Ex-Interior Minister Habib Essid, who held a number of posts under Tunisia’s ousted regime, has been tasked with forming a government as prime minister designate, he told reporters Monday.
Essid, a top Interior Ministry civil servant under toppled dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, made the announcement after a meeting with Beji Caid Essebsi who last month won Tunisia’s first free presidential election.
“I had the honor of being received today by the president who tasked me with forming the new government,” Essid said at the presidential palace.
“Consultations with (political) parties and civil society will begin,” he added, without giving a date for the launch of talks.
The prime minister designate has a month — renewable once — to form a cabinet and win parliamentary approval for his line-up.
His name was put forward by Essebsi’s Nidaa Tounes party which won October parliamentary elections securing 86 of the 217 seats.
Essid, 65, held government positions without ever being minister under Ben Ali’s iron-fisted regime but returned after Tunisia’s 2011 revolution.
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The House of Representatives supported Abdullah Thinni government has imposed restrictions on Libyan visas to Maltese citizens.
The Libyan Ministry of Interior based in the eastern city of Al-Beida has instructed its Charges d’Affaires in Malta, Habib Lamin, not to issue any Libyan visas to Maltese citizens prior to receiving a security clearance from the Ministry.
The Ministry of Interior reported to the Al-Beida Libyan News Agency that this action was preventative due to confirmed security reports that some Maltese arriving in Libya’s western cities were offering ‘’logistic’’ help to Libya Dawn militias. These activities were harming Libyan national security, it said.
This latest step in the complication of Maltese-Libyan relations comes on the back of a tug-of-war between the two separate Libya Dawn and HoR backed ‘’embassies’’ currently existing in Malta purporting to represent Libya.
The Interior Minister Omar Al-Sinki has banned Palestinian, Sudanese and Syrian nationals from entering Libya. The ban, according to the Beida-based offices of the Libyan news agency LANA, will remain in force until further notice. It is to be applied at airports, seaports and border crossings.
Sinki said that he had received accurate intelligence reports that a number of nationals of the three states were heading to Libya to join militants in the country and “commit terrorist acts against the army and police in Benghazi and towns in western Libya”.
“We had no information (about the tanker). We treated it as a dangerous and suspicious target that threatens national security," spokesperson Col. Ahmed al-Mesmari
[Ynet] Egyptian security sources claimed on Monday that Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, terror cells had planned to carry out attacks during New Year's Eve celebrations in the Sinai desert in order to lead to "anarchy" in the peninsula, according to a report by the Al-Youm Al-Sabi newspaper.
The report came in view of the incident which occurred last Friday in which a Paleostinian was killed by gunfire near the Egyptian border between Sinai and Gazoo. According to the newspaper, the Paleostinian who was killed was a Hamas operative who had tried to illegally cross the border along with three other Hamas operatives who gave themselves up.
So the dead 17 23 year old lad wasn't desperately seeking work, but was gainfully employed as a trained killer? This is not going to help the Mamluks look favourably on opening their border crossing
Hamas is the scorpion stinging the frog: they can't help themselves, it's what they do...
[Ynet] 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... is ruling out unilateral military intervention in Libya but says that French forces will strike Islamic holy warriors leaving the country to bring arms to Africa's Sahel region.
Good idea, Francois: switch on a good strong light and let the cockroaches scatter under various floorboards and crevices before trying to swat them...
Hollande urged the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... to take action to stem growing violence in the country.
Speaking Monday on La Belle France-Inter radio, Hollande said French forces will strike the fighters "every time they will leave these places where they are hiding" in southern Libya.
For that purpose, La Belle France is setting up a military base in northern Niger, only 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the lawless Libyan border region.
The French national motto: We set the rules where once was ours.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/06/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Libya's internationally recognized government on Monday appealed for weapons to combat militias which have seized parts of the oil-rich nation, at an emergency meeting of the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
"We call on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities and to arm, without further delay, the Libyan army," said Libya's representative to the Cairo-based Arab League, Ashur Bou Rashed.
More than three years after dictator Moamer Qadaffy was toppled and killed in a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... -backed revolt, Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and it has rival governments and parliaments.
The internationally recognised government and the parliament elected in June have been based in the remote east since an Islamist-backed militia coalition, Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn ...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar... ), seized 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... last year.
