from ASIA TIMES
Investors bought less an a third of the 3.5 billion Egyptian pounds (US$580 million) worth of Treasury bills offered to the market on January 22, a red flag warning that Egypt's foreign exchange position is close to the brink...
The rush out of the Egyptian pound is so rapid that Egyptian investors refuse to hold debt in their own national currency, even at a 16% yield. After Islamist parties won more three-quarters of the seats in recent parliamentary elections... the business elite that prospered under military rule is counting the days before exile...It seems unlikely that Egypt's central bank will be able to prevent a banana-republic devaluation of the Egyptian pound, and a sharp rise in prices for a population of whom half barely consumes enough to prevent starvation. The difference between Egypt and a banana republic, though, is the bananas: unlike the bankrupt Latin Americans, who exported food, Egypt imports half its caloric consumption
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Deputies in Egypt's first post-revolution parliament on Monday elected Saad al-Katatni, a leading member of the powerful Moslem Brüderbund, as speaker.
Katatni won 399 votes out of 496 in the first session of the lower house of parliament since it was dissolved following a popular uprising that ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
"We want to build a new Egypt, a constitutional, democratic and modern Egypt," Katatni said in a speech.
Perhaps they'll even have food...
"Democracy will be the source of our parliament's power," he added in remarks greeted with applause.
Katatni, 59, has been serving as the secretary general of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the once-banned Moslem Brüderbund, which won 47 percent of seats in the first free elections since the revolt.
Egypt's Islamists clinched more than two thirds of seats in the lower house, or People's Assembly, in the elections which were held in phases between November and early January.
"We say to the Egyptian people and to the world that our revolution continues," said Katatni to more applause. "Our eyes will not shut until our revolution is completed, with all its goals.
"We will not betray the blood of the deaders or their sacrifices," Katatni said of the hundreds who died in mass nationwide protests calling for democratic change.
The Brotherhood, Egypt's best organised political grouping, had been widely expected to triumph in the polls but the surge by Al-Nur and high visibility of Salafi movements have raised fears about civil liberties and religious freedom. Katatni sought to allay these fears.
"I stress that we respect freedom of opinion, opinions of the other. These are the pillars of democracy," he told deputies.
"This critical phase, in which your parliament was created, pushes us towards cooperation," he said.
The 508-member assembly was dissolved in February by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that took power when Mubarak was forced to step down.
Elections for parliament's upper house, the Shura Council, are to begin later this month and end in February. Then the two chambers will choose a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution.
"We must cooperate with our colleagues in the Shura Council to choose the committee that will draft a constitution that expresses all Egyptians," Katatni said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... denied Monday that it had agreed that Seif al-Islam, slain Libyan dictator Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... 's most prominent son, can be tried in Libya.
"The ICC has made no decision on this matter," court front man Fadi el-Abdallah told AFP in response to a claim by Libya's Justice Minister Ali H'mida Ashur that Seif would be judged by a Libyan court.
Since when is it their decision?
The ICC said earlier in a Twitter message that it had received a reply from the Libyan authorities to questions asked by its judges by a Monday deadline.
"The ICC has accepted that Seif al-Islam will be tried in Libya by the Libyan judiciary," Ashur told AFP. "The trial will take place in Libya. The Libyan justice is competent and we gave the file (on Seif) to the ICC on Friday."
Seif, 39, who was placed in durance vile on November 19, is in the custody of the military council of Zintan, a town 180 kilometres (110 miles), southwest of Tripoli. He is wanted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the conflict in Libya.
They can have him when the Libyans are done, assuming there is anything left.
This article starring:
Seif al-Islam
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
The Libyans do not belong to the ICC, so this rather bizarre dance could be ended by them immediately by declaring the villains deceased, with no permission to the ICC to investigate.
[Emirates 24/7] Libya said Monday the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... has accepted that Seif Al Islam, slain dictator Moamer Qadaffy's son, will be tried by Libyans, a claim which was quickly denied by the tribunal.
"The ICC has accepted that Seif al-Islam will be tried in Libya by the Libyan judiciary," Libya's Justice Minister Ali H'mida Ashur told AFP.
"The trial will take place in Libya. The Libyan justice is competent and we gave the file (on Seif) to the ICC on Friday," Ashur added.
The Hague-based ICC, however, denied Ashur's claims.
"The ICC has made no decision on this matter," court front man Fadi el-Abdallah told AFP.
Seif, who was locked away on November 19, is in the custody of the military council of Zintan, a town 180 kilometres (110 miles), southwest of Tripoli.
He is also wanted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the conflict in Libya.
The ICC had given Libya until January 23 to mull the possible handing over of Seif al-Islam.
Last month ICC judges had called on Libya's new leaders to inform them as a matter of urgency if and when they intend to hand over Seif and set a January 10 deadline for a response.
But later in a letter, Libya asked for an extension, citing security situation in the country even as it expressed its intentions to prosecute Seif on Libyan soil.
The New-York based Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... , in its World Report 2012, has raised concerns over Libya's judicial system.
"Libya's interim government and its international supporters should make it an urgent priority to build a functioning justice system and begin legal reform that protects human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... after Moamer Qadaffy," the group said in the report.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch said in the report that "independent courts and the rule of law will help ensure stability in a country emerging from four decades of dictatorship and eight months of war."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Secretary General of what is called the Southern Movement, Nasser Al-Khabji, has strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! allegations of news reports that Al-Qaeda captured Al-Habilain town of the southern Lahj province.
