[Tolo News] Afghanistan's religious scholars must not remain silent on crimes committed under the pretense of Islam, Presidential candidate 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... said on Monday.
A number of religious scholars on Monday announced support for Abdullah's campaign, after enumerating their wants and needs should he be elected.
"We demand a path be paved for students to pursue education at the masters and Ph.D. level in Shariat Department," Maulavi Abdul Diyan said. "Learning opportunities in prominent Islamic universities should also be developed."
Abdullah made his own requests as well, urging the scholars to make a stand against misinterpretations of Islam and expressing public support for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). He also encouraged them to be more vocal in their advocacy against domestic violence.
"Religious scholars must focus on the crimes that are committed in the country; they should ensure that the public is not deceived by the enemies of the country," Abdullah said. "This is quite a sensitive issue."
Abdullah also met with MP Baktash Siavash and requested that he end his sit-in, which he has held in front of Parliament since last week. Siavash has refused to compromise in his demand that President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... do more to show sympathy and solidarity for the families of fallen soldiers, a protest sparked by the Kunar ambush that left 21 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers dead two Sunday's ago.
In the past few days, two other Presidential candidates also met with Siavash.
Abdullah asserted that every government is obliged to honor and pay tribute to the sacrifices rendered by the country's security forces, however, he told Siavash that it was unlikely Karzai's administration would be responsive.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] The Ministry of interior Affairs (MoIA) Tuesday defended the right of the Afghan National Police (ANP) to use any force necessary to subdue armed bully boyz behind Afghan deaths. The statement joins a growing push from security officials to galvanize their forces and ramp-up operations around the country since an attack in Kunar.
"Insurgents, Taliban and whoever kill Afghans, are enemy of the people, and we should treat them without compassion," Ministry front man Sediq Sediqqi said. "The police forces fight against them legally, just as the army soldiers do."
Sediqqi's comments come just after Army Chief of Staff General Sher Mohammad Karimi on Monday told a class of ANA Academy graduates to fight against the Taliban with "full force and no mercy".
Ten days ago, an attack on a check-post manned by ANA troops in Kunar Province ...one of the four N2KL provinces (Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Laghman). N2KL is the designation used by US and Coalition Forces for the rugged and very violent region opposite Pakistain's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Northwest Frontier Province. Kunar is the center of the N2KL region. Its population is 95% Pashtun. It is adjacent to Bajaur Agency.. left 21 soldiers dead and four missing. The incident has become a rallying point for the Afghan cops, sparking a number of coordinated counterinsurgent operations in eastern Afghanistan and a steady stream of patriotic and pro-military rhetoric from officials.
The incident also marked the newest flashpoint in ongoing tensions between President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... and his critics.
In recent months, Karzai has taken an increasingly conciliatory approach toward the Taliban, freeing gunnies from Bagram Prison, referring to Taliban leaders as "brothers" and "deaders" and attempting to conduct hidden peace negotiations with them just as relations with the U.S. take a turn for the worst.
Establishing a reconciliation deal with the hard boy group, rather than signing a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with Washington that would allow U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan post-2014, appears to be the priority in his last months in office.
Some in Parliament, in the military and among the Presidential candidates running in April's election have criticized the President for not expressing more public support for the families of the Kunar attack victims and for failing to move ahead with the security deal that many see as crucial to Afghanistan's future stability.
MP Baktash Siawash has staged a protest outside of Parliament for over a week demanding that Karzai do more to support the families of soldiers killed in action. Siawash suggested the President treats the Taliban with more respect than he does the country's security forces.
The President's office has maintained that Karzai has in fact met with the families of fallen soldiers and refers to them as "deaders" with consistence.
Yet the gulf between Karzai and the Afghan political and military elite likely to find themselves at the helm of the country's leadership after April seems to be widening, as the Presidential Palace tries to balance attempts at Taliban reconciliation with support for security forces that still face daily Death Eater violence.
The MoIA and Ministry of Defense (MoD) have said that operations throughout the country in the past couple weeks have resulted in the deaths and captures of dozens of Death Eaters, as well as the confiscation of large caches of weapons and explosives. Security forces are said to be in overdrive in the lead up to the April 5 election day, looking to have as many polling centers as possible secure and ready for operation.
