Live streamed today at 7 a.m. EDT here. My apologies for not having noticed it sooner.
[IsraelTimes] A first-of-its-kind public debate between a former Saudi spy chief and a former Israeli head of military intelligence is set to take place Monday in the Belgian city of Brussels.
Prince Turki bin Faisal al-Saud, the director of the General Intelligence of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... from 1979 to 2001, will discuss pressing foreign and security policy issues facing Middle Eastern countries with Amos Yadlin, who headed Israel's military intelligence between 2006 and 2010 after serving as deputy commander of the Israeli Air Force.
Al-Saud, the youngest son of the late King Faisal, served as the kingdom's ambassador to the United States between 2005 and 2007. He currently serves as the chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh and has given many lectures on relations between Saudi Arabia and the West.
The debate between al-Saud and Yadlin, who currently heads the Institute for National Security Studies think tank in Tel Aviv, will be moderated by Washington Post columnist and David Ignatius. It will be live streamed at 2:00 p.m., Israel time, by the German Marshall Fund of the United States
Monday's debate will not be al-Saud's first brush with Israeli officials. In February, during a Munich Security Conference panel discussion on the Israeli-Paleostinian peace talks, al-Saud praised Justice Minister Tzipi Livni for her efforts to achieve a final status agreement.
Al-Saud told Livni warmly that he understood "why you are the negotiator for Israel." He was later reportedly seen sitting next to, and in discussion with, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.
Al-Saud is a strong backer of the Arab Peace Initiative and has been critical in the past of Israel's cool response to the proposal. In 2010, at the same Munich conference, he had a public row with then-deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon over Saudi donations to the Paleostinian government. The two men later publicly apologized and shook hands.
Although Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have formal relations, both are staunch allies of the US and are deeply opposed to the Iranian regime's nuclear program. In recent years, numerous media reports have surfaced alleging back-channel communications between the two countries.
Idiots and amateurs, also known as The Smartest Men In The Room.
The CIA's top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama's surprise visit with U.S. troops.
The White House recognized the mistake and quickly issued a revised list that did not include the individual, who had been identified on the initial release as the "Chief of Station" in Kabul, a designation used by the CIA for its highest-ranking spy in a country.
The disclosure marked a rare instance in which a CIA officer working overseas had his cover -- the secrecy meant to protect his actual identity -- pierced by his own government.
Washington Post White House bureau chief Scott Wilson said that after the report was distributed, he noticed the unusual reference to the station chief and asked White House press officials in Afghanistan whether they had intended to include that name.
Initially, the press office raised no objection, apparently because military officials had provided the list to distribute to news organizations. But senior White House officials realized the mistake and scrambled to issue an updated list without the CIA officer's name. The mistake, however, already was being noted on Twitter, although without the station chief's name.
BAGRAM AIR FIELD -- President Barack Obama slipped into Afghanistan for a surprise visit Sunday and made clear that the U.S. will likely maintain a limited role here even after its combat mission ends this year and America's longest war comes to a close.
"America's commitment to the people of Afghanistan will endure," he pledged.
Speaking to troops gathered in an airplane hangar on this sprawling military base, Obama said the war had reached a pivotal point, with Afghan forces assuming primary responsibility for their country's security. But while many of the 32,800 U.S. forces now in Afghanistan will leave in the coming months, Obama said a continued military presence could help protect gains made during nearly 13 years of fighting.
"After all the sacrifices we've made, we want to preserve the gains that you have helped to win and we're going to make sure that Afghanistan can never again, ever, be used again to launch an attack against our country," Obama declared.
Remember, all his his promises have an expiration date. Every single one...
At least 2,181 members of the U.S. military have died during the nearly 13-year Afghan war and thousands more have been wounded.
The president appeared optimistic that the Afghan government soon would sign a bilateral security agreement allowing the U.S. to keep some forces in the country to train Afghans and launch counterterrorism operations. He has been considering keeping up to 10,000 troops in Afghanistan and said he would announce his decision shortly. That announcement could come as early as Wednesday, when Obama delivers the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
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[An Nahar] Ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, lauded for ousting the Islamist president but feared as a potential autocrat, is poised to sweep Egypt's election on the back of a yearning for stability.
The election on Monday and Tuesday caps three years of political turmoil that has seen two presidents ousted following mass protests, thousands killed in festivities and bad boy attacks, and an economy left in tatters.
The now retired field marshal is expected to trounce his only rival, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi, amid widespread calls for a strong leader who can restore stability in the Arab world's most populous country.
But true democracy, the ideal millions rallied and fought for in a 2011 uprising that overthrew strongman Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , will have to wait, perhaps for a couple of decades, Sisi has said.