Fajr Libya also controls third city Misrata, while much of second city Benghazi is also in the hands of militias.
Bou Rashed insisted on the need to score a "military victory over the brutal militias to prevent them from further expanding their influence across Libya" and help reach a political solution.
His comments came as the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... postponed peace talks it was hoping to hold Monday between Libya's warring factions.
The talks were originally slated for December 9 but have been repeatedly delayed amid fighting in Libya.
In mid-December, Fajr Libya launched an assault to try to seize key oil terminals.
At least 22 pro-government forces were killed in fighting with the militias who fired a rocket that set ablaze tanks at Al-Sidra oil terminal. The military retaliated by raiding Misrata.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi voiced regret at the postponement of the U.N.-brokered talks.
"Our priority today is to adopt a decisive position that would lead to an immediate end to armed terrorist operations" in Libya, he said.
#1
Listen Libya, you guys need to have a real attention grabbing gimmick to entice the Arab League folks to come to your aid, otherwise Libya is just another Arab Hellhole about to catch fire.
I suggest you call Taylor Swift up and have her deliver your plea, the pledges will come rolling in, trust me.
any thoughts on the politics of transition to a new King Merkin as the 6th king of Mordor abdicates?
According the the Egyptian Television network "El-Nha'r, the Saudi king will announce in the next few days that he is giving up his crown. Maybe Champ will want it, he's going to be out of office anyway in a couple years...
King Abdullah (90), has been hospitalized since December 31st with pneomonia, in the hospital in the Saudi capital city of Riyad.
Reports coming from Saudia Arabia today (Tuesday) issued by Crown Prince Salman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, reassured the public about the recovering health of King Abdullah.
Presiding over a Cabinet meeting in Riyadh, Prince Salman thanked local and international well-wishers for their concern about the king, who was admitted to King Abdul Aziz National Hospital with pneumonia on Dec. 31.
King Abdullah had earlier been placed on a respirator that would allow him to breathe easier, but his situation is that of recovery, said Prince Salman. According to reports, specialists from the United States arrived at the hospital in Saudi Arabia to address his needs.
King Abdullah, or by his full name - Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, is the Sixth King of Saudi Arabia.
According to the publication, In March of last year, Prince Merkin Muqrin bin Abdulaziz was named deputy Crown Prince and is therefore second-in-line to the throne.
Abdullah was crowned on August 1, 2005, following the death of his half-brother. He is one of the thirty-seven sons of Ibn Saud, who had founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is married to four women, has seven boys and fifteen girls. a good reason why we need single marriages and birth control in the Muslim world. No wonder the world is overpopulated. Gah. Put it in the drinking water....
#1
So the US becomes the worlds leading oil exporter sending prices down, and down. The King resigns. Its gonna get messy over there. I predict a lot of princes take what they can get and get out of the way.
#2
Lots of assassinations and did-not-finish-es in his family tree. If the pot is getting smaller, the incentive to grab the throne and thinning the camel herd is stronger. That or drive a cab somewhere might be the choices. Or move to Vegas and do Frank Zappa tributes. This could be fun.
#4
price of oil is down... but the Sauds have diversified and own everything, from second largest stake in News Corp after Rupert, to major retailers and supermarkets, hotels, insurance and banking. They own huge slabs of the world market. The questions is - this mafia family has ruled Saudi Arabia and left the majority living in the 6th Century Wahhabist heaven envisioned by Said Qutb.
They have let clerics flourish who support the taliban and worldwide jihadi action - but more dangerously they are attacking our societies from within
In australia we now have an Islamic religious tax on all our food known as 'halal certification'. if you try to speak out you are a 'racist' who might damage exports. The funds go to build mosques and spread islam.
so they are taxing our food production chain.
you would have the same in the US. they have been trying it on in the UK
doesn't matter that violates your freedom of and from religion every time you shop for groceries
$27,000 a month paid by abattoirs. Unknown amounts paid by Kellogg's, Mars, Mondelez Foods etc etc
#5
price of oil is down... but the Sauds have diversified and own everything, from second largest stake in News Corp after Rupert, to major retailers and supermarkets, hotels, insurance and banking. They own huge slabs of the world market. The questions is - this mafia family has ruled Saudi Arabia and left the majority living in the 6th Century Wahhabist heaven envisioned by Said Qutb.
