#1
I spent 3 months at Navair about 10 years ago doing a systems project audit when they were attempting to install the SAP software.
That experience led me to understand why things in military procurement are so screwed up.
It also leads me to believe that they would DO this. Picture the most effete back-stabbing bureaucrats en masse and you have the main contingent of those in and around HQ.................then I met some of the real fighters. How the latter allowed the former to survive is beyond me.
#2
...because they want to train, fight, break things and the rest of the bureaucracy insists that they manage stuff like budgets, tech, procurement, et al. So they get saddled with people that they insist wear a uniform which falsely assumes that 'going through the course' makes them sensitive to what 'closing with and destroying the enemy' involves.
[ARABNEWS] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. and his Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... travel this weekend to Washington where they are expected to focus on reconciliation with the Taliban as the annual "fighting season" begins. "Oh, you can bring cake
Or you can bring pie,
But don't bring Karzai!"
Diplomatic efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table have gained pace recently, even as security forces have launched offensives against the Death Eater group without NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... assistance for the first time since 2002. Ghani and Abdullah leave Saturday for an official four-day trip to Washington, where the president will address a joint session of Congress. Both men will then visit Camp David and New York. "You can bring lunch
Or flowers in a bunch,
But don't bring Karzai!"
Besides the US, Ghani also visited 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... this week, while Abdullah was in India to try to obtain a "regional consensus" on reconciliation with the Taliban, according to Afghan officials.
The Afghan leaders will also be seeking renewed support from Washington over the issue, a source close to the government said.
"One of the factors which is motivating President Ghani to act now could be trying to make as much progress as possible before the fighting season begins, but it's not the only factor," said a Western diplomat.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] More than 45,000 Egyptians have fled Libya since jihadists published a video last month showing the beheading of Coptic Christians, most of them Egyptian, an official and state media said Friday.
In other words, the terror had the desired effect...
Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians work in the restive country to the west and send money home to support their families, but their exact number is uncertain because many enter illegally.
Egyptian Copts have been increasingly targeted by Islamist holy warriors, who beheaded 21 hostages last February, most of them Egyptian, prompting Cairo to carry out air strikes on a jihadist stronghold in Libya.
By Friday, 11,500 Egyptians had flown home via Tunisia, Libya's western neighbour, since the beheadings were announced, civil aviation ministry front man Mohammed Rahma told AFP.
Another nearly 34,000 Egyptians have crossed into Egypt from Libya by land in the same period, state media reported.
The 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.... group's affiliate in Libya grabbed credit for the beheadings, releasing the video on February 15.
The snuffies took a foothold in the country amid a conflict between rival governments and their supporter.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Well I hope my house boy Mahmoud made it.
Great lad, good friend, and very patient while trying to teach someone with a Texas accent the subtleties of Arabic pronunciation.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/21/2015 12:14 Comments ||
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[ARABNEWS] The two gunnies who killed 21 people at a museum in Tunis trained in neighboring Libya before carrying out the deadly attack and were known to authorities, Tunisian security officials said Friday.
The attackers slipped out of the country in December and received weapons training in Libya which is awash in well-armed militias fighting for control, said Rafik Chelli, a top official in the Interior Ministry in a TV interview late Thursday.
One of them, Hatem Khachnaoui, 26, was from the central city of Sbeitla and had previously been placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! on terrorism charges before being released, according to Sabhi Jouini, a leading figure in the police union and a terrorism expert.
Khachnaoui's father and sister in Sbeitla were arrested Thursday along with two others from the region on suspicion of supporting the attackers. Another five people with direct connection to the attack were picked up around the capital.
Khachnaoui's associate, Yassine Laabidi was only 20 years old and had less of a record with police, though he is known to have worked in a travel agency and hails from the working class Tunis neighborhood of Ibn Khaldun.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Hundreds of shocked tourists disembarked Friday in Spain after their luxury cruise was cut short by a massacre in a Tunisian museum that killed 12 of their fellow passengers.
Of the more than 3,000 passengers who had sailed on the cruise liner MSC Splendida, 25 did not return: 12 were killed in the attack and 13 injured when gunnies stormed the museum in Tunis on Wednesday.
"They started shooting at the tourists. Anyone they found, they shot at, without mercy," one passenger who witnessed the attack, Jose Lluis Cusido, mayor of the town of Vallmoll west of Barcelona, told news hounds after disembarking.
The group calling itself the 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.... claimed it had carried out the attack, which killed 21 people.
Victoria Bronskaya, a 33-year-old tour guide from Belarus, was on a bus parked outside the National Bardo Museum in Tunis along with her mother when the attackers struck.
"We threw ourselves to the floor and they started shooting at the bus," she told AFP. "I wasn't even afraid. You just think about saving yourself. I shouted 'God save me' in Russian."