But regardless of progress made on the elections front, the Kunar attack seems to have left a bad taste in many security officials' mouths, inspiring a firmly combative attitude at odds with the conciliatory one being promoted by the Presidential Palace. With the four ANA soldiers kidnapped in Kunar still missing, it could be a while before military leaders change their tune.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Egyptian army chief Field Marshal Abdel-FattahEl-Sisi has given another large hint that he will stand for president in upcoming elections.
"I cannot turn my back when the majority wants me to run for president," El-Sisi said in a speech at an officers' graduation ceremony on Tuesday.
"The formal procedures will be finalised over the coming days," he added.
A new law governing Egypt's upcoming presidential elections has been revised and was sent on Monday to interim President Adly Mansour for a final review. After the law is issued, the presidential race will officially start.
El-Sisi called on people to work together as"nobody can work alone for the country's advancement in such circumstances."
The army chief's popularity skyrocketed after he announced the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... on 3 July following mass protests against his rule.
Many Egyptians have called on him to stand for president but he is yet to formally announce his candidacy.
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#2
My dear subjects, I'd rather be whipped;
Yes, I gladly would go to my crypt;
I would even be burned
Before ever I turned
My back toward you people of Egypt!
"I did not fail," read the inscriptions
On the pylon, "my fellah Egyptians."
"I was not a schnook!
And you'd better make book
That I gave the Muz Brothers conniptions."
Swimming over de Nile (it was scummy!),
Sisi sang a sweet song to his mummy:
"Oh gee, I looked swanny
As I leaned on the tawny,
Tawny flanks of crocs ever so chummy!"
[CSMONITOR] An Egyptian court banned all Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, activity in the country today, the latest step in Cairo's drive to expel organizations it considers threatening to national security, which has been undermined by a building Islamic insurgency.
Relations with Hamas have nosedived since the military overthrow of democratically elected president and Moslem Brüderbund member Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... last July. Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt's Brotherhood, which the new government declared a terrorist organization in December.
According to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, Cairo believes "Hamas is playing a key role in the insurgency by hard boyz in the northern region of the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Hamas-ruled Gazoo and Israel." Hamas has been accused of interfering in Egyptian affairs (many of its leaders are based in Cairo, a relic of the Brotherhood's time in power) and colluding with hard boyz that have orchestrated attacks on Egyptian security forces, according to BBC.
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[An Nahar] Dubai's police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan slammed on Tuesday the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran and its ally 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... a day after a bomb kaboom in Bahrain killed three coppers, including an Emirati.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... Hizbullah "categorically" denied Khalfan's allegation, saying in a statement issued in the evening that "this claim is totally unfounded."
"The suspect, who planted the bomb, has visited Leb and was trained by Hizbullah on carrying out bombings," Khalfan said via his Twitter account.
"The suspect who is involved in assassinating Emirati First Lieutenant Tariq al-Shehi doesn't reside in an area far from the site of the kaboom."
On Monday, "three police personnel died in a terror blast in (the Shiite-populated village) Daih while police were dispersing rioters," Bahrain's interior ministry said on Twitter.
And the interior ministry in the United Arab Emirates said an officer from its police force was among the dead.
Shehi, who was part of a force established as part of common Gulf security pact, died along with two members of the Bahraini police force "while performing his national duty of maintaining order," said the UAE interior ministry.
He is the first Gulf officer reported to have been killed since forces from the region rolled into Bahrain in March 2011 to boost the kingdom's security forces, which later quelled the month-long uprising.
Bahrain has always maintained the Gulf force did not take part in confrontations with protesters and have been deployed to protect vital installations.
Khalfan also considered in a tweet that the Iranian-backed Bahraini opposition "became an enemy of the Gulf states and a close fried of Persians."
He pointed out that "an addition 1,000 Emirati policeman should be sent to Bahrain so that the enemies of the Arab Gulf understand that security in Bahrain involves us all."
The Shiite-dominated opposition swiftly condemned Monday's bombing, stressing any political demands had to be voiced in a "peaceful" manner.