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[An Nahar] Influential Egypt-born holy man Youssef al-Qaradawi ...crackpot Egyptian Islamist theologian. He is best known for his program Shariah and Life on Al Jazeera, with an estimated audience of 60 million kindred souls worldwide. He is also well-known for IslamOnline, which occasionally advocates things like slavery and thumping the old lady with a rod no thicker than an inch, and has published more than 120 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization. Joe has long had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Moslem Brüderbund. Some of his views have been controversial in the West, though less so among the rubes of the Mysterious East, and he was refused entry to the United Kingdom in 2008. In 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and from the Palestinian territories condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving Islam a bad name.... on Sunday issued a fresh call to boycott the Egyptian presidential vote which ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted the elected Islamist leader, is expected to easily win.
"Don't take part in electing a man who is soaked from head to toe in the blood of innocents," the Qatar-based backer of the Moslem Brüderbund said in a statement.
The election on Monday and Tuesday caps more than three years of political turmoil that has seen two presidents ousted following mass protests, thousands killed in festivities and bully boy attacks, and an economy left in tatters.
The now retired field marshal is expected to trounce his only rival, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi, amid calls for a strong leader who can restore stability in the Arab world's most populous country.
But true democracy, the ideal millions rallied and fought for in a 2011 uprising that overthrew strongman Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , will have to wait, perhaps for a couple of decades, Sisi has said.
Instead, he says he will work hard to restore the economy and fight "terrorism."
Sisi has called for a high turnout in the election, billed by the military-installed authorities and the West as a milestone toward elected rule in the country of 86 million people.
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05/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... court ordered a fresh delay Sunday in the trial of 40 top figures from late strongman Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... 's regime, including his son Seif al-Islam, as spiraling lawlessness grips Libya.
"The prosecution demanded that the trial be delayed to June 22 to prepare the indictment," defense lawyer Ali Dhabaa told Agence La Belle France Presse at the end of a two-hour hearing.
The defense had also requested a new delay in the trial and demanded access to the accused, who also include Qadaffy's former spy chief Abdullah Senussi.
They have been charged over their roles in suppressing the 2011 uprising that eventually toppled Qadaffy's regime.
All the defendants are accused of murder, kidnapping, complicity in incitement to rape, plunder, sabotage, embezzlement of public funds and acts harmful to national unity.
Seif, 41, appeared on May 11 by video link in the Tripoli court from Zintan, where he has been held since his capture by rebels in November 2011.
He currently has no lawyer, with the one previously assigned to him absent on Sunday and the court announcing that another lawyer would be appointed.
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05/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The proposed cabinet of Libyan premier Ahmed Miitig on Sunday won a vote of confidence in the General National Congress, or interim parliament, a politician said.
"The vote of confidence was obtained by 83 votes out of 94 politicians present," MP Mohammed Laamari told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Miitig's cabinet is due to replace that of Abdullah al-Thani, who resigned last month amid mounting lawlessness, and as a rogue general gains support for an assault against Islamist militias in the east of the country.
The GNC elected Islamist-backed businessman Miitig, 42, prime minister in a chaotic vote in early May. The session came just days after gunnies stormed the GNC to interrupt an earlier ballot.
He is Libya's fifth and youngest prime minister since longtime leader Muammar Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years until he was ejected from the gene pool by his indignant citizens... was toppled and killed in a 2011 uprising.
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[An Nahar] Belgium's Jewish community was placed on high alert Sunday as police hunted down a gunman who rubbed out three people at the Brussels Jewish Museum in an attack blamed on growing anti-Semitism.
An Israeli tourist couple and a French woman died from gunshots to the face and neck after a man apparently acting alone fired two successive rounds into the museum on Saturday afternoon before escaping minutes later on foot.
A fourth victim, a Belgian who did volunteer work for the museum, was critically injured and is fighting for his life.
The first such attack in more than 30 years in Belgium has revived fears of a return of violent anti-Semitism to Europe, with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu notably lashing out at Europe's "hypocrisy" in its attitude to the Jewish state.
Appealing to the public to help police identify the gunman in a national manhunt, deputy public prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch said he "probably" acted alone and was "well prepared and well armed."
A picture of the suspect is to be released to the public shortly, Van Wymersch said.
She added that as there was no claim "I cannot confirm that it is a terrorist or anti-Semitic act" but "all leads remain open."
French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... , who along with Netanyahu had a phone conversation with the Belgian premier, said he had no doubt about the "anti-Semitic character" of the attack.