As she and others cowered inside, the gunnies shot two other tourists trying to board the bus. The dead bodies blocked the door of the vehicle. "That is why the terrorist could not get on board," Bronskaya said.
Newlyweds Francisco Buciegas and his wife Inma, from Cordoba, stepped off shocked after their honeymoon was cut short. "The whole thing was really awful. It made us really anxious," Inma, who is four months pregnant, told AFP, trying not to cry.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Passenger: "Gimme a refund; they never had all this beheading and blowing up shit in the brochure"
Purser: ......
Passenger: Anyway, what time's the midnight buffet at?
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
03/21/2015 0:19 Comments ||
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#2
Shocked tourists abandon cruise
Wouldn't you ?
Posted by: Herman the Batty9794 ||
03/21/2015 9:16 Comments ||
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#3
This is a cruise ship run by Costa Lines, which also had the Concordia, that rolled over and sank in Greece (yes, that one).
Why would you even get on one of their boats?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/21/2015 10:32 Comments ||
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#4
cuz Malaysia Air didn't service the area?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/21/2015 13:26 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Soldiers from Niger and Chad have discovered the bodies of at least 70 people, many of them beheaded, dumped near a bridge outside the northern Nigerian town of Damasak liberated from Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... on Saturday, a Rooters witness said.
The skeletal bodies were partially mummified by the dry desert atmosphere, the witness said, suggesting that the killing had taken place some time ago. Damasak was seized by the Islamist group in November but recaptured by troops from Niger and Chad on Saturday.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Al-Qaeda's Yemen affiliate grabbed credit for the murder of an award-winning journalist turned top official of the Shiite Huthi militia, the group said Thursday on Twitter.
The claim was made by Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... , or Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law), which is linked to the Sunni Lion of Islam al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... (AQAP).
A brief statement on Twitter said two snuffies of the group riding cycle of violences opened fire on Abdul Karim al-Khiwani on Wednesday near his home in the centre of Sanaa, before fleeing.
Khiwani was a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Huthis that control Sanaa and had been head of the militia's media department.
In 2008 he was awarded the Amnesia Amnesty International Special Award for Human Rights Journalism under threat.
Amnesty has denounced the "despicable killing of a leading journalist and activist," saying Khiwani had a history of being harassed for his "outspoken journalism and peaceful activism", and called for a probe.
The United States considers the Yemen-based AQAP the most dangerous branch of the global jihadist network.
[AnNahar] Local paramilitaries, a rogue general, Al-Qaeda cells -- Aden has become an explosive mix since Yemen's embattled leader fled the capital to the country's main southern city.
President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled to Aden last month after escaping house arrest under the Huthi Shiite militia who have seized control of the capital Sanaa.
Western- and Gulf-backed Hadi has vowed to restore his authority from the southern city -- the one-time capital of the formerly independent south Yemen -- but experts say he is facing a struggle to assert control over his new power base.
Continued on Page 49
[ARABNEWS] Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh has slammed Sweden's foreign minister for criticizing the Kingdom's judiciary.
"Whoever questions the legitimacy and independence of the Shariah justice system is either ignorant or biased." He said such claims are a "false reflection of reality."
During the airing of his weekly radio program, Al-Asheikh said the comments by Margot Wallstrom last week were based on lies. The country's legal system was legitimate and independent, and based on the Qur'an and Sunnah of the Prophet (peace by upon him) said Al-Asheikh.
He said the courts are impartial and provides justice for everyone. "Our religion protects everyone's rights in our country, despite the diversity of our resident population. It does not oppress anyone or discriminate between Moslem and non-Moslem."
He said women are protected under the law.
"Anyone who claims that women are not granted their rights is unaware of the reality on the ground. Women in our country are given access to all opportunities." He said the National Society for Human Rights and other bodies are active in ensuring this happens.
Al-Asheikh said Moslems should not believe these critics because they are propagating misguided views. He was responding to Wallstrom's condemnation of the way the country's judges handled a case involving a Saudi blogger convicted of insulting Islam.
Separately, GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani summoned the Swedish Ambassador Dag Juhlin-Dannfelt and lodged a formal protest over the anti-Saudi tirade by Wallstrom.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
or has decent dental work
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
03/21/2015 0:22 Comments ||
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#2
Women in our country are given access to all opportunities."
Which is actually true. They are given all opportunities to which the Koran and Allan grant them as interpreted by holy-mens.
It's amazing what you can say when you control the dictionary.
"In a written statement on Wednesday, Brazilian investigative journalist Leonardo Coutinho walked members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs through the findings of his years of work looking into Iran's penetration of Brazil.
In a statement titled "Brazil as an operational hub for Iran and Islamic Terrorism," Coutinho discusses not only his findings while working for Brazil's Veja magazine, but also Nisman's tireless work."
Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp52169 ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
It would not surprise me at all if this were an Iranian hit. Again, why is Obama and Kerry in bed with these terrorists and promoting their nuclear pogrom?
Posted by: Herman the Batty9794 ||
03/21/2015 9:34 Comments ||
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Coutinho, like the dead Nisman, is one brave journalist. There is nothing comparable to the two in the USA of today. As for the tri-border, the first intel report on the Hizbollah penetration of the Foz de Iguacu region arrived in Washington in 1988. Thus, intel agencies have had years to study the penetration and know damned well that the Iranians are a dangerous element.
[AnNahar] An assistant professor at a Turkish university has appealed to the government for help after his three teenage sons left to fight with 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.... group jihadists in Iraq and Syria, the Hurriyet daily reported Friday.
The professor, named only as Dr M. Sefik I., first lost his elder son, a dentistry student at Hacettepe University in Ankara, who on March 10 sent his parents a message asking them to pray for him before leaving Turkish territory.
The elder son then helped his 16-year-old twin brothers to cross the Turkish border to Syria, the paper added.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's National Intelligence Agency (MIT) has informed the family the three are believed to have first gone to Syria and then to Iraq to fight with the IS jihadists.
The parents have now appealed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the MIT for help in urging them to come back.
"We taught them to be human beings. We do not know how they arrived at that stage," said the father, whose place of work and full name was not given by the paper.
According to Hurriyet, over 2,300 Turks are believed to have joined the ranks of IS faceless myrmidons who have taken swathes of Iraq and Syria up to the Turkish border.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Look at the bright side there Professor; at least they didn't join ACORN.
[AnNahar] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's parliament has approved legislation to tighten the government's control over the Internet by allowing it to block websites without prior judicial authorization, official media said Friday. The Internet legislation is the most controversial article in a so-called omnibus bill containing legislation on vastly different topics that must be passed in full before the individual items become law.
The article passed by parliament is very similar to one it approved in September 2014 but was then overturned by the constitutional court one month later.
It allows Turkey's telecommunications agency to block a website deemed to be insulting, violating the right to privacy or endangering the stability of the state.
The providers of the site have four hours to take it down and a court order is then required to validate the blocking of the site after 48 hours. The providers of the site will face hefty fines if they fail too comply with the court orders.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have already been repeatedly criticized for using court orders to block critical websites.
The government blocked Twitter and YouTube in March 2014 after they were used to spread a torrent of audio recordings implicating the prime minister and his inner circle in an alleged corruption scandal. The ban on social media was later overturned by the top constitutional court.
The article will become law once the omnibus bill -- which contains articles also on urban development and the civil service -- is passed in full.
Erdogan in August 2014 compared social media to a "knife in the hand of a murderer", saying "I don't like to tweet, schmeet." However in February this he started tweeting from his own account.
"There, that's checked off the stupid list of things your enemies are trying to hold over your head, Effendi, your presidentness."
[AnNahar] U.S. President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... on Friday urged Tehran to return four U.S. citizens captive or missing in Iran, in the latest direct appeal to the country's leaders and citizens.
Obama called on Iran to "immediately release Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati and Jason Rezaian" and to "work cooperatively" to find Robert Levinson "so that they all can be safely reunited with their families as soon as possible."
Or what?
The message was timed to coincide with Nowruz, Iran's New Year holiday.
The U.S. and Iran have long been foes. Diplomatic ties were snapped in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the subsequent hostage crisis in Tehran, when US diplomats were held hostage by holy warrior students for 444 days.
The imprisonment and disappearance of the four Americans in Iran has been an added bone of contention, even as the two nations have begun a fledgling rapprochement as they negotiate a landmark deal to rein in Tehran's nuclear program in return for an easing of global sanctions.
Obama recently met the wife of Abedini, a Christian pastor who has been tossed in the slammer You have the right to remain silent... in Iran for more than two years, vowing to work to win his release.
Former U.S. Marine Hekmati and Washington Post journalist Rezaian are also in detention in Iran.
Levinson disappeared on March 9, 2007 during a visit to the Iranian island of Kish.
The United States recently announced a $5 million reward -- up from $1 million -- for information leading to the return of the former FBI agent.
The 67-year-old Levinson retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation 17 years ago.
The U.S. government has denied Levinson was working for the U.S. government when he vanished, but news reports have suggested the CIA had been paying him to gather intelligence.
Obama's appeals comes after a video message Thursday in which he urged Iran's people to grasp a "historic" chance to transform long-frayed ties.
The ongoing talks on Iran's nuclear program, he said, presented "the best opportunity in decades" to improve relations.
"My message to you --- the people of Iran --- is that together we have to speak up for the future we seek."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"My message to you --- the people of Iran --- is that together we have to speak up for the future we seek."
is it possible that this clown does not understand that the actual people of Iran DO seek a future - some tried and died for it not too long ago - it is the same future people of America seek - freedom from moronocracy.