Diversity means that when it truly hits the fan, the Soddys will chuck those properties like a hand grenade.
Berlin police are investigating an attack on an Israeli citizen who was beaten by a group of young men after he asked them to stop singing anti-Semitic songs on the subway in the German capital on New Year’s Eve.
Police spokesman Martin Dahms said Monday that police have not yet been able to identify the attackers, but are evaluating video footage of the incident.
The victim, 26-year-old Shahak Shapira, who lives in Berlin, told The Associated Press that after he asked the seven men to stop chanting anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli songs and slurs, he recorded them on his cell phone.
When he got off at the next subway stop, the men, who Shapira said were speaking both German and Arabic, followed him and demanded he delete his video. When he refused, some of the men spat on him and beat and kicked him, injuring his head.
The World Jewish Congress condemned the attack sharply and said the incident illustrated the growing exposure of Jews to violent forms of anti-Semitism in Europe.
“Just like everybody else, Israeli citizens have a right to live in Europe in safety, without being singled out on the basis of their nationality or faith,” WJC Associate Executive Vice-President Maram Stern told the AP.
Stern called on the authorities to do “everything in their power to prevent such attacks.”
#9
Besoeker, One size fits all, only drawback your voice goes up an octave the bigger you are, but at XXL size, you are eligible to perform for one season with the Vienna Boys Choir.
#10
The story is not quite complete. The Israeli victim himself pointed out that before he started to film the scene, two German passengers had asked the Middle Eastern men to stop the chant, and he started filming when those two were attacked.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/06/2015 23:37 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] Turkey said Monday an agreement to train and equip thousands of moderate Syrian opposition fighters would be concluded later in January after several months of talks with the United States.
The program is a key pillar of Turkish policy on Syria which aims to simultaneously pressure not only Islamist murderous Moslems but also the Damascus regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... .
"A memorandum of understanding is expected to be signed this month. It cannot be delayed any longer," a Turkish foreign ministry official said, asking not to be named.
The program, due to begin in late March, is aiming to train 5,000 fighters each year with a total of 15,000 in the three-year period, according to the same official.
A U.S. official however did not confirm any deal.
"Discussions are ongoing, but we are not yet in a position to say when we might reach an agreement," the U.S. official told AFP.
Turkey and the United States have been negotiating for months how to respond to the crisis in Syria, and the train and equip program is seen as a way for the two sides to find common ground.
Turkey's reluctance to take robust action against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... gunnies who have seized control of swathes of Iraq and Syria right up to the Turkish border has strained ties with its NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... ally.
Washington is pressing Ankara for the use of the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey to facilitate US jet strikes on IS holy warriors.
Turkey, however, has refused to succumb to the pressure, and set several conditions for playing a greater role in the U.S.-led coalition against IS.
Those included the creation of a no-fly zone, as well as the training of moderate Syrian rebels with an ultimate goal to bring down Assad's regime.
Turkey last year granted permission for the passage of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces through its territory to fight against IS Lions of Islam in the Syrian town of Kobane across the border.
Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Pakistan-Fazal (JUI-F) has startled its coalition partners by announcing that it will not support the amendments in the Constitution and the Army Act the PML-N-led government has tabled in the National Assembly to fight terrorism.
“This is an action targeting the religious-minded of a single sect. We were neither informed about the amendments nor was our input (in drafting them) taken,” declared the party chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, at a press conference here.
His statement came on the day the assembly started debating the bill amending the Army Act to allow military courts to try civilians too in terrorism cases.
JUI-F chief was also critical of linking madaris (Islamic schools) and seminaries with the spread of terrorism in the country.
His grievances were shared by the chief of Jamaat-i-Islami, the only other Islamic party represented in the parliament. Mr Sirajul Haq separately told a party gathering that the target of those decrying terrorism was Islam and the madaris.
Both the leaders spoke of ‘consequences’ if their fears became the truth in the guise of counterterrorism under the National Action Plan (NAP) that their parties had agreed to in the aftermath of the Peshawar carnage of schoolchildren last month.