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Despite the seemingly good news a few days ago of a dramatic drop in homicides from the Coahuila Procuraduria General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE), in the first two months of 2014, according to a group in Mexico the La Laguna region registered the fourth highest murders in Mexico nationwide in 2013, according to Mexican news accounts.
According to a news dispatch posted on the online edition of El Diario de Coahuila news daily, the group El Observatorio Nacional Ciudadano de Seguridad, Justicia y Legalidad (CCI) said that murder rates have dropped from 2012 to 2013, 35.9% in the Durango side while in La Laguna Metropolitan Area murders fell 42.4%.
Despite the drop in homicides, according to the group, murder rates have risen seven percent in 2013 in all of Coahuila state when compared with 2012.
Marco Zamarripa, director of the La Laguna Consejo Civico de las Instituciones (CCI-Laguna), was quoted in the report saying there is a large information gap in gaining crime statistics in the region. The CCI-Laguna says on their Facebook page they are a non-government organization.
Marco Zamarripa may have been referring to the Coahuila PGJE report last week, which has been no help as in the past that office has cooked statistics to make crime statistics appear more moderate.
La Laguna is a metropolitan area consisting of several municipalities from eastern Durango state and western Coahuila state. Police operations even with federal support have failed in the region because of jurisdictional problems between the two states and among the several municipalities which compose La Laguna. The three largest municipalities in the region include Torreon, Coahuila and Lerdo and Gomez Palacio, both of Durango.
Four individuals were killed in the La Laguna region since last Saturday according to Mexican news reports.
Three victims were found aboard a Ford Explorer at midnight on Saturday by local police in Lerdo municipality, according to a news report which appeared in El Siglo de Durango news daily.
The victims were two men and a woman. One of the men was identified as Ricardo Marquez Rivera, 25. They were found in ejido El Huarache on Avenida San Carlos in Benito Juarez colony. The location where the dead were found was near the Coahuila-Durango border.
Meanwhile in Gomez Palacio, Durango a bus driver was shot and later died Sunday, according to a separate news account which appeared in El Siglo de Durango.
The victim was identified as Gregorio Lopez Mireles, 56, who was driving a bus between Gomez Palacio and Tlahualilo, near ejido Arturo Martinez Adame. An armed suspect shot the victim in an apparent robbery attempt.
According to data supplied by El Siglo de Durango, a total of 22 individuals have been murdered since the start of the year in the Durango side of La Laguna, including the three found in ejido El Huarache, but apparently not including the bus driver killed last Sunday.
In January nine men died, while in February eight men and two women were reportedly killed in the region.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and Borderlandbeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
Mexican cops on Sunday apprehended six Somali illegal immigrants who claimed they were abandoned in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, by human traffickers they paid to help sneak them into the United States, according to La Prensa.
The Somali men claimed they had been wandering the region near Mexicos border with Guatemala for eight days after being left to fend for themselves by the human traffickers, according to the Chiapas Attorney Generals Office.
But according to Nicholas Grassio, an American law enforcement and border security veteran, Mexican authorities should be more suspicious and should validate the Somalis story.
Its a little known fact that a Spanish-speaking Muslim community sprung up in Chiapas near the Guatemalan border. According to several reports, there are about 500-to-600 Mexican Muslims residing in that area and some are considered extremist at least in their teachings, said Grassio.
Where'd they come from originally? Gaza? Iran? Mauritania?
Grassio also pointed out that there have been several incidents of Somali terrorists being arrested in the United States for their activities, according to an Examiner report.
According to the Mexican news media, the Somali illegals were given food and water as well as medical attention for their dehydration. They were also provided access to legal counsel.
Mexican officials said on Sunday that military troops and National Immigration Ministry agents detained 1,500 illegal aliens, the majority of them Guatemalans, last month.
While illegal immigrants in the United States have held huge rallies in the U.S., without any consequences, the thousands and thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico endure their inhumane treatment in silent fear. In fact, Mexicos constitution prohibits non-citizens from participating in protests or other public demonstrations against the Mexican government, according to an Examiner news story.