Al-Khabji slammed media outlets that published news of Al-Qaeda control over Al-Habilain, saying that these outlets promote to the plans of the outgoing President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
He reaffirmed that Al-Habilain, Radfan and Dhala'a are absolutely free of Al-Qaeda, citing that Al-Qaeda could not exist in such areas.
He urged news hounds not to publish such false reports, calling on news agency, TV channels and newspapers to visit these regions to make sure the nonexistence of Al-Qaeda.
"Those media outlets belonging to the regime are attempting to raise such false allegations," he added. "Al-Qaeda is supported by some military commanders in Sana'a."
A Kuwaiti newspaper, Alsyaisah, that is known of its defense about the Yemeni regime had quoted local sources of Lahj as saying that 300 Al-Qaeda cut-throats seized control of Al-Habilain.
It further said that the cut-throats declared the town as an Islamic emirate, citing that the forces of Evil hinted that they were planning to head to the port city of Aden.
The newspaper further said that the cut-throats led by Adel Hardba gave the officers and troops existed in the town a 24 deadline to leave and surrender their weapons.
A Yemeni activist, Abdul-Elah Al-Radfani, emphasized that the outgoing regime was behind rumors of Al-Qaeda control on Al-Habilain, saying the regime used to intimidate some countries with Al-Qaeda card.
Armed groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda calling itself as "the Islamic Jihad Group" took over last week an ancient town of Rada'a, and captured its archeological castle and mosque.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] The military Committee tasked with defusing tensions and clearing armed manifestations in the central Yemeni cities, held a meeting, attended by Gulf Cooperation Council states' and United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... Permanent members' ambassadors in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a.
In a statement released following the meeting, the committee ordered the military units whether defected or loyal to outgoing President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... to release all prisoners with charges related to last year's events.
The release order came a day after Saleh's departure for US and two days following passing the controversial immunity law by Parliament.
The order is likely to spark enrage among the peaceful popular protesters who are adamant to put on trial everyone involved in killing the revolution's deaders and consider the opposition a partner of the toppled regime for signing the GCC deal and endorsing passing the immunity law for Saleh and his aides.
The Committee praised the GCC states' and UN permanent members' efforts aimed to defuse the year-long political dilemma and preserve the country's stability, unity and security.
Massive popular protests calling for Saleh's ouster combined by al-Qaeda anarchy in the south and Shiite rebellion in the far north has shaken Yemen to the bone, sending the poor state's economy to the brink of collapse and raising fears of the possibility of turning the fragmented-country into a failed state.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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"The Islamic universities and madrassas funded by Saudi Arabia are all seeking to make a more conservative and violent form if Islam popular in Bangladesh."
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/24/2012 13:40 ||
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#1
A big problem with Islamic radicalism in Bangladesh is that they are an entirely different ethnic group than those found in Pakistan. They are singularly Bengali.
Another difference is that Islam in Bangladesh leans heavily to Sufism, which leans heavily to intellectualism and "love of Allah" rather than fear and hate. The Wahhabis and Salafists really hate the Sufis, but rarely make any inroads on them, coming across as the ignorant barbarians they are.
Add to that for many years, Bangladesh was socialist, and embraced secular government which they still respect, even if a lot of the socialism has gone out the window, thankfully.
#2
I'm really out of my "swim lane" here, but I'll support the Bangladeshis in this dust up. They've endured so much hardship and strife due to their geographical location; whereas the Saudi's have no such challenges to say the least. I always go with the underdog, especially if bullying, etc., is driving the persecution train.
#3
ION TOPIX > SAUDI ARABIAN CONFLICT [Shia local mass protests] MOST UNDER-REPORTED.
and
* SAME > SAUDI ARABIA: AL-QAEDA'S PENINSULAR THREAT.
Riyadh = KSA Royals slowly but steadily getting surrounded - Shia Iran on one side, AQAP/AQIY + AQIM + Egypt, Libyuhn, etc. "Arab Spring(s)" on the other.
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > QATAR ISOLATED IN ARAB LEAGUE.
[Bangla Daily Star] There should be no room for religious fanaticism in the army, Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Md Mainul Islam said yesterday.
Speaking at a seminar on the theme, "National Security Strategy for Bangladesh", he also warned that those who were behind the recent "coup attempt" to topple the government would be tracked down, the private television channel ATN Bangla reported.
Lt Gen (retd) ATM Zahirul Alam was the keynote speaker at the discussion, organised by Centre for Security and Development Studies (CSDS).
Some former bigwigs, including ex-army chiefs, were present at the seminar, held at the Retired Armed Officers Welfare Association (Raowa) Club in the capital.
Referring to the latest developments in the army, Lt Gen Mainul said some religious bigots had tried to indoctrinate the pious officers in a planned manner. They were so clever that they had targeted the deeply religious officers as a way of carrying out their coup plot. He cautioned that these kinds of schemes must not be allowed to succeed.
In a rare presser on Thursday, the army said it had foiled a "coup attempt to overthrow the present democratic government".