However, Jamaat-i-Islami Emir sounded more specific. “If there is any large scale action against the madaris,” he said, Maulana Fazlur Rehman confined himself to saying that there is no distinction between terrorists. “A terrorist is a terrorist. How can one say this is religious terrorism? And what about killing in the name of ethnicity and tribes? Is that not terrorism?” he asked.
Incidentally, neither the Maulana neither his party ever hinted at any of the known terrorist groups being behind the terror attacks the JUI-F have suffered over the years.
Senior party leaders say the government’s approach to the issue is not directed to end terrorism, but to sidetrack the public sentiments from the root causes of terrorism.
“This is a flawed policy,” spokesperson and former JUI-F MNA, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed told Dawn.
“Who cut deals with Baitullah Mehsud?” he pointedly asked referring to the ferocious leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, killed in a US drone attack in August 2009.
[Dawn] Two religious parties and two smaller government allies seemed to have rattled the government in the National Assembly on Monday, opposing some religion-related passages of a key constitution amendment bill despite assurances from Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... that speedy trial military courts sought to be set up to try hard boyz would be no kangaroo courts.
It was earlier expected that the Constitution (Twenty-first Amendment) Bill, tabled in the house on Saturday at military's behest, would steer quickly without much ado after it was exempted from scrutiny by a house standing committee soon after its introduction, so it could go to the Senate on Tuesday.
But Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq allowed a previously unexpected debate after the government-allied Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... -F (JUI-F) expressed its reservations at a news conference before coming to the house.
The main opposition PPP also conveyed to the government its hesitation to vote for military courts on the 87th birth anniversary of its founder, executed former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ...9th PM of Pakistain from 1973 to 1977, and 4th President of Pakistain from 1971 to 1973. He was the founder of the Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP). His eldest daughter, Benazir Bhutto, would also serve as hereditary PM. In a coup led by General Zia-ul-Haq, Bhutto was removed from office and was executed in 1979 for authorizing the murder of a political opponent... .
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The United States said on Monday that no funds have been issued to Pakistan from the Kerry-Lugar-Berman provision since 2013.
At a news briefing at the State Department, spokesperson Jen Psaki also rejected an Indian suggestion that it had issued a certification to Pakistan.
Last week, the Ministry of Finance announced in Islamabad that the US Congress had cleared an instalment of $532 million of civilian aid to Pakistan from the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill.
The ministry said that they received the information from the US ambassador in Islamabad who met Pakistani officials last week to prepare for Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Islamabad later this month.
“Congress has not been notified of a request, Congress has not approved a request,” Ms Psaki told the briefing when asked to comment on statements issued in Islamabad and New Delhi.
She noted that some media reports had also suggested that an approval has been made in the past, which was incorrect, as no approval has been made from the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill since 2013.
An additional funding, however, could not be ruled out in future, she said, adding that there were other provisions, besides Kerry-Lugar-Berman, that were used for providing funds to Pakistan.
Ms Psaki said that in the past, the State Department had made national interests waiver for Pakistan because all the criteria needed for a full certification were not met. “We obviously have that ability in the future as well,” she added.
The senators belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) demanded on Monday a military operation against terrorists in Karachi.
The demand came when ANP’s Shahi Syed drew the Senate’s attention to what he called the continued targeted killing of his party’s workers as well as Pakhtuns in the city.
The opposition senators also staged a token walkout with the ANP members to express solidarity with them.
Chairman Nayyar Bokhari sought a report from the Sindh government on targeted killings in Karachi.
Also read: Karachi operation
Supporting the ANP’s call for the military action, Nasreen Jalil of the MQM said it was her party which had been demanding an army operation against terrorists in Karachi where Taliban were strengthening their presence. The senator said she had even written a letter to the prime minister on the issue.
She said that not only the Pakhtuns, but the Sindhis and Urdu-speaking people were also being targeted by terrorists, adding that issues being faced by the ANP and her party were not different from each other.
Senator Jalil condemned the killing of ANP leaders and workers in Karachi and said the Taliban had also targeted the MPAs of her party which could not run the election campaign in 2013 because of terrorism.
Two convicted terrorists will be hanged at the New Central Jail here on Wednesday.
Prison officials have received the death warrants issued by anti-terrorism courts after mercy petitions of Ahmed Ali and Ghulam Shabir alias Fauji alias doctor a had been rejected by the president.