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
03/21/2015 0:36 Comments ||
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#2
For domestic consumption, "The One" is angling to trade four U.S. Citizens for an Iranian-friendly agreement.
Interesting tradeoff that only an "Ultra Conservative" could argue with, and you don't want to be one of them, do you?
All of those Iranians demonstrating in the streets that whatshisname wouldn't lift a finger to support...
Note to self important, when you make a grand spectacle speech about support for our Muslim freedom loving friends, you better support those who respond...that does NOT mean cozying up to the Moslem Brotherhood and the worst thugs in the ME.
I've always wondered whether Val Jar supports the mullahs or the rest of Iran?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/21/2015 12:26 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] A U.S. Senate committee will vote April 14 on a bipartisan measure requiring President Barack Obama I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something... to submit any international nuclear deal with Iran for congressional review, the legislation's authors said Thursday.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker and top panel Democrat Robert Menendez agreed to push back a vote on the controversial bill until two weeks beyond the March 31 deadline negotiators set for the outlines of an accord between Iran and world powers aimed at preventing the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons.
"We have been working together very closely to ensure we have the strongest vote possible on the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, and to achieve that result we have agreed to a markup of the bill...as soon as we return on Tuesday, April 14," the senators said in a statement.
Earlier this year, amid intense congressional debate over how to pressure Tehran toward a lasting deal that bars it from developing a bomb, a group of Democrats warned they would not vote in support of the bipartisan bill until after March 24, to give the negotiations a chance to succeed.
The Corker-Menendez bill would require Obama to submit any deal between Iran and the so-called P5+1 -- Britannia, China, La Belle France, Russia, the United States and Germany -- to Congress, which would have 60 days to review the accord and, if it so decided, to reject it.
The legislation is distinct from a new sanctions effort that would tighten economic penalties on Iran in the event an accord is not achieved or Tehran violates the deal.
Thursday's announcement virtually assures that Congress will take no vote regarding Iran's nuclear program until after the March 31 deadline.
President Barack Obama's administration has warned that congressional action at the height of negotiations could infuriate Iran and provide it with an excuse to pull out of talks.
What use the Senatorial bill, even if matched by the same in the House and with enough votes to override a oresidential veto, if the president takes the thing straight to the UN Security Council first, and they approve it? Just because it isn't binding on the US does not mean enough of the rest of the world will also choose not to be bound by the thing. Once the omelette is made, Humpty Dumpty can't be put back together again.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"Review" ≠approval. Zero has won this one, and those he distains has lost.
Legacies, as we are about to find out, can be dangerous things.
[Ynet] A woman who federal Sherlocks say helped five other Bosnian immigrants funnel money and military supplies to terror groups in Iraq and Syria has made her first court appearance in the US after being tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in Germany.
Forty-two-year-old Jasminka Ramic was given a copy of the indictment against her during a five-minute hearing Thursday in St. Louis. Her detention hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Ramic and five co-defendants were indicted last month on charges of conspiracy and providing material support and resources to terrorists.
Ramic's court-appointed attorney, J. Christian Goeke, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named after Ramic's court appearance he hadn't yet had a chance to review the indictment and could not comment.
#1
Here's how bad this shit has got - Rockford is in IL but is as far froma Chitown mentality as is possible - YET we have this jihadi fundraiser and some wannabe bomber busted a couple years back trying to blow up a mall there - this is middle america - this is the ground they are claiming - large urban areas are already fucked
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
03/21/2015 1:30 Comments ||
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[DAWN] Speakers at a discussion held on Thursday said that 265 cases of forced conversion, mostly involving Hindu girls, had been reported across the country last year while about 3,000 applications for migration were pending approval with the Indian embassy.
They were unanimous in their opinion that the Constitution guaranteed equal rights to all citizens but clear discrimination was in practice when it came to rights of religious minorities.
In this regard, they referred to what they described as biased attitude of police and judges in dealing with cases that involved people of religious minorities, particularly, in cases of forced conversion.
They were speaking at the discussion on forced conversion organised by the South Asia Partnership Pakistain (SAP-PK) Sindh chapter at a local hotel.
They expressed alarm over reports that kidnapped and forcibly converted girls were often forced into prostitution after the courts decided the case in favour of the accused without giving a fair opportunity to the victim family to prove their case.
They also underlined the need for a Hindu marriage law and demanded that the government set up a separate shelter home for forcefully converted girls of religious minorities.
Sharing findings of her study, senior advocate Kalpana Devi said that apart from discrimination in implementation of the law, there were other factors, including eroding social values, poverty, illiteracy, increasing media and individual freedom that contributed to increasing incidents of forced conversion.