U.S. Homeland Security Department directorates should be alerted by the State Department about these six Somalis just in case they are released by the Mexicans and they decide to again attempt entering the United States illegally, said former Capt. Grassio.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
In the good ole days, the Cartels would alert us to these infiltrators. After Project Gun Runner was terminated, we don't hear much from the Sinaloa anymore.
#3
Thank you for your insightful comments, Professor.
As for the "Spanish-speaking Muslim community," there were reports of that occurring as early as the mid-1990s. So it's not a 'shocking new phenomenon'.
#5
Meanwhile our idiot politicians in DC refuse to build the deterrence fence, and actually attempt to secure the border, much less do internal enforcement in the communities that harbor them once they get in.
North Korea on Tuesday afternoon fired four more projectiles into the East Sea from a new 300-mm multiple rocket launcher with an estimated range of 180 km.
The sea has been taking quite a beating lately...
A Defense Ministry official here said the North fired four rockets from the Hodo Peninsula in Wonsan, Kangwon Province in a northeasterly direction. They flew 155 km and fell into open waters.
In the morning the North fired three rockets presumably from a 240-mm MRL from the same area. They fell into the sea about 50 km away.
Military authorities believe the firings came in response to the entry of the U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarine Columbus into Busan Port on Monday ahead of the annual combined field training exercise of South Korea and the U.S.
The new rocket launcher worries the South Korean military because projectiles are capable of reaching air bases in Suwon, Chungju and Seosan, as well as U.S. military bases in Pyeongtaek and Osan.
The North has been firing a series of missiles and rockets since Feb. 21.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
North Koreans are only celebrating Mardi Gras... Whats all the excitement about ?
..because he knows what he is talking about and occasionally shares it, Dempseys perspective was more pessimistic than that of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
#1
The present confusion in the civilian mind and the true military mind respecting the purposes of armies and limits of warfare is attributable to many circumstances. Among them, no doubt, is the character of military history as it has commonly been written. Ordinary citizens are lacking in the raw experience of combat, or deficient in technical knowledge, and inclined to leave the compilation of military records to experts in such affairs. Writers on general history have tended to neglect the broader aspects of military issues; confining themselves to accounts of campaigns and battles, handled often in a cursory fashion, they have usually written on the wars of their respective countries in order to glorify their prowess, with little or no reference to the question whether these wars were conducted in the military way of high efficiency or in the militaristic way, which wastes blood and treasure.
Even more often, in recent times, general historians have neglected military affairs and restricted their reflections to what they are pleased to call the causes and consequences of wars; or they have even omitted them altogether. This neglect may be ascribed to many sources. The first is, perhaps, a recognition of the brutal fact that the old descriptions of campaigns are actually of so little value civilian and military alike. Another has been the growing emphasis on economic and social fields deemed normal and the distaste of economic and social historians for war, which appears so disturbing to the normal course of events. Although Adam Smith included a chapter on the subject of military defense in his Wealth of Nations as a regular part of the subject, modern economists concentrate on capital, wages, interest, rent, and other features of peaceful pursuits, largely forgetting war as a phase of all economy, ancient or modern. When the mention the subject of armies and military defense, these are commonly referred to as institutions and actions which interrupt the regular balance of economic life. And the third source of indifference is the effort of pacifists and peace advocates to exclude wars and military affairs from general histories, with the view to uprooting any military or militaristic tendencies from the public mind, on the curious assumption that by ignoring realties the realties themselves will disappear.
This lack of a general fund of widely disseminated military information is perilous to the maintenance of civilian power in government. The civilian mind, presumably concerned with the maintenance of peace and the shaping of policies by the limits of efficient military defense, can derive no instruction from acrimonious disputes between militarists, limitless in their demands, and pacifists, lost in utopian visions. Where the civilians fail to comprehend and guide military policy, the true military men, distinguished from the militarists, are also imperiled. For these the executioners of civilian will, dedicated to the preparation of defense and war with the utmost regard for efficiency, are dependent upon the former.