The convicts belong to banned organisations.
Also read: Another convict in Musharraf attack case executed
Ahmed Ali had killed three men – Altaf Hussain, Mohammad Nasir and Mohammad Fiaz – and injured Mohammad Pervez and Mohammad Siddique on the Railway Road in 1998.
Ghulam Shabbir had killed DSP Anwar Khan and his driver Ghulam Murtaza on the Bohar Gate Road on Aug 4, 2000. He was also reported to be involved in sectarian violence.
He was sentenced to death by a special anti-terrorism court on June 21, 2002, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court.
New Central Jail’s Deputy Superintendent Malik Liaqat told Dawn that the convicts would be hanged at 6am on Wednesday. He said the executioner would come from Lahore on Tuesday and arrangements would be made for their meetings with families the same day.
The Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, have warned all the mobile phone companies that their respective executives will be booked for terrorism if a phone connection sold in violation of set rules is found to have been used in any terror activity, it emerged on Monday.
In a letter sent to the regional headquarters of Mobilink, Ufone, Telenor, Warid and Zong, the Sindh chief minister and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the Rangers came up with the strong measures to counter the ‘flaws’ which they said were causing ‘deterioration of law and order situation’.
The warning has caused consternation among the cellular companies business managers who believe that such a ‘tone and approach’ may hamper the confidence of the foreign operators who have invested billions of dollars in the country, while they insist that they have already been offering their best possible cooperation for the counter-terrorism actions.
“Taking stock of terrorist activities, it has been revealed that illegal SIMs are used by them,” stated the letter sent by the Rangers. “....thereby affecting the law and order situation of Karachi city. It has been found that SIMs, both unverified and without records, are being used for heinous crimes, including extortion collection and kidnapping for ransom. The SIMs are reactivated even after being blocked,” it added.
A petition was filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday seeking complete ban on Afghan SIMs in Pakistan.
The petition was filed by Raja Saimul Haq Satti advocate.
In his petition he contended that still around 50,000 SIMs of Afghan mobile telephone companies are being operated inside Pakistani territory, using international roaming services to make and receive calls.
He said the government had directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to curtail use of illegal and unregistered Afghan SIMs in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because of security issues.
He claimed that these SIMs were being used terrorists in anti-state activities and other serious crimes.
Apart from this, the SIMS also work on their local Afghan networks in certain Fata regions which are close to the Afghan border, it further said.
It alleged that the PTA was not equipped to trace grey traffic as illegal exchanges are causing billions of rupees loss to the exchequer.
The petition requested the court to direct the PTA and telecom service providers to block and suspend the operation of millions of illegal, unregistered Afghan SIMs.
[AnNahar] The government of Pakistain's restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province Monday announced a bounty worth 10 million rupees (US$100,000) for information leading to the arrest or death of the Pak Taliban chief, officials said.
"The provincial government has set a bounty of RS 10 million for any information/help that can lead to the arrest or killing of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... ," a bigwig in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government told AFP, requesting anonymity.
He said the government in Pakistain's restive northwest had prepared a list of 615 high profile holy warriors and was offering a combined bounty of RS760 million (US$7.5 million).
The official said the list also includes Mengal Bagh, chief of Lashkar-e-Islam ...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver.... , a Taliban-linked holy warrior group operating in the Khyber tribal district.
Mushtaq Ghani, the provincial information minister confirmed the bounty.
Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, Buford bit the snake and Eloise began speaking in tongues... the country's parliament deferred voting on legislation regarding the establishment of military courts for terror-related cases until Tuesday, after the chief of a religious party objected to the contents of the national plan of action.
The bill will be presented in parliament on Tuesday for voting, after which military courts will be made legal. At present the military courts deal only with cases related to the military.
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... had announced the establishment of military courts for terror-related cases after a deadly Taliban attack on military-run school in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. that killed 150 people, 134 of them children.
The prime minister also ended Pakistain's six-year-old moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases last month in the wake of the slaughter at the school.
Seven convicted holy warriors have been hanged since the de facto ban on capital punishment ended. Six of those executed were found guilty of trying to assassinate the then-military dictator Musharraf in Rawalpindi in 2003 and the seventh was sentenced in connection with a 2009 attack on the army headquarters.