She appreciated the law on underage marriage (Sind Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013) and said that people could now at least challenge cases involving maidens of tender years like they did in the case of 14-year-old Anjali Kumari Meghwar. A manual on Hindu family laws, she said, was needed to be developed to provide protection to families.
According to her, cases of forced conversion have mostly been reported from Jacobabad, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Kashmore, Kandhkot, Ghotki, Larkana and Sukkur.
"Articles 36 and 24 of the Constitution do not provide protection to women of minority communities," she said, adding that discrimination could also be witnessed in educational textbooks that did not highlight the heroes belonging to religious minorities.
During the discussion, Mr Partab, father of a forcefully converted 14-year-old girl (Shunni) who was kidnapped from Hyderabad two years ago, shared his troubles with the audience and said that police had made no progress in the case so far. "The police have told us that now she is a convert and will never come back to you," he said.
Pakistain Moslem League-Functional MPA Nand Kumar said that the bill on forced conversion and marriage had been submitted to the provincial assembly and concerns over discrimination and hate content in textbooks had also been raised on the forum.
He regretted that leaders of religious minorities were not made part of the committee that prepared the draft of the 18th constitutional amendment.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday rejected Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi's petition challenging the detention order against him.
Justice Mahmood Maqbool Bajwa said after the hearing that in light of recent circumstances, it is possible that releasing Lakhvi could cause turmoil in the country.
Lakhvi had filed a petition with the Lahore High Court challenging the detention order passed against him by the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... home department.
The petition filed earlier through Advocate Rizwan Abbasi prayed to the court to set aside the detention of Lakhvi for being illegal and a violation of Islamabad High Court (IHC) order.
On Mar 13, 2015 the third time detention orders on Lakhvi were declared void by the IHC ─ a day after which the Punjab home department reordered his detention.
Lakhvi is among the seven persons charged with planning and helping carry out the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The six other men facing trial in Adiala Jail for their alleged involvement in Mumbai attacks are Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Younas Anjum, Jamil Ahmed, Mazhar Iqbal and Abdul Majid.
At the time of the attacks, Lakhvi was believed to be the operational head of the banned Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) that has been accused by India of carrying out the attacks in India's financial capital.
Lakhvi, along with Zarar Shah, was allegedly the key planner of the attack that killed 166 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Council of Gay Paree, the governing body of La Belle France's capital, unanimously adopted a proposal on Tuesday by the city's mayor, to award honourary citizenship to Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who was convicted for blasphemy in 2010 and has been on death row since.
According to a report published on The Tablet, mayor Anne Hidalgo's office said in a statement that a new trial should begin regarding Asia's case as on November 30 2014, the Supreme Court agreed to re-open the case.
"To support her in her fight against ignorance and obscurantism, Anne Hildago wishes that Gay Paree raises Asia Bibi to the level of honourary citizen, a rare distinction granted to the world's most emblematic defenders of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. ," the statement explained.
Mayor Hildago reiterated her commitment to continue her support for Bibi until a presidential pardon or a new court sentence restores her freedom. She also restated that Gay Paree would welcome Asia and her family as soon as this freedom is restored to her.
"To be an honorary citizen is to embody the values of Gay Paree, the values of liberty and tolerance. By this bold gesture, I wish to testify to the solidarity of Gay Paree towards the numerous women around the world of all confessions who are religious obscurantism and political extremism," Hildago said.
In December last year, the mayor unveiled a banner of Asia Bibi which has remained on display on the steps of the City Hall. At the unveiling, Hildago stressed: "We must support Asia Bibi, because women in all regions of the world are the first victims of an order which theocrats, who twist the messages of all religions, try to impose."
The blasphemy allegations against Bibi date back to June 2009.
Bibi was working in a field when she was asked to fetch water. Moslem women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Moslem she was unfit to touch the water bowl. A few days later the women went to a local holy man and put forward the blasphemy allegations.
Last year, Bibi's husband Ashiq Masih had written to the president to ask for her to be pardoned and allowed to move to La Belle France.
"We are convinced that Asia will only be saved from being hanged if the venerable President (Mamnoon) Hussain grants her a pardon. No one should be killed for drinking a glass of water," husband Ashiq Masih wrote in an open letter dated November 17.
Gay Paree mayor Anne Hidalgo had said that the couple is welcomed in the city, and Masih quoted his wife as saying she sent her "deepest thanks to you Madame Mayor, and to all the kind people of Gay Paree and across the world".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[IraqiNews.com] On Wednesday, head of the Arab tribe al-Hadidi called Kurdistan to join the borders of their areas, expressing his tribe's readiness to fight ISIS along with the parliamentary Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
The presidency of the province said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, "President of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... met today with a delegation from the Arab clan al-Hadidi headed by Ahmed Mohammed al-Orchani," indicating that, "Al-Orchani expressed his thanks to the president of Kurdistan and the Peshmerga fighters who have made great sacrifices to liberate their lands from ISIS control."