Again, and again, the military men have seen themselves hurled into war by ambitions, passions, and blunders of civilian governments, almost wholly uninformed as to the limits of their military potentials and almost recklessly indifferent to the military requirements of the wars they let loose. Aware that they may again be thrown by civilians into an unforeseen conflict, perhaps with a foe they have not envisaged, these realistic military men find themselves unable to do anything save demand all the men, guns, and supplies they can possibly wring from the civilians, in the hope that they may be prepared or half prepared for whatever may befall them. In so doing they inevitably find themselves associated with militaristic military men who demand all they can get merely for the sake of having it without reference to ends.
Vagts, Alfred, History of Militarism, rev. 1959, Free Press, NY, pp 33-34.
Yep, call me when you get your General Officer to enlisted ratio back to WWII levels. There are places to cut, but uniform services special interests and Congressional/Executive obstructions protect things that should the primary targets.
#2
See RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CAN THE US AFFORD THE ASIA PIVOT? | SENIOR US DEFENSE OFFICIAL SAYS ASIA PIVOT CAN'T BEGIN IFF BUDGET CUTS CONTINUE.
Obama "Pivot" to Asia may be no longer feasible or realistic.
Assistant US SecDef for Acquisition Katrina McFarland.
More not-good-news = geopol shennanigans for Guam-WESTPAC.
VERSUS
* JAPAN TIMES > US REASSURES AFTER [USDOD] OFFICIAL'S [anti-] PIVOT GAFFE.
Also from JAPAN TIMES = US SEEKS TO BOLSTER NAVAL PRESENCE IN JAPAN, DEFENCE REPORT SAYS.
QDR = Quadrennial Defense Review.
* FREEREPUBLIC > CHINA UPS MILITARY SPENDING BY 12% [12.2%] [ostensib to maintain regional peace-n-security]. ARE THE GLOVES COMING OFF?
Yuuup.
What part of "post-US", "Mahanist", "future World#1", "Manifest Destiny", "Rising China" AKA Globalist-desired "OWG Co-Superpower" China did we not understand????
Ditto as per IRAN.
Again, either the OWG Globalists keep their promises, OR THERE'S GONNA BE ALL SORTS OF GEOPOL TROUBLES.
RELATED CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > POSTER THREAD: CHINA SHOULD MOBILIZE TROOPS FOR POLICE ACTION OVER UKRAINE, lest China lose any credibility as a reliable International or World ally = self-proclaimed US Geopol/Global Successor.
SAME > POSTER THREAD: CHINA SHOULD TAKE OVER THE MONGOLIAN REPUBLIC VIA JOINT SINO-RUSSIAN MILITARY CAMPAIGN, in fair exchange for China's assent or acquiescence allowing Russia to take over the Crimea andor Ukraine widout challenge.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > TAIWAN'S REUNIFICATION WID CHINA IS INEVITABLE [as China's MilPol/Geopol Power rises], SAYS US SCHOLAR.
RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SAY GOODBYE TO TAIWAN.
This is more than political sleaze at work (though it is that also). It's about keeping the lid on the failures of this administration to prosecute the Afghan war and the WoT. And it's most especially an effort to keep Petraeus from talking about Benghazi.
#1
If nothing else, he knows full well the raid on Abbattabad was a carefully coordinated, made for Hollywood performance. In fact, having visited the Pakistani Minister of Defense the week prior to the raid, Petreaus may have been one of it's primary architects.
In the world of the Chicago gangland, assassinating one's enemy can also mean, killing [or neutralizing through compromise] the assassin.
#2
Insurance for Petraeus remaining mum. The Chicago gangstas do know something about this kind of healthcare insurance--not much about other kinds though.
[DAWN] Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...the political wing of the Pak Taliban... -Fazl leader Senator Haji Ghulam Ali has alleged that United States is behind the incidents of terrorism in the region as it is bent upon to sabotage peace talks between the government and Taliban.
"The US and NGOs are trying to sabotage the grinding of the peace processor to leave the government with the only option of launching a forceful military operation against Taliban," he told a presser here on Monday.
On the occasion, a number of Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz workers, led by Hafizullah of Chitral, announced joining JUI-F.
Mr Ali said that deteriorating law and order situation in the country in general and in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... in particular destroyed the economy and no one was ready to invest in the province. He said that Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... government failed to provide any kind of relief to people. He said the PTI leadership had claimed to bring change in the life of common people but it could not do so till now and its slogans proved to be a total failure.