Pak officials have said they plan to hang 500 convicts in the coming weeks, drawing condemnation from international human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... campaigners.
#1
As an added bonus for the capture of Mullah Fazlullah, we'll throw in a herd of goats and these three fine specimens, but only if you act today, hurry this offer will not last for long...
[Dawn] The federal government on Monday postponed the execution of Saulat Mirza, an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on death row, DawnNews reported.
The Sindh home department has received instructions from the federal government, which includes the postponement of Mirza?s execution, the channel reported.
Sources said that Mirza's death sentence was an issue for the MQM, who have expressed fears that political activists on death row could be executed by military courts.
The sources further stated that the decision to postpone the execution was taken by the govt to allay the MQM's fears on this issue.
Mirza was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in May 1999 for murdering the managing director of then named Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Shahid Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi and guard Khan Akbar in July 1997.
He was moved along with four high-profile prisoners to the Machh jail, Balochistan, in April 2014.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2015 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Paleostinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour has sent a letter of complaint to the secretary general of the UN, the president of the Security Council, and the president of the General Assembly, following Israel's decision to freeze Paleostinian tax funds.
[Ynet] An Israel-based rights organization says it has filed a war crimes complaint against three top Paleostinian leaders it accuses of terrorism, torture and civil rights violations.
The Shurat HaDin Law Center filed the complaint Monday at the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... in The Hague, Netherlands against PLO leaders
Jibril Rajoub, Majid Faraj and Rami Hamdallah, the current Paleostinian prime minister. The suit follows similar complaints the group previously filed against Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leader Khaled Mashal and Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... .
The move appears to be a long shot as the court receives thousands of such requests and rarely takes action. But it comes a week after the Paleostinians announced they would be joining the international court to pursue war-crimes charges against Israel.
The Paleostinians had no immediate comment to the allegations.
[IraqiNews.com] Baghdad Operations Command announced Monday, that a 90% decrease in kidnappings was reached after the police incarcerated Please don't kill me! the ISIS key elements held responsible for kidnaps and liquidations.
Baghdad Operations Command front man General-Officer Saad Moen stated today, ?The efforts of the security forces and some politicians have resulted in a decrease of kidnappings and armed robbery cases by 90% in Baghdad.?
He added, ?The federal police intelligence was involved in distinctive cases in the past two days, which led to the arrest of the ISIS leaders held responsible for kidnaps and liquidation operations in Baghdad.?
Earlier this week, Baghdad Operations Command said that a major decrease in kidnap cases has been measured by sources of the federal police intelligence in the city of Baghdad.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/06/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
Hamas said Monday it was “totally opposed” to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ plans to re-submit to the UN Security Council a resolution on ending Israel’s occupation which failed.
“Hamas is totally opposed to any return to the UN Security Council by the Palestinian Authority,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. “Such a step would be political foolishness which plays a dangerous game with the destiny of our nation.
“Mahmoud Abbas and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority should completely stop this political foolishness,” Abu Zuhri said.
On Jan. 2, the Palestinian leadership decided to refile a draft resolution setting a deadline for reaching a final peace deal and ending the occupation. The draft had failed to pass a vote in the Security Council on Dec. 30.
[Ynet] The head of the world's largest Islamic organization has paid a rare visit to Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque in a bid to strengthen Paleostinian claims to the holy site. Iyad Madani, secretary-general of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, urged the world's Moslems to follow suit and visit Al-Aqsa, the third-holiest site in Islam.
During the visit Monday, Madani prayed at the iconic Dome of the Rock. He said: "It is our right to come here and to pray here."
...adding, "Where we tread, there we own. Come, brothers, let us assert sovereignity from those perfidious juices."
I love these rankings of Mooselimb holy sites. How are these decided on? Are they voted on by Mooselimb religious reporters or wot? Do the rankings change from week to week?
Posted by: Anice Nim ||
01/06/2015 12:46 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] 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... is facing financial austerity because of the slump in global oil prices and the sanctions on its main backer Iran, The Christian Science Monitor reported.
The party has had to impose salary cuts on personnel and defer payments to suppliers, The Monitor quoted political and diplomatic sources in Beirut as saying.