According to the statement, the head of al-Hadidi tribe called Barzani to "join borders with the Kurdish region," while expressed willingness to contribute to the protection of their areas along with the Peshmerga forces.
[IraqiNews.com] The representative of the British President of the government for the security affairs of Kurdistan Region , General Simon Mile said on Thursday, on the support of his government for the Kurdish Peshmarga forces.
As pointed out that the Kurdish forces deserve all the support and assistance, equipment and advanced weapons, stressed that the national security interests requires the British presence in Kurdistan and Peshmarga's participation in the war against ISIS.
A statement of the presidency of Kurdistan Regional Government received by IraqiNews.com cited "Kurdistan Region Security Council adviser , Masrur Barzani met on Wednesday, Mile and his accompanying delegation, which included Gen. Tom Beckett and British Consul General in Erbil , Ancaus Mekki and a number of military officials.
Mile expressed during the meeting, which came on the occasion of the end of his duties and the introducing his successor Tom Beckett, thanks to the security of Kurdistan Regional Advisor for the facilities provided to him during his work in Kurdistan Region as representatives of the British Prime Minister for the security of the region.
Gen. Mile praised the heroic acts of Peshmarga in the war against ISIS, stressing his country's continued support for Peshmarga troops and providing the necessary assistance to them.
For his part, Barzani praised according to the statement, the role of Gen. Simon Mile during the performance of his duties in Kurdistan region, and wished success for Gen. Tom Beckett, who will succeed Mile and expressed readiness to provide the necessary support for the success of his duties in Kurdistan.
[IraqiNews.com] The Iraqi Minister of Finance confirmed that the Kurdistan Regional Government received $ 420 million from the Federal Central Government as merits for the Kurdistan Region from the Oil revenues.
Zibari stressed in a press statement "These funds confirm that both sides Baghdad and Kurdistan Region are committed to oil agreement concluded by both sides."
This payment for the Kurdistan Regional Government from the CG comes few days before an expected visit for a delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government to Baghdad in order to discuss implementation of the oil agreement.
"Difficulties with the Tikrit operation underscore how unlikely it is that the Iraqi military will be in any position soon to launch an assault to recapture Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, which fell to the Islamic State last June. A U.S. military officer in February created a stir when he told reporters at the Pentagon that such an assault might come as soon as April. Pentagon officials later acknowledged that Iraqi troops might not be in such a position before the fall.
How to proceed in Tikrit has left the government and the militias split. Iraqi officials say a full frontal assault against the Islamic State forces might succeed but would come at a heavy cost. Commanders of Iraq's special operation forces, which would lead such a charge, are opposed to it.
The Shiite militias come to the battle with a sectarian zeal and are said to be untroubled by the prospect of casualties. Tikrit is the hometown of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whom most Shiites detest for his repression of their sect. It is also the scene last summer of a notorious massacre of 1,000 Shiite air force recruits, whose video-recorded deaths at the hands of the Islamic State were widely distributed on the Internet. Hadi al Ameri, the leader of one of the militias, the Badr Organization, openly referred to the retaking of Tikrit as "revenge for Speicher," the military camp where the recruits were murdered."
[RUDAW.NET] Inflammatory new 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.... footage purportedly showing three Peshmerga being beheaded has drawn the wrath of a senior Kurdish statesman who said "this terror will only strengthen our resolve."
The release Thursday night of footage showing Kurdish-speaking members of the Islamic State decapitating three members of the Kurdish forces prompted Barham Salih, former prime minister of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), to declare this Saturday's annual New Year celebration as "Newroz of defiance."
"This should turn people against Daesh. Kurds should unite in support of Peshmerga martyr families and campaign for more effective international assistance to our people," Salih said.
In the ISIS video, forces of Evil said in Kurdish: "This is the result of Peshmerga attacking our non-combatant areas".
Salih went on to say, "Newroz should be commemorated in a different way -- Newroz is the day when Kawa, the Kurdish Peshmerga of his time, stood against Zuhak the tyrant."
"This Newroz should be celebrated for affirming the united message of Kurds against Daesh. Support the Peshmerga and Shehidan [martyr] families."
Salih summed up this year's attitude in Kurdistan as a "Newroz of defiance".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] Sunni tribes in Iraq's embattled Anbar province have formed their first paramilitary force, a militia of mostly volunteer fighters whose aim is to drive out the 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.... (ISIS) from their areas.
The volunteer army has been formed without direct support from Iraq's predominantly Shiite government, which the tribes accuse of sidelining Sunni calls for armament.
"These are local tribal forces formed to clear the area of ISIS krazed killers," said a front man for the militia.
"We ask the government to support these forces, financially in particular. We have been volunteers for the past six months and many more are on their way to join us," he added.
