivals the Lebanese army, Shi'ite Hezbollah has used a mixture of political power and force since the end of Leb's 15-year civil war in 1990 to pursue its goals -- officially defending the country from neighbor Israel.
The listing, formally due to an alleged Hezbollah attack on Israelis in Bulgaria, was spurred on by concern over the Iranian-backed group's intervention in Syria, where it has helped Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... combat the two-year-old revolt against his rule.
It seeks to distinguish Hezbollah's military activities from its political ones, which are not affected.
The distinction was made to try to draw the movement away from violence and avoid retaliation, but even those involved in Monday's listing admit it could be tricky.
"We have to distinguish as best we can," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told news hounds after the decision.
Hezbollah's deputy leader said last year his group did not divide itself into military and political wings, saying all elements were "in the service of the resistance" against Israel.
With Hezbollah figures in both the Lebanese caretaker cabinet and parliament, a ban on the entire group could jeopardize diplomatic relations with the Lebanese state and destabilize Leb if Hezbollah were to react.
European peacekeeping forces work on the south Lebanese border with Israel, Hezbollah's stronghold, and EU countries also feared a comprehensive ban would leave soldiers exposed to Dire Revenge™ attacks.
"If the EU can explain to me where the military wing of Hezbollah ends and the political wing starts, they should be given a Nobel prize for physics," Beirut-based political commentator Rami Khouri said, adding that the move was "totally insignificant" in Leb.
Hezbollah said it rejected the EU's "aggressive and unjust decision which is not based on any proof or evidence" but has not promised any concrete retaliation.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, whose government is Hezbollah's main backer, said the ban was toothless:
"The foreign ministers of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... are of the opinion this will affect regional developments but because of the lack of correct analysis of these crises, have adopted the wrong approach."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Everything EU does is largely symbolic --- except it's endless, covert war against Israel.
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.
Nawaz Sharif
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