Randa Slim, a Hizbullah expert and a director at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, also said that Iran's assistance to the Syrian regime against rebels seeking to topple it have forced Tehran ?to divert more resources away from Hizbullah at a time when the resource base in Iran is shrinking.?
But a Lebanese oil industry expert, who has extensive contacts in Iran, said that lower funding by Iran does not threaten Hizbullah's life.
Iranian funding to Hizbullah comes from the multi-billion-dollar private resources at the disposal of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said The Monitor.
While the institutions will be ?indirectly effected? by Iran?s worsening economy, ?you are talking about a solid money reserve, you are talking about tens, maybe hundreds, of billions (of dollars) of reserves,? said the expert.
?Those organizations (like Hizbullah) are kind of sacred and they (Iran?s holy manal leaders) are even ready to cut off any internal budget but not to touch those allocated budgets (to Hizbullah),? the expert added.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that foreign investors should no longer be viewed as a threat and signalled his country's decades-long isolation from the world economy could soon end.
Iran is engaged in long-running negotiations with world powers aimed at a comprehensive deal over its disputed nuclear programme which, if successful, will likely result in an investment boom.
A key point in any agreement would be the lifting of wide-ranging sanctions -- imposed on Iran as punishment for its atomic activities -- blamed for neutering its oil- and gas-rich economy.
[Ynet] Leb enforced new immigration controls at the Syrian border on Monday in a move to gain control of the steady stream of refugees from its much larger neighbour.
Shopkeepers and taxi drivers on the Leb side of the Masnaa border crossing said thousands of Syrians crossed the frontier on Sunday before the rules were implemented at midnight. On Monday, the border was quiet.
A security bigshot said on Saturday that Syrians would have to apply for entry permits for the first time and provide information about the purpose and length of their stay.
Continued on Page 49
[AnNahar] The newly elected head of Syria's key opposition National Coalition on Monday ruled out taking part in a Russian-led bid for new talks to end the Syrian conflict.
Khaled Khoja, who was elected early on Monday to head the opposition grouping, said Moscow's proposal was impossible.
"The dialogue with the regime that Moscow is calling for is out of the question," he said at a news conference in Istanbul, where the Coalition is based.
"We can't sit at the same table as the regime... except in a negotiating framework intended to achieve a peaceful transition of power and the formation of a transitional body with full powers," he said.
Russia, a key ally of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... , has been trying to relaunch peace talks that would include meetings between delegates of the regime and the fractured opposition.
It has invited 28 opposition figures, including members of the tolerated domestic opposition as well as individual Coalition members, to Moscow later this month.
Among them are Hadi al-Bahra, whom Khoja succeeded on Monday, and two other previous Coalition chiefs, Moaz al-Khatib and Abdel Basset Sida.
It remains unclear whether the Coalition will seek to ban those of its members who have been invited from attending the talks in Moscow.
Khatib visited Russia last year for discussions and has recently established his own movement, though he remains a member of the Coalition.
Several opposition groups are expected to meet in Cairo this month to form a unified front, according to opposition sources, although a timetable and list of participants has not been made public.
Khoja's comments were the first since he was elected with backing from both secular and moderate Islamist blocs.
He is the first member of the Turkmen minority elected to the post and is seen as more independent than his predecessor, who had strong ties to 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...
Coalition member Samir Nashar said Khoja's win showed a "decline in the influence of the Moslem Brüderbund", which had backed his rival Nasr Hariri.
Khoja secured 56 votes, six more than Hariri. The election took place in Istanbul.
The National Coalition is the internationally recognized representative of Syria's uprising, but is often accused of being out of touch with reality on the ground in the nearly four-year war.
It has also been riven by conflict between its regional backers, including arch-rivals Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... and Saudi Arabia.
Turkey has also vied for influence, including by backing the Moslem Brüderbund bloc in the coalition.
Khoja has lived in exile in Turkey for decades, after leaving Syria in the 1980s following two stints in prison.
But despite his ties to Turkey, his candidacy was not backed by Ankara.
Nashar, who is close to Khoja, expressed hope that "the new leadership will work to return the Syrian revolution to the right path".
Nashar, who has been critical of Islamist forces in the coalition, also hoped that Khoja would strive to "build a national front committed to the revolution... and establish a pluralist civil state in Syria without exclusion or marginalization."