The group, which had been operating away from the public eye in the fighting in Anbar that has raged since much of last year, appeared on television for the first time in a Rudaw report.
"This is a special group supported by the tribes," said an official coordinating the militia. "We have had casualties from the battles against ISIS. The Iraqi government has not supported us in any way in the fight so far. Former Iraqi Army officers have been instructing the group," he explained.
The Sunni force is similar to the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militia and is being trained at a military camp, where fighters say they are ready to defend their areas against ISIS or any other attacker.
"We ask the government to support the group, which is mainly made of volunteers," an official from the militia said, as he called on more volunteers to join.
"The training sessions are focused on how to use heavy machine guns and even how to defuse explosives. We are ready to defend our lands to the very last man," he vowed.
Anbar has been a war zone since much of last year as ISIS intensified efforts to capture the remaining areas in what is Iraq's largest province.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[The Right Scoop] There's a powerful Western country that's coming to the aid of Israel in countering Champ's mad dash to give Iran nukes, and it might surprise you to find out who it is.
WSJ excerpt: France is again adopting the toughest line against Iran in negotiations aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear program, potentially placing Paris at odds with the Champ regime as a diplomatic deadline to forge an agreement approaches at month-end.
President Champ called French President Francois Hollande on Friday to discuss the Iran diplomacy and try to unify their positions. The presidents "reaffirmed their commitment" to a deal "while noting that Iran must take steps to resolve several remaining issues," the White House said.
French diplomats have been publicly pressing the U.S. and other world powers not to give ground on key elements--particularly the speed of lifting U.N. sanctions and the pledge to constrain Iran's nuclear research work--ahead of the March 31 target.
#1
Gad, can you imagine, the French are becoming the last bastion of common sense in the Western World?
Who would have thought, after years of namby pamby sissy boy suck up to dictators and thugs, that France suddenly decides that all of this jihadi stuff is a treat to western society, not to mention the wine industry in Bordeaux and croissants in Lyon?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/21/2015 12:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
France now has more balls in foreign policy than does the US? Thanks Obama!
"The issue of an Iranian nuclear strike that could do immense damage to the United States was raised in Israel this week in an opinion piece by U.S. analyst Peter Vincent Pry warning of the possibility of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack targeting the United States. Doomed I tell you. We're DOOOOOMED !
In the article, published on the Israeli website Arutz Sheva, Pry warned that "Iranian military documents describe such a scenario -- including a recently translated Iranian military textbook that endorses nuclear EMP attack against the United States."
A source said that the textbook discusses an EMP attack on America in 20 different places, the Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard reported Thursday.
Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks, who is leading an effort to protect the U.S. electric grid from an EMP attack, has reportedly made similar claims based on the document translated by military authorities. A threat once dismissed by critics, Bedard notes, "recent moves by Iran and North Korea have given credibility to the potential EMP threat from an atmospheric nuclear explosion over the U.S."
Latest News Update
Pry has suggested ways for Iran to deliver a nuclear attack including a ship launched off the East Coast, via a satellite or utilizing a missile." The change we've been waiting for?
Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp52169 ||
03/21/2015 11:50 ||
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#1
With an Obama at the lead, it becomes possible. Any other Prez would authorize a non-EMP nuke attack on the perp basically reducing the target back to the stone age.
[AnNahar] A high-ranking French military delegation is expected to arrive in Beirut on Friday to commence training of Lebanese army personnel on the use of weapons to be delivered by Gay Paree under $3 billion Saudi grant.
Didn't they try to do that once upon a time?
According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, the delegation will stay in Leb for a long time as the "deal requires a specialized follow up by La Belle France."
A military source told the daily that "Gay Paree is keen to deliver the Lebanese army the requested arms in accordance with its staunch support to Leb and an international decision to boost the capabilities of the military."
The source noted that the "Saudi grant is in the process of implementation after the army and the French company that is in charge of delivering arms to Leb finalized the deal."
The source pointed out that "the arms delivery will extend to a three-year period."
On Wednesday, a meeting was held in Yarze between Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji and a prominent official from the French company ODAS, which is in charge of promoting defense sales in 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... , and the accompanying delegation.
A military source said in comments to al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... newspaper that a "specialized committee was formed from the two sides to coordinate the arming of the military institution."
"The arms that the French company will deliver to Leb are new and not used."
The source continued: "The zero-hour to equip the Lebanese army began on March 2."
Saudi Arabia in 2013 announced it would give the Lebanese army $3 billion to purchase weapons and equipment from La Belle France.
In August, the kingdom offered another $1 billion in funds to allow the army to purchase supplies immediately.
Several allies of Leb pledged to step up efforts to bolster its armed forces as the threat from jihadists in the region grows.
[AnNahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... has fired two top intelligence chiefs after a fight between the two officials, a high-ranking security source in Damascus told AFP on Friday.