A band of religious fanatics, comprising mid-ranking officers and their retired colleagues, sought to "disrupt democracy by creating anarchy in the army through cashing in on the religious fervour of others".
In his address yesterday, Mainul said, "We all are pious, and the meaning of our secularism is [that] each and everyone will follow his or her own religion but no one will intervene in the religion of others."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said on Monday he had ordered a domestic Islamist group to disband, accusing it of training its members for "armed struggle".
Speaking on a visit to Mantes-la-Jolie in northwestern La Belle France, Gueant said: "It is unacceptable in our country that groups train people for armed struggle, for any opportunity for anti-establishment terrorism to present itself."
A front man for the group, known as Forsane Alizza or "the Knights of Pride", denied any involvement in violence, and accused the minister of justifying his order through "pure slander and defamation".
The official Forsane Alizza website urges supporters to attend a series of meetings planned in eight major French cities on Wednesday this week to recruit people "with all skills, but especially soldiers".
"In effect we have, thanks to God, brothers and sisters with all sorts of skills in our ranks and it is more brothers on the ground that we need this time," the message explained.
"So if you enjoy martial arts and can turn up quickly when we call on you, then your profile is what we are looking for, if God wills it," continues the site, which any web-user can view and is not encrypted.
Written in French and Arabic, the site describes its goals as: "Prayer for Allah, prayer for monotheism, prayer for jihad and prayer for the caliphate."
"We reject the entire 'democratic' system. It is out of the question to support anyone of any kind that stands in any election. We support our brother mujahedeen wherever they are in the world," the site declares.
The Forsane Alizza front man, Mohammed Achamlane, confirmed to Agence La Belle France Presse that he had received an order from the interior ministry demanding that his movement be dissolved and giving him 10 days to respond.
He denied that the use of the term "soldiers" for recruits was a sign of violent intent, said: "The word 'soldier' is also used by singers. It doesn't automatically mean an armed soldier in a military uniform."
Forsane Alizza is thought to be a small group but it has a history of public protest. In July 2010 a group of masked hard boyz demonstrated outside a French branch of fast food chain McDonald's, accusing it of backing Israel.
Achamlane has received suspended prison terms for his role in some protests and in promoting the group online. Last year, he publicly burned a copy of the French penal code in protest at a law banning full-face Islamic veils.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"It is unacceptable in our country that groups train people for armed struggle.."
I guess I would be more upset with the actual lighting all the cars on fire annually. I can't say that I would be a big fan of the rape epidemic either. Might frown upon the serious upswing in "honor" killings. What a little training for armed conflict among amis?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/24/2012 0:33 Comments ||
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The Justice Department on Monday charged a former CIA officer with repeatedly leaking classified information, including the identities of agency operatives involved in the capture and interrogation of alleged terrorists.
The case against John Kiriakou, who also served as a senior Senate aide, extends the Obama administration's crackdown on disclosures of national security secrets. Kiriakou, 47, is the sixth target of a leaks-related prosecution since President Obama took office, exceeding the total number of comparable prosecutions under all previous administrations combined, legal experts said. The Establishment must be in awe. I wonder why didn't Bush do it? Media cruxifiction?
Kiriakou, who was among the first to go public with details about the CIA's use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation measures, was charged with disclosing classified information to reporters and lying to the agency about the origin of other sensitive material he published in a book. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
In its criminal filing, the Justice Department obscured many of the details of Kiriakou's alleged disclosures. But the document suggests that Kiriakou was a source for stories by the New York Times and other news organizations in 2008 and 2009 about some of the agency's most sensitive operations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. These include the capture of alleged al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaida and the interrogation of the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Oh, so he was leaking stuff on Zero's watch. The nerve!
The Justice Department said that the information Kiriakou supplied to journalists also contributed to a subsequent security breach at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, enabling defense attorneys there to obtain photographs of CIA operatives suspected of being involved in harsh interrogations. Some of the pictures were subsequently discovered in the cells of high-value detainees. So the full extent of the damage is not yet known?
In an appearance in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on Monday afternoon, Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson set bond at $250,000 for Kiriakou, who was also forced to surrender his passport and restrict his travel to the Washington area.
The surge in such prosecutions is seen as a measure of the Obama administration's determination to root out leaks, but it may also reflect the government's expanded ability to mine suspects' e-mail accounts and other digital devices for incriminating evidence. The complaint filed Monday includes numerous passages apparently taken from Kiriakou's e-mail exchanges with reporters as well as former CIA colleagues.
Critics warn that the crackdown will erode the ability of news organizations to expose what the critics consider as government abuses. Steven Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy issues at the Federation of American Scientists, noted that Kiriakou is accused of being a source on stories about CIA interrogation measures that Obama described as torture. Oh, that's ironic. Except it's not - Obumble is going after those who embarrassed him.
"The Justice Department has initiated no prosecutions concerning extreme interrogation methods," Aftergood said. "But it is now prosecuting an individual who helped bring such events to public light. Is that what we want?" 'Fraid so, Steven.
CIA Director David H. Petraeus issued a statement to the agency's workforce on Monday in which he said that he could not comment on the details of the case against Kiriakou but warned that "the illegal passage of secrets is an abuse of trust that may put lives in jeopardy."