Netanyahu, welcoming Pope Francis in the Holy Land, hailed the pontiff for his "determined stance against anti-Semitism, especially in light of the growing hatred of Jews that we are witness to in these days."
In the images the shooter can be seen moving towards the museum with two large bags -- in contradiction to initial claims that he had arrived in a Audi car -- and in another he can be seen firing a Kalashnikov rifle.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... a young man who was critically injured by gunshot in the attack has died of his wounds while doctors fought for his life at a local hospital, a Jewish community leader said Sunday.
Joel Rubinfeld, head of the Belgian League against Anti-Semitism, told AFP that the injured man, who was in his early 20s and worked as a receptionist at the museum, died in the afternoon.
Emanuel (54) and Miriam (53) Riva, an Israeli couple from Tel Aviv, were also killed in the shooting at the Brussels Jewish Museum Saturday, the Foreign Ministry cleared for publication on Sunday. The couple left two daughters behind - 16 and 15 years old.
An additional casualty was a French volunteer at the museum, a woman in her 60s.
And The Times of Israel has additional footage of the shooter outside the museum here.
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Posted by: Skunky and Tenille1759 ||
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#1
There are others I'd rather hear from such as Obama, Hillary, Petraeus, Pannetta, Brennan and others (Some of these would probably opt to not testify).
[DAWN] Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... , the chairman of the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI), has asked 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... to "immediately take the national politicianship into confidence on the state of dialogue with the Death Eaters and the nature of the ongoing military operation in North Wazoo and its authorisation".
"It is equally important to give political ownership to any military action being contemplated as our brave soldiers continue to be martyred while the government maintains an inexplicable distance and silence on the prevailing state of affairs," he said in a statement on Saturday.
Mr Khan expressed his "serious concerns" over recent military strikes in the region and termed it "a clear beginning of a full-fledged military operation in the NWA".
The core committee of the PTI, after receiving a briefing from the party's nominee in the talks with turbans, had urged the government to resume the grinding of the peace processor and make efforts to end a deadlock.
The PTI chairman said it was the prime minister's responsibility to ensure that civilians were evacuated as had been done in Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... before a military operation. Instead, he alleged, reports were already coming in from North Waziristan about civilian casualties as people were caught in the middle of aerial bombings and helicopter gunship attacks.
The prime minister, he said, had a "unanimous national political mandate" to carry out dialogue for peace and he had failed to inform the nation and its leaders about the status of the dialogue and authorisation of the operation.
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05/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] US President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... has put drone attacks in Pakistain on hold, CNN reported on Saturday, noting that Islamabad's decision to step up its military actions in Fata contributed to the decision.
The report pointed to a combination of factors which contributed to the cessation of dro�ne strikes in Pakistain since the beginning of the year. These included President B.O. pushing for a more calibrated use of drone strikes, decimation of "high value" targets in the tribal areas and a strong "pushback" from the Pak public and governm�ent who saw the drone strikes as a violation of their illusory sovereignty. "And the fact that the Pak government is stepping up its own military operations" also encouraged the US to reduce strikes, the report added.
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05/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I never understood the Pak argument about violations of sovereignty. As the need for continued Pak military actions in the tribal areas amply demonstrate, the Paks can't themselves exert sovereignty over these areas.
You can't have it both ways. Sovereignty means that you take responsibility for policing the area. If you can't police it then you don't enjoy sovereignty.
#2
Sovereignty has something to do with holding a monopoly on armed force. If a bunch of bozos are shooting up & blowing up a place independently of the government, there's no real sovereignty being exercised there. Kind of like Chicago or Detroit, come to think of it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/26/2014 10:08 Comments ||
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#4
"Azans first issue was devoted almost entirely to the UAV problem. The terrible suffering of the Holy Warriors because of the relentless UAVs was described in great detail. The implication was that many clever ideas to counter the UAVs have failed and new and more effective ideas are desperately needed. The missile armed UAVs were a major threat to Islamic terrorist leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan." Counter-Terrorism: The Electronic Jihad
[DAWN] The government has not yet decided to launch a full-scale military offensive in North Wazoo and talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) have not been called off, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Saturday.
Talking about the ongoing air strikes against bully boy hideouts in the TTP stronghold, he said this 'limited military action' was in line with the policy that calls for a calibrated and measured response to acts of terror against civilian or military targets.
A senior military official also told Dawn that Wednesday's air strikes, in which the military claimed to have killed around 60 terrorists, were launched with the sanction of the civilian leadership in Islamabad. These strikes, he added, were a reply to terrorist attacks that have rocked Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... (KP), the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and 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...
The remarks from both sides seem to dispel an impression that the government and the military were not on the same page about the grinding of the peace processor.