Khoja has a history of opposition activism, and was a founding member of the Syrian National Council, a key component of the coalition.
He served as the National Coalition's representative in Turkey before being elected president.
Born in Damascus in 1965, Khoja studied first in Libya after going into exile before settling in Turkey. He graduated in medicine from the University of Izmir in 1994.
[DailyBeast] Ever since Islamic militants grabbed a swath of land across Syria and Iraq this summer, they have been presenting their caliphate as a valid, functioning state. This weekend, the Orwellian depiction of legitimacy became ever more surreal and desperate with the announcement of a new medical school in one city they control and the release of a propaganda video featuring a British hostage touring another town, claiming “this is a normal city going about its business.”
In the Syrian city of Raqqa—the main stronghold of the self-styled Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS or ISIL—posters appeared over the weekend, according to local activists, which announced the opening of a school of medicine and invited applications from high-school graduates between the ages of 18 and 30. The medical school follows recent claims of plans to mint ISIS currency and the opening of a bank in the Iraqi city of Mosul—another was opened in the Syrian town of al-Bab several weeks ago. But locals there say any money deposited is thrown into an unlocked cupboard behind the tellers, hardly inspiring confidence.
Coinciding with the medical school announcement, the eighth propaganda video featuring British photojournalist John Cantlie, who has been held for more than two years by the militants, was released at the weekend, this time having him tour Mosul in the role of a TV correspondent. Using the city that was captured by ISIS in June as a backdrop, Cantlie disputes Western media reports that it is “in a state of near collapse” with a lack of food, water and working public institutions.
“The media likes to paint a picture of life in the Islamic State as depressed, people walking around as subjugated citizens in chains, beaten down by strict, totalitarian rule,” Cantlie says. But this picture of a “city living in fear as Western media would have you believe” is inaccurate, the captive photojournalist claims in the chilling video that has him looking less gaunt than in the previous seven propaganda videos in which he appears in as a narrator. Touring a souk and a hospital and riding on the back of a police motorcycle with a beaming jihadist, he declares, “Apart from some rather chilly but very sunny December weather, life here in Mosul is business as usual” and enjoyed by “people from every walk of life.”
The doublethink video smacks of something Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell’s novel 1984. Just hours after his claims, ISIS released pictures showing the brutal executions of eight people, four of them Iraqi policemen, in Iraq’s Salaheddin province. In the Cantlie video there’s no mention of commonplace executions or the massacre by Islamic militants of more than 2,000 Shiite prisoners and soldiers shortly after Mosul was captured. Nor is there mention of the banishment of Christians on pain of death or even of the hundreds of women and girls from Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority being sold and abused as sex slaves— something boasted in Tweets and videos by Islamic State fighters. Tellingly, the eight-minute video has no interviews with locals testifying to how good life is under the jihadists—all has to be taken on trust from the captive narrator.
“Of all the Cantlie videos, this one is definitely the strangest,” tweeted Shiraz Maher, a senior fellow at the Institute Centre for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London. “The healthier appearance and civilian clothing are very peculiar.”
The propaganda effort to portray the caliphate as a legitimate state seems increasingly frantic—an indication of ISIS weakness rather than confidence. Too much is being professed for the advance in the civil and administrative ambitions of the jihadist group. There are limits to the painting of banditry and extortion as the legitimate raising of taxes. And the narrative of state-making is undercut by the propaganda videos that are also posted of captured soldiers having their throats slit and of women accused of adultery being stoned.
For Sunni Muslims who are prepared to accept strict Sharia law and obey their new jihadist overlords, life may be more or less normal—you wear the niqab, you refrain from drinking alcohol or smoking, and you avoid being stoned, whipped or losing your head.
Posted by: Pappy ||
01/06/2015 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
This article seems like it was written by a White House staffer.
#2
..couldn't be Val, she works for Iran, who are fighting the ISIS in Iraq. Though, technically speaking, for the ME, that's not necessarily unprecedented. (See - WH backing of AQ in the same area).
#5
I am a bit curious to see what an ISIS hospital is like. I suspect Amputations are common and possibly used as practice by their public relations department.
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.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz 
International Criminal Court
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