Referring to alliance of JUI-F, PPP and ANP, he said that the tripartite alliance had planned to win the upcoming local government elections and give a tough time to the ruling parties in the province.
Mr Ali said that his party will enforce Islamic Sharia in the country through ballot.
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[DAWN] Parliamentary party leaders of the treasury and opposition benches in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Assembly put their heads together in a closed-door meeting here Monday and discussed prevailing security situation in the province.
Sources said bigwigs briefed parliamentary party leaders about the law and order situation and said 39 bully boy outfits were operating in the province, while 20 other groups functioning in the garb of Pak Taliban were involved in extortion, kidnapping for ransom and other criminal activities.
Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, opposition leader Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Qaumi Watan Party's Sikandar Khan Sherpao, Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... 's Sirajul Haq, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistain's Shahram Khan Tarakai, Awami National Party's Sardar Hussain Babak, Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...the political wing of the Pak Taliban... -Fazl's Maulana Lutfur Rehman and Pakistain People's Party's Mohammad Ali Shah Bacha attended the session, which lasted more than three hours.
Inspector General of Police Nasir Durrani and home and tribal affairs secretary Akhtar Ali Shah briefed politicianship about the provincial government's counter terrorism strategy.
It is learned that the officials disclosed 39 bully boy groups were operating in the province, while 20 more criminals groups carrying out extortion, assassinations and other high profile crimes in the name of Taliban also had their presence there.The officials told parliamentary leaders that the counter terrorism force was being established in the province, which would be equipped with high-tech equipment and weapons.
According to them, 30 detection dogs have been purchased for police but their handlers have yet to be hired.
The meeting was informed that the federal government did not take the provincial government into confidence about peace talks with the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP).
Sources said parliamentary leaders of the opposition parties asked the government to share with them report on the inquiry into the DI Khan jailbreak.
The forces of Evil had attacked the jail in July 2013 freeing over 2,050 prisoners, including 30 suspected bully boys.
The government had constituted a high-level committee to investigate the incident. However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... the inquiry report has yet to be made public.The next meeting of the parliamentary party leaders will take place on March 7 wherein the opposition is to give suggestions to the government on how to improve security situation.
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03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The PPP has termed the PML-N government's policy of appeasement towards the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain a failure, demanding it should stop pursuing it forthwith.
"The cowardly act of forces of Evil in Islamabad district courts will not weaken the resolve of the Pak nation," PPP central president Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo said in a statement here on Monday, adding it would rather strengthen the will to defeat those trying to impose their 'dark ages' agenda on the country.
"The TTP's unilateral cease fire offer for a month is not analogous to their bonhomie. Instead, it is the result of pre-emptive and targeted strikes by the army against terrorists' hideouts that forced them (TTP) to engage (in a dialogue) with the state," he said.
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[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Tuesday said that a durable and permanent peace was top priority of the government for which all out efforts would be continued.
He stated this while speaking to members of government's negotiating committee who called on him at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad.
The meeting was attended by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and committee members, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Affairs Irfan Siddiqui, Major (retd) Mohammad Amir, Rustum Shah Mohmand and Rahimullah Yusufzai.
Earlier, a meeting of the government negotiating committee was held. The committee reviewed Pak Taliban's ceasefire announcement and sorrowful acts in Khyber Agency and the federal capital.
The committee termed that continuation of such kinds of incidents would damage the negotiating process for maintaining peace.
Members of the committee presented the premier their proposals for an effective future strategy.
The meeting came a day after a gun and kaboom on the district courts in the heart of Islamabad left 11 people, including a district and sessions judge, dead.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) dissociated itself from Monday's attack which was later claimed by Ahrarul Hind, a lesser-known splinter group of the TTP. The group had recently parted ways with the TTP over holding of talks with the government.
On Monday, Prime Minister Sharif also meet with Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and top national security aides and military officials to discuss the future of the dialogue process.
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[Haaretz] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a unilateral end to peace talks In his speech at the annual AIPAC conference, a top Paleostinian official said on Tuesday.