The Washington Post quoted Kiriaku several times between 2007 and 2009 but Monday's charges make no reference to Post articles. Pre-emptive defense.
Investigators believe that defense attorneys obtained the photos after learning the identities of CIA operatives from a journalist who had been in contact with Kiriakou. The photographs, which included shots taken surreptitiously outside CIA employees' homes, were shown to the detainees as part of an effort by defense attorneys to identify participants in CIA interrogations and potentially call them as witnesses in terrorism trials. Maybe the journalist was the one who leaked the identities. Maybe Kiriakou will roll on the newshound.
The Guantanamo defense teams, which included attorneys from the ACLU, have been cleared of any wrongdoing in obtaining or sharing the photos, according to the Justice Department complaint. Somehow, that does not surprise me. So that leaves the journalist.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/24/2012 05:44 ||
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#1
This is called a Justice Department operation, but is it driven by forces inside the new Petraus CIA?
#4
After all of the good intel sources we lost due to leaks to the NYT from sources that had to be in the CIA, I was wondering when a DCI would step up and start putting the screws to these clowns that ruined some excellent intel operations.
Of course, I am also waiting for someone to decide that PUBLISHING known secrets is culpible and decide to go after the NYT and the WaPo
I might wait till hell freezes over.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/24/2012 11:53 Comments ||
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#5
Senator Kerry's (D-Lurch) investigative aide on Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
surprised?
*spit*
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2012 15:23 Comments ||
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#8
...you know that if the candidates arrive at the convention and no one has the votes for a first round nomination, it's up to the delegates. It's not like drafting a general hasn't happened before.
ISLAMABAD: The chief witness in a secret memo scandal that threatens to bring down the president will not travel to Pakistan to testify, claiming the government has set a trap to kill him prevent him from leaving, his lawyer said Monday.
Mansoor Ijaz offered to record his testimony and submit it to a Supreme Court commission that is investigating the scandal, said lawyer Akram Sheikh. Ijaz, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, was scheduled to travel to Pakistan to appear before the commission on Tuesday but had bickered with the government over who would guarantee his safety.
Safety being more than an academic issue in Pakistain...
Ijaz has accused the Pakistani government of orchestrating a memo, which he delivered to the US last year, asking Washington to help stop a supposed military coup following the American raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. The Pakistani government has denied any involvement.
The army was outraged by the memo and denied it ever intended to carry out a coup. It successfully pushed the Supreme Court to investigate against the wishes of the government, which said the matter was already being probed by the parliament.
No doubt the Pak government learned all about 'independent inspector generals' from Eric Holder...
Ijaz has claimed the Supreme Court commission ordered the military to guarantee his security while in Pakistan, but the government has said the job was the responsibility of the Interior Ministry. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has warned Ijaz could be prevented from leaving the country if requested by the parliamentary committee probing the scandal.
It seems like a well-orchestrated trap to kill him hold Mansoor Ijaz indefinitely in Pakistan, said Sheikh, his lawyer.
Ijaz has accused the former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, of crafting the memo with the support of President Asif Ali Zardari. Both men have denied any connection to the memo, although Haqqani resigned in the wake of the scandal. The Supreme Court has prevented the former envoy from leaving the country while it is investigating the scandal.
Some observers have questioned Ijazs credibility. Those questions increased last week after a music video surfaced in which Ijaz acted as a commentator for a female wrestling match in which both women eventually ripped off their bikinis. Ijaz claimed he didnt know there would be nudity in the video.
One of the reasons the memo scandal has generated so much controversy is the rampant anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. The memo offered to replace Pakistans national security leadership with people favorable to the US in return for help from Washington in stopping the supposed coup.
The US has provided Pakistan with billions of dollars over the past decade to help fight the Taleban and Al-Qaeda, but relations have always been defined by a lack of trust.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Democracy does not stand a chance whilst the army still have the Zia mindset.
The Likes of Hamid Gul and Beg have too much power in Pakistan.
[Dawn] Pakistain's military on Monday rejected US findings on a Nov. 26 NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... cross-border air attack that killed 24 Pak soldiers and plunged relations to a low point.
"Pakistain does not agree with several portions and findings of the investigation report, as these are factually not correct," the military said in a statement.
The US report released on Dec. 22 found both American and Pak forces were to blame for the border incident, inflaming already strained ties.
"Affixing partial responsibility of the incident on Pakistain is therefore unjustified and unacceptable," said the statement.
"The fundamental cause of the incident of 26th November, 2011, was the failure of U.S./ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) to share its near-border operation with Pakistain at any level."
Pakistain responded to the attack by shutting down ground routes to supply US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan and forced the United States to vacate an air base used to launch drone flights.
Last week, a senior Pak security official told Rooters the routes would be reopened, but heavy tariffs would be imposed.
The army had earlier in December 2011 rejected key findings from the US investigation into air strikes and had said the report was unlikely to repair the severely damaged relationship between the two countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Suspend their payroll indefinitely.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/24/2012 0:28 Comments ||
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#2
Let's agree to disagree.
Posted by: Alistaire Spawn of the Mongol Horde3619 ||
01/24/2012 3:22 Comments ||
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#3
Reduce their aid payments by twice the value of the tariffs.
[Dawn] Lt General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), held a secret meeting with former President General (retired) Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... in Dubai advising him not to visit Pakistain, sources told DawnNews on Monday.