In a statement released on Saturday, the interior minister refuted the content of a news wire report about the proceedings of a recently-held security meeting, chaired by 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... . The report claimed that the army chief and the prime minister disagreed over the fate of the talks with the outlawed TTP and that the army chief had told the PM that the time for talks was over.
Chaudhry Nisar said the meeting was held in a positive atmosphere and a wide range of issues pertaining to national security, including the security situation on the borders, was discussed. "No decision was taken to launch a full-scale military operation in North Waziristan. There was no decision to call off the dialogue process either, and there was no such demand from either side," he said.
The minister also said that it had not yet been decided whether the army should be called in to take over the security of Islamabad and other major cities, nor was the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) involved in this process.
He said efforts to strengthen the capacity of police and other civilian law-enforcement agencies through the support of the armed forces were being taken, adding that this had been misinterpreted by press reports on the matter.
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05/26/2014 00:00 ||
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Pakistan on Sunday released 59 Indian prisoners as a goodwill gesture ahead of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifâs visit to New Delhi to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Indian Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi, officials said. The Indian prisoners, mostly fishermen, were freed from a jail in the port city of Karachi. They will be handed over to the Indian authorities at Wagah border Monday, the officials said.
The fishermen were arrested for illegally entering Pakistani waters and fishing, Xinhua reported. Pakistan and India routinely arrest fishermen from entering each otherâs waters for fishing. They enter otherâs waters as there is no determination of maritime boundaries.
Freed Indian prisoners told reporters outside the Karachiâs Malir jail that they are happy at their release. They also said they were treated well and were not subjected to torture.
Modi invited heads of all the member states of South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) for his swearing-in ceremony. The invitation to Sharif was attached great importance in view of tense ties between the two neighbours.
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ISLAMABAD: The Pak army chief sat down with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to deliver a message Sharif did not want to hear: The time for talks with the troublesome Pakistani Taliban was over. Who could have predicted that negotiations with terrorists would fail?
Sharif came to power a year ago promising to find a peaceful settlement with the Islamist militant group, but as round after round of talks failed, the powerful armed forces favored a military solution.
Their patience finally ran out and, late on Tuesday afternoon, during a tense meeting, the army effectively declared it would override a crucial plank of the government's strategy and take matters into its own hands.
Asked to sum up the message General Raheel Sharif wanted to convey at the gathering, he added: "The time for talk is over."
The next day, Pakistani forces launched rare air strikes against militants holed up in the remote, lawless tribal belt near the Afghan border. It is not clear whether Sharif authorized the operation.
On Thursday, they backed that up with the first major ground offensive against the Taliban there, undermining Sharif's yearlong attempt to end a bloody insurgency across his country through peaceful means.
Disagreement over the militant threat is the latest row to flare up between the government and military, and relations between the two branches of power are at their lowest ebb for years, according to government officials.
The government did say talks with the Taliban would go on. After all, diplomats are paid to talk. Of course the army will be "talking" too.
"We will talk with those who are ready for it and the (military) operation is being launched against those who are not ready to come to the negotiating table," spokesman Pervez Rashid told local media on Thursday.
But the operations put the military, which has a long record of intervening in civilian rule through plots and coups, firmly back at the centre of Pakistan's security policy.
The balance of power is shifting at a time when foreign troops are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, and arch-rival India has just elected a Hindu nationalist leader promising to be more assertive on the international stage.
"This is the clearest signal yet that the army will dictate its terms now," a member of Sharif's cabinet said.
[Ynet] The leader of Leb's largest Christian sect has come to Jerusalem despite fierce criticism in Leb, which remains at war with Israel.
A brave man, undeterred by even the threats from Hizb'allah.
Cardinal Bechara Rai, head of the Maronite Catholic Church, is the first Lebanese religious leader to set foot in Jerusalem since Israel captured the traditionally Arab eastern sector in 1967.
The Vatican front man, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed the cardinal had come to Jerusalem as part of a group of senior clergy accompanying Pope Francis on a Holy Land pilgrimage.
[IsraelTimes] The new data center, announced on Wednesday, is planned to include a reinforced underground area to store the bank's servers and computer control systems. An underground electricity generator will ensure that the bank's computers and communications system will continue to operate and that the framework of the economy is able to survive a major attack on the country.
#4
I hate the damn clod, running Exchange outta the clod is like 1998. Did you get my email? I know maybe someday we'll get quantum clod, in which case you get tomorrows email yesterday and yesterdays is gone forever.
[Ynet] A former US Marine convicted of criminal charges in Iran after being accused of working for the CIA will appeal for a new trial after already seeing his sentence reduced once, an Iranian news agency reported Sunday.