"General Rustom Ghazaleh, head of political intelligence, and General Rafiq Shehadeh, head of military intelligence, were fired at the beginning of the week by President Assad after a violent dispute between the two men," the source said.
Ghazaleh has been replaced by his former deputy, Nazih Hassoun, with Mohammed Mahalla taking over as military intelligence chief, the source added.
The two men were replaced after a violent argument over Ghazaleh's involvement in the southern front of the conflict in Syria, according to the source. Ghazaleh had reportedly sought greater involvement in the battle against rebel fighters in southern Daraa province, where he was born. oBut Shehadeh "was categorically opposed to him taking part in the battle" being waged in the area by regime troops backed by Leb's 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... , the source said.
"A violent disagreement erupted and Shehadeh's men beat up Ghazaleh badly," the source said.
Ghazaleh was briefly hospitalized after the incident two weeks ago, but was readmitted later on suffering complications related to hypertension. The source said Ghazaleh was currently in "critical condition".
Ghazaleh and Shehadeh both took their posts in July 2012, after being promoted following a bombing that killed four top regime figures.
Shehadeh was previously head of military intelligence in central Homs province, an early bastion of the opposition to Assad's regime.
Ghazaleh was head of military security in Damascus before his 2012 promotion. He is considered a strongman of Assad, since he became president in 2000, succeeding his father Hafez.
In 2002, Ghazaleh was named head of Syrian military intelligence in Leb, where he was accused of intervening extensively in the country's political affairs. He was also frequently named by witnesses as a suspect in the planning of the 2005 liquidation of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, though he has not been indicted by the international tribunal prosecuting the murder.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
"General Rustom Ghazaleh, head of political intelligence, and General Rafiq Shehadeh, head of military intelligence, were fired at the beginning of the week by President Assad after a violent dispute between the two men,"
Now Gentlemen, we will have none of that in Syria, do want to see the violence spread ?
Posted by: Herman the Batty9794 ||
03/21/2015 9:21 Comments ||
Top||
Is this a way of smuggling dangerous materials to dangerous people, and therefore WoT, or is this a matter of poor quality materials, and therefore unimportant?
[AnNahar] Customs agents at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport seized on Friday a number of crates of sanitary pads that contained radioactive material. "Edna! What's that glowing under the covers?" "Just you never mind Harold, and don't even think of touching me tonight."
The Finance Ministry announced that 30 crates were confiscated, while Minister Ali Hassan Khalil had ordered that samples be referred to the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission for testing.
He also ordered the concerned authorities to send the shipment back to the exporting country, which was not named in the Ministry statement.
In February, customs agents at Rafik Hariri International Airport discovered radioactive material in a shipment of 98 crates of mobile phone covers that were imported from China.
On January 5, Khalil revealed that toxic radioactive material was discovered in food products, narcotic pills, and industrial machines that were being smuggled at the airport and Beirut Port.
#2
I dunno but I am a thinkin its a plot by the Juices to transmit the vanshing penis virus
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
03/21/2015 2:05 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Decades ago, a truck carrying waste from a radiation oncology facility crashed. All that was in it was pads and bandages and so forth. A Detroit paper headlined that it "failed to explode". Point is, this could be nothing more than execrable quality control. Maybe the stuff was made in China, like the pet food with melamine.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/21/2015 7:42 Comments ||
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#4
Khalil revealed that toxic radioactive material was discovered in food products, narcotic pills, and industrial machines.
So you folks passed through Beirut's Rafik Harari International on your way to the U.S.
Why yes we did, how did you know ?
Posted by: Herman the Batty9794 ||
03/21/2015 9:13 Comments ||
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#5
Wait!!! Lebanon has an Atomic Energy Commission ? WTF ?
How can that be unless it's two kids with a Geiger counter and an etch-a-sketch?
#6
Point is, this could be nothing more than execrable quality control. Maybe the stuff was made in China, like the pet food with melamine.
That was precisely my question, Richard. Lebanon has serious problems with consumer product quality control. There are frequent arrests for warehouses full of overaged medicines or dangerously contaminated chickens packaged for sale.
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.
[ARABNEWS] Hundreds of shocked tourists disembarked Friday in Spain after their luxury cruise was cut short by a massacre in a Tunisian museum that killed 12 of their fellow passengers.
Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh
"In a written statement on Wednesday, Brazilian investigative journalist Leonardo Coutinho walked members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs through the findings of his years of work looking into Iran's penetration of Brazil.
[DAWN] Speakers at a discussion held on Thursday said that 265 cases of forced conversion, mostly involving Hindu girls, had been reported across the country last year while about 3,000 applications for migration were pending approval with the Indian embassy.
[DAWN] The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday rejected Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi's petition challenging the detention order against him.
[DAWN] The Council of 
Massoud Barzani
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