"General Pasha, who has remained very close to the former president, held a meeting with him (Musharraf) in Dubai and advised him not to return to the country as the situation is not conducive for his return," said an insider while requesting anonymity from this correspondent.
The Senate on Monday also passed a resolution demanding the arrest of the former military ruler on his return. Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. also announced that Musharraf would be placed in long-term storage the day he landed in Pakistain.
The sources claim that Pasha strictly advised Musharraf to not to return.
It is yet not clear whether the meeting was held on the directions of the ruling Pakistain People's Party government or if it was a private meeting. However the sources insist that it was a private meeting between the two.
The sources also claim that Pasha enjoys a long history of relations with the former dictator.
In 2008, during the last year of Musharraf as president, Pasha was appointed to the key posting of Director General (DG) of Military Operations Directorate. Later General Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... , after becoming the chief of Army Staff, promoted him as Lt Gen and appointed him the chief of the ISI.
Currently two important cases against Pervez Musharraf have been registered in Pakistain. An Anti Terrorists Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi has already declared Musharraf a proclaimed offender in the Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... murder case. Musharraf was also nominated in Akbar Bugti's murder case in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
The sources also claim that Musharraf, after meeting with the ISI Chief, called a meeting of his party on January 25th for revisiting his decision to return to Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
So, what nation's passport does Musharraf travel around the world on? If it is still Pakiwakiland's why haven't they pulled it?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/24/2012 8:31 Comments ||
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#2
Possible leader of a new military coup as kayani does not like the limelight!
[Dawn] The Senate on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution against former President General (Retd) Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... demanding his arrest upon arrival to Pakistain and registration of a case under article 6 of the Constitution.
Senator Mian Raza Rabbani moved the resolution which was adopted unanimously.
He said that Musharraf twice abrogated the constitution, nabbed the judges of superior judiciary and compromised the national interests.
Pervez Musharraf also dented the national economy and inflicted colossal loss to national exchequer, said the senator.
Earlier, Mian Raza Rabbani moved a motion and informed the chair that Senators Afrasyab Khan Khattak, Professor Khursheed Ahmed, Abdul Rahim Mandokhel and Raja Zafarul Haq intend to move a resolution against the former dictator.
The chairman of the Senate asked the members to start a debate if they wanted to take part in the discussion on the resolution.
Rabbani said that the resolution was self-explanatory and the members did not want any discussion on it.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
So .. start by pulling his passport...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/24/2012 8:32 Comments ||
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[Dawn] A Pak commission investigating the 2008 terror attack in Mumbai will visit in early February, but will not be allowed to interrogate the lone surviving gunman, Indian officials said Monday.
The visit is the result of intricate negotiations between the nuclear-armed neighbours, but is unlikely to resolve tensions over whether Pakistain is sincerely working to prosecute the attack's alleged perpetrators.
Disagreements over access to gunman Ajmal Kasab, who has been sentenced to death in India for his role in the rampage that killed 166, have spilled into public view.
Pakistain's interior minister, Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. , told India's NDTV last week that Pak officials would like to speak with Kasab directly to verify his confession.
"It can be verified either by bringing Ajmal Kasab to Pakistain or the judicial commission goes and personally interviews the witnesses, including Ajmal Kasab," he said. "That's what we have requested."
Ira Joshi, a spokeswoman for India's Ministry of Home Affairs, said Monday that such access was not part of the memorandum of understanding governing the visit.
In his confession before the court -- which he later tried to retract -- Kasab described in detail a network of training camps and safe houses across Pakistain, revealing the names of four men he said were his handlers.
India has accused Pak intelligence of being involved in the planning of the attack, and officials have complained that Pakistain is not acting vigorously enough to bring the alleged criminal masterminds to justice.
Pakistain bristles at that criticism, noting that seven suspects in the Mumbai attack have been put on trial.
The Pak delegation will visit Mumbai in the first week of February and speak to doctors who did the post-mortems on the nine gunnies killed during the attack, as well as to the magistrate who recorded Kasab's confession and the chief investigating officer of the attacks, an official at Mumbai's high court said on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the visit.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Shahzad Khan, a Shaluber primitive from Khyber Agency, was trained to fight and kill as a paramilitary trooper, but he left Frontier Corps feeling threatened by throat slitting squad of Lashkar-i-Islam (LI).
His woes caused by the ruthless hooligans of cut-thoat leader Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... , head of LI, did not end there. On Saturday he had to leave his ancestral Qazi Abad, a village in Bara sub-division, for his family's safety because of a raging armed conflict with government troops taking on LI in Shaluber area.
"I left the job because they warned of slitting my throat if I continued with FC," said Mr Khan with a salt-and-pepper beard, waiting for his turn to register as an internally displaced person at a camp at Jalozai, near here.
His wife and four children have reconciled with the latest twist in their lives as they all are set to start leading a peaceful life in a Jalozai camp's tent.
Life in Qazi Abad, he said, had become too dangerous. A mortar shell landed close to his house few days ago, he added.
Earlier, six members of a family in his neighbourhood died after a mortar shell hit a house late at a night. "There were 22 pieces of human bodies that were recovered from the scene of destruction," said Mr Khan.