Amir Hekmati, a dual US-Iranian citizen born in Arizona, was incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in August 2011, then tried, convicted and sentenced to death for spying. However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... Iran's Supreme Court annulled the death sentence after Hekmati appealed, ordering a retrial in 2012.
The country's Revolutionary Court then overturned his conviction for espionage, instead charging him with "cooperating with hostile governments" and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei, Hekmati's lawyer, said he would appeal the 10-year prison sentence as well, according to a report by the semi-official ISNA news agency.
ISNA quoted the lawyer saying the rehearing request comes over a possible mistake by the judge in the case and the "inconsistency" between Hekmati's alleged crime and its punishment. Iranian law allows for hearings after an appeals court decision for those reasons.
Tabatabaei said Hekmati has handed his request for rehearing to prison authorities.
Iranian prosecutors said Hekmati received special training and served at US military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran as a spy.
The B.O. regime in November asked for Iran to free Hekmati and two other Americans believed held there, as relations recently have thawed between Washington and moderate President Hassan Rouhani. The call comes as world powers continue negotiations with Iran over its contested nuclear program.
His family, now in Michigan, says Hekmati is innocent and only went to Iran to visit his grandparents. The US government repeatedly has denied the 31 year old is a spy.
Previously, Tabatabaei said he sought Hekmati's conditional freedom from Evin prison, north of the capital, Tehran. Hekmati has been behind bars since his arrest.
Conditional freedom could allow Hekmati to leave the country, depending on what a court decides. That could allow Hekmati to visit his father Ali Hekmati, a professor at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan, who family members say has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and recently suffered a stroke.
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[Ynet] The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday that the group's operatives are, "active day and night to improve our deterrence capabilities," and that this progress "worries the Israeli enemy."
In his speech commemorating the 14th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Leb, Nasrallah said that Israel's violations in the border area are increasing and that, "this will have to stop. If necessary, the resistance will intervene and not remain silent in the face of the insults that are suffered by members of the Lebanese nation."
[An Nahar] Iran said Sunday that Syrian opposition chief Ahmad Jarba was the "most inappropriate person" to lead the war-torn country and confirmed it would send observers to next month's presidential election.
Jarba, president of the Syrian National Coalition, has sought to overthrow Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... for the past three years. Earlier this month Jarba visited Washington and shared a podium with U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... .
Jarba is not running against Assad in a June 3 presidential vote but Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian hit out regardless.
"In our opinion, when it comes to politics, Ahmad Jarba is a weak person ... he is the most inappropriate person for the future of Syria," the official IRNA news agency quoted Amir Abdollahian as saying.
"He does not know who to meet in his foreign meetings," he said, referring to talks between Jarba and Maryam Rajavi, head of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI), who lives in exile.
The leftwing PMOI, took up arms against Iran's rulers after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Tehran holds the organization responsible for murdering thousands of Iranian civilians and officials.
Shiite Iran is a staunch supporter of Assad's regime, which has been battling mostly Sunni rebels who have been trying to oust him.
Amir Abdollahian, meanwhile, said a parliamentary delegation would travel to Syria to monitor the vote count.
Last week, the speaker of the Syrian parliament, Mohammad al-Lahham invited "friendly countries" to send observers, without identifying the nations by name.
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[An Nahar] Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... said Sunday his party does not want a president who would "stab the resistance in the back," accusing the March 14 camp of seeking an extension of President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... 's term through fielding a "confrontational candidate" to block the election of a "serious nominee."
"We are before a very important and critical period that has started today," said Nasrallah, a day after Suleiman left the Baabda Palace upon the end of his six-year tenure, which witnessed a war of words with Hizbullah in recent months over the so-called army-people-resistance equation.
"Some parties are used to launching accusations of obstruction but the issue cannot be tackled through rumors and accusations," Nasrallah added in a televised speech marking the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... and Liberation Day, referring to allegations that the Hizbullah-led March 8 forces ... the opposition to the Mar. 14th movement, consisting of Hizbullah and its allies, so-called in commemoration of their Mar. 8th, 2006 demonstration of strength in Beirut ... was behind impeding the election of a new president.
The Hizbullah leader called for dealing with the vacancy period "calmly and without any tension" even if it is a "grave situation, as some parties have said."
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[An Nahar] Ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, lauded for ousting the Islamist president but feared as a potential autocrat, is poised to sweep Egypt's election on the back of a yearning for stability.
Wazoo
ISLAMABAD: The Pak army chief sat down with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to deliver a message Sharif did not want to hear: The time for talks with the troublesome Pakistani Taliban was over.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