In his address to a gathering of the pro-Israel lobby, Netanyahu reiterated his demand that the Paleostinians recognize Israel as a nation-state of the Jewish people.
"President Abbas, recognize the Jewish state," Netanyahu declared. "In doing so you will tell your people that, though we have a territorial dispute, Israel's right to exist is beyond dispute. You would finally make it clear that you are truly prepared to end the conflict."
Fatah central committee member and former negotiator Nabil Shaath responded that Netanyahu's demand was tantamount to an "an official announcement of a unilateral end to negotiations," AFP reported.
Both the demand for recognition and Netanyahu's insistence on keeping Israeli troops along the Jordan Valley in a future Paleostinian state, were "totally rejected," Shaath said.
Netanyahu's speech brought nothing new, said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, front man of Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... . "The intention of Netanyahu's continued demand to recognize Israel as the Jewish state is to waste time and avoid reaching a true, just and viable peace agreement," he said.
The demand has already been rejected by the Paleostinians and the Arab world, Abu Rudeineh said, and Netanyahu's insistence on repeating it is designed to sabotage the American peace efforts. He added that the Paleostinian position is clear and is based on the establishment of an independent Paleostinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.
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03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
How can you negotiate with someone who won't recognize your existence?
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... urged on Tuesday the panel tasked with drafting a government policy statement to complete its mission soon in order to allow the staging of the presidential elections.
He rejected the ongoing debate among its members over references to the resistance, saying: "The resistance does not need the recognition of any side."
"The panel will not affect the resistance or the developments in the Middle East," he stated after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting.
The panel must set aside disputes over the phrasing of the statement because actions, not words, will affect the situation in Leb, remarked the MP.
Aoun warned that the failure to draft a new statement will threaten the staging of the presidential and parliamentary elections.
"The postponement of the elections may lead to the fragmentation of Leb," he continued..
"Are officials aware of what they are doing to the country?" he wondered.
"We must seriously tackle the situation in Leb," he demanded.
"The government is not aimed at describing the reality in Leb, but it seeks to ensure the functioning of state institutions. It is tasked with holding the presidential elections," stressed Aoun.
Asked to verify media reports that he may travel to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , he replied that there are no obstacles hindering such a visit, adding however that it has not been scheduled.
"We must solve our problems by ourselves, but that does not mean we cannot visit countries that may assist us," he said.
The ministerial panel drafting a policy statement has so far failed in its mission due to the ongoing dispute over referring to the resistance against Israel.
It has met several times over the past two weeks, but disputes over the resistance persist.
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03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Syria has surrendered or destroyed nearly a third of its chemical arsenal but remains behind on its international obligations, the head of the disarmament mission told the world's chemical watchdog Tuesday.
Syria has already missed several target dates to hand over or destroy its arsenal before a June 30 deadline and the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... -Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) mission called on Damascus to move faster.
"Nearly one third of Syria's chemical weapons material has now been removed or destroyed," U.N.-OPCW coordinator Sigrid Kaag told a meeting of the watchdog at its Hague headquarters.
"This is good progress and I expect further acceleration and intensification of effort."
OPCW head Ahmet Uzumcu told the Executive Council meeting that Syria had submitted a revised proposal to complete the removal of all chemicals from Syria before the end of April, after previously saying it could only complete the job by June.
An OPCW meeting two weeks ago heard that just 11 percent of Syria's dangerous chemicals had left the country.
But with two shipments last week and one more expected this week, the country will have handed over more than 35 percent of its arsenal, Uzumcu said.
"Given delays since the lapse of the two target dates for removal, it will be important to maintain this newly created momentum," Uzumcu said.
Syria was to have shipped out most dangerous Category 1 chemicals by December 31 and Category 2 chemicals by February 5.
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03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
[Al Ahram] Egyptian army chief Field Marshal Abdel-FattahEl-Sisi has given another large hint that he will stand for president in upcoming elections. 
[CSMONITOR] An Egyptian court banned all 
North Korea on Tuesday afternoon fired four more projectiles into the East Sea from a new 300-mm multiple rocket launcher with an estimated range of 180 km.
Nawaz Sharif
Michel Aoun