Shaluber tribe's villages in the Bara plains, according to the newly displaced tribal people, are undergoing a heightened FC action against LI cut-thoats, dislodging them from the strategic positions they had gotten hold of in the area.
Several Shaluber rustics, waiting in lines for their turn to register at the Jalozai camp, told Dawn that their area saw a flurry of activities during the past three, four days, with military trucks bringing in FC reinforcements.
The troops, they said, had consolidated their positions in the Shaluber area, established new checkposts in open spaces and developed fortifications in vacant houses of rustics, who left for personal safety, avoiding an intensified conflict.
"Houses have been filled in with militia taking positions at several places near Bara," said a college student, requesting not to mention his name fearing for safety.
Fear reigns high among the newly displaced rustics. They have many stories to tell about their personal miseries at the hands of LI, but they hold back their tongues. They suspect that their printed words would return to haunt them, reaching to Mangal Bagh through newspapers.
"Though the government has consolidated its position in the area during the past few days, LI forces of Evil keep on moving on cycle of violences. We were in extreme dangerous situation," said the student.
He was seconded by another Shaluber primitive, saying that the government controlled the area, but LI forces of Evil continued to act with impunity. "They can do whatever they want to, Tanzeem (LI men) kidnapped a local primitive to get Dire Revenge™ recently," said the bearded young man.
He refused to share his name, saying "we can't dare to speak against them even here (away from Bara)."
Nawab Khan, resident of a Bara village, beat feet a certain death last week when a mortar shell landed in the courtyard of his house. He and his family were in a room when the shell went kaboom! right next to it, he said.
"The situation has become so charged that you can expect a shell hitting you anytime," said Mr Khan.
One person was killed and four others were maimed after a mortar shell hit their house few days ago in his village, he added.
The college student said that the villagers were facing problems not only because of cut-thoats. FC, too, was equally responsible, he alleged. The paramilitary force recently conducted an intense search operation in Qamberabad, taking away a large number of rustics for questioning, including two of his uncles, he added.
All of the men, he said, were taken to a nearby military fort and were set free after the interrogation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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The top United Nations human rights official criticized Iraq on Tuesday for carrying out a large number of executions, including 34 on a single day last week, and voiced concern about due process and the fairness of trials. My question is 'What took them so long?' Depends on who is being executed, and making sure there is some reasonable (to the average person, not to HRW) safeguards in place. Arbitrary justice is as bad as no justice.
"Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a truly shocking figure," she added.
At least 63 people are believed to have been executed since mid-November in Iraq, where the death penalty can be imposed for some 48 crimes including a number related to non-fatal crimes such as damage to public property, Pillay said. Yes, property damage like blowing up a government vehicle seconds too early, and missing the official they meant to kill.
"Most disturbingly, we do not have a single report of anyone on death row being pardoned, despite the fact there are well documented cases of confessions being extracted under duress," she said. 63 works out to about 1 per day, but they just process them in batches to get a volume discount. They may get some wrong, but probably not many.
#1
About time. Reducing their prison overcrowding while eliminating a lot of recalcitrants will do a world of good, even if it results in a lot of hand wringing and deploring by western world squishies.
He said the decision to send HMS Argyll as part of an international flotilla of warships through the sensitive Strait of Hormuz on Sunday sent a "clear signal" to Tehran.
The deployment defied explicit Iranian threats to close the waterway. It coincided with an escalation in the West's confrontation with Iran over the country's nuclear ambitions.
Iran has threatened to close the strait -- through which 35 per cent of the world's tanker-borne oil exports pass -- in retaliation for sanctions against its oil exports.
The EU agreed an oil embargo on Monday against Iran as part of sanctions over its nuclear programme. The measures include an immediate embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products while existing ones are allowed to run until July.
#3
ION TOPIX > ALGERIA: AL-QAEDA PLOT TO ATTACK US, WESTERN SHIPS IN MED [Mediterranean] FOILED.
versus
* SAME > IN CASE OF WAR ON IRAN, RUSSIA [plans] TO INTRUDE IN GEORGIA. Moscow already prepping its Milfors in Caspian + Black Seas, + Abkhazia + Armenia, for potential trouble.
* SAME > RUSSIA AND IRAN - UNEASY NEIGHBORS SINCE THE 16th CENTURY.
Persia, now Iran, never liked Russian tsarist dominance of the Caspian, nor Russian control of northern Iran until 1946.
DISAGREE WID ARTIC THAT AS THAT RUSSIA APPEARS TO BE DISAPEARING FROM ITS HISTORICAL lINKAGES AS POST-SHAH IRAN EXERCISES AMBITIOUS REGIONAL MANIFEST DESTINY???
* SAME > EXPERTS: IRAN BRINKMANSHIP WAR STRATEGY TO DETER OR STOP US [US-Israel-UK-Other].
Iran prepping for possib WORST-CASE SCENARIOS = US-LED GROUND WAR VEE INTERNATIONAL "GREAT STATES/POWERS" MILPOL CONFRONTATIONISM.
Lest we fergit, IRAN MULLAHS > US-IRAN GROUND WAR = "VIETNAM II" FOR THE US-ALLIES.
IOW, IIUC ala Vietnam War the Mullahs are planning to fight "People's/Guerilla War" despite US, etal. control or mil presence in most or all of Iran proper, + ATTACK SAME FROM ACROSS THE BORDERS VEE IRAN EQUIVALENT OF "HO CHIN MINH TRAILS" + LIKE??? NO PRO-US REPEAT OF "AFPAK" SCENARIO DUE TO PROXIMITY OF RUSSIA + CHINA [SCO-CSTO].
versus
* MEMRI > ON TWITTER, JIHADISTS GROUPS CALL FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF ISLAMIC CALIPHATE IN PAKISTAN, admonishing "sincere" PAK Army-Mil + other Security forces, elements to join their cause.
POST-ABBOTTABAD, ANTI-DRONE, NUCLEAR-ARMED PAKISTAN ASCRIBED AS A "GLASS" THINGY THAT CAN PRESEN SHATTER VERY EASILY IN FAVOR OF JIHADISTS = HARD/BAD BOYZ.
#4
ION TOPIX > ALGERIA: AL-QAEDA PLOT TO ATTACK US, WESTERN SHIPS IN MED [Mediterranean] FOILED.
versus
* SAME > IN CASE OF WAR ON IRAN, RUSSIA [plans] TO INTRUDE IN GEORGIA. Moscow already prepping its Milfors in Caspian + Black Seas, + Abkhazia + Armenia, for potential trouble.
* SAME > RUSSIA AND IRAN - UNEASY NEIGHBORS SINCE THE 16th CENTURY.
Persia, now Iran, never liked Russian tsarist dominance of the Caspian, nor Russian control of northern Iran until 1946.
DISAGREE WID ARTIC THAT AS THAT RUSSIA APPEARS TO BE DISAPEARING FROM ITS HISTORICAL lINKAGES AS POST-SHAH IRAN EXERCISES AMBITIOUS REGIONAL MANIFEST DESTINY???
* SAME > EXPERTS: IRAN BRINKMANSHIP WAR STRATEGY TO DETER OR STOP US [US-Israel-UK-Other].
Iran prepping for possib WORST-CASE SCENARIOS = US-LED GROUND WAR VEE INTERNATIONAL "GREAT STATES/POWERS" MILPOL CONFRONTATIONISM.
Lest we fergit, IRAN MULLAHS > US-IRAN GROUND WAR = "VIETNAM II" FOR THE US-ALLIES.
IOW, IIUC ala Vietnam War the Mullahs are planning to fight "People's/Guerilla War" despite US, etal. control or mil presence in most or all of Iran proper, + ATTACK SAME FROM ACROSS THE BORDERS VEE IRAN EQUIVALENT OF "HO CHIN MINH TRAILS" + LIKE??? NO PRO-US REPEAT OF "AFPAK" SCENARIO DUE TO PROXIMITY OF RUSSIA + CHINA [SCO-CSTO].
versus
* MEMRI > ON TWITTER, JIHADISTS GROUPS CALL FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF ISLAMIC CALIPHATE IN PAKISTAN, admonishing "sincere" PAK Army-Mil + other Security forces, elements to join their cause.
POST-ABBOTTABAD, ANTI-DRONE, NUCLEAR-ARMED PAKISTAN ASCRIBED AS A "GLASS" THINGY THAT CAN PRESEN SHATTER VERY EASILY IN FAVOR OF JIHADISTS = HARD/BAD BOYZ.
RIO DE JANEIRO Irans efforts to cultivate political support in Latin America at a time of rising international tension over its nuclear program appear to have encountered a significant obstacle: Brazil, the regions economic powerhouse.
After President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad of Iran took a four-country tour of Latin America this month, during which he met with several outspoken critics of the United States but was notably not invited to stop in Brazil, one of his top advisers took a public swipe at Brazils president, Dilma Rousseff, saying she had destroyed years of good relations between the two nations.
The Brazilian president has been striking against everything that Lula accomplished, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, who has worked as Mr. Ahmadinejads top media adviser, said in an interview published Monday by Folha de São Paulo, a leading Brazilian newspaper, in which he compared Ms. Rousseff to her predecessor and political mentor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Mr. da Silva, who left office a year ago, visited Tehran in 2010, wading into Middle East diplomacy in an attempt to defuse the crisis over Irans nuclear program. Together with Turkeys government, he forged a fuel-swap deal for Iran to ship low-enriched uranium abroad.
That was the deal that was supposed to make Brazil an international player. Instead, they got played...
That agreement failed after the Obama administration rejected it and Iran said it planned to continue enriching uranium. Even so, Brazils exports to Iran soared in the ensuing months; Iran briefly surpassed Russia at one point in 2011 as the largest export market for Brazilian beef.
In recent months, however, trade ties between the two nations have frayed somewhat. Brazils exports to Iran climbed to $2.1 billion in 2010 from $1.2 billion a year earlier. But now some Brazilian companies have complained that it has become harder to obtain Iranian import licenses, curbing what had been an otherwise dynamic market for Brazil.
I wonder if, recently, it's also been hard to get paid...
Since October, we noticed an abrupt break in purchases by Iran, said Francisco Turra, president of the Brazilian Poultry Union, a trade group. He said that officials at Irans Embassy in Brasília and at Brazils Embassy in Tehran had assured his group that Brazilian exports were still welcome in Iran. Mr. Turra said he was awaiting the release of the new export statistics to determine how to proceed.
The views of Mr. Javanfekr, an influential if polarizing political figure in Iran, present a dilemma for Brazil as it attempts to hew to a pragmatic foreign policy that maintains access to important markets while avoiding confrontation.
Nevertheless, last year, after the election of Ms. Rousseff, Mr. da Silvas chosen successor, Brazil supported a move by the United Nations to investigate claims of human rights abuses in Iran, an initiative led by Washington. The decision was viewed as a subtle shift from Mr. da Silvas previous relations with Tehran.
Or a principled stand on human rights. Hey, it could happen...
Tovar da Silva Nunes, the spokesman for Brazils Foreign Affairs Ministry, declined to comment on Mr. Javanfekrs remarks. Instead, Mr. da Silva Nunes said ties with Iran remained warm, reflected by a meeting at the United Nations in September between Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, arranged at Irans request. Moreover, Mr. da Silva Nunes said Brazil remained skeptical about the use of sanctions to exert pressure on Iran.
How closely Mr. Javanfekrs remarks adhere to the views of the Iranian political establishment is a matter of debate. Though he wields influence in the Iranian presidents circle of top advisers, having served as the head of the official Islamic Republic News Agency and Irans official daily newspaper, Mr. Javanfekr has also come under scrutiny amid a rivalry within Irans leadership. A Tehran court recently gave Mr. Javanfekr a one-year jail sentence for insulting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, exposing the friction between Mr. Ahmadinejad and conservatives in government.
In his swing through Latin America this month, Mr. Ahmadinejad visited just four nations, all with tense ties with Washington but limited regional influence: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador. The itinerary did not include the regions largest countries: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia or Argentina.
Short Round, the red courtesy phone, please pick up the red courtesy phone...
Irans efforts to make new friends in Latin America also seemed to gain little traction during the tour. In one exception, while in Managua, Nicaraguas capital, Mr. Ahmadinejad met with Desi Bouterse, the convicted drug trafficker who is now president of tiny Suriname.
However, Irans ambassador in Brasília, Mohsen Shaterzadeh, surprised reporters on Saturday by telling them that Mr. Ahmadinejad was still planning to visit Brazil sometime this year. He did not mention a date. Mr. da Silva Nunes, the spokesman for Brazils Foreign Affairs Ministry, said Monday that no formal request for a visit had yet been made.
Posted by: Fat Bob Unotch3711 ||
01/24/2012 06:55 ||
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#1
The Brazilians are as enigmatic as heck. Several times they have had enormous windfalls of wealth that they have utterly blown on frivolous b.s.
Other times they seem to vacillate between ingenious and competent leaders and utter fools.
Geographically, it is the 5th largest nation, with 200 million people. Ethnically, it is about 45% each white and brown, with 8% black and everyone else.
The Iranian "rial" currency sank again Monday after the European Union slapped sanctions on oil imports, leaving the rial 80 percent below its level last month.
Irans semi-official Mehr news agency said that the Islamic Republics central bank would peg the dollar at 14,200 rials even though it takes nearly twice as many rials to buy a dollar in the street.
The rate in December was 10,700 rials to the dollar.
New sanctions, announced last month by President Barack Obama and which the European Union announced Monday it would put into effect, have crippled the local currency and threaten to throw the economy into a tailspin. Western powers are hoping economic pressure can convince Iran to halt its unsupervised nuclear development and enrichment of high-grade uranium, a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon.
Iran last month responded to the plunge by prohibiting currency trading outside of banks and official exchange offices and banning the possession of foreign currencies.
Simultaneously with the currency crisis, the price of gold has soared 25 percent in the last week.
Iran continues to act as if nothing out of the ordinary is taking place. When the rial began its plunger earlier this month, officials said there was no connection with the sanctions, and officials reacted to the EU sanctions by saying they would only harm the West.
The Ahmadinejad regimes only retaliatory economic measure against the United States is to try to block the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for a large amount of the world's energy supplies. Any attempt to do so would spark an immediate political and economic crisis, if not all-out war.
[Iran Press TV] An Iranian politician says in the event of US "military adventurism" in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran will respond in the shortest possible time by making the entire world unsafe for Americans.
Mohammad Kowsari said on Monday that Iran will "definitely" close the Strait of Hormuz, if there is a disruption in the sales of the country's crude, stressing that the "US and its allies will not be able to reopen the strategic waterway."
Kowsari, who is deputy head of Iran Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, added that the US and UK sanctions against the Islamic Theocratic Republic will only intensify Iranian hatred of the West.
The politician added that experience has proven that Western sanctions have mostly resulted in the progress of the Iranian nation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
I think he cribbed a NK term paper.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/24/2012 0:27 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I smell fear
Posted by: Alistaire Spawn of the Mongol Horde3619 ||
01/24/2012 3:24 Comments ||
Top||
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.
International Criminal Court
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
"The Islamic universities and madrassas funded by Saudi Arabia are all seeking to make a more conservative and violent form if Islam popular in Bangladesh."
Pervez 
[Dawn] A Pak commission investigating the 2008 terror attack in Mumbai will visit in early February, but will not be allowed to interrogate the lone surviving gunman, Indian officials said Monday.
cycle of violence
